How do you cache?

[+Scrubsjm]

Just curious how other people determine what cache's to hit and in what areas. Do you start at your house and hit all the caches nearby? Do you pick an area and hit the caches in that area or city? We've finally hit on a system that works really well for us, but I'm still curious as to what others do.

 

I download a PQ each weekend with my home as the base coords to find nearest to, then we hit the first cache alphabetically on that list and the caches either nearby or on the way to and from. The reason this is working to well for us, is I'm rather OCD, who else caches alphabetically? But it also takes us to different cities/ area each weekend and tends to include a broad range of caches. Trying to hit all the caches near our house had us driving 5 miles one way then back 5 miles the other and it never really worked out that well. My husband was commenting we've had the most enjoyable and productive few weeks of caching since we started this method and there is no more question of "What city do you want to cache in this weekend?" "I dunno where do you want to go?" Type discussions. Thankfully we live in a pretty cache rich area where we are able to do this.

 

Any other methods?

[+Isonzo Karst]

I tend to focus on areas - I don't usually even bother to load the gps if I'm driving into Tampa or Orlando, because I'm not going to cache there. If I want to hike, I'll look at a national or state forest or other hunk of public land and download caches in that area. If we're loading the kayaks, I'll check for new 'yak caches around.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Just curious how other people determine what cache's to hit and in what areas. Do you start at your house and hit all the caches nearby? Do you pick an area and hit the caches in that area or city? We've finally hit on a system that works really well for us, but I'm still curious as to what others do.

 

I download a PQ each weekend with my home as the base coords to find nearest to, then we hit the first cache alphabetically on that list and the caches either nearby or on the way to and from. The reason this is working to well for us, is I'm rather OCD, who else caches alphabetically? But it also takes us to different cities/ area each weekend and tends to include a broad range of caches. Trying to hit all the caches near our house had us driving 5 miles one way then back 5 miles the other and it never really worked out that well. My husband was commenting we've had the most enjoyable and productive few weeks of caching since we started this method and there is no more question of "What city do you want to cache in this weekend?" "I dunno where do you want to go?" Type discussions. Thankfully we live in a pretty cache rich area where we are able to do this.

 

Any other methods?

First, congratulations on the recent finds made by your team on several of our Psycho Urban Caches; I have enjoyed reading the logs!

 

Next, as I have stated many times in the past on these forums and on the MGS forum, I am not at all OC (obsessive-compulsive) about caching or about anything else (well, perhaps a wee bit OC about hottie jenny donkeys and cute nanny goats, but who in their right mind would not be?), and thus, with few exceptions, I tend to pick and choose the caches which I will seek very carefully, hunting perhaps from one cache to four caches per month, at most, on average. And, in general, I prefer to go after only extremely interesting caches or extreme caches with Terrain ratings of 4.0 or above. About the only exception to this rule is when I am traveling in a state or country in which we have few or no finds, in which case, I will often hunt for a few caches located near the hotel (or federal penitentiary) in which I am staying. And, if I am traveling with friends (as in my recent trip to UT and CO), I will often hunt a few local caches with them because most of my friends enjoy geocaching one in a while, but would never bother to do it alone. My wife Sue, on the other hand, who shares our Vinny & Sue Team account with me, is rather extremely obsessive-compulsive about geocaching, particularly about puzzle caches (she has over 600 puzzle cache finds, many of them very tough puzzles), and will often find from 10 to 90 caches per week, and will sometimes find from 20 to 80 caches in one day! That is sooo far from my own style that it is quite unbelievable. In fact, it sounds rather insane to me!

 

...One thing that amazes Sue about me is that I can, at times, depending upon my interests and schedule, travel to a new state or country and not even bother to hunt one cache while I am there. For example, I spent 9 days in Indianapolis, IN in late 2005 while lecturing at a conference, and never once sought even one cache...

[+egami]

Just curious how other people determine what cache's to hit and in what areas. Do you start at your house and hit all the caches nearby? Do you pick an area and hit the caches in that area or city? We've finally hit on a system that works really well for us, but I'm still curious as to what others do.

 

...

 

Any other methods?

 

Totally random. We never know when we are going or when we travel if we'll get time to do any. And when we do go we probably never hit a lot of the ones we intend to.

 

Are you seriously OCD or just kind of jokingly OCD? We have a 3 year old that is showing some ever so slight OCD-like actions.

