Whenever I do my Lunchtime Geocache of the Day posts I always try to put some little nugget of knowledge that may be useful when you go out geocaching. Most of them are actual incidents that happen while I am looking for that particular geocache.
Something will happen and I'll go, "Hey, that would be a cool thing to discusss."
Todays DNF (Did Not Find) is brought to you from just such an experience.
Ever go after a geocache where you searched and searched then searched some more only to find out that it has not been found since 1864? Okay maybe not THAT far back but maybe it has a string of DNF's that goes back for months or even longer? Wouldn't you want that 30, 45, hour+ back to go looking for something instead of wasting your time on that geocache?
Here is my geocaching suggestion for the day. If you are really having issues trying to find a Difficulty 1.5 or 2 and it is taking more time than you know you should be searching for it. Check the latest logs!
Many of the paperless geocaching gizmos out there like smart phones, certain GPSr units, netbooks, PDAs, etc. allow you to see what the latest logs are for a particular geocache. Many of them are right up to the latest minute if you have Internet connectivity. There are also other applications for computers like GSAK that will tell you right up front the last four or so DNFs a geocache may have but you have to look first. (Note - there are filters and macros that won't even put a geocache available to you if here are more than x recent DNFs logged - but that's another posting).
The point with today's DNF is that it had not been found for well over a year. If I had checked the logs via Geocache Navigator after the first 15 minutes or so of not finding it, I wouldn't have had such a rushed lunch.
Just something to keep in mind when geocaching. If you can't find that geocache and you know you should have found it by now. Check the geocache logs, you'll save yourself some unneeded headache.
-HHH
http://headhardhat-geocache.blogspot.com/
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2 comments:
Oh yeah.... Last spring I spent FOREVER looking for one in my area... I was CERTAIN I had found the perfect hide - but no cache around... I continued to search HIGH and LOW - but never came up with it..
After WAY too long, I went home to log a DNF - when I noticed that I could not find the cache anymore.
I went to the FIND A GC number... and discovered it was disabled and archived SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR.
This was one I just downloaded into my GPSr and assumed it would be there when I had the time to get around to it...
Bahh-humbug!
I always check the logs before I try to find a cache, and if there are 3 or more Dnf's I ignore the listing!
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