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Geocaching Dead?


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How does your buddy define "dead"?

 

Clearly, geocaching is still happening. New caches are being hidden, geocachers are finding them, and all that.

 

But maybe your buddy means something else by "dead"?

A group of us are keeping track of how many new caches are getting published and how many are getting archived per state. I will say this... GS should be worrying. I wont name any states, but some states are flat line and others been dropping in last two years we been keeping track. :blink: The rest are climbing really slow, very close to flat line.

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How does your buddy define "dead"?

 

Clearly, geocaching is still happening. New caches are being hidden, geocachers are finding them, and all that.

 

But maybe your buddy means something else by "dead"?

A group of us are keeping track of how many new caches are getting published and how many are getting archived per state. I will say this... GS should be worrying. I wont name any states, but some states are flat line and others been dropping in last two years we been keeping track. :blink: The rest are climbing really slow, very close to flat line.

 

And that isn't a bad thing at all. The old stale caches that everyone has found will get archived making way for new and exciting caches. Expect it to happen every few years and then a comeback afterwards.

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It has changed from a hike in the woods for an ammo can filled with trade items and caches placed in interesting locations to micros placed every 528 feet called geoart. It's all about the numbers, and phone cachers that have no use for a GPS unit have came up with new games to play.

Geocaching is becoming less popular, but not dead.

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Fairly new to geocaching but coming from a long background participating and working in skateboarding and skateboarding, I've heard the coffin call that [pick your poison] is "dead" many times over the years. Could be that participation is down, could be that ad revenue is down for relevant publications, could be that sales are down in specialty retailers or in major retailers. It's a cycle that tends to come and go within any sport/ hobby/ interest under the sun. Given that geocaching is an activity that exists largely outside any common financial markers I think that to say it is "dead" is most likely representative of a particular individual's feelings towards geocaching. Maybe they've tired of finding endless pill bottles under lot lamps, maybe they're tired of finding that a trackable isn't in a cache as shown in the inventory. Whatever the case may be, it's more up to the individual to find enjoyment in the game rather than blanket it as dead. Stop hunting for caches that are obviously in a supermarket parking lot if that's your beef. Stop going after nanos if that's your beef. The greatest thing about geocaching to me is that it is purely built on community, and as long as there are people out there hiding great caches, there will be people out there to sign the log.

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Oh I don't think it's becoming 'dead' at all, certainly not in the country I reside!

I can see how the game may be of lesser quality than it used to be - but it's so big you can play how you choose. If you want a physical and mental challenge, you can work towards 5/5's.

If it's a numbers game that turns you on, rock the power trails by all means.

For our family, and many many other young families around us, geocaching is about family time outdoors. When the children are with us especially, we avoid state highways, dirty areas and micros. We opt for bigger containers, and easier finds, although the better they become the more we're starting to stretch them. They learn about CITO, and about leaving each cache better than they found it.

Thing is, you can be selective about what you look for.

And there's still HEAPS to choose from.

 

It's well and truly kicking down at the bottom of the world :)

Edited by FourFunKiwis
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It's not dead, but it certainly isn't as lively as it used to be. You could argue that the community aspect of geocaching is dead but the game itself soldiers on.

 

When I found my first geocache, I knew in that very moment that this was a hobby/game/activity that I wanted to commit myself to. I like to think that a lot of the charter members and long time geocachers felt the same way when they found their first cache. Now, it really seems much more like a fad hobby. Someone downloads the app, plays for a few weeks, moves on to something else.

 

When the game centered around a GPS, there was a commitment involved since a GPS is/was expensive. With a free or low cost app, you can just have fun for a bit and if you quit, no big deal since it didn't really cost you anything to get started. There's nothing really wrong with that but the turnover rate for geocaching is getting higher every year and the core of the sport, the long time geocachers, are dropping out at an increasing rate. It's difficult, for me, to see new players and to really believe they'll be geocaching a year from now, let alone 10 years.

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So today I was having a conversation with a buddy and he stated that caching is dead... Yep, I don't agree but what do you think? I believe its getting bigger and better every day and still has many year to come.

 

Bigger? Yes. Better? I disagree.

