More geocaching this year than previous years?

[+brodiebunch]

My industry has been decimated by the pandemic. I am not working but work will return so I am doing my best to ride this out. 

 

That said I have been geocaching a lot more this year. March and April during the depths of the stay at home orders, I was going out to the woods away people to get fresh air, fresh scenery and a fresh perspective on life.

 

That said our geocaching statistics are the best ever (low compared to other geocachers stats but high by ours)

 

Is that happening to others too, you are out geocaching more this year than previous years? 

[+on4bam]

Not more, although my stats may say otherwise. Different, yes.

Beginning of the year the weather was really bad, so less caching. Then the weather improved and we went into lockdown which meant cache trip with our bikes from home instead of driving. The bad weather meant more time to solve mysteries and filtering out caches we want to do. As measures are loosened  we were able to make two short long-weekend trips away from home.

We did go caching more on weekdays during the lockdown as people tend to go out in nature more on weekends, avoiding busy places meant going out during the week while many were at work.

 

 

 

[+ecanderson]

Seems to be the case, yes.  In spite of everything, best year since 2016.

[+barefootjeff]

I had quite a slow start to the year, with the fires in January, the rains in February and the COVID restrictions soon after that. During the lockdown here in April and May, I had my longest slump of 61 days, but since the lifting of intra-state travel restrictions in June I've been getting out as much as I can, usually on drives up north to the Newcastle region. I'm currently avoiding any trips to Sydney and public transport use, which will curtail some caching opportunities. My statistics now suggest this will end up being a fairly average year for me unless restrictions are tightened again.

 

 

My 2020 find count is a bit inflated by 10 "finds" from a couple of Adventure Labs, so it should really be 115 finds and a rate of 0.4752. In due course I'll probably delete those AL finds to bring everything back into line.

Edited August 30, 2020 by barefootjeff

[+Harry Dolphin]

Since I retired, I had been hoping to find three caches a day this year to bring my finds to 10,000.  But, with COVID-19, I've been avoiding the more urban areas to the east, nearer New York City.  So, I'm at 2.07 finds per day this year  I'm at 9,331 finds in sixteen years.

[+GrateBear]

So far, yes.  But, only because I decided to work on my birthday cache grid.  So, many days only getting one cache per day, but have had quite a few days with multiple finds.  January, February and up to the 23rd of March were fine, then basically nothing until mid May.  Averaging about 20 finds per month since then, and have all of Sept, Oct and most of Nov with only a handful of b'day caches found.

Edited August 29, 2020 by GrateBear
caches per day

[+terratin]

Yes, which is due to two reasons: I moved to an area with more interesting nature at the end of last year, and I got a free public transport card for the whole country by new employer.

[+lee737]

This year is our slowest year in terms of finds, extreme bushfires in Jan, rain not long after, then Covid restrictions. We have probably cached as much, but as we haven't been able to get as far from home as normal, find numbers are down, but we've published several caches, and still had a good time....

[+on4bam]

 

Stats like this don't say much.

Most years around this time the average monthly find rate goes down and so will the average over the whole year. Our days caching are about the same as previous years but we did have a few days with a lot of finds. In fact, the weekend of August 21-23 we were away from home for 3 days and found 149 caches. A few days earlier we found 34. In all, with 294 finds August 2020 was our highest find count since we started geocaching. I doubt we'll break our 2011 find count but if we do it will probably be because of 1 or 2 geo-art outings.

 

 

 

 

[+JL_HSTRE]

I'm going to have more finds this year than last year, but not because of the pandemic. I lost my normal May vacation and vacations are usually my best source of finds because I'm going places I've rarely, if ever, cached.

 

Rather, last year was an all time low for me in terms of total finds and days caching (and the second lowest average finds per day caching since my first year). There were a lot of issues last year, from work to weather to simply having largely cached out local area.

 

This year's numbers are substantially boosted by a day with a group on a rail trail where I picked up 80 caches. Without that day, I'm only slightly ahead of last year. I was off to a pretty good start during the first 10 weeks of the year, then my numbers went off a cliff with the pandemic. That would be different if I lived somewhere other than South Florida. 

[+TmdAndGG]

If you look here you can see a pretty good overview of total caching, and I see a lot of upward trends. As for us individually:

I would say we're doing pretty good this year, considering there's only a few months left of our brutal Floridian summer, during which we do the least caching, and our cache/day ratio is still high (For us at least!). I say we are on course for the most finds in a year yet.

So to answer your title question, I would say yes.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

One find this year.  

[+CAVinoGal]

On 8/29/2020 at 10:44 AM, brodiebunch said:

Are you out geocaching more this year than previous years? 

 

Less this year than in our entire (3 year!) career!

We started in March of 2017; found a lot of local ones and a few as we traveled.  Set a goal in 2018 to find at least one cache every calendar day, and we continued that into 2019 for a month or so to reach 404 consecutive days of caching.  Then we slowed way down and took it easy!

