How Long Is Your Cache Memory?

[+gbod]

After reading this topic in the Getting Started forum, I got to thinking about if I really needed to use my GPSr again if I had to go back to a cache.

 

I admit I don't have a lot of finds yet (mainly because I have such little free time out of the office), and most of them were low difficulty, but I can remember exactly how to get to each one of them without having to use my GPSr or looking at the cache page again.

 

So, my question is: At what point do you start forgetting the cache locations that you've visited? Is it after x number of finds? Is it after x number of days or months? Are difficult caches in the woods more difficult to remember? When will this information be purged from my brain?

 

What are your thoughts?

[+Halden]

Depends on how memorable or difficult the cache was. I have some caches I did a month ago that I could find again without GPS. I have another that an hour later I would still have to use my GPS.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I could get back to many of my finds without a GPS. Funny thing is, I drive by several of my finds everyday.

[+WeightMan]

Actually I would think the more difficult caches are easier to remember. The more you have to ponder the clues and the location the more hooks you have to hang up the memory. I did have an experience lately along these line. Last March I found Troop 591 and had reason to return to it in December to pick up a CD with clues to another cache. It took me some time to find it again. Part of the problem was that the cache had moved a bit from when I originally found it. Part of it was the fact that when I found it originally it was out in the open and it is now hidden quite well. I think it had changed from one side of the trail to the other i the meantime. I don't often return to caches, but nine months was a bit long to remember it well enough. Others that I have been to that long ago, I could probably walk right up to without a problem.

 

Memory is funny sometimes.

 

Edit: spelling

Edited January 19, 2004 by WeightMan

[+Johnnie Stalkers]

I don't recall a cache that I don't remember exactly where it is and how I found it. But thats the trick isn't it? All the ones I remember don't apply to your question. Funny thing that I enjoy finding small Tupperware in large patches of overgrown forest but I can't locate my shoes or car keys at home without Ani's help.

[+Shawn&Holly]

I think it would also depend on the terrain. I found a cache last winter and returned several time for Travel Bugs. During the summer I returned for another Travel Bug and when I parked the truck, discovered I did not have the co-ordinates in the GPS. I figured I had been to this cache at least 6 time and should be able to find it no problem, well I was wrong, took over an hour and could not find it, I returned after getting the coords, but in the dark and still could not find it. I returned again in the light and it still took me 30 minutes to find it and it is basically out in the open, but the overgrowth was over my head when I had returned. At night, I almost could not find the trail again it was so bad. Another cache I had a difficult time relocating moved about 5 feet from when I found it, in the dark of course. Also, don't go into the bush with a hold in your shoes, something bite my little toe after I finally found the cache, it swelled up almost to half the size of my big toe, hurt for weeks, either an ant or spider I guess. So even tho you have already found the cache, it can be an adventure the second time around. I guess soon I can just go after the same cache over and over, it will always be a new find as my memory goes with old age and senility, working on the senility first.

[+CYBret]

I've found that I can visit 7 or 8 caches in a day and by the next week I will have forgotten a couple of them. I look over my list of caches I've completed and have to go back and read old logs to see what the cache was like. It's not always like that, but it happens enough to make me wish I could remember where I left my ginko biloba.

 

Now, if you want to see something amazing, sit down with BruceS for a few minutes. We had lunch about a year ago and I was absolutely amazed at his "Rain Man-Like" ability to remember the most insignificant details about a cache. I mention one fairly small cache not far from my home and he immediately started with, "Oh yeah, down a little path and then it angles back to a stump...yellow container, right?"

 

Amazing. Maybe he stole my ginko biloba!!!!

 

Bret

[+WeightMan]

Another story about this topic just occured to me. I visited St. Ethedreda's Church in London last September. As is my usual custom I take some notes on the cache page and then use those to write my log. In this particular case I placed the cache page in my suitcase with some other pages. For some reason when I got home and started doing the logs, I did not see those cache pages. I had remembered the other caches I found that day, but overlooked this wonderful church yard cache. When I was cleaning out my suitcase if preparation for another trip, I saw the pages and the hide was immediately in my mind. I could see the church and the location of the hide very clearly.

 

Each day, if possible, I go through the caches I have found and check for any new found logs. Sometimes I will look at every cache to see other types of logs. Each time I do this I am reminded of the cache location and the trip I took finding it. I don't need to read my log, just see the cache page and in some cases just the name of the cache in my found caches search. Now when I have as many finds as Mount10Bike or one of those four digit cachers I may not be able to do that, but with 150+ I still can and enjoy the experience each time.

