Kokopelli Caches

So we made our way to the kokopelli in southwestern utah.   It was a good day after the event, and fun.  We grabbed our group of 16 to start the day, and the trip and began the walk.  I am guessing 8-9 miles, but I could not be certain. 

The hike was good, and for fun I decided to have some fun with my logs.  Here they are.

The Book of TFTC - Chapter one
1 In the beginning was the search, and the search was good. The hunters did gather forth from the corners of the state to begin the search.
2 The search was began with sixteen souls. Sixteen brave souls did step forth in the the waist land, moving among the trees and cactuses to search for their glory in the desert.
3 On this day the sun was bright did beat down upon the cachers that did venture forth. The heat was light as they moved, the righteousness of their cause did lift them up and give them strength.
4 Verily the sixteen did move amongst the plants of the desert. Before the journey in a land far away commandments for the safety of the hunters were given. Thou shalt not wear shorts, for the plants of the desert shall cause thee great pains. Thou shalt avoid all plants, for the plants in this wasteland will cause you great damage, and harm. Thou shalt carry food and water for your trip. And thus where the commandments given, and shared amongst the travelers.
5 But some did ignore the commandments that were given, yea even as the trek did begin it was regarded that the commandment banning the shorts was broken. Many stood before the group, their white legs did shine forth in the afternoon sun, blinding all that did behold them. Yea, looking directly at the legs did bring great pain and agony to those that stood about.
6 Soon thereafter the second commandment was broken. Yea rootiesart did wander directly into the plants of the desert. Yea, and having ignored the first commandment she did fall amongst the plants, and did cause great damage and blood did gush forth from the legs that were not covered from the plants and sun that existed in the desert.
7 And we did travel forth unto the eye. We moved into the great center, or at least in that direction. For the eye did call us, but after finding the eye, and seeing ourselves within its gaze we did travel forth into the caches that were around us on all sides.
8 After the travails amongst the eye the party did once again travel through the desert waist land, and upon a great search did discover the next cache.
9 And Saint Desart raised the cache up on high, saying, 'Oh, Lord, bless this thy cache that with it thou mayest blow thy enemies to tiny bits,
in thy mercy.'
10 And the Lord did grin, and people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats. Yet they did travel forth accross the land in their quests.
11 And it came to pass after time I did cry forth unto my people. Yea the journey had been exceedingly easy, and had brought great delight amongst us. Yea it seemed unto me that it was far too easy of a journey for my people, so I did cry unto them to repent their wicked ways and leave the head and travel unto the flute. For the ways of the righteous are difficult and only through such trials can we know our own strengths.
12 And after a time they came to their point of decision, but there were wicked among them. Yea those that did not believe that did not think they they should continue down the flute. yea, hold to the iron flute and let it give strength. Yet they did look forth, and saw much swimming, eating and feasting in the great houses to the NE. Some did continue on determined to prove their strength and leave the head to the flute, while other did wander into the wilderness to perish in their unbelief.
13 And thus did the lords people travel forth. Depending upon the arm of the lord to give them strength in the desert. They did morn the passing of those that did leave unto the comforts of the wicked one.
14 And thus did nine travel south. Some visibly shaken to be left alone. The number dwindling, and many miles yet to be traveled. Yet those that traveled south were strong, and the song of the desert did give them courage.
15 Thus we did continue, diminished in number but strong in the force. Powerful we were, and who stumbled upon us would fear.
16 Thus we reached the end of the flute. Though we could have done more, our paths did need to leave the flute. For we needed to start the return, and it would be long.
17 And we did travel forth unto the sunny land of Nador we were forced to eat Robin's minstrels. And there was much rejoicing
18 A year passed. Winter changed into Spring. Spring changed into Summer. Summer changed back into Winter. And Winter gave Spring and Summer a miss and went straight on into Autumn. Until one day...
19 We did look for the cache, in many manners of location. We did find a ziplock under a small rock on a larger rock. We were discouraged by the wicked ways of others, thus we did shake our heads at those who had gone before. Thus we did determine to replace this cache with another, and there was again much rejoicing.
20 Though some continued in a silent pain, not sharing with others, we did move forth. It now appeared that we were making progress, and there was happiness amongst the people of the band.
21 And so we moved to the west. Looking towards the distance. Avoiding the dangerous plants, and problem that were in our path
21 The excitement of the band was growing, we were getting happy as we realized the northern trail was almost upon us.
22 And so we did arrive at our south western goals. The faces were brightened as they realized we would be turning north, to the vehicles.
23 We did move forth with a bounce in our step, onward and upward. Even the light uphill did not dampen our spirits and we rejoiced.
24 The lines of the hunters for the caches were stretching. Now a finder got to the cache and started signing it. However the cachers that finally caught up were left as we moved on. No rest for the wicked.
25 Thus we did move upwards, we had a celebratory dance as we approached the half way point today. We celebrated the joy of the day.
26 And the group of nine did travel north. We were working hard at making progress. Yea, but we were slowing, the power of the sun was driving us down.
27 Thus we were traveling to the north. slowly working at the upper part of the arm and body.
28 Thus we come to the end, we did cry forth to the youth that we were half way, bringing cheer to their miserable little lives.
29 We reached the end here, and people rejoiced as they realized we were as far west as we would make this trek. Thus we celebrated, and I enjoyed an apple.
30 And we did become less. We did chase for two more of the unbelievers from among us. Casting them forth into the desert to travel alone.
31 Thus did we become the group of seven. Our number dropped. Sadness fell upon us for those that were lost.
32 There was weeping at this point, the many younger of us were sad that we were returning to the east. They had not realized that we had not gotten those.
33 The weeping and wailing went on behind us as we traveled to the SE. Cries for the pain and sadness that overwhelmed them made it more vocal unto us and our travels.
34 Oh the pain, the sadness we crossed the deep wash in the wastes. but we gained strength as we went forward.
35 We did leave those behind us. The younger ones realized that though their elders moved forward they would need to return, as the caches they sought were now behind them.
36 And we were at the end, well the end of the southeast and the south. No more would we walk south, we were strong and did cheer for ourselves.
37 And we did walk far. Yea we now walked a half mile, the longest single non cache walk of the day. For we were now too far south and needing to head to the north
38 The arguments about the hair did continue and go on. This was getting close to where we had to make a decision. How do we not knowing the wisdom of the hider, determine how to do the hair.
39 We now did travel north to the tip of the hair. We did walk through the bush and heard a voice from the heavens or from behind us mocking us in our quest. We had passed this one, though it was not the goal.
40 Thus begins the end. We did see the pain. The younger ones would complain about the jumping back and forth in the hair.
41We Wept
42 Sobs were heard, some had great pains and bleeding feet, I myself had my knee begining to pain me. Lo the pains of the journey was wearing on us.
43 We know we were tired as people could not walk straight. Even Nickum walked into a Joshua tree. Slapping him and teaching him to break the commandments set forth at the start of the journey.
44 The wandering north and south was getting too much. Knees, feet, legs, of all were bringing sorrows to the crew.
45 Thus we did notice the sun did come forth from behind the clouds. The temperature rose from 70s to high 70's. Curses were muttered and we did murmur in our sufferings.
46 I had a view of the trail ahead. Many cried in their sufferings for the cars, but no sight of them could be seen.
47 The last puzzle on the list. I did not make it there, as I approached the others were completing and moving back towards me. Great cries of joy did spring forth from me as we moved forward.
48Truly we were rejoicing. This was on the way back.
49 We returned to the last few caches. And happy to arrive.

