Are Most Geocachers Basically Lazy?

[+Highpointer]

The above topic title is potentially controversial and provocative, but it brings up a theme I would like to discuss in these forums. It appears to me, living in the Phoenix metropolitan area, that there is huge number of urban caches, but the cache density outside of urban areas is very low. It appears that many geocachers are not willing to make an effort to go on a hike or travel outside the city in order to place a cache. Many geocachers, to be blunt, are lazy - they will make many easy urban caches, but they are unwilling or unable to go on a hike or travel a few miles outside their homes in order to place a cache.

 

Therefore, while the big cities have an abundance of easy or non-physically challenging chances, there are fewer caches for people like me who like to hike and explore the backcountry. It appears to me that the overall quality of geocaches has become lower since I began geocaching. Geocaching, in my opinion, is becoming more like regular city activities like to going to work or shopping instead of a being the adventurous activity that I believe it should be, and what it appeared to be marketed as when geocaching was in its early days.

 

Therefore, what can I do to inspire geocachers to place more geocaches that are not not drive-ups and are located outside the cities? If you live in a big city like Phoenix or Tucson, you have many geocachers to find. However, if you live in a smaller city like Prescott, Stafford, Payson, or Flagstaff, then there are far fewer caches near your home, even though your home is located in an area where the outdoor recreational opportunities are superior to the big and crowded big city.

 

Ken Akerman

[+Red Clover]

Living in a small town located 20 miles N of a decent size city and 60 miles S of Atlanta I agree there's not much to be found near by. In fact, I do believe the cache I will place this weekend will be the first in my county. I don't really think its that people are lazy so much as maybe the ratio of cachers in large cities vs small towns is very different. I would have never learned about GC if it hadn't been for a co-worker. I drive 24 miles to work... Another factor may be the "I dont know where anything is" frame of mind. Even living in my small town I really can't think of any public land w/in 20 miles of me that doesn't have a cache in what I would consider the best area. It doesn't mean there isn't suitable public land.. only that I dont know where it is.. Generally speaking small town folks "usually" don't have as much disposable income as "city" people. So... lots of factors play into it. I love the hike caches I've done and I've enjoyed most of my drive-bys. But I also look forward to putting some caches out myself in my neck of the woods!!

Edited April 16, 2004 by Red Clover

[+Renegade Knight]

When you log those few non urban caches put the same amount of thought into the log as you did this topic.

 

Making that reward for placing that cache as enjoyable as your getting a chance to get outside of town is probably the best way. People place caches for the logs and a cache that gets good logs will inspire duplication.

 

While getting caching going in my town I was in the lame urban micro biz. For the most part I'm getting out of that biz. The caches I enjoy keeping out there are the ones with the nice logs.

[+Kealia]

Come on out to California! We'll not only give you some good hiking, we'll pi$$ you off with the Redwoods interfering with your reception .

 

Seriously, we have a lot of both around here. In my town (<10,000) there were only 2 caches when I started. I placed a number locally and it has inspired others to do the same. Now we have lots of all types (urbans, drive ups and good hikes).

 

I say place a few of the type you would like to find and see what happens.

 

Best of luck.

Edited April 17, 2004 by Kealia

[+Team GPSaxophone]

There are virtually no caches in Raton, NM. One is in a state park (where I will be placing 2 more next month), another is near a freeway onramp. That's about it. Why?

 

Small towns like Raton have lots and lots of private land surrounding them. In fact, that area of New Mexico was part of the largest land-grant in US history. There is good hunting in the area, but almost all of it has to be done on private land. Landowners charge a small fortune to allow hunting on their land.

 

edit: speeling

Edited April 17, 2004 by Team GPSaxophone

[+Riddlers]

Possibly not many in small towns because most people in small towns are slower to get into the 21 century. We moved to a small town, and got our dsl set up right away and most people we run into have no idea what it is. If we told them we were out geocaching they would think it was some weird big city thing. We have hidden a few around here but mostly you have to head 30 miles either way to really find caches. But I know that if you want rough ones come to Oregon, we have some very remote caches.

[+BuckyD]

I'm reasonably new to the cache-hiding thing, so I'm probably wrong, but I would imagine that people/cacher-density has more to do with it, rather than laziness. More people live in urban areas, and on a daily basis would do caches near where they live (for time, money, travel reasons). When us city-folk plan a hiking/mountain biking/outdoor adventure trip, we are travelling out of our caching "home area" -- so its less likely that a cache placed while on a trip would be approved (so, why bike in with an ammo box full of swag on your back that may end up as geo-litter when it is not approved).

