The Average Lifespan of a Cacher
This Boxing Day, it will mark my 7th year as an active geocacher. In that time span, I have seen a lot of changes to this hobby. In fact, I have seen changes in the way I interact with this hobby. In my early days, I was more about going out and getting as many finds as I could get. It seems that now, I’m more into the events, and picking off caches here and there that I might be interested in.
It also got me to thinking about how I have seen many new cachers both join the fun and leave all within that time frame. It seems that as time goes by, there are waves of new cachers who join the fun, get into it for awhile, and then walk away. We always see folks who start quickly and end quickly but there also seems to be a trend of people who are really active for quite awhile and then seemingly disappear.
What are your thoughts on what makes some cachers stick to the sport and keep going at it, while others decide that after a year or so, they’re done?
Friendships and family. Going out alone can get old real quick and going for another film canister along a random guard rail can cause you to leave this hobby. Now if the car is filled with good friends and family, sharing laughs on the road trip, those “boring” standard guard rail caches turn into great memories.
Five years of caching, and personally I haven’t lost a beat, still love this game. I enjoy the events, people, and the cool places caching takes me to. What makes me stick to it is not the numbers game, but the people, the events and the outdoors.
I think that folks over 40 years old tend to stay longer, whereas the under 40 crowd has many more triggers that would cause them to leave the game than others do. They have ever changing families, ie kids, jobs, careers, spouses.
It could be time consuming, but perhaps the question should be directed (maybe a survey type questionnaire) at some of those cachers that were really active for a year then gone. I’m sure that we can all think of a few.
Seven years this September 17. The positive experiences over those years have definitely outweighed any negative ones.
I think it requires a certain mindset to join the geocaching community and stick with it. There are a lot of different personalities with different perceptions, concepts, morals, etc. and that inherently creates conflict. It can drive people away. For me, caching is simply an extension of what I do for a living, and rides side-by-side with my outdoor pursuits and hobbies. When things have gotten rough, I go back to the basics of why I started caching in the first place: not for others and how they perceive and play the game, but for my enjoyment, my desire and need to be outdoors, the hunt, the exercise, and the adventure.
I have cached for 10 years and a bit.
I have seen many cachers quit or slow down.
I hear that the cost of gas, micro in the woods ( and I have hidden many )
have taken a lot of the fun out of caching.
I prefer great caches ( great containers or locations )over power runs but I still find them.
Also love puzzle caches ( Micro Logics are some of my favorites ).
A few of the cachers I remember fondly and don’t cache as much today
Unknown45
Red Witch
Dusty Walker
Cache Kicker
A few of my caching friends have also past on and are caching in the heavens.
Pete Moss
Nook of nook and cranie
Casper
Creakers
There are many many more
I first heard about Geocaching in 2002 when I was living in the Maryland USA. I read an article on a Delta Airlines flight and checked it out. I had one of the original eTrex GPS at the time and it was paper based caching at its finest in those days. I picked up 24 or so at the time including the Blair Witch House virtual which was pretty cool.
Then life happened – we moved back to New Brunswick, got married, bought a house and started having kids… so hence now I have a 2671 day slump on my profile.
I picked up caching again in October 2010 and haven’t looked back since. I love this hobby (my wife calls it an obsession/addiction… but she is the one that bought me a new GPS !!)
4 1/2 years and still going. I may not get as many now as I used to with other hobbies, but I still love this game.
Another cacher that has disappeared. He had a lot of good caches at one time.
GC3VVC5
When I look back at the caching scene in Moncton when we started in 2004, most of them have gone. The main reason would seem to be the changes in the hobby since that time. Back then it was a a close knit group of friends who went out for the adventures of spending a day looking for one or two tough caches. There were no series like today.
Some of the group were Funky, Farside, Dragoon, Scouter Kevin, Cache Jordan, and Johnny Cache. the only two remaining are KD Cachers (formerly Shepody) and Argus (who still caches once in a while).
The turnover of cachers since then I think is like other hobbies and interests. There are people who dabble and people who get obsessed.
i/we are new.
we aren’t going anywhere though, even though we have slowed down a bunch since the start in 2011.
we still remember why we started though, and it’s all zor and chatelaine’s fault. a great hike with some great people showed us why they like to find tupperware in the woods.
again, it’s the people who got us into this and it’s the people that we keep coming back to.
what a great and weird hobby.
cache on all!
I have slowed to a crawl but I still love the people and events way more than the finding or the numbers. I found 6 caches while in NYC with Zor last week, I love finding caches when I am away from home, it is a good way to find things i would not have seen like the tallest point in Central Park or the George Washington Park Arch. I even enjoyed then nano in the mall parking lot as it was my first New Jersey cache.
I have changed my way of caching as it has gone along, although some of it may be after some goals have been achieved. I enjoy the social side of it more and more but am still up for challenges. I now go in spurts and don’t always have to find a cache just because I’m in a new area unless I know I probably will never be back so I’ll get one as a way of marking some territory. That being said I seem to be finding more interest in the caches that I would have to travel to new areas to go get rather than focusing on local caches. I do enjoy the emails from my own hids. Bottom line our community of cachers will always keep me involved
Started in 2008. Slowed down around 2010 once we got our first child, to practicaly zero once we got our second. All their fault. Now that one is almost 6 and the other almost 4, we are starting again, little by little. I mean they are old enough to handle themselves home alone for us to go out caching for a couple of hours, but a little young yet for us to go out for the day. Next year maybe.