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Geocaching and transportation


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Dear forum visitors,

 

it seems that a lot of geocachers use the automobile to visit caches as cache descriptions often give directions about where to park the car at cache locations. I get the idea that some people even drive small bush roads to get as close as possible to the cache location.

 

Personally I have always been a bicycle fanatic and I don't like cars as there are in my opinion too many of them in my densely populated country (The Netherlands) and because cars make (most) people lazy, create serious accidents, etc. Furthermore I think they just don't fit well in the landscape: for instance often when I visit geocache locations cars are parked near historic spots.

 

I respect everyone's own choice and I am curious about your ideas about motorized transportation & geocaching. To me, geocaching is an outdoor activity in nature so un-motorized or public transportation is the best choice. Whats your opinion?

Edited by silvershadelynx
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My opinion is that you're being a bit on the judgmental side, with heavy bias against that which doesn't match your own experience/preferences and a lack of knowledge of the rest of the world.

 

In the US, it's pretty much impossible to geocache extensively without a car - everything is far too spread out, there aren't a lot of bike paths (relatively speaking) and most roads are still not designed for bicycle safety. "Serious accidents" are not as common as you might think. Within 5 miles (8km) of my house, there are only 50 caches, and getting to some of these involves travel along a very busy road. A 10 mile radius nets about 230 caches, again with busy roads and country roads with no shoulder, large hills and blind corners - a bicyclist can easily be hit.

 

But that doesn't mean that every cache can be grabbed without getting out of the car. You drive to a nice, large park & spend the afternoon hiking & picking up a dozen caches.

Edited by dakboy
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My opinion is that many people may not have a choice but to use a car - not everyone can cycle for miles to get from cache to cache. As for public transportation, well, only useful in urban areas really (well here in the UK anyway, other countries may be better).

 

It's a nice idea, but the majority of people will never be using non vehicular transport.

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Anti- Matter, quantum field teleportation (AMQFT). This way I can cache in the past and the future. I have found caches that haven't even been placed yet!

But you are right. Nothing ruins a good lamppost cache like all those cars in the parking lot around it. <_<

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Hi silvershadelynx, most of the responses in this section of the forums will be from cachers based in the United States, where distances are large, and outside of urban areas, public transportation is limited, or non-existent.

 

I don't think this thread is apt to go in a direction that follows your thought.

 

What is true in the U.S., is that it may be possible to drive to a place and park, and then hike or bike for many miles, or overnight if you choose. But it's often not an option to get to the parking area by any means other then driving your own car.

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We cache in a Toyota Tundra with lid over the bed.....GREAT for the loooong trips we take packing tons of gear.

When I get another it will be 4 wheel drive...I really could have used it this summer in several states we visited...we drove a couple hundred miles on sandy desert and mountain roads and there were many places where 2 WD was a no-go.

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Hi silvershadelynx, most of the responses in this section of the forums will be from cachers based in the United States, where distances are large, and outside of urban areas, public transportation is limited, or non-existent.

 

And what's interesting is that silvershadelynx is from the Netherlands, probably one of the most bicycle friendly and focused countries anywhere. Although there are places in the U.S. (like Boulder, Colorado) where the use of bicycles for every day travel is common and the infrastructure is actually designed to accommodate bicycle use. However, the daily use of bicycles is just not ingrained into the mentality as it is in most other countries. Go to practically any large city in Europe and you'll find automated service points throughout the city where bicycles can be rented and dropped off in dozens of locations. I spent a day on a rented bicycle like that for a day of exploring and geocaching in Barcelona. I plan on doing the same in Singapore in about three weeks.

 

Whenever the suggestion that some sort of non-auto transportation be used for geocaching, someone in the U.S. will write about how spread out everything is in the U.S. I suspect that there are many areas in Europe and other countries that are just as spread out but might be better connected (via trains) than in the U.S. Most non-European and U.S. countries just don't have a lot of caches (or cachers) perhaps we just don't hear about transportation methods in those countries.

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Dear forum visitors,

 

it seems that a lot of geocachers use the automobile to visit caches as cache descriptions often give directions about where to park the car at cache locations. I get the idea that some people even drive small bush roads to get as close as possible to the cache location.

