Snow and Geocaching?

[+schwachs]

So it's snowed up here a lot in the Boston area...

 

I am looking for kid-friendly caches that won't be covered in a foot of the white stuff.

 

Thoughts on how to make snow-treks successful?

[+blb9556]

So it's snowed up here a lot in the Boston area...

 

I am looking for kid-friendly caches that won't be covered in a foot of the white stuff.

 

Thoughts on how to make snow-treks successful?

 

The only caches that wouldn't be covered are LPC's which are pretty boring since they are all micros. It is impossible to tell if a normal cache will be under snow or not.

[+Nerdears]

I am in the Chicago suburbs area and have also gotten a bunch of snow. I was just introduced to Geocaching on December 20th and there has been a lot of snow on the ground since my startup, but I am still itching to get my first find. Any suggestions on type of caches to look for? I am a cellular field tech and I work on cell sites all up and down Lake Michigan and there are some that seem to be near some of my cell towers but I am having trouble locating them. Any suggestions?

[+van der Decken]

You could try looking for caches that have the winter friendly attribute set, but it's a bit of an iffy proposition. Some people use it for caches that you can get to in the winter, regardless of whether or not you have a snowball's chance of finding it. Others use it for caches that you might actually stand a chance of finding, such as a lnl hidden in the stump of a broken off tree 3' above the ground, or a camoed peanut butter jar hung by a bungee in a conifer. Other than getting to know the hiding styles of your local cachers, it can be hard to tell which is which though!

 

Another time honoured method is to wait for a new cache to be found by someone else, and then simply follow their footprints around. Which reminds me of the other time honoured tradition of creating false trails for those try and follow your footprints!

[+WaylessWood]

LPC caches are iffy if there are plow drifts or a lot of ice. Your best bet is to look for caches that are marked as snow friendly and read the description to see if they provide any indication of just how snow friendly the cache might be. One cache I recently found indicated it was snow friendly to a point. Luckily for me, it hadn't reached the point at which it was no longer accessible.

 

If you do venture out, bring along a trekking pole, old ski pole, or find a good long stick. Sometimes you can sound out the cache by poking around.

 

Happy Hunting.

[+StarBrand]

You could use a metal detector.

 

 

Larger sized caches are easier to find in just about any weather. However, I have seen more than 1 ammocan stuck to the ground via a thick layer of ice.

 

As a general rule rural cachers are much harder in the snow - urban city ones tend to be easier.

[+geos of the jungle]

Check out this topic in the New England forum. Specifically, check out g-o-cashers' link to his PQ in post #5. I find it useful under our current conditions.

 

Of course it's raining and in the 40's today, and we're getting more of the same this coming weekend so the snow piles are melting away as I type.

[+joranda]

When I first started caching it was in the winter when I got my GPS as a early Christmas gift. There was alot of snow that year so I went after regular sized caches and had alot of fun finding them.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

The best advice is to look for caches that have been found since it last snowed. There might not be tracks in the snow leading you to the cache but at least you know that it's recently been found. Depending on how much snow you've got, and what the weather is like, caches in the woods can be a lot of fun this time of year and may often be easier to find. You'll probably get better GPS reception now that the leaves are off the trees and much of the underbrush may be gone as well. You might even come across some interesting animal tracks in the snow like I did about a week ago:

 

[+Crow-T-Robot]

I set my PQ's to include Regular and Large size caches when there is snow on the ground. My reasoning is that the containers are larger, so they should be findable, even under a blanket of snow. However, snow is a great equalizer and you could be inches from the cache and not know it. Best advice is come prepared for the elements. Good boots and gloves and a pair of snowpants because it's almost guaranteed that you'll be kneeling and scooping snow when you get to GZ and wet hands/feet/pants can ruin a day out caching in the snow pretty quick.

 

Bruce

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Check out this topic in the New England forum. Specifically, check out g-o-cashers' link to his PQ in post #5. I find it useful under our current conditions.

 

Of course it's raining and in the 40's today, and we're getting more of the same this coming weekend so the snow piles are melting away as I type.

 

Note this comment I gave in that forum thread around this time last year, it is probably very useful in the Boston area the OP says he/she is from (and probably even more so in the New York City and Philadelphia areas) as often times only PARTS of these areas have snow cover and if you're willing to plan perhaps a 1 hour or so drive and then do a bunch of caches you can get your caching fix and explore a new nearby area as well. Probably less useful in upstate NY, northern New England, Pennsylvania beyond Philly, etc. Got a lot of thank you emails about it. I believe the links have changed so just Google "snow cover map". Have fun and Happy Holidays!

 

 

"This is going to sound a little wacky, but is especially true in areas like here in greater NYC and the Boston area/eastern Mass. where mountains rub up against ocean and heavy development and snow cover/totals can vary much over short distances.

 

If you're willing to drive maybe 30-60 miles and do a bunch of caches, maybe check out a snow cover map. Where I live just north of NY City we had a couple of sleet/snow storms but was surprised to see on these map that if I drove about an hour or so south there was never any snow cover and at the time (using Massachusetts) it appeared the same was true south of Plymouth into the Cape. We didn't go drive out and do any, but if I really really wanted to do some caches I might try this to avoid the difficulties of finding in snow cover.

 

The best site for this (you can drill down into exact detail) is: http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/interactive/html/map.html from the National Weather Service. But some other good ones are:

 

http://www.intellicast.com/Planners/Snow/C...px?enlarge=true

 

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/curren...arge.html"

[+JBnW]

Could also be a good time of year to knock off any Virtual caches with Alternate Logging Requirements in your area...like finding some clue at a historical marker or whatever. I had to kick 4 inches of snow and ice off of one last weekend. Doesn't have an ammo can at the end, but the smilies are all the same.

 

Cache on!

[Neos2]

Truly blustery days when you can't get out at all are a great time to solve a few puzzle caches so they'll be ready for a better day.

 

A good thing to have handy is a nice pair of trekking poles with snow tips. They can help you stay on your feet on slippery patches of ground, help you get across small meltwater streams, and they can be used to poke around the snow drifts listening for the sound of the pole hitting a metal ammo can.

 

They are also good in warm weather for poking in dark holes where critters may live and getting along in muddy areas. Year round they are great for steep trails and possibly even for protection from some animals.

 

I use a pair of Leki poles and my husband uses Komperdells. You don't have to go for the most expensive, but I sure wouldn't try to depend on the very cheap ones-

(of course, I'm not one to talk, Indy Diver gave us our poles (Thanks Indy!).

[+Chi-Town Cacher]

I just wanted to say thanks for the suggestions on how to deal with snowfall affecting caching. I'm a new cacher from Michigan and the area I live in normally gets around 100+ inches of snowfall a year so I'd pretty much written off caching for 4 months. However, now that I see the ground snowcover map and the idea about working some puzzle caches which I'm normally I'm to impatient to do I have a couple options available to me that I never would have thought of. Thanks again everybody for sharing your great ideas and have a safe and happy New Year!!!

[JohnGGeo]

I don't always take snow as a disadvantage, like now if i need some help finding a cache in the snow i can follow footsteps (if there are any) otherwise I try to go for bigger caches or caches I think won't be covered by the snow or on the ground.

[+Aix sponsa]

I live in Minnesota. Soon I hope to start looking for winter caches. It may or may not work. A number of small to medium caches in this area require you to look up not down. Don't write off winter caching!

 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost