Old multis never die...

[+barefootjeff]

...they just become unloved.

 

I was out today doing a routine check on The Great Train Heist (GC6JMDK), which I placed in 2016. While it's had 40 finds and received 29 FPs, the last find was nearly four years ago. The original container and logbook survived the 2019 black summer fires and the frequent deluges in the years since, with everything still clean and dry.

 

 

It's much the same story with another older multi I checked on a few days ago, Upper Mullet GC5WGTZ which I placed in 2015. It's had 25 finds and received 6 FPs, but it's only had one find this year, one last year and two the year before. Again it's still the original container with its original logbook and everything is in near pristine condition.

 

 

Another of my older multis, The Elephant has left the Room GC5P0CE, which I also placed in 2015, has had 31 finds with 19 FPs but the most recent find was in September last year. This photo is from today's routine check, with the container still the original elephant:

 

 

I guess multis have fallen out of fashion and have largely been replaced by series of traditionals plus bonuses, with ALs creating the expectation of a smiley for every stage, or maybe it's just the Takes more than an hour attribute on many of mine that's turning people off. It's not a lack of caching activity around here, though, with a P&G traditional in nearby Gosford placed just on a year ago having 85 finds and another published three months ago with 38 finds to date.

 

Multis make up just 7 percent of my finds but 16 percent of my FPs, so it's a cache type I generally enjoy a lot more than your typical roadside micro or small traditional, particularly if the multi goes beyond just sticking numbers off a sign into a formula for GZ's coordinates. They're also a good cache type where the location's main attraction isn't suitable for a physical cache, as is the case with my most recent multi GCAQ6CO, where the listed coordinates bring you to a scenic lookout but the physical cache is tucked away in a nearby sandstone cave where it's unlikely to be disturbed by muggles. Some of the most memorable caches I've done have been long multis taking a whole day or even multiple days to complete; those are ones I won't forget in a hurry.

 

So old multis, a relic or a treasure?

[+baer2006]

6 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I guess multis have fallen out of fashion and have largely been replaced by series of traditionals plus bonuses

This.

 

And that's nothing particularly new. Ever since GS removed the "ban on powertrails" (around 2009/10 IIRC), multis are on the decline and series of trads is the way to go. Even the terminology gets muddled - I have read more than enough logs by relative newbies, who referred to the traditional caches of a trail as "stages" and to the bonus as "final". Also, the notion that a single cache "isn't worth the effort", is very wide-spread (not only among newbies). Newbies, who start placing caches in my area, almost never start out with a single cache (let alone a "real" cache instead of a plain micro). Instead it's multiple caches all over their immediate home zone and/or trails from the very beginning. The almost inevitable consequence is an unwelcome surprise about how much maintenance is needed for these placements, and many of them last less than 2 years.

 

On the plus side, if you place a  reasonably good non-trivial multi, you usually get appreciative logs and a good share of FP .

[+niraD]

7 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I guess multis have fallen out of fashion and have largely been replaced by series of traditionals plus bonuses

 

7 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

So old multis, a relic or a treasure?

I love multis (and multi-stage puzzles), and have done some great ones as milestone caches.

 

But I heard complaints about getting only one smiley per multi back when I started more than 15 years ago, and I'm afraid multis haven't gotten any more popular with the new smartphone-only crop of geocachers.

[+Sottiwotti]

Multis are fun, but they kinda suck if the cache is just a boring micro/nano after all the effort. Your multis look very interesting!

[+Goldenwattle]

I don't mind some multicaches. In fact I am preparing a trip now because of a multicache. I have driven over 600km so far with it, and I'm guessing at least that much more to complete it.

That cache is made as a mystery, so not putting the distance maybe is okay ; maybe. However with more everyday ones, they would be more attractive if the CO said how many kms this multi will cover. Then to a potential finder they might know if they have the time to finish it or not, can walk it, etc.

When travelling I rarely do multicaches, unless I prepare, with printing it out on paper. Same with Earthcaches. I will be doing several (pre prepared) multicaches on this trip, and Earthcaches, all printed out.

