How do you choose an area to cache in?

[+wheezor]

When you are planning your geocaching outings, how do you choose the area you go to?

[+Juicepig]

normally pick a goal cache - something that really interests me for some reason - Then do it first, and cache my way home

[+Trucker Lee]

A goal.

A destination for another purpose.

Cache density.

[+ADTCacheur]

I shout from the backseat "turn left in at the next intersection!" as I stare at the gpx page on my GPS

[+Keith Watson]

Sometimes I go for a challenge, sometimes I go with with a group that someone else has picked the caches, and some times I just work my way out from home.

[danoshimano]

I set GSAK to show all the caches I have not found within a certain radius of my home (somewhere between 50-65 km), and export to Mapsource, then I look at the resulting map and decide.

[+Herb and Beans]

There are over 500 caches in the Central Alberta area, so we usually just pick a radius and do them.

 

Or if we go camping we load up the caches in the area.

 

We don't have any special formula.

[+In Need of Cache]

We don't really have a method to our madness.

If we're travelling, we tend to try to do some caches along the way.

If we're looking to fulfill our cache-a-day, we choose whatever we feel like that day.

If we're caching with others, we do what ever the group is doing.

If we feel like working towards filling our matrix we seek out a cache that will in fact do it.

 

I think its all up to personal choice and what you are looking for that exact day!

[+CanadaKate]

We (CanadaKate/Team_BG) usually pick somewhere where the geo-puppy can run and where there is more than one cache to be found during a few hours of meandering. Or, if we're going to an event, some caches in the proximity of the event (although we're really good at DNFing caches near events).

 

Othertimes, we just look for a cache or two that will break up our journey when we're traveling for non-caching purposes.

 

If I'm caching by myself, it's often just what cache(s) are close enough to grab on my way to/from work or at lunchtime.

[winterz]

My team picks a cache and we keep going from there we never know were we will end up, let the interesting names guide us!

[BCProspectors]

We just look up where there are caches within a reasonable distance of our house and that's where we're headed. We seldom travel out of the city for the sole purpose of Geocaching, but if we're off to another city we'll look to see if there are any caches along our route.

[+Team MacKenzie]

I use the eenie, meenie, minie, mo method only because I haven't had time to make a spinner with the 8 quadrants of the compass on it. Once that gets built it will be more like 'spin the bottle'...

 

Once I've picked the direction to take then I plan my travel route so that I do the least amount of backtracking. Even though I have a dash mount for the 60csx, I find that having the route planned works best. The mapping on the GPS's drive me nuts.

[+res2100]

It depends on the day and what we want to do caching wise.

 

If it's just me and my family we pick an area\caches that we know we can do with the baby, either by carrying her or with a stroller. Places like Milton and Brampton are very stroller friendly places\trails so we wind up going to those areas quite often, especially if we only want to go out for a few hours.

 

If it's group caching such as with the GHMGC, I pick an area that has enough caches to keep us busy for the day and I take into account that the caches should tend to be family friendly.

 

If it's tough day of challenge caching, which hasn't happened in a year, I'll pick an area that has physically tough caches that you probably would not want to do alone.

 

In the end it's about having fun and enjoying the day.

[+dorqie]

Normally I just pick some that are in proximity to another destination, be it the grocery store, the kids dentist, my mother-in-laws house etc.

On weekends I try to pick an area of town, or a park, and try to get as many cahces in that area that I can.

If there is a cache in particular that I'm gunning for, I save it in my gps right away and hope that I can trick hubby into letting me out of the car when he drives by. He is my biggest obstacle to my geocaching.

[+ADTCacheur]

I use the eenie, meenie, minie, mo method only because I haven't had time to make a spinner with the 8 quadrants of the compass on it. Once that gets built it will be more like 'spin the bottle'...

 

Once I've picked the direction to take then I plan my travel route so that I do the least amount of backtracking. Even though I have a dash mount for the 60csx, I find that having the route planned works best. The mapping on the GPS's drive me nuts.

 

Just spin a bottle... Then check on your GPS to see what direction it's pointing!

[+cinematopographer]

Generally, I'm all about the adventure. Although, if I'm out of town, I usually always pick urban caches that will help familiarize myself with the area... *and* I always try and find a cache that incorporates the name of the city/town I'm visiting into the cache title (for my own reference); If I'm on a road trip, it's caches along the route (of course!); and when I'm just bumming around at home, I pick based on the exercise requirements (the more the merrier -but it must allow off-leash time for the doggy, as well) or I pick based on saturation (again, the more the merrier -but most allow off-leash time for the doggy, as well). Sometimes I squeeze a cache into my work day, or my regular errands, at which point the caches are based on proximity.

 

Wonder how many people pick based on cache type alone?

[+jeepdelfuego]

When you are planning your geocaching outings, how do you choose the area you go to?

 

I don't go, or stop, there unless there are a lot of geocaches nearby. We are random, go lucky, spur of the moment cachers. I still haven't figured out if we geocache for the numbers, or the adventure. Now, when we travel outside of our area, we will create two pocket queries, one centered on our destination, and one for the route there. Gotta go, I'm leaving for my daughter's soccer game an hour early so that I can find a geocache, or two, on the way there. :-)