Talk about your failures
#1
Posted 09 April 2012 - 07:51 AM
I'm really hoping this thread doesn't turn into any sort of negative attack thread, please lets just keep it to our own (or our groups) failure days, and lets keep it fun.
Over the last several days, I've been planning a trip for today. Trying to figure out where to go, find somebody to go with me, figure out which caches, etc...
I decided on Bodega Bay, CA. 15-20 caches planned, two of which are some of the oldest in California. My son and I were going to spend a special day at the ocean, caching, and just relaxing. That was before I was up all night with stuff flying out of both ends of me like I was Linda Blair. Very, very uncool.
Your turn....
#2
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:04 AM
I got 8 DNFs and was STF on 3 others.
I ripped my coat - it started raining about half way through. I lost a pen. Broke my flashlight.
It cured me of being a FTF hound. Back in 2005.
#3
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:09 AM
It would have been very cool if we had managed it. A late-night hike, a giddy hour uphill to GZ that would have guaranteed us our first ever FTF. No luck! I, too, am cured - especially of hiking at night. I'll save the midnight hours for those pesky urban hides.
#4
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:14 AM
#5
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:29 AM
Luckily, the CO is very responsive and responsible and met me at GZ later in the day with a replacement container made and ready.
But I broke a cache as the FTF. Huzzah.
#6
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:38 AM
Otherwise I went looking for a FTF but only found the string it was susposed to be hanging from! It had been muggled before it was found.
#7
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:46 AM
Flew out to Freiburg, Germany on a business trip. On the day I landed, I decided to take the free time to go hiking. I had 4 caches to go for.
#1 in a Church - very high muggle activity (knew that going in), no find. I SHOULD have asked the person collecting the fees where it was (after everyone left), but I didn't. Failure #1
#2 in the woods - went hiking up the mountain. Headed to find the caches. Trail map was off. Got near the first ground zero, searched, but didn't find. It was there, I was just too tired from hiking a few miles and it was getting late and I was hungry. Failure #2
#3 in the woods - same hiking paths. The second cache I was going for turned out to be way to far to go since I spent a bit of time looking for #2. Got a little lost in the woods, luckily, I tracked my path so I could find the way back. Failure #3
#4 in a statue - The goal here was an easy find (I got a badge for it) but with the main goal to leave my first TB there to make it back home. It, as well as others, were taken within the next day or two. Cache left there for future finds (still there today), but the TBs were snatched. Logged a find, but lost a TB. Failure #4.
#8
Posted 09 April 2012 - 08:55 AM
And there was a beautifully camouflaged cache that I couldn't figure out how to open. It turned out that the wood used to construct the camouflage had expanded from the moisture, so it took a bit more force to open it than I had been using initially. I finally got it open, but then the whole thing fell into pieces when I tried to re-hide the cache. Without the camouflage, there was nowhere to hide the cache, so I had to take it with me. I immediately used my phone to post a NM log and to send the CO email explaining what had happened in detail.
#9
Posted 09 April 2012 - 09:23 AM
Tore expensive training pants on a piece of steel wire, while finding an otherwise fun cache.
Had my GPSr drop everyting but a couple caches manually entered that morning (since remedied and learned to avoid.)
Trapped for half hour in a Wally World lot trying to replace an LPC (which is one reason I drive past most of these now.)
Epic fail of a hider near Yosemite, who was off by 175 feet (cache is since archived) Spent a couple hours trying to find it.
All things considered, far more successes and a huge amount of fun.
#11
Posted 09 April 2012 - 10:18 AM
knowschad, on 09 April 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:
I guess another name for them is 'Warm-up' They are some end-of-season sale of equipment from an English Permier League Football club. I usually don't wear them out caching for this very reason. A bit of tuition for the school of hard knocks - Don't wear good clothing when geocaching. Even reaching for that desireable magnetic key holder under a park bench could result in mud/grass staining your slacks while you take a break from a conference.
