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How Long Is Your Cache Memory?


gbod

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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?

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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 by WeightMan
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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. :D

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 by briansnat
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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. B)

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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.

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