Lonely/Unloved caches, what is your total?

[+noikmeister]

Hi,

 

Any cachers out there who chase down lonely/unloved caches (183+ days since last found), what is your total? I'm wondering who has the biggest number. I got into it before I knew it was a thing. I'd just pick to loneliest cache in my state and go for it. Once I became aware of this being the topic of challenge caches I wrote some code to pull the stats out of my GSAK DB. I later converted this into a GSAK macro. Now I have 225 years' worth spread over 143 finds.

 

I'm looking for someone who has more, so what's you total?

 

Cheers,

Jeremy, AKA Noikmeister

[+Harry Dolphin]

Error in macro: line 92.

[+noikmeister]

Just run it again, it should work, but you'll need to download all the logs on your found caches before running it. That is supposed to be fixed in 2.6, so I'll have to have another look.

[+AnnaMoritz]

My total isn't high, there aren't too many lonely actually findable (non high alpine) caches in my country, slightly more than 5 years for the top 5 lonliest that were active and available all the time while being lonely.

 

For me it seems very unconvenient to simply download all logs for all found caches if you found a lot of caches and also found caches that have thousands of logs. With bad luck that might lead to a million logs.

 

I wonder whether there is a way to load a found-pq into an empty database and then retrieve only the last x logs preceding my found it date via API.

 

Personally I have a bookmarklist for lonely founds and put caches there when I still remember that they were lonely and also write down the number of days and whether the cache was active and present all the time or missing/disabled for some time in between.

[+narcissa]

For us the benchmark is one year without a find. I have between five and ten of those, I think.

 

I've probably found ~30 that went six months without a find but I've never counted that.

[+J Grouchy]

I don't use GSAK (I tried but could never figure it out, so I don't bother anymore), but I created a list of caches I found that were "lonely" for 12 or more months.

 

https://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=78186341-bb04-4f61-9904-5dfe5d42f2b7

 

It totals to almost 31 years. I'm sure it would be quite a bit more than that if I used 6 months as a baseline.

[+Mudfrog]

I was curious about this as well but i'm not sure how to go about it.

 

Ran my finds query and brought it up with gsak. Installed the macro, then tried to run it. Since my logs are the only ones showing in the query, the macro showed no results. Thought, ok, i'll use the api through gsak but then i realize that it will only fetch up to 30 logs and on top of that, will take forever to update. I have to ask, what am i missing?

[+cerberus1]

Looked at the header, and wondered who'd admit to such a thing.

 

I go for the walk, not for stats/challenges, as lonely here seems to be out a bit.

Have gotten mails from some upset they have to look elsewhere when I've set some year thing back to zip.

I usually reply, "It was sitting almost a year. I have a bunch more on my list. When's a good time for you?"

[+Isonzo Karst]

Like narcissa, I don't consider 6 months unfound to be lonely.

 

Many areas will have all hiking caches unfound for that period every year, either because of snow, or in the U.S. sunbelt, because of heat.

 

My owned caches mostly go unfound from early June to early January every year. (And mostly, the caching season won't start til February, not sure why)

My current owned caches unfound for over a year is at 32. Many unfound since 2013, one coming up on 5 years. That's lonely.

 

I've got gobs of lonely finds (using 1 years as the minimum), 4+ years unfound being the longest.

[+noncentric]

I like searching for caches that haven't been found in a while. There aren't a ton to choose from in my neck of the woods, unless you count the ones that have a bunch of DNF's.

 

I keep a bookmark list of my finds if the last find was at least 6 months ago. Looking at that bookmark list, I have a total of 42 years (504 months) across 40 cache finds. Longest was 45 months.

 

If I look at those that haven't been found in 12+ months, then my total would be 26.4 years (317 months) across 14 cache finds.

Edited May 11, 2016 by noncentric

[+narcissa]

Like narcissa, I don't consider 6 months unfound to be lonely.

