This topic contains 10 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
BeccaDay 10 years, 5 months ago.
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So I was looking at maps of some of the state parks in Wisconsin for a possible future caching trip of a state park tour.
I am shocked to see many state parks inundated with geocaches. I mean, many state parks sure are cluttered with caches. When I found my 200th cache at Pike Lake State Park back in 2009, there were only 3 physical caches at the park. Now Pike Lake appears to have a couple dozen caches total at the park. And this does not include the power trail outside of the park.
I’m looking at other maps and many of them are the same way. Hartman Creek. Devil’s Lake. etc. Just waaayy too many caches on park park property, which probably gets trampled by people hunting for those caches.
Only Governor Thompson seems to have just the right amount of caches. It has about a dozen covered over a large area and each one takes a while to walk to and that is the way it should be. I didn’t look at all the state parks yet, but it seems like caches at each park is like only .10 of a mile from each other and that’s not right, at least in my opinion anyways. It’s like each park has their own power trail.
I think there should be a limit on how many caches each park can have, depending on its size. But I doubt it.
Just stating my opinion, which will probably fall on deaf ears, no pun intended.
I got the pun. 🙂
How many is too many? The answer is about 1 more than you really wanted to do. An example is High Cliff. Most people probably spend their time on the lower part and up near the tower and campgrounds while only a few venture all the way south. I have been out there many times over the last 16 years and I keep finding new areas I never had explored.
With some caches there, that would help pull me to new places in the parks- almost like an ad inviting me to try something/somewhere new.
Following the signals from space.
I’m guessing Willow River would be inundated based upon all the “new cache” posts I see.
The best sig is no sig.
If they’re micros in the woods, one for the whole park is plenty. If they’re ammo cans, well you can never have enough ammo cans. 😉
Why would there be “too many”? Personally, I don’t see a problem, especially if they’re on a nice trail. Pike Lake has told me several times that they have seen a real increase in visitors since there have been more caches in the park. They’re really happy about this. When they get people using the park they are allocated more money from the park service and receive more money in fees so they are able to staff and maintain the park sufficiently. They are thrilled!
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
I know geocaching does bring visitors into our parks and that’s a good thing. I also know some of the parks are really loaded with them. REALLY loaded. I know we’re in the minority, but we really enjoyed caching in Governor Thompson last weekend, because there were enough caches to get us all over the park (we even had to let one little bunch go for another day). When we go to Willow River, we’ll try to get them all, but honestly, we kind of like walking for a good length of time and observing what’s around us until the Garmins beep to let us know we’re getting close, instead of finding one, hiking a bit, finding another and so on. I’m not complaining at all….but I do think there can be a balance between enough to get people interested enough to come and so many that you’re stepping off trail every .1 miles. I know. We’re weird.
Over time, what we’ve noticed about geocaching in general is that once upon a time, a small number of caches…sometimes just one…was enough to satisfy seekers. Now, it seems like there’s a need to get a lot of bang for the buck, leading to high concentrations of caches wherever that’s possible.
I’m in the minority that I prefer caches in a park to be spread out so I’m not stopping every .1 mile to find them.
Today, I went to Hartman Creek State Park and paid an obscene amount for a yearly out-of-state pass to get into the park, a pass I’ll probably only use at least a couple more times this year.
If I wanted numbers, I could have planned a hiking route to grab as many as possible. But today, I just wanted to hike and if my GPS unit beeped to show a cache nearby, then I’ll grab it. Otherwise, I just hiked around and took random trails, finding 12 caches, all on the south side of the park, where they seem to be more spread out, not including puzzle finals that I did not get. I spent 3 hours at HCSP today so I thought it was great that I happened to find 12 caches in those three hours and I didn’t even plan the route as it was random, whatever trail I took.
I agree a bunch of caches will attract visitors to a park, but to see them every .1 of a mile is another thing. Park managers probably should limit them to avoid damage to the ecosystem like trampled grass, broken branches, etc. I tried my best not to do any damage once I was near ground zero. I looked for grass that was already trampled and walked on those areas rather than trample on other grass and also tried to avoid bushwacking to ground zero as I get closer. I could see the cache right there, but to get to it was another problem. So I was careful to try and not damage the area around the cache in my attempt to retrieve it. I’ve seen evidence that other people don’t give a crap. They would break branches off trees and bulldoze through rather than walk around. That’s one example.
I definitely will return to HCSP as well as visit other state parks, but my primary mission when I do go to those parks is to hike, not geocache. If I happen to find a few caches while I’m hiking, great. But if I spend four hours walking the trails and only find one or two caches, I’m happy with that too. I’m not about the numbers or I would have more than 1240 finds in my 6 years of geocaching.
I’m new and guess I just don’t understand. What’s wrong with many options for cache’s? That’s just what they are options. You can choose to hunt them or not. You can load just the cache’s you want and weed out the ones you don’t. Your not talking hundreds of people a year stomp to these caches. Your looking at like 20 – 30 attempts a year per cache. You also got to remember a lot of people plan trips with geocaching in mind and a park is a sweet bonus. Why plan a trip to a place with only a couple of cache’s? I guess your a hiker with caching as a side where as I’m caching with hiking on the side.
Just speaking about state parks, I like seeing them plugged full of caches. I’m not about the numbers, but I’d much rather see a big cluster of caches in a beautiful location like a state park than just placed randomly around a city. Sure, many of the hides tend to be in the run-of-the-mill variety, but the important thing is that they’re hidden somewhere I like to visit. With lots of caches, that just means I have lots of geocaching opportunities every time I go to a park and hike around.
True that. I guess it depends on the park that they are in, really. If the park is designed to have hiking and biking and stuff like that, then by all means, put them out.
Like someone said, I have the option of not finding them if I don’t want to.
As long as it is not a nano inside a log, I’ll look for it. I actually came across those type of hides in the past – unfortunately.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
I agree with Todd300, I don’t see what the problem is. Just because they’re there doesn’t mean you have to find them. I skip out on looking for caches all the time because that’s just not what I want to do.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
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