We could probably create a separate thread here - name the clothing you have damaged/destroyed in the pursuit of a find.
#12
Posted 09 April 2012 - 12:28 PM
DragonsWest, on 09 April 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:
knowschad, on 09 April 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:
I guess another name for them is 'Warm-up' They are some end-of-season sale of equipment from an English Permier League Football club. I usually don't wear them out caching for this very reason. A bit of tuition for the school of hard knocks - Don't wear good clothing when geocaching. Even reaching for that desireable magnetic key holder under a park bench could result in mud/grass staining your slacks while you take a break from a conference.
We could probably create a separate thread here - name the clothing you have damaged/destroyed in the pursuit of a find.
And it seems you did just that. Bravo
I intended this to be a fun thread. I always enjoy a little chuckle at myself and my failures/mistakes/whatever, just figured others might too.
#13
Posted 09 April 2012 - 12:31 PM
Total newbs have walked straight to it and found it right away. One newb even emailed me to give me a hint (which didn't help, BTW). How frustrating/embarassing!
This post has been edited by The_Incredibles_: 09 April 2012 - 12:31 PM
#14
Posted 09 April 2012 - 01:06 PM
The_Incredibles_, on 09 April 2012 - 12:31 PM, said:
Total newbs have walked straight to it and found it right away. One newb even emailed me to give me a hint (which didn't help, BTW). How frustrating/embarassing!
I've had those moments too, I hate when your sure you've checked every possible spot numerous times on separate occasions and someone with a couple finds finds it right away! It's frustrating but I laugh at the same time because there's no sense getting mad over a good hide. There's one cache near my cabin that I've been to a few times and still no find, this summer im GOING to find it I tell you!
#16
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:34 AM
My failures :
running out of battery, on all electrical devices I did carry in a new contry and new location !
dont bring water.
dont bring stuff to eat.
did not think area was hard or hike that long.
forgot pen.
forgot to update gps with correct PQ and forgot to check before on the trip.
forgot to check hide/hint was changed, resulting in endless search the wrong place
forgot to check DNF and cache was gone, those are hard to find I tell you !
forgot to double check spoiler pictures of hard to find caches when hide location was changed
and old spoilers was not removed !! man now it is impossible to find stuff, when focused on wrong location.
forgot to bring spare paper when log is repported to be a bit wet.
#17
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:48 AM
Got them now though.
#18
Posted 10 April 2012 - 06:07 AM
So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....
#19
Posted 10 April 2012 - 06:52 AM
#20
Posted 10 April 2012 - 07:42 AM
OzzOzz, on 10 April 2012 - 06:07 AM, said:
So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....
Bahahahahahaha, I love this one!
I did something similar-ish once. I had a cache that was logged as NM as the area had some changes. I didn't figure it had moved, but I was in the area so I went to check on it. DNF'd my own cache. The next day it was found by somebody else, right where I had left it. I felt silly, but as I hadn't logged anything on the site yet, I just cleared the flag and let it go....
#21
Posted 10 April 2012 - 09:05 AM
J the Goat, on 10 April 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:
OzzOzz, on 10 April 2012 - 06:07 AM, said:
So, I set my rock down with the container in it, was looking at the GPS to move the 51', and after about 40 feet, where's my rock?, took me an hour to find it. Swore to myself I wouldn't say anything to anybody, but since we are baring it all here....
Bahahahahahaha, I love this one!
I did something similar-ish once. I had a cache that was logged as NM as the area had some changes. I didn't figure it had moved, but I was in the area so I went to check on it. DNF'd my own cache. The next day it was found by somebody else, right where I had left it. I felt silly, but as I hadn't logged anything on the site yet, I just cleared the flag and let it go....
Two of these, myself.
One I finally did locate the original, after a report there were two containers at GZ.
The other is about 20 miles away and regularly alternates between the original container and the replacement. I still have no idea where the dang original is, but someone clearly moved it.
