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Time to Stop Caching


GerritS

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Hi All,

 

Its a real long time since I have posted and a long time since I've really cached...

 

When Do you stop being a Geocacher?

 

When:

1) Your areas of cleared of Caches are getting smaller?

2) You can be 10m from a cache (A micro in this instance, today) and think why bother?

3) You go on holiday and are more interested in what you are doing than logging just one cache to say you where there...

4) You stop checking if there are caches where you are going?

5) More caches are going on your ignore list than find list...

6) Some one produces a circuit of caches and you think why did I even go there first time round for one cache? never mind a circuit!

 

I think for me it is all of the above, I liked caching but recently its gone crazy... To my eyes there are just to many poor Caches.

 

Caches where I do not want to find, I can no longer be bothered sorting the wheat from the chaff...

 

You might see me out on the cacher's trail, with my daughter or friends. Most likely Caches I have done and know are a quality... Or even a cache ring but I will probably not look for the tub-aware, just enjoy the walk...

 

My Caches I will maintain for now, as they are the caches I would like to find. Its probably for that reason they do not get many finds...

 

I have looked at other types of caches but I think for me the caching moment has gone.

 

Happy Caching, may you always find the cache's you seek (unless you do it another way :blink:)...

 

GerritS

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Hi All,

 

Its a real long time since I have posted and a long time since I've really cached...

 

When Do you stop being a Geocacher?

 

When:

1) Your areas of cleared of Caches are getting smaller?

2) You can be 10m from a cache (A micro in this instance, today) and think why bother?

3) You go on holiday and are more interested in what you are doing than logging just one cache to say you where there...

4) You stop checking if there are caches where you are going?

5) More caches are going on your ignore list than find list...

6) Some one produces a circuit of caches and you think why did I even go there first time round for one cache? never mind a circuit!

 

 

Well, apart from number 5, all of your points have always applied to me. So have I never been a cacher? :unsure:

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Most of those have applied to me since day 1 too. Except for point 5.

I do kinda feel sorry for those cachers out there who live for caching and caching alone - yes it's great fun, but there are so are so many other great things that you are missing out on by only having one hobby.

A small number of cachers I know are obsessive compulsive about it - to the point I actually think they genuinely have a problem :o

Edited by *mouse*
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Hi All,

 

Its a real long time since I have posted and a long time since I've really cached...

 

When Do you stop being a Geocacher?

 

When:

1) Your areas of cleared of Caches are getting smaller?

2) You can be 10m from a cache (A micro in this instance, today) and think why bother?

3) You go on holiday and are more interested in what you are doing than logging just one cache to say you where there...

4) You stop checking if there are caches where you are going?

5) More caches are going on your ignore list than find list...

6) Some one produces a circuit of caches and you think why did I even go there first time round for one cache? never mind a circuit!

 

I think for me it is all of the above, I liked caching but recently its gone crazy... To my eyes there are just to many poor Caches.

 

Caches where I do not want to find, I can no longer be bothered sorting the wheat from the chaff...

 

You might see me out on the cacher's trail, with my daughter or friends. Most likely Caches I have done and know are a quality... Or even a cache ring but I will probably not look for the tub-aware, just enjoy the walk...

 

My Caches I will maintain for now, as they are the caches I would like to find. Its probably for that reason they do not get many finds...

 

I have looked at other types of caches but I think for me the caching moment has gone.

 

Happy Caching, may you always find the cache's you seek (unless you do it another way :blink:)...

 

GerritS

 

Like keehotee #5 does not apply to me I've never used it. #3 what holidays I don't do them either.

 

Yes the exponential growth of caches placed has perhaps reduced the thought and quality that goes into placements :tired:

 

There now is ongoing action by the reviewers to archive uncared for caches and we must be eternally grateful for their efforts

 

As with everything in life its up to the users to shape how things evolve but it will always be a fight against those obsessed with numbers. :(

 

Like the OP I've not physically cached for a while but caching is still dominant with puzzle solving and identifying what I call choice caches which will become the start locations for my caching forays.

