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bicycle caching


ebstorvik

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I love caching on my bike. I don't use it for big numbers--I use it to get to caches that are too remote for me to drive to. Why would I drive 8 miles from home for a cache when I NEVER, EVER go that direction otherwise? Well, exercise gives me a good excuse.

 

Bike caching is by far my favorite way to cache. :)

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I like to bike cache on the Rails to Trails in the area. There are caches in abundance on some of those. Some parks are good, too. I have a handlebar bike mount for my Garmin that makes caching convenient. I'm not a big numbers guy, though. I just like the fun of geocaching combined with the exercise and scenery. Now if it would just stop raining....

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I used to fold down the back seat of my sedan and load my bike into the trunk, drive out to an urban, cache dense location, get the bike out and clear the area out, then get the bike back into the car and drive to another location and do the same. To me it just seemed more efficient (time and gas) to do it that way instead of walking to each location or getting in and out of the car all day. My new car's trunk and back seat area are just too small now to do it. I'm looking into one of those trunk-mounted bike stands for my future forays.

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I'm not normally a numbers freak, but I did manage to rack up 101 caches in a day, via bicycle, on a power trail in DE. More than anything, just to see if I could. I did every other cache on the way out, and picked up the rest on the way back. Helped to keep it from getting too monotonous. Funny thing is, I actually passed a couple guys who were doing it by car. :-D

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Over 1000 caches found while bicycling so far but we cache to bike not bike to cache. I've done a century and stopped for one cache.

We went out for a 25 mile ride last Saturday and found one cache. There were others that we could have found with a different route and no more effort but the cache just gave us an excuse to ride somewhere we haven't been lately.

That DE PT that is mentioned above? We will probably do some of those caches this winter but only every 4th or 5th one each trip. Jumping off the bicycle every .1-.2 miles ruins a good bike ride B)

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On 8/27/11 I had 64 finds (my personal best for one day) and 62 came while riding over 29 miles on a trail near Madison, WI. It took over 9 hours from start to finish and it was easily the most miles I've ever ridden in one day but I was quite surprised that I wasn't too tired at the end.

 

I have plans to do more (a lot more) in one day in the near future...and it will all be on a bike.

 

Edit to change a date. I don't want people knowing about my time travel powers.

Edited by Team Dennis
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I almost always go caching with my kids (ages 4 and 6), and they often ride whilst I walk. This means they can go further with less effort, I get the benefit of a brisk walk, and we cover more ground.

Because I cache with the kids we don't really go for big numbers, but it certainly increases the distances we cover.

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The majority of my solo finds are on bike.

 

When I am meeting friends we will often drive out on a caching trip, or pick an area we can get to by bus and walk it, but when on my own I tend to go for the bike.

 

A lot of caches I have done while riding anyway - there are a few between my home and the city centre, so I have slowly been picking them of whilst I have been riding to town and back at various points.

 

The other thing I do is pick a cache as an excuse/target for a ride - instead of aimlessly cycling round the woods or sitting at home, I can pick a cache an appropriate distance away and head out towards that for a ride. I guess slowly I will end up picking off all the caches in easy cycling distance, at which point it becomes more of a challenge for me, rather than a quick ride...

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Nearly half of our finds were done while biking. Though for us a bike is really just a means to get somewhere as we don't have a car, and not our favourite means of transport. I would love to cache while inline skating but that would be difficult for most caches and restrict us to roads. Admittedly we had some lovely hunts in some nearby forests, and last winder, cycling through hand-deep fresh snow was also great :D So yes, I guess I could get used to that. Only the weather should be better and please less wind :lol:

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Over 1000 caches found while bicycling so far but we cache to bike not bike to cache. I've done a century and stopped for one cache.

We went out for a 25 mile ride last Saturday and found one cache. There were others that we could have found with a different route and no more effort but the cache just gave us an excuse to ride somewhere we haven't been lately.

That DE PT that is mentioned above? We will probably do some of those caches this winter but only every 4th or 5th one each trip. Jumping off the bicycle every .1-.2 miles ruins a good bike ride B)

 

I've only biked-trail cached once and found about 15 along 8 miles. It was a great experience as none of us was in any real hurry. I'm guess that I wouldn't want to stop more frequently. A month or so ago, a friend pointed out a bike/cache trail about 40 miles east of here. 120 caches along 20 miles. I simply can't imagine hopping on and off the bike 120 times in a day.

 

Small house. The bike is parked in the living room. Perhaps I can mount it 120 times as some sort of exercise routine.

