Going back to a DNF

[Foinavon]

What's the longest gap you have had beetween a DNF and a successful reattempt?

I failed Nearly Douglas on 15/12/06 I am the only person ever to DNF this cache.

And I returned last Friday for my 2nd attempt

I hope one day to break this personal record with GCD0A7 Fish at Razor City which I DNF'd in July 2006. Every summer I say I will go back there.

Do you always feel you have to go back? Or can you let it lie? If its local and its not part of a series (purely because for ones that are I usually give up after 5 minutes to look for the next one so there is no "DNF rage") I usually have to go back sooner or later.


Ones that required more than one return visit.
GCPQEJ Duck For Cover 3rd time lucky
GC10M8H The Last One 4th time lucky
GC139DC Gutted no time lucky because Lolly archived it after my two DNF's. Had I found it I would have had FTF
GC10V24 The Valley Gullivers 3rd time lucky
GCK90G Berrys Bage and Keyring exchange My first double DNF,3rd time lucky.


For holiday DNF's the pain is greater because when will you ever go back? I still wonder where I went wrong with these two.
GC1173Z Belmore Falls
GC1TKMZ 60 years of Nowa Huta

[Dan1980]

It depends on the nature of the cache. There are plenty that I have DNF'd, but will never ever go back to as the area was not very nice.

One cache I DNF'd three times, then adopted and subsequently archived, all without ever finding the cahe. I think you know which one I'm talking about, Paul

[pieman]

I think my longest is 7 months and 4 goes on the excellent Suspension http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7888c5d3-03cb-4aa0-9ba2-bf86fe7c54ca. At some point I will return to Cut Down Cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f30c7fe1-e322-4af2-b3a1-fa4648b4f287 which I DNFd in January 2006 and again some time later having worked out where it was but having the bulb in my torch blow at the vital moment.

[bargee72]

some caches eat away at me especially in the early days, I too have been back to Suspension in chester 3 times and still not found it.

I will return for Puzzle caches as well as once i have dnf'd them i always question whether i have made a mistake in the coords.

[The Bolas Heathens]

DNF's bug me like crazy and I almost always have to return and try and find them. We're usually successful on the second go as we will wait until several found logs are on the cache so we can be sure it's definitely there .

Just looking at GC.com we have 473 DNF logs so there are too many to really look through although GC14YQV dont get on it does stand out as we went back 4 times before we finally found it. It's 56.3 miles from home but we only popped back while we were nearby doing other caches.

The final of the NW Nutters series is 63.5 miles from home and we had a DNF on it at the end of a day doing the rest of the series. It bugged me so much that the next day I made a special trip just to try for this one cache. I would not usually go to that extreme, but a FTF was up for grabs and it's always especially annoying not to complete a series you've spent most of the day trying for.

[Dan1980]

Just looking at GC.com we have 473 DNF logs...

How do you know that, John? Is there a count of your DNF logs somewhere that I don't know about? It would be interesting to see how many I've got.

[The Bolas Heathens]

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

How do you know that, John? Is there a count of your DNF logs somewhere that I don't know about? It would be interesting to see how many I've got.

[alicephilippa]

Suspension in Chester took me 2 goes and it's a crafty one.
Grovenor Park in Chester took 2 attempts, the first time I must have been blind as it was quite obvious when I finally found it.
Stanley Bridge Hammersmith took 3 attempts and a major lightbulb moment

There're 15 or so others that I've still got DNF'd THe most frustrating of which is St Mary Hides a Nano in Chester which I've been to twice. The other DNFs I've not been back to yet, although "The most Dangerous Cache in Manchester" series is definitely not getting a second look.

Mostly though I'll go back if I'm nearby but won't make a special trip to them.

[Dan1980]

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

Excellent, thanks John. I've got 64 DNFs, so around 10% of my founds count

[The Bolas Heathens]

My DNF to Found ratio is about 5.5%. I've no idea if this is good, just average or plain sloppy . Some of the DNF's are on the same cache though, so that might skew the results a bit.

You can also get lots of other interesting totals from the links at the top of that page. Given the recent 'discussion' about posting NM and NA logs, it might be interesting to see how many of these people will own up to making (obviously in a new thread) . Anyone?

Apologies as this is off topic here but the thought just popped into my mind .

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

Excellent, thanks John. I've got 64 DNFs, so around 10% of my founds count

[alicephilippa]

How do you know that, John? Is there a count of your DNF logs somewhere that I don't know about? It would be interesting to see how many I've got.