 

Many areas will have all hiking caches unfound for that period every year, either because of snow, or in the U.S. sunbelt, because of heat.

 

My owned caches mostly go unfound from early June to early January every year. (And mostly, the caching season won't start til February, not sure why)

My current owned caches unfound for over a year is at 32. Many unfound since 2013, one coming up on 5 years. That's lonely.

 

I've got gobs of lonely finds (using 1 years as the minimum), 4+ years unfound being the longest.

 

My favourite lonely find was a puzzle that was a FTF and lonely!

[+Isonzo Karst]

I have 6 FTF on caches out 6 months or more. But no FTF on a one year unfound cache. Longer ranging paddle, hiking or multi-caches.

One multi that I FTF'ed when it was 6 months old has never been found again (2 years now)! Hey, it's got 100% favorites too ;-)

[+noikmeister]

The macro is adjustable so you can get it to target caches older than anything, 183 is the default. For example I have almost 180 years combined of caches unfound for greater that 364 days.

[+noikmeister]

My total isn't high, there aren't too many lonely actually findable (non high alpine) caches in my country, slightly more than 5 years for the top 5 lonliest that were active and available all the time while being lonely.

 

For me it seems very unconvenient to simply download all logs for all found caches if you found a lot of caches and also found caches that have thousands of logs. With bad luck that might lead to a million logs.

 

I wonder whether there is a way to load a found-pq into an empty database and then retrieve only the last x logs preceding my found it date via API.

 

Personally I have a bookmarklist for lonely founds and put caches there when I still remember that they were lonely and also write down the number of days and whether the cache was active and present all the time or missing/disabled for some time in between.

Unfortunately there is no way in the API to get, say, the 30 logs before mine. In GSAK you can get:

• All logs
  
• All logs newer than mine
  
• Custom range X number of logs starting at log N
  

But there is no way to work out what log number your log is. I've asked. So unfortunately getting all the logs is the only way. I've had people with over 10,000 finds use the API to get all logs and they just let it run overnight. It worked for them ok.

[+noikmeister]

I was curious about this as well but i'm not sure how to go about it.

 

Ran my finds query and brought it up with gsak. Installed the macro, then tried to run it. Since my logs are the only ones showing in the query, the macro showed no results. Thought, ok, i'll use the api through gsak but then i realize that it will only fetch up to 30 logs and on top of that, will take forever to update. I have to ask, what am i missing?

Hi,

 

Did you read the instructions on the macro download page? The first time you run it you have to fetch ALL the logs for all your found caches. Unfortunately there is no other way.

[+The A-Team]

I recently logged a lonely cache challenge, so I've already downloaded logs and run macros. That challenge defined a lonely cache as one that hadn't been found in 6 months. I've found 63 such caches. Only 8 had gone over a year without being found, with the longest being one that hadn't been found in 38 months (over 3 years). All of these just happened during the course of my regular caching. That is, I didn't intentionally target any of them because they were lonely.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Well, I do not understand how to get the macro to work. It gives me 0.

From my Blue Cache Bookmark list for caches that had not been found in a year or more, I have 28 years and 11 months on 15 caches. The longest was 3 years 7 months.

[+Viajero Perdido]

(183+ days since last found)

 

[...]

 

Now I have 225 years' worth spread over 143 finds.

 

I'm looking for someone who has more, so what's you total?

I might have you beat, but the thought of working it out gives me a headache, so I'll concede just to avoid having to dust off the old VM where I keep GSAK.

 

By the 183-day criteria, I've got about 20 years of FTFs alone (did a quick count through my profile where I list the memorable ones), plus I remember a couple of years back I found a 7- and an 8-year lonely cache (in different places), plus overall some uncounted number of 1+ year ones.

 

Heck, I could probably go over 100 years on the lonely DNFs too. (Nicaragua and Busan, I'm thinking of you.)

 

Lonely caches are what I do. Love 'em.

[+noikmeister]

Well, I do not understand how to get the macro to work. It gives me 0.