 

Personally I have always been a bicycle fanatic and I don't like cars as there are in my opinion too many of them in my densely populated country (The Netherlands) and because cars make (most) people lazy, create serious accidents, etc. Furthermore I think they just don't fit well in the landscape: for instance often when I visit geocache locations cars are parked near historic spots.

 

I respect everyone's own choice and I am curious about your ideas about motorized transportation & geocaching. To me, geocaching is an outdoor activity in nature so un-motorized or public transportation is the best choice. Whats your opinion?

 

We cache on a Harley here in California.

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And what's interesting is that silvershadelynx is from the Netherlands, probably one of the most bicycle friendly and focused countries anywhere.

Yep, you could probably pick any other country, and the use of bikes to get to caches would be less. Where I live in Victoria, BC, Canada, there is decent bicycle infrastructure (rail-trails, bike lanes, etc.) and there's an annual bike-to-work week. A lot of people bike, but not a lot of people bike to caches. There are a few cachers that cache almost entirely by bike and public transit, but it isn't common. A large percentage of the region is quite hilly, so you need to be in pretty good shape to get to some areas. There's a lot of dedicated wild parkland, though, so most of the time you can drive to a trailhead and go for a whole bunch of caches in a park.

 

To answer the question of what means of transportation I use, it's usually The Geo-Rabbit, though I have done some caching by bike on a nearby rail-trail and will be doing some more (a new series has just been placed along it). I've found a lot of the caches in this area, so the ones I have left are more spread out and biking to them isn't as much of an option.

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We use a car (an Italian one ;) ) to get to our "rally point" and hike from there. This is Norway, where the only people found on bicycles are depressed, suicidal 40-somethings in expensive sponsor-ridden spandex clothing on 5.000 dollar bikes and a seemingly birthright right-of-way. Which means they don't use bike lanes. Ever.

 

Norway is roughly the size of California and has about 5 million people in it. It is deserted, and uphill both ways. That means "car".

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First,

I try to cache using my motorcycle but as it rains here a lot (160 in./year) I use my truck as well, but I do not think of myself as lazy doing so and I do resent the implication.

And second,

It is very unlikely my vehicle will be the cause of any accident I may be involved in, it will be myself or the other driver,

Cars do not cause accidents, people do.

And third,

As a driver, I do not look down upon cyclists the way some bicycle fanatics (self proclaimed) look down upon motorists, although I do resent the total disregard of traffic rules as exhibited by many cyclists.

And in many cases, public transportation is just not an option.

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Some of our caching trips are way out in the remote backwoods along logging roads, with the accompanying wildlife (bears and cougars) so I feel more comfortable in a car.

Where I live, public transportation only runs every two hours, less on the weekends. We park and walk along trails to get caches.

One has to remember the different abilities and ages of cachers, and whatever works for them. We did a series that involved driving to the start point, followed by a 7 km hike. Wouldn't work for a physically challenged cacher, or for some young/not so young cachers.

Personally, cycling and I don't get on - especially on the many hills around here. Flat trails in the Netherlands? Yes, I'd give that a try.

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I do not drive. I do not have a license so I ride my bike to the cache and that's one of the reasons I have trouble trying to find a place to hid my caches that's not taken cause you can only go so fare on a bike for it to be worth while. I have small lock n locks and its hard to find a place in a city to hid them when most of the good spots that are in biking distance are taken and It needs to be close so if theres a issue with the cache in winter I can get to it. Im not going to hid a cache 20 miles from my house and not be able to get out there in the middle of winter cause no one shovels there sidewalks anymore.I ride 18 miles to the beach but that's a 2 hour bike ride one way so I only do that on really hot days. That's one of the reasons I complained cause it's frustrating hiding a cache and then having to go back 3 times trying to move it away from a final stage of a puzzle cache cause the reviewer can't even tell you if your moving away or closer to it. I don't drive I don't have a car and it gets annoying when he keeps temporary disabling my caches cause there too close to a final stage that does not show up on the map. I gave up on 2 locations and archived them cause theres no place to hid them without muggles seeing them.There should be a option that when you submit cords it automatically says it's too close to another cache so you don't have to wait days for the reviewer to tell you its too close you move it then 3 days later its still to close cause after that its stops being fun trying to hid caches. If you have a smart phone I phone then you can upload the cache right there and still move while your still there instead of getting home and finding out it's too close.

