Geocaching Australia

I know, to many it's a swear word (rightly so IMO!! ).

I'm working on something at the moment to identify powertrails using magic and am wondering...

When does a cache series become a powertrail to you?

I would consider it a PT when there is say over twenty + caches placed along an easy route and spaced close together, ie at intervals of 300m or less.

I'm not adverse to them, I've hunted a few PTs, and I have one myself, although it is not a simple P & G series.

I would call it a power trail when the caches are close to each other, usually along the one road, path, etc. Twenty was a suggested number to call it a power trail. I would go along with that, although a trail with less caches I call a mini-power trail. I have called six caches close together alongside a road a mini-power trail. Generally they are by the same CO, but not always.

Do all the hides need to be the same style? (this is usually the point when I say ignore it, there are better caches to find)
Do they all need to be hidden by the same person?

The Wandering Heroes series/powertrail is placed by many different people and there is quite a variation in the style of hides. Some people are very sure it is a powertrail and some are very sure it isn't...

I'm not sure distance is always relevant - eg. The Prime Minsters series are spaced about 1km apart but most people would call that a powertrail. They are all the same sort of hide hidden in spots with no relevance/significance.

I would say if they are in sequence along a trail/road with a similar naming convention/ theme, are easy to get to and don't serve a pupose other gaining numbers ("Teaching" people about a series of things like different AFL teams or Navy ships is not a purposeful justification, that can be done in a multi, mystery or even a regular traditional) then they would be a power trail.
That probably doesn't help for automatic identification though unless they are numbered.

Tricky... truely a PT should be a series of caches hidden purely for numbers and at a minimum distance apart, ideally 161m but in reality probably up to 300m

However, the much more interesting versions like the BMPT on GCA and the Mid North Coast wander are WAY up there in numbers of hides but much further apart.

Maybe caching trails rather than pure power trails is a better way to describe and detect them.

How's this for an idea:

A "Degree of powertrail-ness" rating. For each powertrail like feature the series get x points. Add them all up and the highest score is the most powertrail like powertrail.

Eg.
Spaced less than 300m apart = 2 points
GZ locations have no significance/relevant to the cache page = 2 points
All owned by the same account = 1 point
Over ten caches = 1 point, Over a hundred caches = 2 points
"Geo-art" = 2 points
...and so on - decide on a set of features and how important they are and away you go...

Hey CraigRat how did this magic go?

LouiseAnn wrote:Hey CraigRat how did this magic go?

In a word - "Unreliable"