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Power trails


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Been looking at my caches today after reading this thread.

 

Puzzles rarely visited (29 finds in nearly three years).

 

Two long strenuous multis a couple of visits a year (the older one has 16 finds in over 3 years).

 

Short Multi, rarely visited (44 finds in nearly 3 years).

 

Few lonesome trads, rarely visited (43 finds in nearly 3 years).

 

5 mile trail with 37 caches 10 of which are micros not many of which can be done as drive byes , well only looked at one and that has 133 finds (been out about 18 months).

 

Locals seem to prefer the moorland ones but grab the ones on the trail when the weather is not so great. Others travel 100's of miles to do the trail.

 

Seems to me there is a place for all types and depending on how I am feeling its nice to have the choice.

 

Now a micro in the woods that really is a different matter :laughing:

 

Still plenty of places around here for all kinds of caches. Stonefielders seem to be finding some cracking places for caches on the moors.

 

I've done many of mongooses caches from the Oldham Way power trails to the strenuous multis. The latter are by far the best & most memorable.

 

We've now put out 32 & every cache has a specific purpose. Generally I've had the location in mind for some time as a good place to go to appreciate the area I live in.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our caches which is the driver for their placement.

I don't care if my caches get very few visits - so long as the cacher finds it & gives it a good write up.

 

Can the same be said by the cachers who lay power trails?

Its so easy to do - but a real dumbing down & lowering of the standard.

Instead of setting out my 32 caches over 12 months, I could as easily have chucked 32 micros down along a trail in a couple of hours.

We need some Geoquality. B)

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Thanks for your comments concerning our multi, we wont achieve/relocate it as we do believe that it a great area for a cache and please don't think thats it was a case of taking our ball home.

I think that we all expect that a cache that we place should be found straight away by 100's of people then expect a lull while everyone else catches up, also being the time of the year what with hols, bad summer etc some of us just don't have the time to spend out wandering around....

 

But as you all correctly said, having a decent log rather than a one liner speaks volumes in itself.....

 

Back onto the O.P., we have a cache actually called Quality not Quantity and one of the local cachers placed another cache 0.2 mile away called Quantity not Quality which he described as:

'Sorry for the parody on the name of a nearby cache but when I found that one I had this idea of having a bit of fun with the name and poking my metaphorical tongue out at my friends (or are they ex-friends now?) who go for numbers without caring for where or what the caches are'

(Before anyone says,we were the FTF on it as its on our doorstep and its a great mickey take cache John, we loved the concept of it)

 

This was released after ours and guess what?....Yep its been found more times

 

Kinda says its all doesn't it :laughing:

 

We all cache in different ways so power trails have their place so that everyones happy in what they are doing...

 

(Just wish someone would find our multi so we don't have to check up on it.. B)B) )

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We plan on trying your multi next time we are in the area as we've done all your other caches and really enjoyed them. It would be a shame to see a nice cache archived.

 

(Just wish someone would find our multi so we don't have to check up on it.. :laughing:B) )

 

Hiya Colin...

 

It's on my list for next weekend actually!

 

Fingers crossed I get rid of this chest infection so I can get out and cache properly!

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We plan on trying your multi next time we are in the area as we've done all your other caches and really enjoyed them. It would be a shame to see a nice cache archived.

 

Hiya Colin...It's on my list for next weekend actually!

 

We hope that you both enjoy it, we do like the location alot....and get well soon Hazel, just wrap up warm with a cup of hot chocolate watching the X factor and you will be fighting fit in no time....worked for me anyway :P

 

But seriously, power trails do have their place and we have found/walked a good one only very recently but as the O.P. asked are we becoming overrun with them to the detriment of decent caches?....I think I know what I feel....

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I've just done a 'quickie' nearest to my home co-ords and there are 200 caches within a 10 mile radius, ok admittedly it is as the crow flies but considering one quarter is the Irish Sea so you don't have to travel too far and if you look further afield, say 20 miles there are 960.

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AND the majority of those caches in Liverpool have been placed VERY recently.

 

I can remember moving back to Wirral 18 months ago and there was ONE cache in the city centre of Liverpool and that was a very long multi!

 

Edited cos I can't spell, and my choice of wording was rubbish!

Edited by HazelS
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AND the majority of those caches in Liverpool have been placed VERY recently.

 

I can remember moving back to Wirral 18 months ago and there was ONE cache in the city centre of Liverpool and that was a very long multi!

 

Edited cos I can't spell, and my choice of wording was rubbish!

 

:):D:) Watch this space.........

 

have been out scouting new places this lunchtime now i'm working on the Paradise street project......

 

:D:P:)

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Although I'm in total agreement with PopUpPirate on the increasing phenomenon of cachers going for a walk with a bagful of micros and sprinkling them liberally around the countryside I don't think anything can be done about it without upsetting the large number of people who appear to enjoy doing them judging by the quantity of visitors they get :) . It's just a matter of being selective. However I do wonder how dispiriting it must be for the number chasers who feel obliged to do these trails to keep their numbers up.

