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Geocaching Level of Addiction, What's yours?


Lacomo

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Some people are into geocaching more than others. On a scale of 1 to 10 With 1 being, I can take it or leave it, and 10 being I'm obsessed, what's your level of addiction? I would say I'm right in the middle. I like it a lot but sometimes I go 3 or 4 weeks without even going out caching. That would make me a "5".

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i'm not adicited. I can go with out anytime I want to, i don't need geocaching . I choose to. I choose to get out of bed at 3 in the morning for a FTF, it's a choice. I choose to attend every event with 100 miles. I hunt every nano within 250 miles. I can quit anytime I want to and I'm having to much fun right now! I AINT NO STINKIN ADICT. I DON"T NEED NO INTERVENTION I'M PERFECTLY FINE!!!!!!! WHERE"S MY GPS IM OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I score a 1 (one) on your scale of 1 to 10. I am not, and have never been, addicted to geocaching, and I have plenty of other very rewarding activities -- across a wide range of realms -- in my life in addition to geocaching. In fact, in contrast to Sue, who is definitely addicted to geocaching and often finds 20 or more caches in a week, I tend to go after only one or two (or three) geocaches per month at most.

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I score a 1 (one) on your scale of 1 to 10. I am not, and have never been, addicted to geocaching, and I have plenty of other very rewarding activities -- across a wide range of realms -- in my life in addition to geocaching. In fact, in contrast to Sue, who is definitely addicted to geocaching and often finds 20 or more caches in a week, I tend to go after only one or two (or three) geocaches per month at most.

Maybe... but how addicted are you to the geocaching forums??? :angry:

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I was going to say 4 or 5... but you said a 5 was "sometimes I go 3 or 4 weeks without even going out caching". My personal best drought is about 15-16 days (2+ weeks) so that would put me at a 6-6.5??

 

I think you need to define your numbers a little better.

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I'd say around 6 or 7. I don't go a month without finding a cache (I make a point to find one before 30 days pass.) I visit these forums and my local forums about every day, maybe skipping a day if I'm particularly busy during the work week. I have an Ammo can full of cache placing gear under the drivers seat in my SUV.

 

I have however passed up FTF's if it meant making a stop after work, and frequently pass up caches I don't think I'll like (Mostly urban micros.)

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Well...I've only been playing a month and a half...40something finds...already half way done building my first multicache placement components (wood for the woods)...if these boards tracked how many hours you spent here, everyone else would also see I really have no life.

 

Most telling caching experience: had to take my mom to a local hospital a couple of weeks ago for a test. She sent me off to look for the parking lot cache while she was having the test done. She sent me off for a second look when I came back empty handed after they told her to take a nap because she had to wait around another hour or two for results.

 

I'm thinking an 8...but wouldn't be offended if I was told that sounds more like a 9.

 

:P:laughing:

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Hmm ....I'd say 8 or 9. When we started we cached almost ever day, and we probably still would if there were enough caches left locally. So now we are rationing out our few remaining local caches to one a week. We will have another blitz in two different cities in about a month. In the meantime I make do with reading this forum and our local forum every day, and thinking about possible new hides, solving puzzles, reading logs and blogs.

 

Annie

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Some people are into geocaching more than others. On a scale of 1 to 10 With 1 being, I can take it or leave it, and 10 being I'm obsessed, what's your level of addiction? I would say I'm right in the middle. I like it a lot but sometimes I go 3 or 4 weeks without even going out caching. That would make me a "5".

 

I've been doing this for over 5 years and I have 640+ finds. I would personally give myself a 5 but I just BET my wife would probably say I peg 8 or higher on your scale. :laughing:

 

I've also spent more money on geocaching than I care to add up. :laughing: Still, I say 5.

 

Maybe... but how addicted are you to the geocaching forums??? :laughing:

 

I'd give myself a 6 here and that's down from an 8 to 8.5 in the past. Heck, I only have 6k+ official posts on this board. I might just be a little high in my estimate.

 

The peanut gallery can correct me if they have any comment on my self assessment here.... :P

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If I had to put a number to it, compared to other locals - I'd say a 1.

 

I don't cache every weekend, or even every month

I only have a few hides which I'll probably be archiving soon as I moved to a different town and don't feel like driving there to replace logs.

After over a year I only have 300 and some finds, and a good part of those were done on business trips to other states. Gives me something to do besides sit in a hotel room.

I don't go to all the 'event' caches that are nothing more than meeting for breakfast (I still don't get how that is a cache. Yeah yeah I know there is a log to sign. BFD)

I have other hobbies that occupy my time which typically take precedence over caching.

