Almost cleared out the area near hom already! with 50 finds

[+tweetiepy]

We've only been caching since just after Christmas and we only go one day of the weekend - usually with one of my son's friends - sometimes the dog (if he doesn't get sick on the way there). So about 11 outings so far. We're getting close to finding 50 caches and already the area around our house is pretty much cleared - most of the traditionals have been found and there are about twice as many puzzles out there. Problem is, I can't solve them anywhere fast enough to keep the hobby going. I can get one or two once in a while but no enough so that we can go out each weekend to find them. We live just south of a major highway and there is almost nothing above that line - if you look at the map of all the caches, where the main population of caches stops, that's around where I live.

 

there are too many puzzles for me to solve. I'm getting kinda freaked out that we'll run out too soon and my son will lose interest in doing this if we only go out to find 1 over the weekends. I wish I was better at puzzles - on most of them I've had to email the CO for help - I have managed to solve a tiny few by myself...

[+Off Grid]

Puzzles are the worse we have puzzles left all over can't figure out half of them

[+CanadianRockies]

Do you have access to a vehicle? There appears to be over 1,000 traditional caches within 15 kilometres of your first find.

[+Anonymike7]

You might want to try expanding your search radius. Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches. That doesn't count virtuals, puzzles, events, multi-caches, letterbox hybrids, earth caches, etc.

 

If you expand your search radius out even further, you'll find thousands of caches. Don't be intimidated by those question marks on the map, either. I'm sure some are perfectly solvable at your desk, while others may be fun and easy field puzzles. Some may even be challenge caches, which will give you new things to do while out caching. Just because it's a question mark doesn't mean it's a puzzle.

 

You appear to live near Ottawa; there are tons of caches and even power trails in the area. Maybe you could even hide some caches of your own in Gatineau or Papineau-Labelle...you might inspire folks to hide some more of their own!

[+Anonymike7]

Heck, you might even want to throw out a playful challenge to other local cachers..."I've hidden some new caches...where are yours?"

[+zodiac73]

Road trip !! Do you have people out of town you should visit, just set off much earlier

[+CanadianRockies]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

Edited March 18, 2013 by CanadianRockies

[+StarBrand]

It took me a year to get to 50 finds. Good Job!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

 

Did you exclude puzzle caches?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

We've only been caching since just after Christmas and we only go one day of the weekend - usually with one of my son's friends - sometimes the dog (if he doesn't get sick on the way there). So about 11 outings so far. We're getting close to finding 50 caches and already the area around our house is pretty much cleared - most of the traditionals have been found and there are about twice as many puzzles out there. Problem is, I can't solve them anywhere fast enough to keep the hobby going. I can get one or two once in a while but no enough so that we can go out each weekend to find them. We live just south of a major highway and there is almost nothing above that line - if you look at the map of all the caches, where the main population of caches stops, that's around where I live.

 

there are too many puzzles for me to solve. I'm getting kinda freaked out that we'll run out too soon and my son will lose interest in doing this if we only go out to find 1 over the weekends. I wish I was better at puzzles - on most of them I've had to email the CO for help - I have managed to solve a tiny few by myself...

 

Obviously I wouldn't ask you to be more specific regarding your home location but the general area around most of your finds appears to me to be fairly cache dense with a few pockets where you could easily spend a portion of an afternoon caching without traveling a great distance. It didn't take me very long to find most of the caches in my town and it very quickly gets more sparse once I leave the city limits. If I wanted to find more than a handful of cache I had to pick a destination area, maybe 20 miles away and spend time trying to find what I could in that area. At least your area looks like it remain fairly dense for a widespread area.

 

The area *does* seem to have a significant percentage of puzzle caches. Have you thought of posting a note on a few that you're trying to solve asking if anyone else it trying to solve it and might want to work as a team. Collaborating on solving puzzle caches can be a lot of fun and as I see it, working with someone else to obtain a solution is no different that meeting with another geocacher and going out together to find a few. Basically, rather than getting hints from someone that already knows the solution, work with someone else to obtain to solution together. With as many puzzle caches as you have in the area I'm sure that there is someone else that is equally frustrated with the number of puzzle caches, but would like to find more of them.