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I rented a bike for a day last year to do some exploring and caching in a big city. I was able to cover a lot more distance than walking and since it was a big city, finding a place to park near many of the caches would have been problematic (I also didn't have a car while I was there). I was out for about 6 hours and only found 6 caches, but I got to see more sights in Barcelona than if I had walked or drove.

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I've done some bike caching and even got a handlebar holder for my Droid from ThinkGeek to make it easier. Not only urban caches, but also some park caches depending on the trails.

 

My one dislike about it is biking trails with caches close together (such as power trails). 528 f goes by fast on a bike and it's easy to overshoot the next cache. Plus the start-stop is a bit annoying which it isn't when just walking. I suppose this problem occurs if you drive a PT too, but I don't drive PTs.

Edited by Joshism
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We find caching by bicycle is definitely the most fun way to go caching, we don't do it very often, and around 70% of all our find are by car, but when we can, we will. In both urban and scenic areas, bicycle caching can be superior. No petrol costs, alot more maneuverability, it keeps you fit and active, and it allows you to enjoy the area and more often than not appreciate the cache more. We still go by car for rural caches (5km apart or more...), but our 2nd biggest number run (only 24 though) was by bike.

 

We parked at the Petone railway station in Wellington and took the train up valley with our bikes, and then biked back down! Good stuff.

 

We will be driving to Auckland City with it's thousands of caches and will staying with relatives in about a month, we are taking our bikes with us, and we expect we can grab 100 plus per day on them.

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Bicycling while looking for caches is an unfair advantage over those walking or in wheelchairs and should be banned. And what happens when you're bicycling with a friend and you find the cache first - does the friend get to log the find too? Bicycling is a tool used by number hounds just to be able to get high numbers my grandfather and his walker could never do. Not to mention how unfair it is to ....

 

Oops, sorry. Got carried away there since I just read the E.T. caching thread full of people complaining because some other cachers are doing things they wouldn't do to increase their numbers.

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When I was spending time in SoCal, almost all caches I found required a hike of some sort, some short, some long. It's true that I drove to the trailhead, but probably 1% of my finds there required less than a 1/10 mile hike.

 

Now I'm mostly home in Florida and I only cache by bicycle, and by that I mean I start from home. Hasn't built up my count very fast. It's pulling down my terrain average, since I don't get terrain credit for non-required effort. But it helps get me out on the bike, especially when the weather's too hot to enjoy it without a good reason. (This August and this summer were both the hottest and driest on record in Tallahassee. One day in June it hit 105F, the hottest ever recorded here. Rainfall YTD is about half of average.)

 

Edward

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I've done some bike caching and even got a handlebar holder for my Droid from ThinkGeek to make it easier. Not only urban caches, but also some park caches depending on the trails.

 

My one dislike about it is biking trails with caches close together (such as power trails). 528 f goes by fast on a bike and it's easy to overshoot the next cache. Plus the start-stop is a bit annoying which it isn't when just walking. I suppose this problem occurs if you drive a PT too, but I don't drive PTs.

 

I know what you mean about being to close together. What I do in local areas where that is true is skip some and get them the next time along that trail. It can take me three wonderful bike trips to finish the trail up. Remember you don't have to stop for each one. Generally use a minimum of .25 from current location before I hit go to.

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Biking is cool in certain places...but the car is faster. It depends on the power trail. On a bike...it is a stop and go and dismounting plus getting the GPS off of the bike etc...sometimes hiking it is more enjoyable. Unless you have two GPSrs and then you can use one on the bike and the other as a handheld. Just from my experience.

I think you may have missed the point. It appears that people who bike don't do power trails I know I don't. We are in it for something other than the numbers.

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Mand excer favorite way is biking but numbers don't matter. Did 14 miles the other day for one cache. Don't understand your comment about big numbers in a day since your best day is 10.

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thanks for the comment i do only have 84 finds and for me 10 in one day was pretty cool.i love this sport fresh air,sun shine,excersise

peace

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NE Ohio is great for bike caching. Over the past few years this part of the state has begun to really get into the Rail to Trails program, with a goal of a continuous bike trail from the shores of Lake Erie to the banks of the Ohio River. As the various sections of the trail have come online so to have many fun caches. We even have a night cache, on the part of the trail that runs near my house, that can be completed on your bike. If your ever in the area I would check it out if I were you!

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I wish there were more bikeable caches around me. I've done all the ones that are close by. Next week I'm heading to Florida and there is a trail along the ICW that has 17 caches along it. I'm really looking forward to that. Now if I could find a way to recharge my cell phone via a dynamo hub. Then I could cash all day via bike.

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