This topic contains 10 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by 
Trekkin and Birdin 10 years, 5 months ago.
-
Posts
-
I read an interesting question posted on Geocaching.com. How long do you search for a cache before calling it quits. I thought I would get your opinion on this.
Personally it depends on how far I have to travel to get back to a cache I can’t find. If I have traveled a good distance and took a bit of a hike to get to it. I’ll stay a good 45 minutes or so until I’ll give up. I don’t really want to make that trip again. Ones that I can get back to fairly easy I’ll only spend like 15 or 20 minutes. Even then that’s a long time.
Now a mirco in the woods I may only give it like 5 minutes. Way to many places to look for such a small cache.
Now some cache’s I just can’t give up on. I’ll make many trips to the same cache. Now how many trips will you go back to make a find? I guess that’s a different topic.
It all depends on how bad I want to locate the cache. If I’m caching solo, which is a great deal of the time, and I know the cache is there, I’ve spent over an hour on some particularly hard ones. Those are the ones with the fun logs I write.
With only one individual searching it can take longer on a hard one but is so much more rewarding for me than hunting in a group. Park and grabs and other containers placed with what seems like little thought I’ve spent a shorter period of time, 20 minutes.
search time depends a lot on the Difficulty rating, if there is an obvious beacon, or if there is heavy tree cover.
If the D/T is high, I expect to be looking for awhile. If lots of cover and gps is bouncing from place to place, add some more time to narrow it down (this also is where the beacon thingy comes in). Of course, cache size plays in too.Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
I’ve heard 5 minutes for every point of difficulty. So a D3 would be 15 minutes. A good general rule of thumb but not always applicable.
So many variables for me, but likely 10-15 minutes tops…am I with others? Most are more experienced and more patient than I am, so then a bit longer. What is the weather/bug situation/etc? Not a factor if I am prepared for it, but likely I am not. So less time then. Is it a final, a puzzle or some epic cache I have been wanting really bad? Lots more time then. Do I have other caches to find and time is a-wastin’? Time to move on. Every cache, every cache outing is different for me. And will I go back? Maybe if it is local or somewhere I might return to, but otherwise, not likely.
It completely depends on what’s going on. Yesterday I stopped to look for a cache on a bridge on my way to an event. I had a little time to kill but not a lot, so I searched for a while but didn’t feel like I could devote too much time. I was fine with claiming a DNF, it was still a nice place to stop and look out over the river.
If a cache has a low D rating and I can’t find it then I don’t worry about it too much. I mean, it’s probably gone and spending an hour there would be silly. If it’s a higher D rating then I assume that I need to spend more time there. I can’t even tell you how many, many, many hours I’ve spent at GC3ZMA7, although half the fun in that one is bragging rights on the pain and suffering of the search.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
I feel your pain on that one Becca.
I need to head back down there so I can put in some more time searching.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
I need to head back down there so I can put in some more time searching.
Becca, let me know when you come down and we’ll waste some time together.
I’ll admit to spending a half an hour on a fire hydrant cache. What was I thinking?
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
For us, the answer to this is simple….when we stop having fun.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.