Should I hide more caches in my rural area?

January 28, 2009

I live in a rural area in Japan, and I'm surely the only geocacher for miles and miles around. If I want to go find caches hidden by someone besides myself I need to travel at least three hours. I've hidden three caches around here - the oldest has been found twice in about two years, and the only person to find the other two is my mom, who came to visit me last summer. I try to hide well thought-out caches with decent swag, and keep them well maintained. But I'm really bummed out by the fact that no one's finding them. I'm tempted to put out some new ones and hope that the lure of some potential FTFs will bring cachers to my area. I've got a number of locations in mind; a cool old abandoned shrine, an out of the way forest path lined with hundreds of Buddhist statues, a place overlooking the river where some endangered storks hang out, or maybe a multi along a hiking loop that's lined with dozens of lovely waterfalls . . . But if I do hide some more and those also go unfound, I'll be even more depressed. Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar situation?

January 28, 2009

My thoughts happen to be. Hide more. In fact you have a great opportunity. Its ok to hide just as many caches as you have found. Use this opportunity to make some fantastic caches in your area. Hides are just as fun as finds. You get to hear about other experiences. I would not hide them all on one day but space it out for a few weeks.

Just a thought, good luck.

January 28, 2009

Yeah, hide 'em to your heart's content. It looks like you have some amazing locations already. I'm sorry I'll probably never in this life have a chance to hunt them.

hairball

14k · January 28, 2009

I live in a rural area in Japan, and I'm surely the only geocacher for miles and miles around. If I want to go find caches hidden by someone besides myself I need to travel at least three hours. I've hidden three caches around here - the oldest has been found twice in about two years, and the only person to find the other two is my mom, who came to visit me last summer. I try to hide well thought-out caches with decent swag, and keep them well maintained. But I'm really bummed out by the fact that no one's finding them. I'm tempted to put out some new ones and hope that the lure of some potential FTFs will bring cachers to my area. I've got a number of locations in mind; a cool old abandoned shrine, an out of the way forest path lined with hundreds of Buddhist statues, a place overlooking the river where some endangered storks hang out, or maybe a multi along a hiking loop that's lined with dozens of lovely waterfalls . . . But if I do hide some more and those also go unfound, I'll be even more depressed. Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar situation?

I assume the area where you go to find other caches in in Osaka. One thought would be to starting looking for hiding spots between your home location and Osaka. Since you're already traveling that distance to find caches you'll likely be able to convince a reviewer that you can maintain caches further away than what is typical. Eventually you may be able to lure some Osaka cachers in your direction.

Another idea would be to see if you can find someone in the Osaka area to place a few caches in your area while you place a couple there and agree to help each other maintain them.

January 28, 2009

Don't be worried, hide them and they will come. You seem to have thought these hides through, that is appreciated by most cachers. Your proposed locations sound really cool and as a cacher if I come across someones hide I liked, I look for more.

Cool places and creative hides (not impossibly tough) are always a great place to start. Quality vs quantity is always a good idea. Then, others will start looking and spread the word.

10.2k · January 28, 2009

Let me be the first to buck the trend here. And I thought about this before posting. :laughing: I live in the U.S., in an area with tons of caches. But I have about 7 or 8 caches that are only listed on Navicache.com and/or Terracaching.com. Some of these things haven't been found in 3 years! It almost seems as though some of them will never be found again, and I have no desire to hide any more, to be honest. You should check your logbooks though. One of the Navicache only caches, the last time I was there had about 4 or 5 paper logs who never logged on the website. Admittedly, I haven't checked on that one in over a year though.

3.6k · January 28, 2009

My thoughts happen to be. Hide more. In fact you have a great opportunity. Its ok to hide just as many caches as you have found. Use this opportunity to make some fantastic caches in your area. Hides are just as fun as finds. You get to hear about other experiences. I would not hide them all on one day but space it out for a few weeks.

This is good advice. I'd hide whatever you enjoy finding. I agree with spacing them out. You could hide them all at once, but spread out their releases if they're in different areas. It wouldn't be fun for finders to hike a mile for a cache and then a week later have to come back to the same park to find a cache that they would have passed on the first hike then come back a 3rd week later and find another along the same trail.