Edited by Lexmarks567
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Most of my geocaching is opportunistic. I'm already near the geocache for whatever reason, and searching for the geocache is secondary. The mode of travel is determined by whatever the primary reason for me being there is.

 

On the rare occasions when geocaching is the primary purpose for the trip, I choose whatever mode of travel makes sense. For example, when a group of us went kayak geocaching at a lake 150+ miles away, we drove. Getting the kayaks and other gear to the lake by un-motorized or public transportation wouldn't have been practical. The fact that we drove to the lake didn't make the kayaking or geocaching any less an outdoor activity in nature.

 

And of course, a lot of my urban/suburban geocaching isn't really about being "in nature" anyway (and some of it hasn't even been outdoors), so that wouldn't even be a consideration.

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Dear forum visitors,

 

it seems that a lot of geocachers use the automobile to visit caches as cache descriptions often give directions about where to park the car at cache locations. I get the idea that some people even drive small bush roads to get as close as possible to the cache location.

 

Personally I have always been a bicycle fanatic and I don't like cars as there are in my opinion too many of them in my densely populated country (The Netherlands) and because cars make (most) people lazy, create serious accidents, etc. Furthermore I think they just don't fit well in the landscape: for instance often when I visit geocache locations cars are parked near historic spots.

 

I respect everyone's own choice and I am curious about your ideas about motorized transportation & geocaching. To me, geocaching is an outdoor activity in nature so un-motorized or public transportation is the best choice. Whats your opinion?

 

That's great if you live in The Netherlands. Here in the US though, we have States that are larger than European nations. And in the Western half of the Country, we have Counties larger than our Eastern States. So, an automobile is pretty much indispensable over here if you want to find more than 20-30 caches...ever.

 

Typically, I'll drive to the location for the day/weekend. Park the truck, and start hiking. Since I detest bicycles, I walk. Today was a minor example. I drove 6 miles RT, and walked 1.25 miles RT to hide one and find two. Last Monday, I drove 160 miles RT to find six.

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I'm still quite new to caching, and have happily walked to all caches that are local (within a few miles) to me, I don't drive, but the missus does. She's away next weekend and I'm planning to take the train to go do a few trails. So we don't rely solely on the car.

 

However, in the main, we do mostly use the car. But we don't drive to caches, we drive to a country park, or the start of a trail of caches, park in a car park and walk the trail. For us the whole point of caching is to get us out walking as a family, a nice healthy activity.

 

Cycling would be nice, but that's not practical for us. For a start we live in a small flat with no outside space and not enough room indoors to store 4 bikes. Secondly, our kids are 2 and 5, definitely not big enough to be cycling miles per day. And finally, we can't afford to buy 4 bikes.

 

Another part of our caching is done when we're camping, a great way to find new areas, walks and caches, and I'm damned sure I can't take our trailer tent on train/bus/bike ;)

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We use a car (an Italian one ;) ) to get to our "rally point" and hike from there. This is Norway, where the only people found on bicycles are depressed, suicidal 40-somethings in expensive sponsor-ridden spandex clothing on 5.000 dollar bikes and a seemingly birthright right-of-way. Which means they don't use bike lanes. Ever.

 

Norway is roughly the size of California and has about 5 million people in it. It is deserted, and uphill both ways. That means "car".

 

Cycling in Norway is definitely harder than cycling in The Netherlands, but still doable in my opinion. At least personally I had no problems crossing your country from south to north serveral times, highest mountain pass included, even with 20+ kg luggage. So in my opinion it really depends on where in Norway you are, what roads you choose and your own safety precautions and behaviour.

 

2z71nhv.jpg

camping near Flåm on my way to Lofoten, Norway, 2008

 

2rgevma.jpg

Varangerfjorden, on my way to Vardoe (bicycle trip), Norway, 2012

Edited by silvershadelynx
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Thanks for all your replies. I was not able to post a message on the Dutch geocaching forum so I put my question at this forum although I understand this is not the best (logical) place to do so. I studied the US geocache map and I find lots of remote places so I agree that those areas are at least difficult to do by bicycle. So it would have been better if I directed my question to people that live in more densely populated areas in the US as the cache density is higher as well in those areas.

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I cache because it's a good excuse to walk. One of my joys is figuring out how to walk to a cache designed to be only a park&grab. In the US, that can be quite challenging.

