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Do you have an objective?


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Do you just go caching in areas you like the look of or have you got a 'plan' to get all the caches in a certain area perhaps?

 

On the iPhone app if you do a search it will bring up the 30 closest caches to your home location. I'm making it a bit of a mission to make sure I've found all of them -- I guess many here will have done that as a matter of course already!

 

It's good to learn a bit more about your local area. In the radius of the 30 caches, we have Roman remains, a victorian park, a site of special scientific interest, a 12th century Abbey, a 7th century church, Beamish open air museum and probably quite a few other things.

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I think for most people their local caches are the main targets, and when they go away on holiday, to clear a few around where they're visiting. I cleared Orkney & Shetland, Harris & Lewis, The Scillies, Herm & Sark etc etc when I visited. Ran out of time to visit everything on Jersey and DNFd a few on Guernsey...

 

There are lots of rings & series people aim to finish, of course, but discovering places of interest closer to home is where people tend to start. Happy hunting; it sounds like you've a lot of interesting places to visit :rolleyes:

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If anything appears close to home I go out to find it. Aside from a couple of disabled caches I've found just about everything within 5 miles of home and aside from unsolved puzzles I think I've found most of what there is within 10 miles of home.

 

If I'm away it's good to pick off local caches... for a time I'd done most of the caches on the West Cornwall and Lizard peninsulas (haven't been there in a while, and a load of new ones have appeared), and sometimes using caches as route waypoints means you can find interesting hiking routes and take in a load of caches at the same time.

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I go caching to an area where I have solved a puzzle or identified a choice cache, or as yesterday near where I have maintained some distant caches.

 

During the summer months I try to go further afield and hopefully for more than a single day away. Likewise in the summertime I hardly do any caching close to home.

 

Other than the few caches I've identified to do on the trip, many of the others I go into with scant knowledge of what's on the cache page, you often get nice surprises. Those that turn out too difficult to do or need to be done at a different time, you can always walk away from or reschedule.

 

Just completed one cache that took about 7 quite distant journeys but picked up quite a few others along the way :rolleyes:

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My objective is, whenever I have time, to try to find better-than-average caches; but how each person might define that is of course subjective! Consequently I'm nearly always driving past nearer caches on my way to what I hope will be a really good cache. For me, the common "find all my local caches" objective is slightly flawed. Because I have plenty of very local unfound caches, when I don't have so much time but still have the urge to find a cache, there's always lots to choose from nearby! If I ever get to many hundreds/thousands of finds, I guess I'll have found all the local ones by then and my system won't work anymore, but for now I'm in no hurry to clear my X mile radius.

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My objective is always the same - to clear the Wirral!!

 

I managed it last summer - for about 2 weeks I had done every cache on Wirral, but they soon creep up on you - and I think I've probably got around 30 or 40 to do now....

 

I'll keep on plodding!!

 

Edited cos I carnt speel

Edited by HazelS
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Do you just go caching in areas you like the look of or have you got a 'plan' to get all the caches in a certain area perhaps?

 

If I'm by myself I'm usually cycling and I generally only do 1 or 2 caches. It's on the theory that if somewhere is nice to cycle to then it doesn't make a lot of sense to do every cache you can find the first time you visit...plus if I'm by myself I always think I might go back with my son and revisit.

 

If I'm going with my son I tend to pick a series.

 

As for caches close to home : using the premise that you can "nip out after school / work" to do a cache if it's close by, I prefer to leave some local to that end, and travel further on the weekends or holidays when you go out for a longer day.

 

But, at the moment there are several hundred relatively close, when I've done them (and as you can see, I'm in no great rush) I'm not that sure how motivated I'll be to go further afield. I've certainly no interest in caching by car. I guess it depends at what rate caches change or new caches appear, if local caches slow to a trickle I'll probably just use the GPS to plan interesting cycle rides instead - which is more or less what I use the caches for in the first place, just an excuse to cycle or walk somewhere.

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Our first challenge, or objective, was to get the Little Quest series of caches done in 12 months, we actually did it in just under 13 months.

 

We also decided fairly early on to try to do the most Northerly, Easterly, Southerly and Westerly caches in the UK, which we have now done with the help of Simply Paul. Trouble is he's now set one further South, for the British Islands set, than the one we had done on Jersey a few years ago so we may have to visit there again if we can find some others who would like to share a boat to Les Minquiers!

 

We keep a record of caches in a 25 mile radius of home and our hit rate is about 50/50 inside/outside that area, 686 of the 3040 in that 25 mile radius being completed so far. As our main interest is caching in the UK, we make a point of going for caches away from our local area. This is because the cache setting ethic or stlye varies so much across the UK, which we enjoy immensley, and keeps caching fresh for us. We don't bother with many local caches, mainly due to what we percieve as not being worth the hunt, so cant see much point in clearing the local area. Unless its a local cache, or set of caches, that appeal to us we either travel or don't bother!

