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By The Numbers, Or For The View ?


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If you've been playing awhile, you probably "know" one of the giants of this sport. The guy or team who goes on 24 hour marathon cache runs, logging unbelievable numbers in a single day.

 

Numerous times I've set out to increase my count, but always end up saying the heck with it, this area needs EXPLORIN ! My own daily record is probably only 4 or 5, hence, my low find count.

 

Now, this isn't meant to be a debate of the merits of numbers, or the purity of the hunt, or anything else controversial. I would just like to hear of others experiences.

 

Do you get distracted from the intended hunt to check out the scenery in a park, hike the whole trail, or as we did, spend 2 hours reading and photogarphing civil war era tombstones ?

 

Or, can you focus on the next container ?

 

Stories welcome !

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Some of the caches I've found have offered somewhat of a view. Nothing fantastic that comes to mind. Out of over 100, only a handful would fall into the category of a view. Actually I can off hand remember 2 that offered a view and that piqued my interest. Both of them were virtuals and in Concord, MA. Other caches were not of interest to me and were basically all the same to me, just another number. Which is fine. That's what I'm out to do. Get out, get a little excercise, see something or an area that I didn't know about and log a find. I don't expect anymore out of them. If I'm out by myself, I'm trying to find as many as I can or get certain ones within a certain period of time.

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In the Chicago area, most of the places are pretty much the same. When a few of us made a trip thru Wisconsin and to Minneapolis last August, we were treated to some really great caches that were worth the time to sit, enjoy the view and explore. To a man, we all said we would love to hunt two or three caches with a great hike and view over 15 drive ups. Numbers are nice, and sometimes I'm out to find and go, but there are days I go nice and easy and just enjoy the experience.

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Pretty much what ChrisCindy said. We did one marathon (6 in one day) early on but it was through an area we were very familiar with. I was thinking about a Caching oriented trip over to San Francisco. You couldn't go more than a couple of miles between here and ther with out passing a cache. Plus it's crab season :D .

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I haven't really found any caches that offer a spectacular view or take me somewhere new. I very rarely explore an area. For me it's about the numbers. This a way to challenge me physically and mentally and I try to get as many caches per week as I can. Some people like to explore and some like to boost their numbers.

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Once I found my first 100 the count didn't matter anymore. In fact, I have no idea how many I have right now.

 

What bothers me about some cachers that exclusively cache for numbers is that they seem to think others are (or should be) doing it for the same reasons. Giving little regard for the majority(??) who do not cache that way. They also seem to enjoy placing caches for their "similar" thinking caching friends and end up saturating an area with their own caches. I would think its frustrating to those who want to place a cache and see every local public area contains a cache by the same person(s).

 

More and more I'm beginning to see a tendency for placed cache quality going down while the numbers of caches they place skyrockets. Maintenance of several hundred cache hides is still beyond me!

 

Others have taken to logging finds without actually signing the log book. Instead they post spoiler pics...hoping its accepted as a find. That's sad :D

 

Just a few observations I have seen recently, from those cachers who like to up those numbers :D

 

Salvelinus

 

<edit> Added a thought and removed the work "Lame". Some find it offensive

Edited by Salvelinus
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The weekend before last I was up north and brought along eight or so cache pages of caches I wanted to do (pared down from 14 or more). I got a late start and did one easy park cache and had a choice, bag another six easys, or go for the 5 star.

 

I chose the 5er. Look how long I've been doing this, and yet I only have 130 finds.

 

EDIT: Forgot to include my point!

 

Any time I've intended to hunt more than a few at one outing, I got sidetracked, bored, or otherwise didn't do more than just a few.

Edited by Criminal
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Both.

 

Cache days are cool and you can cover a lot of ground. On the other hand every now and then my extended group of friends will plan a day around a hiking in the canyon (this was even before caches) and we would spend all day doing a lot of exploring.

 

Now caches let us pick a small goal and opens up horizons for new hiking areas. There are a lot more worthy areas than we knew about and caches open our eyes to them.

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If I am solo, I tend to focus on the task of Geocaching, BUT, I always try to enjoy the intended site where the cacher clearly sent you there for that reason. I don't tend to savor the beauty of a bush in a city park for long, but I will explore the memorials, a water fall or other especially striking (to me) feature, which has been as mundane as a turtle in an unexpected place or as fantastic as a mountain sunset with waterfall etc...

 

If the children are with me I have to let them have their playtime or its no fun!

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We cache for different reasons on different days.