 

Having said that, the fact is that I grabbed all the caches I could walk to within the first few months I was caching, so these days I have to drive to get somewhere during my lunch time where I can walk around and pick up some caches. (As it happens, I haven't done any bike caching, but after a year or so I'd gotten all the caches within biking distance, as well.)

 

I appreciate caches with parking coordinates. They frequently reveal an unexpected way to get into an great area. Yes, I admit, I often use them as a way to know where to put my car and start my walk, but they can also be handy reference points for other reasons.

Edited by dprovan
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I use whatever is available to me. I can walk to a cache, but if I find it too far away to walk to it comfortably (for example due to very hot weather), I take a bike or public transport.

I can only use a car if someone else drives me to the location I want to cache in, because I'm still learning for my own license.

 

The vehicle I use is part of the planning of the trip. If I know I'd have to hike 50 kilometers for just one cache, I'll try to find another way to get there, or scratch that cache from the list.

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So it would have been better if I directed my question to people that live in more densely populated areas in the US as the cache density is higher as well in those areas.

 

Okay. I live in the most densely populated state: New Jersey. I have not tried bicycling in many decades. Our roads are not bicycle (nor pedestrian) friendy. I'm halfway between NYC and Pennsylvania. Suburbia is built for cars. You cannot ride a bike on most of the major roads here. And don't bother trying to get there on the other roads. Yup. I drive to the caches/trails, and hike in.

We will drive to caches in most of urban NJ. But they're not easy to get to, and parking is usually terrible. So, we go more suburban. Easier to get to West Caldwell than Jersey City! So that's where we'll go. As for caching in the city (AKA New York City.) We've given up trying to drive to them. If the caches are near the subway or bus line, we might go for them.

My caching partner lives on the west side of the Hudson river. His Ten-Mile List includes all of Queens, most of Brooklyn and The Bronx. Nope. We don't do that anymore. Not easy to walk there. Cannot bike there. If you drive, it will take hours, and $16 in tolls. Nope. Gave up on them. Manhattan, we can get to fairly easily.

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Thanks for all your replies. I was not able to post a message on the Dutch geocaching forum so I put my question at this forum although I understand this is not the best (logical) place to do so. I studied the US geocache map and I find lots of remote places so I agree that those areas are at least difficult to do by bicycle. So it would have been better if I directed my question to people that live in more densely populated areas in the US as the cache density is higher as well in those areas.

Cache density is pretty high here in Eugene, Oregon. The metro area has over 200k people - I don't know if that counts as densely populated. Biking to caches in town is fine. I bike to most of my own caches for maintenance runs. But I have to admit, caching in town pales when compared to hiking caches in the woods 20-30 miles from town.

 

If I biked the back roads, maybe I could get myself to some of the places I like to hike without getting killed by a car (I've never tried it - scary). Actual highways are suicidal for bikes. Public transportation doesn't go to trailheads in the woods.

 

So if I settled for in-town caches, then yes a bike is doable. But to get to the caches I love, it takes my fossil-fuel-guzzling car (and if I had a four-wheel-drive, which guzzles even more fossil fuels, I could access even more of those caches that I love...if I could afford to fill the gas tank). :)

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I use my car or van. On the rare occasion that I'm going to a powertrail, I'll bring my bike.

 

Public transit here is just not that fast or convenient and I'm not brave or fit enough to bike on major roads.

 

With very limited time to cache, there's no way I can spend 1/2 hour each way waiting at the bus stop plus all the extra time walking/biking from the bus stop to where the caches actually are.

 

Fortunately we have alot of parks here so I can often park my vehicle that go for a nice hike. I prefer this, actually, to park and grabs.

Edited by The_Incredibles_
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I usually use a car, park in an area with many caches around it and walk from there. However this is typically within town or city when you get on the outskirts there is a lot of driving as close as possible then walking the rest of the way for a single cache.. sometimes you have to drive a long ways to get even close to that certain coastline, beach, forest, trail.. etc.

