+tweetiepy Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) I'm kinda in a weird location there are many caches south of us but north of us lies a highway and very little caches beyond that. MOST of the caches in this area are puzzles. I'm horrible at them but I've managed to solve about 4 or 5 of them myself and a few others with the CO's help. I even gave my son a few easy ones to solve after I did them, he did pretty good once I gave him the tools to work with. On a side note: a recent one I've almost managed to solve involves translating a paragraph containing the coords, there are a loooOOOooooot of different languages in there they're hard to find. What a bugger that one is: (GC10F9T) it might inspire someone in another region to do this - I doubt I'd be able to do this again.. my brain hurts. Anyways... since there aren,t that many traditional caches and we only geocache on the weekends, this might take a little while, however, if we were to go on most days, the area might be cleared in a matter of months. I go caching with my 12 year old son and his friend, so I'm not going to drive for an hour to find a few finds, or else I'd get complaints so I have to stay local - besides my son gets carsick too - fabulous! I can probably go up to about 30-50 km away but probably no further and that would be if we found an area saturated with caches. I haven't seen anything that was posted recently either so once we've cleared the area we may be out of luck... How long did it take you to clear out your area? Edited February 8, 2013 by tweetiepy Quote Link to comment
+The_Incredibles_ Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Haven't cleared my area out yet and probably never will. We have thousands. Some are very tough puzzles, some involve long hikes, some I'm just not interested in doing. Quote Link to comment
+The A-Team Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I'll let you know when I get there! It all depends on how many caches and what types of caches there are in each area. In my area, there are about 2000 caches within ~25 km, with about 21% of them being multis or puzzles. There are also a lot of caches in rougher terrain, with over 30% of them being terrain 2.5 or higher. There are smaller areas within this region that I've pretty much cleared out, but I still have a number of tougher unfound caches close to home. I've solved all but a handful of puzzles, so it's mainly the higher terrain caches I have left. We do have a pretty active community, though, so there are constantly caches being archived and published, which makes clearing out the area a moving target. Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 What do you consider "my area"? My blast radius around my home coordinates is about 2-3 miles, although I haven't been cycling to work for a while, so it isn't as clear as it once was. And I've still got more than 1500 unfound caches within a 10 mile radius of my home coordinates. So yeah, I'll have to let you know once I actually clear it out... Quote Link to comment
+NeverSummer Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 What do you consider "my area"? My blast radius around my home coordinates is about 2-3 miles, although I haven't been cycling to work for a while, so it isn't as clear as it once was. And I've still got more than 1500 unfound caches within a 10 mile radius of my home coordinates. So yeah, I'll have to let you know once I actually clear it out... ^This. In all of the places I have now lived, I have tried my best to "clear" the area. In some cities, that meant a couple of blocks radius. Here in Homer, AK, it means more than 5 miles away. So, it is all relative to location, cache saturation, and definition of "your area". Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I'm kinda in a weird location there are many caches south of us but north of us lies a highway and very little caches beyond that. MOST of the caches in this area are puzzles. I'm horrible at them but I've managed to solve about 4 or 5 of them myself and a few others with the CO's help. I even gave my son a few easy ones to solve after I did them, he did pretty good once I gave him the tools to work with. On a side note: a recent one I've almost managed to solve involves translating a paragraph containing the coords, there are a loooOOOooooot of different languages in there they're hard to find. What a bugger that one is: (GC10F9T) it might inspire someone in another region to do this - I doubt I'd be able to do this again.. my brain hurts. Anyways... since there aren,t that many traditional caches and we only geocache on the weekends, this might take a little while, however, if we were to go on most days, the area might be cleared in a matter of months. I go caching with my 12 year old son and his friend, so I'm not going to drive for an hour to find a few finds, or else I'd get complaints so I have to stay local - besides my son gets carsick too - fabulous! I can probably go up to about 30-50 km away but probably no further and that would be if we found an area saturated with caches. I haven't seen anything that was posted recently either so once we've cleared the area we may be out of luck... How long did it take you to clear out your area? Several years ago I had found every cache within 15 miles from home. That effectively limited my geocaching to weekends, as work and family obligations just didn't give me enough time to get to the nearest cache and back home. I'm geocaching a *lot* less than I used and and am more interested in geocaching while I'm traveling that finding caches locally so now there are quite a few caches within 5 miles. If I tried I could probably clear out all caches within 15 miles again in a few weekends. That wouldn't be so easy to do in many areas but there have only been 9 new caches placed within 15 miles of where I live in the past three months. Quote Link to comment
+St.Matthew Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I'm jealous of those with lots of local caches. I have to drive 45 mins to get to any cache dense areas. Quote Link to comment
+T.D.M.22 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 We have a few cacher that have cleared about 90% (out of a thousand caches)of the area-except for a few puzzles that haven't been solved at all. One has done it in a little over a year. They have none left to find. I don't want to be one of those people. I usually cache whenever I feel like it, and rarely do more than 3 or 4 per day-usually only 1 or 2 unless I am with someone. Quote Link to comment