From my Blue Cache Bookmark list for caches that had not been found in a year or more, I have 28 years and 11 months on 15 caches. The longest was 3 years 7 months.

Did you download ALL the logs on ALL of your found caches? It's in the instructions.

[+uxorious]

I own a cache that hasn't been found in 3 years, and it was 5 years before that it was last found. I'm always amazed and pleased that there are cachers who can make it into that cache. (though the last finder indicated the road has gotten much worse, and he would be surprised if anyone else will make it.)

 

The cache was almost a drive to on FSRs. However, some major flooding one winter wiped out the main road in, and a bridge that accessed the area. It is now a very long and very hard trek.

 

I thought about just archiving it, but some people have indicated they would still like to try for it someday.

 

The Forest service office did say the road in would be rebuild someday. I won't hold my breath for that though.

 

GCX5NT

[+narcissa]

I own a cache that hasn't been found in 3 years, and it was 5 years before that it was last found. I'm always amazed and pleased that there are cachers who can make it into that cache. (though the last finder indicated the road has gotten much worse, and he would be surprised if anyone else will make it.)

 

The cache was almost a drive to on FSRs. However, some major flooding one winter wiped out the main road in, and a bridge that accessed the area. It is now a very long and very hard trek.

 

I thought about just archiving it, but some people have indicated they would still like to try for it someday.

 

The Forest service office did say the road in would be rebuild someday. I won't hold my breath for that though.

 

GCX5NT

 

This looks amazing!

 

We have our eyes on this one:

 

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCW70D_rusty-steamer

[+igator210]

There seems to be a difference between CalculateUnlovedFinds and LonelyFinds for my database

 

The LonelyFinds macro returns 26 caches over a year lonely. With the CalculateUnlovedFinds macro, it returns 22 caches over a year lonely.

 

The four caches that are different

 

1 is active, but was found at the same time with another cacher (367 days lonely)

1 was archived and found with another cacher at the same time (376 days lonely)

1 was archived but was only found by me (738 days lonely)

1 was just shy of a 365 days lonely

 

I cleared the stored data and reran the macro, with the same result. This isn't probably the best place to discuss issues with the macro, but just thought I'd post that something seems to need a little tweaking.

 

EDIT:

 

I enabled the UnLovedDays column. On three of the caches the calculated days are correct, but on the forth, the days is incorrect.

 

It appears there is an issue when a lonely cache is found by a group.

 

I don't like that you can't change the output after running. I set it up for a year the first time through. I then wanted to see the 6+ months. I did that via the pop up screen but it still only returned 12+ months. I had to clear the data and rerun the macro to show the 6+ months.

Edited May 12, 2016 by igator210

[+hzoi]

So far my record is being the first finder in five and a half years, on Laurel Forks 2. Cache was published in August 2002, its fourth find was in September 2004, and we found it in March 2010.

 

Second place I think is Gertchie Birdie's Otowi Mesa Cache, hidden in November 2001. We were the 30th finders overall, found it in October 2015, last previous find was January 2012.

 

To the OP, I applaud your creating a macro on this, but the means to run it as intended are not feasible for me. We're closing in on 7,000 finds, and I don't want to bog down my GSAK database by downloading all the logs on all those caches. Two of our finds alone, Geist des Hagen and Schatz des Hagen, have over 17,000 finds between them. It'd probably take GSAK a week or more to get all of the logs for all of our finds, and then the database would be so unwieldy, it wouldn't be worth keeping that data for long. I'll stick with my bookmark list.

[+Corfman Clan]

I've found many, though I don't keep track of how long it's been since the last find. I do run a website, LonelyCache that scores caches based on their loneliness.