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I don't care how other cachers move to their caches, myself I prefer a bicycle. Within the five year of caching history I changed four bicycles. Out of nearly 1.5K finds about a dozen were found while using a car: few in Ireland while my brother was showing me the countryside and a few more in Qatari desert whilst a geocaching buddy had me in his 4x4. I either hiked, used public transport or biked to the rest of my found caches. I am 48 and never owned a car since I never really needed it. I live in a compact city and my commute is only 20km RT so I do it year round. Ice is no problem since the invention of studded tires, rain and cold is no problem as long as appropriate apparel does the business. But it is so much fun to go out caching on a bike. There were times caches weren't densely populated in Lithuania, it took me to cover 400km+ in 20hours to log a single DNF a few years ago. My latest bicycle is foldable so I take it with me to most places I travel. It now has 58 flights, I rode it in 40+ countries so far. Lithuania as my home country is by far not the safest and most relaxed country to cycle in as most of Europe (except Scandinavia). I found US drivers pretty polite on roads, much better than in most parts of Europe. SE Asia is good once you get used to their traffic. Middle East is tough, but doable. Cycling is fun and I try to combine it with another hobby of mine: ham radio. Happy trails!

 

Locals trying my travel bike in Qatar:

136-mister_cruz.jpg

 

Me and my transport in Red Square, Moscow:

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Thanks for all your replies. I was not able to post a message on the Dutch geocaching forum so I put my question at this forum although I understand this is not the best (logical) place to do so. I studied the US geocache map and I find lots of remote places so I agree that those areas are at least difficult to do by bicycle. So it would have been better if I directed my question to people that live in more densely populated areas in the US as the cache density is higher as well in those areas.

 

It is such a pity that hardly any North American cachers write in this part of the forum. I do think that it depends more on the infrastructure and the personal attitude and situation than on cache density which means of transportation someone uses for geocaching.

 

Even in locations where there exists a very good system of public transportation and which are bicycle friendly the percentage of cachers who are not using cars at least for some part of the journey is small. Many cachers want to find many caches on a tour and are not satisfied with riding 80km or more to maybe catch one or two caches they have not found before. I have done this several times, but for me it was about the bike ride and the cache was just a motivation to start off. I usually do all the caching in my city by bicycle and also many caches in the 25km circle around if not too much height meters are involved and if there exists a reasonable route there. Knee troubles forced me, however, to cut down my biking activities and avoid longer distances and more height meters. Combining biking and public transportation is only possible to a very limited extent in my area and only along a few train lines - buses do not take bicycles at all and in some trains there is space only for a single bike. There exists no subway system - I often envy cities like Vienna, Copenhagen and others were it is easier to transport bicycles to the outskirts.

 

I also cached relying on public transportation only - in particular when doing hikes that start and end at different places. The disadvantage is that this needs very good planning and sometimes long waiting times are involved in rural areas if there exists a service at all. The more people rely on cars, the worse will be the public transportation offer. That's unfortunately a vicious circuit - outside of the times when people commute to/from work or students commute to/from school the offer is lousy in most rural areas in many European countries. Switzerland and the Netherlands are among those countries with the best offer also in that respect.

 

When discussing about the topic one also needs to take into account however that there is a high proportion of cachers who are not caching to get physically active, but for the sake of the searching experience or visiting interesting new places.

 

In my area (Graz in the South-east of Austria close to the Slovenian border) there is a certain proportion who use the bicycle as a means of transportation for caching within the urban area for short distances (in this way there are also no parking issues), but only very few like to ride a bicycle for longer distances irrespective of the height profile. Typically only those enjoy caching by bicycle who enjoyed riding a bicycle also before they started to geocache.

 

I think it is pretty unrealistic to expect that people will change their mobility approach due to geocaching. Unfortunately, however, more and more the converse is happening. Before power trails showed up people here typically visited first caches that are not too far from their home base (if unfound ones fitting their situation existed). What now happens more and more frequently is that many caches in areas where only a small number of unfound caches exist are ignored and the people drive more than 100km (single way) right after the next power trail or large geocache series showed up. In that way many of them increased the overall distance travelled due to these new type of geocaching.

 

Cezanne

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I have been able to reach one cache within walking distance of my house. It took a solid hour and a half both ways through the woods. I live in a section of town that used to be nothing but farm land. The roads are incredibly dangerous(people and deer are hit pretty regularly) there is no way I am riding a bike into town. The terrain within 10 mile radius of my home really is not possible to cache in unless you use a car.

