HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

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Greyroamer
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HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Greyroamer » 20 February 16 5:31 pm

I am a little curious regarding the number of logs that some GC'ers show in their statistics. I recently noticed that one particular GC'er had logged 1025 finds on one day. The maths intrigues me. Allowing for a truly extended day, say 4 am to 10 pm, that would be 18 hours. There are 64,800 seconds in 18 hours which means that this person found a cache every 63 SECONDS, for 18 hours straight. I don't think I could even write the entry in the log book in 63 seconds.

Obviously, these finds are on "Power Trails" and I wonder if perhaps people are teaming up and "sharing" their finds, i.e. three or more people search, one to each section of a trail, and sign the log for the other members of the team. Is this really fair? Is it an objective for some people to simply amass as high a score as possible? That seems a little sad.

To me, the beauty of this pastime is not seeing how many caches I can find, haw many TB's I can move, or how many FTF's I can get, but the challenge of navigating to a place I may not have been before, the chance to visit locations I may not necessarily had planned to visit and the opportunity to match wits with the CO.

I recently did part of the Wandoo trail, and to tell the truth, the constant starting and stopping to find caches that were, in the main, not particularly difficult, and only a few hundred metres apart, didn't do all that much for me. Perhaps having a designated driver would be a considerable advantage with this sort of thing, but doing it alone was a pain in the bum.

Yesterday I travelled 350 kms to collect 20 finds, including two "multi-mystery" caches, one in Wyalkatchem and one in Dowerin (I can recommend both) and thoroughly enjoyed myself, a thousand times better than doing the Wandoo.

What do other think?

Regards
Mike (Greyroamer)

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Richary
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Richary » 20 February 16 8:01 pm

There are people who cheat, they may not have even visited the caches in question. That's their problem if they get their rocks off on seeing really big numbers next to their name. It doesn't affect me, I am not in competition with anybody else and to me (like you) caching is about finding new places and things I wouldn't have found otherwise.

Your 350km run for 20 finds reminds me of the early days when I started this hobby back in Adelaide. I thought nothing of a big loop to the country for 10-20 finds.

biggles1024
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by biggles1024 » 20 February 16 11:13 pm

Were those caches in Australia or was it the E.T. Highway in the US? If the latter, then that many finds is certainly possible given the way that particular power trail is usually done. BTW, an 18 hour day isn't really trying. :wink:

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CraigRat
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by CraigRat » 21 February 16 11:21 am

It's funny, I never think of a persons find count as a 'score'..... I suppose I just don't think someone is a 'better' cacher for having a higher found count than another, if you get to 100 and keep going you have caching credibility in my mind.

I certainly had some admiration for people doing big runs through S.A pre-power trails (think back to the NZ invasion)... the logistics and planning to find a hundred or more regular caches was amazing.

Power trail caching and numbers runs on them is just not for me I guess, you could do 1000 in a day or two, big deal. Travelling every 110m to swap out a container pre-stamped by a co-driver/helper just doesn't ring my bells.

firnsy
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by firnsy » 21 February 16 7:39 pm

Agree it is about the places you go and "matching wits with the CO" and often learning something as well.

I also enjoy the unexpected, sometimes quirky, encounters that geocaching throws up - be it with muggles, other cachers, animals or officialdom ...

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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by firnsy » 21 February 16 7:43 pm

firnsy wrote:Agree it is about the places you go and "matching wits with the CO" and often learning something as well.

I also enjoy the unexpected, sometimes quirky, encounters that geocaching throws up - be it with muggles, other cachers, animals or officialdom ...
Sometimes the odd unenjoyable encounter pops up as well, but fortunately those ones seem to be the exception rather than the rule

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Taz
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Taz » 21 February 16 9:04 pm

I have to admit I am one of those dreadful people who take delight in the numbers, it's kind of fun to do a 'PB' and get the most in a day and beat my own previous number. My competitive streak coming out maybe?
Having said that I also love other aspects of the game, I got a huge kick out of finding one on the NW coast last year that hadn't been seen for 3 years and again today I managed to finally find one of the 2y's teams Curse the Hider caches which had me skipping for hours.
We all cache in our own way and enjoy different aspects I suppose.

It's a bit sad and stupid to log caches you haven't actually seen though, big numbers are only fun if you actually did them.

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 21 February 16 9:15 pm

When I first started geocaching, I'd log all my finds on a trip when I got home without even considering what the date was. Mind you they would only be less than 10. I wasn't (and still don't but that may change in time) play for count or filling grids.

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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Team737 » 25 February 16 9:07 pm

I took my two kids out caching on the weekend, to finish off the day, we did a little 7 cache PT - in and out of the car every 250m with a three year old to buckle/unbuckle - I'd had enough of PT-ing after 7.... :)
The weekend before we set off into the National Park/State Forest for 3 hours to get 1 cache.... much more fun.
1000 in a day? I suspect there would be half a dozen teams sharing finds, or just plain cheating.

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mtrax
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by mtrax » 26 February 16 6:49 am

If you are doing some of the US power trails it's definitely possible to get a cache every minute and in some sections 2 per minute.

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Bundyrumandcoke
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Re: HIGH SCORES - can you really find this many?

Post by Bundyrumandcoke » 02 March 16 2:55 pm

Back, way back, not long after I started caching, in October 2006, I held the record for the most amount of finds in one 24 hr period, in Qld, at 62. We have exceeded this daily tally on numerous occasions since. As more and more caches get placed, higher and higher numbers are theoretically possible. Back then, I visited, found, and signed each and every cache in that 24 hr period.

Remember, finds credited to a caching name might not be found by one person. It could be 2, 10, 100 people working under one caching name. If it was planned exercise, it could be easily done, with different people heading to different locations, perhaps even different power trails.

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