A Different Approach

[+cachew nut]

Just curious as to how many of you, after finding the cache, realized that you probably did not approach the cache from the same direction the cache hider did.

 

If your approach was different, have you ever discovered something about the area that even the original hider did not know about? What would you have missed if you approached the cache as the hider intended instead of blazing your own way?

[+sept1c_tank]

Happens all the time. Mostly what I see, or discover is that I could have found an easier way in. One time I discovered a perfectly lovely little junkyard. Bad on me.

[+Snoogans]

Mostly what I see, or discover is that I could have found an easier way in.

LOL Been there, done that.

 

It's also a running theme in many of my hides. I love using terrain changes to mess with people who just wanna follow the arrow. People now know to ask themselves the question, Would Snoogan's really have gone through that and would he fall down laughing if he found out I did anyway?, when hunting my caches.

 

Check the early logs on this cache.

[+briansnat]

I love using terrain changes to mess with people who just wanna follow the arrow.

 

Something I often do too.

 

As far as my approaching it the way the hider did, I'd have to say very often I don't. I'm arrow follower. The same kind of person I like to stymie with my own hides .

[+Team Tigger International]

Many Many times we find the other , more easier way back out . But not always because sometimes its in and out the same path no matter what .

[+Team Neos]

Mostly what I see, or discover is that I could have found an easier way in.

I am all for following the arrow and plowing right into stinging nettle or poison ivy or whatever---but my beloved husband has the uncanny ability to walk right past what looks like 'the obvious way to the cache' to find 'the better way to get to the cache'

 

One time, searching the hard way, I found the most wonderful place to hide a cache. No way of knowing if the hider saw that spot also, but had something else in mind, or if they just didn't see it---but I made a mental note that if they ever archive that cache, I am putting one in the other spot.

[+Renegade Knight]

When facing vertical hikes, fording streams, briar pathes and starving lions chained to the trail I often stop and think. I know the hider didn't give their life for the cause or the cache would of never been listed. Armed with this knowledge I look for the way they would of taken. It's saved me a lot of grief.

[+wolves shepherd]

Depends on the cache. Some there is really only one way in and out--especially in more urban areas. Now out in the woods, without a description that says start at X trailhead (or when I can't find X trailhead...) It's "356 meters that way! CHARGE!"

 

Bushwhacking and navigating in, round, over, under and through is part of the fun, for me anyway. The GITs (Geocachers in training, aka kids) sometimes get a little touchy about thorns, which seem to grow an most everything in the woods in South Carolina....

 

Probably my favorite to date I know I took and "alternate route" to get to but it was cool. Made the terrain tougher but still fun.

[+Sputnik 57]

Yesterday I did several caches in a nearby state park. There were two caches in the same general area, and I decided to do the further one first. Three trails diverged (and I took the one most traveled by, this time). As I walked to the far cache, I did a check on the closer one, and spotted a path to go back to. Found the first cache and returned to the path, noting that not only was it leading straight to the other cache, but it had been blazed with orange tape every 30 feet or so by the park service, getting ready to clear some trees.

 

Followed the blazes almost straight to the second cache, which was placed near another trail. Took that trail back. I need to e-mail the hider and let her know that the back door to her cache has flashing neon signs (or at least tape) leading to the cache.

[+Two Geeks and a GPS]

Two Hearted River

 

Check the logs before April 12th, on our cache. Several talk about these "ash graves." We had no idea what they were talking about even after several trips with a mission to find them. We found them on the 12th. A family of four must have scattered ashes at the spot, and there are markers on posts there. I assume somebody else (probably kids) came by and lined sticks around the markers, making them look like gravesites. The place is in a state forest, so I'm not sure of the legality of it all, but it is a scenic place for ash scattering.

Edited December 20, 2004 by Two Geeks and a GPS

[+Team Perks]

I do sometimes wonder if the cache hider used a different entrance into the parking lot where they hid their film canister, than the entrance I used to find it.