#22
Posted 10 April 2012 - 09:22 AM
#23
Posted 10 April 2012 - 01:16 PM
Quote
Saturday, 19 December 2009New York
Out caching on a cold, windy, 20+ degree day. This cache was one of six I had planned on grabbing before meeting up with some friends at my favorite watering hole "Down the Hatch" on W. 4th St. I was running late meeting up so I decided to leave this one for after the 1pm - 6pm all you can drink and eat (chicken wings) special. This was a major mistake. By the time I got out it was even colder than when I got into town and the snow was a blowing. Not to mention I couldn't walk a straight line anymore so I was unsure if my geosenses would be working. Even now the clue still doesn't make sense to me but that might be the impending hang-over talking. So after searching for around 20 minutes I somehow found the cache. Yipeeee!! So I went over to the doorway of one of the buildings to get out of the snow to sign the log. Did I mention I hate nano's? Getting the log out usually isn't a problem but getting it back in is always tough. So after several attempts and a couple of drops of the container I finally got the log back in. A quick return to its excellent hiding spot and homeward bound I go. But I had problems getting it to stick back where it belonged. And after the second attempt the container fell to the ground, into the snow!! Oh ....!!! I started looking everywhere on the floor but I could not find the tiny container! Did I mention I hate nano's? I was looking for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder to find the waiter and some customers from the restaurant right by GZ looking at this crazy white guy searching in the snow for what? I shrugged my shoulders at them and continued my search. Finally the waiter came out and gave me a flashlight to help look. When he asked me what I was looking for I mentioned geocaching and he said he had heard of it. After another 10 minutes a patron came out with his flashlight to help me search for the stinkin' thing. Finally after 25+minutes of seaching in the freezing cold I had to give up to catch my train home. I stopped in the White Horse Tavern to use the bathroom on the way out. Nice place!!
team pelagori, forgive me for having lost your cache. It is out there somewhere. I will contact you to arrange getting you a new container. In the mean time, I have learned a valuable lesson. Go caching BEFORE making my way to Down the Hatch.
***THE CACHE IS LOST***
#24
Posted 10 April 2012 - 01:52 PM
Quote
01/07/2012This cache ended up being a bit more of an adventure for me than I had anticipated. This cache is VERY close to the exceedingly nice Hobs Park Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is amazingly nice - it is new, modern, it has interestng exhibits and programs, and the staff is awesome. They have trail maps and geocaching information available in the visitor center, and the stff there is friendly and VERY happy to discuss geocaching - this has to be the most geocaching friendly park I've ever visited.
After picking up some trail maps, we decided to start with this cache, hey, it's RIGHT HERE, and may as well try to warm up a bit before trying some of the ones with longer hikes. Well, I'm glad I started with this one, because we hike over to ground zero, and I more or less just collapse. My vision goes blurry, I am nauseated, and I almost pass out - I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! I'd thought I was having an attack of hypoglycemia, so my wife walks back over to the visitor center, and one of the staff gives her a bottle of pepsi. She brings it back, I drink it and feel somewhat better (I can at least see again.) My wife finds the cache, we sign the log, and I go back to the visitor center for a while to rest up. (The staff at the visitor center was just incredibly kind during all of this.)
The cache itself is cleverly camo'd to blend in with the surroundings. It is nicely maintained, and had nice stuff in it, although I didn't trade anything. I considered taking the travel bug to Oklahoma, but I was doing pretty well to get myself back to the visitor center by that point!
I'll definitely return to find the other caches in this park - I'd definitely like to get further than about 600' from the visitor center!
Edit: added a favorite point to this cache because the staff are so awesome!
I ended up in the emergency room that night with very low blood pressure, severely dehydrated, and overwhelmingly nauseated. As best we can tell, I succumbed to some type of local virus that had been going around. The onset of this thing was the fastet I've ever experienced - I literally couldn't have been affected any faster if someone had hit me in the gut with a baseball bat.
