The most Caches

[+jellis]

I can't imagine being able to find caches 366 days in a row! Life stuff gets in the way. That's amazing.

I know someone who did it about 8 years and first few he didn't even notice it. He just loved to cache

[+geodarts]

I still don't really understand PTs. How does one find a trail?? Who maintains it? Who plans it?

 

I have always compared repetitive trails to vacation caches. Maintenance gets down through throw downs. You throw one down to replace something you can't find in 30 seconds. The CO need not be concerned. With vacation caches it's bad, with repetitive trails its called a maintenance plan.

 

I was with a friend today who noted that with the advent of repetitive puzzle trails, the numbers for his question mark finds have become meaningless. And I guess they are if you are doing them for any kind of comparison purposes. But that is why my basic rule is to never trust anyone with numbers greater than mine, unless I know them.

Edited March 21, 2015 by geodarts

[+niraD]

I wonder at what point GS stopped admonishing don't place a cache just because you can. I do remember that.

IIRC, that change happened about the same time that the numbers run trails appeared. Basically, people who wanted to place caches every 528ft/161m had found ways to saturate an area no matter what objective rules Groundspeak tried to enforce, and the subjective rules weren't working either. So they gave up and started allowing numbers run trails. But at the same time, they started enforcing the 528ft/161m saturation guideline more strictly.

 

I can't imagine being able to find caches 366 days in a row! Life stuff gets in the way. That's amazing.

One day at a time. I originally planned to do a 31-day streak for the 31 Days of August promotion in 2013. Then I just kept going to see how long I could continue. Once I hit 100 days, I decided that I wouldn't keep going past 366 days. On day 367, I deliberately found no geocaches to end the streak and get it over with.

 

My blast radius got more than 2 miles from home, not counting a few nearby caches that I kept unfound for "emergencies". Then I switched to puzzle caches for the last month for a Puzzling Month Challenge. The blast radius issue was a lot less significant once I switched to puzzle caches. There are a lot of puzzle caches around here, and I still had a lot of them that I hadn't found yet.

[+noncentric]

I can't imagine being able to find caches 366 days in a row! Life stuff gets in the way. That's amazing.

I can't imagine it either. I did a 100-day streak and there were a lot of days when geocaching felt like a chore. Initially, I was going to do a 33-day streak, because I thought it would be fun to have my unfound and found streaks be the same. But then I didn't pay attention to the days and made a find on day 34, so then I figured I'd just go to 100. The holidays, some planned trips, and lighter-than-normal work schedule helped make it possible to get there. But I was certainly relieved on day 101 when I didn't "have to" find a cache.

 

I still don't really understand PTs. How does one find a trail?? Who maintains it? Who plans it?

I've looked at some of those 'thousands of caches' PT's while just cruising the map. There are some that I've read about through various forum posts, like the ET Highway near Las Vegas, Continental Trail on Prince Edward Island, Ghost Rail in Wyoming, and Highway 51 in Louisiana. There are plenty more, and some can be found by looking at Bookmarked Lists on some of these caches.

 

Sometimes I enjoy just cruising the map ("Play --> Geocache Map") and looking at what's around in other parts of the country/world. The trails are usually easy to spot because the long green lines.

[+WarNinjas]

I don't understand how one can have long streaks and never get sick or have a car break down (unless you save finds to log when you need them).

The streak is my favorite part of the game! We are on day 1348 of it. I don't play any games with it. I sign at least one log every day. I found out about the streak our first week of playing and never stopped. I have a job that I work all over the place 6 days a week. I have a company truck and 2 of my own vehicles so there is never a break down that would stop me from being able to go somewhere. Also my daughter lives about 50 miles away so I am usually going up there on my days off. There was only one day I was almost to sick to cache. Luckily one cacher had archived a puzzle that you had to find 3 caches to figure out the final and turned the caches into traditionals. I had someone drive me out there and I went and signed it.

The only problem with the streak is I try never to find one close to home unless it is a FTF or something. Many local cachers who are friends complain I never find there caches. If they hide one far out I will find it but the close ones just have to wait.

[+niraD]

The only problem with the streak is I try never to find one close to home unless it is a FTF or something.

Yeah, I saved the ones real close to home for "emergencies". And even the ones at the edge of my blast radius were saved for days when I wasn't traveling anywhere else. And I never found more than one cache a day unless I was somewhere a significant distance from the areas I usually traveled to.