[+Medic005]

Since I normally cache with my 4 y/o son, I try to find the shortest route to the cache, which might not be the intended path that the owner. Right now my son's limit is about a 1/2 mile round trip hike, anything greater thatn that and I'm carrying him out on the return trip back to the car.

[+Gonzo-YT]

I like to practice what I call "gonzo-style" caching -- hence the moniker -- which means finding my own route to the cache that makes it more challenging or more interesting.

 

My route up Mt. McInytre is probably the best example, but I've also done things like do a 25km hike to a cache that is drivable.

 

Regards,

Anthony

[+Jared_and_Tanis]

Absolutely. In fact, it's extremely likely when there is water in the way. In our 100+ finds, I think we've had to jump about 75 streams/puddles, or circle around lakes. We get suspicious when there isn't any water in the way....

 

~Jared

[+LthrWrk]

My first traditional cache the walking path I had been on was working fine until!!!.. oh no chasing the arrow showed the cache to be 175 directly over my left shoulder.

 

Looking into the dark gloomy wet woods... almost impenetrable. I figured ok.. lets just follow this trail around not bushwhack. Certainly it appeared to be a circuitous route.. but.. much easier.

 

So yep.. happens quite frequently. This past weekend there were several cache locations that definitely had "trails' to them. Created of course by bushwhackers. Staying on the established/approved path was easier to get to the cache than following that silly arrow, though admittedly a bit further.

[+cachew nut]

Several talk about these "ash graves."

Yes, this is the sort of thing I was asking about, something discovered almost accidentally, that the hider did not know about. Thanks for sharing that story.

[+The Puzzler]

I recently found a pretty un-inspired micro stuck behind a piece of metal by a bridge. Then as I drove away from the cache, probably less than a 1/10 mile down the road (in the less traveled direction), there was a most amazingly large rock that looked quite out of place, just sitting off the edge of the road, which contained a plaque that stated the rock to have been a part of some old building site that was the location where Polk County had been founded . . . A cool, odd, seemingly out-of-place historical site that was not developed and sitting in the middle of nowhere.

[+clearpath]

I love using terrain changes to mess with people who just wanna follow the arrow.

I used to fall for this trick ... after ending up on the wrong side of a river several times I have learned to pay more attention to the area before plowing forward.

[+BadAndy]

I'd make a bet that it's very common to aproach from a different route than the hider did. I have a theory on why as well.

 

Caches are typically hid in an area familiar to the hider. It's a favorite spot, or otherwise well known area for them. They know the best route.

 

Cache hunters on the other hand are often visiting the spot for the first time, and they tend to follow the Mctoy Locater thingy's arrow, thus bringing them in via an unlikely route.

 

Cache hiders that leave parking or starting coords whittle down the likelyhood that hunters will stray far from the intended route.

 

I, on the other hand, usually approach caches from the least likely direction, many times from impossible routes.

[+gorillagal]

One of the people who introduced me to geocaching was the bushwacking sort. On one cache we parked as close as we could and headed into the brush. We wandered for a while, even crossing a trail or two. I remember commenting "I bet it's by one of these trails". When we found the clue (multi-cache), sure enough, it was right by the trail.

Personally, I try to stay on established trails until the last possible moment, both to reduce damage to the area and to reduce damage to myself. Plus, my dog gets really annoyed if I drag him through thick brush for too long. However, I do have a Geko (no maps whatsoever), so sometimes it's just a guess where I need to leave the trail.

[+WaldenRun]

If your approach was different, have you ever discovered something about the area that even the original hider did not know about?

We started heading directly for the second stage of a multi and discovered this rock profile the cache owner did not know about:

 

 

-WR

[+Snoogans]

If your approach was different, have you ever discovered something about the area that even the original hider did not know about?

We started heading directly for the second stage of a multi and discovered this rock profile the cache owner did not know about:

 

 

-WR

Don't tell Tank. He'll wanna kiss it!

 

[+cachew nut]

ROFLMAO!

