Do You Park And Grab Or Park And Hike?

2.3k · June 25, 2006

I finished the day with a 1/2 mile (round trip) bushwhack through briars, thorns, mosquitoes and banana spiders to get a cache that has been on my to-do list for quite a while. By the time I got back to the cachemobile, I was drenched in sweat, covered with bug bites and leftover spider webs, and about half dehydrated. I was also determined to just stick to park and grabs until next fall.finished the day with a 1/2 mile (round trip) bushwhack through briars, thorns, mosquitoes and banana spiders
.

I would think a 1/2 mile RT cache IS a park n grab.

This is precisely why we have so many threads going about, well...., we've all read 'em. A 1/2 mile cache is nothing to one cacher but is quite a walk for others. A park and grab to me is one where I can basically park within a few hundred feet. But for an avid hiker in great shape, a park and grab might be up to a couple of miles.

July 7, 2006

I finished the day with a 1/2 mile (round trip) bushwhack through briars, thorns, mosquitoes and banana spiders to get a cache that has been on my to-do list for quite a while. By the time I got back to the cachemobile, I was drenched in sweat, covered with bug bites and leftover spider webs, and about half dehydrated. I was also determined to just stick to park and grabs until next fall.finished the day with a 1/2 mile (round trip) bushwhack through briars, thorns, mosquitoes and banana spiders
.

I would think a 1/2 mile RT cache IS a park n grab.

This is precisely why we have so many threads going about, well...., we've all read 'em. A 1/2 mile cache is nothing to one cacher but is quite a walk for others. A park and grab to me is one where I can basically park within a few hundred feet. But for an avid hiker in great shape, a park and grab might be up to a couple of miles.

Exactly. In cool weather 8-10 miles is a piece of cake for me. In hot, humid, down-south weather... OK, even then a mile or so is a piece of cake. But you'll notice I said it was a bushwhack through briars, thorns, palmettos and those nasty giant banana spider webs (if you've ever cached in coastal Texas or Louisiana in the summertime, you'll know the spiders I'm talking about). There were no trails. Total time spent on the hike and searching for the cache was probably 45 minutes. That's about all you want to do when the heat index is 105 and you're wearing blue jeans, snake boots and covered in mosquito repellent. I know, not exactly the Bataan death march, but still tiring enough to make you appreciate a few park and grabs this time of year.

July 7, 2006

1.4 difficulty

1.5 terrain

for 27 caches

I'm starting to go to harder ones.

1.2k · July 7, 2006

Avg. Difficulty = 2.08

Avg. Terrain = 2.30

Avg. Challenge = 2.47

229 hard caches (37%)

Difficulty:

1.0: 79 (12.8%)

1.5: 121 (19.6%)

2.0: 211 (34.1%)

2.5: 96 (15.5%)

3.0: 77 (12.5%)

3.5: 18 ( 2.9%)

4.0: 12 ( 1.9%)

4.5: 4 ( 0.6%)

Terrain:

1.0: 60 ( 9.7%)

1.5: 127 (20.6%)

2.0: 137 (22.2%)

2.5: 111 (18.0%)

3.0: 95 (15.4%)

3.5: 48 ( 7.8%)

4.0: 30 ( 4.9%)

4.5: 6 ( 1.0%)

5.0: 4 ( 0.6%)

Cache types:

3 ( 0.5%) Earthcache

1 ( 0.2%) Letterbox Hybrid

85 (13.8%) Multi-cache

516 (83.5%) Traditional Cache

13 ( 2.1%) Unknown Cache

Containers:

8 ( 1.3%) Large

3 ( 0.5%) Micro

27 ( 4.4%) Not chosen

17 ( 2.8%) Other

491 (79.4%) Regular

72 (11.7%) Small

July 7, 2006

Avg. Difficulty = 1.59

Avg. Terrain = 1.39

Avg. Challenge = 1.69

Difficulty:

1.0: 95 (40.9%)

1.5: 53 (22.8%)

2.0: 48 (20.7%)

2.5: 20 ( 8.6%)

3.0: 14 ( 6.0%)

3.5: 1 ( 0.4%)

4.0: 1 ( 0.4%)

Terrain:

1.0: 116 (50.0%)

1.5: 72 (31.0%)

2.0: 32 (13.8%)