[+blackdog7]

 

Here, here! Well said! Caching used to be about the journey, the location, occasionally cool swag in the "treasure chest.". It's still that to me (and MANY I'm sure!) but seriously how do you do 1000 caches in a day and really get to enjoy it other than seeing a high number at the end of the day? I don't get Power Trails at all. It's too bad there can't be two games...one for great hunting experiences and one for crazy challenges and high numbers that appeal to competitive gamers. They seem like two different games. I only found 4 caches the other day but I got my first cache at a State Line and saw my first Solar Farm! No big deal to most but I loved the locations.

 

 

I find it incredibly entertaining to read how sour some of you guys can be about the 'good-old-days' before this game was ruined by the youngins.

[+PlantAKiss]

I don't believe I ever said anything about "youngins." And I'm not sour. I understand "different strokes for different folks". It's just surprising how things have changed over a few years.

 

I still don't know what a blast radius is.

 

Oddly enough only two days after I made my original post I stumbled upon a power trail! I was about 45 minutes out of town in a very rural area at a research facility. As I was leaving I thought I would check and see if there were any caches around and, lo and behold, I saw a long string of green markers! So I checked it out. I only had time to do a few. Found seven out of eight. One DNF in an area I thought might be posted land. The caches were placed along a new bike trail following the road. While pretty much unremarkable hides, I enjoyed the walk and the scenery. So while I wouldn't go back to do the entire trail it was a taste of it I reckon. Such a coincidence that I was wondering about power trails and found one so by accident!

 

It's interesting to read what different people get out of geocaching. Many different things to many different people. It amazes me that anyone can do long streaks and find so many thousands of caches!

[+niraD]

I still don't know what a blast radius is.

In geocaching terms, your blast radius is just the distance from your home coordinates where you've found most of the caches. If you look at the geocaching map around your home coordinates, then the area inside your blast radius will be full of smileys (or if you disable the display of found caches, then it will be empty).

[+Inmountains]

Someone with over 64,000 finds and only SIX hides! Talk about NOT giving back to your hobby! Sheeesh!

[+niraD]

Someone with over 64,000 finds and only SIX hides! Talk about NOT giving back to your hobby! Sheeesh!

There are other ways to give back to the hobby besides hiding caches.

 

And for some, NOT hiding caches that they can't maintain may be a better way to give back to the hobby.

Edited March 30, 2015 by niraD

[+narcissa]

Someone with over 64,000 finds and only SIX hides! Talk about NOT giving back to your hobby! Sheeesh!

There are other ways to give back to the hobby besides hiding caches.

 

And for some, NOT hiding caches that they can't maintain may be a better way to give back to the hobby.

 

Absolutely.

 

Pressuring cachers to hide caches they can't maintain in the name of "giving back" just results in bad caches. Some people are more inclined to hide than others.

 

Actually, I wish more people would exercise restraint when it comes to hiding caches.

[vagabond]

Someone with over 64,000 finds and only SIX hides! Talk about NOT giving back to your hobby! Sheeesh!

There are other ways to give back to the hobby besides hiding caches.

 

And for some, NOT hiding caches that they can't maintain may be a better way to give back to the hobby.

 

Absolutely.

 

Pressuring cachers to hide caches they can't maintain in the name of "giving back" just results in bad caches. Some people are more inclined to hide than others.

 

Actually, I wish more people would exercise restraint when it comes to hiding caches.

 

+1

[+Ladybug Kids]

Someone with over 64,000 finds and only SIX hides! Talk about NOT giving back to your hobby! Sheeesh!

A cacher's profile doesn't necessarily tell the full story. For example, my player account shows I've hosted 12 events and 2 CITOs. However, I have also co-hosted or presented at or provided technical support for most of GeocacheAlaska!'s 139 events and 11 CITOs and I have been on the GeocacheAlaska! Board of Directors since founding in 2009, community involvement that does not appear on my profile page.

 

That said, narcissa nailed another important point because there are those uber cachers who micro spew just about everywhere they go, leaving behind gifts caches that ultimately get archived because they weren't special enough for the local community to "adopt."

[+jellis]

That said, narcissa nailed another important point because there are those uber cachers who micro spew just about everywhere they go, leaving behind gifts caches that ultimately get archived because they weren't special enough for the local community to "adopt."

True I have seen so many newbies here place a cache and then never log on again or just disappear. My first thought is sock puppet, then second would be "why put it out if you are not going to see how it turns out?" Shoot when I placed my first cache I couldn't wait to see who would find it and see what they would say about it and how I can make it better or more fun to have new cachers keep coming back.