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How many caches can you find in one day?


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What is the record for the number of finds per day for one person? I just saw one account, finderfamily5, who logged 173 caches on one day. Might be more than one person, but still looks a lot. I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average. So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

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7 minutes ago, grateful_tomato said:

What is the record for the number of finds per day for one person? I just saw one account who logged 173 caches on one day. Might be more than one person, but still looks a lot. I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average.

So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

 

I don't compete, and don't care about stats, yet my "best day" according to the site is 31 caches in one day.    ;)

 - That's walking ... I don't drive cache-to-cache, and instead plan trips on one area of green.

 

I know my best day was one high-terrain cache that took most of a day to finish.   :)

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I found 102 on an 18 mile walk. This weekend I'm thinking of trying 150 on a 20 mile walk. I would expect to be walking for about 7 hours and then if I can find and log each cache in 1-2 minutes (yes it's doable) then I would expect the whole trip to take ~12 hours.

 

If these were on a straightforward trail, one every 161m,  obvious hides, and the days are long enough  then doing 173 by foot in a day is easily achievable

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24 minutes ago, Mausebiber said:

More than 1000 on the ET Highway

 

But not for one person, usually three, one driver, one logger, one runner.

 

I recall someone getting several hundred in one day on the ET Highway, solo, while riding a motorcycle. There were no questionable optimizations like the three cache monte or leapfrogging involved. Just hundreds of fungible film canisters placed along a desert highway.

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We went with my son to do a geo-art in the desert in Arizona; there are (I think) 66 caches in the geo-art.  That day we only got about half of them, and a few others coming and going, and totalled 40 finds on the day, our best day as far as numbers go.  

 

Another day we did a "power trail", there are like 80 caches along straight roads, every 0.1 mile, each one the same.  Hubby drove, I jumped out and grabbed the cache,, signed it, put it back, and on to the next.  After 30 we'd had enough, and haven't gone back to do any more either!  Just did it to see how we liked a power trail.  We didn't like it!

 

Our highest number on a day of hiking and walking and what I consider "real" geocaching, was 22.  A typical cache outing nets us between 1 and 5 caches; more than that on any one day is an exception.

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1 hour ago, grateful_tomato said:

I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average. So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

Depends on the cache density of your area but 30 min per cache is a hell lot when you have access to a car. Maybe you should target easier caches to begin with.

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1 hour ago, grateful_tomato said:

What is the record for the number of finds per day for one person? I just saw one account, finderfamily5, who logged 173 caches on one day. Might be more than one person, but still looks a lot. I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average. So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

 

The video I'm including will give you an idea of how people find 1000 in a day on a power trail (now with the brand new power trail attribute!).

 

It's not in English but is understandable in the international language of geocaching.  It's pretty short so take a look to see how they do this.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

I managed 900 on the ET highway with 3 other friends in one vehicle, but if we'd planned better we could have crossed 1000 easily between midnight and midnight.

 

How much you can find in a day entirely depends on your strategy, plan of attack, personal ethic, etc.

 

Question, did you sign all 900 yourself? Did your friends? Did anyone stay in the car for a number of "finds"?

 

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5 minutes ago, on4bam said:

Question, did you sign all 900 yourself? Did your friends? Did anyone stay in the car for a number of "finds"?

How does it matter to you?

 

I did nothing I haven't done in my regular geocaching career (save for 1 aspect - I never pick up and swap containers down a line, ET was an exception). Only extremely fast, and extremely long.

We followed the same strategy that is most common with the ET Highway.

(This is why I said "personal ethic" within the bounds of a 'valid find' definition.

Edited by thebruce0
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Just now, Max and 99 said:

People who think this is it okay have messed up my caches by switching logs cuz you know it's faster then standing there and signing the log that goes with the cache. 

Yup, ya don't do that.

ET Highway is a kind of exception, and of course HQ knows about this, and the cache owners are aware and know of it. There is no issue with the ET Highway series which has been in existence for many years in this exact manner.

 

It's not good to employ the same exact strategy doing the ET Highway as generic geocaches. Especially if the CO doesn't know what you're doing.

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1 minute ago, on4bam said:

It doesn't and as a courtesy to you I won't write what my thoughts are on that practice :ph34r:, just look at what I quoted and put in bold.

"personal ethics" applies to every aspect of geocaching, and I've been very transparent over the years here about what my personal ethics are, what the guidelines require, and what's generally good 'etiquette'. ET is a unique beast. "3 friends" falls under group caching ethics. And there've been how many discussions about that in the forum too?

I'm sure we share many common "personal ethics" that differ from others, and some have "personal ethics" that break the guidelines and are often contested and appealed.

 

"One day find count" is a side game as officially trackable as the FTF side game. And there have plenty of discussion threads of both over the years.