[+rover-r-us]

on the way home one day i look for a cache to put a T.B in for 30 min. and did not find it.i had just found it 2 days before with the GPS!

[+boulist44]

Maybe I'm a bit of nurd but after each cache find, when I get home, I write a full page of notes which include all details of weather, parking, any other interesting items and several photographs of cache and area, so I don't think I would have any problem finding past caches. All this is kept on the computer, and my grandchildren enjoy reading them especially when they have been involved.

[+Team BlackZ]

I think i could find alot of them without the GPS. I'll bet ones you find in winter may look alot different in the summer with all the new leaves and undergrowth.

[+StarshipTrooper]

Remember? Are you kidding?

 

I have to use the GPS to find one of MY OWN caches for maintanance!

 

-FreeMe

[+Confucius' Cat]

Amen to that!

 

I have one of my own that I use the GPS every time to know where to start the bushwhack (its only a 10' bushwhack, but htere are no memorable landmarks at the BW start)

 

I have also had to search several minutes for another of my own. I was almost ready to write it off as missing.

 

Some caches I can walk right to any time. Others, I need the coords still, even after finding them several times. It just all depends.

[+KiltCacher]

So far I could probably go right back to any of the caches I've found without a GPSr. I'll see if this still holds true after a year. Of course, I wandered a cache site for 20 minutes thinking I lost my sunglasses. I did eventually find them. They were still on my face...

[+sept1c_tank]

10 months and over 100 caches. I think I could find 95% of them without a GPSr if I could remember which cache it was.

[+bthomas]

At about 700 caches, I started forgeting some of the hunts. I also start to get sketchy at 40 or 50 per day. PS: If you go back, it's always a good idea to have a current print/ coords. Sometimes the cache migrates. Sometimes recent cachers add updated coords.

[+cache_us_if_you_can]

So far I have a good cache memory... you could ask me about the caches I've found and I could tell you all about 90% of them (where it's hiden, how to get there, what I traded, etc). The other 10% I'd have to cheat and look at my notes

[+briansnat]

It's not length of time, it's changing conditions. I can picture most of my finds in my head...the walk, the container and how it was hidden, but if I return to a cache in a different season, things often look totally different. Because of this, I've had a hard time on a return trip to some caches. Heck, I've even been skunked on my own caches a few times .

Edited January 20, 2004 by briansnat

[+wimseyguy]

cybret wrote:<snip>

Now, if you want to see something amazing, sit down with BruceS for a few minutes.  We had lunch about a year ago and I was absolutely amazed at his "Rain Man-Like" ability to remember the most insignificant details about a cache.  I mention one fairly small cache not far from my home and he immediately started with, "Oh yeah, down a little path and then it angles back to a stump...yellow container, right?"

 

Amazing.  Maybe he stole my ginko biloba!!!!

 

Bret

<snip>

I think the amazing thing about this is BruceS actually sittlig down for a few. Seems like someone like that would always be in motion.

 

After 18 months and 300+ finds I could return to 80% of them GPSr free I think.

And yes, there are several here that I drive by frequently and am always looking out for cachers at them. But I have always had a good memory for details. It's finding them the first time that's the challange.

[+webscouter.]

I can remember about 70 percent of my caches. Funny thing is I am starting to use them as navigational aids.

 

"Do you remember the street that Branch not of a tree was on? Turn right there and you will see the carpool lot. "

[+Sparky-Watts]

I've got 22 finds now, and I know without a doubt I could go right back to each and every one of them without a GPS. Some were very good hides and very difficult to find at first, but maybe because I spent so much time in the area looking is why I know I could find it again!

[+ChrisCindy]

I could find most of mine without a GPS.

[+JMBella]

I went caching a few weeks ago and lost a glove near the cache. It was freezing out I don't know how I forgot it but I did just the same. Anyway I...uh...I'm sorry what was the question? I forgot.

[+Harrald]

I'm sure someone with only a handful of (mostly urban and suburban) finds would have no problem finding the caches they have found already.

 

In fact most of those type of caches I've found I could find again without a gps. On the other hand. Since some of the caches I've found have been after an hour or more hike (often using multiple trails) I would have little to no chance to even return to the correct location.

 

Even on the two multi caches I've placed I use a gps to find all of the elements. Maybe some of the Uber Cachers could refind all the caches they've found. But I would guess that's more to do with being able to look at an area and just "Know" where the cache is hidden.

[BassoonPilot]

I can remember everything about all the really good and exquisitely bad caches I've done.

 

It's the meaningless caches placed nowhere of interest for no apparent reason that I've forgotten by the time I arrived home from doing them ...

Edited January 20, 2004 by BassoonPilot