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

I've made 34 DNF logs 18 of which are on caches I've later found, 3 on caches now disabled, so 13 still outstanding.

[ferreter38]

It took me 3 attempts to get GCV2Y3 - 1st one was 11th Dec 2008, 2nd 18th Feb 2009 and finally the 14th March 2009 when I wondered how the heck I missed it on the previous two occasions!

I found Berry's Badge and Keyring Exchange in about 5 minutes - it's one of those that you either find very quickly or not at all...
I'm glad that I know where GC10V24 is especially as it's one I've recently adopted, it took Don and I ages to find this one.

[alicephilippa]

I'm glad that I know where GC10V24 is especially as it's one I've recently adopted, it took Don and I ages to find this one.

Saturday I've the fun in finding 24 of the Mersey Stride series. So I can make a list of what needs doing to which cache. I know there are some wet logs to deal with but beyond that... Question is how many will I DNF?

[Dan1980]

I'm glad that I know where GC10V24 is especially as it's one I've recently adopted, it took Don and I ages to find this one.

The GPS reception is awful under those trees, so it gets quite a few DNFs You just have to rely on "cacher's instinct" to find it!

[Mark]

GC10FYF Station to Station - Marston Green
November 10, 2007 - DNF the micro
August 1, 2009 - found the micro, DNF the final
Still haven't found it!


GCMM1J Licensed to Kill ... The Windy City

Logged two DNFs but we also had a 3rd DNF we didn't log because it was getting embarrassing.
Having to pay to park was a pain as well...
Disappointing end to a great Multi as the final clue was useless and the final co-ords were well dodgy.

[LoznSte]

This was ours GC1ZMCQ Tramway Teaser

Went a looking 5 times and struck gold on the 5th.

I think Jack has gone looking again today with a small piece of equipment I gave him for his 18th

[Geocaching Womble]

Personally I don't go back to find a cache after a DNF unless it is extremely close to my location and I can get out to it easily

Thanks
Dominic

[RedFerret]

51 DNF's so far (including one today GCHT3Z), although some of them are for the same cache (usually Sparrow Boys ones ), and yeah, DNF's bug me like crazy (which reminds me, I too am in the Suspension DNF club - still need to find that one, was in chester yesterday but didn't get down to the river, although I REALLY wanted to ).

[pete37038]

In Jan 2008 I attempted a simple looking GC1579E DNF

Yesterday.... 2 years 2 months later...........



D N F !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ryuchan]

Personally I don't go back to find a cache after a DNF unless it is extremely close to my location and I can get out to it easily

Thanks
Dominic

but but but, it's there, taunting you, like the frenchies did to King Arthur (luckily no cows are being thrown at me, so far...)

A dnf must be found, it restores balance to the universe!

[exdreddedcath]

13 DNF's for me so I fit in to the 5% category. Have been back to most of them as they tend to annoy me till I do find them, especially those Sparrow Boys ones!

[jhewitt15]

Quite a few interesting reads going on on the forum recently. Despite popular belief I've had a load of DNFs which I still have to clean up. I've had 86

This one has buggered me on two different occasions about 6 months apart GC11J1N Fairy Door I tried early last April but couldn't find it. I then went back in December with Chris and we couldn't get to the right side of the river and ended up wheel deep in a bog.

GC1T9B9 Bagger 288 was a similar one but I found this in December about 6 months after my first attempt.

GCPQEJ Duck For cover has been mentioned but its one I can do on my CITO event in May

GCQ65Z Sod All was one which eluded me loads of times. The first time I was shot at so couldn't get to the cache, the second time the cache was strewn about all over the place and the third time, the cache owners had been and removed the cache about an hour before me and archived it They soon rejigged it as a new multi which is superb.

GC1493R Knights is one which was gone but I plan to return in the summer while doing FFloss's ones,

Frying Tonight was one I mentioned a few days ago because it was one of my long term DNF nemesis caches. I had tried it on loads of occasions but couldn't get to it because of muggles. I struck lucky and got it a few days ago.