 

So yeah, probably a 1. :P

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i'm not adicited. I can go with out anytime I want to, i don't need geocaching . I choose to. I choose to get out of bed at 3 in the morning for a FTF, it's a choice. I choose to attend every event with 100 miles. I hunt every nano within 250 miles. I can quit anytime I want to and I'm having to much fun right now! I AINT NO STINKIN ADICT. I DON"T NEED NO INTERVENTION I'M PERFECTLY FINE!!!!!!! WHERE"S MY GPS IM OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:P:laughing::laughing:

Yeah, me too.

I plan my professional conferences around good geocaching locations, not conference content.

I once took a 13 week temporary job in Arizona just so I could drive through Kansas and log "Mingo"

I tell my wife I'm looking at "adult content" websites so she won't know how much time I'm spending on GC.com

Re-learning how to walk in the woods without hunting for a cache was like re-learning how to shoot pool without a cigarette

Uh, what was the highst number?

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Like I said eariler I'm probably a 5. I've been caching a little over a year now and the first couple of months I probably was an 8 but I've slowed down quite a bit. I have found all the caches within 20some miles from my house and the high priced gas has helped to slow me down some too.

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9/10 - My partner describes me as Obsessed. My boss (who also caches) describes me as keen and enthusiastic. I go caching every weekend and sometimes during the week if I can fit it in with my work hours. I experience genuine panic if something comes up on the weekend that will prevent or limit my caching time. My work colleagues warn me on Fridays to take care not to sustain any injuries whilst caching in the woods/country etc and ask about the most exciting cache of the weekend on Mondays...

I look at how many caches are in an area when planning a holiday and spend at least an hour a day looking up caches to do/reading the forums.

 

Friends and family are prepared for walking and caching when they come to visit/we go to visit and I can't wait to go home to South Africa again and do some of the caches there!

 

The only cure for my addiction that I can think of is to continue caching! But I love it and this addiction is good for my health (apart from the bruises, scratches, nettle stings, and mozzie bites)!

D11

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My partner disagrees with my level of addiction - he says I should really aim to get down to 9/10 and he is a limiting factor on my addiction!

 

As a female, growing up where I did, I am hesitant to walk alone in rural areas/countryside... so I guess he is correct as he is seldom free to cache with me in the week.

 

D11

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We have a local cacher who has found 4054 caches since November 2006. He has found at least one cache a day for the last 464 days. And, he's usually home by noon! That's a 10!

So, I'm only an 8. I only average 1.13 per day. Though my high day was 30! Yes. I plan vacations around geocaching. Found the A.P.E. cache in Maryland before it was archived! Went ot Maine to help my sister with the DeLorme Challenge. We found 100 caches on 22 pages in five days, and 900 miles on her car. That included a fifteen mile ferry ride (each way). No, wait. 7 of those caches were in New Brunswick. We wanted to color in Canada on our maps! Planning a week's vacation to finish the New Jersey DeLorme Challenge, and a trip to Connecticut for the GPS Adventures Maze Exhibit. Why else would I go to Bridgeport, Connecticut?!? Yeah. I'll plead guilty to an 8.

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I have let the kids skip naptime and let them stay up late just so we could run out and I could grab an FTF. I'm definitely no FTF hound, but sometimes a notification comes through at an irresistible moment :D

 

I tend to go through spurts. I didn't cache at all from April to August of last year, and then took a pretty big break after that too. Don't know why, just never got the GPS loaded up!

 

When I am in caching mode, I can easily be a 7 on the addiction scale - if I'm not out caching, I'm on the forums or sorting through GSAK or looking through google maps of cache locations.

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I'd say I'm somewhere around the same spot as the OP. I go once every 2 or 3 or 4 weeks, but once I'm looking for one, I find myself going "hey, there's another one near here, lets go look for that one too!" which usually ends up with me looking for 5+ caches on that particular day.

 

So yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, i'd say i'm about a 5.

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I'm a 1. I can go for months and not go caching. I started out as a 9 but as the quaility of the caches decreased, so did I.

 

I turned my interest more towards other aspects of caching. Like helping newbies in the "Getting started" forums, hiking staffs, and at one time a magazine dedicated to caching. Now lately getting into Waymarking.

 

El Diablo

Edited by El Diablo
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I tend to cache once or twice every month, getting one (or a dozen) caches each trip. Since I introduced the Apprentice to geocaching a year ago, it seems that every conversation is about another trip. ;)

 

There are spots around here that do not have a cache placed and every time we drive the back roads, all I hear is "Why isn't there a cache here? Do you have that new box in the truck?"

 

I would suppose I am a 5, and the Apprentice is totally off the scale.

