Jump to content

New World Record - 413 geocache finds in ONE day


ventura_kids

Recommended Posts

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

Link to comment

Great job! A few questions. Any multis or puzzles? Stopped for gas how many times? Get tired of it at all during any point? That area must be cache saturated, correct?

 

No multi's on this run.

We did do a few puzzles that could be solved ahead of time to get the final coordinates.

Tired?... why yes. We didn't get much sleep ahead of time. We left the hotel at 11pm and drove to the starting point.

Gas? We had to fill up twice in order to make the entire run.

Saturated? Not any more than most urban areas. The average distance between caches was just over ONE mile.

Link to comment

nice work, I'm stoked on 10 in one day, lol

There are all fresh unfound caches too I assume?

 

Fresh and unfound. We've never been in this town before.

One of us had driven thru on the main highway, so we had to leave his previous 7 quick and easy finds off our list.

No pre-driving, no familiarity with the roads nor the area. No local guides either.

I guess that's why we ended up with 23 DNF's. That's a pretty high ratio for us.

Link to comment

I hope you had fun. That's a lot of work! You must have planned your route ahead of time.

 

That sounds like torture to me. I hate caching with that many people. I like to find it and not just sign the log that was in the cache someone else found.

Edited by Knight2000
Link to comment

I hope you had fun. That's a lot of work!

 

That sounds like torture to me. I hate caching with that many people. I like to find it and not just sign the log that was in the cache someone else found.

 

It was crazy. We had a blast.

Perhaps the Country Western Music would be too much for some people.

I'm sure it's not for everyone.

Link to comment

That's incredible. I'd love to hear details about your planning / mapping process. Congrats!! (I got 21 today and I think I'm hot stuff.) :anibad:

 

We use gsak, Garmin Mapsource, and Google Earth.

There were a few roads missing that caused us to modify the route on the fly, and a couple of new roads that helped save us a bit of time.

We avoided traffic lights wherever possible, and minimized the ones we had to sit at.

The biggest time loss was on dead end roads. If we drove out 3 or 4 miles to get caches, we had to drive all the way back.

Link to comment
WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

While I don't begrudge your record for a moment, if you spent a lot of time out east of the airport, that count doesn't come as much of a surprise to me as it might to others. A couple of local cachers have managed to place caches nearly ever 0.1 mile on a series of country roads out there. All 35mm cans up against fiber optic or gas line marker posts. Good way to run up the numbers, but about as low as it gets on the "interesting" scale. When you get around to logging them all (I REALLY don't envy you that job!) it will be interesting to see if you managed to cover them all.

 

But with as many as you logged, you must have also gotten out of that territory and into some more interesting caches. We certainly do have a lot of them out here. Hope you had fun.

Edited by ecanderson
Link to comment

Glad you had fun, sorry you had a few DNFs. A fantastic effort....tell me, what did you do about food and drinks?

 

Food and drinks? We brought an ice chest with both. We stuck with food that could be eaten while driving between the caches where we had gaps. Some spots allowed for 4 or 5 minutes of casual cruising down the nice straight dirt roads.

 

:anibad::laughing::anitongue::laughing:

Here's the link to

EMC of Northridge blog

There are some pics of the area.

 

Lots of stickers were brought into the car. They were terrible to remove in the dark....lots of finger injuries.

The worst thing was all the bugs at night. We kept the lights off in the car, but the bugs chased the head lamp wearing victims right into the car.There were a few screaming panic stops to remove larger insects that had entered the vehicle with the female cachers.

Link to comment

Why midnight to midnight rather than 7 am to 7 am? 7 am would have given you 6 to 8 hrs of sleep before beginning the run.

 

Edit: Oh yes, congratulations on finishing this great adventure. It sounds like it was a fun project.

 

And another question: Did you have one person be scribe between caches to write descriptive notes about each cache to help with the on-line logging?

Edited by Team Sagefox
Link to comment

Why midnight to midnight rather than 7 am to 7 am? 7 am would have given you 6 to 8 hrs of sleep before beginning the run.

 

Edit: Oh yes, congratulations on finishing this great adventure. It sounds like it was a fun project.

 

And another question: Did you have one person be scribe between caches to write descriptive notes about each cache to help with the on-line logging?

 

Why Midnight to Midnight?

We do agree with you, that a different start time would be an advantage.

We had a lot of discussion regarding a 3am start, or a 7 am start, and the benefits.

Our plan was to get a couple hours of sleep before our 11pm departure time, but we ended up staying awake for the entire 2 days.

 

We had decided to make the record a ONE DAY record.

By starting at midnight, all the finds would be in the same day on geocaching.com .

 

A scribe?

We had 3 cachers keeping track of our statistics, and yelling out times and counts.