+Mudfrog Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I was down to 4 or 5 caches within the radius of 50 miles about 5 years ago. I stayed on top of things back then but i slowed down because of gas prices and the fact that so many of the newer hides are basically the same old thing. Just looked and see now that there are 347 caches staring me in the face within that same 50 miles. Quote Link to comment
+Sharks-N-Beans Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 There are many more caches in the area that I have no desire to visit than those that interest me. There was a time that I had like a thousand on our ignore list, but un-ignored them all so we could see saturation. Clearing the area just won't happen. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 200 unfound caches on my Ten-Mile List. (Not counting caches on my Ignore List). Five (or more) kayaking caches. I don't have a kayak. Five (or so) rapelling caches. Nope. Don't do those. Then there is the mystery cache artiste. Those are tough! Then we have the 'recycle' cacher who archives everythng every other year, and hides new ones. Been to that park three times. Nothing new or interesting. Came close once, eight years ago. I've stopped trying. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I don't know. As soon as I find some caches, they get archived and new caches get placed. I will probably never be 'caught up'. Quote Link to comment
+tweetiepy Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 Within 20 km there are only about 200 or so caches of various types - not many - they're very sparse... Quote Link to comment
+wimseyguy Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 That will never happen to me here. A few years back when PQ's were limited to 500 my results went out over 20 miles. Now with 1000 in my nearest to home PQ I reach almost the same 20 miles, but only by limiting the terrain to 4* to eliminate the 100+ paddle caches in the nearby lakes. And I still let in many puzzle caches that I have no hope of solving without serious help. And I haven't even been working as much as I used to the past year. Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 When I started - there were 3 caches within 100 miles of here. I cleared the local one within an hour of signing up for an account. For the next 3 years - all caches within 30 miles of my home were planted by me. Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 When we first started, we had all within a ten-mile radius cleared, then fifteen and later , twenty. We continued and went further out as hides appeared. CJ was on a FTF mission at the time. - But now there's around 500 within our twenty mile we'll probably never do. Mostly hides put out for no other reason than numbers. Neither of us cache like that anymore. - We're now driving well over 35 miles together (and I go much farther solo) just for hides we'll have fun at. Quote Link to comment
+WarNinjas Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 We started a streak right after starting caching so we tried to leave all the ones closet to home. I work all over so I just pick one up on a break during work and save the ones close to home for the Sunday every two weeks when I don't have to go somewhere far away. We do go for them if there is a FTF chance otherwise we try and leave them. We are friends with most of the local cachers so sometimes feel bad leaving one I know they would like for us to find but we like the streak we have going and will get to it someday. Quote Link to comment
+YaYa&PaPa Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) Well lets just say our town has more caches than stoplights. Six caches total and two of them belong to my granddaughter. So we could have done them all in less than 30 minutes if we tried. Right now we travel between 20 and 60 miles round trip for more caches. Edited February 8, 2013 by YaYa&PaPa Quote Link to comment
+Don_J Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 What do you consider "my area"? My blast radius around my home coordinates is about 2-3 miles, although I haven't been cycling to work for a while, so it isn't as clear as it once was. And I've still got more than 1500 unfound caches within a 10 mile radius of my home coordinates. So yeah, I'll have to let you know once I actually clear it out... This was my first thought, what would be considered my area? I live in a valley, so geographically, I have found 1790 caches in my valley. There are 731 more to find and that doesn't include puzzles, front yards and know newspaper racks. I don't expect to ever find them all, especially since they are constantly changing. Next, there are just as many, if not more in the mountains ringing my valley, then the LA Basin. 9500 unfound caches within 40 miles. About the best I can claim is a 1 mile radius from home. There is a cache 1.01 miles away that I have looked for five times and I have declared defeat. It seems that since I started, there has always been a cache about a mile away that I just can't seem to find. Quote Link to comment
+Legochugglers Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 A 'slave to a radius' can become a frustrating addiction. Mine is 10 miles and it was great fun achieving it in the first place but it becomes white a chore when new ones keep popping up 9.9 miles North, South, West and East! I'm a lot more relaxed about it now as I always promised myself that caching must never become a chore. I'll tend to look for them when I want/need to be going to that area rather than the other way round. Quote Link to comment
+dprovan Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 It's hard to answer your question without sounding like I'm bragging about the number of caches in my area, but since you ask... It took me about 3 months to get the few hundred caches in my home town, then a couple more months before I had to admit I was getting in my car and going places for no good reason other than to get caches. Then about 3 months after that I decided it was reasonable to drive 2.5 hours to do some caching. Embracing the idea that caching means getting in my car and driving somewhere was enough: I now consider myself to have an essentially inexhaustible supply of caches within 30 miles of home. As the years go by, I may reach some other limit, but as things stand today, I think that even if I ever found all the caches today in that area -- which seems hard to imagine to begin with -- because of the popularity of caching being what it is, enough new ones will be planted to keep me supplied. Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 It ain't gonna happen. Within 10km of home there are 457 caches and 128 of those I haven't found. Most of those unfound ones are very difficult puzzles which I'm ignoring. I've no idea how many there are within 20km but it's well over 1000 that I haven't found yet. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Within 20 km there are only about 200 or so caches of various types - not many - they're very sparse... That's fairly sparse. There are 286 caches within 20km of where I live. If I limit it to caches I have not yet found it currently shows 82. I've been to several places in Africa where finding every cache within 250km could easily be done in a day. Quote Link to comment