[+sept1c_tank]

I like rocks. I like them a lot!

[+Moose Mob]

Just the other day, we went for a cache that was 200 feet from a parking lot. The route we took was a 6 mile hike through a gorgeous valley.

 

And as long as we are also sharing rock profiles, this one was on that alternate route.

 

I like to call him "Mr. Grumpy"

[+Camo-crazed]

theres a locationless cache for those kinds of things. they are called "simulacra"

[+cachew nut]

Back in May of 2002 I took my own approach to a cache in the Detroit area, a place I'm unfamiliar with. If you have some extra time to spare, you can read about how I scared the crap outta myself and ran away like a sissy. UMC summed it all up pretty well here.

[+Camo-crazed]

I took a pretty long detour on "waters of middle earth" and ended up hiking along a highway, over a fence, up a hill and through a soccer game.

 

Merry Christmas

Edited December 24, 2004 by camo-crazed

[+Geotrippers]

I was on a long caching day and found a quick cache by a new cacher. I drove right up to the cache and parked along the road about 100ft away. I slid down a hill and found it in five minutes. In my log, I noted how close I parked and that it was a quick and easy stop. Withing ten minutes, the owner deleted my log. I wrote and asked why. He said he had intended you to park in the main parking lot and make the half mile walk to the cache. I explained that I came from the oposite direction so I did not see the parking until after I found the cache. I also told him to post sugested parking coords next time. I agreed to change my post to a more generic "I found it" and he agreed not to delete my log.

[+GEO.JOE]

I had this happen on one of my caches. I knew there were other Native American rock paintings near a painting of a buffalo, but I had no information on their location. I searched the area 3 times and had never found the paintings, but the first cachers to hunt for the cache found 2 of the 7 other paintings.

[+Robespierre]

Sure, I've done it. Sometimes I've regretted it. Spent two hours in rough country once, until finally the dog couldn't handle the terrain...so we backtracked a quarter mile and found an easier hill.

 

But what I really came to say is that someone did that to my cache rather recently, and it surprised me very much. They had to get wet doing it.

[vagabond]

AHH nothing like USAphotomaps

[+leatherman]

Just curious as to how many of you, after finding the cache, realized that you probably did not approach the cache from the same direction the cache hider did.

For parking coordinates.

If your approach was different, have you ever discovered something about the area that even the original hider did not know about? What would you have missed if you approached the cache as the hider intended instead of blazing your own way?

Against parking coordinates.

 

 

Anyways, the gripe that comes to mind. Your standing out in the woods, convinced that the owner doesn't know how to use a GPSr and the hint is only driving directions and directions from a specific parking spot.

A little late for those. So not only can they not use their GPSr, they don't know what should be shared as a hint.

[+zygote2k]

I have found that the majority of cache hiders stick to the trail to place a cache. I prefer to follow the arrow to the cache because it is OFF the beaten path and much easier to find things that may have been overlooked.

[+c88m]

A friend and I did a hike around Thanksgiving and the description tolds us to take a certain way up but we took a different way back down that cut our hike in half . So far it is the only cache like that though there was another that you could just use the opposite side of the river instead . Most caches are a fairly straight hike in and out .

[+cachew nut]

Just curious as to how many of you, after finding the cache, realized that you probably did not approach the cache from the same direction the cache hider did.

For parking coordinates.

If your approach was different, have you ever discovered something about the area that even the original hider did not know about? What would you have missed if you approached the cache as the hider intended instead of blazing your own way?

Against parking coordinates.

Ok, maybe I didn't ask this the right way. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone has approached the cache from the wrong direcction. It isn't about parking coordinates, although you can search the posts to see how I feel about that subject.

 

What I really wanted to know is this...when you did take that different approach, did you discover anything interesting or spectacular that even the hider did not know about? Something you wouldn't have found if you went the same way the hider did, some kind of discovery other than a thorn bush.

 

The hider tries to bring you to an area to show you something interesting, did you ever find something more interesting than what they were trying to show you?