I remember hearing things like "32 minutes, 12 finds, plus 3, yellow pole, micro, 1.5, 1.5, no dnf's".

As the driver, I had no idea what it all meant. I just got us to the next cache as quickly as possible.

Link to comment

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

Good for you guys! :anibad:

 

Wasn't it also Elin's birthday that day? I remember wishing her happy birthday and seeing all her status updates that day. :laughing: It sounded like fun. :anitongue:

Link to comment

 

As the driver, I had no idea what it all meant. I just got us to the next cache as quickly as possible.

 

So did you - as the driver - find any of the caches yourself?

 

Yes, I found some.

Normally I would swing the car towards the cache (so we could use the headlights), and then ensure no cars were going to hit us (left flashers on) before exiting.

Normally the team of 3 would be at the cache site searching by the time I started my usual countdown with the gps.....40....30....20...

If they didn't find it by the time I got to zero, I would choose a spot and start hunting.

Link to comment

 

Yes, I found some.

Normally I would swing the car towards the cache (so we could use the headlights), and then ensure no cars were going to hit us (left flashers on) before exiting.

Normally the team of 3 would be at the cache site searching by the time I started my usual countdown with the gps.....40....30....20...

If they didn't find it by the time I got to zero, I would choose a spot and start hunting.

OK - from that description, I think my initial guess was right. Fortunately, there's not much traffic on the roads out there E of the airport. But if anyone DOES come by, you can sure find yourself eating dust! They don't bother treating any of the roads out there with mag chloride or anything, so their either dust or mud all year long.

 

Was reading another of your posts above, and see you got introduced to our nasty little "sticky burrs". I'm not sure what the real name of the plant is, but those little barbed balls are a real PITA. They love socks, and you can actually pick them up on the bottom of your shoes and pretty well cover the floor mats with them. In any other year, the bugs wouldn't have been much of an issue, but we've had a very unusual amount of rain this summer.

 

So apart from the "0.1 strings" of caches, which ones did you find that were really interesting out here? Or is it still all a blur? Where else did you guys go in the area?

Link to comment
I think this facilitates the dreaded copy and paste logs. <i.e. Give me my smiley!>
Believe me, if they did the "numbers run" out east and south of DIA airport, that's all the log most of the caches in that area really deserve (see my description, above).

 

Brady (GHP) has a few tougher ones in that area that are worth a look, but most of the others out there are just a long series of 35's next to stakes. Center; yourself up on GC1WA6B and back up with the zoom. You won't back up more than 4 clicks before you reach the gc.com 500 max on the map. It's pretty crazy out there.

Link to comment

Congrats, sounds like a lot of FUN!

Not how I like to cache all the time, but it can sure be fun once in a while when everyone is on the same page.

 

PS loved reading the blog-for those of you who doubt this achievement, or why someone would even attempt it you should read it before making a negative post.

Edited by wimseyguy
Link to comment

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

If you were driving at 60mph, your drive time alone would be 7.85 hours all by itself (assuming the speed limit was 60mph in every instance.

That would only leave 16.15 hours of actual caching which would equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average) per cache (adding the DNFs in).

 

The math is WAY off because there would be vehicle dismounting and remounting times with 4 people (sometimes the driver) and acceleration/deceleration variables. Not to mention at least one stop for gas assuming zero potty breaks....

Once all the variables are guessed out, that would be about 45-60 seconds per cache for locating and signing.

 

Call me a skeptic.....

Link to comment

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

If you were driving at 60mph, your drive time alone would be 7.85 hours all by itself (assuming the speed limit was 60mph in every instance.

That would only leave 16.15 hours of actual caching which would equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average) per cache (adding the DNFs in).

 

The math is WAY off because there would be vehicle dismounting and remounting times with 4 people (sometimes the driver) and acceleration/deceleration variables. Not to mention at least one stop for gas assuming zero potty breaks....

Once all the variables are guessed out, that would be about 45-60 seconds per cache for locating and signing.

 

Call me a skeptic.....

Have you ever caches with a 10,000+ cache finding cacher? I doubt you have. If you have you would know that they can see a cache hiding spot from 1000 feet. I have cached with one and she was spotting and pointing out where the cache was hidden before I had put my GPS into search mode.

 

With four such cachers in the car I would guess that they spent less than 30 seconds actually finding the cache. It would take them longer to get the log out and back in to the plastic baggie.

Link to comment

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

If you were driving at 60mph, your drive time alone would be 7.85 hours all by itself (assuming the speed limit was 60mph in every instance.

That would only leave 16.15 hours of actual caching which would equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average) per cache (adding the DNFs in).

 

The math is WAY off because there would be vehicle dismounting and remounting times with 4 people (sometimes the driver) and acceleration/deceleration variables. Not to mention at least one stop for gas assuming zero potty breaks....