+-CJ- Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Altough there are not so many geocaches in "my area" I believe I will never log them all. Some of them just seem not interesting. I'd better place my own geocache in some place that is definitely worth visiting. Quote Link to comment
+wmpastor Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Well lets just say our town has more caches than stoplights. Whaaaaa?! What happened to the proximity rule??? You mean they're allowing two magnetic nanos per stoplight now??? Quote Link to comment
+wmpastor Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 A 'slave to a radius' can become a frustrating addiction. Mine is 10 miles and it was great fun achieving it in the first place but it becomes white a chore when new ones keep popping up 9.9 miles North, South, West and East! I'm a lot more relaxed about it now as I always promised myself that caching must never become a chore. I'll tend to look for them when I want/need to be going to that area rather than the other way round. Change the radius & the stress magically disappears! From the moment I joined until the present, I have had no unfound caches within a half kilometer of my home! All my other finds are the icing on the cake! Quote Link to comment
+Straight-Cache-Homey Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Considering there are some incredibly intense 5/5 rapelling/multi/mystery caches within 7 miles or so of my apartment, I can say I'll never clear those out. I believe there are a few kayak caches near me as well. I also do not own a kayak. Quote Link to comment
+YaYa&PaPa Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Well lets just say our town has more caches than stoplights. Whaaaaa?! What happened to the proximity rule??? You mean they're allowing two magnetic nanos per stoplight now??? You must know Liberty SC yes we only have 3 stoplights. I have a few more caches are planed I just gotta get hubby back on his feet (had major surgery last week) so i can work on caching.... Quote Link to comment
+Ma & Pa Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 All Done in our area so we flew to California to continue our streak. Our son thinks we are here for his wedding PAul Quote Link to comment
+clarinetqueen Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 There is a 600+ power trail in my county, and you can really only hunt in the winter months. I've only got 120 or so of them. So I will be busy for a while! Quote Link to comment
+Geoscouts.eu Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Being in rural France there aren't all that many caches around but since we started in July 2010 we have seen many new caches come and a few old ones go here in Limousin. This year I have made it our goal to *clear up our back yard* before we relocate to pastures new. Some of the caches here are proving to be real toughies - user no longer contactable but cache still being found occasionally - that sort of thing. I don't know if we will manage to clean up the last cache in Limousin but our list is down to sixteen (some new ones we haven't even been to yet) with a real *tricky six* in the mix so wish us luck ... Quote Link to comment
+hzoi Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Anyways... since there aren,t that many traditional caches and we only geocache on the weekends, this might take a little while, however, if we were to go on most days, the area might be cleared in a matter of months. Well, there's 5,169 caches within 50 miles (~ 80 km) of you as of today. Minus the 24 you've found, that leaves 5,145. At your current rate of 0.5581 caches per day, you've got a little under eight years before you run out. You did say you prefer traditionals, so that brings it down to five years before you clean out the 3,310 traditionals you haven't logged yet. How long did it take you to clear out your area? We move around every couple years, so it only happened once, when we were living in Charlottesville, Virginia, an area that only had a couple hundred caches within the immediate area. I had to ration myself locally, and I did end up traveling a bit. However, we're moving to an area that has less than 1,000 caches within 50 miles, and we'll be there for two years or so. Since we've found around 800 caches a year so far, we may well run out before we move. But I expect my demanding new job and the birth of our first child will limit our caching time, so who knows, maybe we won't run out. Quote Link to comment
+JKMonkey Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I've cleared the chaches in one town in my area for the most part. It's a very small town that only had 8 or 9 caches so it wasn't that hard. Should be a while before I clear out the whole area. Quote Link to comment
+The_Incredibles_ Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 All Done in our area so we flew to California to continue our streak. Our son thinks we are here for his wedding Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 But I expect ... and the birth of our first child will limit our caching time, so who knows, maybe we won't run out. It will and congratulations. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) I haven't even cleaned out the 5 caches in my town that aren't mine. I have no interest in 4 of them and will probably never bother hunting them. The fifth I will get, eventually. Edited February 9, 2013 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
+GeoGerms Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Took me just over 4 years (4/16/06 to 4/30/2010) to clear the Island of O'ahu. Since then I have been trying to keep it clear . Quote Link to comment
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