The Eight Stages of Cache Ownership

[+barefootjeff]

December is a month for reflection and so, while out hiking through the woods doing a routine check on a couple of my older hides (circa 2014 and 2016), I reflected on the life-cycle of cache ownership:

 

1. Discovery. You're out wandering, thinking muggle thoughts, when you come to a place that causes your geosenses to yell, "This would be a great spot for a cache!" There are no other caches too close or permission obstacles, so yes, go for it!
2. Brainstorming. What sort of cache would best suit the location? Traditional? Multi? Puzzle? Something else? Would it be limited to a micro or would something bigger be fine? How big? Is there a theme evolving? More site visits to take photos, record coordinates and see how it all might work.
3. Assembly. Time to put it all together, buy or build the container, print the label, prepare the logbook, add some SWAG if that's your thing, compose the cache page then head back out to place it and do a final coordinates check.
4. Submission. You've now read through your description so many times you could recite it in your sleep. Are all the appropriate attributes set? Does the hint make sense to someone at GZ trying to find it? Is the D/T rating reasonable and consistent with other caches? Have you updated the hidden date to when you actually placed the cache? Time to write that reviewer note, append all your photos and click Submit.
5. The Long Wait. Minutes seem like hours, hours like days and days like weeks. Will your reviewer ever log in and clear the queue? Do you have any fingernails left? Finally, after you've worn a hole in the carpet from pacing up and down, the email arrives saying "Hooray! Your cache is now live." You look at the cache page, all shiny, pristine and new with that Published log at the bottom. Woo-hoo! Now the next long wait begins.
6. The First-to-Find. An email arrives, somebody found it! Maybe they even wrote more than TFTC, or maybe they even gave it an FP! Over the ensuing hours and days, a few more logs come in, the 2TF who was just beaten to it by that so-and-so FTF hound, along with the usual also-rans you chat with at events. Finally you've achieved your goal, so now you can relax and attend to all those other things in life you've pushed aside.
7. The Long Twilight. The novelty has worn off, as it always does. Those early finds have dwindled to a trickle and now pretty much dried up completely. Soon, too soon, you find yourself doing routine maintenance checks more often than it's being found. Still, it's a good cache and more finders will come eventually, you're sure; newbies and visitors, yep, they'll come, one day, sure they will.
8. Archival. Like any good story, there'll always be a final page. Perhaps it got muggled too many times and the hide is now compromised, perhaps time and weathering have taken their toll on the container and, with so few finds now, it's not worth replacing, or maybe you've just grown weary of doing even those annual checks and it's time to let go. You go to the cache page one last time, compose your archival log that's really an obituary, then, with heavy heart and maybe a tear or two, click Post and head out to retrieve what's left of your once magnificent hide. Goodbye, old friend.

[+Goldenwattle]

5 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

• Discovery. You're out wandering, thinking muggle thoughts, when you come to a place that causes your geosenses to yell, "This would be a great spot for a cache!" There are no other caches too close or permission obstacles, so yes, go for it!
• Brainstorming. What sort of cache would best suit the location? Traditional? Multi? Puzzle? Something else? Would it be limited to a micro or would something bigger be fine? How big? Is there a theme evolving?

It's great when people such as you put in the effort to make a great cache. Different to those who think, 'I have a nano cache, now where can I put it'.

 

Then you maintain your caches and check on them. Nano owner; 'Cache placed'. No more thinking about it.

[+SW00P]

I always ask myself one question. 

 

Would I want to come here and find a geocache? If I have to think about it I move on. Never a nano.

[+Goldenwattle]

9 minutes ago, SW00P said:

I always ask myself one question. 

 

Would I want to come here and find a geocache? If I have to think about it I move on. Never a nano.

I will add one more thing to that, as I do regularly visit and check my caches; plus check logs, so I don't want to do this too often. If I was to place anymore caches, I would want one, in a nice place, that wasn't visited too often. Less work then.

[+GeoElmo6000]

Stage 9 (optional):  Regret

[+HuggableHamster]

You missed stage 3.5 get distracted!  (That might just be me…)   One of my goals for 2023 is to actually write up the cache pages and set at least some of the caches I have ideas for (there’s only half a dozen or so at the moment but I think of them more quickly than I set them…)

[+Pontiac_CZ]

On 12/14/2022 at 4:35 AM, SW00P said:

I always ask myself one question. 

 

Would I want to come here and find a geocache? If I have to think about it I move on. Never a nano.

 

Yep, that's what I do too. I even advanced to another question: "Would I want to return here for maintenance?"  That's what stopped me from creating a series of 4 caches around my hometown. Those places were actually OK for a one time visit but at least half of them I would not want to visit again. All my active caches are on such places that going there for maintenance would compensate for the inconvenience of repairing the cache and/or looking for a different hiding spot.

[+mysterion604]

I would add:

 

1.5 Preliminary GPS measurements. Yeah, if you see it, measure it ! It will help later, when you

2.5 Doing the cache page write-up (averaging coordinates & checking their viability, arranging clues, and actually typing it up with links / images that work). 