Once all the variables are guessed out, that would be about 45-60 seconds per cache for locating and signing.

 

Call me a skeptic.....

 

Hey.... we were skeptic's too. We doubted the previous record of 406 finds.

So... we decided to give it a try. We decided to keep track of each hour, and see where we were by dinner time. If we were still in the low 200's by dinner time we would quit.

 

lol.....Those tiny baggies WERE the biggest delay.

 

The toughest thing was maintaining the speed for such a long time.

Link to comment

Congrats, sounds like a lot of FUN!

Not how I like to cache all the time, but it can sure be fun once in a while when everyone is on the same page.

 

PS loved reading the blog-for those of you who doubt this achievement, or why someone would even attempt it you should read it before making a negative post.

 

Yes. The Blog answers every question I've seen in this thread so far, and then some. Great reading! I learned long ago on one of my amazing 15-20 cache per day runs that you'll get a lot more done in cache rich rural areas/small towns than you will in urban or suburban areas. Despite the fact that I personally abhor rural roadside micros and especially high density clusters of said rural roadside micros. ;)

 

Anyways, this was an amazing feat that I don't doubt for a second. Congratulations again.

Link to comment

WHO:

EMC of Northridge California

F0T0M0M

Ventura_Kids

 

WHAT:

Set a new World Record for Speed caching.

We found a total of 413 caches in one day.

 

WHEN:

August 29th 2009 - Midnight to Midnight

 

WHERE:

Denver, Colorado, USA

 

WHY:

We just wanted to see if it could be done.

 

HOW:

We had 4 cachers in one vehicle.

We started by waiting across the street from the first cache until exactly midnight.

At midnight we ran across the street and started searching.

The weather was perfect.

 

Total Mileage Driven = 471.5 (1.08 miles per cache)

Total Caches found/Dnf'd =413/23

Average cache time = 3 Minutes 18 Seconds

 

If you were driving at 60mph, your drive time alone would be 7.85 hours all by itself (assuming the speed limit was 60mph in every instance.

That would only leave 16.15 hours of actual caching which would equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average) per cache (adding the DNFs in).

 

The math is WAY off because there would be vehicle dismounting and remounting times with 4 people (sometimes the driver) and acceleration/deceleration variables. Not to mention at least one stop for gas assuming zero potty breaks....

Once all the variables are guessed out, that would be about 45-60 seconds per cache for locating and signing.

 

Call me a skeptic.....

 

Do the Math.

My Sock Puppet agrees with Bittsen, vary doubtful this happened, not only the numbers here lead to it being impossible, you also mention losing time on return trips down roads. This cuts the searching and singing time down even more. The numbers don’t add up! in my book. Getting out of the car, finding the cache, opening the cache, signing as a team, re-hiding, getting back in, getting back to a speed of 60 mph in an instant. The Cache Bandit does not buy this claim.

Link to comment

 

;):laughing::D:D

Here's the link to

EMC of Northridge blog

There are some pics of the area.

 

 

Here is the link for the blog.

 

I am curious about the really important things, like how many gallons of coffee/energy drink you used?

 

How long did it take to log all the caches?

 

How did you keep track of all the caches you found? Notebook or did you depend on the Field Notes?

 

Did you have the gas/food/bathroom breaks scheduled into your route or did you hit that as needed?

 

Can we cache together sometime?

Link to comment

Do the Math.

My Sock Puppet agrees with Bittsen, vary doubtful this happened, not only the numbers here lead to it being impossible, you also mention losing time on return trips down roads. This cuts the searching and singing time down even more. The numbers don’t add up! in my book. Getting out of the car, finding the cache, opening the cache, signing as a team, re-hiding, getting back in, getting back to a speed of 60 mph in an instant. The Cache Bandit does not buy this claim.

 

I certainly understand intelligent skepticism but it seems to me that a well-oiled machine should be able to crank something like this out given perfect circumstances.

 

Why do you need to hide your identity to post your opinion?

 

I guess if there is a song to be sung at caches, it could take a bit longer so your point about cutting the singing time is one I hadn't considered... As for the acceleration to 60mph, it's not really a necessary part of the calculation and even if it is, the 8 or so seconds needed to accelerate (note: it's not 10mph for 8 seconds but instead a ramp function) doesn't really bite much time (maybe a few seconds) out of the travel times between caches.

 

I don't care who you are much as you don't care who I am. I do care that you're not brave enough to post with your non-sock puppet account. Also, I don't care who VK are or know them or have really any aspirations (other than a mild curiosity as to the satisfaction that would be garnered by a numbers run of any sort) to do anything like that. It's possible, given the right circumstances and planning and if you look at the map SE of the airport in denver it seems like the circumstances there are right. Expressing doubt in this thread neither adds nor detracts from what the OP claims. At least bittsen was brave enough to post his skepticism on his main account.