 

We once drove 250 miles with an overnight camping trip to get 3 caches in our own county. On another day Roadcow and I made a 2000' elevation gain hike to get two caches and a great view of California's central valley and coast range. Five hours hiking, four more driving plus an overnight campout.

 

Most I've done in one day is 27 and that was by myself, not at a "cache machine" type event. Loved it! Least in one day is one (several times). Love it!

 

I love all caches: garbage dumps, nothing but soggy junk in the container, blackberries, poison oak, rattlesnakes and mountain lion areas don't bother me. But when Spark is along I research to find great bird areas and interesting places.

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I think part of the problem and someone else touched a little on this, is the fact that people are in such a hurry to place a cache. I can understand people wanting to hide their first cache. We can expect that for the most part that a persons first cache may not be as great. Not always true, but it seems like an epidemic. I've yet to come across a view anywhere near the caches I've found like in the pics Ce'Nedra posted.

 

Someone in the Charlotte NC area/Upstate SC area point me to a cache with views like those along the way!

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Both. Sometimes it's can I get out of work early enough just to find something? Two weekends ago it was 'let's go do these two hard multis an hour away that no one's been able to find in over a year.' The driving around a different part of the state was entertaining but we didn't lose sight of the cache. This past weekend there were three quickies on the way to two great climbs with nice views. We didn't need to wander off the path on those.

Next month we're roadtripping to powerecache in cacheville TN. That weekend is all about the numbers.

That's another of the great aspects of caching. Different strokes for different folks, and sometimes different strokes for the same folks. :D

PS hey Woodsters-just drive an hour east from your new home into the Uwhaiire area. You'll see some of that.

Edited by wimseyguy
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I've yet to come across a view anywhere near the caches I've found like in the pics Ce'Nedra posted.

 

Someone in the Charlotte NC area/Upstate SC area point me to a cache with views like those along the way!

The first pic is from the 7 Mtns, Patch cache.

 

The second is from the Treed Bears cache, which unfortunately is now archived. It was by far the prettiest hike i ever went on, followed by Serenity, which is nearby.

 

The third is from the Earth Elemental cache.

 

My most favorite pic I can't post, cause its a spoiler of a multi leg, oh well. All those above pics are from central PA.

 

Waterboy also takes lots of pics of beautiful scenery.

Edited by Ce'Nedra
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Even though I'm new at this and only have a handful of finds, I've already faced the dilemma of wanting to rush on to the next cache and at the same time, stay and enjoy the new place I found with the current cache. If the cache is in an interesting place (historic, scenic, architectural, whatever) and not in a fast food parking lot, my future intent is to spend at least a little time finding out about the location that the hider brought me to.

 

Numbers are great and for those that seek mega-numbers....more power to ya. I didn't start caching for numbers, though. I do it as a way to get out and see new places. If I'm rushing through at the speed of light, I'm not seeing much of anything.

 

GPSKitty

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For the upcoming local marathon, the local community have this plan which will somewhat reconcile the numbers, the challenge, the views, and the stories:

Count caches by difficulty times terrain level.

Of course these numbers are also arbitrary, but it puts a nice premium on getting to hard-to-reach, faraway spots, and on cracking hard-to-find cases. While at the same time allowing anyone to compete while staying close to the pavement.

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I love the hike, the views, the travel, the history. But I like being able to say "I've cached in 9 States!" too. If you check my gallery, you'll see it's mostly about the view. Oh, and the people I'm meeting, the friends I'm making. I mean really, how often do you get kissed by a mayor/billionaire when you're geocaching!?

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i'm a numbers whore.

 

THAT said, if i drive all day and only get two, that's what hapens. if the logs are interesting, i read 'em. if there's something cool to look at it, i look at it. if we need to stop and go swimming, we do. i take prettty pictures, read stuff, look at museums.

 

we do NOT waste time sitting down to eat until after the cache day is over.

 

i often do not stop to write much in the physical log unless the weather is especially nice. i devote a fair amount of time to the online log, though. i take the time to remember something about the hunt or the day or the area. i do not mention in my logs that this is my seventh cache out of twelve today. nobody but me cares about that.

 

i have never been impressed by a cache log (as a subsequent finder or as a cache owner) with logs that tell me how many. i want to know what it was like, what you're like, what you had for lunch, whether you got the joke (there is often a joke).

 

sometimes i even get expressive in my BENCHMARK logs. i figure, what the heck? i'm not a professional recoverer of marks. why NOT mention the view/history/adventure.?

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I used to do some major find days. And sometimes I still do, or at least try to.