:D

 

Whilst its not an ideal system as not every one can contribute and some previous finders will have retired from caching, we now have the "Favorites" to help you choose more desirable caches. The cogs of the brain tick wondering if this was designed such that it further weeds out caches of lesser quality. :unsure:

 

There is still enjoyment to be reaped, it just need all our best efforts. :anicute:

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I think for me it is all of the above, I liked caching but recently its gone crazy... To my eyes there are just to many poor Caches.

 

Several of the points apply to me, and always have done. I agree with the above sentiment and I was getting a bit jaded, but have had a couple of good days out recently which revitalized me. I'm hoping the "Favourites" thing will help to improve things, if not by stopping poor caches then at least by making it easier to search out the good ones.

 

As for the question

 

When Do you stop being a Geocacher?

 

I think that will be when I stop logging onto GC.com, and the various forums. Even if I'm not actively caching, if I'm still following the game on the forums then I'm still a cacher.

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I have looked at other types of caches but I think for me the caching moment has gone.

 

 

I say vary your interests a bit. I enjoy caching, but only on occasion. I'm more interested in bagging hills, and I also look for trigs and benchmarks, so when I'm out for the day I generally find a few of each rather that spending the whole day caching. That might be fun for a while, beating your own record or whatever, but in the end it's bound to lead to burnout.

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I'm firmly in agreement with most of what Mouse says....

 

There have been long periods in my time as a cacher where I've had absolutely no inclination to cache whatsoever, and those spells have generally coincided with other things going on in my life, such as the redevelopment of my house, and then shortly after some surgery I had.

 

I don't think you ever *stop* being a cacher, unless, of course, you adopt all your caches over, sell your GPS and never, ever look at GC.com again!!!

 

I know of plenty of big numbers cachers who have taken a break and found perhaps three or four caches in the year, or whatever.

 

I also think that MOST numbers people STOP being numbers people when they get to the stage where it stops being fun - in other words, they go hell for leather to reach a certain number, and get sick of the sight of Tupperware. As much as I loved the trip, I know after doing the Skeg to Ness series over 2 days earlier in the year I would have been happy not to have seen another piece of tupperware for at least a month!!

 

We've probably all been there... I have just spent the last 2 months up and down the country doing some work for my sister's company at weekends, and I could have grabbed a huge haul of caches en route, but I didn't even check for nearby caches!!!

 

It's horses for courses, and you may not have any inclination to cache at the moment, but it WILL return - I can assure you of that!!

Edited by HazelS
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I'm firmly in agreement with most of what Mouse says....

 

There have been long periods in my time as a cacher where I've had absolutely no inclination to cache whatsoever, and those spells have generally coincided with other things going on in my life, such as the redevelopment of my house, and then shortly after some surgery I had.

 

I don't think you ever *stop* being a cacher, unless, of course, you adopt all your caches over, sell your GPS and never, ever look at GC.com again!!!

 

I know of plenty of big numbers cachers who have taken a break and found perhaps three or four caches in the year, or whatever.

 

I also think that MOST numbers people STOP being numbers people when they get to the stage where it stops being fun - in other words, they go hell for leather to reach a certain number, and get sick of the sight of Tupperware. As much as I loved the trip, I know after doing the Skeg to Ness series over 2 days earlier in the year I would have been happy not to have seen another piece of tupperware for at least a month!!

 

We've probably all been there... I have just spent the last 2 months up and down the country doing some work for my sister's company at weekends, and I could have grabbed a huge haul of caches en route, but I didn't even check for nearby caches!!!

 

It's horses for courses, and you may not have any inclination to cache at the moment, but it WILL return - I can assure you of that!!

