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New World Record - 1157 geocache finds in 24 hours


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On Sept 27th, 2010 we took a trip out to the Alien Highway in Nevada.

Our goal was to find all 1021 ET geocaches in 24 hours (they are numbered E.T. #001 thru E.T. #1021).

We only took one vehicle and 4 geocachers.

We only drove 165 miles between 2 gas stations, yet we had to add 10 gallons of gas (we brought it with us)

 

Here is a list of past records we found (I've added a few additional records that cachers sent to me).

1157 (24 hrs) - Monday, Sept 27, 2010 - Alamo, Nevada - Foomanjoo, F0T0M0M, ventura_kids

1105 - (1 Day 8:20AM - 6:45PM) - July 31, 2010 - Nevada - FlagMan, devhead, AS73, SD-Weiss, Thunder-4, Ragfoot

1045 ( 1 day) - Nevada - Sept 7, 2010 - Night-Hawk, Featheredfriends, WE4NCS, CacheUMan

1021 - (1 Day) - July 14, 2010 - Nevada - Triple Crown, Duncan!, lulu499, snflwrmh

737 - (1 Day) - July 7, 2010 - Nevada - tite lines

695 (1 Day) - Friday, April 16, 2010 - Nevada\California - legoboyjj, Rain or Shine, ZSteve

566 - March 26, 2010 - Nevada\California - ventura_kids, f0t0m0m, Cachepal

480 - December 28, 2009 - Denmark\Sweden - Picht, Elmbaek

413 (1 Day) - August 29, 2009 - Colorado - ventura_kids, f0t0m0m, EMC of Northridge, CA

409 - May 9, 2009 - Colorado - dndsterns, chefstern, ColoradoOB

315 (24 hrs) - May 18, 2008 - Sacramento, California - Elmbaek, Schuleit, gjensen, Picht, tottommy, Sjanten, Zooor

312 (24 hrs) - May 20, 2006 - Texas - geoPirat, m.zielinski, darth_maul_3, spuchtfink, Cache & Keri

263 (24 hrs) - May 22, 2005 - Jacksonville, Florida - geoPirat, Huskie

246 (24 hrs) - October 24, 2004 - Jacksonville, Florida - CaptDC52, Luke11.9, Zatoichi

240 (24 hrs) - July 4, 2004 - Nashville, Tennessee - The Leprechauns, carleenp

238 (24 hrs) - September 14, 2003 - Nashville, Tennessee - fullct

Edited by ventura_kids
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Let's see 24 X 60 = 1440 mins in 24 hrs. 1440 divided by 1057 = 1.36 min per cache.

Pray tell, how does one do that? inquiring minds want to know.

 

That is hustling. It helps if you have your names on a sticker before hand and then just slap them on the log where ever you can, whether or not it covers another cachers name.

 

I have never seen such a variety of "signing" methods as I did on this series. Some cachers pasted their stickers on the outside of the containers to save time. Some cachers had their names on little slips of paper and as we opened the caches, the wind would whip the small papers out of our hands. It really was quite bothersome.

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Thank you for the compilation of records past.

 

I remember how much brouhaha there was about the 240ish records - how impossible those were for some to fathom or believe.

 

Times change.

 

Congrats on chasing a 24 hour record and succeeding in meeting your goal.

Edited by Isonzo Karst
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I have never seen such a variety of "signing" methods as I did on this series. Some cachers pasted their stickers on the outside of the containers to save time. Some cachers had their names on little slips of paper and as we opened the caches, the wind would whip the small papers out of our hands. It really was quite bothersome.

There is no way this could be done by opening every container and fishing out the log. It's got to be the sticker method.

 

Even then, This would be mind-numbingly tedious. Poor car.

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:blink: Are these caches right next to the road and have big neon arrows pointing to them or is there a search involved? I'm not saying it is impossible but I would like to hear more about how it is done.

