There are many tools to the trade for finding caches. Coordinates, cache names, cache write-ups, hints, logs, geosense, and the PAF. There's nothing like contacting the cache owner of a past finder to verify if a cache is gone or a tip to find it. So it's best to be like Ma Bell and develop a big phone network. I recently struggled with a cache nearby and my "text a friend" eliminated one dangerous spot I was thinking of searching. That, and knowing the approximate size of the cache helped me out.