You’re at Ground Zero (GZ) of a geocache. You’ve been looking for awhile and have come up empty. What are some other things you can try?!?

Here are some tips on how to find a geocache.

1. Touch and examine everything - even if you are SURE that’s not the cache. [Be sure to ignore this advice if you are hunting near electrical wires or porcupines!]
2. Come from a different angle - walk away and come back - change your angle of attack - you might see things you missed last time.
3. Change your perspective – lower – higher – look up – look down
4. Think about the easiest location not the hardest (unless of course it’s a high difficulty cache). Sometimes we make it harder than it is.
5. Expand your search radius - remember that GPS receivers and smart phones are only accurate to 20-30 feet. Throw your backpack down near ground zero and then work outwards, searching in ever-widening circles.
6. Think about where you would hide the geocache. Try to think like a hider approaching the area.
7. Look NEAR things - base of tree, rock, log. It’s NORMALLY not going to be just thrown into a random bush.

Now here are a few specific ideas from geocaches we’ve encountered:

1. For a tree hide, gently shake the branches, listen for sound, look for reflecting light (if it’s metal), look for something out of place
2. If you’re near a fence post lift off the cap
3. If there’s a hole (like on a pole), look for a wire or string that could be going down the hole with a cache at the end

And here are some “Don’t Forget” reminders

1. Check the difficulty and terrain ratings. If the terrain is 3 or 4, it’s not going to be on nice level ground.
2. Re-read the title and description for hidden clues.
3. Reading other finder’s logs can often help.
4. And there’s always the cache owner’s hint, if they left one.

We’d love to hear from you with YOUR tips!