The scramble for cache 2,000,000

Geocaching has seen a surge in caches in the last few years.  In 2010 (if I recall correctly) a few months before the 10 year event we hit cache number 1,000,000.  So it was almost 10 years.   Now we are three years later on the second million.  There will always be arguments of quality.  However if no one found them, people would stop placing them.

About two weeks ago I started to get emails. Asking to try for cache # 2,000,000.  Ok.  I can give it a shot.  What can it hurt.

Well the time got close the counter on the page got closer, and then it started to drop.  Now I hear that a cacher had decided that after putting out a number of power trails, he/she could not maintain them so the archiving of many of them began.  I do not know how many.  Some said about 1300+  However it was enough to slow the date of #2,000,000 for a few days.

The number always goes up and down.  People archive caches, reviewers archive caches.

Well last night came and it looked like we were getting close.  I only had a few, about 15 to list.  If I had a hundred all I would have had to do was wait until the count got within 100.  Then the odds were high.  We got close and the numbers dropped.  It was 11:30, and most of the reviewers in america and Europe were in bed.  So I did as well.

Then I awoke at 2am.  Too far away.  3am  Still no luck.  4am. We were close at 5am. about 150 away.  Then it got close, and fell back.  Then I started listing.  At 6:11 the Magic cache was listed.  I started listing about three minutes too late. 

Crap. 

Time to get kids ready for school and work.

I don't care.  In two days I will be in 70° weather in St. George.  Yes, that will cheer me up.

Stats for sites

I just downloaded 5000 caches from opencaching into my GPS. From the Utah border to Kansas then border to border (almost)

Opencaching.com stats

5000 caches

• 2269 - 45%  have never been found
• 998 - 20%have been found one time
• 556 - 11% found twice
• 1095 - 22% have been found 3-5 times
• 69 -1% found 5-10 times
• 13 - 0.2%found 11+ times

503 -10% not imported from geocaching.com  (I saw a few are hand entered from geocaching.com so the number is likely a % or two below that)

Of those 5000

• 130 placed by BakerGeckos
• 299 placed by Bikephotog
• 488 placed by Calgold
• 113 placed by da438
• 439 placed by Jackofalltrades001
• 248 placed by jstrout
• 140 placed by Mo Pirate2
• 123 placed by rathbun2012
• 147 placed by StealthRT
• 143 placed by Tawner

Total 2270.  So in this area, 45% of the caches are put out by 10 people.

Geocaching.com

I will only use the numbers from Utah, and active.

