How many visits per cache?

[+Lone Duck]

This has probably been discussed before...

 

I was wondering if there are any stats on an average number of visits for a cache? I realize that there are a lot of variables that would affect this, and there's probably a wide range as well.

 

Are there any records kept anywhere on this?

 

http://www.netwalk.com/~jporter/picto2.gif

[+briansnat]

I was wondering the same thing. It is potentially important info for those who are seeking permission to place caches. I think many land managers picture hordes tromping through the woods when they hear about Geocaching, but from my experience, the reality is quite the opposite. After the initial flurry of finds just after a cache is placed, visits are infrequent. My more popular caches get hit once, or twice a month, but most of them - particularly the more remote ones - often go 2 or 3 months between finds.

 

Judging from my caches alone, it appears the average number of finds per cache (not including those most recently placed) is somewhere around 20. I'm sure however, that caches in other regions have significantly different numbers.

 

The folks at Groundspeak could probably pull this info from their database, if they don't have it already.

 

[This message was edited by BrianSnat on October 13, 2002 at 09:33 PM.]

[+carleenp]

I'll add my experience. While land owners might be concerned about people trammping about, I recently placed a cahce where the owners seemed to agree to it because they wanted vistiors (Spring Creek Nature Cache). The area is a prairie owned by the state Audubon society. When I approached them, I assured them about placing the cache where it wouldn't do damage. They helped me place it in a safe area where that would not be a concern. Anyway, they seemed very exicited by the idea that the cache would bring new visitors. In fact, for everytime I thanked them for letting me place the cache, they turned around and thanked me for putting it there! I guess that people "trammping around" won't be a concern there. If it becomes one, I will move the cache.

[+carleenp]

I guess I'll add that I got off thread there! I don't have any idea what the average cache find number is!

[+The Leprechauns]

As with so many other statistical questions, you can get an approximate answer to this one at Dan Miller's Stats Pages.

 

For example, I went to the Pennsylvania page to learn that there are 1050 caches in PA (but this includes archived caches). Then I went to the log list page and queried for "found" logs on all Pennsylvania caches, and the database reported 15,103 found logs. So, Pennsylvania caches are found, on average, 14.38 times. Or 13.38, if you exclude CCCooperAgency's finds.

 

For the entire United States, I took 440,134 "found it" logs, and divided by 23,679 active geocaches, to arrive at an average of 18.59 finds per cache. But I had to go to Bux1ey's site to get the total number of caches, as Dan's site kept timing out when I queried for all caches located in the U.S. Bux1ey's site reports only active caches in the totals.

 

While not perfect, these statistics are pretty darn close.

 

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What would life be like if there were no hypothetical questions?

[+T-storm]

What I have done in the specific situation suggested (approaching land mgr. for permission with stats in hand) was to manually review a few caches in the greater area I was targeting and/or caches in similar locations and hopefully with similar difficulties. I could then offer stats on average number of visits to the cache site and even sometimes differentiate between an initial search surge for the new cache versus a more settled pattern beyond 3 months from placement.

 

T-storm

 

http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching