How often...I'll stop after this!

[Q]

No more how questions... maybe. but looking at new caches this morning and I got to wondering how in the world you guys get up to thousands of finds. I may make it out once a month but am very limited by 2 little boys. Cub Scouts, church, parents, honeydos all keep me busy as well. To be honest, I did a solo run and found a bunch in a little time while visiting the inlaws and had a grrrrreat time. Many of the new ones in our neighborhood WW9 has been to by the time I see 'em.

I ain't making excuses. I get a list together for a family run and we end up only finding 2 or 3, but we have big fun and often get sidetracked. Did I mention we have fun?? and that's the bottom line.

How often you go hunting??

I know exactly what you mean. Caching with kids (especially more than one younger child) causes me to move slower than say a lone or group of adult cachers would. I wouldn't trade it for anything. In fact I've actually embraced it. I studied biology in college and have been able to incorporate my love of the natural world into our geocaching. I have a lot of field guides (Peterson are the best) that I carry in my pack when we cache. The kids love to investigate every animal they see no matter how familiar.It's a lot of fun and helps ease my need to move on to the next cache. Consequently, every outing has been a grand adventure full of memories I wouldn't trade for a thousand caches. It was their wonder that drove me to caching in the first place. Treasure every second, we have recently started a scrapbook of our adventures full of photos and such.
Besides, think of how good the kids are going to be when they get older! :lol:

[5beavers]

we've been caching for awhile now and my kids love it almost as much as i do.For the longest time we did not get much more than 20 caches at any given time together but here recently we got 36 in one day. The thing that gets to them is the long drive.Hang in there it gets better.

[nonnipoppy]

No more how questions... maybe. but looking at new caches this morning and I got to wondering how in the world you guys get up to thousands of finds. .....................
.................How often you go hunting??

All of the cachers that I have met with large numbers of finds are chronologically "more mature". This results in less attachments to our every day life. The cachers in Arkansas with the most finds are retired. Their children live 350 plus miles away and they both love finding caches. It is kind of like a "Perfect Storm". Everything comes together to enable them to go and seek lots of caches. They found 1500+ caches in the first full year of caching.

As with the aforementioned cachers our children and grandchildren live 350+ miles away. We both work full time and that restricts us from caching as much as some others. nonni is far less driven to cache than I am. These factors will keep us from ever caching at the rate they are currently able to cache.

*******Warning tongue implants in cheek here*********
So what, some people are skinnier but less good looking than I.
*******Warning tongue removed from cheek here*********

In addition our vacations/trips include some time to seek a few caches either along the route or while we are there.

"Power Caching", as some refer to it. has several different components from the lackadaisical approach. Each cacher must decide which is the approach that fits best for them. We are fond of both at different times, albeit nonni is not nearly as fond of the manic "Power Caching" as I occasionally am.

On a recent 8 day trip to Raleigh NC for Geowoodstock 5 we found 325+ caches while attending 4 events and driving 2600 miles. It requires filtering the available caches to 2 terrain or less but we do seek 4 or less difficulty. We will look for generally no more than 10 minutes and off to the next cache.

The potential caches are imported into Streets and Trips and the route is planned to maximize our time. Then we start early and stay late. This is fun for me occasionally. The price you pay for this is less enjoyment of your surroundings. A perfect example was a big laugh on this trip.
While caching one day in Greensboro N.C. we found about 80 caches. A couple of days later we were discussing our trip with other cachers who mentioned a cache in High Point N.C. near a three story tall chest of drawers with socks hanging out of the drawers. We were amazed and decided to stop by on our return. Sure enough when we stopped there we had done the cache, our initial approach was such that we passed by the chest of drawers without ever seeing the amazing sight. This was a cost of being to focused on the location of the cache and not our surroundings.

Photo of chest of drawers photo link (http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d188/nonnipoppy/IMG_GW5_0622.jpg)


So to each his own. Our hope is that you just enjoy the caches you seek, pay little attention to the high find numbers of others, and maximize the time you have to spend with your family.

And to answer the original question.....as often as we can work in in to our schedule.[/url]

[kevnjenn]

We go mainly on the weekends. Jenn and I have 3 kids, ages 7, 4, and 18 months, so we don't get to spend as much time as we (I) would like doing it. Our oldest loves it, and is old enough to help look. He has found 1 himself. The other two are pretty much along for the ride (or walk). We can normally hit about 5 caches in a day before the kids burn out on it. Jenn and I are going to Branson next week though, with the kids at their grandparents house, so maybe we can get in some good finds while there.

kevnjenn

[oenavigator]

:D