How to pick a good cache

This blog-post contains spoilers. If you don't like that, don't read it.

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You just started this game, found a couple of caches, joined a facebook group and now you're wondering how to pick the good caches. There's no Tripadvisor or Yelp for caches ... well actually there is but GCVote is barely known, widely unused in Australian and it hasn't been updated in years.

Now if your number of finds is 5-digits or you scored more than 10 D/T loops, stop reading right here. Let's face it: You're as picky as a bogan from Geelong at a Ute-Muster and you're going just  after anything. Please don't insult the other ladies and talk about beauty, quality and the inner values.

Popularity Points

Location of the most favoured cache in Victoria

After the above mentioned GCVote was running for a long periof of time, GC HQ implemented a favourite points system Unfortunately they failed to provide a functional system where you can get low points reviews and a search by favourite percentage. 

Caches with a lot of favourite points are popular but not necessarily outstanding. Let's take the most favoured cache in the State as an example. It's a little keysafe mounted on a average wall next to City Road. It's definitely better than the average cache but it gets its points mostly due to the proximity of the CBD and the self-fulfilling prophecy of already having a bunch of FPs. Hey I placed one of those too! A flimsy $9 tool box bolted to an unused pole. It still clocked up over 100 favourite points.  

To stay in our Tripadvisor analogy the high-favourite points caches are the Gourmet Creations but they're still Maccas. If you're keen to find a cache in an actually stunning location, try GC6QCRX The Mother of Mountains.

Great so that doesn't work

How do you sift through the thousands of caches to find the ones which are worth your time? I mean it's a game and you want to enjoy it instead of getting frustrated over mint-tins in yet another park or other wombats. You deserve the Lune of geocaches!

The unfortunate reality is there is no easy way 😢

There are bookmark lists, you can ask your friends - which is useless if you just started the game - or you can filter by various characteristics of a cache like

• Cache-Type
• Placed by
• Number of Finds
• Favourite Points
• Attributes
• Difficulty and Terrain Rating

So much unworthy clutter (Micros - D&T 2 or less)

This will produce some results but it might not be worth it. Again let's take a real-life example and look at the caches I haven't found in a 15 km radius. There're about 1000 of them. Let filter out all micros because if we're honest, micros are shit and shouldn't be allowed anyway. That cuts the number in half and leaves 500 caches. For the finishing touch we kill all boxes from the list with a terrain rating of 1.5 or less. Et Voilà! 170 caches which might entertain you but there are still a bunch of duds among them. At the same time you've filtered out some caches which would have been fun to do anyway. 

Find your Style

The only useful advise I can give you is to figure out which style of caches you like first. Asking "What are the must-do caches in the area?" on facebook will give you all the popular caches but not necessarily something you'll enjoy. Do you like hiking, climbing, bike riding, night-time adventures or the hidden gem in the neighbourhood? Give your fellow cachers a bit of context and you'll get a bit more meaningful recommendations. 

Another important thing is don't hold back on asking for help. You want to do that epic 4WD cache but don't have an offroader? Maybe someone is giving you a lift! You want to do that technical tree climb but don't have any gear? If you don't ask, nobody will show you the ropes  #dadjoke

Do you have a different "work-flow" to find good caches? Please share it here or on facebook!

Cheers 🍻

Philipp

P.S.: Placing great caches is easy - just follow these five simple steps and yes. Size does matter. Always.