This ended up being the only cache I found that weekend. I had big plans to cache in that park, and around Eureka Springs.
This post has been edited by Mr.Benchmark: 10 April 2012 - 01:53 PM
#25
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:36 PM
slukster, on 10 April 2012 - 01:16 PM, said:
Quote
Saturday, 19 December 2009New York
Out caching on a cold, windy, 20+ degree day. This cache was one of six I had planned on grabbing before meeting up with some friends at my favorite watering hole "Down the Hatch" on W. 4th St. I was running late meeting up so I decided to leave this one for after the 1pm - 6pm all you can drink and eat (chicken wings) special. This was a major mistake. By the time I got out it was even colder than when I got into town and the snow was a blowing. Not to mention I couldn't walk a straight line anymore so I was unsure if my geosenses would be working. Even now the clue still doesn't make sense to me but that might be the impending hang-over talking. So after searching for around 20 minutes I somehow found the cache. Yipeeee!! So I went over to the doorway of one of the buildings to get out of the snow to sign the log. Did I mention I hate nano's? Getting the log out usually isn't a problem but getting it back in is always tough. So after several attempts and a couple of drops of the container I finally got the log back in. A quick return to its excellent hiding spot and homeward bound I go. But I had problems getting it to stick back where it belonged. And after the second attempt the container fell to the ground, into the snow!! Oh ....!!! I started looking everywhere on the floor but I could not find the tiny container! Did I mention I hate nano's? I was looking for 10 minutes when I looked over my shoulder to find the waiter and some customers from the restaurant right by GZ looking at this crazy white guy searching in the snow for what? I shrugged my shoulders at them and continued my search. Finally the waiter came out and gave me a flashlight to help look. When he asked me what I was looking for I mentioned geocaching and he said he had heard of it. After another 10 minutes a patron came out with his flashlight to help me search for the stinkin' thing. Finally after 25+minutes of seaching in the freezing cold I had to give up to catch my train home. I stopped in the White Horse Tavern to use the bathroom on the way out. Nice place!!
team pelagori, forgive me for having lost your cache. It is out there somewhere. I will contact you to arrange getting you a new container. In the mean time, I have learned a valuable lesson. Go caching BEFORE making my way to Down the Hatch.
***THE CACHE IS LOST***
#26
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:37 PM
#27
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:37 PM
Mr.Benchmark, on 10 April 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:
Quote
01/07/2012This cache ended up being a bit more of an adventure for me than I had anticipated. This cache is VERY close to the exceedingly nice Hobs Park Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is amazingly nice - it is new, modern, it has interestng exhibits and programs, and the staff is awesome. They have trail maps and geocaching information available in the visitor center, and the stff there is friendly and VERY happy to discuss geocaching - this has to be the most geocaching friendly park I've ever visited.
After picking up some trail maps, we decided to start with this cache, hey, it's RIGHT HERE, and may as well try to warm up a bit before trying some of the ones with longer hikes. Well, I'm glad I started with this one, because we hike over to ground zero, and I more or less just collapse. My vision goes blurry, I am nauseated, and I almost pass out - I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! I'd thought I was having an attack of hypoglycemia, so my wife walks back over to the visitor center, and one of the staff gives her a bottle of pepsi. She brings it back, I drink it and feel somewhat better (I can at least see again.) My wife finds the cache, we sign the log, and I go back to the visitor center for a while to rest up. (The staff at the visitor center was just incredibly kind during all of this.)
The cache itself is cleverly camo'd to blend in with the surroundings. It is nicely maintained, and had nice stuff in it, although I didn't trade anything. I considered taking the travel bug to Oklahoma, but I was doing pretty well to get myself back to the visitor center by that point!
I'll definitely return to find the other caches in this park - I'd definitely like to get further than about 600' from the visitor center!
Edit: added a favorite point to this cache because the staff are so awesome!