But last summer I was attempting to find 12 caches in one day, the closest one being about 60 miles from home. I had started before dawn, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon and I think I found four caches so far. The temperature and humidity were high, my clothes were soaked with sweat, the bugs were vicious, and I was having a hard time finding what was rated as an easy cache. I was getting angry and could feel a stress headache forming in the back of my head. I suddenly realized that I wasn't having any fun any more. And if I'm not having fun, why am I out here? So I left. Okay, I left after I found that last cache. But I went home and relaxed.

So now when I go out I may have the pages for ten or twelve caches in the area that I am going to, but if I get distracted and don't search for any of them it's no big deal.

 

RichardMoore

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Hey Cap! Well, you know me so you know I go for both numbers and quality. Recently went to Nashville with 2 other cachers and found over 300 caches in 6 days, 72 caches in one day. We were constantly moving but that in itself was fun.

 

I've also had days where I just went for the view and took my time. One cache took me 14 hours over 2 days and a total of 10 miles hiking. Numerous caches down around Route 80 here in PA require a good hike but are my most memorable caches yet.

 

There's no reason you can't be in this game for both reasons.

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Now caches let us pick a small goal and opens up horizons for new hiking areas. There are a lot more worthy areas than we knew about and caches open our eyes to them.

Yeah buddy. I wished I live a bit closer to THIS spot because I'd be placing a NIGHT cache there. (hint hint) Hope the link works for everyone and sorry for any nightmares.

 

So far I've had wonderful luck discovering places I didn't know existed and might have gone through life thinking "bin dair, dun dat", not knowing what I was missing.

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A little of both, I guess.

 

My primary reason for caching is just to have something to do. If you lived in middle Tennessee, you'd totally understand. Sometimes, I can speed-cache all day. Often, however, I hit some and then get distracted. I might really find a cool area and take some time to explore or I might just get bored and demotivated.

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I usually don't have time to linger -- my caching time is limited, even if I'm only doing one at a time. And like others said, there isn't a whole lot of variation in the small city parks around here (with some notable exceptions).

 

Now, when I did Sand Quarry in Pennsylvania, I lingered and explored for hours, then brought the family back the next day so they could linger and explore.

Edited by Dinoprophet
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I'd rather spend 5 hours hiking to find one cache, than find 5 caches in an hour.

 

Just last weekend it was a rainy Sat. morning. I considered going to a cache rich area and bagging a bunch of easy ones. Instead we opted for a 6+ mile hike to find one cache. And you know what, that was far more rewarding to us.

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If I'm out to scarf up some long neglected local urban caches, I usually don't spend any more time at the site than it takes to log the cache and get away from prying eyes. In more secluded or rural areas, I like to take a few moments to get a look at my surroundings. (Unless the local insect population is more interested in me than I am in the scenery.) :rolleyes:

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We find time to go both ways on cache hunting.

 

If We have been slapped with a numbers challange, We can pound them out if needed.

 

But a lot of the time We have specific caches We are after and We go from there.

 

We look for the different and unusual. If that is a small park, the backside of a town, the bottom of a creek or the top of a mountain, so be it.

 

Last weekend We nailed a box full of caches just because We where in the area, there where some fantastic cache logs that made us want to "look and see", We had not been through the area in a long time and Spring was in the air. We stood in some poor city parks under street lights and stood under a Doug Fir that was about 12 feet across and 250 foot tall out in the brush. Urban to wild. And We would not have it any other way.

 

And a lot of times, We used to post the number found for the day on the web page just so We could keep track of which one was when. Not meaning to brag. Now We use a Geo-Journal logbook made up by TrailMix 3, a local cacher in Bend.

 

logscaler.

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I've been thinking about this topic quite a bit lately. I've been caching for 2 years (as of the end of this month). For the first few months I found at most one or two caches on a weekend. And there were many weekends I couldn't find the time to cache at all.

 

Then I started to get a bit addicted. :rolleyes: I became much less involved in my other hobbies. I have no regrets about this; they were really less healthy, less fun, and less family- or friends-oriented. So, for a few months I was caching almost every weekend, and even during the week sometimes. I did a 10-cache day hike around a local park (that's still my record).

 

Recently, I got to work as part of a team to solve a really hard 5/5 cache. That was a blast. I would much rather spend time solving a hard cache than grabbing a dozen drive-bys.

 

However, one of my teammates is a relatively new cacher in the area, and she has almost matched my cache count, in just a few months. At first, I enjoyed the challenge, and the competitiveness was kind of fun. I purposefully planned a few trips where I could grab 5 or more caches, instead of just one. But after a few trips, I quickly realized that type of caching is not for me.