3.5: Taking more GPS readings & averaging coordinates.

 

I always get stuck on 2.5 too.

 

Usually [for a non-traditional] my steps go more like:

- Discovery & brainstorming (sometimes 2 before 1; sometimes disconnected and later matched up.)

- Decision on what goes where, coordinates check submission to mentally prepare for the rest. 

- The actual planning & write-up stage (longest part of process - can take months for the complicated caches)

- Container preparation & placement

- Submission for final publishing

- "The wait", followed by either more editing or publishing, and a frantic check to make sure I have got the details / layout correct once published.

- The FTF and tweaks to cache page that result from first few finds.

 

That's as far as any of my caches have gotten. I am pretty new to this, so no long twilight yet.

 

On the other hand, I have had traditionals where it took less than 2 days from concept to placement to publishing.

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by mysterion604
fixing typos

[+mobywv]

LOL!  I'm definitely on # 7 for a lot of my award-winning caches.  They were placed out in 2013 and I'm lucky if they get a find or two a year at this point.  I don't hold out much hope for new players finding them either.  I feel like geocaching has been in decline for quite a few years now.  But it's just hard for me to let go and archive them.   

[+Goldenwattle]

2 hours ago, mobywv said:

I feel like geocaching has been in decline for quite a few years now.

The opposite of here in Canberra. So many caches still being published.

 

2 hours ago, mobywv said:

I'm definitely on # 7 for a lot of my award-winning caches.  They were placed out in 2013 and I'm lucky if they get a find or two a year at this point.

LOL, the perfect cache, as with few visitors less maintinance.

[+Viajero Perdido]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:15 AM, GeoElmo6000 said:

Stage 9 (optional):  Regret

 

10.  The Zombie Afterlife

 

Sometimes a cache gets archived, but is never picked up.    Shocking I know, but in this great wide world, anything is possible.

 

Then a new cache pops up in the adjacent tree or bush, merely a smoot or so from the original, now a zombie.  Cachers proceed to find one, or the other, or - if they know to keep looking - both.

 

Know to keep looking?  Yes, zombies may be well-known in the local lore, maybe even mentioned on the neighboring cache page.  Archived caches can still be logged - with the odd exception - if you know the GC code or have a link.

 

I respectfully request that Groundspeak do nothing about this.  It is a game feature that requires no effort on their part. 

 

Edited January 25 by Viajero Perdido
Gammar

[+barefootjeff]

3 hours ago, mobywv said:

LOL!  I'm definitely on # 7 for a lot of my award-winning caches.  They were placed out in 2013 and I'm lucky if they get a find or two a year at this point.  I don't hold out much hope for new players finding them either.  I feel like geocaching has been in decline for quite a few years now.  But it's just hard for me to let go and archive them.

 

My most recent caches, published in mid December and early January, are already at stage 7 (the Long Twilight). The December one is perhaps not unexpected, since it's a terrain 3.5 traditional in a bit of an out-of-the-way spot (though it's only 5 minutes driving from the nearest motorway interchange), but the January one, a 2.5/2.5 puzzle cache near a popular picnic area, I thought might have generated a bit more interest. Both caches have only had two finders, the FTF a day or two after publication then the other finder a few days later. By contrast, a newly-published micro on a toilet block in a park got 5 finds in 3 days before the owner disabled it due to reports of discarded syringes in the vicinity.

 

One of my caches, a 2.5/4 multi published in 2016, has had 39 finds, received 29 FPs and won the Geocaching NSW Cache of the Month award in August 2018, but it hasn't had any finds at all since October 2020. The regular-sized cache is still in excellent condition and the view from GZ is still just as stunning, but nobody wants to do caches like that any more.

[+mobywv]

Yeah, a couple of my caches that won awards are multis.  People just seem to have little interest in doing them despite all the favorite votes they have.   It's a shame really because some of the best caches I've found have been multicaches.

[+mobywv]

On 1/24/2023 at 8:10 PM, Goldenwattle said:

The opposite of here in Canberra. So many caches still being published.

 

LOL, the perfect cache, as with few visitors less maintinance.

Fewer finders for a multicache usually leads to more maintenance visits from me because people are reluctant to go after a multicache if it hasn't been found recently.   So it's up to the cache owner (me) to go out there and verify the multi is still there.     And just because lots of caches are still being published, doesn't mean as many people are finding them as they used to.      

[+Goldenwattle]

7 hours ago, mobywv said:

Fewer finders for a multicache usually leads to more maintenance visits from me because people are reluctant to go after a multicache if it hasn't been found recently.   So it's up to the cache owner (me) to go out there and verify the multi is still there.     And just because lots of caches are still being published, doesn't mean as many people are finding them as they used to.      

Seems a lot of new members locally. I think I big turnover of new members though.

After a cache is published it gets lots of finds, but once many of the locals have found it, logs get fewer. I don't complain about that, as less maintenance. I dislike doing maintenance and checking the log, but I do this to keep them in good order and to check the signatures. That's part of the game. Fewer visitors and maintenance visits can go from an initial few months to years, and still usually find the cache is okay. If there's a report of a problem I go earlier.

