Geocaching Statistics

Ontario Mystery/Unknown Statistics

Recently we placed a few new puzzle caches which fall under the category of mystery/unknown caches. Or to those not in the know, that big question mark (?). We got wondering how many caches in our area belonged in what part of the D/T (difficulty/terrain) matrix.

It was quite interesting to see where there were deficiencies and where there were way too many. Of course, these puzzles aren’t all that easy and may be a bit mind numbing the more you look at them.

My query was, how do I make it so other cachers will stay interested in actually trying to figure out these puzzles.

AHA! The D/T matrix with lower values in our area. Or even a larger region.

So I sought out to find what this matrix looked like in our area and this may help other cachers determine what sort of hides would help other cachers as well. Firstly, we needed to determine what this matrix looked like in our area.

We are located in Ontario Canada so we decided to create a D/T matrix of Mystery caches in all of Ontario. This could give us a better insight in to what could make these puzzles more desirable.

Below is the matrix. It was up to date as of September 5th 2020.

Mystery/Unknown Cache matrix

Ter
D/T11.522.533.544.55
124342311149879
1.52562227992291719912
Diff2394705952028739261314
2.5503953301887643232721
34539832914910541382616
3.5432371721176354202212
4432181641126947392724
4.549105100863943422422
5507687765757404343

As you can see. The difficulty 1’s are some of the least placed Mystery caches. We were actually amazed to see that Terrain 1 caches were actually quite plentiful considering they should be accessible to everyone.

We initially thought that creating a 5/5 cache would be the preferable placement. You can imagine, our surprise when we seen that there were actually 43 in play.

Now when we look at the 3 and 3.5 difficulty ratings, we see that the terrain 5 caches were 16 and 12 respectively. These may be a good way to get those cachers that require these ratings to not give up trying to solve the puzzle.

There are many other ratings that cachers may need for different challenges and this could be a great way or a detriment to their caching styles!

To conclude, we had to spend a bit of time to gather these stats but they gave us a very different outlook on how we may end up creating some new caches.

What D/T did we end up using you might ask? Well… that is for you to figure out!

General

Geocaching? Bring Batteries!

Sometimes it never fails. Your out in the bush, on the trail or in the middle of town geocaching, you’ve seen a new cache pop up on your cell phone (instant notifications from geocaching.com). So you pull out your trusty gps and start popping in the co-ordinates. Your in a rush to get that First to Find (FTF) and don’t check over your gps very well because you just have to get out there and beat the rush! You park at the coords listed and don’t see any vehicles that you recognize anywhere close by. Your only 100 metres from the cache and chomping at the bit to get there.

Out of the vehicle you jump and start heading to ground zero (GZ).

You count them down:
20, 15, 10 ……… blitz …….!!???!??!??@@??? WHAT?????

Then some words are uttered that I don’t dare type here because I would love to keep this a family friendly site! By the time you calm down you realize the batteries have gone dead! As you search around your pockets because you were sure that you had some, you realize that you haven’t purchased anymore because they are just too expensive!

Rechargeable Batteries
Rechargeable Batteries – your next best friend when geocaching.

WOW! I can say that this has happened to me a couple of times in the beginning. Now I know better. Always carry spare batteries.

I was watching a thread about the new Geomate Jr. Canadian Edition on a forums and they talked about how they couldn’t use it because they didn’t have good batteries. It made me start thinking about what is the best solution?

I can’t say if this is this best way to make sure you have good batteries or not, but this is what I do to ensure my caching adventure is fruitful and fun! There is nothing like getting 3 meters from a cache and your gps screen goes blank. (I like how mine fades away slowly over 30 to 45 seconds).

About 2 months into caching I realized how quickly a GPS can suck the life out batteries. Even good ones like Duracell. I have a fairly decent Fuji camera that I love to use and the same thing was happening with the batteries I used for it. Batteries just don’t seem to last very long when you are using it extensively. The more affordable solution in the long run I found is “Rechargeable batteries”! Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?

I am not plugging any company here, but I have used energizer rechargeable batteries from the very beginning and have had great luck with them. The one thing to look out for when buying rechargeable batteries is the capacity. WHAT? CAPACITY??

Yes the capacity. If you haven’t really looked at rechargeable batteries, grab one now and have a look. What you should see labelled on the battery is something like “2300 mAh”. mAh stands for milliampere hours. The higher the mAh on a battery, the longer it will potentially last. Also if you are using your batteries for you digital camera’s, some won’t even turn on if the mAh is too low. The highest I have seen is 3000 mAh and they work well in just about any device.

So the next time you are out geocaching and your batteries fail in your gps, flashlight or camera, remember that you were forewarned.

I will be creating some more posts about rechargeable batteries including what type of charger to use as well as what kind of batteries others are saying work the best for them.

Basics

Ontario Test Bed For Group Caching Events

Geocaching.com Logo
Group Geocaching test bed in Ontario Canada

Not so long ago, geocachers wondered why a group of cachers organizing a day of caching could not create an event to invite more people. Well, for a limited time this is now possible.

The Ontario reviewers got together and discussed using Ontario as a test bed. The idea of creating an event for group caching has limitless possibilities. It encourages a community of cachers to come together to enjoy each others company while hiking the trails, or the urban sprawl laid out before them.

In my opinion, this is long overdue. After all, GroundSpeak encourages events. This will bring together even more.

One group that goes out on a monthly basis that I have had the pleasure of joining is GHMGC. It is always a fun filled day with friends and I have always met someone new. GHMGC has always used facebook as a tool to announce their events. Now adding an event on geocaching.com will be another tool in Res2100”s toolbox to help spread the word.

Groundspeak will allow group caching event listings in Ontario until December 31st and will limit the amount of events in one area. All the same rules apply to posting a group caching event as you would for a regular event. They will also be reviewing the logs for these events, so please keep it clean and praise these events as best you can.rnrnI look forward to this being a new way to create events and hope I can organize one of my own soon. Maybe there will be a new event icon in the future? We can only speculate!

Group Caching Event GC Forum Post

Can you cache in the Swamp?