Number of finds? I'll never compete...

[+Redfist]

 

Lately, I've been picking puzzle caches where I have to hike to the top of steep peaks to hunt for a cache buried under rocks amongst thousands of rocks. I spent about 3 hours this morning finding 2 caches then found an easy micro near where I parked. Lots of sweat and time for 3 finds. I guess I'm just not cut out to have 100 cache find days like I've seen other people attest to. hehe

 

I think my next outing will have to be for a less terrain ambitious set of finds.

 

Just curious - do you go for numbers, or certain styles of caches, or ????

[+Chokecherry]

I go for fun. I pick and choose which caches seem like they would be interesting to me and go for them.

[sabrefan7]

Your are able to play this game in the fashion you choose. I do the same as the two of you, do what you like and like what you find. Caching to me is all about the location were I end up.

[+baloo&bd]

I guess I'm just not cut out to have 100 cache find days like I've seen other people attest to. hehe

 

 

Then I guess it is a good thing you chose a hobby where it is about the journey and not the destination.

[+Sapience Trek]

Nice thing is, this isn't a competition.

[+Redfist]

I am really enjoying it. It gives me an excuse to get off my butt, go outside, and get exercise while seeing some amazing sights. I love this hobby...

[+John in Valley Forge]

I am really enjoying it. It gives me an excuse to get off my butt, go outside, and get exercise while seeing some amazing sights. I love this hobby...

 

+1

 

I realized last summer that if I ran around grabbing tons of caches every weekend I would run out, so I no limit myself to 1 per trip on a local bike trail. I am doing this for the fun of getting out and about. I know I will never catch up with more experienced or prolific cachers, but I really don't care.

[+Student Camper]

Admit it, you just don't have any real ambition, I feel sorry for you.

My ambition is to set out 36000+ micros for the numbers hounds, but of course I can't do this untill TPTB change the rules.

The dumptruck is loaded.

 

 

 

OK, I'm kidding about the ambition part, (yours).

[+StarBrand]

I like scenic views and pleasant walks. Sometimes I like city parks, sometimes I prefer trees, sometimes historical or little known spots, sometimes I like the loneliness of open prairie. Larger caches are best but any cache I find is a bonus if the location is nice enough.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I go for fun. I pick and choose which caches seem like they would be interesting to me and go for them.

 

Yup! Fun! Whatever sounds like fun today! Did some 3/3 with an ice crossing to an island last week. Did some nice urban caches the week before. Sometimes I do long hikes in the woods. Whatever sounds like fun for the day!

[+jeff35080]

I've been geocaching since 2002 and my finds are insignificant to those of some of my geo friends, but I have enjoyed each and every geocache that I found and hid. I play the game the way I want to play the game. Things have changed a lot over the years... there's just so many micros now as compared to when I first started playing.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

 

Lately, I've been picking puzzle caches where I have to hike to the top of steep peaks to hunt for a cache buried under rocks amongst thousands of rocks. I spent about 3 hours this morning finding 2 caches then found an easy micro near where I parked. Lots of sweat and time for 3 finds. I guess I'm just not cut out to have 100 cache find days like I've seen other people attest to. hehe

 

I think my next outing will have to be for a less terrain ambitious set of finds.

 

Just curious - do you go for numbers, or certain styles of caches, or ????

I cache to have fun.

 

Fun one day may be running out at 3 a.m. to try for that just-listed FTF.

 

Another day it may be going to an event and caching afterward with a carload of pals.

 

This coming Tuesday another cacher and I are driving 250 miles to see a Mardi Gras parade then caching our way back home.

 

Sometimes teaming up with a carload of friends and finding 100 caches in a day is fun.

 

Spending 2 months planning and lots of money to put together a team of 4 Germans and 4 Americans to set a 24-hour record for finds was fun (once!).

 

Stopping to find a cache after a business meeting is fun.

 

I don't think anyone caches just one way.

 

Do what is fun for you.

 

Don't sweat the numbers. After staying in the World Top 50 and Alabama Top 5 for years I mostly quit logging finds online. It's not about the numbers, and it's certainly not a competition.

[+MoonCatKDT & Peanut]

Since I still feel like I'm just starting, it's all about exploration for me. I'll go after anything right now because it brings me to a place I haven't been before. For caches that are in a place I know, I'll grab them when I'm in the area to add more to the memories in that spot. It's not about the numbers, but as of yet i'm not picky. When I start to get bored with the micros or lame hides then I will start to filter, but that hasn't happened yet

[+simpjkee]

I cached from the numbers between find #20 and find #1000. Then I just went when I wanted to which was pretty much all the time. About 8 months ago I didn't cache for awhile. Now I go after caches that I can hike (or at least walk) to.

