Jump to content

do you enjoy easy finds or tough finds the best?


themagician

Recommended Posts

I like to find the easy finds..

I hate searching hours under every log and branch.

I like walking less than a mile to find a cache. I hate walking through the whole woods

looking for a pill bottle so small theres no room for a log book.

I have started hiding a few caches

and I have made them easy to find and easy enough to bring the family. BUt should I put some hard ones out there?

Being a magician, I can make them disappear

right in front of your eyes....

Let me know what you like and why, to help me decide on how to hide them.

Link to comment

I added the following to my original post, but moved it here after seeing your most sensible responses. icon_wink.gif

 

The problem is, most cachers won't attempt caches with high terrain ratings (long hikes or tough terrain) regardless of how the cache is hidden. (Its difficulty rating.)

 

I get the impression from reading logs that people don't understand what the difficulty rating (stars) means, for rarely a day goes by that I don't read a log written by someone complaining that they spent an hour searching for a cache with a three star difficulty rating. (Instead of complaining, they should be boasting about how they found the three star cache in an hour.) I came to the conclusion long ago that most cachers want/expect a steady diet of 1/1.5 caches. Bleh. There are far too many of them already. (In my area, at least.)

 

I think true three star (and higher) difficulty caches are few and far between ... we could use more of them.

 

If you decide to place caches of higher difficulty, just don't be disappointed if less than a handful of cachers visit them.

Link to comment

I think the message is that it really depends on the situation. If I'm out of my area, I like the quick easy finds. It gives me a little taste of the non-touristy areas on this great planet.

 

Around home, I'll try for the tougher ones after I've exhausted the easy ones. Most of the time, I cache with my kids, and a short hike and moderately easy find are nice. But there are some times that I cache alone. Tough terrain is a welcome change (especially around here).

 

The only thing that I really don't like are micro caches where the owner KNOWS that they may not be putting out good coordinates - and they state so on the page.

 

Markwell's Coordinate to Size Correlation:

The smaller the container, the more effort the hider should put in to making sure that the coordinates are as accurate as possible.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

Link to comment

(As in 1/5.)

 

I will go out of my way to get to the high terrain and hydrocaching ones, but I don't like to get to the end of my journey and have to look through seven thousand trees for a micro. In fact, more than once I've gone on a long, ardous trek in order to arrive at a cache that I knew was almost certainly not there. (Middle Bay Challenge and Whisky Chitto Cache for example.)

 

Perhaps some would say that I'm a bit short-fused when it comes to abandoning the search, but for me, 99 and 3/4 percent of the fun is in the journey, and 0.25% of the fun is only worth so many minutes of frustration. Perhaps that's why I spend so much time returning to caches or going out to my own...

 

I'm too enthralled by the joy of the journey to be seduced by the thrill of the hunt.

Link to comment

I like all sorts of caches. Some days I'll go out and hit 15-20 easy ones, and other days I'm happy to work on a single difficult one. Most of the caches I've done have been pretty easy, but that's mainly because most of the caches out there are pretty easy. I usually make the easy ones more challenging by hunting them GPSr-less.

 

If it's a cache, I'll hunt it.

 

ntga_button.gifweb-lingbutton.gif

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by ClayJar:

(As in 1/5.)

 

I will go out of my way to get to the high terrain and hydrocaching ones, but I don't like to get to the end of my journey and have to look through seven thousand trees for a micro. In fact, more than once I've gone on a long, ardous trek in order to arrive at a cache that I knew was almost certainly not there. (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=924 and http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=4276 for example.)

 

Perhaps some would say that I'm a bit short-fused when it comes to abandoning the search, but for me, 99 and 3/4 percent of the fun is in the journey, and 0.25% of the fun is only worth so many minutes of frustration. Perhaps that's why I spend so much time returning to caches or going out to my own...

 

I'm too enthralled by the joy of the journey to be seduced by the thrill of the hunt.


 

11493_800.gif

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by ClayJar:

I like the easy/hard ones.

(As in 1/5.)

 

I will go out of my way to get to the high terrain and hydrocaching ones, but I don't like to get to the end of my journey and have to look through seven thousand trees for a micro.


 

We did a 1/4.5 that was really tough, especially the last 1/2 mile through nearly solid thorn bushes. When we got the the cache, there was this 8 foot arrow made out of sticks in the middle of a clearing pointing directly to the cache. If there was ever a 0 difficulty find, this was it. The amazing thing is that we are still the only finders. The 4.5 terrain rating does tend to keep a lot of people away.

