The art of the DNF
Did Not Find. It’s perhaps the single most frustrating thing to have happen to a cacher, and yet every one of us has experienced this at least once. You all know the story.
You’re out in the wild somewhere trying to find a cache. You’ve come prepared with knowledge of what kind of container you are looking for, a description of the cache, and maybe even the hint. Heck, maybe you’ve even spoken to other cachers who have found it before. You are sure that you are going to find this particular cache and so the hunt begins.
You reach ground zero and decide to start looking. Whether it’s under rocks, in a tree, under some branches, in a stump, or on a fence, you look and you look and you look. You check your GPS to see how close you are, and then you double check the hint and description (if you have it) and you continue to search. It’s not looking good.
You’ve now done the drunken bee dance enough that your search has spiraled out from ground zero and you find yourself searching for the cache further from the center than before. You’ve gone from 2-3 meters from the cache location to 10, maybe even as far as 20. You look anywhere and everywhere until eventually you decide that you have had enough and it is time to move on. You’ve been defeated. You are now faced with a “Did Not Find” to add to your list of finds for the day.
On a good day, where you’ve had a good streak of finds, adding a DNF to the list kind of kills the streak. It’s nice to be able to say that I found 25 caches and no DNF’s. I personally have had a day of 130 finds with no DNF’s. That is a personal record and let me tell you, it was definitely a good day. DNF’s are part of the art of geocaching as sometimes, despite how experienced you are, you can look and look all you want, but there are times when it just isn’t going to happen. I’ve seen me go to find a cache three or four times and yet folks who have been caching for only a week found it the first time.
When it comes time for you to log your actual experiences online, the question of whether or not to log a DNF comes up. Many folks, particularly new cachers, choose not to log DNF’s online. For whatever reason, they see it sort of as the cache having “beat” them and they don’t want to feel defeated so they don’t log a find. However, the logging of a DNF also helps other cachers with the hunt. Here’s a few good reasons to log a DNF regardless of your situation:
- Maybe the container is actually missing and a DNF log will help let the owner know that it should be replaced
- Other cachers will see the DNF log and may save themselves the trouble of finding it and experiencing the same frustrations you had
- Fellow finders will see the DNF and use it as a warning that the cache may not actually be there and thusly not worry too much if they can’t find it
- You may have had quite an interesting experience in trying to find the cache and might want to share it, despite not having found the actual container.
- The owner has requested that DNF’s be posted to that cache page because the cache is well known for being very hard to find and the CO wants to see people’s stories of failed finds
Along with there being reasons to log a DNF, there are a few reasons to skip the logging of a DNF:
- You didn’t really try too hard to find the cache and are pretty sure it’s there you just didn’t take enough time to find it, and so logging a DNF may seem a bit inappropriate
- There are already quite a few DNF’s on the cache already and the addition of one more would really not serve any purpose
- If the last DNF log was a long time ago, it’s probably best to post the DNF just so people know someone recently has tried for it
- You were part of a group and many folks from the same group have already posted their DNF logs making yours redundant
DNF’s are a natural part of geocaching. You can’t always find every container so sometimes you have to accept defeat. But there are times when DNF’s present us with even better stories of when we have actually found a cache.
Do you have any interesting DNF stories? Do you always log DNF’s? What criteria do you follow when posting a DNF log?
I look at DNFs exactly as you do, I have logged DNFs when I am 100% sure it isn’t there to let the owner know. I have also not logged a DNF because I plan on returning to try again. I sometimes will not try a cache that was previously DNFed depending on the cache and the owner (some owners do poor maintenance) and sometimes I will if I think it is still there and the DNFer didn’t really take enough time to look. I do look at a DNF as being beat, it makes me want to look harder to avoid it so I don’t have to return or so I can feel good about finding a tough hide. I love tough hides that take time to find.
Do you have any interesting DNF stories? To this: I will have to refer you to ALL UP HILL GC18GQ4. I went once, then twice, then for our 100th find with Didi and a bottle of Champagne, then a fourth time for our 200th where we found it!