 

Ditto all of that - but sell my GPS? I used it for other things before caching, and I'd still use it just as much now if I never found another piece of Tupperware© :):)

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I guess I all but stopped being a geocacher in 2008 when I found a total of 25 caches in the whole year. Of that mighty score only 6 were in the UK, the others were on holiday.

 

If someone gets jaded and quits completely they aren't a cacher any more. If they just take a break so what? Sometimes a little time out is what's needed to start enjoying a hobby again.

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My caching style has definitely changed since I started. I first went for all caches in my area, then got the hard ones in my area as well as rushing out for FTF.

 

Now I don't care about FTF so much and I'm much more selective about the caches I hunt now that I've found what I like.

 

I'm sure this mean my cache numbers will go way down. But I'll be enjoying hiking more!

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it all depends on your reasons for going geocahing

we do it to be outdoors, get some exercise, discover new places we didn't know existed, visit again some places we enjoyed before, unwind after work (yes, the LPC's and "park'n grab" caches are perfect especially in very cold weather) and all kinds of stuff along those lines

 

ignore list?...no, i don't have one because i can't possibly know ahead of time that i will not like a particular cache, after i went for it its quite useless to put it on the ignore list, and no, i don't put certain people's caches on ignore either just because we may have differences of opinion, that is kindergarten attitude afaic

 

judging from your list, except for #3,depending on whether your family is into caching too or not, i think geocaching has never really been a hobby for you, which is fine, but there is no need to find justifications for not being interested in it anymore

Edited by t4e
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I have looked at other types of caches but I think for me the caching moment has gone.
This sort of post comes up quite regularly, and my reaction to it is the same as always - so what?

 

That's not intended to be rude, it's just that there is no obligation to go caching and you don't have to make excuses if you decide not to do it any more.

 

Just do what you enjoy doing, whether that be caching or something else.

 

Rgds, Andy

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Geocacher (IOHO)= someone who sets out to find a geocache .If the location ,container and company is good that is a bonus .The prime intention is to find the container .Why else would some of us sometimes spend up to an hour at G.Z.searching for elusive containers,and maybe return another day if we fail first time .

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If there are 15 caches on a good walk then we will look for them but a 5 mile walk would normally take us around 4 hrs +

Hooray! Someone else as slow as us! ;) We love to look at our surroundings and try to identify birds, plants and insects on our walks. We've always done this, even before we discovered caching, when we went on what we call now, 'pointless walks'! :lol: Happy new caching year everybody!

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If caching is no longer fun then it's time to take a break from it and do something else. You can always come back to it later or just do the odd one that appeals and forget all the chaff. A lot of the numbers cachers seem to have slowed down recently and I think this can only be a good thing. For me this has been a slow year, getting married and moving house were more of a priority!

 

Philip

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If at anytime I'm 10m from a cache and can't be bothered...

That'll be time to stop altogether.

 

I walk past a cache every day that's maybe 50m from my house. I know exactly where it is. I've never bothered to log it physically or online because it's a boring micro that doesn't interest me in the slightest.

 

I love geocaching, but I prefer to seek out the more exciting caches. There are plenty of great ones out there, this isn't Pokemon, you don't gotta catch 'em all.

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I was walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path the other week and was watching the GPS count down to a cache (Avlos 2, close to Solva). I think I got to within a couple of hundred metres of it when I got distracted by something else and didn't look at the GPS until I was a hundred yards past it. The pub was calling, it was near the end of a long walk and I was with friends who have close to zero interest in Geocaching. I ignored it and carried on, I'll be back that way soon.

 

For some reason this seems to happen to me a lot on the coast path, I missed the Trefin quarry cache in the summer and didn't bother going back for it. Idle I suppose!

 

Regards

 

Neil

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If at anytime I'm 10m from a cache and can't be bothered...

That'll be time to stop altogether.

 

I walk past a cache every day that's maybe 50m from my house. I know exactly where it is. I've never bothered to log it physically or online because it's a boring micro that doesn't interest me in the slightest.