[+Renegade Knight]

Another thing I've noticed is that when the city gets full cachers discover the outlying areas.

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

Many geocachers, to be blunt, are lazy - they will make many easy urban caches, but they are unwilling or unable to go on a hike or travel a few miles outside their homes in order to place a cache.

 

There ya go. Some of my best caches have a couple of visits a year. My urbans get logged all the time and many times cachers write in the logs "real easy...been done before" that sort of thing. But I don't see those critics logging caches that take an effort.

 

I place easy urbans for cachers who perhaps can't access my more difficult caches. Of course they get hit the most by those who complain the most.

 

Yep, cachers are lazy and whiners by nature.

 

As I am

[+Green Achers]

Good topic... The town I live closest to is Ripon, Ca and it's small. We only have a dozen caches or so. Is that a cache per 1,000 residents? Maybe. So I don't think the size of a town has anything to do with not having any caches in it. There's always locations for caches.

 

So why don't I place caches further away then I do?

• I'm lazy.
  
• Other cachers are lazy.
  
• I don't like to drive an hour away to place a cache, then have to return to remove it because it wasn't approved.
  
• Caches can't be placed while on vacation so few vacation spot's can have caches.
  
• And - I'm lazy. [so?!]
  

I totally agree that caching was better (based on locations) a few years ago than today. I believe this is a dirrect result of the policies Geocaching established last year when most everyone got upset. The rules got tighter so we got lazy... just in case we had to go right back.

Edited April 17, 2004 by Green Achers

[+CO Admin]

Anyone who leaves the comfort of the Living room, The cold of the Beer and The hypnotic lure of the TV set to go hunt Tupperware placed ANYWHERE is not lazy.

Edited April 17, 2004 by CO Admin

[+Green Achers]

Anyone who leaves the comfort of the Living room, The cold of the Beer and The hypnotic lure of the TV set to go hunt Tupperware placed ANYWHERE is not lazy.

Really? Even if I'm just leaning out of my tractor?

 

I have placed road side caches and mountain side caches. Guess which of these get's hunted every month and which gets hunted every year? Is that because people just don't have time to walk away from the car? No way. People often go out hunting for the whole day and collect a dozen or more caches. It requires dropping the soda and chips [which I keep next to the hydraulic controls for the Geoplow] to go to the mountain side.

 

Did I mention I'm lazy?

[+Sparky-Watts]

Yup, I'll agree that the majority of the urban caches are planted out of laziness. Not all, but a bunch. We've got several areas in a 50 mile radius that are remote locations and open to the public which make for great caching areas. Are they used? Nope. I've got 4 caches hidden in remote areas, and they've only been visited a few times. I have to drive 20 to 30 miles into Wichita to find caches, and most of those are cheap tupperware tossed under cedar trees in city parks. Not hidden....just tossed under the trees. Chances of them being muggled? Very high. Chances of mine being muggled? Next to nothing. Even if a muggle happened to wander into the areas I've hidden mine, they would not find them by accident, unless the last finder didn't re-hide them as well as I originally hid them. Yeah, people are lazy in bigger cities. They're used to driving two blocks to the grocery store, convenience store, fast food, etc. For those of us in the rural areas, a 30 to 45 mile drive to go shopping or to eat out isn't unusual at all, so a long drive out into the country to find/hide a cache isn't a big deal. City dwellers don't like to be inconvenienced by leaving their own neighborhood to find caches, food, gas, or other necessities.

[+bthomas]

Sure am tired of those lazy film micros. Have really gotten to dislike public place film micros that lack good camo, and rely on the finder to be stealthy in replacement. Goodness, protect your own cache by constructing good camo and placing away from prying eyes.

 

In the Monterey area, on the California Central Coast, we found good caching. Ammo cans! Clever aerial placements! Good usage of GC.com fake rocks! A magic cache box! Salt air and blue water views!

 

Lazy me? Yup. Yesterday, got outta bed. Drove to the neighborhood coffee shop. Cached one before meeting the group 20 miles away. Met the group, drove 20 miles. Cached 3 on a mile hike. Drove 40 miles, cached city parks and a closed military installation; cached a few on a mile hike in sand dunes. Attended a 3 hour geo-event. Night cached for 4 or 5 hours. Returned 100 miles back to the burbs.

[+Green Achers]

Lazy me? Yup. Yesterday, got outta bed. Drove to the neighborhood coffee shop. Cached one before meeting the group 20 miles away. Met the group, drove 20 miles. Cached 3 on a mile hike. Drove 40 miles, cached city parks and a closed military installation; cached a few on a mile hike in sand dunes. Attended a 3 hour geo-event. Night cached for 4 or 5 hours. Returned 100 miles back to the burbs.

