How far have you gone?

[+TheNate]

Hey fellow cachers. My first time posting here. It's a simple question really: how far have you gone/driven for a cache/caches? As in, getting there but having to get back to work. Or, getting there knowing full well you have a long drive back home within that day. Things like that.

 

I'm sure that there are many of you who drive cross-country visiting new places and to acquire new caches. But I am not looking for that, as that allows renting hotels and having no worries about getting back "in time" or whatever. I'm talking you doing your daily thing, then suddenly you see a cache on the map that you like, but it's really far away.

 

For example, in a couple of days I will travel an hour or so driving just to get to an area where there are lots of Multi-caches around. I plan on (hopefully) finding them, then returning back home.

 

So? Share stories or what you'd like. I'd like to hear from you

[+t.v.wildfire]

My caching partner and I often travel 100 to 150 miles (one way) to grab a few caches. I have made a 350 mile round trip just to attend an event. Fuel costs have slowed us down a bit, but if it's a good cache, we'll go after it.

[+GrateBear]

For a single cache, 272 miles round trip, just over 10 hours including the hike up to the cache location. All to fill in one Delorme Map section. Last weekend did about 250 miles for 16 caches that I needed to fill in another D/T spot. And, all this in a Jeep that, if lucky, gets 15 mpg

[+niraD]

I've found caches more than 2600mi from home, but that was geocaching during a business trip, not a trip specifically for geocaching.

 

The furthest I've traveled specifically for geocaching was more than 120mi from home. That was for a group geocaching kayak/canoe trip at Lake Clementine.

 

But usually I don't travel far for geocaching. I tend to do geocaching wherever I am, as an additional part of a trip that was planned for some other purpose.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Thereabouts 1500 miles, one way.... but I NEVER plan a trip for a singular purpose, so I guess I am out of the runnin'.

[+ByronForestPreserve]

I drove out of state and to a series of parks and caves along the Mississippi, though truly that was also to see the parks and caves. I wouldn't have done it if not for the caches, though. One in particular caught my eye (D4.5/T4.5) that I had to get, and it was one of my favorite caching adventures...a rocky ledge far above a creek on the bluffs next to the Mississippi. Not quite rock climbing, but as close as I'm likely to get. That day included about 6 hours of driving. I also drove a couple hours north to one that was along a trail system that used to be train tracks...including a tunnel a couple hundred feet long. I liked that one so much I'm planning a drive (about 3 hours one way) to a similar series of tunnel caches on the same "Rails to Trails" system in Wisconsin--one that's something like a half mile long.

 

A good description of a neat location will get me to go quite a way!

 

Not sure if it counts, but I also talked my parents into hitching a ride with the DNR boat to Power Island to find the oldest cache in Michigan. They're about an hour from the launch site, then the boat ride was 45 minutes and the hike was about half an hour. We had a great time!

[+Wintz50]

About 5000 miles specifically for the last remaining project ape cache. It was a great adventure, even snagged a ftf that had sat for almost 2 years.

[+terratin]

We haven't been to Brazil yet (!) but did some crazy caching trips.

 

We did a 22kg hike on Madeira which finished with a long tunnel walk (can't remember how long, we did do a more than 2km tunnel a few days before, but I think this one was about the same): half a meter walking path and a little canal next to you and about a meter down, ceiling just to low to walk upright, water dripping or showering from the ceiling every now and then. Pretty cool! Oh, and we'd tried this cache the previous day, but our rental car died on us driving there.

 

A few years ago we visited the UAE and got the crazy idea of crossing over to Oman with our rental car to pick up a cache there. Crossing the border was no problem at the specific border crossing we chose. But then we stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere for a photo, and could not start up the car anymore. The garage that helped us couldn't find anything wrong with the car either. Turned out the rental company had stopped the car as we weren't supposed to take the car out of the country, which of course we knew

 

This late summer we'll fly to Frankfurt and visit family in the southern Netherlands, which an extra night near coord.info/GC40 in southern Belgium. From there we'll drive to the International EarthCache Mega in Germany (wherever it might be) and then on to more parents and back to Frankfurt. Would be a rather short trip without the added caching activities.

 

And this weekend we'll fly to Kuwait, partly to burn off some stale airmiles, but mainly because we've not cached there yet

[+Roman!]

For one specific cache with no other reason to go there I went from Vancouver, B.C. to Portland, Maine (no plane) for a round trip of about 11,000 kilometres.