[+private bones]

We plan a day or a half a day, figure out exactly how much time we have, and then decide what area we want to hike. Sometimes it also depends on the weather. If it is foggy at the coast, we'll head 30 minutes east to the sun. Or, if it is a really hot day, vice versa, we'll head out to the ocean and cache along the coast.

 

Once all that is determined, we see what caches are along the route we are hiking and we'll make a loop. Exceptions would be when there is one cache in a spectactular remote area that we want to hike, then we might devote the entire time to one cache.

 

So far this method is working out well. This part of CA has so many beautiful hiking areas and almost all of them are well stocked with caches.

 

Urban caches and drive up caches are a lower priority but we'll grab them here and there if we are in the area.

[+briansnat]

I used to enjoy loading my GPS up with waypoints and just following it to all the neat places that people hid caches. I really can't do that anymore in a lot of places thanks to the microspew explosion.

 

So when I do cache now it's generally the opposite. I look for places I'm interested in going and check to see if there are any caches there.

[+StarBrand]

Ever since I came to the understanding that there is no good reason to do every cache I come across, caching has been more fun.

 

We generally cache on our way to somewhere. Nearby towns, vacations, business trips - etc. I use PQ and GSAK to select the caches that look the most interesting and then load those into my GPS before heading out.

 

Occasionally, I will go caching over my lunch hour if something new has popped up in my local area but that is rare.

[+Scrubsjm]

First, congratulations on the recent finds made by your team on several of our Psycho Urban Caches; I have enjoyed reading the logs!

 

I'm glad you have enjoyed the logs, those are my husbands doing however so I can't take any credit. He's thrilled to have met up with some other cachers willing to tackle them with him, as I sit back and watch and keep the kids and caching dog safe and out of trouble.

 

Also so clear something up, when I said city in my OP nothing around here is truly a "city." We tend to hit perhaps one lamppost cache during our entire weekend of caching, with everything else being a park or historic area. For instance our caching this week has us at interesting bridges in rural MD and the Antietam battlefield. Though we've personally discovered we enjoy pretty much any cache. Even lampposts, we often let our 5 year old find those on her own, and even though there is no swag she is thrilled to find a cache without even the slightest hint from Mom or Dad.

Edited November 15, 2007 by Scrubsjm

[+meralgia]

I do a mass download about once a month so that I have caches in hand if we find ourselves in an area unexpectedly. I "find nearest" and hope for the best. Sometimes the caches are archived, so we're out there without a paddle, so to say. But sometimes they're still there and it fills time quite nicely. It's also nice to have a broad area downloaded just in case we come across a nice park with no cache (and there's a good spot to place one).

 

If my son and I have more time, I'll do a map search for an area where they're all in one spot (a large park or lake with a walking path is nice). I like the map view better than the list; I can get a better feel of how far I'll be walking and how many there are. I don't mind driving to an area; I just don't want to get in the car eight times if I can help it. I bookmark them from the map view, download them so I can print them, upload them to GPS and run. That way we have a little info on each of them--size, terrain, etc.

[+boda]

New grand daughter. Only 7 hours old, and I'm already looking at the caches in Colorado Springs.

 

We cache when we travel. It adds to the enjoyment and takes us to many areas we wouldn't normally see. If we are visiting people who don't cache, then we will only do one or two; but, we will do some.

 

Locally, we like to go to outlying areas and catch those caches, urban or rural. We are in a cache-rich area and enjoy mountain, desert, and urban caching.

 

We have not found the closest caches to our house. Even at less than one mile, it just isn't important to run out there and get them. Eventually we pick one or two at a time, or just stop on the way home from the store when we need a quick cache-fix.

[+eigengott]

Do you start at your house and hit all the caches nearby?

 

No, fortunately I never did that. Of course, distance from home *is* a factor. But beeing the nearest cache from my home coordinates is not a valid reason in itself to hunt for it.

 

Instead I picked from a list of recommended caches. When I found something really good, I also checked the other caches from that owner. And so on.

 

Right now I use only one pocket query which gets me all traditionals and multis with a terrain rating>=3 and a regular or large sized box. Then I start out selecting a region first, depending on factors like traffic jams, weather conditions and guests to pick up and see what's in that region.

[+ShmilyNMe]

I'm typically pretty methodical in my approach. If I'm going on a trip I plan caches along a route (making sure that everything I go for has been found in the past 7 days and had low terrain ratings so I don't slow my trip down "too" much). Here at home I try and "target" cache; if I want to hike I target all caches in the nature preserve, if I want to do urban caching only I build a query to pull all low terrain and difficulties, if I'm working on a challenge I target only those caches I need for that challenge, etc.