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I still have loads of local caches to do (over 200 within a 10mile radius!) and I have been caching for over 5yrs .. so definitely don't target my local area.

 

I have been working on my county map, as I can combine it with working/staying away from home. Only London and Merseyside to go in England (should get London done next week) Mainland Scotland completed this summer, so only got to finish off Wales now and the various islands.

 

I have also been slowly plodding through the LQ caches ... should get a couple more this week.

 

However, since March I have also been working towards The Somerset Well Rounded Cacher challenge. This has also given me specific caches to focus on when working away from home rather than just the nearest to my hotel etc.

 

Sometimes the planning takes longer than the caching these days :)

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Our objective started as finding a few caches around our many local lakes... but obviously once we were hooked at caching it escalated to as many caches as we could find within a 10 mile circle of our house.

 

We try to clear areas then move onto the next, but have slowly started moving away from our area to do the series caches further out, we love them!

 

We don't really want to set an objective as such, we just want to go on and on.... :)

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I have several objectives which all add some interest to caching:

 

Map filling.... English counties and Welsh unitaries all done. Plenty of Scotland and Ireland to go. Lots of European countries completed, and also three continents.

 

Calendar caching... trying to cache on every date possible (finished Apr-Aug now)

 

Little Quest... Still got a little way to go, but well on my way.

 

Somerset Well Rounded Cacher challenge cache (see Maple Leaf's post above).

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Do you just go caching in areas you like the look of or have you got a 'plan' to get all the caches in a certain area perhaps?

I must admit that I have this "plan" to find all of the caches in Northumberland! :) I live in Newcastle and if I see a new cache in Gateshead (3 miles away) I think, "OK - might go for that sometime when I'm 'across the river'" But, if there is a new cache in Morpeth (15 miles north!) it's get up at 5.00 in the morning to "go get it"!! Don't get me wrong!!! It's not an obsession about FTFs, despite what some local cachers might think, it's just I "feel the need" to keep on top of these Northumberland caches!!! :D

 

You won't believe this but, tonight there has just been released a series of ten new caches along a cycle track starting just four miles from where I live. :D What's more, I don't even have a bike!! I guess I'm just going to have to walk it - I wonder what time the first bus to Ponteland is in the morning!!! :)

Edited by Phil100
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We`re trying to visit every cache here in Saudi Arabia before we leave and return to the UK - although there are less than 180 caches in the whole country, some are over 750 miles from our current location and others are more than 250 miles from the nearest tarmac into the desert.

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I don't clear the closest to home either - I prefer to travel further afield for the better sounding caches. These days there are so many caches on my doorstep I can be selective and choose the good ones and ignore the poor ones. I figure there is no point finding stuff others didn't enjoy just cause it's close to home.

 

I used to have lots of targets - all the British counties, fill the D/T grid etc, but these days I get much more pleasure out of finding one or two well placed caches than I do from charging around all over the place. The targets are a secondary thing that it's nice to complete, but not to the point where they define my caching days out.

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I must admit that I have this "plan" to find all of the caches in Northumberland!

 

Now that's quite a task! Couldn't have picked a better county to be caching in! I've found a few in Northumberland but I don't think I'll be clearing the entire county any time soon. I suppose if anything I should be looking at County Durham.

 

Of course I still want to travel to places to find caches but I quite like the idea that you have an 'area' whether that's close to home or not, that you make sure you've found all the caches there. In addition to around Chester-le-Street I want to keep on top of the caches in Corbridge (favourite place to visit) and University of York (where I work)

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My current main objective is to keep a "streak" of caching going. In other words, to find at least one cache a day for as many consecutive days as possible. I'm on Day 37 now, and it is getting more and more difficult as I have to plan ahead because of travel and work commitments.

 

I seem to recall that Goldpot managed a really long streak and I don't expect to rival that one. But it's a good way of motivating yourself to grab a cache when you'd normally not bother. 50 days would be a good target.

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We don't have an objective as described by the OP but we do have a mission.

 

Our mission is to upload photos of fungi found near caches. Sometimes we can stretch "near" if we've found an interesting specimen a mile away. Sometimes it's what's growing on the tree whose roots hide the cache. Sometimes it's nothing. I suppose we could try to set an objective to cache-photo all common genera of fungi or something like that. But life's too short to make it complicated like that.

 

Caches don't normally dictate what area we go to. We choose somewhere to go then have a look to see what caches there are there.

