Adrenaline Junkie Souvenir

[+The A-Team]

16 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Quote

Drop Trackable

 

Does anybody get a jolt of adrenaline from this?

Somehow I missed that part. The trackable points were a gong show back during the Planetary Pursuit promotion, and I would have hoped that HQ had learned a lesson.

 

HQ, please remove trackables from this promotion. This loophole was abused by quite a few cachers who repeatedly dropped and retrieved other members' trackables in order to acquire an obscene number of points. Especially with the extremely low number of points required for this souvenir, there's no need for the extra points from trackables. If this is left in the promotion, I'll be locking my still-active trackables for the duration so they can't be abused.

[+K13]

As I see the scoring, (disregarding the Trackable points) I need only find 2 caches with high D/T (sum >8)) with FP over 10; or any 4 caches with FP over 10.

 

WHAT A RUSH!!

[+The A-Team]

39 minutes ago, K13 said:

As I see the scoring, (disregarding the Trackable points) I need only find 2 caches with high D/T (sum >8)) with FP over 10; or any 4 caches with FP over 10.

 

WHAT A RUSH!!

Yep. In fact, any 6 finds would be enough, regardless of FPs or D/T.

 

...or 0 finds and just drop/retrieve a bunch of trackables in notes.

 

I can already feel the adrenaline pumping...

[+mill75]

On 30. 8. 2018 at 8:23 PM, thebruce0 said:

Everyone gets a prize.

But if you want to humor them and have fun doing it, you can enjoy the theme (knowing that your efforts are above and beyond, and it really only awards you bragging rights: you did it the 'adrenaline' way to get the prize, while someone else did the minimum requirement not at all in line with the theme)

 

Everyone gets a prize. Not everyone gets to brag. Not everyone wants to brag. So prize value (for lack of a better term) and motivation reduced.

But it's still an opportunity to have fun following a theme, for those who don't really really care too much on principle.

 

I understand that geocaching is family friendly and available to most. But as far as the souvenirs are concerned I think there should be some special tasks. If they put out a adrenaline junkie souvenir, geocachers should only be able to get it by finding a difficult terrain cache, I would say T4 or more. Like this it would only make sense, because you would have to put some effort into finding a cache and would actually earn it. 

 

Personally for me the souvenirs have lost the real point, because you can get them by doing what you've done so far and not even trying harder. Where is the thrill and joy in that? 

[+icabrian]

On 9/1/2018 at 9:35 AM, mill75 said:

Personally for me the souvenirs have lost the real point, because you can get them by doing what you've done so far and not even trying harder. Where is the thrill and joy in that? 

 

Yes, it's true that if you just want the souvenir, you don't have to do anything special. But why not trying harder anyway? Use the Adrenaline month as a motivation to go for that T5 cache even though you already have the souvenir in your pocket. What if this all is not just about getting the souvenir? And the souvenir is just a cue to a month of adrenaline experiences?

Edited September 2, 2018 by icabrian

[+mill75]

I agree, it should be a motivation for each and every one of us to go out and try do to our best. With no doubt I will do a T5 cache, because if I don't, I know I won't be satisfied with what I've done to earn the souvenir.

[+Harry Dolphin]

2 hours ago, icabrian said:

 

Yes, it's true that if you just want the souvenir, you don't have to do anything special. But why not trying harder anyway? Use the Adrenaline month as a motivation to go for that T5 cache even though you already have the souvenir in your pocket. What if this all is not just about getting the souvenir? And the souvenir is just a cue to a month of adrenaline experiences?

 

Adrenaline Rush seems to me to be almost the same as a panic attack.  I'll pass.

[+KBLAST]

I'm personally searching for 2 5/5 caches with 10 FP or more to get into the spirit of the month's goal. It's actually kind of tough for me to find 5/5's since I've done all of them around my home, so it looks like I'll be driving a couple of hours to grab a couple. For me, that's something I wouldn't have done without this promotion - so it worked on me.

[+cerberus1]

That'd be cool.  I haven't found a 5/5 cache yet though, that really was one.  Most are 2/5 tops. 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

12 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

That'd be cool.  I haven't found a 5/5 cache yet though, that really was one.  Most are 2/5 tops. 