[+Mudfrog]

I have found quite a few caches over the years so getting logs for all is a big task. Figured i'd narrow things down a bit so started by deleting all caches with a terrain lower than 2.5. Then i went to deleting events, citos, popular caches, and cache series that i suspect get routinely found. After this, i still had close to 3000 to fetch logs for. Attempted to do that and after about an hour, found that i was close to halfway done. Being impatient, i went ahead and aborted then ran the macro. My total so far is 17.8 years. The loneliest was 3.8 years.

 

This is kind of interesting so i'll keep working at it to see if i can get a more accurate number.

[+J Grouchy]

I've found many, though I don't keep track of how long it's been since the last find. I do run a website, LonelyCache that scores caches based on their loneliness.

 

Nice...except that's only for the western states.

[+ZeppelinDT]

No idea what my total is, but I love finding these types and I very actively hunt them down. For whatever reason, there are tons in my area (Long Island) that sit for years and years without being found. Which is odd in some ways, because we have a very active caching community here. But Long Island is kind of odd I guess in that, as you get out to the east end of Long Island, there are tons of huge parks with good caches, but in the summer time the ticks are really awful, and in the winter there's a lot of active hunting, so you only have a small window each year where you can really safely explore those woods, plus there are literally thousands of much easier and more accessible caches in western Long Island, so most cachers tend to gravitate to those in stead.

 

This past winter/spring alone I think I found at least 5 or 6 caches where the last find was over 4 years ago (all in different areas, and none that were especially difficult/unique).

 

My single cache record though is 5 years, 1 month and 3 days (or 1,860 days). Cache was a tricky-ish puzzle with no geochecker and a well-hidden final.

[+Harry Dolphin]

 

Unfortunately there is no way in the API to get, say, the 30 logs before mine. In GSAK you can get:

• All logs
  
• All logs newer than mine
  
• Custom range X number of logs starting at log N
  

But there is no way to work out what log number your log is. I've asked. So unfortunately getting all the logs is the only way. I've had people with over 10,000 finds use the API to get all logs and they just let it run overnight. It worked for them ok.

 

I'm clueless. I don't see how to get 'all logs'.

[+Mudfrog]

 

Unfortunately there is no way in the API to get, say, the 30 logs before mine. In GSAK you can get:

• All logs
  
• All logs newer than mine
  
• Custom range X number of logs starting at log N
  

But there is no way to work out what log number your log is. I've asked. So unfortunately getting all the logs is the only way. I've had people with over 10,000 finds use the API to get all logs and they just let it run overnight. It worked for them ok.

 

I'm clueless. I don't see how to get 'all logs'.

In gsak, i believe you click the "geocaching.com access" tab, then click "get recent logs". The little window that comes up gives you 3 options, one is to get all logs.

[+GrateBear]

I've got a PQ set up for unfound caches, but most of them are in remote areas that are not easy to get to. I did get on, placed 1/26/12 and I was FTF on 7/25/15. The CO also placed two others the same day in the area, but I could not get to them. Also found one that was placed some time ago that I found on 9/3/12, with the prior find on 8/26/10. The next person to find that one after me was on 11/10/14.

[+noikmeister]

 

To the OP, I applaud your creating a macro on this, but the means to run it as intended are not feasible for me. We're closing in on 7,000 finds, and I don't want to bog down my GSAK database by downloading all the logs on all those caches. Two of our finds alone, Geist des Hagen and Schatz des Hagen, have over 17,000 finds between them. It'd probably take GSAK a week or more to get all of the logs for all of our finds, and then the database would be so unwieldy, it wouldn't be worth keeping that data for long. I'll stick with my bookmark list.

You could always create a fresh DB to hold the logs. I've got 27,000+ caches in my main GSAK DB and 1.5 million logs and it isn't unwieldy at all. I even load the DB onto my phone and open it with GDAK and it is serviceable enough.

[kanchan]

Your macro didn't work for me (no qualifying cache), so I used data populated by LonelyFinds.gsk.