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Our mission is to upload photos of fungi found near caches. Sometimes we can stretch "near" if we've found an interesting specimen a mile away. Sometimes it's what's growing on the tree whose roots hide the cache. Sometimes it's nothing. I suppose we could try to set an objective to cache-photo all common genera of fungi or something like that. But life's too short to make it complicated like that

 

This is fascinating. :D A really cool reason.

 

I have a mission to get to fifty before the anniversary of my first cache found on 6/09/09. I realise in comparison to many this is rubbish, but I do find that unfortunately life gets in the way.

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I have a mission to get to fifty before the anniversary of my first cache found on 6/09/09. I realise in comparison to many this is rubbish, but I do find that unfortunately life gets in the way.

Don't forget ... it's not about the numbers! :D

 

OK ... we now have an objective. It is to get to 101. :) We've been stuck on 100 for a while now (and it took us 6 years to get there).

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I make new aims all the time. We only started in April this year so still relatively new.

My main aim is to reduce the percentage of traditional caches, so I am on a drive to find more multis, puzzles, virtuals etc...I'm not doing very well with though! Our next milestone will be 600 caches.

I also want to try and clear the caches within 5 miles- 7 to go! Next aim will be 7.5miles!

BabyDippy (age 5) wants to find as many TBs and coins as possible.

TinyDippy (age 11mths) just likes having a ride in the buggy

DaddyDippy wants to cache in as many counties as possible in the UK. He also wants to fill the D/T grid!

As a family we aim to get out once a week, twice if we can.

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Hmmmm…. So you mean, what is our geocaching mission statement? This is like appraisal setting at work :D

 

We’re not fussed about clearing our home radius, in fact I haven’t yet bothered finding the cache closest to my home despite the fact I walk right past it regularly. (Actually, that’s not quite true, I’ve found it, but I didn’t have a pen on me so haven’t logged it….I’ll let the kids find it one day if they’re bored and I can’t be bothered to drive anywhere more interesting). Looking at our GSAK stats, it says we have found just over 50% of our caches more than 10 miles from home, and that sounds about right.

 

We’re also not big on long series or racking up the smileys, although we’ve done a couple of nice circular walks with 8-12 caches.

 

I do have an interest in the county map, but nobody else in my family is that bothered by it – I’d love to colour the whole map in and do occasionally plan days out deliberately around “virgin” counties :) But don’t grass me up on that one B)

 

I also enjoy getting a new difficulty/terrain combo, a new icon, filling in a new day on my “days cached” calendar, stuff like that (I like stats B)) – again, nobody else in the family could give two hoots :) I’m not convinced that any of them have even ever looked at our profile with all the pretty graphs on and stuff.

 

I’d also personally like to find more Letterbox Hybrids as I like rubber stamping and I enjoy seeing / using the stamps

 

But overall, I guess our main objective is to discover great new (to us) places through geocaching, and spend fun times together in the great outdoors, and for the kids, to find nice big boxes with cool stuff inside :)

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Do you just go caching in areas you like the look of or have you got a 'plan' to get all the caches in a certain area perhaps?

 

I have a few objectives (in no particular order)-

1)find caches that will fill the gaps in my d/t grid (53/81 so far with most gaps in high t),

2)try to find as many puzzles as possible,

3)try to find at least one cache on each trip away from home,

4)whilst my caching partner lived close by I aimed to introduce her to interesting areas around Newcastle and Northumberland,

5)increase finds and FTFs (of course!)

 

Duncan

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But overall, I guess our main objective is to discover great new (to us) places through geocaching, and spend fun times together in the great outdoors, B)

Sums it up for us too.

 

Not interested in clearing the local area, have hundreds of caches within a 10 mile radius but would rather go and do some really interesting ones further away. We can go to the close ones any time.

 

Quite happy to walk 10+ miles and only find 1 box rather than step out of the car and there be several right there.

 

Just our choice

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we did all the caches in West Yorkshire... but that was some years ago... well behind now, then it was the grid matrix... that was hard and took some traveling to get all caches between 1T 1D and 5T 5D but we managed it after some climbing and caving etc. now we are looking at a 10 mile radius when time permits... failing that what ever is around where ever we are.... Dundee tomorrow... LOL B):D

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I try to leave my very local ones in Bristol and Bath for the winter, or days when I just want to pop out for an hour or two. I tend to aim for the harder terrain ones in the summer. I did clear my 5 mile radius once but when I had done it I didnt bother to maintain it, the goal had been achieved. Now I also plan weekends away around the puzzle caches solved, events or special series that I want to do.