 

I suspect most 5/5 rated caches are overrated on the D rating.  I've seen a lot of 5/5 caches that require special equipment (e.g. a boat, climbing gear) that are actually easy to find once one has reached GZ.  

 

It's only a matter of time before COs start placing 5/5 caches to make it easier for their friends in the local community to satisfy the criteria for this promotion.  

[+Harry Dolphin]

9 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

I suspect most 5/5 rated caches are overrated on the D rating.  I've seen a lot of 5/5 caches that require special equipment (e.g. a boat, climbing gear) that are actually easy to find once one has reached GZ.  

 

It's only a matter of time before COs start placing 5/5 caches to make it easier for their friends in the local community to satisfy the criteria for this promotion.  

 

And I think both D & T are overrated on the five 5/5 caches I've found.  Is driving 376 miles a 5 T?  Is walking seven miles a 5 T?  One was actually a 5 D.  Had me quite stumped for a few months.  But is walking a few miles, and relying on a car or the New York City subway really 5 T?

That being said, I got my souvenir for four caches today.  And no adrenaline.  Lots of sweat in the Heat Advisory today.  About four miles of hiking.  Pretty low ranking on this souvenir.  Four caches; you got it.

[+K13]

If you locate the right Challenge cache listing, you can have lots of 5/5 caches that are nothing more that a "check the qualifications" and then sign the drive-up skirt-lifter.

[+The A-Team]

23 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

That being said, I got my souvenir for four caches today.  And no adrenaline.  Lots of sweat in the Heat Advisory today.  About four miles of hiking.  Pretty low ranking on this souvenir.  Four caches; you got it.

I completely forgot that this promotion was starting yesterday. I attended an Event in the morning and then found four other caches throughout the day, never considering how they would be scored for the promotion. When I was submitting my logs, I received the souvenir after submitting my 4th log. Without even trying or making any changes to how I cache, I got 75 points on the first day of this month-long promotion. What a rush!

 

On a related note, the scoring seems to be flaky again this year. While I received the 5 points for attending the Event, someone else that attended didn't get those points. I checked and their log appears correct and should have resulted in the 5 points.

[+thebruce0]

17 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

On a related note, the scoring seems to be flaky again this year. While I received the 5 points for attending the Event, someone else that attended didn't get those points. I checked and their log appears correct and should have resulted in the 5 points.

Presuming it was posted the proper way. Maybe it was a note they changed to an Attended. Or they misdated it and corrected it. Those are known ways to skip the souvenir, IIRC, yes?

[+KBLAST]

*Update: I chose to NOT geocache until I succeeded in receiving my adrenaline junkie award by doing adrenaline junkie things. I pulled off the souvenir with 2 caches, the second of which is one of the more terrifying moments of geocaching I've had. I saw some of the 5/5s that were challenges, one that was a liar's cache, and some that were clearly overrated, but I picked the caches that I hoped would push my to my limits and make me feel like I earned the souvenir. I think the D on the cache may have been overrated, and the T MIGHT have been more of a 4.5 (we didn't use any equipment, though it probably would have been safer if we had!), but I had an amazing experience that I wouldn't have had (well, at least not yesterday!) without this promotion, so it worked excellently for me! https://coord.info/GC3JRKV If you are interested in reading about my grand finale.

[+Lorien99]

I'm new here (less than 3 months) and didn't have any friends at the start of this challenge. I had joined a local geocaching group on Facebook and was able to find friends to add here. All this challenge seems to be, so far, is to see which of my friends is the top scorer. It seems I have to get 50 points on my own to get a badge. Three of my friends exceeded that the first day!

 

Other than not looking so lonely, I'm really not seeing the point of having friends.

[+Lynx Humble]

2 hours ago, Lorien99 said:

I'm new here (less than 3 months) and didn't have any friends at the start of this challenge. I had joined a local geocaching group on Facebook and was able to find friends to add here. All this challenge seems to be, so far, is to see which of my friends is the top scorer. It seems I have to get 50 points on my own to get a badge. Three of my friends exceeded that the first day!

 

Other than not looking so lonely, I'm really not seeing the point of having friends.

There is no advantage to have friends in this promotion. Its only to track your points and secondary those of your friends. The only time that we could use help of friends was during a similar promotion last year called Mary Hide and only for a part of it.