[+CanadianRockies]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

Did you exclude puzzle caches?

Yes, since I restricted the PQ to just traditional caches.

[+Don_J]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

 

Yep, there are plenty of traditional caches to find. Taking a look at the area however, that map is pretty blue. Guessing at the center of course, but of the 1000 closest caches, 400 are Puzzle/Unknown. I believe that the charts that we made fun of a few weeks ago said that Unknowns were 20% world wide, so that area has double the concentration. As a comparison, of the closest 1000 caches to me, 80 are Unknowns.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

Did you exclude puzzle caches?

Yes, since I restricted the PQ to just traditional caches.

 

Doh!

 

To put that number into perspective, when I do a search for traditional caches within 10 miles of my home coordinates, I get 106 caches, and that includes caches that I've found in the past 5.5 years.

[+dprovan]

You're at the point where you have to transition from getting caches where you are to going places to get caches. I remember that change. It seemed like a big deal at the time, but looking back it just involved driving 20 minutes for some caches instead of just driving 5 minutes. You'd think it would get worse and worse, but I've found that after two years, there are still plenty of caches within a 20 minute drive.

 

Don't give up on puzzle caches, particularly since there are so many of them around you. They can be a lot of fun, but it might take you a few tries before you get into the puzzle solving groove. Also, some puzzles are harder than others, so start with the ones that are D2 and below, if there are any. Don't be shy to ask for help from the puzzle owners, particularly since with so many puzzle caches around you, if you start doing a lot of them, you'll probably be talking to the puzzle owners often!

[+Anonymike7]

Within a 15 mi. radius of "La course au big mac," which you found recently, there are 437 traditional caches.

How odd. My PQ showed 977 traditional caches being within just 10 miles of that cache.

 

I am truly not sure what I did to screw up my PQ. I banged out that last post seconds before leaving work for the day. Still, the point remains: There are tons of caches in the OP's area

[+tweetiepy]

I know there are some that say they are within 2 KM of our place, unfortunately that's as the crow flies - it's at least 20 KM away from our place to my work in Ottawa, I use to bike it in so I remember the long haul (and it's listed as about 2.5 KM or so away). We're on a sort of inlet, where you need to cross over one of two or three bridges/overpasses to get to, let's say, Ottawa. Some of the traditionals - quite a few of them - are listed as not winter friendly and one big section Where there are about 20 is in a park that I wanted us to go to as a family this summer.

 

I can travel the 30 KM to get to some caches, but I'm travelling with a kid who hates going "long" distances in the car - he may be more open to travelling if it means caching more.

 

The Ottawa caches are difficult to get to since there's no/very little parking and but I also wanted to do one of the power trails by bike with the family this summer.

 

I'm not giving up on puzzles, some are doable (I've got the whole family working on some) and I might get my mom to work out some of the puzzles - ohhh... lightbulb!

 

This winter's been really rough here with the ton of snow and slippery roads but spring may make us move farther away. If hubby was caching with us, it might be easier to cache while we go someplace but I don't think he's open

[+Bear and Ragged]

If hubby was caching with us, it might be easier to cache while we go some place but I don't think he's open

 

The question is:

What is hubby in to, that you could visit for him, that has caches around?

Even if he went his way, and you went yours for part of the day.

(Or, you put up with what he wants, so he has to put up with what you want! )

Edited March 19, 2013 by Bear and Ragged

[+redsox_mark]

You're at the point where you have to transition from getting caches where you are to going places to get caches. I remember that change. It seemed like a big deal at the time, but looking back it just involved driving 20 minutes for some caches instead of just driving 5 minutes. You'd think it would get worse and worse, but I've found that after two years, there are still plenty of caches within a 20 minute drive.

 

Of course it will vary from area to area; but the above is also what I experienced. When I started (3 years ago), I was walking to most of the caches from my house. When I cleared that I was worried would I run out of caches.