 

I have to admit though that this is probably frustrating to my cache buddy sometimes as she usually says "There's a cache over here" or "There's a cache over there" to which I just smile and say, "Focus! Focus!". Thankfully she's a good friend and she puts up with my control issues...

[+Renegade Knight]

I pick areas and focus my efforts. Either a large loop drive. A local area in town. One particular trail and the like.

[+Gator Man]

I pick areas and focus my efforts. Either a large loop drive. A local area in town. One particular trail and the like.

 

DITTO, except insert "We" for "I". I usually plan these type of days with one or two other cachers.

[knowschad]

When I first started caching, it was simple... whatever was near my home that I hadn't yet found. But what I prefer to do now that I have to drive a ways to get to unfound caches is to look for one or two that sound interesting, unusual, clever (an email to someone from that area when I have time often is useful), and then look for all caches nearby. That way I can both find some caches of the type I enjoy, and then find some others that I'd probably otherwise ignore, to help justify my time and gasoline (as though my find count can really justify anything )

 

I don't use autorouting, but I do like to take a look at the map and write down a rough caching order. I think most of us have stories about how using "Next nearest" have misled us.

[+SgtSue]

A weekly caching trip is usually the best I can do. So I import the caches in my GSAK file to Streets and Trip then pick an area to cache in. The picking of the area depends on a cache that may have attracted my attention or maybe if I'm in the mood for a certain type (sometime a girl just needs an ammo can and a film canister just won't do) and the amount of time we will have. Then I pick out a mix of caches to, from, and around that spot. Add in a few that I think we won't have time for just in case, and tell S&Ts to get me a route, which I allow myself to change at anytime along the way.

[+Isonzo Karst]

....a wee bit OC about...cute nanny goats...

 

Thanks for reminding me about the importance of goats and caching. Whenever a cache description or title has a pleasant goat-like or goat sounding reference, it immediately rises to the "to do" list, regardless of locale.

 

Otherwise I go to places I like and find some caches there (if there are any).

[+Confucius' Cat]

I use one of four methods:

 

1. When I have free time, I run a PQ for all virgin caches within 150 miles and look the cache pages over to see if any are interesting and/or likely that i will be FTF.

 

2. When I am out (like ferinstance at work) and want a break, I look at the icons I have imported onto my vehicle navigation software and coordinate with GSAK to pick something appropriate.

 

3. When we want to go out as a family or when I am introducing a friend to the sport, I do a fresh search for caches at a local park or other area of interest and pick a few easy terrain caches from the search. I keep my find records on GSAK. Sometimes I revisit a cache or two that i have already found- especially if they were really cool or in a really cool place. (I can do that because i usually don't log them online anyway so nobody can call it cheating )

 

4. When we are going some place for another reason, I will download the caches in our destination and import them into my nav software "just in case." In these cases, I seldom seek them.

 

And when I am really bored, i try to solve a puzzle or two.

[+marc923]

I started out getting the traditional caches near my home coordinates and worked my way out. I'd take the bike out and hit an area. But now that I've got most of these, I'm going to start hitting up the multi's. I'm not real big on puzzles and tend to ignore them. If I see a new cache pop up, and it's close, I'll head out and try to get a FTF.

 

Another method is if I've got business to take care of, I'll check the map and grab about 5 or 6 in the immediate area. Time permitting, of course.

 

And finally, I'm starting to plan some weekend road trips just to go caching and check out new areas. And these tend to be ambitious with 20+ caches on my list.

[+Snoogans]

How do you cache?

 

I'm not a typical cacher. I'm very low tech. (not paperless and I load coords manually) I do things my way and it seems to keep me from burning out or complaining ad nauseum about this type of hide or that.

 

I like to cache on trips and when on a trip, I'm not choosey. ANY cache will do. I love to paint my places cached map red. 24 States, 3 Countries, and counting.

 

I seldom cache around home UNLESS the word of mouth on a cache is such that I just hafta check it out, but every now and then I just feel like cachin' and I pick and choose my targets using the satellite images to find places that might interest me.

 

Unless there's an event..... I don't miss events unless I have to. I have attended 95 events in 6 states and I'm on track to hit my 100th event milestone before the end of the year. I generally don't bother with temps at events. I'd rather just hang out. (Okay, Mudfrog did this temp night cache that was freakin' AWESOME, but other than that...)

