What to look for on the site of a geocache?
I am starting geocaching and have a few finds already, but there is one cache near my residence that I could not find. I checked the logs and pictures, but I found no sign of a cache at ground zero.
Since I am a beginner, I would want to know some tips and tricks to find a possible hiding space and what I should be aware of during geocaching.
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I've been geocaching for 12 or 13 years. I'm no power cacher, but I do have a few hundred finds. But you know what? I also have a couple hundred no finds. Some may have been missing at the time, while others were found the very next day by someone else. A few I managed after a subsequent visit, but there are a small number that elude me to this day.
Sometimes the Force is not with you. Sometimes your Cache-Fu doesn't bring you answers. Sometimes the hide is just that tricky. What you have experienced is, in a word, normal.
With that said, the answer to your underlying question is hard to pin-point, but in general, look for something out of place, and remember that GPS accuracy can be as bad as 20 to 30 ft (6 to 10m). Here are a few examples:
- The most obvious one: a too-perfect-grouping of sticks. A single stick on the ground in the woods is just a stick. Even a pile of sticks can happen at times. But a gathering of sticks, all aligned in the same direction, leaned against a stump? That probably hides a geocache.
- Rocks. Rocks do not naturally pile together. A pile of rocks has a geocache underneath.
- A pine cone in a maple tree. It might have fallen off a nearby pine tree. But then again, if there are no nearby pine trees, it might be a fake! Perhaps a cap screws off or something, and there's your geocache.
- A bird house without an opening for a bird to go into. Look for a hinged side or something, and the geocache within.
There are more I could list, but at some point I would cross the line into spoilers, and ruin the game for you. Good luck!
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My friend often goes out with her sister who is the geocasher.
By looking in a different way, she often finds the ones her sister does not.
Going down on her knees (even belly) to look from the bottom up. Standing on tip-toe or climbing on available higher points. Reaching in narrow openings (be careful if there are dangerous snakes in your area) and by using a light or a magnet at the end of a stick.
Often it is not these tricks but just a fresh look at the place that cracks the problem.
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Since you describe it as "near your residence", it's probably what is known as an "urban micro": a small, camouflaged container attached to something like a street sign or a lamp post.
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