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35 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

"personal ethics" applies to every aspect of geocaching, and I've been very transparent over the years here about what my personal ethics are, what the guidelines require, and what's generally good 'etiquette'. ET is a unique beast. "3 friends" falls under group caching ethics. And there've been how many discussions about that in the forum too?

I'm sure we share many common "personal ethics" that differ from others, and some have "personal ethics" that break the guidelines and are often contested and appealed.

 

"One day find count" is a side game as officially trackable as the FTF side game. And there have plenty of discussion threads of both over the years.

 

I'll agree with thebruce0.  I've found that personal ethics in the game (within the rules of the game) are open to great debate.  When I was looking to fill in my 366 day calendar, some people told me they pre-scouted caches and went back to sign the log on the needed calendar day, while others believes the hunt was part of the find and wouldn't do that.  I know people who log caches in the order they find them, and others who will find 10 caches in a day, and if there's a milestone reached in that day, will log those 10 caches in an order that some special cache in those 10 will be the milestone.  There are lots of examples.

 

The ET trail is an example of a set of caches where it is expected that one would do the cache swap / stamp team thing, and those people who do that would never do that anywhere else.

 

I've never done a power trail; some people have more finds in a day on a trail like this than I have in my eight years caching.

Edited by GeoElmo6000
changed "log them" to "sign the log"
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8 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

When I was looking to fill in my 366 day calendar, some people told me they pre-scouted caches and went back to log them on the needed calendar day

 

I can't say I didn't do that too ;)   Most often, that was when I was knocking them off a trail one at a time. If I'm passing by one, or I have time to spare, I may walk an extra few meters and spot the container. Especially if I knew another day I might be strapped for time... Hey if you can't log it until you sign it, in my mind, if I come out again to gz and then sign it, that's when I did all the work to log it online.  Others may disagree. I've seen some say they will NOT log a cache unless they are physically the ones to sign their own name on the sheet (no group names, no help from anyone else if someone else gets to it first, etc).

The beauty of this hobby is that we have that flexibility.

 

The arguments and debates come when people try to compete. When someone feels their accomplishment was more worthy of recognition than another. Personally, if no rules were broken, both are worthy of recognition - just provide context.

Just like claiming FTF. If you really care that much, just qualify the FTF (before publish? After publish? Accidental find?).

Or most in a day - were you solo? With a group? How big? Mode of transportation? 24-hours or single date? Leap frogging as teamwork? All of those are "within the bounds" of allowability (name on logsheet).  If you really want to compare and compete, then compete with someone your own size, as it were ;)

 

 

8 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

I've never done a power trail; some people have more finds in a day on a trail like this than I have in my eight years caching.

 

My friend, you don't know what you're missing :laughing:  j/k, power trails aren't something every enjoys. Love em or hate em!

Edited by thebruce0
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3 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

My friend, you don't know what you're missing :laughing:  j/k, power trails aren't something every enjoys. Love em or hate em!

 

I think the experience would be something fun, something to remember and tell stories about.  "Remember that time we spent 24 hours in the desert stopping every 1/10 of a mile and finding caches by the side of the road?".   I may even choose not to log any of them, I just think the team adventure would be worth it.  I like doing fun things like that.  I once drove from Seattle to the original stash plaque, had lunch in Portland, visited Mt. St. Helens, and returned to Seattle in one day, eight hours of driving by myself, finding two caches that day (the stash and one nearby).  It was worth it for the silly adventure I'll remember forever.

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3 hours ago, grateful_tomato said:

What is the record for the number of finds per day for one person? I just saw one account, finderfamily5, who logged 173 caches on one day. Might be more than one person, but still looks a lot. I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average. So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

 

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1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

Not.

People who think this is it okay have messed up my caches by switching logs cuz you know it's faster then standing there and signing the log that goes with the cache. 

I hear ya...  :)

Having to repaint your ammo cans because crews breezed through numerous areas, and used sharpies to mark the outside of containers wasn't fun either.    We still see some once-in-a-while with a sig on the outside.  Long gone owners maybe.

Though not as bad as the bunch that ran though and into the next state, leaving many of the containers open in their rush.

 - IIRC, they went through some of the finned one's area hides too.  

These were all pms, and why we're a little (but just a little... ;-) more forgiving with newbs.

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3 hours ago, Lynx Humble said:

Depends on the cache density of your area but 30 min per cache is a hell lot when you have access to a car. Maybe you should target easier caches to begin with.

 

Around my area, most of the caches are in bushland with a fair hike from the nearest road access, so 30 minutes per cache here would be pretty optimistic. Many of my own hides have the "takes more than an hour" attribute set and some can take half a day.