E.T. highway was setup for record runs. The containers are every 10th of a mile and, yes, anyone who's done this a while can find them in the blink of an eye.

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E.T. highway was setup for record runs. The containers are every 10th of a mile and, yes, anyone who's done this a while can find them in the blink of an eye.

When we did the Highway 51 series in Louisiana (130 in 5 hours), we made a game of spotting the container before the car had come to a complete stop. It was my girlfriend and I and we were a machine - we each had a specific job. My job was to screech the car to a halt and load the next one in the GPS (an iPhone at the time!) so by the time she hopped back in we were off. Our pace was slightly better than half as fast as what ventura_kids made. Most of our time loss was in DNFs, the signing of the logs, and her having to pee in the swamp. Maintaining that kind of pace over 24 hours is both insane and amazing.

Edited by ZeLonewolf
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E.T. highway was setup for record runs. The containers are every 10th of a mile and, yes, anyone who's done this a while can find them in the blink of an eye.

When we did the Highway 51 series in Louisiana (130 in 5 hours), we made a game of spotting the container before the car had come to a complete stop. It was my girlfriend and I and we were a machine - we each had a specific job. My job was to screech the car to a halt and load the next one in the GPS (an iPhone at the time!) so by the time she hopped back in we were off. Our pace was slightly better than half as fast as what ventura_kids made. Most of our time loss was in DNFs, the signing of the logs, and her having to pee in the swamp. Maintaining that kind of pace over 24 hours is both insane and amazing.

So, you never even left the car, right?
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I'd have to go to the bathroom and/or get something to drink and screw this all up if I tried it.

Me too! I suppose the drinks and food could be brought along with the Depends?

Congrats on the record - how long did it take to log them all, and how long did you sleep afterwards?

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:D Are these caches right next to the road and have big neon arrows pointing to them or is there a search involved? I'm not saying it is impossible but I would like to hear more about how it is done.

 

Many are right next to the road. The rest are close enough to the road that it is only 10 or 15 steps or if you have a vehicle with high clearance and rugged tires, you pull right up to it. There were no neon arrows, but it was nearly that. My wife and I did not do the whole thing, but for the ones we did, for about half, we used the GPS only to keep track of which ones we found. We could see the posts or UPRs where they were from 200 or 300 feet away.

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My favorite one would have to be the very last one....whatever that one was (it's all a blur).

I'm currently still trying to log them all (somehow I messed up and have 4 extras in there...dang). It's taken me over 14 hours to log them (cut and paste with field notes).....so far.

We drank tons of water and were still thirsty at the end. We slept for about16 hours after it was over....but we still had those buzzy sea-legs for a couple of days.

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So, you never even left the car, right?

 

Incorrect - we didn't always spot the cache from the car, and in those cases we both jumped out and searched...some of them took longer than others, and it wasn't the exact same container or hide throughout -- there were probably 5-6 different variants throughout the 130 or so of them. I'd say we spotted it from the car about 1/3 of the time, in which case I would pull the car right up to it. The rest of them we had to search for. A few of them were tricky and took us 5-10 minutes to locate.

 

But I do get what you're insinuating! :D I assure you, we had a blast and it was one of the highlights of our trip down there.

Edited by ZeLonewolf
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:D Are these caches right next to the road and have big neon arrows pointing to them or is there a search involved? I'm not saying it is impossible but I would like to hear more about how it is done.

 

Many are right next to the road. The rest are close enough to the road that it is only 10 or 15 steps or if you have a vehicle with high clearance and rugged tires, you pull right up to it.

 

I've seen references to this several times in the past and find it kind of troublesome.

 

In the case of the alien portion of the trail the CO specifically asked that people *not* drive to each of the caches as the area is environmentally sensitive, yet I've read several logs which indicate that there are some the ignored the CO, all in the goal of trying to find the caches faster then if they walked the route.