Here's what I've been talking about. Drive. Drive. Drive.... BThomas! You're driving me crazy!

 

But, really. That's why you have the big numbers, BT. You're not lazy! I on the other hand drove about the same distance but I worked all day, did one cache [which required me to lean out the door] and then did homework until bed time. That's lazy (or addicted). At least the cache I got was well done. It was a puzzle cache and as we know, all puzzle caches rock!

[+Marky]

I think you should continue to do exactly what you are doing, lead by example. If you like regular sized caches that require hikes, hide good regular sized caches that require hikes. There is nothing like a good cache to inspired people to place the same.

 

--Marky

[Tahosa and Sons]

I do think we have a bunch of Lazy ones. Most of my caches only require hikes from 3 to 5 miles. (one way) and elevation gains from 1200 to 3000 ft. and only a few go after them. Several of my virtuals in town require a small walk and they don't go after them.

 

But those that get off their sofa spud really appreciate them. So you can't please them all, and just because some are lazy I won't quit placing them in the hills.

 

Yesterday I spent several hours and about 5 miles hiking thru a snow storm just to try and find the safe route for a new pending cache. And I've got to go back up there when the weather clears. Hopefully I'll get it planted some time in May.

[+Maverix]

I agree with Marky, lead by example... Also I might add, I think there is an expectation that the reward is proportional to the amount of effort. An example: a drive-up cache might be a film canister stuck in the end of a pipe and that is totally ok in my opinion. Not a huge reward but not much effort either. But the same canister stuck in a pipe wouldn't work at the end of a 5 mile hike, there would be the expectation of a landmark, a view, a cool campground, something like that.

[+Wetpaws]

I definitely agree!

While I generally dislike micros, there have been several clever, ingenious, and evil, shall I say micros here in the Sacramento area..

I have placed a few regular caches, and will never place a micro.

I got hooked by finding a regular cache in the boonies, or at least where people aren't watching you from a parking lot.

I plan to hide more out there,,,just looking for the perfect spot...[]

We have a great group of cachers here....

[+Marky]

While I generally dislike micros, there have been several clever, ingenious, and evil, shall I say    micros here in the Sacramento area..

...

We have a great group of cachers here....

We always have a good time when we cache in Sacramento. You guys have a great group of active cachers. The events are the best.

 

--Marky

[+Anne Bonney]

I must comment on how caches out in the wilds of wilderness don't/won't/can't get muggled like the wild city ones can. While vacationing throught NM, AZ and UT a few weeks ago I went after a 2/3.5 cache that was in between cities, up on a good sized hill, of which the last 250 feet dadgum near killed me. And, once I got to it, the cache was chained to a tree! It had been muggled a month or so before (Monumental Ed. There isn't anything around for over 10 miles. The hill is definately not one that day-trippers go to to picnic at on theri way to Sedona or Camp Verde. It's off the interstate, requires a 0.7mile walk in, and free ranging cattle that must've weighed about a ton each. It was definately the most work I'd ever done for a cache, and I was greatly disappointed once I opened the ammo can.

 

But, this is the nature of caching. Sure, many of us have our lazy parts...let me rephrase: many of us have our times of being lazy, many of us try to cache as cache can in our rushed and overloaded days. When I have the time, I will definately go after the out-of-town ones and the ones in the mountains. But, I don't have that luxury often. But, I have found some of the neatest places for solitude, fishing, wandering and all sorts of diversions from chasing caches that aren't so far out of town, or are even in a town.

 

I grew up in AZ and some of the caches I picked were minimum effort ones, but I saw views of AZ that I'd never seen before. There's something to be said for some of the easy ones, I think. The trip was going to be a nice one for me for many reasons, but the caching is what made it memorable.

 

So, forgive us who are lazy some days, and look behind you on some of the more difficult ones, 'cause ya never know, us lazy butts can get moving when we have to!

 

Thanks for the chance to offer my bit.

"Anne Bonney", Evans, CO

============+++++++============

"Struggle is good!" Ms Murphy, 7th grade teacher

[+NuBi]

I want to add that yes, I am lazy too but there is a reason why...

 

I live near Denver, CO and if you have ever been here, you will notice that Denver is flatter then Iowa. Of course the mountains just west of Denver are awesome. So what does this mean? Basically there are a bunch of urban parks and outlying county parks that do not contain a lot of places to hide caches. This results in the typical drive up caches.

 

Why not just put them in the mountains you ask? Traffic and time.