[+BlueDeuce]

I like scenic views and pleasant walks. Sometimes I like city parks, sometimes I prefer trees, sometimes historical or little known spots, sometimes I like the loneliness of open prairie. Larger caches are best but any cache I find is a bonus if the location is nice enough.

 

True dat. A walk through nature on an open trail. No one around but the birds and the wind. A snow covered trail while looking for the occasional animal track crossing.

 

(Why do I have the sudden urge to go caching? )

[+Redfist]

I also am not picky yet. I don't have a ton of finds (108 as of today), but a pretty good percentage of them are "it takes up to 2 hours to achieve" type of hikes. I do mountain peak caches, light post caches, random caches while on business trips, etc. I do really seem to like puzzle caches.

 

I haven't met a cache I don't like yet. I'm just not frenetic about earning numbers. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all - like others said, this game is different things to different people. And if I were being honest with myself, I'd likely aim for more frequent finds if time were irrelevant (family time, wife time, work time, etc.).

 

It's all fun...

[+roziecakes]

I have different cache preferences on different days depending on my health, my time schedule, my budget, who I'm with, etc. Honestly though, my favorite are ones in parks where I can walk on trails and find a few by walking around a few miles. I am not quite healthy enough yet for steep hikes, but I hope to be soon!!! Glad you are enjoying this hobby, it's truly my favorite as well

[+DragonsWest]

Geocaching is my Personal Fitness Training program. I spent two days riding my bike this weekend. Often I'm out getting that ol' heart rate up on some gnarly trail climbs. It sure beats the 'eck out of growing a lard-butt in front of the telly.

[+simpjkee]

I had a 60 cache day and I don't have any interest in doing that again. I doubt I'll ever do 100 in a day. And if I ever end up in a situation where I can compete, I'll happily let my competition win and then go on my merry way.

[g_o_caching]

I enjoy going to places I didn't know were there. Some are 15 miles from home and I never knew where "that road" went, or there was a cemetery that way, or a neat little recreation area was over the hill from where I drive by regularly. The numbers come gradually, I'm not racing anyone. The more you find, the further you have to go to find new places. Even on the days you don't find many caches, you found new territory.

[+GeoGeeBee]

I'm sort of schizophrenic in my caching activities.

 

If I'm going to spend a day (or a big part of a day) geocaching, then I get out in the woods. I'll look for a nice long hike, or interesting terrain.

 

But I also enjoy coloring in new counties on my map of North Carolina. Saturday, for example, I attended a math conference in Salisbury. I left early enough to stop in three counties along the way there, and took a bit of a detour coming home to get three other counties. Of course, all of the caches involved were close to the highway, and rated less than 2/2.

 

I rarely have the time to travel for the express purpose of geocaching, but I like to find at least one cache anytime I'm traveling for other purposes. So again, that usually means low difficulty, low terrain ratings, easy caches.

 

Edited because I can't speell.

Edited March 7, 2011 by GeoGeeBee

[+JL_HSTRE]

My first year (2010) I was pretty much grabbing every cache I could.

 

For 2011 I am being more particular. I'm solving more puzzles, going for more multis & earthcaches & virtuals, working in some Waymarks (albeit setting most of the categories to Ignore), looking for caches with Favorites votes and/or by hiders I have positive cache experience with, and letting caching take me to trails, parks, and other neat places while skipping the LPCs, power trails, and most of the GRIMs (they are occasionally in interesting spots) that I have learned don't interest me.

 

While alot it stems from the time on my hands on weekends lately, I've found 200 caches already in 2011 after getting 443 in all of last year. I'm getting more numbers but still having more fun. Out of those caches, I think the only one that was really a "blah" experience was a rest area cache (and I only got it because I needed to stop there anyway).

[+Kameharem]

I will search for almost any cache because I just like the searching so the type I search for depends on who I'm with: my wife hates urban caches and only wants to go to parks and trail hikes, my daughter hates micros and only wants to look for caches big enough to hold swag, so when I'm by myself I get to look for urban micros. LOL

[+bflentje]

I go for all of the above. Neat thing is, when I have a 60 cache find day, I only compare it against my own numbers. If ya worry about others, you'll never keep up.

