WRITTEN BY  silyngufy

I am currently planning a trip to Kansas City in March 2015 and like any good geocacher the first thing I did after buying my airline ticket and booking a hotel was to look at the available geocaches near my hotel and in the city. I searched on the website by address and started picking and choosing which ones I would try to find. This got me to thinking (yes, it does happen once and awhile). How do other geocachers choose the caches they would like to find?

There is a lot of criteria to from which to choose: the title, the difficulty/terrain, multi, virtual, puzzle, P&G, favorite points, etc. I realize I mainly choose caches based on the title. Peter Quella and I are of the same mind. If the title is catchy, that’s the link we’ll choose. If it’s a fun title the cache may be a lot of fun. I may or may not download the information. But at least the hider has caught my attention. I tend to shy away from puzzles. I already know that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. I don’t need a reminder.

So, with that in mind, I posed the question “What criteria do you use to select a cache?” to my fellow geocachers. The responses varied widely. STEMmom (like many others) likes to choose an area and download as many caches as possible in that area and find as many as she can. Cadogan Evony let me know he can’t be choosy. He generally has to drive more than 30 minutes to find a cache. Cache&Dine responded that they usually pick a small town and just try to log as many smileys as possible. Many people choose a cache based on the challenge they are currently working on: the DeLorme Challenge, GeoArt, or Lonely Cache Game. Many others want the challenge of hiking, swimming or climbing to find a cache (quality over quantity). The PharmTeam recently told me that because they are getting older (aren’t we all?) they appreciate the P&Gs and events a lot more.

One factor that seemed to pop up at lot was the issue of time (or lack thereof). Geocachers are busy people. To maximize the best use of time, they base their choices on how much time they think it’s going to take to look for caches and if the caches are worth finding. When they only have a small window of opportunity, they want to use every minute wisely.

And that’s the beauty of geocaching. No matter if you are a puzzle junkie, a power trail grabber, or a park and grabber, there is something for everyone if you choose your cache wisely.