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Here in Canada, and North America for that matter, a bicycle is more of a recreation item then a mode of transport. There are some people who ride it as a mode of transport, however they never leave the city. The road system here is not set up for riding bikes; and the traffic laws state that bikes share the road with cars. That is a recipe for disaster and there are several cyclists killed here every year in this city of a million that I live in. There are fietspaden but those are again, more for recreation. They go along the river or through the park. (In those areas, yes, you could use a bike to cache.) Or the paths all lead downtown. If you work downtown, and many people do, they do bike to work. However, I neither work nor live downtown so those bike paths do not work for me. I will not risk my life in traffic to bike to work or to the grocery store so as to save some fuel or feel better about the environment.

 

The mountains are about 100km away, and for many it is a recreation to mountian bike on rough trails. However, the trip begins with at least a one hour drive in a motor vehicle with the bikes on the roof or on the back. Some hardy people do ride their bike out there though, along the road. Again, once and a while one will get hit at speed by a car. Not worth my life; at least not for me.

 

I am of Dutch decent and have been to the Netherlands many times. You have a wonderful fietspad system, and I love that. I do love borrowing a bicycle and just riding on it, mainly for the novelty for me! If only we had that here. We have plenty of land, so space is not the issue. (after all, you manage to do that in the tiny Netherlands!!) Funding should not be an issue either, it is a problem of political will and releasing the funds for those projects. If they want me out of the car and riding a bike to work, (as they do)and to the grocery store, etc, then they should provide a safe bikepath system.

 

However, those bikepaths would not be practicle in our bush roads. 100's of kms of gravel roads accessing the remote forests for logging or oil and gas. Great caching area, which due to their remoteness and distance involved must be accessed by car or 4x4. Sometimes, even then, a hike of several hours is required in remote bush country filled with bears and cougers!

 

I drive a Jeep Cherokee 4x4 as it allows me the freedom to get to some of those remote caches. I enjoy hiking and camping in remote areas (camping in a field next to someone with a 30 foot camper complete with satalite TV, video games, microwave and blaring sterio with all the comforts of home to me is an insult to camping; why even leave home??) and the Jeep allows me to do so. My drive to work is only 10 minutes so the amount of gas I use in a given week is not that much. I could take public transit to work, but a month pass is the same as a tank of gas. Also, when I get off work at 2am there is no public transit. And public transit does not go out to the remote areas I like to go.

 

To the OP, Groeten Uit Canada!! However, bicycles are not a mode of transport here, but recreation. They can be used to cache, even in remote mountain trails, but it still involves a one or two hour ride in a car.

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I don't care how other cachers move to their caches, myself I prefer a bicycle. Within the five year of caching history I changed four bicycles. Out of nearly 1.5K finds about a dozen were found while using a car: few in Ireland while my brother was showing me the countryside and a few more in Qatari desert whilst a geocaching buddy had me in his 4x4. I either hiked, used public transport or biked to the rest of my found caches. I am 48 and never owned a car since I never really needed it. I live in a compact city and my commute is only 20km RT so I do it year round. Ice is no problem since the invention of studded tires, rain and cold is no problem as long as appropriate apparel does the business. But it is so much fun to go out caching on a bike. There were times caches weren't densely populated in Lithuania, it took me to cover 400km+ in 20hours to log a single DNF a few years ago. My latest bicycle is foldable so I take it with me to most places I travel. It now has 58 flights, I rode it in 40+ countries so far. Lithuania as my home country is by far not the safest and most relaxed country to cycle in as most of Europe (except Scandinavia). I found US drivers pretty polite on roads, much better than in most parts of Europe. SE Asia is good once you get used to their traffic. Middle East is tough, but doable. Cycling is fun and I try to combine it with another hobby of mine: ham radio. Happy trails!

 

Locals trying my travel bike in Qatar:

 

Me and my transport in Red Square, Moscow:

 

Hi, very nice story. Inspiring to read that you traveled 400+ km in order to not find a single cache :) I saw your activity on the world map, looks impressive! I definetly agree that the bike makes geocaching even better.

 

By the way, I have serious plans to visit the Baltics next year: Northern Germany, Poland, Baltics, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and back to Holland. Can you tell me why Lithuania isn't so safe and relaxed? And how about your neighbouring Baltic countries? (Estonia, Latvia)

 

Thanks and kind regards!

 

Jeroen.

 

by the way: I will reply the other posts a.s.a.p.!