 

image.png.78a5996e7d05dd2dbef191e37ab1fb9e.png

 

According to the stats page, my own personal "best day" is 22 finds which was at the 2018 Oz Geomuster mega doing the driving loop of some of the geoart caches set up for it. On foot, my highest number in a day was 21, done with a couple of friends walking around inner Sydney. Probably my third highest day is 17 on a bicycle doing colleda's Fernleigh Track bike path series.

 

5 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

I know my best day was one high-terrain cache that took most of a day to finish.   :)

 

Yes, most of my really best caching days have been the ones where I've spent the whole day just going for one cache, or even several days in some instances. They're the ones I'll remember in my dotage, not the 22 I found at the mega.

 

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4 hours ago, on4bam said:

Question, did you sign all 900 yourself? Did your friends? Did anyone stay in the car for a number of "finds"?

 

Just to answer " did you sign yourself"

Logging Guidelines from Groundspeak Headquarters, Community Support, 01 Mar 16

 

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC65HPK_ferns-dark-secret-kylo?guid=77a75c45-d686-4741-a312-f3e0494af534

 

Thanks for updating the cache description. Technically, the guidelines don't specify that you must mark the log book yourself.

The guideline states: "Physical geocaches can be logged online as "Found" once the physical log has been signed. " It doesn't specify if the user has to log it themselves.

Thus yes, if a group of cachers find a cache and a user signs the names for all, this is allowed.

Your text on the cache descriptions is fine as it is.

 

Happy caching,

Nicole
Community Support, Groundspeak

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1 hour ago, Mausebiber said:

 

Just to answer " did you sign yourself"

Logging Guidelines from Groundspeak Headquarters, Community Support, 01 Mar 16

 

 

 

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC65HPK_ferns-dark-secret-kylo?guid=77a75c45-d686-4741-a312-f3e0494af534

 

 

 

Thanks for updating the cache description. Technically, the guidelines don't specify that you must mark the log book yourself.

 

The guideline states: "Physical geocaches can be logged online as "Found" once the physical log has been signed. " It doesn't specify if the user has to log it themselves.

 

Thus yes, if a group of cachers find a cache and a user signs the names for all, this is allowed.

 

Your text on the cache descriptions is fine as it is.

 

 

 

Happy caching,

 

Nicole
Community Support, Groundspeak

 

 

Intent matters.

 

I don't think the intent of the guidelines is to allow Bob to sign in for his caching friends who don't lay eyes on the cache, but want to record a "find" for various reasons like  qualifying for challenges and filling grids, or leaderboard climbing. 

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5 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

I don't think the intent of the guidelines is to allow Bob to sign in for his caching friends who don't lay eyes on the cache,

 

This started with "with 3 other friends in one vehicle,", so they all have been to the cache location.

The intent is very clear:  If you go caching in a group and one finds the cache container with the logbook, it doesn't need to be reached around, the one can sign the logbook for the group members.

 

I think the answer Nicole was providing is clear:

"Thus yes, if a group of cachers find a cache and a user signs the names for all, this is allowed." 

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I have 32 according to Project-gc. It's the lowest badge in badge gen there :antenna: I might do just one, or maybe 10 in a day. I don't pick up everything along the way but select a few, and once I get annoyed I stop.This is my taget for today. Maybe I do another one or two along the way, maybe not. Last day here anyway. Thus I want to remember it as a nice area with nice caches, not one that was tedious.

 

image.thumb.png.697fb801506f0852ae9f7d0411b9ec96.png

Edited by terratin
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Our biggest caching day, in terms of no of finds, is 65. This was assorted short walks around a country town, and a couple of touring trails, not really power trails, probably averaged a mile apart through country roads, plus a bunch in between, finished in the dark after an Aussie pub meal. We were exhausted!

In/outing of the car gets a bit old for me after about 30 finds, depending on the area I guess.....

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19 hours ago, niraD said:

 

I recall someone getting several hundred in one day on the ET Highway, solo, while riding a motorcycle. There were no questionable optimizations like the three cache monte or leapfrogging involved. Just hundreds of fungible film canisters placed along a desert highway.

 

I read the same logs.  If I recall it was something like 770 in a day, starting just after midnight and ending just before.  Dude must have been exhausted.  

 

For the OP:  for these very high numbers of finds in a day they're minimizing the amount of time it takes for each find and the amount of time in between.  A stamp instead of signing with a pen is often used and the caches are not well hidden.  Some that attempt to get  a maximum number of finds in a day will employ questionable techniques such as splitting up a group of people to find separate sections of the trail and swapping container with a pre-signed container so that "a find" only takes a couple of seconds.  

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On 9/10/2020 at 12:03 PM, grateful_tomato said:

What is the record for the number of finds per day for one person? I just saw one account, finderfamily5, who logged 173 caches on one day. Might be more than one person, but still looks a lot. I'm new to geocaching and need about half an hour per cache on average. So even with a car to move between the caches, I think a realistic value might be something like 10 caches per day.