Edited by Team Magic
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Well I guess I would be on the low side. I've been caching for 5 years, it really seems like much less time than that, but I've found 248 caches. I go in spurts, I find a bunch of caches the lose interest for a while. I guess I'm lucky we have alot of caches within 100 miles of home.

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Three months ago I would have been a 9/10 for sure.

Every day was a caching day, just waiting for that instant notification!

 

Lately, the lame hides, lame logs (on my caches), illegal hides, hides that were approved but never should have been, etc, have taken their toll.

 

My last cache find was on 3/28/08.

I guess I am now at about -3.

I do still enjoy benchmarking, though...

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Three months ago I would have been a 9/10 for sure.

Every day was a caching day, just waiting for that instant notification!

 

Lately, the lame hides, lame logs (on my caches), illegal hides, hides that were approved but never should have been, etc, have taken their toll.

 

My last cache find was on 3/28/08.

I guess I am now at about -3.

I do still enjoy benchmarking, though...

Time off can be a good thing. I took off six months and it really helped. I also avoid urbans to keep the wind in my sails.
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I would peg it at 8. We go out every weekend and plan 2-3 day trips to areas that are dense with caches. Since we live in a large urban area, we have many unfound caches within 50 miles of our house. We have 2000+ finds in the last 16 months. Where we tend to draw the line is: phoning a fellow cacher to be told where to look (we have only asked an owner for an additional hint about 2 or 3 times); "power-caching" in large groups and sharing the solutions to puzzles (we do like to go out occasionally with some of our school-age geobuddies if we are going to be in an area that will interest them and we are not pressed for time); searching in the middle of the night for FTFs (the FTFs we have are found between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. - we are up early anyway and prefer to be on the road before daybreak when it is still cool and there are few muggles out and about). We do spend time on the local forum every day and look for future caches a lot.

There are so many places we want to visit and we get much enjoyment from visiting historical sites and hiking trails we never knew existed. I anticipate that our find rate will begin to slow down with the price of gasoline becoming a consideration in far we can travel.

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I'd say a 9 or 10. I'm 22, and have a full time job plus go to school full time (I actually just graduated). I average 10 a day, stats say 50-70 a week, however I have hit a milestone (increments of 100) for the past 4 weeks. (I'm 44 away from another milestone with the whole weekend ahead). My next milestone is 1500, and I started Dec. 27th 2007. It's been 6 months today, so my average is about 500 every two months (first 500 in 2 months, second 500 in two weeks over 2 months, and the latest 500 will be 2 months if July 13th, any sooner will be less than 2 months). I have almost 60 FTFs. I just dedicate a lot of time to this sport.

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At the moment a solid 8. That's because there are soo many green boxes in my local map and not enough smileys.

 

Once I tame this land of the "cache a plenty" then my obsession should drop to about 3.14 ( Like pi too but that was another thread). Like weeds, you got to take them out as the crop up or you'll never keep up

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It depends on how you define geocaching.

 

Urban settings - I'm about a 0.5. There are some creative hides, but they are lost in a sea of lame micros.

 

Rural settings - I'm about a 5 or 6. Theres still plenty of lame micros, but things are getting better

 

Boondocks settings - I'm about a 9.5. No sprinkler heads to snap off, lightskirts to lift, neatly trimmed hedges to assault or electrical boxes to test for power.

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Some people are into geocaching more than others.

 

I started using geocaching maps to determine where the fun spots

might be in the mountains in my area. Now, I think that the caches

take precedence. I fly around in googleearth looking for the

day's hike, and don't consider any areas that don't have a few

caches in them.

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I would put me at a solid 8. My wife thinks I should be a 12 but I think I am an 8.

 

Currrently if I am not trying to find a cache I am coming up with complex methods of placing a cache. I write to my daily blog that is entitled "Geocaching: I'm Not Obsessed... Right?" or playing catch up with the forums. Then there is the hours downloading .gpx files and incorporating them into GSAK, my Palm T|X, and two Garmins. Note the actual downloading does not take all the time but playing with GSAK is so dang much fun... Then as I scan over Google Earth trying to find those unknown cubby holes that only a satillite can find. Did I mention waiting for my phone to go off with the latest new cache releases or keeping gmail up just in case... Oh and in spare time after doing that "JOB" thing I go caching. That would make me about an 8 right?

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You tell me:

 

* If close by, I will grab one at lunch or on the way home from work...sometimes both if there are new ones.

 

* I go out almost every Saturday and plan on getting 10 or so.

 

My average is about 1.7 caches a day. I would say a 6.5 maybe a 7 :-)

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I would put myself at about a 6. I get on the website and my local forums daily, maybe a few times, and this forum roughly once a week. I probably get at least 1-2 caches a week and always scout out caches no matter where I am going (traveling, other hobbies, etc.)

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