 

394 finds with 183+ days

122 finds with 365+ days

33 finds with 730+ days

Longest: 1,813 days

Longest FTF: 1,071 days

145,155 days in total from the 394 finds with 183+ days

[+cheech gang]

When did the title of this thread change? I liked the old one

 

-Ringbone

[+hzoi]

 

To the OP, I applaud your creating a macro on this, but the means to run it as intended are not feasible for me. We're closing in on 7,000 finds, and I don't want to bog down my GSAK database by downloading all the logs on all those caches. Two of our finds alone, Geist des Hagen and Schatz des Hagen, have over 17,000 finds between them. It'd probably take GSAK a week or more to get all of the logs for all of our finds, and then the database would be so unwieldy, it wouldn't be worth keeping that data for long. I'll stick with my bookmark list.

You could always create a fresh DB to hold the logs. I've got 27,000+ caches in my main GSAK DB and 1.5 million logs and it isn't unwieldy at all. I even load the DB onto my phone and open it with GDAK and it is serviceable enough.

 

OK, I could do that. I guess the next question is, why would I want to? Clearly your reason for writing the macro was to see if you are winning at your side game or not. What's my incentive for using it?

[+noikmeister]

You remind me why I hardly ever bother posting in these forums.

[+hzoi]

You remind me why I hardly ever bother posting in these forums.

I'm sorry, you were clearly looking for praise. Let me try again.

 

Hi,

 

Any cachers out there who chase down lonely/unloved caches (183+ days since last found), what is your total? I'm wondering who has the biggest number. I got into it before I knew it was a thing. I'd just pick to loneliest cache in my state and go for it. Once I became aware of this being the topic of challenge caches I wrote some code to pull the stats out of my GSAK DB. I later converted this into a GSAK macro. Now I have 225 years' worth spread over 143 finds.

 

I'm looking for someone who has more, so what's you total?

 

Cheers,

Jeremy, AKA Noikmeister

Hey, that's great! I haven't had time to run your macro, but I bet you have us beat.

[+bflentje]

You remind me why I hardly ever bother posting in these forums.

I'm sorry, you were clearly looking for praise. Let me try again.

 

Hi,

 

Any cachers out there who chase down lonely/unloved caches (183+ days since last found), what is your total? I'm wondering who has the biggest number. I got into it before I knew it was a thing. I'd just pick to loneliest cache in my state and go for it. Once I became aware of this being the topic of challenge caches I wrote some code to pull the stats out of my GSAK DB. I later converted this into a GSAK macro. Now I have 225 years' worth spread over 143 finds.

 

I'm looking for someone who has more, so what's you total?

 

Cheers,

Jeremy, AKA Noikmeister

Hey, that's great! I haven't had time to run your macro, but I bet you have us beat.

 

Where's a mod when you need one.

[+brendan714]

I really enjoy lonely caches. I don't usually actively search them out, but I do find it interesting to see when a cache was last found. That said, a few friends and I have a fun self-challenge to find our province's oldest unfound geocaches. Typically they're up some mountain but most can easily be reached in less than a day. I guess my hiking and ramblings in the Canadian Rockies just lead me to a bunch of unloved caches. I've also hidden a bunch of lonely caches myself.

 

I'm not a GSAKer at all, but I did decide to take the time to download all the logs of my recent finds and run the macro. Here's what I came up with:

 

On a 183 day threshold:

354 qualifying caches totalling 159976 days = 438 years

 

I couldn't get the macro to work for anything over 183 days, so I'll just list the others from Excel:

 

On a 1 year threshold:

140 caches

 

On a 2 year threshold:

50 caches

 

On a 3 year threshold:

18 caches

 

On a 4 year threshold:

7 caches

 

5 years and older threshold:

6 caches

 

Longest gap on a single cache - nearly 7 years:

http://coord.info/GCH0V3

 

It's also worthwhile to note that I adopted a bunch of caches a couple months ago that were placed in the early 2000's. 2 of these caches have been unfound for over 12 years, and might very well be some of the world's loneliest caches (GC5A79 & GC5A78). Which is funny because they are both only a couple kilometers away from a major highway - granted one's on top of a mountain and the other is across a big river. I'm going to make an effort this summer to visit them (as a cache hunter / cache owner).