 

--Marky

"Everyone spends time in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

I like them all. The easy ones if time is short or I have someone with me who is new to the game. But, also the tougher ones if I'm on my own or with someone who has been on a hunt before. I agree with BP that there should be more caches with a three star rating or better. As a fellow northern Garden State cacher, I would appreciate a few more in this area.

Link to comment

I decided to do alternately one of each. (First one - HARD) (Second one - EASY) (Third one - HARDER) (Fourth one - EASIER)

 

I think this gives the caching community a good mix. I have recieved nice comments from folks who couldn't for some reason do the hard ones and really appreaciated the easy ones. Got some good comments on the latest hard one too.

 

Unfortunately, my first easy one has now been stolen, and it will be a while before I try to replace it. Read the log and you will understand.

 

So do some of both. Sometimes you CAN make everyone happy.

 

Mike. KD9KC.

El Paso, Texas.

 

Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom.

 

They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS!

Link to comment

When I'm with my kids, I like to have easy caches with lots of little toys for them to trade. They love geocaching and it ends up being a lot of fun to find the easy ones.

 

When the kids are busy, I like the challenging ones. There's one in my area that I'd love to try that's a terrain level 5 and requires a boat. When the weather is nicer it would be fun to rent a boat and try that one, enjoying the water and the rare sunny day.

 

As long as the terrain rating gives a reasonable idea of how difficult the area will be, I think there should be a large variety of caches. That way people who like an easy find are accomodated, and people who love a challenge don't get bored.

 

Personally, it's the mental challenges I love the most. I can never get enough of the puzzles that accompany some of the caches in our area.

 

NomadRaven

Link to comment

quote:
We did a 1/4.5 that was really tough, especially the last 1/2 mile through nearly solid thorn bushes.

 

Out of curiosity, what do you wear when you go tromping through thorns?

 

I got caught by thorns three weeks ago, and I still have marks all over my right leg. I'm all for a 4.5 difficulty, but if it's through thorn bushes I'd probably pass. icon_smile.gif

 

NR

Link to comment

I like them all. It depends on who is on the hunt with me, if it's my teenage son, we like a tough one. If it is my mom, or my granddaughter, we like the easier ones. What I don't like is when they have been plundered or not maintained.

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

Me ambivalent? Well..... yes and no.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Marky:

 

We did a 1/4.5 that was really tough, especially the last 1/2 mile through nearly solid thorn bushes. When we got the the cache, there was this 8 foot arrow made out of sticks in the middle of a clearing pointing directly to the cache. If there was ever a 0 difficulty find, this was it. The amazing thing is that we are still the only finders. The 4.5 terrain rating does tend to keep a lot of people away.

 


 

Whats the name of this cache you are talking about?

Link to comment

We as a family enjoy the harder ones. Considering our youngest is a VERY agile 11 year old, provided there's not a serious danger we'll go for them. Easier (1/1) caches seem basically like a "kiss and run". As an example, our favorites were Rocky Road, and Devil's Racecourse. You can tell by the pictures that these were not simple ones. We all loved both of them.

 

Too easy and it gets dull.

 

If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day, how come nothing in the store is free yet?

 

[This message was edited by CCrew on December 05, 2002 at 07:22 PM.]

Link to comment

I travel often for work, and when I hit the 'caches on the road I like for them to be easy. Mostly because I usually get a late start and I'm in unfamiliar territory.

 

When I'm home and can have more time to plan it out, more time to spend actually hunting it, etc. etc. I like the harder ones.

 

When you're cramming things into your suitcase, sometimes you can only take the bare essentials.

 

- Dekaner of Team KKF2A

Link to comment

I generally find the 1-1.5 caches to be pretty lame. As Bassoonpilot said, there are a lot of them in this area. I personally don't get much satisfaction out of parking in a lot and walking 50 yards to find a damp cache in Gladware, under some sticks.

 

I'm guilty of placing caches of this sort, only because I like to provide a variety of caches for the local community. Being a hiker, I prefer to find caches that take a little effort to get to and where there is something interesting to see when you get there. I try to put most of my caches in places like this.

 

It does bother me a little that the caches that I put some thought, time and effort into are rarely visited, but my "drive and dump" caches are quite popular. All of my caches are easy to find, but some take a little effort to get to. It proves the point that I made in the Northeast forum that most NY/NJ geocachers are whimps (OK, Stayfloopy, Bassoonpilot, Artful Dodger, Jonboy, Skully & Mulder, Team Magster and several others excepted).

 

On the other hand, I don't have a lot of use, or time for 3-5 star difficulty caches. I have no problem negotiating 3-4 star terrain to get to the cache site, but once I get there, I don't want to spend much more than an hour looking.