[+MNTA]

14 hours ago, mobywv said:

Yeah, a couple of my caches that won awards are multis.  People just seem to have little interest in doing them despite all the favorite votes they have.   It's a shame really because some of the best caches I've found have been multicaches.

 

So true! one of my favorite multis and caching memories with my late father

 

Weekend 1 - Hit wp1 30 miles north

Weekend 2 - wp2 200 miles north was visiting my parents on a planned trip, also visited GCHQ since we were one neighborhood over.  

Weekend 3 - wp3 final 120 miles southwest my father drove down the following weekend he was eager to finish and get the FTF and a nice trip to the beach and Mo's for dinner.

 

Great times, thank!

 

[+barefootjeff]

8 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Seems a lot of new members locally. I think I big turnover of new members though.

After a cache is published it gets lots of finds, but once many of the locals have found it, logs get fewer. I don't complain about that, as less maintenance. I dislike doing maintenance and checking the log, but I do this to keep them in good order and to check the signatures. That's part of the game. Fewer visitors and maintenance visits can go from an initial few months to years, and still usually find the cache is okay. If there's a report of a problem I go earlier.

 

The FTF races around here these days mostly only have one participant. Take, for example, GC9QR5W, published last April. Its parking waypoint is only a couple of kilometres from the Somersby interchange on the M1 motorway, so not very remote, and the hike from there is about a kilometre, mostly along the Great North Walk and with a bit of a wade and rock scramble at the end. A very reasonable terrain 3.5, in my opinion. I dashed out the day after publication, not sure if I'd beat the regular FTF hounds from northern Sydney, but found an empty logbook when I got there. I needn't have hurried, though, as the second finder was six months behind me and it's still only had two finds.

 

My own recent hides haven't fared much better, with my multi GC9M6X5 published a year ago still with only five finds. It at least had an FTF race between a couple of Sydney cachers, but the third finder came along a couple of months later and the other two also several months in between. Again it's not particularly remote, being on a headland above Woy Woy Bay and about a 10 minute drive from the Kariong motorway interchange, and the return hike from the parking waypoint is less than a kilometre although there's a fair bit of rock scrambling involved. In hindsight, it entered the Long Twilight phase two days after publication, but it's a location I love visiting and is the one I used for my GC9FAVE log. It's a popular spot with rock-climbers and a few of our less community-minded muggles (I also did my GC8NEAT CITO there), so the waypoint objects and final are well-disguised, but, with the school holidays ending, I plan to go out there next week to do a check if we get a break in the forecast rain and storms.

 

Most of my hides are still the original container and logbook, including the 2005 ammo can cache I adopted. Some of my older ones have even had more than 20 finders and they haven't needed maintenance! My goal when designing a cache and its placement is that it should be maintenance-free over its lifetime, but it's still a learning curve, particularly after all the la Nina deluges and floods of the last three years. This is one I hid in 2014:

 

 

It's had 96 finds, although just two in the last year, and is still essentially pristine with plenty of room remaining in the logbook. I still visit it every few months, as it's close to home and a nice walk up the mountain when the weather's good.

 

 

[+barefootjeff]

On 12/14/2022 at 1:31 PM, barefootjeff said:

1. Discovery. You're out wandering, thinking muggle thoughts, when you come to a place that causes your geosenses to yell, "This would be a great spot for a cache!" There are no other caches too close or permission obstacles, so yes, go for it!
2. Brainstorming. What sort of cache would best suit the location? Traditional? Multi? Puzzle? Something else? Would it be limited to a micro or would something bigger be fine? How big? Is there a theme evolving? More site visits to take photos, record coordinates and see how it all might work.
3. Assembly. Time to put it all together, buy or build the container, print the label, prepare the logbook, add some SWAG if that's your thing, compose the cache page then head back out to place it and do a final coordinates check.

 

It's happening again. Last Thursday, our Australia Day holiday, the local beaches were packed out with tourists so I decided to escape by going for a walk through part of Strickland State Forest, keeping an eye out for potential cache hiding places along the way of course. I spotted one, a nice dry black hole in a rock face that looked pretty promising. On the way back to the car I started thinking about themes, though I must admit I'd been toying with ideas for a Black Hole themed cache ever since watching a Brian Cox show about the one in the centre of our galaxy. Over the rest of the long weekend, my ideas consolidated into a somewhat macabre astronomical puzzle called Dead Stars. With the cache page written, the regular-sized coffin container ordered and a label for the lid designed, I turned my attention to constructing the other themed elements, including a white dwarf to help guide the way and some star corpses to go in the coffin.

 

 

Once the coffin arrives (hopefully in about a week), I'll put it all in place, write my detailed reviewer note and click Submit. Sure, it's unlikely to get many finds (probably just a FTF and a runner-up 2TF before the Long Twilight phase sets in) but I've tried to make it entertaining and anyway, I've had a lot more fun making it than I would have had just sticking a mint tin in a guard rail.

[+Wet Pancake Touring Club]

And I would say I had a lot more fun reading about your cache, than I would have had if you described hiding a mint tin in a guard rail.