 

Since the goal for many in doing the ET trail is to find as many caches as possible in a short period of time it seems that, in order to save a few seconds on each cache, quite a few of the seekers of these caches drive as close as possible to GZ. Instead of parking at the shoulder of the road, and taking 50-60 to the cache, saving a few seconds by only taking 10-15 steps has taken priority over the damage that may be caused to the area.

Edited by NYPaddleCacher
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I would think that anyone designing a power trail would do it with the knowledge that it's all about the numbers and high numbers and as such it would be against their better judgment to place it in an environmentally sensitive area. That would be irresponsible cache placement to put a power trail through a sensitive area like that. Even if they were driving up to the area there's the reality that many people will trample through an area with little thought to what they're going over just to get fast numbers....

 

If the owner feels the area is being damaged by this type of geocaching then they should evaluate if they need to continue to have a power trail out there and continue to do damage.

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I would think that anyone designing a power trail would do it with the knowledge that it's all about the numbers and high numbers and as such it would be against their better judgment to place it in an environmentally sensitive area. That would be irresponsible cache placement to put a power trail through a sensitive area like that. Even if they were driving up to the area there's the reality that many people will trample through an area with little thought to what they're going over just to get fast numbers....

 

If the owner feels the area is being damaged by this type of geocaching then they should evaluate if they need to continue to have a power trail out there and continue to do damage.

I'm not convinced that those who design power trails always think about issues like damage, permission, traffic, etc.

 

The Trail of the Gods, which was originally placed by the NGA, was archived rather quickly (a month or two), with a note that:

Regretfully, we had to agree to archive these caches due to the "increased traffic and undue attention to the area".

The extent to which it was an environmental issue, a safety issue, a permission issue, etc. etc. etc. I can't speak to with any authority - that's simply the word-for-word language in the archive notice by NGA. I know there are other threads that discuss the issue.

 

But in general I think it's not uncommon for those who place power trails to fail to fully anticipate exactly what the traffic implications are going to be.

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I can accept that for the early power trails the traffic was not anticipated. And I'm not even touching on the permission issue.

 

But with this power trail post Trail of the Gods... and the many many threads about power trails, records and what not here, there should be absolutely no question in anyone's mind that there will be traffic by people who are indifferent to environmental damage being caused going for these on huge numbers runs. There's no other purpose to these thigns than to find a bunch of caches as fast as you can which increases the risk to damage being done. You don't even need to have a lot of people trying to find. Just enough people who are trying to find high numbers fast to cause a problem. So the owner wouldn't even have to anticipate higher traffic just more irresponsible geocachers.

 

Although in the case of this power trail with how much it was plugged here on the forums I find it hard to believe that the owner was oblivious to the potential for damage.

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But with this power trail post Trail of the Gods... and the many many threads about power trails, records and what not here, there should be absolutely no question in anyone's mind that there will be traffic by people who are indifferent to environmental damage being caused going for these on huge numbers runs.

I don't disagree with this at all.

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The caches were close to the road. We usually just stopped in the road, without even rolling one tire off the edge of the roadway. The highway is rarely travelled by cars....and they seemed to just move over to the opposite side and safely pass by. The edge of the road was mostly deep sand, and slanted. One minute per cache was our goal. Many caches could be grabbed, opened, stickered, and returned to their spot, in less than 30 seconds. We drove to the next cache in about 10 seconds. It was easy to complete each cache in ONE minute.

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interesting side of the hobby. I dont get it, but still interesting

 

to me its like using a boxed cake mix and saying you Made a cake. noooo you baked a cake but you did not make anything. point is the magic and sense of accomplishment is gone.

Different magic and not my cup o tea, but it's a physical challenge that most couldn't do. My wife believes the attempt would have been a blast in her younger days.

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Well I will dispel the 0.1 mile myth:

 

Started the E.T. Trail in July and very soon discovered that in addition to changing the hide type from time to time to keep you guessing. The distance was varied.

 

... YEPPER ... got snookered by the distance variability from time to time.

