At first I thought of not finding a cache as a small personal failure.  Who wants to air their dirty laundry about themselves online?  So, I didn’t log the fact that the container eluded me.  After a while I realized that logging DNFs is the best gift to Cache Owners (CO).

Logging your DNF is a valuable tool for Cache Owners to know about the health and welfare of their caches.  If their cache is not found for a long time the CO may assume that people stopped looking for it, but in reality scores of folks were searching and walked away with an empty feeling.  For those of you who have never hidden a cache, the CO will get notified via email for any action towards one of their caches.  If the first cacher who couldn’t find a certain cache would have logged his DNF, the CO would have received a notification.  When a second, third, or fourth notification would hit their inbox, they may have thought “Hmm… I better go check on it”.  Unless the CO investigates, the DNF log is their only warning that there could be something wrong.  

My Take-Away:  I always log my DNFs.  When I get a DNF notification about one of my caches, I investigate. Most of my cache hides are very close to our home coordinates so I just walk down and look. (Note: Some caches are more difficult than others, and a few DNF logs are expected.)