 

"You can't make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs, but by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" -Max Beerbohm

 

[This message was edited by BrianSnat on December 05, 2002 at 07:00 PM.]

Link to comment

i like a good mix. some days it's a full day of travel (like a few days ago i snagged 9 caches in one day). other days i'll try for the one hard one that i've been avoiding til just the right moment. it depends on the day, the weather, how much tiem i have, who's with me, etc.

 

'neko

Link to comment

I would rather the difficulty be in "getting there" rather than actually finding the cache at the spot.

 

I mean... I would much rather hike a mile through rugged woods, to find a cache hidden in the base of a giant tree stump or something - rather than drive up to a parking lot and have to look under every bush in a line of shrubbery to find a thumb sized micro. icon_smile.gif

 

Gimme the 1/5s over the 5/1s any day.

 

flag.gif

Click to view the ToeCam

 

[This message was edited by Rubbertoe on December 05, 2002 at 08:59 PM.]

Link to comment

Easy ones let you rack up your 'score', and can give you a warm fuzzy 'I've done it' feeling at the end of a successful hunt.

Difficult ones can take time to research, and time to locate, but they're good fun too.

Considering the time I've put in to creating caching rigs for simple walks, or for serious hikes, I like the opportunity to use it all at some time or another.

Let's face it, part of the reason we are into this sport is because we are all gadget freaks to some degree.

Link to comment

Sissy and I different. She likes the long hikes, scrambling up and down bluffs, picking through thickets, and getting her battle scars from the hunt.

 

Me, I like the challenge of finding the cache--using keen observation and wit to locate the cache. (Doesn't always work, but that's what I tell myself. icon_wink.gif )

 

So she's into the tough terrain and I'm into the tough hides. That makes for a good match.

 

So consequently, we're looking forward to this one - Tube Torcher.

 

Niether of us care for the plastic container under a bush next to the parking lot cache. We only do them to mark them off as we still have the attitude "if it's a cache, we'll hunt it." We just don't get much from it otherwise.

 

CR

 

72057_2000.gif

Link to comment

Like many folks posting here, I prefer either a tough find (i.e. puzzle or clever hide, not Needle In A Haystack) or a good long hike. My thinking is, if the *total* stars is about 5, that's perfect.

 

Unfortunately, in SE Michigan, we don't have the terrain for very many 2+ terrains. There aren't many places that aren't within a mile of a road, and at best you'll find a moderately steep hill.

 

migo_sig_logo.jpg

vlip2.gif Now cache away, cache away, cache away all!

Link to comment

We will search for just about all of them, but really prefer the ones that are memorable in a good way (take us on a nice hike, nice scenery, etc.) Most of ours are relatively urban, but I don't really like the ones beside a parking lot or road. (I just feel too exposed, and think someone will plunder the cache after we have been there, or stop us and ask us what we are doing.. ) There are a lot of nice parks in Austin that have some "wild" areas in them. Also, a challenging cache is one we talk about for quite a while! Park and grabs are fine for boosting numbers, but we prefer ones we have to look for.

Link to comment

The ones that are near me locally ( 100 miles ) 5/5 or whatever I will do what I got to do, but out of town 2/2 is all I will go after ,and some times not even that high. And old fat man does not look good , or fill good on the side of a bluff 300 miles from home. I do what I can and drive by the rest. I have had a lot of hate email saying that you came to town and only found the easy ones and never saw the really nice views, and to those I reply that if you think hanging on the side of a bluff makes the view any better than at a overlook on the side of the road any better you are wrong. But in general I like easy ones ,and that’s about all I hide………………JOE

Link to comment

in your guys neck of the woods? icon_biggrin.gif I have about half the people out here ticked off with the caches I do have out and the rest of them read the logs and won't go hunt them. icon_rolleyes.gif I put out a nice lame cache or two to bring my overall ratings down and then I went out and planted a couple real good ones. Better yet, would a bunch of you guys come out here and run through mine and let me know what you think? Bring your sleeping bag as I have a lot of floor space and Red cooks a mean Elk stew and biscuit combo. icon_razz.gif

Link to comment

Once I get to "ground zero" I hate spending another 30 minutes looking for a cache. Sometimes I'll know the cacher and know their coordinates usually are off so I'll just look in their normal place of hiding, even if it's off 100 feet.

 

But quite often I"ll just ditch the effort after 15 minutes.

 

Most people like easy. My easy caches have up to 60 finds and my more difficult finds have maybe 2-3 finds after more than a year. So if I want hits, I'll place an easy one.

 

I hear voices.....and they don't like you!