 

Now, apart from when new ones are hidden close by, I need to drive. But after 3 years and 3000 finds I still have 1000 unfound within 12 miles (as the crow flies).

[+The_Incredibles_]

Find someone who likes doing puzzles, preferably a retiree, then find a way to bribe them. Home-baked cookies, perhaps?

Edited March 19, 2013 by The_Incredibles_

[+Lieblweb]

Welcome to....a hobby that consumes or guzzles the most gas!!!

 

Back in 2002 - we found geocaching. The closest geocaches were 30 miles away (as the crow flies). Because of this, we lost interest and stopped playing. Two years ago...life steered us on the hobby again. It's unfortunate for those who live in a non-cache saturated area. But at the same time....Hide some caches and generate some new cachers and give it some time.... It'll pick up!!

 

Or....take a drive.... take a mini vacation... get on a plane.... Take a hike (there's always geocaches there). Ride the bikes on a trail (there's usually always geocaches there). Buy some kayaks... go floating....

If there aren't any geocaches there...You're lucky, because you have SOOOOOOO many oppurtunities to hide some!!

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Find someone who likes doing puzzles, preferably a retiree, then find a way to bribe them. Home-baked cookies, perhaps?

 

As much as I like home baked cookies, if someone enjoys doing puzzles, it probably wouldn't require a bribe to get them to help solve a few. They'd probably be thrilled that there is someone else in the area that is interested in collaborating on solving a few that they haven't figured out. There are a *lot* of puzzles of the "finding the puzzle is the hard part" variety and having an extra set up eyes looking at it may be all it take to solve it. I've collaborated with others to solve a puzzle (that neither of us had figured out) locally and geocachers that live hundreds of miles away and it can be a lot of fun bouncing ideas off each other to figure out a puzzle cache.

[+tweetiepy]

My mom's retired and she likes brain puzzles so she'll probably like these, she may even want to come along on a few finds - I've given hubby the math ones (I hate math) and my daugther got the sudokus - my caching partner - my son Thylvethter got a word find (which he hated) - and just today he solved one about Minecraft - he solved that one if about 5 minutes which would have taken me a few hours - he was so proud of himself - I was too!

 

My daughter is learning how to drive and needs the experience so she offered to chauffeur us... I'll have to think of that one.

 

Hubby's not a traveller but he's open to searching in the woods for caches, just not out in the open. We don't get out much, any of us, but we'll probably try a small power trail on a bike path this summer.

[+humboldt flier]

We've only been caching since just after Christmas and we only go one day of the weekend - usually with one of my son's friends - sometimes the dog (if he doesn't get sick on the way there). So about 11 outings so far. We're getting close to finding 50 caches and already the area around our house is pretty much cleared - most of the traditionals have been found and there are about twice as many puzzles out there. Problem is, I can't solve them anywhere fast enough to keep the hobby going. I can get one or two once in a while but no enough so that we can go out each weekend to find them. We live just south of a major highway and there is almost nothing above that line - if you look at the map of all the caches, where the main population of caches stops, that's around where I live.

 

there are too many puzzles for me to solve. I'm getting kinda freaked out that we'll run out too soon and my son will lose interest in doing this if we only go out to find 1 over the weekends. I wish I was better at puzzles - on most of them I've had to email the CO for help - I have managed to solve a tiny few by myself...

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Young Jedi.

 

One day you may be seeking to fill your calendar and need a quick cache and will sing the lament of many of us "Why Oh Why Did I Clean Out My Home Area" LOL, LOL Bummer to HAVE to drive 100 plus miles to grab one.

 

Enjoy yourself and this zany activity.

[+Planet]

How old is your son?

It sounds like the perfect learning opportunity for him, or he and a team of his friend(s) to solve the puzzles, and learn something before going out to play. Or go travel a bit further from home and find places you never would have known about if it weren't for geocaching

[+ras_oscar]

I routinely travel several hours to get to a cache rich area these days. I select an area and start out early in the morning, before the sun rises. I return in the evening exhausted, and ultimately satisfied. It gets my fat middle aged a** off the couch.