Mark

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After learning of geocaching in May this year via a completely unrelated forum, I went out and found my first three using my wife's binatone satnav. A few days later I told my dad about this and he handed me a Garmin GPS 38, which had been given to him by a family friend last time he visited the USA. Apparently my dad did some geocaching with him over there, and because the chap had a brand spanky new GPS he gave that old one to my dad to pass to me to see if I would be interested in doing this. Good timing!

 

Now this GPS is old and slow, and has some quirks, but it keeps soldiering on, kinda like it's last owner.. he's 92 I'm told. So, as I'm not flushed with cash at present, and out of respect of the gift, my objectives start with:

 

1) I will continue using the 38 as long as it holds together and keeps getting me to the right places.

 

Then, and at all times..

 

2) Just to have fun, it's not about the numbers for me.

 

And maybe one day..

 

3) Walk/cache the entire Thames path. 33 miles is the furthest I've walked in one day though to date, and I remember what I felt like after that, so I've got a bit of work to do to build myself up before attempting those sort of numbers over consecutive days. But it would be an awesome week I'm sure :D

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My current main objective is to keep a "streak" of caching going. In other words, to find at least one cache a day for as many consecutive days as possible. I'm on Day 37 now, and it is getting more and more difficult as I have to plan ahead because of travel and work commitments.

 

I seem to recall that Goldpot managed a really long streak and I don't expect to rival that one. But it's a good way of motivating yourself to grab a cache when you'd normally not bother. 50 days would be a good target.

 

I'm trying that as well, on 37 days not including today, and as it got to a couple of days before the end of august I realised I was close enough aim for 100 caches in august, which I managed by means of a couple of extras on the way home on the 31st due to some DNFs while we were out. Had to grab a quick church micro (after DNFing another 'quick' cache) on the way home from visiting family yesterday but I don't know how much longer I'll manage as we are running out of caches suitable to walk to with the small person when we haven't got the car. When I have got transport I try to find caches slightly further away and save the nearer ones for when I haven't. Previously I haven't had much in the way of an objective although I had got most of the caches in the middle of Bath before we moved away.

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We like to seek out old virtuals and other old caches

 

Filling the 'Month Set grid' is one of our objectives - we took a slight :laughing: detour from NE Belgium to Calais last Friday so we could find GC40 set in July 2000! :rolleyes:

 

The same journey enabled us to find caches in SIX different countries in 24 hours

 

The UK county map is coming on nicely as well...

 

(We haven't finished logging yet so our stats page is waaay out of date)

 

 

Mark

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We like to seek out old virtuals and other old caches

 

Filling the 'Month Set grid' is one of our objectives - we took a slight :laughing: detour from NE Belgium to Calais last Friday so we could find GC40 set in July 2000! :rolleyes:

 

The same journey enabled us to find caches in SIX different countries in 24 hours

 

The UK county map is coming on nicely as well...

 

(We haven't finished logging yet so our stats page is waaay out of date)

 

 

Mark

 

You're the new UK record holders then. E-mail these guys to update their records..........

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You're the new UK record holders then. E-mail these guys to update their records..........

 

Gosh! I didn't realise that there was a record for it!

 

Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, England

 

Starting out from Belgium at 07:30 and finding the last one in England at about 21:00 :laughing:

 

 

Mark

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You're the new UK record holders then. E-mail these guys to update their records..........

 

Gosh! I didn't realise that there was a record for it!

 

Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, England

 

Starting out from Belgium at 07:30 and finding the last one in England at about 21:00 :D

 

 

Mark

 

Yep. We did only 3, as did Stuey. We've already bought our Le Shuttle tickets earlier this year to try and improve it, but didn't get round to making the trip. Looks like you've reset the bar quite high!

 

Ryuchan did suggest a plan to get 10 countries in 24 hours on the GAGB forum........looks like we'll have to give that a go! :rolleyes:

 

Next Tuesday I'm going to Germany to watch Spurs stuff Werder Bremen.........maybe the coach driver will make a couple of detours.............. :laughing:

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I don't have any specific objective or plan; it's mostly about getting exercise and visiting nice places. Sometimes it's a ring or cluster of caches in what looks an interesting area; sometimes it's a specific puzzle cache which brings me to an area; or a new cache by a CO who I know sets excellent caches.

 

I do like adding new countries, counties, and squares on the D/T grid.

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Well done Delta68! :):mellow::laughing:

 

My objective is just to have fun geocaching, but I also love the stats and have an overall aim of getting as many bits "coloured in" as possible - on the D/T grid, counties, setup dates and days caching. Unfortunately life gets in the way too much, but I'm going to move heaven and earth to bag a cache on 29th Feb, 2012.

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