25989 Caches

• 617 - 2% have never been found
• 502 - 2% have been found one time
• 727 - 3% found twice
• 2010 - 8% have been found 3-5 times
• 2790 - 11% found 5-10 times
• 15322 - 60% found 11-100 times
• 3929 - 15% found 101-499
• 82 - 0.3 found 500-999
• 10 found 1000+

In case anyone was interested

Challenges and more Challenges

Utah may not be the startplace of challenges.  I am not sure if there was a startplace. However there sure are a lot here.  I thought I would list some of the different ones.  In particular the ones that may get listed today. If they are questionable, I left them off the list. Hopefully they will give you some ideas.  There are about 300 in Utah right now.  Though not all unique, there is a lot of variation and a lot of ideas.  They are just a sampling.  So enjoy.

Utah's Oldest Challenge

GCREMT 1000 Cache Finds Cache Challenge by Dorkteam6 - This the oldest challenge that I know of.  Though I am sure there are others nationally, this is the oldest in Utah. Placed in November 2005 it was simple and straightforward.  Find 1000 caches before logging. 

Traditional Challenges

GCYXXZ Utah DeLorme Challenge - Delorme challenges are pretty common. Find a cache for each page of the Delorme Mapbook.  Some areas can do it in a day.  In utah expect many days to get those obscure little corners.

GC3AVA9 Utah's Well Rounded Cacher (Fizzy Challenge) - Find a cache for every square in the Difficulty Terrain Grid. 

GC1CR3H The GC Icon Challenge - Find one cache from each of the regular icons (excluding the rare ones)

GC1Q51K Jasmer Challenge III - Utah - This is a challenge to find a cache for every month since the start of geocaching.  The later months are pretty easy.  The earlier ones can mean many miles of driving to get the caches.

GC1YEJG Cache Every Date Challenge - 100% - Find a cache for every day of the year.

GC3993M 7 Icons in a Day Challenge - Find 7 icons in a day.

Name Challenges

GC15Y83 An Alphabet Soup Challenge for Utah - Find a cache that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

GC1D60W Alphabet Cities Challenge - UT - Find a cache in a city that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

GC2AB1K Utah Color Cache Challenge - Find 30 caches that have a color name in the title.

GC2B969 Eeny, Minnie, Miny, Moe - A Name Challenge - find 150 caches with peoples names in the title.

Sheer Numbers

GC1PRHH Challenge of the Century: 100 finds in ONE day - Find 100+ caches in a single day.  This used to be very hard, not so much any more, but still can take some planning.

GC2FE5W Challenge of the Century: Event Caches - Find 100 event caches.  There are also other caches for many of the other cache types.

GC42R8P Earthcache Mica Discovery Challenge - Find 100 earthcaches

GC2ND3G Twenty Two Kay Challenge - Find 22,000 geocaches

GC30194 Streak Milestone Challenge - 300 - Find caches every day for 300 days.

Oldest Challenges

GC1X2WC --Ancient Caches of Utah Challenge-- - Find one of the two oldest caches from each cache type in the state.

GC34EP7 Oldest Active Challenge - Find the oldest active caches in five states.

GC1XRME Oldest in Provo Challenge - Find the 10 oldest active caches in the city.

Other

GC1EMWD Elevation Bands Challenge - This one is finding a cache in every 1000 foot altitude band.  0-1000, 1000-2000, up to the final level that is 10,000+

GC1Z0PR Lonely Cache Challenge - This particular one has you find lonely cache (those that have not been found in some time).  Then some specific info on tallying those to a qualification point.

GC2936D 4 States in a Day Challenge - Find four caches in a day in different states.  Could be tricky in the western US.

GC27KRZ 3 States, Same Name Challenge - Find caches in three different states, but are in towns that have the same name.

GC2G58M Challenge of the Century: 100 Unique Challenges - Find at least 100 challeges.

GC2H41Q Salt Lake County Thin Air challenge - Find a number of caches that are over 9700 feet in altitude, that total over 10,000 feet in altitude

GC2NK18 Souvenir Challenge - Earn at least 10 souvenirs.

GC2P4WW Waymarking History Challenge - Find 100 history based waymarks.

GC2PX82 Triple Double Challenge - Find 10 caches of three different cache types in a day.

GC3019F Finds by Placed Date Challenge Cache - Find a cache that was placed on every day of the year.

GC38A9P 4x4 Challenge - Find 10 caches with certain attributes.

Opencaching surge

A few of us have noticed a surge in caches on the opencaching.com site.  No unique ones, but thousands of caches from a few cachers. 

A few of us had heard rumors that they were offering GPS units to select cachers to get them to move their caches.  I know a cacher contacted a reviewer about something like that.  Wondering if it was true. Now thousands of new caches showed up and never went through the peer review process. So I am guessing the new caches are those.

Congrats on the new GPS owners.  I guess.  Part of me would really be pissed if that is true.  If I put a lot of work and effort, and someone else dumps caches and gets a free GPS.  Wait.  I guess they got a pathtag.

Update on 2013-01-02 15:36 by firennice

In response to a message.  Yes I have the name of a cacher that was offered a GPS, however I am not posting it because I do not have permission from him.