 

At least that's the case in NJ. It seems that the more attention and the more new cachers we get here in Jersey, the more areas caching is becoming prohibited. It started with our state parks/forests a couple of years ago and has since evolved to other parts of the state that used to be cache friendly. When I started caching a few years ago, everybody that I talked to about geocaching had no idea and I always had to explain it. It seems like everybody knows what I'm talking about nowadays....which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on the situation. In any case though.....geocaching is definitely getting bigger, that's obvious....but better? I don't think so.

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When I found my first geocache, I knew in that very moment that this was a hobby/game/activity that I wanted to commit myself to. I like to think that a lot of the charter members and long time geocachers felt the same way when they found their first cache. Now, it really seems much more like a fad hobby. Someone downloads the app, plays for a few weeks, moves on to something else.

That was what it was like for me. I was with a lot of other teenage girls my age and they all thought it was neat, but I took to it! I loved the thrill of the hunt and where it could take me. This is saying something since the instructors from that day were less than pleasant...
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I think the answers you'll get to that question depend on where you ask it. On these forums it seems Geocache has been "dying" since 2005, which is when I started playing.

 

If you talk with your local caching community/communities, I think you'll find that events are getting larger, caches are becoming more numerous and varied, and many folks who play the game are as invested as they ever have been. A few cities and groups near me have been collaborating on plenty of new, excellent Geotours, I've seen an upswing in cool, unique caches lately, and local events have become even better.

 

In all my years of being involved with internet forums related to various hobbies, I've never been to one that didn't believe it's particular hobby was in danger or dying. :rolleyes:

Edited by Trotter17
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So let's take a look at the numbers. Last week is too small a sample size to show a trend and last month is not much better. Whoel year is actually absurd because it compares all of 2014 to the current total of this year which isn't even half done. As an example unique caches found in the US is down 17% but if you double that number whichis actually under reporting since we are not half way through it shows an increse of 68%. Caches placed are down which still leaves millions and millions to find.

 

The only really relevant number is since First of Year which shows active number of cachers up 8%. That's a growth number even Apple can't match. Remember GS gets paid by how many cachers not how many caches.

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How does your buddy define "dead"?

 

Clearly, geocaching is still happening. New caches are being hidden, geocachers are finding them, and all that.

 

But maybe your buddy means something else by "dead"?

A group of us are keeping track of how many new caches are getting published and how many are getting archived per state. I will say this... GS should be worrying. I wont name any states, but some states are flat line and others been dropping in last two years we been keeping track. :blink: The rest are climbing really slow, very close to flat line.

 

And that isn't a bad thing at all. The old stale caches that everyone has found will get archived making way for new and exciting caches. Expect it to happen every few years and then a comeback afterwards.

 

Not necessarily. I just checked some parks where I used to have caches... some nice wooded parks... and nothing has gone in there since. Its been at least two years in one of the parks. Plenty of stop sign hides have gone in meanwhile.

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I've been at this for five years and it's certainly bigger. I think better depends on a variety of factors. Socially, my area has seen tremendous growth with not a lot of drop off in the numbers of people caching, although some of them have cached less, unless it's an event. Our event attendance is usually pretty good now, when it was hard to get more than 4-5 together for an event when I first started. Most of the events in our area are simple lunch or dinner meet and greets, but they're usually well attended and fun to be a part of.

 

5 years is just 1/3 of the time this has been around and even in that short amount of time, I've seen a shift in the types of hides being offered. Traditional caches still rule the roost, but many of them are now simple P&Gs or uninspiring caches. Part of that is the fact that many areas worth visiting already have caches there. The other part is that many of these hides are from newer cachers who have only found a certain type of hide, which they've in turn, placed themselves. That's not a "bad" thing because it's what they know, but the creativity and unique nature of newer hides has suffered. Our area has never been a very big area for letterboxes, ECs, multis, or Wherigos, and there's really been no influx of those types of hides in our area, so it's gotten so that I have to drive farther away to find more non-traditional caches because I've found most of the ones in my area. We had a brief uptick in Wherigo hides when Ranger Fox introduced his Wherigo Kit program, but that's certainly tailed off. Unknowns are the only non-traditional category that have pretty much held steady since I started. I would say better because the number of hides in the area is now larger than when I started, but worse because the creativity, variety, and unique factors have all declined since I started.

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How does your buddy define "dead"?

 

Clearly, geocaching is still happening. New caches are being hidden, geocachers are finding them, and all that.

 

But maybe your buddy means something else by "dead"?