24.7k · January 28, 2009

... But if I do hide some more and those also go unfound, I'll be even more depressed. Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar situation?

sounds like you have some really good locations in mind. If you place enough you will encourage a few more folks to come out and find them. However you are rural and so less people will come to find them than if you were urban.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is to introduce the other rural folks like yourself to be cachers so they get interested and start placing their own.

3.8k · January 28, 2009

My advice is to hide more. More people will make the trip to your area if there are more "finds" to be had to justify the time, distance and expense involved.

38.2k · January 28, 2009

Eventually more geocachers will join the game in your area and are more likely to stay in it if there are caches for them to find. Also you may start getting visits from people who venture out from the cache rich areas looking for something new.

So go ahead and hide more. Eventually someone will find them. You have a great opportunity to set the course for geocaching in your area because your hides will likely be copied by the next generation of geocachers to come along.

Edited January 28, 2009 by briansnat

January 28, 2009

I agree with the others to go ahead and hide more good-quality caches. Hiding of cluster of caches will make it worthwhile for someone to take the time to travel to find those caches.

January 28, 2009

By all means, hide them! The greater number of quality caches there are in a region, the more likely it becomes that people will take a road trip specifically to find them. See if you can connect with other cachers who have found yours (by email or via the Japan forum) and try to "lure" them back with friendship and caches. Perhaps you could offer them a place to stay overnight, or at least the chance to get together for a nice meal and some geochat. Heck, if you get a couple of people to agree to a visit, you could even publish it as a cache event.

Also, I see that you are a teacher. You could hold a geocaching tutorial for the parents and children in your class (or in the whole school, if feasible). Set up a few caches (they don't even have to be published, but it would be nice if they were) so you can take them on a hunt to find a couple. Give them the complete experience, from creating a profile to searching for a cache listing and printing it out, then punching in the coords, then finding it. Let the kids trade (provide some swag to pass out and explain what it's for), then let them log it online. You might even start a geocaching club in your school for both finding and hiding caches. Caching activity tends to breed even MORE caching activity in the area as locals become interested and as out-of-towners notice it online.

Also, bear in mind that maybe today no one within an hour of your town has a GPS, but by next week, there might be someone who does! Don't keep geocaching a secret...let your colleagues, friends, and neighbors know about it and you might be surprised about who shows an interest. Good luck!

6.7k · January 28, 2009

Hide the caches and introduce more people to the fun. Family, friends, co-workers all are perspective converts. Share your passion for geocaching and you'll have more people to find your caches and hide some for you to find.

18.9k · January 28, 2009

Things don't get much more rural here in the states than where I live.

When I started geocaching there were just 5 caches within 100 miles of my home. Only 1 was within 50 miles. Of course I was excited so went out and hid one. It took 7 weeks for somebody to make the first find on that one. In the first year - it got 3 visits. My 2nd and 3rd caches were only slightly better. Took 4 weeks for a find and only 5 or 6 in a year.

These days we have exploded (sort of) - there are now about 650 within 100 miles and even my oldest caches get about 10-15 visits per year. New ones get found within 3 to 5 days and sometimes in less than 24 hours.

Just us though - things will change in your area as well - go hide 'em.

1.8k · January 28, 2009

Hide what you like. Hopefully, someone from the city will come find them soon.

Meanwhile, why not invite a friend to accompany you on your next caching trip to the city. You may "hook" another local cacher who will find yours and perhaps hide some closer for you to seek as well.

14k · January 28, 2009

Things don't get much more rural here in the states than where I live.

When I started geocaching there were just 5 caches within 100 miles of my home. Only 1 was within 50 miles.

I just learned yesterday that there is a decent chance that I'll be going to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a work related meeting in March. Of course, the first thing I did was check on the geocaching opportunities nearby. Ethiopia is about 1/2 the size of Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska combined. There are four caches in the entire country. One of them, approximately 340 miles from where I would be staying is on an active volcano, another at 268 miles away has only been found once, a third just a bit further away has never been found. The newest cache in Ethiopia is about 2 miles from where I would be staying. There are 10 caches within 500 miles of Addis Ababa. Four of them have never been found.

January 29, 2009

No problem with few finders. With fewer finders, you have less maintenance. Sooner or later they will get discovered. You ought to make them exceptional--great locatons or imaginative containers. The word will get around!