 

I revisit caches a lot to trade/launder TBs. That's the only stat that I give a flip about. I prefer to move TBs rather than discover, but I'm not above using the discovery option. I'm about 2 years behind in logging TB/coin discoveries though.

 

I'm more of a hider than a finder, so I maintain my caches pretty regularly as well.

 

Because of this cachin' pattern, my find count is low, (just 530+ after 5 years) but my satisfaction in my personal choices of how to spend my quality cachin' time is high.

 

I used to enjoy loading my GPS up with waypoints and just following it to all the neat places that people hid caches. I really can't do that anymore in a lot of places thanks to the microspew explosion.

 

So when I do cache now it's generally the opposite. I look for places I'm interested in going and check to see if there are any caches there.

 

I do that too.

 

I will study the satellite photos to look for areas that seem interesting and then check for caches nearby.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Just curious how other people determine what cache's to hit and in what areas. Do you start at your house and hit all the caches nearby? Do you pick an area and hit the caches in that area or city? We've finally hit on a system that works really well for us, but I'm still curious as to what others do.

 

Any other methods?

 

We'll usually pick a random direction (NE, W, S, etc.) and look for a single cache. We go to that cache page, hit the "find other nearby caches", wait for the list to load and then hit the "Map It" button. We print out the map page, label by hand the names of those caches and PQ the list by using the original cache as the starting point and radiating out. Keeps us concentrated on one area to keep gas loss down and it lets us hit them by type (multis first) and terrain (long hikes first) so you end up with shorter hikes at the end of the day when you might be tired or running out of time.

[+Rontro]

I have a simple, but tried method to pick my caches:

 

1) As an advid hiker I ALWAYS check the trail I plan to hike for caches. Not always lucky to find a cache on the trail, so in such cases I am always on the look-out for the perfect place to put a cache.

 

2) I have 2 weekly queries that sends me 1000 caches in my local area. I load these into GSAK then export to a waypoint file. (PQs only allow you 500 per query). Then I simply load those waypoints into MapSource and pick out areas that look to be a target rich environments or fun places to go. Then it is just a matter of marking them in GSAK, sending to the GPS and creating a database file for my PDA (So I have paperless descriptions, hints and the last few logs).

 

To make my queries mostly free from bad caches I: Omit caches I have found, own, and are not active.

 

3) I have a bookmark list called "My To Do List". As I am search the geocaching site I dump intresting caches in there and use that list to cache with friends.

 

There you have it,

 

Rontro

[+Scare Force One]

I keep track of the nearest 25 caches to my home. Those are the first to hit. From there I just expande the peramiters.

 

~.~Scare Force One

[+Lotho]

I just find whichever cache is nearest my house or one ive dnfed before. If away from home i just do all the ones nearby to where im staying and tery and do the one thats look extra special.

[+Gushoneybun]

For local caches we try to spot a few near to each other that look to be in an interesting area. When away we just browse those near to where we are and do some of them but tend to go for trads, or easier multis rare to do puzzles as we do not have the time.

[+elmuyloco5]

If we're caching on a trip then we plan out caches along the route that are quick or special in some way that we don't mind spending extra time, because we usually want to get where we're going and don't want to bog ourselves down with too much caching.

 

If we're doing our state challenge, we only pick quick ones along the route as the state ones are the most important to us for that trip.

 

We love to hike, so if we're planning on a certain trail, we'll see if there's any caches nearby.

 

And, if we just plan to go out caching in general, then we pick an area and do a PQ for what's around.

 

No matter why were caching though, we have the same method:

 

1-PQ for the area, or a route

 

2-sort through results for caches that have had a lot of DNFs recently (probably missing), sound like they're poorly maintained, or sound like something we wouldn't enjoy and check those off our list.

 

3-map out the remaining caches on google

 

4-download the ones we want to our GPSr and PDA

[+beezerb]

Nope, but there is madness to our method.

[+robbymcdobby]

I do about 80% of my caching during my lunch breaks, so I have been targeting caches that are close to my workplace.

 

I'm not very picky at all when it comes to cache types and sizes. However, I will sometimes take a break from hunting and use some days to "scope" out caches. Knowing about cache terrains ahead of time helps me prepare, and allows me to make the most of my cache hunt. After all, I only get 1 hour to grab as many as I can and still make it back in time!

 

When I'm not working, I'm usually busy finding caches that are hidden closer to home or along my drive home from work.

 

The inevitable question is, what will happen when I run out of caches near my workplace?

 

Well, that's when I'll start hiding!