A group of us are keeping track of how many new caches are getting published and how many are getting archived per state. I will say this... GS should be worrying. I wont name any states, but some states are flat line and others been dropping in last two years we been keeping track. :blink: The rest are climbing really slow, very close to flat line.

 

And that isn't a bad thing at all. The old stale caches that everyone has found will get archived making way for new and exciting caches. Expect it to happen every few years and then a comeback afterwards.

 

Not necessarily. I just checked some parks where I used to have caches... some nice wooded parks... and nothing has gone in there since. Its been at least two years in one of the parks. Plenty of stop sign hides have gone in meanwhile.

 

Have the rules changed in those parks?

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Things come and go. Right now in the U.S., we're still in the craze of the "big scary child napper" mentality, which ultimately causes parents to (usually inadvertently) teach their children to fear the outdoors. Eventually that will change, but it may take a generation.

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Bigger... perhaps. I'll just stop there.

 

Yes,

 

Groundspeak gets to define what Geocaching is. What the rest f us think is irrelevant.

 

yes,

 

It has changed from a hike in the woods for an ammo can filled with trade items and caches placed in interesting locations to micros placed every 528 feet called geoart. It's all about the numbers, and phone cachers that have no use for a GPS unit have came up with new games to play.

Geocaching is becoming less popular, but not dead.

 

and yes again. :(

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I've been at this for five years and it's certainly bigger. I think better depends on a variety of factors. Socially, my area has seen tremendous growth with not a lot of drop off in the numbers of people caching, although some of them have cached less, unless it's an event. Our event attendance is usually pretty good now, when it was hard to get more than 4-5 together for an event when I first started. Most of the events in our area are simple lunch or dinner meet and greets, but they're usually well attended and fun to be a part of.

 

5 years is just 1/3 of the time this has been around and even in that short amount of time, I've seen a shift in the types of hides being offered. Traditional caches still rule the roost, but many of them are now simple P&Gs or uninspiring caches. Part of that is the fact that many areas worth visiting already have caches there. The other part is that many of these hides are from newer cachers who have only found a certain type of hide, which they've in turn, placed themselves. That's not a "bad" thing because it's what they know, but the creativity and unique nature of newer hides has suffered. Our area has never been a very big area for letterboxes, ECs, multis, or Wherigos, and there's really been no influx of those types of hides in our area, so it's gotten so that I have to drive farther away to find more non-traditional caches because I've found most of the ones in my area. We had a brief uptick in Wherigo hides when Ranger Fox introduced his Wherigo Kit program, but that's certainly tailed off. Unknowns are the only non-traditional category that have pretty much held steady since I started. I would say better because the number of hides in the area is now larger than when I started, but worse because the creativity, variety, and unique factors have all declined since I started.

I believe geocaching isn't dying anytime soon. I think geocaching wont come to an end for a long long time, but its all about opinion I feel like if 2 or 3 people go to find a cache the first day it is published then geocaching still has time to come.

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I agree that it's changed, but with the advent of the smartphone, and the fact that most of the world's population lives in urban areas, it was always on the cards. The volume of caches out there continues to grow, and yes for some it's all about the numbers. (I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device.) But caching is what you make of it. Groundspeak might lay out rules and guidelines, but it's down to US to put the creative caches out there. It's down to US to decide what we want to hunt for.

 

As to the urban stuff... yeah, constant streams of nanos and micros are boring. But remember the flip side of the pastime. Yesterday I went and got 10 caches in a two hour walk. None of the caches were imaginative, they were all standard fare. BUT they took me to a part of the SF Bay Area where an upper middle class white idiot would NEVER have set foot in otherwise. And as I walked along looking for YET ANOTHER CAMO FILM CAN, I encountered people along the way I never would have otherwise, and had quite a few media-driven stereotypes booted out the door in the process. A cache does not have to be an ammo can full of awesome, in a serene and tranquil setting to enlighten and educate.

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Bigger, maybe not, check here: http://project-gc.com/Statistics/Overview?country=United+States&submit=Filter

Better, not how I understand geocaching.

Perhaps not growing here in the US, but elsewhere? Maybe why there's such a focus on Germany with events, blog posts, etc?

 

The number of newly hidden caches is in decline in Germany too.

Some (but not all) reasons for that are that many areas where many cachers live are already quite saturated and above all the fact that in many areas it

has become harder to get caches published. For example, there are many cache types now that are not any longer published in Germany without permission of the property

owner which is not obtainable so these caches do not get hidden.