July 26, 2008 by Nemodidi
-My female counterpart did not come for this one, so I was left by myself! Just imagine my disappointment in not finding this cache. I kept looking for probably 45+minutes. There can be only 2 options: 1) the cache is not there anymore 2) That Garmin GPSmap 76CSx is useless. It has nothing to do with the fact that she was not with me 🙂 🙂 :)…..but I’ll go back, and I might bring her…..just in case.
We’re talking a peanut butter jar here, not just some micro film case! I may need glasses, maybe the GPS batteries were almost dead, maybe some of the satellites are down.
August 11, 2008 by Nemodidi
-Here goes nothing…can’t believe I’m doing this…but I guess part of being a good player at this game is to also log the « didn’t find ».
So Yep, I was back…with her…and going up the hill with the old truck I’ve just bought. The minute I bought it, I told my wife: I know exactly where I’ll test the 4×4! She came with me, pregnant now, but I needed her! 🙂 She was the GPS Operator. She went right to the same big cedar tree I was zeroing-on the first time I was there. NOTHING! Man! I was kinda glad in a way lol. There is one thing though : it was getting very dark, probably around 9ish pm. So this time, it’s because it was dark…yeah, that’s it…because it was dark!
🙂 Man this is fun 🙂
August 24, 2008 by Nemodidi
-How should one see this situation: funny, sad, ironic, hilarious, disappointing, amusing, dumb, miserable? I say all of the above. We walked some 13km today for exactly 16 caches; to bring us to 99 finds so we’d come here for our famous 100 milestone. We brought a bottle of Champagne, flutes, the GPS and our brand new 100-finds geocoin to proceed with its launch.
Well, we did look. As usual, our GPS was going a bit berserk but we managed to find an average “ground zero” and started our hunt. We searched and searched, probably each tiny square inch within a 50m radius, up, down, underneath, below, everywhere! From 5:30pm to 6:35. Nothing.
We’ll be back … but for the 200 milestone ?
Lots of fun anyway … the bottle was brought back … uncorked!
October 19, 2008 by Nemodidi
-We went for this one again…for our 200th this time. We were not going to get back home without finding it so we figured we’d be there for a while. We found it … … in a matter of 30 seconds!
As others have said, it’s a quick find. It is … when you are looking on the right side of the road! For some reason, all the other times our GPS was taking us higher up hill, on the other side of the road, approx 30m in the woods, so in a word some 100m from the cache! Last week we erased all cache and waypoints that were in the GPS. So this time the coordinates were “fresh”, and Didi was quick to recalibrate the compass before setting out, and surprise at the change in direction from where we had searched before. Fellow Geocachers must have thought we were knobs not being able to find it. This is very funny! We love it! This time we didn’t bring champagne but, as you’ll see on the pic, another more seasonable drink. We signed the log, took a keychain, and launched our TB-the Turtle in honour of how SLOW we were to find this one. Tks for the fun!
For a reason I cannot explain still to this day, the coordinates I had in the GPS were sending me/us way higher up the hill, and on the other side of the road. My soul we searched and searched and searched. It ended up being some fun actually. I must say these DNF logs ultimately started the friendship between Mud in the Face and Nemodidi! (why is it that I am of the impression that I already wrote all about this? There is Alzheimer that runs in my family, no joke, so don’t mind me if I am just repeating something you read before)
Anyway,
So do I log them DNF? Absolutely!
I log all my DNF as I do for the finds, I log when it need maintenance, I log the cruel “ need archive” and I even log “write a note” when I just want the next cacher or the owner to be aware of something or just tell a story why I would not have stopped for the cache for instance. I am a logaholic! Who else reads ALL logs of any cache they find? I can be a tinny little bit obsessed sometimes, just a bit.
We’ll log a DNF if we’ve given it a fair shot and feel we just can’t find it. If we run out of time or don’t give it our all we’ll probably not but just come back again another time. I could care less how many DNFs we have, to me they’re an important part of the game and part of the history of that cache. And, as stated, they give the CO a heads up and information about their cache.
Heehee, Nemo…..my sister, eebee and I found that one between your DNFs and enjoyed following your struggle to find it. 🙂