Life and Death of Caches

[+Isonzo Karst]

I got to wondering about the life expectancy and fate o' caches: mine, yours. Here are some numbers on mine:

 

141 physcial caches placed or adopted (+8 events and one webcam)

 

103 currently active

 

38 archived caches:

 

04 burned

02 became critter habitat (wasps/ gopher tortoise)

03 cacher damaged

04 hurricane flooding

05 construction (timbering 2x, fire break, test well, historical marker hide they took out the marker!)

11 missing

13 removed by me; my maintenance range changed or I was just ready to pull them

 

note, more archive causes then archives, some caches were repaired multiple times

 

103 ACTIVE - 27 of those have the following damage/replacement issues

 

02 hurricane replaced

03 critter damaged replaced

06 burned replaced

16 missing replaced

 

I assume that missing ammo cans have been carried away by people, missing small or micro containers? who knows.... my hides are overwhelmingly in forests, not urban environments.

 

103 hides: 0 large, 53 regular (mostly ammo cans), 37 small (decons, lock and locks), 13 micro

 

(Those numbers are not quite accurate in terms of total # of physical placements - I have 10 multi-caches with physical stages, 10 micro stages, 9 small, 7 ammo can stages, 2 large. )

 

I've had more trouble with missing small than micro or regular. I'm assuming that the small lock and locks get moved by animals. The ammo cans tend to stay near where they're put, and the micros I place are generally tethered.

[+WatchDog2020]

After reading your post I'm feeling even better about my 6inx6inx8in - 1/4 inch steel box that has 400 pounds on concrete poured around it that I'm launching soon

[Clan Riffster]

1 = Construction woes

1 = Ownership change/permission no longer valid

2 = Failed my Lame test

6 = Puzzles that sat untouched after being nabbed by the puzzle hounds

1 = Significant environmental change (tree branch ammo can was hidden in fell down)

1 = Stage muggled by psycho urban outdoorsman / cache changed from multi to traditional

1 = Moisture issues

1 = Cache stopped getting visits

3 = Muggled / opted not to replace

1 = CITO event archived before publishing due to a failed support system. (nowhere to put the collected garbage)

 

42 active caches

18 archived caches

5 CITO's

1 event

________

66 total

[+StarBrand]

5 = Basic Environmental changes to area - no longer cache friendly (development, new road etc)

4 = muggled - chose not to replace - or replaced too many times

1 = burned

1 = confiscated by nearby land manager

1 = only approach was too close to railroad property

1 = vandalism to area made it necessary to remove

 

115 still active.

9 Events.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Well, we haven't hidden as many. 26 hidden. We have a combination of evil mystery caches, long hikes, and urban micros.

1 was muggled twice, and the town decided to rebuild the park, so we archived it. 5 finds in seven months...

1 was dropped off the staircase.

1 had muggles signing it, so we refashioned it.

1 hasn't been reviewed yet.

1 had stage 3 kicked out of the hole by a squirrel (May have to rethink this one.)

1 we moved three times. First one an animal took a dislike to. 2nd got muggled quickly. 3rd one we've only had to replace once.

1 The dead tree with stage 2 got pushed down the hill. Not far, but it's a much more evil hide now...

1 The dead tree is gone. Should rehide it a bit farther from the chop shop. (Hey! It's a mile into the woods!)

1 Someone stole the ziploc bag! Oh, well. Replaced the letterbox stamp twice!

Two of the ammo cans in the woods haven't been found since February. Harrumph. Afraid of a mile hike in, with a few hundred feet of climb? And a hiking permit?!?

Not too bad, I guess.

[GPS-Hermit]

Don't have that many cause I am really picky to have quality hides with a good location.

 

Only had one of 5 die from being strangled by weeds since 2002.

[+briansnat]

I have 249 caches hidden or adopted, not including events. Of those 249, 49 are archived.

 

1 archived because of a yellow jacket nest next to the cache

1 archived because I realized it was on military property

1 archived because of perceived damage to the area

7 archive because they went missing and I was not inclined to replace

6 archived because I decided to improve the hide in some way

33 archived because I thought they were stupid or I was just tired of maintaining them

[+TrailGators]

I have 33 physical caches. Of those 33, I have archived 3:

2 went MIA.

1 was lost in the huge San Diego fire last year.

[+Snoogans]

Numbers don't say a lot to me, but I'll participate in this thread......

 

I have 72, soon to be 74 listings on GC.com and this profile in particular.

 

39 are active listings including one upcoming event....

 

25 are archived events...

 

Archived Caches:

 

1 - Archived after the absentee previous owner decided to start caching again 2+ years after I was asked by our state approver (they were still approvers back then) to adopt it because it was a dinosaur 3 digit listing.

 

2 - Lost to construction. 1 after 1 year and 1 after 4 years.

3 - MIA. 1 after 3 years and 1 after 2.5 years and 1 after 2 years.

2 - Retired after just over 2 years service. They were both Mystery Multi Bonus type caches that used 1 of the MIA caches as a redirect and it became a hassel to keep replacing the waypoint.

 

There's more to it than that. You have to read a cache's history + the physical log book and be or know the owner of a cache to get a true feel of a cache's lifetime. Stuff happens that doesn't make it into the online log.

 

I feel that I have chosen my cache locations pretty well, but I have still lost a few caches. I have quietly replaced several caches due to unsportsmanlike cache maggotry. Sometimes replacing the same cache in the same spot several times until the maggot got tired of not making me budge and not making me cry loudly for justice.

 

I have a handful of caches in the High Sierras that have the potential to last a hundred years or more, because of their remote locations, their sturdy containers, their large log books, and the fact that they get maybe a couple visits a year if that.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Snoogans