 

With regard to multis\more interesting caches the problem is that they get totally swamped by the vast number of new caches appearing (most of which seem to be micros these days). For example I am completely unaware of PuPs caches even though they are realistically not that far away. The mass of caches in the top right hand corner of Mongoose's map appear in the 20 to 25 mile range for me so PuP's caches are way past page 20 of my nearest unfounds. For the same reason I expect that PuP and everyone else is missing out on the Bonnie and Clyde multi because they just fail to spot it. I'm one of the people who has done the multi (it's very good) but I've also deliberately ignored their Motorway Mayhem cache (nothing personal :)) . As far as I'm concerned Clyde you should archive the Motorway Mayhem and hide more multis.

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Shh....I will let you into a little secret

Our motorway mayhem cache was originally intended to be part of a multi around the nearby estate, the one which recently held a music festival.

Even though there are limited public footpaths thru the actual estate, there are many unofficial 'footpaths' if you get my meaning.

We asked permission from the owners to place a geocache/multi and even thou they seemed very nice in their reply, permission was refused as its still actually used as a place of residence....fair enough

So we thought that why not do a multi around the outskirts but taking things into consideration such as distance/not very nice views/very limited/rubbish hidey spots we gave into the demand for motorway mayhems and placed the one in question.

Saying that, as one cacher suggested it should be turned into a hotel judging by the amount of T.Bs and Geocoins that appear in there. (there are 3 great coins in residence as we speak and I'm not expecting them to remain there for much longer)

 

But again, back to the O.P., power trails do have a place and its up to each of us to choose whether we do them or not, Bonnie and I have done a number of nearby ones but I will say that we look at the surrounding area to see if it will be an enjoyable walk as well.

 

Its a very good point thou to say that good quality caches are being swallowed up by the trails when your PQ of nearest 500 caches comes thru....ok we can filter them out but then we run the chance of missing on a quality micro and there are certainly some of them around

Edited by Clyde.
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Do you think it would be useful if, when adding a new cache, you had to add in the reason for adding in the cache? Could be from a drop down list.

 

One reason in the drop down list would be that the cache is "part of a power trail".

You perhaps then give the power trail a different code to link all the caches together

So before it is published, it can be reviewed together with all other caches in the trail.

Then if Groundspeak want to apply a rule, of say no new power trail within 5 miles of another power trail, they can do so

 

More generally though, I'd be interested to know the thought process of the cacher when he/she put it down.

I'd find the reason code very interesting to refer to.

For instance, it may bring some understanding when I'm thrashing about in brambles & nettles in a forest with poor reception & no hint searching for a micro, getting fed up. :)

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9 caches on a four and a half mile walk near Stoke?

DING.

Not quite a power trail as they are nominally 0.5 apart but there are a lot of containers with the word 35mm in the name to me it smells like one im sure it will see plenty of visitors and lots of very very short logs.

 

Shame if they are micros, a very pleasant walk can be had on a trail of this sort.

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9 caches on a four and a half mile walk near Stoke?

DING.

Not quite a power trail as they are nominally 0.5 apart but there are a lot of containers with the word 35mm in the name to me it smells like one im sure it will see plenty of visitors and lots of very very short logs.

Shame if they are micros, a very pleasant walk can be had on a trail of this sort.

If we're talking about the same series, we've recently done three of these caches, all micros, and they were very enjoyable. The kids usually hate micros, but these were in quite a scenic area (it was dark when we visited, but it 'felt' scenic!).

As for very very short logs, not necessarily!

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I can see the point of Pop up Pirates post so I thought I’d reply.

 

I agree that most ‘power trails’ are bland in nature and only set up to encourage number finding however; this is how some like to play the game. Other cachers enjoy setting power trails and some enjoy finding them (me included).

 

I think the whole point of Pop up Pirates post was that when we go away to camping event/visit foreign places we will chase the numbers (power trails) rather than do singular caches that show the wonder and beauty of a specific place.

 

I for one enjoy doing power trails as you can easily spend all day walking a canal, but when I am away I prefer to do other caches or a series over a reasonable distance including town and country caches, and to be honest enjoy this far more even if I don’t achieve a high cache find for the day.

 

I’m lucky to call Exmouth in Devon home where on one side there is a beach, the other is Woodbury common with Exeter, Dartmoor, Tiverton and Taunton not to far away. Anyone who has been to this area will know how diverse the caches can be in such a small area with something for everyone.

 

So, should power trails be clamped down a bit? I think not. Although 30 caches along a 3 mile stretch might be a bit excessive I know I will enjoy seeing the sights of the canal and enjoy the walk, however; I would urge anyone who has limited time away from their normal territory to do some other caches rather than the power trails, after all you came away to see something different so do as many caches as you can of different types and in different places to get a feel for the ‘real’ place. Unless of course you are on a record finding mission then those power trails do come in handy!

 

At the end of the day, when all’s said and done, no word of a lie, straight out the horses mouth……. We all enjoy caching, we enjoy the walks, and the drive bys, we enjoy setting different types of caches, by virtue we won’t all have the same opinion, I’m just glad that there are so many different types of cache for me to choose from and that I can choose to play the game as I wish.

Edited by Father Jack
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