2.5: 4 ( 1.7%)

3.0: 7 ( 3.0%)

3.5: 1 ( 0.4%)

5.7k · July 7, 2006

The Team filters out micros and D/T > 2, sometimes 2.5. Everthing else we park and grab or park n hike, whatever. Since we do not hunt micros except when with friends who just can't leave them alone, most require some type of 'hike' albeit it sometimes on a flat paved path 3 blocks away. It all depends. Given this, our 'numbers' are sort of pre-determined and not of much importance. :anicute: :grin:

July 8, 2006

We like the park and hikes - which is what the majority of the caches are in this part of Germany. The few park and grabs we have done were normally TB hotels done on road trips. The one cache I did in Belgium was a park and grab in Brussels - but I didn't have a car and walked over 2 miles one way from my hotel to get it!

One thing I found interesting was the terrain ratings seem to have a regional bias. There are a lot of hills (some are pretty steep climbs) here, plus many of the caches involve hikes of 2 - 5 km. A few GIs coming over on temporary duty have told me that terrain ratings here are to low compared to those where they normally cache in the states. I've even seen the difference between here in Germany and the parts of the UK I've cached in that is somewhat flat (they seem rated to high to me).

I think we should get a bit of an increase on the difficulty rating as we sometimes have to translate the page from German and make sense of it! :laughing: It is definitely more satisfying finding one of those though.

Here are my stats (yes, I love my Geocaching numbers - but then, they only mean something to me!)

173 unique caches.

171 finds logged.

4 DNF logs (on found caches only).

Centroid = N 49 36.454, E 6 55.155

Avg. Difficulty = 1.78

Avg. Terrain = 1.91

Avg. Challenge = 2.07

35 hard caches (20%)

6 countries

0 US states

0 multiple finds (0%)

10 (5.8%) archived

First log: 03/5/2005

Last log: 07/2/2006

Most finds: 9 on 05/28/2006

Maximum one-day distance: 355.5 miles on 07/10/2005

From N 49 35.768, E 7 51.425 to N 51 37.327, E 0 25.370

Oldest cache: #2694 (GCA86)

Newest cache: #413004 (GCWMHM)

Difficulty:

1.0: 27 (15.6%)

1.5: 62 (35.8%)

2.0: 61 (35.3%)

2.5: 10 ( 5.8%)

3.0: 9 ( 5.2%)

3.5: 3 ( 1.7%)

4.0: 1 ( 0.6%)

Terrain:

1.0: 38 (22.0%)

1.5: 38 (22.0%)

2.0: 42 (24.3%)

2.5: 29 (16.8%)

3.0: 23 (13.3%)

3.5: 3 ( 1.7%)

You have found 27 out of 81 total Diff/Terr combinations.

Cache types:

2 ( 1.2%) Earthcache

3 ( 1.7%) Event Cache

1 ( 0.6%) Locationless (Reverse) Cache

71 (41.0%) Multi-cache

87 (50.3%) Traditional Cache

8 ( 4.6%) Unknown Cache

1 ( 0.6%) Virtual Cache

Containers:

2 ( 1.2%) Large

7 ( 4.0%) Micro

9 ( 5.2%) Not chosen

2 ( 1.2%) Other

102 (59.0%) Regular

50 (28.9%) Small

1 ( 0.6%) Virtual

Countries:

1 in Belgium

6 in France

139 in Germany

2 in Luxembourg

3 in Switzerland

21 in United Kingdom

US States:

Multiple Finds:

14.3k · July 8, 2006

Thanks to Briansnat for posting that link!

I did this a long time ago but it's cool to do it again! :laughing:

1689 unique caches.

1689 finds logged.