 

When I get off work, everyone else does too. To get to the closest "mountain" recreational area, count on a 45 minute drive through heavy traffic. Now that we are there, figure the cache is more difficult so plan on at least a one-two mile hike (mountainous terrain, not flat remember). The hunt takes 15 minutes once you arrive on location. Don't forget that if it is winter time, you will have about 30 minutes to find the cache before dark. Now you find the cache and head back to your car and them home.

 

Total trip time: 3 hours.

 

Remember, this is a park close to the mountains.. to get further into the mountains figure at least 75 minutes each way.

 

How many of you have 3 hours to spare after work on any given day?

[+Highpointer]

I'm reasonably new to the cache-hiding thing, so I'm probably wrong, but I would imagine that people/cacher-density has more to do with it, rather than laziness. More people live in urban areas, and on a daily basis would do caches near where they live (for time, money, travel reasons). When us city-folk plan a hiking/mountain biking/outdoor adventure trip, we are travelling out of our caching "home area" -- so its less likely that a cache placed while on a trip would be approved (so, why bike in with an ammo box full of swag on your back that may end up as geo-litter when it is not approved).

When us city-folk plan a hiking/mountain biking/outdoor adventure trip, we are travelling out of our caching "home area" -- so its less likely that a cache placed while on a trip would be approved (so, why bike in with an ammo box full of swag on your back that may end up as geo-litter when it is not approved)

 

What is wrong about placing some caches outside your "home area," if it is an area that doesn't have many caches? Without the contributions of urban cachers, many remote rural areas wouldn't have any caches. Geocachers who live in cities should travel more to the rural areas surrounding their cities to help improve the cache density of these areas.

 

Ken Akerman (a.k.a. Highpointer))

[+Team Perks]

To perhaps add to this...I will explain why I think caching would be terrible if there were no easy urban caches.

 

I've placed 50 caches. 46 of them are/were within half an hour of home, 1 of them is a 2-minute walk from my office, and the remaining 3 are along roads I frequently travel. Is that lazy?

 

Consider this: I have a 65 mile commute to work. In L.A. terms, that's up to a 2-hour drive, one way. I leave home at 5:30 every morning, and am home at 7:00 that evening. My weekends are spent catching up with everything I don't have time to do during the week.

 

Many of the ones I find outside of my local area are close to the road. Is that lazy? Or is it because 1) I'm on my way to someplace else and 2) I'm not familiar with every little back road in the area?

 

I would love to do long hikes every weekend. I envy those of you who have the time. But that doesn't make me lazy because I don't. And if the only thing out there to find was 3-mile hikes, I wouldn't be able to do any caching at all.

[caseydenise]

I wouldn't say that most cachers are lazy. In todays society, it's great to see a sport that anyone can do and makes you go outside. A lot of people I work with in the computer field play video games all day. I think a cache should bring you somewhere new, challenge you, and make you want to hunt another one. I live in SW New Mexico and there aren't a lot of caches around here. We put an average of 3000 miles a month on our cache mobile just to get to new ones. This past weekend we drove over 300 miles to do 5 caches. I think sitting in the car is lazy, but I love cachin.

 

-casey

[+orygun connie]

Hey, don't forget us seniors that can't walk or climb like we used to. A .2 mile walk is about my limit, and less if it is steep! But I love this sport. I too would rather see the ammo can caches. And less of the searches for a minute cache in a very public place. I especially like to be taken to a special place that I didn't know about.

[+Imajika]

My caches were not placed because of laziness.

 

My caches were placed because:

 

1. I know the areas well.

2. The caches are easier for me to maintain. For example: One cache I own had a problem with a leaky ammo box. When I got home from work, I had two emails informing me of the problem. I changed clothes went to the cache site and had a new container there within 40 minutes. If this cache had been placed in a rural area, I might not have been able to get to it for a day or so.

3. Several of my caches have been found by first time cachers. I think it's pretty cool that brand new cachers choose my hides as their first. Most brand new cachers tend to pick ones that are close to their homes.

 

On the other hand, I usually have a cache in the trunk of my car that is ready to be placed. If I am out and see a place that is begging for a cache to be placed, I've got a cache with me ready to go. Even if the area isn't close to my home, I'd place the cache there. I don't mind driving a little.

[+Desert4X4]

If you want to hike, cache Las Vegas. There are several caches near my house that would take most of a day of hiking to get to and back. I have gone to several that take hours of driving on trails and then hiking up a mountain just to find one cache. When I only have an hour or two after work (or just feeling lazy) I stick with the easy ones hidden in parks.

Desert4X4