Geocaching Dead?

[+nikcap]

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that Geocaching is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through your containers and look for lost travel bugs."

Whenever I see one of these topics posted, it always makes me think of Snoogan's Event Horizon thread.

 

Project GC has a neat Histogram of cache placements by date. You can narrow it down to you state of choice and zoom into a range of years.

 

It seems that Geocaching hit a saturation level a couple of years ago and with that, parks and local governments took notice. Most have responded in one way or another, as a result, "legally" placing a cache has become a bit more of a challenge. Couple that with most of the sand box is saturated with caches already, and it tough to find a unique or good hiding spot.

[+Kelux]

Because then it'd have to be buried.

 

Why? Cremation is not an option?

[+AustinMN]

Ultimately, as long as nerds are forced to go outside (or, for a few like me who force themselves to go outside), there will be geocaching.

[+Mausebiber]

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.

 

If I read this I start thinking maybe Geocaching is really dying. In my opinion, Geocaching is leading to interesting locations, worth a visit, a location I would like to share with others, something nice to visit.

 

MB

[TahoeJoe]

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.

 

If I read this I start thinking maybe Geocaching is really dying. In my opinion, Geocaching is leading to interesting locations, worth a visit, a location I would like to share with others, something nice to visit.

 

MB

I agree 100%, it doesn't sound much like an outdoor treasure hunt reaching down from your bike to grab a cache every 530 feet. The game has evolved (or devolved depending on who you ask) into a different game than the original with less focus on the adventure and more focus on quantity.

[+on4bam]

I agree 100%, it doesn't sound much like an outdoor treasure hunt reaching down from your bike to grab a cache every 530 feet. The game has evolved (or devolved depending on who you ask) into a different game than the original with less focus on the adventure and more focus on quantity.

 

Average spacing 400+ meter but some were 161m so there were also plenty of "longer" stretches. But as I said, OK to do every once in a while but after such a caching day it's multi time for weeks. I wouldn't dream doing this on a regular basis. It was a nice area to ride a bike though, mostly quiet narrow country road with hardly any motorized traffic.

[+fuzziebear3]

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that Geocaching is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through your containers and look for lost travel bugs."

 

 

As you wish ...

[+MorWoods]

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

 

Well, there can be two answers. One is cache density, efficiency, and determination. The other is simple dishonesty.

 

We have a case down in the southeastern US of a person who claims to have passed through on his way to a vacation destination a few months ago. What caught our attention locally in Memphis was that he pretended to simply blast his way through what we all knew to be a difficult 22-cache circuit. It turns out he signed ONLY the fist log ... located at the parking lot ... and then claimed the entire circuit.

 

This same "cacher" did himself proud on his way back home. He claims to have covered some 600 miles in one day, while collecting 120 caches (none of which were on "power trails", but rather individual caches located at/near highway exits across the southeast US) on that same day.

 

Now, I happened to do a recent road trip that covered many of the same markets. I hit a few of the caches that this cacher claims to have found, and I noticed that his signature isn't located on any of the logs. Nor, I'd note, did he make any claim to have signed any of the logs in any of his posts ... so, I guess he's in the clear, from a sort of lawyer's kind of view, since he never made any representation to have found or signed any of the caches that he's claimed online.

 

For what it's worth, I'd also note that my wife and I were able to get 60 caches today in a market that we hadn't yet cached in, and it took us less than 5 hours to accomplish this (in a city of less than 50k people). When I'm on the highway, though, I was only able to gather about a cache every 12 minutes ... so, if I'm driving 600 miles at an average of 60 mph, I could have picked up about 5/hour over a maximum of 14 hours of caching (assuming no eating, sleeping, or stopping for fuel!), or about 70 caches at an absolute maximum in addition to the miles driven. Anything beyond this, as you suggest, requires something beyond the physics of time & space that we usually recognize. The person who claimed to cover 600 miles and gather 120 non-powertrail caches along his route is, to be blunt, a liar. A liar who is deluding only himself.

[+BernGPS]

And geocaches who talked about ants guarding the cache when I as the CO knew that there is no ants there. Yup. Seen a few liers around.

[+SwineFlew]

And geocaches who talked about ants guarding the cache when I as the CO knew that there is no ants there. Yup. Seen a few liers around.

And I see alot of CO lying to the reviewers they checked their caches when they didn't.

[+Mudfrog]

If geocaching dies I don't believe it will be from people not being interested. I think it will be from people placing caches where they shouldn't be and the game being banned. I know I am all in for it and have many friends that are hard core into it as well.

 

Have to disagree. Yes, there will be some banning but i think the bigger issue will be lack of interest from players. Newer people see geocaching as simply a game to collect smilies. Sure it's fun at first but just like a lot of games, interest will be lost after a bit. I'm thinking, at least hoping, that the more dedicated cachers, those who realize there is more to geocaching than just numbers, will help keep our hobby going.