With this long distant multicache, I accidently did the first WP in Melbourne. I say accidently, in the sense I didn't know how far it was going to take me. After doing the first WP, I considered it, and thought, why not, let's do it. I was able to do the first four WPs, but then I had to leave the route and head for home. I know where the fifth WP is now, so I can book a night's accommodation nearby for that, but then where the other WPs are is still a mystery. I am guessing what part of Australia GZ is in though. How I get there though, and by which route is a mystery. It's a matter of taking a car trip and following the WPs.

 

Quest For The Golden Dragon GC5ABJ2 

 

I want to add, that it is caches like this that keeps geocaching interesting for me, not powertrails, not ALs and certainly not many micros and nanos.

Edited May 29, 2024 by Goldenwattle

[+Team Canary]

10 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Quest For The Golden Dragon GC5ABJ2 

 

Great cache!!!

[+Goldenwattle]

7 hours ago, Team Canary said:

 

Great cache!!!

I am hoping to finish this multi this trip, although that depends where it take me. I am headed to W Sydney to stay with family, travelling for starters by the coast. Then I thought why stop there, so after a few days in Sydney on the trains finding SideTracked caches - basically ALL those that I haven't found (found most of them on previous trips), I will keep driving to tick off a few more county/shire caches. Heading as far north as Lightning Ridge and as far west as Cobar. Then another SideTracked in Wagga Wagga and then home. Naturally I will find a few other caches in passing too.

[+JL_HSTRE]

In Florida I think "epic multis" often get saved for milestones.

 

As someone who does a lot of their geocaching while traveling my itinerary simply doesn't usually have time for a multi that takes over an hour.

[+cerberus1]

On 5/28/2024 at 12:56 AM, barefootjeff said:

So old multis, a relic or a treasure?

 

I'd spend most my time on multis if they were anywhere near similar to yours and were maintained.    

"Smileys" mean nada to me.  All I look for is a nice walk in a non-urban environment with a lotta green on the map.

The problem here is multis are rarely hit, some for years, and often a single stage missing ends the day. 

I'm up to a couple dozen uncompleted over the years...

One, where I got injured and exposed the hassles I'm going through now, the CO archived the multi on my DNF for missing stage.

Get enough old multis, to never complete them because stages aren't fixed to continue, and who's the dumb adze now?

Old multis are a treasure.  But now I'll wait until either a newb finds it, or someone else looking for "lonely" caches.

[+Team Canary]

17 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

I am hoping to finish this multi this trip, although that depends where it take me. I am headed to W Sydney to stay with family, travelling for starters by the coast. Then I thought why stop there, so after a few days in Sydney on the trains finding SideTracked caches - basically ALL those that I haven't found (found most of them on previous trips), I will keep driving to tick off a few more county/shire caches. Heading as far north as Lightning Ridge and as far west as Cobar. Then another SideTracked in Wagga Wagga and then home. Naturally I will find a few other caches in passing too.

West won’t help. City and north. 

[+Goldenwattle]

2 hours ago, Team Canary said:

West won’t help. City and north. 

I am going north first. Well actually, south east first and then north. WP5 is my next stop for this multi (I have found the first 4 WPs) and I was told to go north. West is to find a cache in each council area, as is far north (Lightning Ridge) in NSW. I decided as I'm driving I might as well keep driving .

[+eigengott]

On 5/28/2024 at 6:56 AM, barefootjeff said:

So old multis, a relic or a treasure?

 

For me, they are still a treasure. No find in four years? Yikes! I fully understand the frustration, it's hard to keep up such a cache when there is little to no feedback.

 

My guess is, that Geocaching is to some degree on the same path to "dopamine culture" like many other human activities:

 

 

[+baer2006]

5 hours ago, eigengott said:

 

For me, they are still a treasure. No find in four years? Yikes! I fully understand the frustration, it's hard to keep up such a cache when there is little to no feedback.