 

I love geocaching, but I prefer to seek out the more exciting caches. There are plenty of great ones out there, this isn't Pokemon, you don't gotta catch 'em all.

My two closest 'unfound' caches are likely to stay that way. The first has published co-ordinates that are a mile adrift. Some finders have posted corrected co-ords in their logs but the owner can't be bothered (or isn't interested enough) to correct the cache page so I can't be bothered to look for it.

The second is a 35mm film pot hidden in the rubbish behind a telephone connection box that I walk past on my way to the local railway station. I did have a brief look the first time I passed it but as I had no leather gardening gloves with me, I didn't bother groping in the detritus.

Edited by Pharisee
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There's a lot of "quality not quantity" replies to the OP here. Being a relatively slow cacher (and having "slowed" in 2010), I'm all for that. No to carpet bombing micro series(es). Yes to interesting / delightful locations, clever hides and well crafted puzzles (provided degrees in astrophysics and further maths are not required :blink: ). It's already clear to me that the new Favourites feature will enhance my future caching activity as a number of great looking caches have come "on radar" which I was not even remotely aware of before. Maybe a couple of clear "fave" caches would reinvigorate the OP's interest.

 

mj

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A mile out is inexcusable, imho!

 

I had a blip a wee while after starting. Lost enthusiasm, but it returned. This enforced hibernation most of us have had has made me gently wonder quite why we get so fixated about going after little plastic (in the main) containers. But I've missed it and am back out, so I guess it still has its hairy grip on me!

 

Doomed, I tell ya...

 

:ph34r:

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Snip

 

The first has published co-ordinates that are a mile adrift. Some finders have posted corrected co-ords in their logs but the owner can't be bothered (or isn't interested enough) to correct the cache page so I can't be bothered to look for it.

The second is a 35mm film pot hidden in the rubbish behind a telephone connection box that I walk past on my way to the local railway station. I did have a brief look the first time I passed it but as I had no leather gardening gloves with me, I didn't bother groping in the detritus.

 

Both sound like they would benefit from Needs Maintenance logs. Poor coords and rubbish filled areas need sorting..

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My caching style has changed a lot over recent years, it used be a case of going out on my own driving a hundred miles to get 20 caches, then it just got silly after that!! :lol:

 

I love to cache when i go on holiday, because it takes you to somewhere off the beaten track, just recently done Montenegro and Greece (corfu) and did two fantastic caches that would make my top 20, one was the because of the place it took us to, the other was about the journey to the cache! :D

 

Also just done a 15 mile walk on Dartmoor in the snow for 19 caches,this gave me a real sense of achievement and it was a throuroughly enjoyable day, albeit on my own as everyone else was working :(

 

And that leads me on to "social caching" a day out with friends doing a few caches, or after a particular single cache, sometimes it's just about the journey and who you are with.

 

I've also addded a new dimension to my caching now, thanks to Stuey, the "Somerset well rounded cacher", and also looking at the days of the year i havn't cached on and trying to fill in those gaps, and also trying to complete some of those big series of caches, like the Alphabet challenge on Dartmoor.

 

Will i ever give up caching........I doubt it, i may go quiet sometimes ad miss a few days, weeks, months...but give it up completely..Nah, never :D

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Thanks for all the feed back, maybe I posted a bit early. I felt it rude not to reply in some way...

 

"it WILL return - I can assure you of that!!" True, sort-off ish...

 

"because it takes you to somewhere off the beaten track" That is one of the reasons I started caching. I could be guided to new and intresting places by the caches :P .. Now I spend more time looking at maps and footpaths again, then as an after thought caches :mad: ...

 

Other thoughts for you:

A)"If at anytime I'm 10m from a cache and can't be bothered... That'll be time to stop altogether. "

B) "ignore list?...no, i don't have one because i can't possibly know ahead..." (I used to think like that but now to be honest it is my friend).