 

Also exceeding 50 pts the first day wasn't an hard task because I was able to get 500pts because it was an holiday in Canada. Getting the World Turtle the first day without cheating was really more hardcore for those whom did it.   

[+cerberus1]

4 hours ago, Lorien99 said:

I'm new here (less than 3 months) and didn't have any friends at the start of this challenge. I had joined a local geocaching group on Facebook and was able to find friends to add here. All this challenge seems to be, so far, is to see which of my friends is the top scorer. It seems I have to get 50 points on my own to get a badge. Three of my friends exceeded that the first day!

 

Other than not looking so lonely, I'm really not seeing the point of having friends.

 

I'm with you, sorta ...

If your "scores" are dependent on you alone, who gives a fig how some stranger you don't even know does?

Though my friends are actual friends.  The kind that'd help me out of a tree mishap, or stop to assist in fixing a flat.

[+thebruce0]

Yep, there's some conceptual issues with the friends list and souvenir earning... way too much is "gamable".  Friends lists aren't really just friends any more (that is, they're not encouraged to be just friends, since promos where friends' scores help you win encourage friending as many people as possible).

And this promo, clearly, I wonder if someone didn't think of the math?  Or maybe they only know people who find 2 or 3 caches in a month?  It just seems very very strange, and way over-easy, especially in light of the month's theme...

 

But, thankfully it has a good theme at least, so you can have fun with it, despite the simplicity of the technicalities.

 

On Monday a group of us went paddlecaching for 30ish geocaches...

* We river-walked 3.5km and kayak & canoed upstream the other half

* I picked up 3 leeches, also sliced my thumb
* I contracted some kind of burn/poison on the back of my neck (being treated)

* I did all this with aching sciatica

* Everyone earned the souvenir with cache #3

I suppose the overqualification certain implies 'adrenaline junkie' - and I'm seeing MANY reports of almost immediate qualification with few finds by people actually finding high D/T caches.

Right away.

 

Guess this month's promotion is done!

[+CAVinoGal]

We went after one cache today, relatively low D/T (1.5/2.0) and a very short hike (0.2 mi).  The signage at the entrance to the park was enough to get my adrenaline going though!

(Spelling errors notwithstanding)

 

 

[+Max and 99]

Yikes! That would get my adrenaline running too!

[+MNTA]

HOORAY got my souvenir today after my third find today. With two memorable finds.

 

One I had been to three times in the past no luck D/T 4/2. The hint I got from the CO said it was like another cache of his which I had found so I knew what I was looking for. The cache had been unfound for 1 week shy of two years with many DNFs. Happy dance!

 

Next just down the road was a new letterbox which used the signage and landmarks to lead you to the cache after a decent walk maybe half a mile.  Was the 4th to find and now has 4 favorite points for a well done letterbox.

 

Went on to find a total of 7 today avenging 2 DNFs and unfortunately having 3 DNFs. Did a quick maintenance check on a cache near my last find and now back home.

 

Great day thanks for the challenge GS keep them coming!

[+icezebra11]

2 hours ago, CAVinoGal said:

We went after one cache today, relatively low D/T (1.5/2.0) and a very short hike (0.2 mi).  The signage at the entrance to the park was enough to get my adrenaline going though!

(Spelling errors notwithstanding)

 

 

 

"HAVE BEEN SITED in this area."  So they were purposely put there apparently!  

[+not2b]

As everyone else has said, it's disappointing that the point requirements were so miniscule.   I racked up 116 points on the first morning (Sept. 3) after a couple of hours hiking without finding any high D or high T caches.  I suppose it could have been OK as a promotion with a completely different description, to indicate that it is a challenge for complete beginners: come on in, the water's fine! Using a name like "adrenaline junkie" might have scared some new folks away from even trying, not knowing that they can roll their wheelchair up to six or seven lampposts or guardrails and be done.

 

And then I remembered how nervous I was when I was a new cacher about lamppost hides.  What if someone sees me vandalizing this lamp post and has me arrested.  Danger! Stress! High heart rate!  Maybe that's what they had in mind?

 

[+MNTA]

3 hours ago, not2b said:

 

And then I remembered how nervous I was when I was a new cacher about lamppost hides.  What if someone sees me vandalizing this lamp post and has me arrested.  Danger! Stress! High heart rate!  Maybe that's what they had in mind?

 

 

So very true!