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

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16 minutes ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

I think it is a bit unfair to say that about 100-find days. We could find 100 in a day perfectly ethically. I can see how a motivated person/small group could do 200 on a power trail too, past that is getting shady IMO.....

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16 minutes ago, lee737 said:

I think it is a bit unfair to say that about 100-find days. We could find 100 in a day perfectly ethically.

I 'accidentally' found 104 solo one day not realizing that I was on that power trail out east of the airport in the Denver area.  I had gone out to look at a couple of interesting high difficulty caches, only to discover they were intermixed on a power trail.  Kept seeing them pop up on the Garmin, so I just kept picking them up as I went. 

 

The best I've ever done completely unrelated to that power trail (or any other) with just a bunch of individual caches was something like 60 on a long, Summer day.  Back in 2012, a friend and I visited Brighton, CO where neither of us had ever cached before.  This part of the world is cache dense, so if you hit virgin territory, you've got your hands full.  We just ran smack dab into a 'cache nest' that we'd never ventured into before.  No telling how many we might have found if we'd seriously planned the run.

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2 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

You need to change your opinion.  100 a day is pretty common around here on Cache Machines (a local quirk that may have died due to the pandemic).  Personally I've only gotten 86, but I wasn't rushing (we thought we had 90, but a mistake in record keeping shorted us).  And I was in on the find for all of them, signed/stamped logs myself (on some of the micro's/nano's we would use a short name for the Cache Machine (i.e.. Quad City Cache Machine would be QCCM) so the log wouldn't be filled, but on those most of us still have to touch the log to make it official in our eyes).  There have been over a hundred people in the CM group, but it's rare to see more than a handful at a cache at a time.  We spread out pretty fast, some start the run early (although the start is usually just before first light), some may run the route backwards or start in the middle (they are generally 'loops' where the beginning and end are close).  Many may have found some of the caches prior to the CM so skip those, unless someone else in the car hasn't.  We aren't trying to get every cache in the area (the route often passes more caches than are included), but try to build a route that includes better ones (from locals or previous finders and/or Fav Points) and avoids those that CO's ask not to be included (for whatever reason).  If you want to see more details, check travisl's profile. 

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I'd say 100 on a solo day is fairly reasonable, and in some areas even on the low end, while in others someone would be fortunate to find 100 in their entire region, let alone in one day. There are so many factors involved.  People tend to break it down to some number of minutes or seconds per cache, and yeah when it gets down to that point chances are it's not solo, or some not "purist" geocaching strategy (search for it, sign it, replace as found, move on) is involved.

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3 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

 

I found 108 in one day this past January and I did it solo. I was camping the previous day about an hour drive from a small power trail of 72 caches. So I decided why not try for 100 as I'm a challenge cache junkie.  So woke up early and not only completed the power trail but found an extra thirty plus the challenges I then qualified for.  I eventually ran out of daylight and then drove three hours home I was thoughly exhausted and don't plan on doing it again. Getting in an out of the car gets very tiring but trust me it is doable though it does get to be quite a chore and you have to remind yourself you are doing this for fun.  

 

Since I had completed over a hundred in January why not go for the 1000 in a year challenge. Currently I'm at 857 with four months to go.  

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4 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

 

The 22 I found at the 2018 mega took me a bit over an hour of driving around the loop from Morisset along Wangi Road and back along Freemans Drive, and those caches are a lot further apart than the minimum 161 metres. I was alone and parked at each one, found the cache, signed the log, put it all back and drove on to the next one. At that rate, on a proper power trail I reckon I could easily do a hundred in half a day if I survived the tedium.

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4 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

 

I think the most we have found was 6 in one day and we were thrilled! lol In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

 For the most part, the types of caches that could be had at higher numbers usually aren't the sort that appeal to me.

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4 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 In my opinion, people who find 100 in a day are working in groups who separate and then log the groups finds. We do not do that. 

 

Rare that I'd ever cache like we used to, maybe if another asked...

If I was to hit a couple of rail trails here, willing to get off my bike every  528' for a "find", 100 would be easy.   :)

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On 9/11/2020 at 3:43 AM, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

The video I'm including will give you an idea of how people find 1000 in a day on a power trail (now with the brand new power trail attribute!).

 

It's not in English but is understandable in the international language of geocaching.  It's pretty short so take a look to see how they do this.

 

 

Swapping caches; fortunately I've never come across that here. I have a cache that became part of a power trail when someone laid one down the road. If I find another cache in its place, I will know to go look for the cache elsewhere. I would be annoyed, as my cache is a much better cache, than those used on the power trail.

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