 

Then 2020 hit, we've found most of the nearby caches, and haven't traveled much at all (one trip to the East coast to see family, did some caching then).  My goal is to reach 2000 (or maybe 2020) finds by the end of the year.  Only 43 more to find to reach 2000!

[+MetsFanInNJ]

Slightly behind last year's rate (1 vs. 0.96) and I probably will not catch up since the local Mega even was cancelled

 

I have noticed a TON of new cachers finding my hides though, it will be interesting to see if that continues as things slowly get back to normal.

[+thebruce0]

I'm aiming towards my 2nd highest count year; projecting to pass 2020 in 2020. My highest is 2014, the year I hit the ET series. I'm almost past my 2nd highest from 4 years ago.

Really it's been all the trail caching, series, and so many paddlecaching trips for rivers and lakes this year. 2020 in a year is about 170 a month. A couple of high count geocaching-dedicated days can do the trick. Lots of travel around the province  

[+Harry Dolphin]

My Webcam cache averages 72 finds per year.  Last year to this date. it had 116 finds.  This year, so far, it has had 20 finds.

[+The Jester]

1 hour ago, Harry Dolphin said:

My Webcam cache averages 72 finds per year.  Last year to this date. it had 116 finds.  This year, so far, it has had 20 finds.

I did that cool webcam back in 2008 by car and in '18 took the train up.

[+Lynx Humble]

2 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

My Webcam cache averages 72 finds per year.  Last year to this date. it had 116 finds.  This year, so far, it has had 20 finds.

A webcam isn't a good metric because most of the locals already found it. Only tourists should be your main public now but well it's 2020 so they can't come.

 

To answer the OP I am currently on my lowest average except for my first year. I need to drive farther and I do less power trails than before.

 

[+terratin]

I've now officially overtaken the last year. But as every other year is wildly different as I move a lot and each region/country is different this doesn't mean a lot.

[+HunterandSamuel]

On 8/29/2020 at 1:44 PM, brodiebunch said:

My industry has been decimated by the pandemic. I am not working but work will return so I am doing my best to ride this out. 

 

That said I have been geocaching a lot more this year. March and April during the depths of the stay at home orders, I was going out to the woods away people to get fresh air, fresh scenery and a fresh perspective on life.

 

That said our geocaching statistics are the best ever (low compared to other geocachers stats but high by ours)

 

Is that happening to others too, you are out geocaching more this year than previous years? 

 

 

We noticed an increase of geocachers finding our caches during this pandemic. Being out of the house and in fresh air, exercising, is so important for mental health during these trying times.  Geocaching is a Godsent! 

[+Clancy's Crew]

Although we are caching at our highest rate/day in a decade, we have placed more caches this year than in our cumulative caching history.  20+ caches this year vs 5 the previous 17 years.  All hiking caches, 2/3 in a 40,000 acre state game land; easy to social distance.  (And in late July, all the wild blueberries you can pick, which doesn't make the resident black bears happy.)

[+DreamMachine74]

This year I've been caching less than last year, but a bit more than what I would've thought. My finds have been as such....

 

2014	4	0.0154 caches/day
2015	0	0 caches/day
2016	6	0.0164 caches/day
2017	20	0.0548 caches/day
2018	271	0.7425 caches/day
2019	418	1.1452 caches/day
2020	293	0.9391 caches/day

 

 

I usually go out of town to see family, and can grab a few more caches, but that's not been possible. (*That being my vacation)

After I was laid off by the pandemic, I proceeded to hide more caches for a little while, and I stick to night caching, and working on finds for my 366 calendar. I've usually maintained a find a day for the days I need (some days not being possible due to work, when I was rehired, and just life in general). Sometimes I'd see my dad, who lives in a suburb more than a few miles from me, where I could grab more caches, which helped my cache number be higher for a little while, but all in all, I'd stick to caching at night when I could, sometimes going for caches at daytime. 

It's getting colder soon, so all my caching will be done at day now. But I'm still hiding consistently.

 

Between last year and this year, I've been hiding on a consistent level, the pandemic hasn't affected my hide rate at all really. Since I exhausted more of my locale for hiding spots, I've hidden less, but I've hidden further.

Last year, when I started hiding caches, I hid 39 caches...mostly trads.

 

This year, I've so far hidden 27 caches, and am planning two or three more to hide. (two for sure*)

Of that, 16 have been puzzles, and the year before I hid only 2. 

 

I've stuck to 2 multis this year, just like last year...albeit this year they've been easy multis, unlike last year. I had 1 event this year (March 14th of course), and 3 last year.

 

I'm happy with this year...and tonight I'll finally get 1,000 cache finds. (ALs dont count :P) 

[+ecanderson]

An updated chart vs. one I posted here some time back.  Looks like this year has definitely picked up.  With less to do besides geocaching, it's proved to be a nice outlet.