I ended up in the emergency room that night with very low blood pressure, severely dehydrated, and overwhelmingly nauseated. As best we can tell, I succumbed to some type of local virus that had been going around. The onset of this thing was the fastet I've ever experienced - I literally couldn't have been affected any faster if someone had hit me in the gut with a baseball bat.
This ended up being the only cache I found that weekend. I had big plans to cache in that park, and around Eureka Springs.
Glad you were/are alright Mr. Benchmark.
#28
Posted 10 April 2012 - 02:57 PM
J the Goat, on 10 April 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:
Glad you were/are alright Mr. Benchmark.
Thanks J!
I was really glad I was near the visitor center when this happened - I considered saving the easy, nearby cache for last and going for one of the more difficult ones. That would have been a disaster.
Hopefully this odd virus wasn't the precursor to the zombie apocalypse. If it turns out that it was, and I later turn into a zombie and end up eating one of y'all's brains while you are out on the trail, well, you have my sincerest apologies in advance!
#29
Posted 10 April 2012 - 03:16 PM
#31
Posted 10 April 2012 - 04:46 PM
My 1st was one I headed out to find that took me to the middle of a gravel parking lot with nothing around. Embarassed to say even checked a few larger rock in this lot while scratching my head. Come to find out I needed to research what a chirp cache was...
My 2nd epic fail...was loding several caches into my gps, going to one and not finding, going to it a 2nd time not finding, trying again a 3rd time only to find out it didn't exist anymore (last time with new people I was showing geocaching to). No wonder I couldn't find it! Note to self: always update gps before heading out...
Oh, not a failure but I got my 1st tick in my 36 years of life when I started geocaching. Let me tell you, I'm a woman that doesn't deal well with bugs, let alone bugs that don't want to let go!!!
#32
Posted 10 April 2012 - 05:19 PM
slukster, on 10 April 2012 - 01:16 PM, said:
Had a similar experience to this with a nano. I was not drunk, however, it was dark and instead of the nano falling in snow, it fell into a prickle bush (I think). Nice muggle lady tried to help with a flashlight, but no luck after 1/2 hour search. Fortunatley the cache owner was very understanding.
#33
Posted 10 April 2012 - 05:30 PM
#34
Posted 10 April 2012 - 05:53 PM
Bonus fail: I also deposited another TB into the same cache that was in a race with its twin to be the first to reach a million miles traveled. By the time it met its unfortunate demise at the hands of the bomb squad, the TB had traveled a whopping total 25 miles.
#35
Posted 10 April 2012 - 06:07 PM
#37
Posted 10 April 2012 - 07:11 PM
#38
Posted 10 April 2012 - 07:35 PM
And I'm starting to think we pass on some kind of curse to TBs because they tend to go missing after we've placed them.
#39
Posted 10 April 2012 - 08:17 PM
I got to the trail head only to discover that all the cache coordinates had failed to load properly to the gps. I ended up scrapping the cache hunt and just trail ran the route that day and was forced to bump my hunt over to the next week.
#40
Posted 11 April 2012 - 03:50 AM
#41
Posted 11 April 2012 - 06:41 AM
#44
Posted 11 April 2012 - 10:09 AM
Quote
After yesterday's success at Dream Lake, Hipointer and Too Tall John teamed up again today to see if we could also find this difficulty 5 cache. We got off to a bad start as we branched left a short ways up the Peabody Brook Trail on the wrong trail. The right trail has blue blazes at all junctions. We walked quite awhile before we realized we were on the wrong side of Peabody Brook. We wound up bushwhacking steeply down to the Brook, crossing it, and then bushwhacking steeply up to the correct trail. The trail to the Falls (unmarked) leaves on the left about 0.2 miles from the Falls. We found the large, flat rock and projected the coordinates to the cache. The route to the cache area is very steep, rocky terrain which we thought deserved a 4 or 4.5 difficulty rating. The terrain is the same at the cache coordinates and it was difficult to manuever around. GPS reception is also difficult here under the dense tree cover. We searched the area for over 1 1/2 hours and couldn't come up with the cache. This terrain is much more difficult to search than the terrain at Dream Lake and there are more hiding places. We think the time to look for this cache is late Fall when all the leaves are off the trees and GPS reception is better. This cache may now be the most difficult to find cache in New Hampshire!! We continue to marvel at how LandRocket found this cache at night! Maybe he got a glint from his headlamp. Anyhow, his find just adds to his legendary status among NH geocachers. It is a shame he is no longer with us.