[+barefootjeff]

I got mine today with three puzzles, a D/T 3/3 and two 3/3.5s. All up there was about 3km of hiking and close to 400m of elevation change, with one of the caches requiring some rock-hopping along a creek bed and climbing up and around the side of a waterfall to get to the correct level - of course I went too high then too low before finally getting there. So I reckon I probably earned this one, even though it was all done and dusted in half a day of caching.

 

[+K13]

I walked around downtown Cowtown (Ft. Worth, Texas), logging 4 Virtuals with 1/1 D/T and FP well above 10. The only adrenaline junkie aspect of the couple hours was when I was approached by 'street people' asking for money. It happened three times, and admittedly, my adrenaline did increase a bit each time.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

21 hours ago, K13 said:

I walked around downtown Cowtown (Ft. Worth, Texas), logging 4 Virtuals with 1/1 D/T and FP well above 10. The only adrenaline junkie aspect of the couple hours was when I was approached by 'street people' asking for money. It happened three times, and admittedly, my adrenaline did increase a bit each time.

 

I went caching in Luxembourg for the first time a couple of weeks ago and realized as I was on the train that I didn't have a pen.

[+JohnCNA]

My wife found 8 caches on Sunday and earned 101 points. So she could have qualified with only 4 caches. None of them were difficult or high-T. Oh well, we had a nice day with friends. And that's all that really counts.

 

But I can't help wondering if they just made a mistake with the math in this program or if the majority of the user base actually caches that infrequently. 

[+CAVinoGal]

4 hours ago, JohnCNA said:

But I can't help wondering if they just made a mistake with the math in this program or if the majority of the user base actually caches that infrequently. 

 

My husband and I set a goal of (at least) one cache a day in 2018.  We began caching in March of 2017, so we still had (have) many local (within 20-25 miles) caches to find to achieve our goal.  A cruise to Mexico with a full day at sea in October may derail the streak, but I digress...

 

We easily got the souvenir on day 3 of the month long promotion with only 4 or 5 finds; we knew we'd not have to do anything other than find our usual COTD (and some days we do more than one, it depends) and make no special effort to get this one.  The "Adrenaline Junkie" hype and the requirements to earn it just don't seem to go together.  Now, the previous promo, Hidden Creatures, or 100 caches in a month, was a bit more of a challenge, especially as we try to stretch the local closeby unfound caches out till the end of the year.  For that one, we DID make a special "cache run" to a nearby power trail to get 30 in a day to grab the souvenir before the end of the promo.  This current promo took no extra effort; we'll probably have more than 50 finds, each find is at least 10 points ... maybe it should have been 500 points, not 50??

[+hzoi]

Seeing as how the majority of the complaints for the last souvenir promotion was that requiring 100 finds to get all souvenirs was unfair to folks in isolated areas, perhaps the bar was set lower to accommodate for this round.

 

Perhaps this demonstrates that, no matter what parameters Groundspeak sets for a particular promotion, there will always be something to complain about.

Edited September 12, 2018 by hzoi

[+thebruce0]

I don't doubt that And I don't think anyone would disagree; in fact that was mentioned quite often.

But... there seems to be a whole lot more.. well, mocking ni a sense, of this promotion. It's not just that it's "easy" but the ease of qualification seems in direct contradiction to the theme of the promotion itself.

Not very well thought out this time...

[+K13]

On 9/11/2018 at 6:38 AM, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

I went caching in Luxembourg for the first time a couple of weeks ago and realized as I was on the train that I didn't have a pen.

 

Adding another country would bring adrenaline for me.  I imagine that there was a shop there to sell you a pen.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

14 hours ago, K13 said:

 

Adding another country would bring adrenaline for me.  I imagine that there was a shop there to sell you a pen.

Actually, the first thing I did when I got off the train was to go look for a store where I could buy a pen (even though I could see GZ for the first cache I found from the train station).  They didn't have any pens or pencils for sale but the proprietor gave me one and just said "keep it, I have more".  The adrenaline producing potential of about to go look for some caches only discover that you don't have a pen was mostly a reference to a "what do you do when you don't have a pen?" threads.  Caching for the first time in a country I've never visited doesn't really provide a lot of adrenaline but it does bring a smile to my face when I sign that first log, and especially in this case as it was my 30th country in which I've found a cache.