Too Many Caches?

[Moonsouth]

Do you guys think that there will ever come a time when there are just too many caches in one area? That maybe NO MORE caches will be allowed? I was talking with someone about caching that told me that in some places in California if you are sitting on a park bench, and looked under it, there would probably be a cache there. I mean if there is a cache eventually every 1/10 or 2/10 of a mile (or whatever the rule is) where ever you go in the state, doesnt that really take away from the game? It goes back to the whole numbers thing...I will say that I like the competition of the numbers, whether for bragging rights, to show experience, or just a self satisfying accomplishment thing, whatever. But it kind of irritates me when people get their first 500 caches within a couple of miles from their home. Maybe its just me, I was wondering on others thoughts.

[cano]

There is no such thing as too many caches In fact over 3 million of caches would still fit in Maine not violating rule of thumb

[WhereRWe?]

There is no such thing as too many caches In fact over 3 million of caches would still fit in Maine not violating rule of thumb

Sheesh! Don't give anybody any ideas!!!!!

[benandtina]

I don't think there will be too many. I think even if there does end up a cache every .1 mile it is pretty easy to run pocket queries that filter out the type of caches you don't want to do. You can pick and choose what you want to find and don't HAVE to check every park bench (With that said, if Ben were in California and heard this he would begin checking them just because he would feel it wrong to sit on a cache and not find it, LOL.)

Sometimes we go out knowing exactly what type of caching we want to do... numbers, hiking, difficult finds, etc. We run our pocket queries for the day to find us those specific caches and off we go. The only way I think we may miss out by doing this is if cache owners don't set up their attributes... but we haven't found that to be the case very often.

Other times we just feel like hanging out together and don't care where we end up/what we find, so we load the Garmin with all caches and find whatever we happen to find.

[brdad]

Anyone that has been around these forums since the beginning ( I can hear all the "Oh here we go again"s already!) know I have had a fear over too much cache saturation since I started caching in 2002, and there were less than 150 caches in Maine then. I'd like nothing more than for the minimum distance between caches to be at least a half mile for urban caches and a mile for rural caches.

I think the push to place as many caches as fast as we can is setting the sport up for problems - namely caches being placed in places they should not be placed without permission and risking landowners taking action and making the sport look bad. That does not mean there is not a place for micros, GRCs, LPCs, or other easy caches.

On a personal level, I think that caches should have a purpose other than for the numbers and should to take you somewhere of personal interest to the hider and hopefully somewhere the finder may not have gone otherwise. Every cache placement of mine is an extension of me - A cache finder may not always see that actual connection, but think they are interesting enough to make the ponder what connection there is. If you want to know the real connections, just ask....

[brdad]

I don't think there will be too many. I think even if there does end up a cache every .1 mile it is pretty easy to run pocket queries that filter out the type of caches you don't want to do.

This is where the problem lies. A person who does not like puzzles can easily filter those out. Don't like micros? - filter them out. Want to do a long hike - once again the filter works pretty well. But for those of us who like all cache types and styles, but want to find a cache which has been placed for some purpose other than the numbers - that is a bit tougher!

[dubord207]

I share brdad's concern about caches placed without permission. But unless I'm missing something, have there been a "lot" of complaints from people about caches having been placed on their property without permission?

Please don't think that because there haven't been complaints that I think it's ok to place without proper permission, I'm just curious if there have been complaints. I haven't heard about many.

[JustKev]

Wasn't there one recently placed, I'm thinkin south west of Augusta somewhere, that was quickly removed when questions were raised by the landowner?

[CARoperPhotography]

Thanks for the idea! I have a plan.....!

[CARoperPhotography]

I think I will start by putting a micro on Brdad's front lawn.