Now the grandaddy of all DNFs is this one GC1ZMCQ Tramway Teaser. I was supposed to be going today but I didn't fancy lugging the specialist equipment into the DSA theory test centre with me. I decided to go and have a social day with mates instead There's always an opportunity in June to get it with other cachers at Loznste's NWCMM

[The Phantom Camel Train]

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

Thanks for posting that John I've never looked at all those stats before. We have 94 dnfs which is about 9% of our finds total. Not sure if that's good or bad
I must say we have certainly not been posting enough needs maintenance logs though,only 7 ; we usually just mention any issues in our log but I guess some cache owners don't read their logs so we will look to change that.

As to returning to a dnf it really depends on the cache location and why we dnf it. If its a quality cache eg Sparrow Boys or something similar we will make a special journey to return and try to get it. Others just don't justify a special journey so only if we are passing again.

Our nightmare cache was actually Nandad's Nightmare on the NW nutters series.We are the only people to dnf this one and we did it twice. First on 31/8/08, then we repeated the dnf on 25/1/09, we eventually went back a third time on 26/9/09 and found it.
Ray

[pete37038]

321 DNF's - so roughly just over 5 %

[jhewitt15]

Simples - go to http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3 and it says at the top of the page .

Thanks for posting that John I've never looked at all those stats before. We have 94 dnfs which is about 9% of our finds total. Not sure if that's good or bad
I must say we have certainly not been posting enough needs maintenance logs though,only 7 ; we usually just mention any issues in our log but I guess some cache owners don't read their logs so we will look to change that.

As to returning to a dnf it really depends on the cache location and why we dnf it. If its a quality cache eg Sparrow Boys or something similar we will make a special journey to return and try to get it. Others just don't justify a special journey so only if we are passing again.

Our nightmare cache was actually Nandad's Nightmare on the NW nutters series.We are the only people to dnf this one and we did it twice. First on 31/8/08, then we repeated the dnf on 25/1/09, we eventually went back a third time on 26/9/09 and found it.
Ray

Don't forget PUP's 997AD

[clotguy]

GC down again

[jhewitt15]

GC down again

http://nwcaching.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3676

[clotguy]

20 DNF (3-4) multiple times
1 NA
2 NM

[pieman]

I'm on 13.5% DNFs to finds but this only counts one DNF per cache. I will go back to a DNF if it is an interesting hide (cf Sparrow Boys) or a nice location but not otherwise.

[JeremyR]

I'm on a 12.9% DNF rate. I've always hovered around 10% or so and to be honest, I don't get too bothered about going back to my bogey caches. There have been a few times that I've specifically been to a given area to have another go at a particular cache that I've DNF'd before (a particularly tough multi springs to mind) but most of the time and assuming the initial DNF was down to a failure of my own ability, I'll just leave it be. If I didn't find it first time, I probably won't find it second time

[Dan1980]

I must say we have certainly not been posting enough needs maintenance logs though,only 7 ; we usually just mention any issues in our log but I guess some cache owners don't read their logs so we will look to change that.

It's definitely worth posting a NM as well as mentioning it in your log. If you've got a lot of caches, you've been away for the weekend (or longer) and the weather's been nice you can come back to hundreds of logs, so it's easy to miss a damp log book here or there. A lot of cachers also seem to like to "save them up" until there's several that need maintenance so that they don't have to keep going backwards and forwards replacing logs, so posting a NM log makes it dead easy for them to see which caches have problems, by just running a PQ.

[Dan1980]

GC1T9B9 Bagger 288

LOL

I've not noticed that cache before... how did I know it would be one of PUP's?

[bargee72]

just checked m stats and I have 284 DNF logs on 2631 finds thats over 10%

I have no hang ups posting a DNF but didnt realise I DNF 1 for every 10 caches i find

as to returning to them, hey do eat away at me whenever i drive past the area knowing that there is a cache there.

longest DNF for me would be gc4rnp Almost boiling point
This cache was my nemesis for nearly 3 years, madean anual visit to DNF it 3times, one i didnt record before final finding it.

first attempt 12/02/2005
second logge attempt 19/01/2006
finaly found 1/12/2007

great spot on the banks of the ship canal.

got muggled the second time by a ship passing up the canal in the early morning

[Kelsborrow Wayfinders]

My first DNF was GCH55B A Little Oak on March 27th 2004. It's still active and I'm now very tempted to go back for a second attempt as its not that far away. At the time I expect it was on my first couple of pages of caches.

My DNf rate is 8.5% which is less than I thought. I don't normally bother with returning to caches unless it is Sparrow Boys although there are exceptions. I presume the use of PAF reduces the percentage for some people. My last DNF free month was February 2009.