 

Heading back to the desert in 12 days or so, The incompletion of the trail has been poking me. Looking forward to cooler times than the last visit. Ambient temps were 116* and the big block Chevy wanted to have the heater running to keep engine temps down.

 

Yes 116* and the heater was running ... can you say uncomfortable!!! Fortunately, work emergencies called us off the trail before total insanity overtook us. LOL

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Go at night. You'll enjoy the heater. Although the temps were in the 90's during the day, they dipped to the low 50's by 2 AM. Bring a couple of bright flashlights....we used those headlamps. The second half of the hides were much tougher at night. Also, watch out for those low sticker bushes. They will stab your shoes, and grab your fingers.

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"Let's see 24 X 60 = 1440 mins in 24 hrs. 1440 divided by 1057 = 1.36 min per cache.

Pray tell, how does one do that? inquiring minds want to know."

 

Totally impossible! I don't believe it for a second. Many caches would take longer than 1.36 minutes and i don't believe that anyone of the caches were done in that exact time (1.36). The time it takes to drive to the next cache, get out of the car, find the cache, open the cache container, sign log (place sticker), put container back together, place back in place, and get back in car. Sorry, NOT Possible!

 

Now, like many other geocaching teams do. More than one vehicle, starting on opposite ends of road and possible one or two in the center, all caching toward one another......is more believeable to me.

 

But hey, if you say so, im sure you can get someone to believe in this.....then again, some people believe in UFOs as well <smile>

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Well.... I didn't believe it either. There have been hundreds of geocachers that have been completing the run in nearly the same time..... around 1021 caches in less than a day....so it is possible.

I'll show you a picture....but don't tell anyone......ssssssshhhhhh..... You should be able to spot the geocache as you approach. :D

 

56e0b526-0c5a-4ee6-9f2d-557a9eef5d81.jpg

Edited by ventura_kids
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Not buying it.

Sure, why not? There is a guy standing there to hand you the cache. I'm sure if arrangements were made he would take the log out for you to slap a sticker on and then drive off while he puts it back in the container. Must be a boring job, standing there all day waiting for next record holder to drive up. :D

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Well.... I didn't believe it either. There have been hundreds of geocachers that have been completing the run in nearly the same time..... around 1021 caches in less than a day....so it is possible.

I'll show you a picture....but don't tell anyone......ssssssshhhhhh..... You should be able to spot the geocache as you approach. :D

 

56e0b526-0c5a-4ee6-9f2d-557a9eef5d81.jpg

 

Take a close look at the picture. There's a small pile of rocks around the base of the metal post. Chances are they are all or most like that. Grabbing that cache in a few seconds seems totally doable.

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We drove to the next cache in about 10 seconds.

This is, by far, the most amazing feat.

 

If I assume that an unencumbered jeep can do 0-60 in about 6 seconds in test track conditions, that seems to be a bit of a boundary for a geo-jeep filled with four bodies plus gear, on a real highway.

 

It takes a car with good brakes moving 55 MPH a bit over 3 seconds to come to a complete stop. If I assume a linear acceleration rate, and that the car keeps accelerating past 60 as well as it did before 60, then after 7 seconds it should be traveling at about 70 MPH. To make the math easier, let's use the next 3 seconds to let the car come to a complete stop (even though it's going faster than 55). That gives us an even 10 seconds.

 

In the first 7 seconds, again assuming a linear acceleration rate, the car travels about 359 feet by the time it hits 70 MPH. Then as the brakes are fully engaged, it comes to a complete stop over the next 3 seconds and travels another 154 feet. For a total of 513 feet - we'll go ahead and give credit for the other 15 feet and call that an even 10th of a mile.

 

That is astoundingly amazing driving. To keep up that level of performance - maxing a jeep out at test track rates and braking perfectly, 50-60 times an hour, for a full 24 consecutive hours - is just about the most impressive thing I have read all week. Whoever was driving is the MVP of this group by a wide, wide margin.

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