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Thread: "POWER TRAILS"

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Morrilton
    Posts
    545

    "POWER TRAILS"

    I am curious about something. Has anyone had submitted caches put on hold or asking you to resubmit them because they are a "POWER TRAIL"?
    Does anyone know what this is all about? I do understand about cache saturation and I know that 528 feet in the minimum distance that the can be together.

    Has anybody heard of this?

    Does anyone know what is going on?

    I am confused and I don't understand what this is all about. Are the rules about to change?

    What is a power trail? I understand the term, but what is the definition?


    I want to everyones opinion and if you have had problems getting caches published.

    Our State Reviewer is welcome to chime in on this thread too.
    I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
    Thomas A. Edison

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Conway, Arkansas
    Posts
    762
    This was a recent discussion on the Cachers of the Round Table podcast. They talked about that if you had a road or trail with several similarly hidden caches in succession that some feel this should be a multi instead of a series. Man, I couldn't disagree more! I've got to do the work to find 5 or 6 caches but I only get credit for 1 find.

    To me, several caches in a single area is a great reason to visit that area. I noticed that when I originally placed 2 caches in the park in Ashdown, only a couple of cachers made the trip, when I added 2 more cachers started heading that way because it was worth their time to get 4 smileys instead of just 2. If I had made them all into a single multi I'd probably still be waiting for someone to find them!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Russellville
    Posts
    925
    I have seen this on a couple of other forums and it is already being heavily discussed. I checked the guidelines page on GC.com and the only mention I could find of"Power Trails" is under the Cache Saturation topic.

    Here it is:
    Cache Saturation

    The reviewers use a rule of thumb that caches placed within .10 miles (528 feet or 161 metres) of another cache may not be published on the site. This is an arbitrary distance and is just a guideline, but the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of caches hidden in a particular area and to reduce confusion that might otherwise result when one cache is found while looking for another. On the same note, don't go cache crazy and hide a cache every 600 feet just because you can. If you want to create a series of caches (sometimes called a “Power Trail”), the reviewer may require you to create a multi-cache, if the waypoints are close together. A series of caches that are generally intended to be found as a group are good candidates for submission as a single multicache.

    It shows that the guidelines were last updated on February 21, 2007. That's why it surprises me that we are just now seeing it come up when submitting caches.

    Another website I found has their own definition for it.
    Power Trail – A path with a large number of easy traditional caches placed every 1/10th of a mile. Like a Cache Machine, it's another way for people to easily increase their Find count. As such, it is looked down upon by some.

    I have seen a discussion in another forum where the cacher could not get an approval for his caches when they were spaced over .25 miles apart.

    If this is going to be in the guidelines it needs more of a detailed explanation than what is there.

    I see that this could turn into another one of those neverending discussion topics that will never be resolved.

  4. #4
    Team_Pink Guest
    I'm betting that rules like this will get tighter as geocaching grows. I hope they don't go too far in trying to make geocaching a wilderness experience exercise. We don't have any wilderness around my area! With gas prices likely to remain somewhere in the area of where they are now, I won't be traveling to many wilderness areas either. Of course there is the issue of conservation as well.

    Maybe Waymarking will take over?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Searcy, Ark
    Posts
    164
    Up front I would like to tell you that I generally do not like rules. I do not like to be dictated to. Some general rules or laws are always necessary to maintain an orderly process to anything, but give someone a little power and you are then at their mercy. Power corrupts and complete power completely corrupts.

    The Rules should be explicit and few. As long as we stay within those few rules we should be able to do whatever we want to do. If new rules need to be implemented they should be simple and apply to everyone.

    Take the fun out of Geocaching and you will destroy it, at least for me.

    That's the grumpy side of

    SEARCYKID

  6. #6
    flannelman Guest
    As far out as I live from civilization with my caches placed close to home if I only had a few then they wouldn't get much action. I've got 22 caches that are active and they see little action as it is now. Maybe the power trail guideline is good on urban settings but I think the more the better out here in the sticks. I've got a trail that curently has four of my cahes on it along with another by other cachers that I want to add more caches to inbetween the ones that are already there. It is four miles from the trailhead to the last cache and then that same four back. Big time consuming hike for only 5 caches. I really hope they don't get tighter on this.

  7. #7
    cachemates Guest
    We had caches scattered all over the local lake and some of them very seldom got found. We archived those and placed several (10 I think) on a 4 wheeler trail. Since then they are found much more often.

    With gas at 3.00 a gal. most folks are not going to drive very far for 3 or 4 caches.
    We have had to cut back ourselves. My truck is about a 12 to 14 mpg vehicle, so the Power Trails is what we look for.

    I have planned on a Dirt Road Series of caches like we found in Oklahoma with around 15 or so caches. Even have a few of them made. I will check with Chuck Walla before I go any farther.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Morrilton,Ar
    Posts
    52
    I think everyone feels pretty much the same way, we just want to hide and seek caches. That is the object of the game isn't it. We have a rule that states there has to be .10 of a mile between caches, that's fine and quite understandable, but if I want to go through the trouble and expense of hiding 100 caches in 10 miles, where's the harm in it. I bet it would be a very popular place. Just my 2 cents worth, now I'm broke.........

  9. #9
    Geezer_Veazey Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by idratherbehiking
    The reviewers use a rule of thumb that caches placed within .10 miles (528 feet or 161 metres) of another cache may not be published on the site. This is an arbitrary distance and is just a guideline, but the ultimate goal is to reduce the number of caches hidden in a particular area and to reduce confusion that might otherwise result when one cache is found while looking for another.
    This is not a guideline, but a hard and fast rule as applied by Chuck Walla and explained to me in an email. Trying to get something started in Mountain View ( a cache starved place with only a couple in a 15 mile radius at the time) I place a micro in a city park/amphitheater and a regular cache on a hiking trail. The immediate areas of each cache were vastly different, and one a micro and one a regular--- there was no possibility of getting them confused. To go from one to the other required a walk of much more than 528 feet in order to cross a creek and enter the trails area. The expressed reason for the rule did not come into play here. But I had failed to check the separation distince and it was slightly under 528 feet. Even so, as for similarities they were miles apart. I made an appeal to have them both approved and was denied.

    I can understand that they don't want to relax the rule to the point of abuse, but such was not the case here. So don't expect to ever get one approved under 528 feet from another regardless of the circumstances.

  10. #10
    B62GTAWK Guest
    I have 7 caches in this "Power Trail" dark hole as we speak. I have one last email into Chuck Walla if things don't turn out I am going to archive them and start again. How frustrating!!!!! I agree with GV in that the "guideline; rule of thumb" is not that at all but LAW. Had the same trouble he had in Center Ridge.
    B62

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