[+JL_HSTRE]

If geocaching dies I don't believe it will be from people not being interested. I think it will be from people placing caches where they shouldn't be and the game being banned.

 

Agreed. The biggest threat to geocaching is a combination of popularity and poor cache placement decisions. Look at some of the recent issues on the forums about that.

[knowschad]

If geocaching dies I don't believe it will be from people not being interested. I think it will be from people placing caches where they shouldn't be and the game being banned. I know I am all in for it and have many friends that are hard core into it as well.

 

Have to disagree. Yes, there will be some banning but i think the bigger issue will be lack of interest from players. Newer people see geocaching as simply a game to collect smilies. Sure it's fun at first but just like a lot of games, interest will be lost after a bit. I'm thinking, at least hoping, that the more dedicated cachers, those who realize there is more to geocaching than just numbers, will help keep our hobby going.

 

What about a combination of the two? Geocaching gets banned from all of the state, county, and city parks (worst case scenario, we know that isn't likely to happen in real life) and the only places left are the parking lots and roadsides.

[+Colonial Cats]

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.

 

If I read this I start thinking maybe Geocaching is really dying. In my opinion, Geocaching is leading to interesting locations, worth a visit, a location I would like to share with others, something nice to visit.

 

MB

I agree 100%, it doesn't sound much like an outdoor treasure hunt reaching down from your bike to grab a cache every 530 feet. The game has evolved (or devolved depending on who you ask) into a different game than the original with less focus on the adventure and more focus on quantity.

I was going to reply with my own post, but I cannot improve on what you wrote.

[+emmett]

.

 

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. 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.

 

"New and exciting caches?" Yes there is space for them, but no one is putting any out, at least not where I live.

 

Clearly quality (by any reasonable measure) is dead, but I'd guess there probably are enough people interested in mediocre (or worse) to keep Groundspeak rolling in the dough.

 

.

[+emmett]

.

 

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. 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.

 

 

I retired 75 caches (200+ stages) several years ago, many in unique spots. As best as I can tell, most or all of those locations are still open.

 

.

[+L0ne.R]

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.

 

+1

[+L0ne.R]

This year is the first year that I've felt unexcited about geocaching. My sister actually asked to go geocaching with me and I'm going to tell her let's do something else. I checked the suggested area and can't find a few good caches to try.

 

I'm getting really frustrated with the carp that's out there - lots of poor quality, abandoned caches.

 

You can't rely on last finders to post true Found It logs. Half of them will post a find on a wire hanging on a tree. Then there's the ever increasing number of people who feel they are doing everyone a big favour by dropping a pill bottle where a cache has gone missing (and the owner has dropped out or is an active yet delinquent cache owner). Of course, they also claim the find on their throwdown because they can't handle not finding a cache. Then there's the increasing number of belligerent cache owners who get angry if you post an NA on their abandoned cache, then profusely thank the next guy who throws down a pill bottle for being a cache "angel". The favorite point system isn't working so well anymore. I run a Project-GC for highly favored caches, then look at some of the newer logs to read that the cache is in poor shape, or abandoned, or is a recent throwdown cache. It's becoming more frustrating then fun.

 

The site is bloated with poor quality, abandoned caches.

[+Tassie_Boy]

.

 

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. 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.

 

"New and exciting caches?" Yes there is space for them, but no one is putting any out, at least not where I live.

 

Clearly quality (by any reasonable measure) is dead, but I'd guess there probably are enough people interested in mediocre (or worse) to keep Groundspeak rolling in the dough.

 

.

 

Never suggested it would be an overnight thing, it will probably take a few years and it'll take new players with fresh new ideas or those who are around now whinging about what's going to to set an example.

[+briansnat]

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.

 

I once found 6 caches in an hour, on crutches, in no particular hurry and it wasn't a power trail. 8 an hour is a piece of cake. With power trails almost everywhere these days, someone on foot can easily find 15 in an hour. Add a car and a place like the ET highway and you're talking maybe 40 to 50 an hour. There are some Youtube videos of power trails where they were finding caches on the ET highway at a rate of under a minute per cache, and that was signing the log and putting the cache back where they found it. To paraphrase Vizzini, never go in against a geocacher when numbers are on the line.

[+bflentje]

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. 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.

 

I want it to go back to the old days when it was a small, elite crowd of us (mostly) purists. I want it to be like it was when no one I knew had any idea what geocaching was all about. Maybe then I will crack my addiction for "finding just one more" cache, even if it's in a stop sign.

[+bflentje]

Maybe it'll be like tennis and chess - slow growth, a boom, and then a retreat where quality rules and numbers (of finds, hides & members) are down, and the serious players remain.

 

Both chess and tennis have gone that route.

 

And (particularly in Minnesota) golf is also in a downward spiral.