[+Walts Hunting]

Flew from Anchorage to Barrow Alaska to get the northern most on north American continent

 

Planning trip from California to Maine and back via southerly route to complete lower 48

Edited February 16, 2015 by Walts Hunting

[+MMaru]

For a typical caching day, one where I know I have a couple hours of sunlight overlapping with my free time, I usually try to go about 20-30 miles away, then pick up more that I am passing on my way home. I've gone much farther only because I drive back and forth between PA and Missouri, so I'll usually go for a few caches each trip just to break up the monotony of the drive.

[+Viajero Perdido]

I flew to Nicaragua to FTF a remote cache that had been waiting 5 years. It's about 5200km away as the satellite flies, one-way, from where I live. So I think Roman! has me beat, just barely, on distance.

 

In-country, it took another plane, two boats, and finally a 2km whack through the jungle, the last part in the company of some friendly machete-toting Sandinistas whose help I enlisted.

 

My best DNF ever.

[+uxorious]

The farthest I've gone for a one day cache would have been to the Original Stash Plaque. As the crow flies it is 280 miles round trip. Not sure how many miles as a car goes, but quite a few more.

[+Roman!]

I flew to Nicaragua to FTF a remote cache that had been waiting 5 years. It's about 5200km away as the satellite flies, one-way, from where I live. So I think Roman! has me beat, just barely, on distance.

 

In-country, it took another plane, two boats, and finally a 2km whack through the jungle, the last part in the company of some friendly machete-toting Sandinistas whose help I enlisted.

 

My best DNF ever.

 

Nah, I hopped on a bus, cached across Canada and back across America but you sir have me beat, maybe not quite distance wide but definitely adventure wise.

[+TwoNomadicBrits]

how far have you gone/driven for a cache/caches?

<did some snipping>

 

Wow some of these adventures are amazing!

 

I drove 220km round trip for a FTF puzzle recently. We had visited the area pre-caching so I knew we wouldn't be likely to go back there together (so many places to visit when you only live somewhere a short time!) and so I just hopped in the car and went for it.

 

Everywhere else we've cached we've been going there for other reasons - work or holidays - so I guess 220km is my best effort so far!

[+Rainbow Spirit]

I usually cache one day a week, and download around 30+- caches, all within a days return travel. For me a days travel is a return trip of about 160kms (100 miles). I have almost cleared my local area of caches so I am finding that I have to travel these distances more and more to make a day of it.

 

Twice a year I go off to cities around 200kms (125 miles) to 300kms (187 miles) away and stay overnight for a few days mid week, and I take about 250+- cache downloads with me. That way I can start early and finish late without worry about family commitments.

[+redsox_mark]

Most of the time when I go out caching from home, it is < 30 miles or 45 minutes driving (each way). Often much less.

 

I've done a few day trips with friends where we drove maybe 300 miles round trip. And similar for a weekend with a night at a hotel.

 

During the work day, no more than 30 minutes drive each way.

[+MartyBartfast]

130 miles each way for one cache, so ~260 miles in the day and 4-5 hours driving. This is a cache which is only available 5 or 6 times a year due to the tides and needs to be done as a group for safety so it was an organised meet with other cachers. Other than that it's not often I would go more than 20-30 miles for a days caching.

[Glory Hunters]

We flew 1000 km to attend the Giga event in Munich last august that has been the greatest distance travelled with the solo purpose of geocaching (I've been way further but for business trips).

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I've found caches more than 2600mi from home, but that was geocaching during a business trip, not a trip specifically for geocaching.

 

The furthest I've traveled specifically for geocaching was more than 120mi from home. That was for a group geocaching kayak/canoe trip at Lake Clementine.

 

But usually I don't travel far for geocaching. I tend to do geocaching wherever I am, as an additional part of a trip that was planned for some other purpose.

 

Similar for me. The furthest I've traveled specifically for a cache was about 100 miles round trip (The Spot).

 

I've found caches 9400 miles from home in Asia, some at 7500 miles from home in Africa, and in a bunch of countries in Europe around 4000 miles from home, all while traveling for business.

 

In the last few years, *most* of my geocaching has been done as part of a trip that was planned for some other purpose.

[+wmpastor]

The farthest i've driven just for a cache is about 40 miles each way. That cache is the second favorite find i've had, with a challenging hour and a quarter round-trip hike to GZ and back. The FTF was icing on the cake.

 

I drove a similar distance for a cache/group hike (but didn't get to GZ).

 

I drove about 60 miles each way for my favorite cache find (a regionally-famous cave cache), but combined that trip with a visit to a state park on the way back, so the trip wasn't solely for the cache.