6 DNF logs (on found caches only).

Centroid = N 33 26.464, W 116 40.105

Avg. Difficulty = 1.77

Avg. Terrain = 1.73

Avg. Challenge = 2.04

369 hard caches (22%)

1 countries

6 US states

0 multiple finds (0%)

197 (11.7%) archived

First log: 12/30/2002

Last log: 07/2/2006

Most finds: 101 on 03/5/2005

Oldest cache: #91 (GC5B)

Newest cache: #420158 (GCWX0D)

Difficulty:

1.0: 509 (30.1%)

1.5: 473 (28.0%)

2.0: 365 (21.6%)

2.5: 133 ( 7.9%)

3.0: 120 ( 7.1%)

3.5: 40 ( 2.4%)

4.0: 33 ( 2.0%)

4.5: 8 ( 0.5%)

5.0: 8 ( 0.5%)

Terrain:

1.0: 632 (37.4%)

1.5: 390 (23.1%)

2.0: 295 (17.5%)

2.5: 137 ( 8.1%)

3.0: 151 ( 8.9%)

3.5: 57 ( 3.4%)

4.0: 19 ( 1.1%)

4.5: 3 ( 0.2%)

5.0: 5 ( 0.3%)

July 8, 2006

We take along our 17 month old on all our hunts so I'm going to say our difficult score is 4! LOL! :laughing:

3.2k · July 8, 2006

Ok I was board and could not sleep so I took my last 50 finds and added the total diff. together to see what my average was it turned out to be 1.62 (in my defence 75% of the time a cache with a 3 & 5 yr old) I know that most caches are not rated correctly any way but just wondering what your average score was.

-TJ

.... 1.8/1.8 with 19% >3.0 in either terrain, difficulty, or both. I guess if I lived in a more urban area the numbers might go down and further in the boonies they might go up.

July 8, 2006

I like a good hike, that's what caused me to try geocaching in the first place.

Analysis of file C:\GPS\GeoCache\Find Stats\358383.gpx

861 unique caches found.

Avg. Difficulty = 1.97

Avg. Terrain = 1.87

Avg. Challenge = 2.23

244 hard caches (28%)

2 countries

14 US states

234 (27.2%) archived

Oldest cache: #32 (GC20)

Newest cache: #406016 (GCWD97)

Difficulty:

1.0: 213 (24.7%)

1.5: 182 (21.1%)

2.0: 214 (24.9%)

2.5: 97 (11.3%)

3.0: 80 ( 9.3%)

3.5: 34 ( 3.9%)

4.0: 22 ( 2.6%)

4.5: 9 ( 1.0%)

5.0: 10 ( 1.2%)

Terrain:

1.0: 255 (29.6%)

1.5: 220 (25.6%)

2.0: 167 (19.4%)

2.5: 78 ( 9.1%)

3.0: 70 ( 8.1%)

3.5: 32 ( 3.7%)

4.0: 23 ( 2.7%)

4.5: 4 ( 0.5%)

5.0: 12 ( 1.4%)

Cache types:

2 ( 0.2%) Cache In Trash Out Event

1 ( 0.1%) Earthcache

32 ( 3.7%) Event Cache

3 ( 0.3%) Letterbox Hybrid

107 (12.4%) Multi-cache

1 ( 0.1%) Project APE Cache

593 (68.9%) Traditional Cache

73 ( 8.5%) Unknown Cache

48 ( 5.6%) Virtual Cache

1 ( 0.1%) Webcam Cache

Containers:

7 ( 0.8%) Large

200 (23.2%) Micro

68 ( 7.9%) Not chosen

38 ( 4.4%) Other

481 (55.9%) Regular

28 ( 3.3%) Small

39 ( 4.5%) Virtual

Countries:

5 in Cayman Islands

856 in United States

US States:

33 in Alabama

4 in California

49 in Florida

696 in Georgia

1 in Indiana

13 in Kentucky

9 in Louisiana

9 in Mississippi

4 in Nebraska

1 in North Carolina

18 in South Carolina

16 in Tennessee

2 in Virginia

1 in West Virginia

July 8, 2006

Avg. difficulty around 2.20.

We mainly do shorter ones because we have 2 young children with us. I like some of the puzzle ones though, so that raises our avg. a little.

July 8, 2006

My average difficulty, on 34 caches, is 1.4558823529411764705882352941176. Or just 1.5 if you round up.

I wish there were some more difficult caches in the area; the highest I've found is a 2.5, and most of those weren't that hard(with two exceptions).

Most terrain ratings I ignore because I ususally have to bike to most of my caches anyway, so if my bike can make it thru, cool. If it can't, I lock it up and walk. It's not that hard; I've been biking to caches for just over a year now and have built up some leg muscles.

July 9, 2006

well, seeing as I am an avid offroader, I tend to like to be able to drive my 4x4 close to a cache. I'll walk or hike a little, but a half a mile is about my max distance to walk