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I started geocaching in 2010 and don't really think it's much bigger now than it was then. More events maybe, but not more actual caches to find. I know REI stopped selling geocaching stuff awhile back. :|

 

My own opinion is that geocaching is here to stay, but will never be as big as I or probably others hoped it would be.

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I agree that it's changed, but with the advent of the smartphone, and the fact that most of the world's population lives in urban areas, it was always on the cards. The volume of caches out there continues to grow, and yes for some it's all about the numbers. (I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device.) But caching is what you make of it. Groundspeak might lay out rules and guidelines, but it's down to US to put the creative caches out there. It's down to US to decide what we want to hunt for.

 

As to the urban stuff... yeah, constant streams of nanos and micros are boring. But remember the flip side of the pastime. Yesterday I went and got 10 caches in a two hour walk. None of the caches were imaginative, they were all standard fare. BUT they took me to a part of the SF Bay Area where an upper middle class white idiot would NEVER have set foot in otherwise. And as I walked along looking for YET ANOTHER CAMO FILM CAN, I encountered people along the way I never would have otherwise, and had quite a few media-driven stereotypes booted out the door in the process. A cache does not have to be an ammo can full of awesome, in a serene and tranquil setting to enlighten and educate.

 

Love this.

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My daily streak has hit 60 days. After chasing too many lamp post caches and micros on dumpsters and on other totally disgusting places, I can see how someone might say the game is dead.

 

However I think really all it is that the game is changing and giving people more options.

 

I've only been caching for a little over a year, but I have an idea of what the caching experience use to be before the phone apps, the rise of urban caching, and caches that require special technology. Even on my lamp post streak, I have had several that were what I consider a traditional geocache experience. I've found several parks I never knew existed, found caches dedicated to people that history has forgotten, seen several beautiful sights I never would have seen otherwise, and encountered some very unique caches.

 

Then there's the new part of the game...the FTF race, racking up numbers, and fulfilling some stupid challenges. I'm doing that on my daily streak too.

 

These are all just different aspects of the game. Yes hiding 10000 nanos around the city seems to the growing thing right now, However that's because the focus originally had been on other kinds of caches. They're just catching up.

 

If you don't like lamp post caches or the numbers game, you don't have to do them. It is fairly easy to tell just from a map or the cache description if it is something you don't want to do.

 

Basically to me it looks like the options for playing the game are expanding. So I don't think that means the game is dead. Quite the contrary actually, the game is growing and is alive and well.

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I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device

...

Yesterday I went and got 10 caches in a two hour walk.

I'm not sure why you consider 100 finds in a day to be so unbelievable. You yourself described a find rate of 10 caches in 2 hours, which could get you 100 finds in 20 hours. My personal best day was 120 finds in a long, but not particularly arduous, 16-hour day. Since then, I was able to find 68 and 62 on two separate ~6-hour bike rides, and those could have easily been 100+ finds if the trails had only been longer. Once you start considering power trails like the E.T. Highway, many hundreds of finds in a day becomes possible, even if you don't use any questionable tactics.

 

As for using a teleportation device to get 100+ finds in a day, I just used my Volkswagen Rabbit for my 120 find day. No need for a Star Trek transporter or DeLorean. :laughing:

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(I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device.)

 

I've done 100 a day several times. It takes an area with good saturation, some planning and an 11 hour day. Piece of cake. Did use a car for the transport. ET and other power trails, 500 a day.

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(I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device.)

 

 

100 in a day is pretty easy without a power trail--if you have a big enough urban area, that's pretty doable. I'd say it's the out limit, but doable, I have a friend who has planned a trip like that a few times. It's all about planning your route--I think she really enjoyed planning the route!

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Fair enough, I suppose. To me, the math doesn't really make sense. Even in a 12 hour run, that's over 8 an hour, or a cache every 7 minutes or so for 12 hours straight. That's without stopping for petrol, to rest, or even bathroom breaks. Granted I'm still quite new to this, but when I get to GZ it takes me a minute or two to find the cache, and another minute or two to sign the log and replace everything correctly. So that leaves four minutes to travel between caches.

 

Fair play to those who've done it, then, but that's head down and going for it stuff which I suppose falls into that "all about the numbers" description. I suppose there's a sense of achievement in doing it, but suppose it's not just my personal pace.

