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100 Cache Radius


shunra

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I'm talking about the radius of the closest 100 UNFOUND caches. (My Cache Page > Filter Finds > Page 5 > distance of last entry).

 

Obviously, for each of us that radius is different. For those of us in densely populated areas it will be smaller than for those of us in rural areas, and for those of us on the coast it will be larger than for those in the interior (assumign that the cache density in the sea is low).

 

When I started caching, this radius was 24 miles for me: 100 unfound caches within 24 miles from home, as the crow flies. Obviously, with every cache that I find, the radius for the next 100 expands a bit, but as the circle grows, the area inside grows as well, as does the likelyhood that new caches are hidden inside that circle - and with every new cache, the radius decreases, and the area contracts a bit.

 

So when I started, my 100 unfound caches radius radius was 24 miles. Today, it is 27 miles, but expanding only very slowly. Eventually, I will reach a point where that radius will be fixed, and people will be hiding caches inside that circle at the same speed that I will find caches within that circle. (Caches found outside of that circle are not relevant in any way, for these purposes.)

 

I'd like to hear whether three- and four-digit finders among us have already reached such a point, and after how many finds that happened, for them!

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Mine will always be skewed. I live on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, and although my nearest unfound cache shows up at under ten miles away, it's actually almost a hundred miles by road. Also, since the western side of the Bay is much more suburban and urban in character, there are a gazillion caches. I have to got to at least the third page to find the nearest "local" unfound cache, about 25 miles by road away.

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When MAJELLIN and I started, I would venture to say that the 100th unfound cache was probably 100's of miles away. Obviously, it is much closer now. We tend to take day trips to find caches that are outside of our 100 closest caches that have not been found. Coupled with the fast rate of cache placements, our 100 cache radius is shrinking quickly (now 16.5 miles).

Edited by OUTSID4EVR
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Mine will always be skewed. I live on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, and although my nearest unfound cache shows up at under ten miles away, it's actually almost a hundred miles by road. Also, since the western side of the Bay is much more suburban and urban in character, there are a gazillion caches. I have to got to at least the third page to find the nearest "local" unfound cache, about 25 miles by road away.

Well, that's no different for me. I live on the tip of the Quimper peninsula, which jots into Admiralty Inlet, separating the Straight of San Juan from Puget Sound. Most of my nearest 100 caches (5 pages) require taking a ferry, or a long drive around.

 

But skewed or not, my question was whether the radius remains the same.

 

FWIW, while my radius for the next 100 has expanded from 24 to 27 since I started caching, my radius for the next 200 has only expanded from 30 to 31, and my radius for the next 300 has remained constant at 34. It looks as if a 34 mile radius from home is the radius within which caches get hidden as fast as they get found by me. That's an area of 3600 square miles, many of which, in my case, are sea.

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When MAJELLIN and I started, I would venture to say that the 100th unfound cache was probably 100's of miles away. Obviously, it is much closer now. We tend to take day trips to find caches that are outside of our 100 closest caches that have not been found. Coupled with the fast rate of cache placements, our 100 cache radius is shrinking quickly (now 16.5 miles).

If it shrunk from 100 miles to 16, that means that LOTS of caches have been added near your home, and that you're not finding them - your caching at farther distances has no effect on the radius of the nearest 100, of course.

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I increased mine from 17.1 to 25 miles with 260-some finds. Many not within that circle...

 

It's an interesting theory. I suspect you are on to something, but think it's probably a range like 25-50 for most cachers.

 

You'll have the crazed ones among us that skew that because they have done every cache in the state, but hey :) Us mere mortals will have to be happy with 25 miles or so.

 

I think I've been hovering around that for quite some time.

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It's an interesting theory. I suspect you are on to something, but think it's probably a range like 25-50 for most cachers.

 

You'll have the crazed ones among us that skew that because they have done every cache in the state, but hey :) Us mere mortals will have to be happy with 25 miles or so.

The equilibrium radius I'm looking is individual and different per cacher. I don't think you can make a generalization about THAT! And those who've done their entire state will have such a radius too, because more caches will be added within the circle of their 100 nearest unfound.

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Thanks for sending me on another statistics-gathering time waster.

 

On the day in June 2002 when I received my GPS in the mail, the 100 closest caches took me to a radius of 44.5 miles. Today in that same radius, there are 303 caches, so the cache concentration has tripled in 17 months!

 

Fast forwarding to today, my closest 100 undone caches takes me to a radius of 52 miles. There are 348 caches within that same area so I've found a few along the way.

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I don't remember what the radius was for my 100 unfound caches when I started just over a year ago, but right now my closest 100 unfound caches is at a radius of 80.6 KM.

 

When I started geocaching there were 401 unfound (obviously) caches within 100 miles of my house, and now there are 420 unfound caches within the 100 mile radius.

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ok color me slow..

 

Can someone assist? I use My cache page then filter finds and it shows me 484 caches within 100 miles. From what I am reading, some of you have it list the closest 100.

 

How do I tell it 100 caches instead of 100 miles?

Well, I think it shows 20 caches per page on the search so the distance of the last cache on page 5 shows your 100 not found radius.

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Thank you for the information.

 

Would you also know a way to remove caches marked as "This cache temporarily unavailable. Read the logs below to read the status for this cache." via the filtered finds or is there no place to modify the filters?

I don't think you can modify the filters. However if you do a pocket query they do not show up in that, so that may be the best way to go.

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Interesting....another way to distract me from my studies. Let's see, I've got a distance of 18.5 miles including disabled caches, and 18.9 miles not including disabled caches. I'm also in a coastal region, with no hydrocaches :D , so you could say that my stomping grounds are pretty cache rich (2312 w/in 100 mi).

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12.8 miles for first 100 not found, 7.4 miles for nearest 100 including found. It's a target rich environment around here between Seattle and Tacoma, even with little things like Puget Sound in the way.

 

Total density is 2064 within 100 miles of home not including 100 or so past founds that have been archived.

 

Furthest distance between consecutive finds was over 5000 miles (Seattle area to Frankfurt Germany). Closest distance between two finds was 'zero' (two virtuals at the same place next to Villanova University near Phila) closely followed by 8 feet (two unbelievably lame caches in a person's front yard, both placed the same day). Lots of reason for the 0.1 mile separation rule :-)

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Having found over 60 in our area so far, I am concerned to find I only have a 24.6 mile radius for 100 more. ;)

 

And here I was hoping to use Geocaching as an excuse to travel :P

 

I guess I have to brave the desert more so I can start telling the wife we have to drive across state lines for new ones .. ;)

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