Keith Watson

Does that mean it is a quality set of caches given the feedback?

Here is a sampling of logs from one of my caches. It is part of a series of I believe over 70 caches along a rail trail. The last log I really enjoyed. Some of them also indicate the enjoyment of them by children. The section placed by me are mostly bison tubes that almost all of them can be reached without leaving the trail thus preventing the formation of geo-trails and other damage caused by cachers venturing further off trail to find a larger cache. "Thanks for all the great hides along this trail!!" "A lovely and uniformly well-maintained series. All caches were in good shape, with clean and crisp logbooks and good camo." "Huge thanks for creating and maintaining the trail caches - I really enjoyed them!" "We had a couple of bike problems on the way but saw some great scenery along the trail." "Thanks for another great Mountain Series cache." "I had a great time and enjoyed the hike, the caches, the companions, and the weather. It was a super day. Thanks for the cache, the visit to the mountains, and your contribution to our fun day." "All the caches are well maintained and enjoyed checking out the great photos on the cache description page almost as much as the hike to the cache. Thanks for the series." "Had a great night of caching with Sestary, RngrRngr, and ska8terdude1356. Thanks for the fun!" "Our thanks to all of the cache owners for their time and effort in placing and maintaining the caches. It all made for a great day of caching for us" "Thanks to all for this great series." "Great series..thank you so much for putting it together. My munchkins loved the bike ride along this trail." "We've been looking forward to this biking/caching trail for a while, and it turned out to be a wonderful day. We met 3 groups of muggles along the trail, and I couldn't resist sharing my enthusiasm for geocaching with them. The first couple we met kept leapfrogging us as we stopped to find caches, so I decided to let them in on what we were doing. They hadn't heard of geocaching before today, but after a short explanation and demonstration they seemed very enthusiastic. Definitely potential cachers in the making. The second group we encountered was a family of 4 hiking along the trail. We leapfrogged them a few times, so once again I explained that we were geocaching. They had heard of geocaching before but had never tried it, so I handed over my gps and let them give it a shot. The boys were concentrating on the screen a bit to much and walked right past it, but the dad spotted it immediately. A successful first find! They all had big smiles on their faces and thought it was "awesome" and "cool" to find a container filled with goodies out in the wild. Another successful introduction to geocaching! They third group we met was a large family of about a dozen people enjoying a picnic right at the ground zero of (visit link) (1 of 7: Kambei Shimada). Belle and I were tempted to skip the cache and just continue along the trail, but I had such a fantastic time sharing my passion for geocaching with the other 2 groups, I figured I'd give it another shot. I walked over, told them we were geocaching and that there was a geocache hidden very nearby. Again, they all seemed very intrigued and even offered to help in our search. It was fun to see such a large group of people climbing all over the rock outcropping, searching for the cache. I was hoping one of them would make the find, but in the end I found it. Hopefully, another group of muggles converted to geocaching! Thanks for the great set of caches along this trail which contributed to our very memorable day!"

And that is why determining cache quality is a problem. It comes down to personal preference. It is not something that is quantifiable across different cachers or caches. If you ask me for quality caches, you may end up with something you don't agree with. Size alone does not affect what i think about a cache.

The list says nothing about a preferred size. Not everyone enjoys a cache the same way. I would not use that as a ranking of quality. That would be like saying a s cache is poor quality because I don't like 4km hikes to find one cache.

I think this thread by nature of the title is doomed to end up in a discussion of what constitutes a quality cache. I think you are going to have problems getting people to agree on what constitutes a quality cache.

I can't speak for others, but I don not believe power trails are placed primarily for social caching. I just believe they are good for social caching.

There was a time when the later was correct, not any more. At one time Groundspeak did not allow power trails. A few years ago they changed the guidelines and now they are allowed. Look at the number of finds on power trails and they are most definitely an accepted part of geocaching. As for the numbers, if winning wasn't important, they wouldn't keep score. At the end of the day, for some if not many, geocaching is partly about the numbers.