C) "i don't put certain people's caches on ignore either" I think I should do it more..

 

I am guilty of all of A-C above, I have come to a decision: its better than writing an honest log for what in my mind is a poor cache...

So my ignore list may well keep growing for some time...

 

"Maybe a couple of clear "fave" caches would reinvigorate the OP's interest." They have to some degree :D ... Then a few of poor ones set you back :P

 

I will be intrested how the favorites develop, it may take time to settle out. Is there a way to search by the % favorite? that might help.

 

2 of my multi's no one has favored (normally get good logs ;)), then some one has favourited the local "Off your trolley" (A magnetic on a trolley shelter :o )I think it will always be more of a guide than a rule :ph34r: ..

 

"because it takes you to somewhere off the beaten track" thats why I started caching. Not to try crossing a lane that is used as a short cut, to get an old plastic drinks container out of a hedge, my log is not very kind :ph34r: .

 

"There is still enjoyment to be reaped, it just need all our best efforts."

Now that I agree with :D

 

PS Caching is far from my only hobby, its my bad weather, rainy day, and way of noting when and where I have been doing other things kind off hobby...

 

PPS The only members of my family who are into caching I introduced to caching, having found it by accident myself...

 

PPS the worst of it is you might still find me popping in the forums form time to time..

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As my sig line says - I'm a cacher, I don't have time for any other hobbies...

 

Actually - that was probably right back then, when I wrote it, but these days caching has taken a bit of a back seat for me. Not because I have a super duper new job, or have discovered a more interesting hobby (is this possible?) but simply because I'm living my life....

 

Real life has a habit of getting in the way!!

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I have virtually stopped caching- for now at least. Tell tale signs apart from having done so few are not being bothered to write caches up done in October (including one of my favourites- a virtual), not going for FTFs just a mile away, nor having any inclination to "tidy up" the local area.

Benefits of stopping?

1. Frees up loads of time- not just the caching itself, but working out where to go and writing up the logs (I couldn't bring myself to do these minimal or cut n paste logs that many power cachers do).

2. Going back for walks in nice areas. Local to me are Trent Park and Epping Forest- great areas for walking in. However I wasn't interested once I had done all the caches there. Really enjoyed revisiting these places recently.

3. Whilst caching has taken me to great places, it may have taken me to places not as nice as I could have gone to if I hadn't been looking to get lots of caches. Sometimes the two coincided, sometimes they didn't. The last two summers I have been on big UK caching tours. I looked in my wardrobe the other day and saw some of my three-quarter length trousers and thought "I never wore them last summer". Next summer I am planning to spend it playing chess somewhere sunny!

Expect I will continue caching but is likely to be caching when it fits in with what I am already doing rather than other things fitting in with caching.

This favourites thing does look a very positive development and should help with getting quality over quantity.

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For some it is "A" hobby for others it is "THE" hobby. A few years ago I was a fanatial golfer until realising I would never get below an 18 handicap - so tried windsurfing. Got very wet for a couple of years. Building and flying radio controlled aircraft and helicopters (still on going) Then discovered caching. Our main pastime for the 30 years we have been married is caravanning. So If near sea I can take the clubs and windsurfer (bit windy for radio control) If in the country take selection of 'copters and planes.

But since we started caching we use our holidays/weekends out dog walking and caching !!Quick download of caches in the general area and print map. Take mobile phone with Geo App for "one offs" But now regard it as "A" hobby, rather than "THE" hobby.

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When I started it was normal for caches to be in good places to visit, or puzzles or at least something of interest and I was pretty enthusiastic, even going for FTF's and the such.

 

Then I was fortunate enough to visit my folks in New Zealand and bagged a few there that were all awesome...came back and walked down a dreary dog poo ridden path to find a micro and have struggled to muster the enthusiasm since.

 

I do look in every now and then... not stopped really...but definately not addicted any more!

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