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So today I was having a conversation with a buddy and he stated that caching is dead... Yep, I don't agree but what do you think? I believe its getting bigger and better every day and still has many year to come.

 

Sure, the forums are dead. ... Oh, wait, you're asking about caching! :ph34r:

 

Yes, many years ahead. But what will happen when consumer GPSrs have pinpoint accuracy?

 

Oh, yeah, that's a thread I started. The most popular one. Since it's a timely question and the thread's not that old, it seems like a very provident bump. Look it up. Bring it out! Bring it on!

;)

 

(My prediction? They'll drop the final digit.)

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Fair enough, I suppose. To me, the math doesn't really make sense. Even in a 12 hour run, that's over 8 an hour, or a cache every 7 minutes or so for 12 hours straight. That's without stopping for petrol, to rest, or even bathroom breaks. Granted I'm still quite new to this, but when I get to GZ it takes me a minute or two to find the cache, and another minute or two to sign the log and replace everything correctly. So that leaves four minutes to travel between caches.

 

When we did 139 on one day we easily logged 15 caches/hour. We were on a bicycle and there were plenty of caches that we didn't have to get off our bike but jest stop, bend over and pick up the micro. The GPS is fixed to the bike and I just press log>>found>> next closest while already on the move to the next one.

 

This is an extract of our geocaching_visits.txt file from the GPS (look at the times logged. First one logged at 7:58 GMT, last one 17:17 GMT. Distance 60 Km.

 

GC4X1W4,2014-09-06T07:58Z,Found it,""

GC4X1W5,2014-09-06T08:04Z,Found it,""

GC4X1W6,2014-09-06T08:08Z,Found it,""

GC4X1W7,2014-09-06T08:12Z,Found it,""

GC4X1W9,2014-09-06T08:15Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WB,2014-09-06T08:18Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WD,2014-09-06T08:21Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WF,2014-09-06T08:24Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WH,2014-09-06T08:27Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WJ,2014-09-06T08:30Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WK,2014-09-06T08:34Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WP,2014-09-06T08:36Z,Found it,""

GC4X1WQ,2014-09-06T08:40Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YD,2014-09-06T08:42Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YA,2014-09-06T08:45Z,Found it,""

GC4X1Y7,2014-09-06T08:48Z,Found it,""

GC4X1Y4,2014-09-06T08:50Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YG,2014-09-06T08:56Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YJ,2014-09-06T09:03Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YM,2014-09-06T09:05Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YR,2014-09-06T09:08Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YT,2014-09-06T09:10Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YV,2014-09-06T09:13Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YX,2014-09-06T09:15Z,Found it,""

GC4X1YZ,2014-09-06T09:18Z,Found it,""

GC4X1Z2,2014-09-06T09:20Z,Found it,""

GC4X35H,2014-09-06T09:24Z,Found it,""

GC4X35Z,2014-09-06T09:27Z,Found it,""

GC4X3CH,2014-09-06T09:29Z,Found it,""

 

After a caching day like that we go for multi's for weeks to come. B)

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How does your buddy define "dead"?

 

Clearly, geocaching is still happening. New caches are being hidden, geocachers are finding them, and all that.

 

But maybe your buddy means something else by "dead"?

A group of us are keeping track of how many new caches are getting published and how many are getting archived per state. I will say this... GS should be worrying. I wont name any states, but some states are flat line and others been dropping in last two years we been keeping track. :blink: The rest are climbing really slow, very close to flat line.

 

And that isn't a bad thing at all. The old stale caches that everyone has found will get archived making way for new and exciting caches. Expect it to happen every few years and then a comeback afterwards.

 

Not necessarily. I just checked some parks where I used to have caches... some nice wooded parks... and nothing has gone in there since. Its been at least two years in one of the parks. Plenty of stop sign hides have gone in meanwhile.

 

Have the rules changed in those parks?

 

Nope. There's even a paved trail... no serious bushwhacking needed.

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(I came across a blog recently where someone claimed to have found over a hundred caches in one day, a number I find to be utterly unbelievable. Maybe he found 100 caches and logged them on the site in one day, but logistically it's impossible to do that many caches in a 24 hour period without some sort of teleportation device.)

We did it primarily on bicycles, augmented by car caching. We also managed 15 FTF's within an hour.

 

How? Caches placed along a rail trail for a Mega event. I managed 130 finds in total for the day.

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