I like the trails over drive by because you can socialize along the way and not keep getting back in the car.

So if the trail itself is the item of interest, then non intrusive caches placed to highlight the trail would be a quality cache?

I'll let you know after I do a few more hundred of them.

Have you done the London Loop yet? There is probably more variety in the London Loop than any other power trail out there. I've been looking forward to my 3rd visit coming up in April. I agree. The variety of difficulty and creativity on some of those made the find gratifying.

I would say the Kissing Bridge power trail between Guelph and Millbank is somewhat a quality trail by your given definition because it does have quite a few micros along the trail. What percentage of micros to other sizes defines a quality power trail?

Does anyone know of a bookmark list for power trails in Ontario? If not I will start one.

Please leave any personal accusations out of the this forum thread. If you have personal issues with me or anyone else in the forum, take it off line or keep it to yourself and keep the forum polite. 3. Personal attacks and inflammatory behavior will not be tolerated. If you want to praise or criticize, give examples as to why it is good or bad. General attacks on a person or idea will not be tolerated. If you don't agree, feel free to send me a private message. Again, can we return to the topic at hand instead of discussing what the topic at hand is?

Pretty much. Lining a trail with 50 amo can every 160 meters doesn't change the fact that you will find many caches in little time. Still about the numbers. Your opinion of the deciding factor is irrelevant. I placed caches to be found by many people with minimal walking. Many people found the caches with minimal walking. Setting a goal and achieving that goal is success. Maybe you should have asked for that if that is what you want. People, please stay on the original topic and not turn this into what defines a good or bad cache. There are plenty of threads for that. If you can't find one, then start one of you feel so strongly about it.

I placed a power trail to be found. It has been found a lot. That to me would be a success. Unfortunately better is a subjective term. Try to be more specific with something that can be quantified.

Would have good earlier. Oh well. From what I have found owning a power trail, people don't seem to mind bison tubes hanging in trees. I can say this by the number of find I have compared to another cache I have that is an amo can by a nice water fall with 89 visits during an event. Compare that to the power trail with an average of 150 finds each. With kind of success I don;t see placers spending the extra money on swag and containers on a power trail.

Here's a semi-relevant XKCD comic called "Wisdom of the Ancients" as to why responding to old threads might help someone else: I know that feeling.

I hope you are not implying that the purpose of the event is an organized cache hunt. Not only would that be against the listing guidelines, it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread. If you don't like power trails, too bad or good for you, which ever way you would like to have it. Back to the original subject of finding power trails. I like them and I like finding out there are more that I did not know about. Keep the trails coming in guys and gals.

I know there are multiple groups doing multiple things that day. The event however is only part way along the trail. Not sure why power trails have anything to do with being pressured. They are just caches along a trail that happen to be close together. This does not make them any better or worse than any other caches because they happen to be along a power trail.

... and there's a few groups heading in there this coming weekend too. Really looking forward to that outing, though I'm disappointed that it will most likely NOT be a snowshoe trip with this (lack of) winter. I saw that the event is covering a small section o that power trail. A real trooper like some that have done it would do the entire trail. It looks like it would be a lot of work and well worth the challenge for those capable of doing it.

Not true in my case and at least one other cacher I know. With this new knowledge I think I will organize a Century Club event for those who want to find 100 caches in a day. That does work sometimes but in my case it did not. I some how doubt there are more caches in power trails than not.

There is a power trail here on the way to Bushwacker. Lingham Lake - hypocorism - GC33P1W. And there is this interesting premium members only power trail. Timber - GC38YCM.

Cool, I am glad this thread sparked up again. Two power trails I did not know about.

The Othello tunnels were cool. DNF'd all the caches there, but still enjoyed the walk and views. Coquihalla River by Keith Watson aka Keith Watson, on Flickr Othelo Tunnels by Keith Watson aka Keith Watson, on Flickr Coquihalla Canyon In Othello Tunnels by Keith Watson aka Keith Watson, on Flickr