I've decided there should be some sort of handicapping for geocaching. Hick@Heart posted a question in Groundspeak Forums about "How many caches have you found in one day?" People responded anywhere form 7 to 114. 114! Are you kidding? Then I got this picture from Hick@Heart
Now here in Illinois there is nothing like this. This is borderline ridiculous.
This is the reasoning behind my Caching Handicap. You are given a handicap in bowling, as well as golf. If I had actually calculated my handicap in these 2 sports, it would definitely be a large number.
So I haven't come up with the exact formula but I think it should take into account:
1: number of caches per square mile, because as shown in the picture there are quite a few compared to here, where besides a few parks with about 4 to 5 caches in it you have to drive to the next cache.
2:Difficulty of these caches, because there is no way that any of those pictured can be more than a 2 difficulty. Or maybe they all are, but I doubt it!
3:Type of GPSr being used, some GPSr don't have as much memory as others. All those waypoints could fill up some GPSr.
Even Muggles shouldn't be a factor in this scenario. If there is a muggle by the cache you just move 50 feet to the next one.
Realistically there is only one way for me to resolve this problem! I am going to have to go on vacation to Hick's house for a week. We'll drop the wives and kids off at Disneyland while we log 500 caches. How bout it Hick?
Monday, February 18, 2008
Geocache Handicapping
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3 comments:
One thing your missing is the terrain difficulty. If you were to look at that same area (Mission Trails) as satellite imagery, you would see that is a mountain. the image is hard to see because it is completely covered with caches! Most of those caches are 3.5 to 4 star terrain difficulty. However, I did pick up nine today on a "quick" trip up to the store. Sometimes, when I step outside my house, I actually trip over a cache or two. He he. cache density rules!
I am so on board with a caching handicap. Sure those Cal caches are rated 3.5 to 4, but those ratings are from the bottom of the mountain! How can they possibly be a 4 terrain when you only have to walk 20 feet to the next cache?
I do believe that those incredible high number days racked up by some cachers are related to cache density and D/T rating. We have an incredible cache density around here and a lot of park n grabs, but my power caching friends usually top out around thirty in a day, or fifty if they really push it. There are some really high rollers who came into town and got 100 in a day around here, and everyone was bitching that it was not physically possible. It all depends on where you are at, how you plan your route, and what is important to you.
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