How to find an FTF, First To Find

How to find an FTF, First to find

Everydayfunday finds their first FTF

Finding a Geocache is pretty exciting, but being the first to find one is even more exciting! We finally got the chance to experience this fun moment 😊 In this blog post, I'll talk about the fun reasons for why you may want to run and snatch your next chance at becoming an FTF to a geocache.

First, let's explain what an FTF is, it's a first to find, meaning you are the first person to find and locate this geocache. The word "first to find" is an acronym written by geocachers in a physical cache logbook or online when logging a geocache find.    

What you may see on your logbook when arriving at an FTF
This is our first FTF paper
Photo Credit: Jessie C
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How we got our first FTF, I was sitting at home searching for geocaches in the area to plan a small hiking trip with the family, when an email came through notifying me that there was a newly posted Geocache nearby. We grabbed our gear and GPS and got a move on to leave the door and see if we would be lucky this time and get our first FTF. Luck was on our side that day as when we arrived at the Geocache location and found the cache we saw the beautiful FTF with 0 names signed to the logbook, this was very exciting and shows just how addicted you are to a game haha! 

Smallest Geocache Logbook we found in Summer 2017
Photo Credit: Jessie C
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You're probably wondering " why would anyone want to be an FTF"? Being an FTF is super exciting when you are addicted to Geocaching you will also want to claim some FTF of your own. You get to discover the newly posted geocache in your surroundings and you also get Bragging rights to brag about being the first person to find and claim it! That's loads of fun! On some occasions, the cache owner will leave a little surprised to be claimed for the first person to find the geocache, for example in this geocache we claimed some movie passes being the first to have found it. Just that alone makes being the FTF amazing! 

In order to find an FTF you would need to setup instant notifications to let you know when a new Geocache has been posted in your area, this feature is only applicable to premium members. Did you know you can build custom notifications under the premium member feature? I'll explain how; 

1. Go to the Add Instant Notification Page
2. Name the notification you want to be notified on
3. Choose a cache type you want to monitor for example a traditional cache or event, etc
4. Choose the types of logs you want to see show up, I have mine set to "publish Listing", that defaults my listing to the newest caches uploaded in the area. 
5. Set the location and distance that you want to watch
6. Be sure to check the email to make sure it's your current email address to have the notification sent to. 
7. Check "Enable Notifications". 
8. Select "create Notifications" and you are all set to go! 😊

Can you add an FTF to your statistics? Unfortunately, Geocaching.com does not have a feature that will show those at the moment, maybe in the future? We will have to wait it out and see. As of today through the Geocaching HQ does not regulate or manage FTF's. However, there are other options for those who want to keep track of their FTF's and have them show up on their stat page. Many Geocachers use outside statistics generating sites such as GSAK.net or MyGeocachingProfile.com to display their FTF's on their profile pages. 

I bet you're eager to get out and find your very first FTF. How will you celebrate when you find one? or how have you celebrated when you discovered your first FTF? 

* Happy Caching *