 

It seems fitting that I'm going out tonight after work for a hike, and along the way is a cache that hasn't been found for nearly 2 years.

[+ZimbaW]

I just ran your macro and I started with 14080 days (35.5 years) of unloved for 6 months GC plus GCA caches first run.

10435 days (28.5 years) of unloved for 6 months GC only caches but after double checking for accuracy as you suggested I have a grand total of 9349 days (25.6 years).

Now I can claim a couple of challenge caches around the joint.

Thanks NM

That last stat (9349 days) was from a total of 30 caches and the oldest was 556 days  

Edited August 28, 2018 by ZimbaW

[+Goldenwattle]

I was listing these caches for a challenge, but now I have qualified for that challenge I stopped adding more caches. My number before I stopped, was 140. That also doesn't include caches found, before I began that challenge.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+fizzymagic]

I am at something close to 200 lonely for 365+ days now, with a total (IIRC) of around 450 years; I will have to re-check tonight.  I love finding lonely caches.  My longest are 2 that were a little over 5 years lonely each; I have friends who have found 8+ years lonely caches, but I have not been so fortunate.

[+Viajero Perdido]

I'm with fizzy on the passion for lonely ones.  Actually, it's more of a passion for remote, difficult ones, that quite often happen to be lonely simply because of that.

 

What I find impressive is the excellent condition, sometimes, of these rarely-opened ones.  I just returned from a geo-vacation that included a 6-year lonely, and a 2-year lonely FTF.  Both were in absolutely perfect condition as if they'd been placed yesterday.

 

(Well, until the forest fire ripped through a few hours later, in the latter case.  Nother story.)

[+The A-Team]

1 hour ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Actually, it's more of a passion for remote, difficult ones, that quite often happen to be lonely simply because of that.

 

What I find impressive is the excellent condition, sometimes, of these rarely-opened ones.

I just got a new vehicle that's more capable of accessing remote areas than my previous one. On my first day of trying it out, I was able to find a 15-year-old cache that hadn't been found in over 3 years. I expect to find more like this in the future. This one was damp inside, but I've seen other lonely caches that were in great condition.

[+Goldenwattle]

When I was listing caches not found for six months or more for a challenge, I listed three caches not found for more than 1,000 days.GCVQ4V GCRN95  GC195KR

(Photographs on all my logs) This one, bushing bashing a lot of the way. That vegetation was over my head height. Tiring for someone not so young. But lots of small wildflowers, including orchids among the green.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Goldenwattle

[+Harry Dolphin]

According to my Lonely Cache List, I have found 2 caches not found in 4 years.  8 caches not found in 3 years.  21 caches not found in 2 years.  And 41 caches not found in 1 year.

[+funkymunkyzone]

5 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

...and a 2-year lonely FTF.  Both were in absolutely perfect condition as if they'd been placed yesterday.

 

(Well, until the forest fire ripped through a few hours later, in the latter case.  Nother story.)

Now I have visions of you celebrating a 2-year lonely FTF with a nice cuppa over a campfire, or blowing out a candle on a cupcake at GZ...

[+fizzymagic]

OK I found my real numbers.

 

>= 365 days:  194 caches, total = 357 years

>= 180 days: 454 caches, total = 537.6 years

[+Team Canary]

I hope to hit 200 years just before the 10th anniversary of my first find later this year. Less the 2 years to go!!!

[+STNolan]

I keep track of only those caches at least a year lonely; so far I have found 30 of those so far in 7 States and 3 countries (including Antarctica)

So far my best is only 38 months unfound. Of those thirty, 7 were more than 2 years lonely.

[+Harry Dolphin]

We found the final to a multi that had been archived four years ago.  Does that count?