Link to comment

I enjoy any cache while looking for it. I may not be so fond of it afterward. But after reading some of the posts in this thread and having heard what other people have written elsewhere, I think it would be safe to say that terrain and dificulty though being completely seperate ratings do have to work together somewhat. Maybe its possible that a 2.5/2.5 average would be a good jumping off point here. it seems that I most enjoy caches that the total of the ratings is 5-6 no matter how those points are distrbuted.

 

If I have to hike a 4 terrain to get to a caches I would prefer the dificult be 1-2 i don't want to have gone through the troubel of the hike to have to search under ever rock or fallen leaf. but if the terrain is 1-2 I want there to be a challenge in actually finding the cache.

 

Personally I most enjoy a 1-3 mile hike without too much steep climbing. And a hide that isn't slap you in the face obvious or takes all day turning over rocks. A 5-20 minutes search time

seems to suit me. But I don't mind looking for an hour. But this is now and it may change as I gain experience and imporve physical condition. So yeah a total of 5-6 terrain and dificulty seems to be just right for me. not that I mind finding a 1/1.5 but I wouldn't want to do them ever trip out. and we have a 2.5/4.5 locally that i haven't yet ventured, and probably won't untill better weather comes. I know the area it is in and in poor conditions is a bit too dangerous to make the wife attempt.

 

We really enjoy hiking but also intend to try some urban caches of the high dificult low terrain variety also. We are both puzzle people we love to decypher coes and put clues together and do anything that challenges the mind.

 

I hope this can put a new twist on the train of thought in this and similar threads. Or I could be way off base, that happens a lot too.

icon_razz.gif

Eeyore

 

It took a GPS to get me away from technology.

Link to comment

I like difficult finds, if it's difficult because the hide is sneaky (hanging caches, disguised-as-a-rock caches, etc) and not because it's a needle-in-a-haystack search like an Altoids tin in the rain forest.

 

Most of all, I like caches that are memorable, whether because of a truly interesting location, a lot of thought going into the cache (it's pretty obvious when that is the case), a very clever hide, an interesting gimmick (glow-in-the-dark caches or puzzle caches stay with me long after I've forgotten the ammo box in the tree stump), or what have you. I really like it when people don't just chuck the cache under any old bush, but place it with care. I don't want overly easy finds (aha, I bet it's under that giant, out-of-place pile of sticks), but I don't get a great deal of satisfaction out of finding something under the ten thousandth identical rock I've turned over either. I think even the cleverest hide shouldn't require an hour of searching, though; that kind of time implies that the brute-force ten-thousand-rock method is necessary, and I don't think that's what makes a good hide.

 

As far as terrain goes, we are limited by being out of shape; one of us also has a bad back, the other chronic Achilles tendinitis. We'll hop creeks and scramble up and down the inevitable Southern California canyons with our trusty trekking poles, but I can't traverse terrain over a certain level of steepness and multi-mile hikes in the desert just aren't going to happen. A terrain 3 cache is questionable (depends if it's 'really' a 3 or not), and I doubt we could do anything above that at all. Obviously, those caches are great for those who are into more physical challenges, but I think a harder difficulty cache will be tried by a wider variety of people than a harder terrain cache. Go ahead and place 'em on mountaintops, but it may be a while before anybody visits.

 

I don't think a 1 or 1.5 terrain cache needs to be easy or boring, though. When reminiscing about really good caches, I always remember how they were hidden, not "Man, was I out of breath when I reached that cache." Mileage may vary, though icon_smile.gif

Link to comment

Well I have read all the replys

It seems everyone likes something different.

( gee I already knew that)

some love the ling hard hikes.

Some love the great hiding spot.

and it seems no one likes to hunt under every

log and rock....

One line I remember is the hard ones get

one his a week (maybe)

and the easy ones get sometimes 5 and 6 a day.

So what have I learned?

I'll make some easy to get to and easy to find.

Some easy to get to and hard to find

and some VERY HARD to get to and easy to find

and one VERY HARD to get to

and very hard to find..... so now my job is to find a good 5/5 place....

Hummmmmmmm lets see 5 miles into the swamp

by boat, then another 2 miles mucking..

Then I'll drill a hole in a tree

place a vial with a little paper and a little pencil in it.... then replace the bark

back over the drilled hole....that should do it.

 

a caching we will go, a caching we will go

Link to comment

I really enjoy the easy ones... I have some real mobility problems right now and am tied to a walker or wheelchair. Or course this really limits what I can seek. Fortunately there are a lot in my area that fit my needs. Now when I am better, which could be a while, I really like getting out in the sticks so I am looking forward to a time when I can seek the more difficult ones.

 

see ya, jeff'

 

Camping Hoosiers

Memphis, Indiana. USA

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...