[+barefootjeff]

On the face of it, this looks like being a bumper year for me in spite of the two-month lockdown and some self-imposed travel restrictions since then. But my numbers have been significantly skewed by the eight ALs I've done in the last couple of months. So this is what it currently looks like with and without those ALs:

 

 

So even without the ALs it'll still likely exceed 2018 and 2019 but probably won't exceed my 195 in 2017 (which was my first full year of retirement from work).

 

So far this year I've hidden 6 new caches, which is about average for me in recent years. During the lockdown I did a lot of hiking in and around the national parks close to home, since that was a permitted activitiy, and two of my caches are in spots that exploring led me to. The breakdown of those hides is 2 traditional, 1 multi, 1 puzzle and 2 AL bonus caches.

Edited November 7, 2020 by barefootjeff
Spelling

[+on4bam]

We are at 3.99 caches/day this year (1245 finds) but it doesn't feel like we did more caching than other years. I'll have to run some stats to be sure but I think we had more "high find number" days  this year because we stayed closer to home in spring and found several nearby series we otherwise would not have done. We did less longer multi's because we don't have any "good" ones nearby.

Also, not having a 3-4 week holiday meant we didn't have our usual low find count when abroad.

 

 

[+Goldenwattle]

1 hour ago, on4bam said:

We are at 3.99 caches/day this year (1245 finds) but it doesn't feel like we did more caching than other years. I'll have to run some stats to be sure but I think we had more "high find number" days  this year because we stayed closer to home in spring and found several nearby series we otherwise would not have done. We did less longer multi's because we don't have any "good" ones nearby.

Also, not having a 3-4 week holiday meant we didn't have our usual low find count when abroad.

 

 

Are finding ALs - five finds for one find? That would rack up the numbers.

[+thebruce0]

1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

Are finding ALs - five finds for one find? That would rack up the numbers.

Yup.

 

--

 

For myself, I'm about to cross my goal for this year of 2020 finds. Er... smileys. Because Adventure Labs. Few and far between but that's still padded the count by 10 this year. Nothing to write to home about.

[+on4bam]

6 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Are finding ALs - five finds for one find? That would rack up the numbers.

 

We don't do AL's (and AL bonus caches are going straight to the ignore list).

[Blue Square Thing]

I've found less this year, although that's part of a downward trend anyway. It seems like more people, and more new people, have found my caches though - certainly the traditionals anyway.

[+GeoElmo6000]

My find count had been constantly decreasing each year, but the last couple of years had been increasing.  This year it's much less, due to COVID and the fact I enjoy plenty of other things besides geocaching.  I find most of my geocaches while on business trips (better than sitting in the hotel at night and I get to see interesting places) and since I haven't been on a trip since February, naturally my find count is down.

 

I'm also one to not find every cache in my area; I only search for interesting caches near me.

 

[+Max and 99]

I haven't checked but I'm guessing my count is way down this year. Lack of travel because of Covid  is the big factor. Makes me wonder if I'm really out of practice because my success rate yesterday was one of five. ☹️

 

[+on4bam]

On 11/7/2020 at 10:33 PM, on4bam said:

We are at 3.99 caches/day this year (1245 finds) but it doesn't feel like we did more caching than other years. I'll have to run some stats to be sure but I think we had more "high find number" days  this year because we stayed closer to home in spring and found several nearby series we otherwise would not have done. We did less longer multi's because we don't have any "good" ones nearby.

 

More geocaching than previous years? Yes... 1464 caches found broke our 2011 record of 1226 BUT... More geocaching than previous years? No... we only had 73 cachingdays which is only the 7th most days out in 14 years. We still have a few days to go (I'll go for one today to fill the calendar).

 

[+arisoft]

 

2010	178	0.9944 caches/day
2011	495	1.3562 caches/day
2012	594	1.623 caches/day
2013	1054	2.8877 caches/day
2014	594	1.6274 caches/day
2015	800	2.1918 caches/day
2016	769	2.1011 caches/day
2017	646	1.7699 caches/day
2018	696	1.9068 caches/day
2019	749	2.0521 caches/day
2020	2591	7.3818 caches/day

 

Best Day 62 caches in one day on 10/10/2020

Best Month 360 caches in October of 2020

Best Year 2591 caches in 2020  

 

My activity seems to fluctuate a bit  

Edited December 16, 2020 by arisoft

[+Goodgulf]

 

[+fbingha]

5 hours ago, Goodgulf said:

 

 

Nice, I've found someone who has a longer No Finds streak than I do.

 

Yes, I've cached more this year because of Corona Virus. Just got tired of being cooped up at home.

 

Yearly Breakdown

Year	Total Caches	Find Rate
2008	3	0.012 caches/day
2009	0	0 caches/day
2010	0	0 caches/day
2011	0	0 caches/day
2012	138	0.377 caches/day
2013	223	0.611 caches/day
2014	55	0.1507 caches/day
2015	14	0.0384 caches/day
2016	79	0.2158 caches/day
2017	130	0.3562 caches/day
2018	19	0.0521 caches/day
2019	9	0.0247 caches/day
2020	137	0.3881 caches/day

Edited December 18, 2020 by fbingha