 

Edited to add: congratulations to VK whatever you did ;) that you had a memorable experience is what matters!

Edited by mrbort
Link to comment

 

Call me a skeptic.....

 

The only problem I have with nay-saying in this topic is that the participants involved in this feat are up-and-up folks who are not likely to make up something like this. They just would not do that.

 

The "math doers" will have to work through this as best they can.

Link to comment

lol.....Those tiny baggies WERE the biggest delay.

If the cache needs a baggie to keep the log dry then it isn't a good cache container. Besides, the baggie usually just facilitates more wetness.

 

Next time I would consider just chucking all the bags and replacing them with your new bag. Maybe not if you don't seal up the bag... No need to usually. They are just so tore up...

Link to comment

Congrats again to the record breaking crew.

 

VKs: I think texas has some similar powercaching routes...

 

Clearly, to appease the skeptics, the next 400+ run needs to be recorded. (in its entirety. ;) Hook a video camera up to a laptop, mount it in the back, and you could record 24 hours of video. :laughing:

Link to comment

Congrats again to the record breaking crew.

 

VKs: I think texas has some similar powercaching routes...

 

Clearly, to appease the skeptics, the next 400+ run needs to be recorded. (in its entirety. ;) Hook a video camera up to a laptop, mount it in the back, and you could record 24 hours of video. :laughing:

 

That is true! Well, there is a video on EMC's blog of the approach to one cache. It gives you the idea of the kind of rural area they were in, and the type of roadside micro that was most likely the dominant type found during the run. But none of the naysayers are looking at the blog, they're just punching numbers into a calculator. :D

Link to comment

 

Call me a skeptic.....

 

The only problem I have with nay-saying in this topic is that the participants involved in this feat are up-and-up folks who are not likely to make up something like this. They just would not do that.

 

The "math doers" will have to work through this as best they can.

 

Uh, like yeah, "The "math doers" will have to work through this as best they can."

 

I think that they have got that covered fairly well.

Link to comment

Do the Math.

My Sock Puppet agrees with Bittsen, vary doubtful this happened, not only the numbers here lead to it being impossible, you also mention losing time on return trips down roads. This cuts the searching and singing time down even more. The numbers don’t add up! in my book. Getting out of the car, finding the cache, opening the cache, signing as a team, re-hiding, getting back in, getting back to a speed of 60 mph in an instant. The Cache Bandit does not buy this claim.

The problem with "Do the Math" is that it doesn't prove a thing. By math a bee and helicopter "can't" fly - but they do. And without detailed route info, how can you "do the math"?

 

VK (and the others): Great job! I hope you had a blast.

Link to comment

To the wannabe mathwhizkids-GIGO. Enter a wrong and flawed formula and you are bound to get the answer you want to prove this cannot be accomplished.

 

equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average)

You are talking about someone who already has a self-imposed 7 minute rule with all of his caching. I suspect the 'searching' took less time than the signing and restuffing at most of these stops.

 

And the best part is that there was plenty of laughing and giggling during the driving/searching/finding/signing/replacing/driving.

Link to comment

 

If you were driving at 60mph, your drive time alone would be 7.85 hours all by itself (assuming the speed limit was 60mph in every instance.

That would only leave 16.15 hours of actual caching which would equate to 2.22 minutes of searching (average) per cache (adding the DNFs in).

 

Bittsen - as nutty as it sounds, it's entirely plausible. And understand, I've been on those stretchs of road while you haven't (you'd hate it anyway). A lot of the caches they would have nabbed would require ZERO search time. As they said, those that do the run out by the airport spend more time fiddling with the mini-ZipLoc bags than finding the cache. A huge number are all along an otherwise deserted set of roads, and the majority of those are 35mm film cans next to the only posts in sight. A decent vehicle GPS used to do the stop and start is all that's needed. You don't even need a handheld. The cache is either at the post or it's been muggled.

 

As for the math and the drive times...

 

24 hours and 471 miles requires an average speed of just under 20mph, not 60. I did a run of 50+ caches out there one day before I got totally bored, and it's more than possible to make that average if you're hustling. I was doing it solo, too. Nobody to run out and start the grab while I rolled to a stop :laughing:

 

As I recall, I scored something like 52 caches in just over 4 hours -- and again, that was operating solo and not trying to set any records. Unless/until you actually do as I suggested and take a look at the map of that area, you are understandably skeptical -- but once you do, you won't be. It's absurd. If you look at the link below (give it a sec to fully load once the map us up), you'll get a sense of what the territory is out there. Empty prairie and farm fields everywhere.

 

Link to "street" view of the area:

Edited by ecanderson
Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...