[+Semper Questio]

I just go for what I can when I can. That may be a quick park and grab while running an errand, it may be going on a night cache run with a friend or two, it may be something else. But the point is that I want to get at least a brief break for "life" and have a bit of fun.

[+briansnat]

When I first started caching I was all about numbers because it seemed that a high number count gave you some sort of status (Back then a high find count was in the low hundreds).

 

Sometime during my 2nd year of caching I realized that if finding lots of uninteresting caches was going to bring me "status" I didn't want it.

[+Redfist]

WRT "numbers", I did go out for an early lunch today and logged 4 (obviously these weren't climbing peaks). One was a 3 part series ending in a puzzle (suburban neighborhood) and one was an extremely tricky container hide along a rural road.

 

I didn't do these to pad a number (4 obviously isn't a high number, but isn't bad for 'lunch'). I did these because they sounded fun.

[Clan Riffster]

I would much rather spend a whole day going after one memorable hide then that same amount of time nabbing a bunch of P&Gs.

Fortunately, this game allows for various methods of play.

[+Sol seaker]

I admit, there have been days I've done "numbers runs" but just small ones mainly. I figure I've got to clear the ones in the city off my map somehow and they usually aren't worth much else than that.

 

My favorite hides are boat caches. I spend all day getting one cache. Those are the best caches there are!!!

[+TerraViators]

I have different goals on different days. One day, I just want to find puzzles, one day I want to find all the caches in a specific park, one day I try to see how many I can find in a day, one day I drive to a specif area, it just depends. Sometimes, I find a cache just so it doesn't keep popping up on my search list.

[+roziecakes]

I admit, there have been days I've done "numbers runs" but just small ones mainly. I figure I've got to clear the ones in the city off my map somehow and they usually aren't worth much else than that.

 

My favorite hides are boat caches. I spend all day getting one cache. Those are the best caches there are!!!

 

Boat caches are so much fun! We got our first chance to do some this last summer, and I hope to do a lot more this summer.

[+magicalmartin]

I do enjoy doing a run of Caches, but sometimes its great to go for one that takes you somewhere really cool! Like up a tree or the middle of river!

 

How do Boat hides work? Ive never heard of them?

[TheCacheSeeker]

I do enjoy doing a run of Caches, but sometimes its great to go for one that takes you somewhere really cool! Like up a tree or the middle of river!

 

How do Boat hides work? Ive never heard of them?

Boat hides are like caches hidden on islands and places accessible only by boat. Often you bring your own boat.

[+Zangvogel]

At the moment, I mostly go for a nice walk - and I pick up some caches which happen to be on the trail.

 

At other times I like caches with a challenge. Might be challenging terrain, a challenging puzzle, a long multicache.

 

I never go for the numbers.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I admit, there have been days I've done "numbers runs" but just small ones mainly. I figure I've got to clear the ones in the city off my map somehow and they usually aren't worth much else than that.

 

My favorite hides are boat caches. I spend all day getting one cache. Those are the best caches there are!!!

 

Boat caches are so much fun! We got our first chance to do some this last summer, and I hope to do a lot more this summer.

 

+1, as you could probably surmise from my handle.

 

Last summer a local geocacher created several boat cache series when included a bunch of caches along three different navigable rivers. Since I usually cache along I have yet been able to go after them as they all require a shuttle (which requires at least people with a boat and a vehicle). I'm hoping that this summer I'll be able to hook up with someone to do these. I've paddled two of the three rivers before the caches were placed and they'd be fun to do even if there were no caches along the way to be found.

[+TheLoneGrangers]

I enjoy the caches that get me out on the trail, I don't like urban caches, its hard for me to get over the fact of people staring at me and wondering wtf I am doing lol. but my wife loves them, and I want all the smileys I can in a 50 mile radius of my home so I do them anyways, it was a 10 mile radius, pretty much have that taken care of, next will be 100 mile radius...my goal is to get all the caches in all the state parks/forests in South Carolina.

[+hzoi]

The only times we really worry about numbers are when we have a set cache or trip in mind for a good milestone. When we were in Europe, we liked getting century milestones in other countries (starting with #400 in Scotland, #500 in Czech Republic, and so on). After we booked trips, we'd either have to hurry up or slow down to make sure we hit the milestone at the right time. Same thing in the US now (#2600 at a 10 Years! event, #2700 at the Washington A.P.E. cache). So other than timing our milestones, numbers aren't important.