Edited by silvershadelynx
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While I prefer bicycling over using an automobile there are situations where bicycles are not practical. Take in to consideration that in my country some roads restrict the use of bicycles making it impossible to travel to some places without the use of some sort of motorized transportation. Also some road, even tho they do not have any restrictions on bicycling, are just to dangerous to consider using a bicycle on them. Then there is the distance issue. The total land area of the Netherlands is 41,530 km². The total land area of the USA is 9,827,000 km². Okay, so you say that including areas that I haven't caches in would be an unfair comparison. While I've cached in many states I'll do you one better and limit myself to just my home state. My home state has a total land area of 184,800 km². That is over 4 times the total land area of the Netherlands.

 

This summer I have geocaching in the mountains near where I live. It takes about 2 hours to get there by car. I checked the same route with google maps and it says it would take someone just about 5 hours to reach the same spot by bicycle! This doesn't take in to account the time spent geocaching or the time for the return trip.

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I don't care how other cachers move to their caches, myself I prefer a bicycle. Within the five year of caching history I changed four bicycles. Out of nearly 1.5K finds about a dozen were found while using a car: few in Ireland while my brother was showing me the countryside and a few more in Qatari desert whilst a geocaching buddy had me in his 4x4. I either hiked, used public transport or biked to the rest of my found caches. I am 48 and never owned a car since I never really needed it. I live in a compact city and my commute is only 20km RT so I do it year round. Ice is no problem since the invention of studded tires, rain and cold is no problem as long as appropriate apparel does the business. But it is so much fun to go out caching on a bike. There were times caches weren't densely populated in Lithuania, it took me to cover 400km+ in 20hours to log a single DNF a few years ago. My latest bicycle is foldable so I take it with me to most places I travel. It now has 58 flights, I rode it in 40+ countries so far. Lithuania as my home country is by far not the safest and most relaxed country to cycle in as most of Europe (except Scandinavia). I found US drivers pretty polite on roads, much better than in most parts of Europe. SE Asia is good once you get used to their traffic. Middle East is tough, but doable. Cycling is fun and I try to combine it with another hobby of mine: ham radio. Happy trails!

 

I love this! I think combining transportation methods is the best way to go. Motorized transportation is great for long distances. Human power is great for short distances.

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By the way, I have serious plans to visit the Baltics next year: Northern Germany, Poland, Baltics, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and back to Holland. Can you tell me why Lithuania isn't so safe and relaxed? And how about your neighbouring Baltic countries? (Estonia, Latvia)

 

Well, basically it is a DUI issue, silly speed limit set by government in densely populated areas and overall motorist attitude toward cycling audience. Bicycling is often treated as a recreational only activity, you are forced to use sidewalks even when it is not practical. It is unlikely you get things thrown at you though. Try to stay as stealth as possible while camping, avoid scenic lake shores and other potential local picnic places in warm season. Latvia is pretty much the same, Estonians are shifted a bit more toward Scandinavian driving habits. I am not saying it is too dangerous to cycle here, you'll just find it not as relaxing as cycling in Norway.

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the best transport for geocaching is a CAR

with bicycle holder AND a bicycle !!

now you can handle it all :-)

also dont expect to use a competition race type of bicycle

not uptimal, a mountain type of dirt handeling bicycle is more what I need in my area

it could be different to your area, good luck there..

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I live in Bristol, UK. Although it is officially a "cycle city", its traffic is not known for being especially friendly to cyclists, or cars for that matter. Nonetheless, cycling is often the fastest way to get around the city, and over half my finds are within 25km of home, most of them made by bike or on foot. Most of the rest of my finds are made when I happen to have been travelling somewhere (by train, plane, car, or whatever else) and then collect local caches on foot. Whether at home or away, caching gives something to add direction to a morning run, or to point out interesting places on a wander.

 

There are occasional caches where I've been on a road trip, stopped somewhere, and picked up a cache nearby, but very rarely will I drive directly to a cache . That said, I do do the odd day trip where I will drive somewhere, park up, and hike to the caches nearby. Obviously using a car lets me get to fun places you might not otherwise see. But equally, there are fun places I can get to by train or other means, and I do that too.

 

Having travelled and cached a little in America, I can appreciate that it's not the most comfortable place for getting around by any other means than by car. I've also cycled and cached in India, and found that a whole different experience!

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