January 29, 2009

I live in a rural area in Japan, and I'm surely the only geocacher for miles and miles around. If I want to go find caches hidden by someone besides myself I need to travel at least three hours. I've hidden three caches around here - the oldest has been found twice in about two years, and the only person to find the other two is my mom, who came to visit me last summer. I try to hide well thought-out caches with decent swag, and keep them well maintained. But I'm really bummed out by the fact that no one's finding them. I'm tempted to put out some new ones and hope that the lure of some potential FTFs will bring cachers to my area. I've got a number of locations in mind; a cool old abandoned shrine, an out of the way forest path lined with hundreds of Buddhist statues, a place overlooking the river where some endangered storks hang out, or maybe a multi along a hiking loop that's lined with dozens of lovely waterfalls . . . But if I do hide some more and those also go unfound, I'll be even more depressed. Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar situation?

Too bad, I was just in Japan last fall, and not a single cache near Kochi, where my husband was working! I had my GPSr, cache bag, everything... not a cache to go to!

Keep hiding them, eventually it will catch on. Recently on these forums there was someone asking about caches in Japan and where to get maps!

10.2k · January 29, 2009

I live in a rural area in Japan, and I'm surely the only geocacher for miles and miles around. If I want to go find caches hidden by someone besides myself I need to travel at least three hours. I've hidden three caches around here - the oldest has been found twice in about two years, and the only person to find the other two is my mom, who came to visit me last summer. I try to hide well thought-out caches with decent swag, and keep them well maintained. But I'm really bummed out by the fact that no one's finding them. I'm tempted to put out some new ones and hope that the lure of some potential FTFs will bring cachers to my area. I've got a number of locations in mind; a cool old abandoned shrine, an out of the way forest path lined with hundreds of Buddhist statues, a place overlooking the river where some endangered storks hang out, or maybe a multi along a hiking loop that's lined with dozens of lovely waterfalls . . . But if I do hide some more and those also go unfound, I'll be even more depressed. Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar situation?

Too bad, I was just in Japan last fall, and not a single cache near Kochi, where my husband was working! I had my GPSr, cache bag, everything... not a cache to go to!

Keep hiding them, eventually it will catch on. Recently on these forums there was someone asking about caches in Japan and where to get maps!

Yeah, my bad. Forget what I said in my earlier post. :laughing: Japan has 2,000 caches, and there's an event coming up there soon. It's not like there aren't geocachers there. Unlike, say Belarus or Rwanda or something. I looked at some of the OP's caches, and there seemed to be a handful of caches within 25 miles of each one of them. I'm sure geocaching will eventually grow much bigger in Japan, why not hide them.

4.7k · January 29, 2009

don't hide more if you're going to be brokenhearted.

do hide them if you're fine with it.

when i was a wee slip of a thing i used to hide containers for people to find, but nobody came. it only took thirty years for people to want to come find my hidden box with assorted trinkets in it.

true story; be patient.

9.3k · January 29, 2009

1 ) a cool old abandoned shrine,
2 ) an out of the way forest path lined with hundreds of Buddhist statues,

3 ) a place overlooking the river where some endangered storks hang out,

4 ) or maybe a multi along a hiking loop that's lined with dozens of lovely waterfalls

No, no, no! You're doing it all wrong! These caches require people to exert themselves. Can't have that, eh?

Don't you have any cheesy fast food joints nearby where you could plop out a film canister?

:laughing:

January 29, 2009

As a point of reference and thinking.

I am just a casual hiker. And we as a family like going places. And in part of the research we do before we go, is look up where the caches are and if I can find a string of caches along a trail spaced out in a reasonable interval to bring out points of interest about that location or cache site. So a string of caches draws people to the area, at least for me. I am not just all about the number of caches found, it makes the hiking be more interesting if you stop to search and rest every so often and read something about the location you would not normally know.

February 2, 2009

Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone! I guess I wouldn't be that heartbroken if new hides were to go unfound for a while - someone will have to come along eventually, right? I think I will hide some new ones after all. Now I just need a free day and some nice weather to get out and do it!

February 2, 2009

Another thing to consider is being "surely the only geocacher for miles" that in order for the game to grow (in any area) there has to be someone out there placing caches. If I were someone who had never played but was considering it, and then noted there were only a few caches is my area, it would not be a strong incentive to go out and buy a GPS, let alone join the program. The more caches there are, the better chance of enticing someone else to join.

Perhaps, as an English teacher, you can make up one of your lessons based on an introduction to Geocaching? Get the word out and keep hiding 'em!

Should I hide more caches in my rural area?

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