My first find

[arkansasboy]

I picked a cold and windy day to go out on my first serious hunt but it was worth the trip to Blue Mountain Lake. I found the Memorial Overlook, placed by topotrex, and I searched for others with no success. I have come to the conclusion that I have much to learn about my gps and geocahing in general! But it was worth it to just get out and enjoy the outdoors.

[grzz51]

Congrats....... it'll get easier as you use your GPSr more and learn the techniques of hiding

[arkansasboy]

I need to learn to find first I think. I searched for 4 and found 1. Not the best but I will keep plugging along.

[AR-HICK]

Here this may help to ask yourself these questions while hunting.

Why is that there?

Does that look natural?

Look for stumps, holes, and under rocks. A Marker would be a area to look, remember that cache owners have to find them too. Just some stuff to think about. One last thing keep practicing with your GPS you will get a better understanding of how it works. Just because it says 5 feet doesn't mean that is exact, GPS units have a 10m (30 feet) accuracy so depending on the weather and who hid it are all factors that you may have to work with.
Have Fun that is the most important part.

[MathSeeker]

Congratulations on your first find. The more you search the more you will find. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Don't get discouraged. Check the difficulty level of the caches too. Some are easier than others.
Ar-Hick is right, have fun and enjoy it.

[jclaudii]

another thing we use as a "reference circle" is the estimated +- accuracy number. If we are searching in Summer under a full canopy of oaks, we somtimes may have a 30 foot +- radius of what our GPSr says is Ground Zero. So if we don't see it at the "5 foot from cache" label, we'll go all the way out to 30 feet looking in holes and rocks.

That is one reason I modified the way gsak uploads to the gps so we get the container size and the difficulty rating in the info field.

[flannelman]

Don't feel too bad. I have been caching for a while and I still have days where I go 1 for 5. It gets easier but then it doesn't too. That is all part of the fun.

[OldRiverRunner]

If a GPSr took you right to the cache every time, it wouldn't be as fun. That's why we call it "hunting" or "searching" for a cache. Of course, with experience, you will find that some caches require a lot less "hunting" or "searching" than others!

[edieo]

Congratulation and never give up some caches I have looked for several times before finding ,,After I find them I start to wonder what I'm gonna do with all my feel time now that I finally found it and some of those same caches other folks find right away ... But the thing is the searching is sooo much fun