Quote
Well...
This was one we'll remember for a while. Hipointer detailed the hunt pretty well, so I'll let his log speak for both of us. He didn't mention that when we returned to the car, he realized his keys were missing. Realizing that finding them on that slippery slope when we couldn't even find the cache was near to impossible, we gave a call out to Capiti, who lucky for us had remained behind for this one. Wait... did I say we called? That would have required cell service! Of which there wasn't any! We hiked to the nearby dam before we had a reliable signal. With help on the way, we got back to the car, but not before... well, we might have placed a cache...
One bad note: I JUST found a tick on me...
The worst DNF day I'll never forget resulted in 8 DNFs. It really all started with a cache I found:
Quote
Had a fun time doing the "Mini Stud Run" with Hipointer. This series helped me to reach a personal best for most caches in a day! 43!!
I also managed to get a personal best (or worst...?) in DNFs in one day: 8!
I believe the DNF streak may have had something to do with this cache. Well, not this cache, per say, but whichever cache I had done after the last cache. See, when I started out for the day, I had found 1287 caches. I realized that I was going to find my 1300th cache on this run, and it was going to be the 13th cache I found during the day! Having 2 13s in such close relationship can never be a good thing, so I attribute finding this cache to my 8 DNFs.
#13 for the day!
#1300 overall!!!!
Quote
Wasn't in the obvious spot, which is where you could hope a 1.5 difficulty cache with no hint to be. Moved along.
Little did I know this was the first cache in a record string of DNFs for me...
Quote
Between the fact that one of us had an outdated PQ and the fact that the new coords seemed to want to take us into the puckerbrush, Hipointer & I got frustrated with this one pretty quickly.
2nd of 8 DNFs for me today, a personal record!
Quote
Out caching with Hipointer today, we didn't find this one. Too slippery with too many possible spots for my liking.
Watch out for rusty metal!
Quote
Ok, well, we were really getting into a groove now! Yet another DNF on my way to a personal record of 8 DNFs in a day!
All because of good old #13....
Quote
Ok, well, we were really getting into a groove now! Yet another DNF on my way to a personal record of 8 DNFs in a day!
All because of good old #13....
Quote
Ok, well, we were really getting into a groove now! This was my final DNF on my way to a personal record of 8 DNFs in a day! I half wondered if I could say "I'm not dead yet!"
All because of good old #13.... (visit link)
Did find the glass mentioned in a previous log...
Both days had memorable DNFs, but I would do them again in a second, because they were a blast!
#46
Posted 11 April 2012 - 10:47 AM
#47
Posted 13 April 2012 - 06:12 PM
#48
Posted 13 April 2012 - 07:19 PM
I lost 2 nice pens in one day of urban caching.
#49
Posted 13 April 2012 - 09:04 PM
sixsix210, on 10 April 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:
Yes, this! It took me two months to finish a puzzle cache--the final spot was about 500' from my desk at work! I'd convinced myself that the cache was older than the newly built object it was hidden on, so it couldn't possibly be there. I'd looked in the area a few times--everywhere but where it was! That will teach me to pay attention to dates.
#50
Posted 13 April 2012 - 11:06 PM
She was a blue eyed blonde, 5'7". Meaner than a snake, tongue that cut like a razor and vindictive as all get out. Destined to fail from the get go.

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