 

My guess is, that Geocaching is to some degree on the same path to "dopamine culture" like many other human activities:

 

 

Geocaching: One multi cache  ->  Series of a few traditionals + bonus  ->  Power trail  ->  1000 Lab "Caches" in a car park

[+thebruce0]

3 hours ago, baer2006 said:

Geocaching: One multi cache  ->  Series of a few traditionals + bonus  ->  Power trail  ->  1000 Lab "Caches" in a car park

 

Or a little more  about the hobby directly:

 

Slow traditional culture -- Handheld GPSr to outdoorsy hidden containers (core traditional spirit of geocaching)

Fast modern culture -- Smartphone to puzzles, urban micros, powertrails (optimizing technology/internet use in geocaching)

Dopamine culture -- AL/M*, numbers, stats, couch caching (need as much fix as possible in the shortest time whatever it takes)

 

obviously stereotype/caricatures, but I think there's truth in it...

[+horo71]

Personally, it's whether the cache sounds interesting or not. I love multis. Over the last years, I do have done mostly traditional caches while on vacation, though. However, that is mainly because those looked more interesting than the multis in that area. Plus those were either really short or too long. (When my 80 year old ma is with us, 10 km just don't work.)

[+Goldenwattle]

6 hours ago, horo71 said:

really short

This is the shortest multicache I have ever found. GC6ZJV8. 35% Favorites given.

[+niraD]

On 6/1/2024 at 3:20 PM, horo71 said:

really short

I've done a couple offset caches where the offset was really short, within arms reach of the virtual first stage that provided the information to calculate the offset.

Edited June 2, 2024 by niraD

[+baer2006]

5 hours ago, niraD said:

I've done a couple offset caches where the offset was really short, within arms reach of the first virtual first stage that provided the information to calculate the offset.

The shortest multi-cache I ever found had its final logbook literally less than 1 centimeter from the information at stage 1. Of course the cache was placed as a kind of "joke" multi, but that worked and I had a good laugh .

[+MNTA]

6 hours ago, baer2006 said:

The shortest multi-cache I ever found had its final logbook literally less than 1 centimeter from the information at stage 1. Of course the cache was placed as a kind of "joke" multi, but that worked and I had a good laugh .

My shortest multi was to flip the container over and find the log. Second shortest was to slide over on the park bench for the final stage.

[+CAVinoGal]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:41 AM, baer2006 said:

The shortest multi-cache I ever found had its final logbook literally less than 1 centimeter from the information at stage 1. Of course the cache was placed as a kind of "joke" multi, but that worked and I had a good laugh .

 

We've found two, both named similarly - The fastest multi cache in <insert name of town here>.  First one was funny, the second we knew what it was and it was a quick smilie.

 

That said, I do enjoy multi caches that take you on a tour and give some history/background of the area.  We've learned some things about towns we visit that way, that we wouldn't have known without reading through the multi stages.  it makes the find at the end feel like we accomplished something.  I've placed a couple of multis, one a teamwork with Team Christiansen with parts in California and Utah - it was fun to put together, and those that do it seem to enjoy it as well, but it doesn't get found often!  The other is in a local Veteran's Memorial Park, so an interesting place to walk around and explore while figuring out the final location.  I enjoy both creating and finding multis.

[+Calypso62]

If anyone is coming down under to Sydney, Australia and loves a good multi with a history lesson, why not have a go at GC6HR8E At The Governor's Pleasure. It will take around 5-6 hours to complete with some other caching adventures along the way as well as some morning coffee and lunch. It's also a great way to see some sights of Sydney. Read the logs. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

If you are thinking of doing this one, I would love to tag along as your instant checker, if I'm free. Just send me a message via the Message Centre. 👍

Edited June 7, 2024 by Calypso62

[+Mysterion604]

I've been chipping away at local old-school multis, from the early 2000's, and some of them are just plan hard to figure out. (Not tough but fair; rather, they just require a skill set most of us do not have or at least have to dust off from decades of not being used.) 

 

Some unfortunately also have stages whose clues (be they physical or virtual) have gone missing, so they become reliant on the PAF network to still be solvable at all. (And often it is because the CO is no longer active and has not passed ownership on.)  

 

I prefer multis to Adventure Labs (if it was up to me AL's would only count as one find per 5 stages complete), but I get the idea behind a "virtual only" way of dealing with something. 

Less maintenance of actual stages than with a multi, at least in theory. In practice, I also notice AL stages becoming unsolvable as the landscape changes, and the conscientious CO's seem to be willing to edit their stage dsecriptions or just straight-up give people the answer.

 

No getting around cache maintenance I guess.