[+Touchstone]

We have an elaborate Multi in my area that required multiple trips. A typical Stage required 4-6 miles of hiking, and some of the more remote Stages required a couple thousand of elevation gain. All said and done, I racked in something on the order of 70+ miles of hiking, and 20-25,000 vertical elevation over a month, mostly on weekends and days off.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I guess how you combine geocaching and tourism. Road trip to Minnesota (and Ohio, Ontario, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa). 973 miles by air... Would we have done it if it weren't to color in new states? No way! But we did see some very interesting places.

Ah. The trip to Newfoundland... 1075 miles or so by air. In Maine to visit my sister and the EarthCache Event. By car to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (toll is $44.50 CDN!) and Nova Scotia. Then the place from Halifax to St John's! I'd never been to PEI. Nova Scotia or Newfoundland before. Great places to visit! But we probably would not have gone there without geocaching.

South Carolina, Georgia and Florida? Definitely a geocaching trip/

Washington, Oregon and BC was for my brother's wedding, so that doesn't count. (Well, except for the trip to BC...)

Contemplating Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. But probably won't go for that one.

Locally, probably 75 miles to pick up three Pennsylvania counties.

So, yeah. We do go on some long geocaching trips.

[+crazypig88]

I don't usually persuade my parents to take me far for a cache, but when I did, we travelled 35 miles for an event.

[+redsox_mark]

As the Dolphin points out, there are also "combinations" - perhaps the initial focus for the trip wasn't geocaching, but you alter the route with caching in mind. Lots of example of that on the "Counting Countries" thread.

 

I had a business trip to Australia, and the cheapest flight stopped in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. If I had taken the standard connection, there was not time to leave the airport and find a cache. (At the time there were only 3 caches in the city, none near the airport). So I broke my journey and stayed a night there to find a cache. I didn't fly all the way to Brunei just for a cache, but I would not have spent that day there if not for caching.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

As the Dolphin points out, there are also "combinations" - perhaps the initial focus for the trip wasn't geocaching, but you alter the route with caching in mind. Lots of example of that on the "Counting Countries" thread.

 

I had a business trip to Australia, and the cheapest flight stopped in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. If I had taken the standard connection, there was not time to leave the airport and find a cache. (At the time there were only 3 caches in the city, none near the airport). So I broke my journey and stayed a night there to find a cache. I didn't fly all the way to Brunei just for a cache, but I would not have spent that day there if not for caching.

 

I've done something similar to that several times. Whenever I travel internationally for business I look for flight itineraries that might give me enough time to finds a few caches in a country I have not yet visited. IIf you book flights directly from the carrier you can sometimes book the same flight# on the following day for the same price. On a trip back from Malaysia (from the same island as where Brunei is located) I scheduled about a 28 hour layover in SIngapore and a 7 hour layover in Tokyo on the way home. On a trip to Rome, I booked a hotel and stayed overnight in Brussels rather than have just a 2 hour layover. I booked a flight itinerary to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that had a 23 hour layover in Zurich and was able to attend a WWFM, a separate event in the evening, and find a few caches. I've gone to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia twice for business. The first time I scheduled a 9 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey on the way back and on my last trip had an overnight layover in Dubai on the way there. For all of these trips I could have booked flights with shorter layover times, but for the same price (or the additional cost of a hotel out of my own pocket) I was able to spend a little time in a country I've never visited and find a few caches. For a long trip from the U.S. to Asia or Africa I would usually prefer a long layover after a 9-12 hour flight before getting on another 8 hour flight even if I didn't go caching. So I guess, that would could as traveling to go geocaching but the trip wouldn't have happened if I wasn't traveling for business to some location that required multiple flights.

 

 

[+humboldt flier]

N.W. Calif. to Georgia >>>>>> many roads to Jasmer lead through Georgia. ****** Just Saying

[+hukilaulau]

I live in New York and took a temporary job in Arizona so that I could drive through Kansas and find "Mingo." I had to be back at work in NY four months later so I guess that counts.

Next month I am attending a professional conference in Seattle and plan to go to geocaching headquarters. I have to be back at work three days later.

[+SageTracey]

I'm from south-eastern Australia and currently in Celebration (near Orlando), Florida and have found eight caches - but I guess the key reason I am here is for work, so maybe it doesn't qualify. But that's a lot of miles....

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Next month I am attending a professional conference in Seattle and plan to go to geocaching headquarters. I have to be back at work three days later.

 

Did that and enjoyed it. I also went to a Seattle Mariners game with a friend that lives there, went out on his boat for a couple of hours, and *tried* to find the Double Bubble Toil and Trouble cache.