 

So now I'm settling back down again, and I'm going to spend more "quality" time caching. Caching is still by far my primary hobby, and I will go solo, or with friends or family any chance I get. But I'll take time to enjoy the puzzles, the hikes, the logs, and creating my own hides. I went to a recent cache-event last month. I spent most of my time meeting and chatting with other cachers, and only looked for 4 of the 9 that were hidden for the event. No regrets; it was a nice park and now I have an excuse to go back.

 

One last point -- to some extent, caches can be divided into two types: good ones that are worth spending some time on, and drive-bys that are just there for the numbers. I much prefer the former. I'm striving to make my hides into ones people will remember. I no longer plan to find the drive-bys, unless I happen to be driving by them. Disclaimer: In no way do I mean to imply that people should not hide or find the drive-by caches. To each his own. Competition can be a lot of fun too.

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When I first started caching,, I had some big days. Now I still try to bag a few in the same area and visit as many as I can,, but if a real interesting location comes up, I stay and visit. You won't find me there too long though,, there are sooooo many caches out there.

One of the best things about caching, for me, is seeing and visiting places I would have never gone without a little nudge.

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My number of total caches is small compared most, but I'm not really into "bagging caches" that much. I think my big day was 10 and after that 7. Almost all of my caches are solos or doubles because I'm usually after a nice hike in the woods/weeds. I want to take photos, talk to the chipmunks, etc. Generally speaking, geocaching is a means to an end--a reason to pick "mountain A" over "mountain B". It's also a reason that I'm utterly indifferent to locationless caches and why I rarely bother with virtuals (unless they are a benchmark at the top of a mountain on NWR land).

 

-E

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I'd rather do 1 cache that takes me 5 days than 5 caches in 1 day.

 

Luckily, there's a couple multis in the area that are keeping me busy. I may be the 3rd person to actually complete Brain Teaser and it's been there for 9 months now. I'll probably visit waypoint #5 tomorrow (weather permitting).

 

I think I started on Double your Pleasure as soon as I could get to a one of the key TBs (which required an extremely early morning scramble). I think that one took me close to a month.

 

I enjoy the day trips. But I remember the challenges and the great locations.

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Like you this is just my preference, not meant to be any more worthy than anyone else's motives.

 

# found per day is of no interest to me, but at the same time I like to get as many as possible on any given geocache day because I don't get out to hunt all that often. Still, a dozen in a day is about my limit. I've found a dozen in a day perhaps twice since I started a year ago. My average is probably around 4.

 

The day progresses as I allow it. If I want to stop and enjoy, I do. Many times I'll pass up a catch if a 'look-see' as I'm driving by appears to me to be a cache hide I'm not particularly interested in that day. This last mainly deals with urban caches, which are ok but far to the bottom of my 'caches I want to find' list.

 

I just plotted a route for a geocache hunt. On that route I have about 20 caches marked. I'll get half of them, at most, and if I can find them...the rest I'll save for another day. I will make no attempt to get them all in one day.

 

All that said, I do like reading about the exploits of those who mega-geocache. It intrigues me but it's just not my thing. - JamesJM

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One last point -- to some extent, caches can be divided into two types: good ones that are worth spending some time on, and drive-bys that are just there for the numbers.

 

The "Rhododendron Cache"

 

The "Well Blow Me Down" cache.

 

Both caches are close to roads - within 200 feet with the right map - but you will have to drive somewhere around 30 miles out of town through Old Growth Douglas Fir - Hemlock timber alongside pristine creeks to get to them.

 

And you can always do like Mad Jack does. Park further away then need be and make a hike out of it. Who says you have to drive to it just because there is a road close by?

 

Getting to a drive by cache could be more interesting then the cache a lot of times.

 

And I would bet that there are thousands of these type of caches out there.

I know we have hit hundreds of them.

 

Oh, as for the 200 feet mentioned above. Lots of luck getting to them easy, let alone fast, like most drive by's.

 

logscaler

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I've always said I'm a cache hunter of opportunity. When the opportunity arises and all my chores are done... then I take my trusty dog, Snickers! with me. Usually I try to go after the interesting ones. This year, I've decided to save the Urban ones when I don't have much time, and am going after the caches hidden in the forests. Hiking is my first love and today the cache is just the nugget at the end to enjoy for a brief moment while I take in the rich flavors of the scenery of this Great Northwest State of Washington.

 

Just this past weekend I saw a Pileated Woodpecker which was truly the highlight of my hike. Everything else was just so ordinary.

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