 

 

[+lamoracke]

Went to Michigan to finish the Double Jasmer challenge so that is over 2000 miles from Seattle. Course, it gave me an excuse to find other caches, and explore 2 states so that cache was the main cache we went there for, it was not the only reason.

[+TheWeatherWarrior]

Personally, I don't feel it worth driving hundreds of miles for a cache. If I'm traveling hundreds or thousands of miles anyway, I will grab a cache. There are just way more fascinating things in this world than even the most creative cache. Don't get me wrong, not knocking others who feel differently and I love the game, but I just like to have a very high value of return if I'm gonna travel.

[+lowca]

Being on holidays on Bornholm island we booked extra boat trip to Christianso just for the sake of two traditionals and earthcache. Mere 20 kilometers one way and another 20 on bicycles to get to port, but the trip has consumed the whole day (and was worth it).

[+Pan314159]

I took a trip from London to Seattle (7700km, 4785 miles) to go geocaching, visit Groundspeak HQ, and attend the Geocaching Block Party 2014.

 

That's the furthest from home I've ever travelled for any reason, and it wasn't a trip I was doing anyway where I picked up a couple of caches while I was there. I really liked Seattle (I also visited Vancouver while I was nearby), and it was a realy nice holiday, but it was a trip that was purely and only because of geocaching.

 

[+sparklefingers]

Last august we drove from Wiltshire to Scotland for a mega and then from one end of Scotland to the other for one cache.

 

Again last August we then went from England to Germany for the giga (we did this on a massive coach that took 22 hours to get there and 26 to get back) but we found caches in France, Liechtenstien, Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria

[+Asgoroth]

I volunteered for 10 days of hard labor in the Republic of Georgia on the off chance I could get to a cache.

[+blackdog7]

I can add a few stories here:

 

There is a local CO who frequently publishes caches associated with a nice cemetery/veterans appreciation series in my home area ...they are usually Multis or Puzzles. I've been avoiding traditional caches for a little over a year now so I've cleaned out a good deal of the non-traditional caches around my area...because of this, I pay close attention for his new publications and will drive pretty far to get them. Just last week I drove 60 miles to find a new Multi he published, so over 120 miles round trip.

 

I also pay attention to caches published between my house and my parents/in-laws hometown (which is about 250 miles south) because I've cleared this area as well. I've seen caches publish along this route and have driven to pick them up...once for an Earthcache about 80 miles from home.

 

I also have a nice habit of trading in plane tickets for road miles so I can add states. For example, when a cousin was married in Massachusetts a few years ago, I talked my wife and brother into splitting the road trip with me.

 

Two years ago I had to take a field geology class in New Mexico/Colorado so I decided to drive in order to pick up caches along the way. I turned what was only a 1300 mile drive into a 2000+ mile drive so I could get certain caches along the way. And I did the same thing on the return trip. I easily added 1500 miles for no other reason than to geocache. A sad part to this trip: I was unaware of the Mingo cache and drove right by it without stopping, but I plan to remedy that when I......

 

.....drive back to Colorado next fall to get the 1005 cache GCCO GeoArt Series which I've almost finished solving.

[+blackdog7]

Personally, I don't feel it worth driving hundreds of miles for a cache. If I'm traveling hundreds or thousands of miles anyway, I will grab a cache. There are just way more fascinating things in this world than even the most creative cache. Don't get me wrong, not knocking others who feel differently and I love the game, but I just like to have a very high value of return if I'm gonna travel.

 

This is why I love Earthcaches. They fit right in with my backpacking and fishing trips. I've planned several hiking trips around finding Earthcaches and they have taken me to some really amazing places. Also sort of did this with our honeymoon in Canada last year. We were able to combine Earthcaching in with our regularly planned trip and it was amazing.

[+Uncle Alaska]

I need Potters Pond in Utah for Jasmer (I am in Central CA)...trying to plan a trip in early or late winter and somehow sneak in with minimal snow cover (it is @ about 9,200ft elevation).

[+Malemotives]

I can't imagine traveling that far for the sole purpose of finding a geocache. But, I do understand it, since there are no boundaries to how far I will go just to take a photograph.

[+NeverSummer]

I can't imagine traveling that far for the sole purpose of finding a geocache. But, I do understand it, since there are no boundaries to how far I will go just to take a photograph.

I've traveled 100 miles for a FTF once, but never made a "geocaching road trip" of any kind. Usually the distances I travel for work or pleasure ends up taking me somewhere where I will also find a cache or two...but never a trip for caching as the specific target (ET trail, e.g.)