What is a good hide?
What is a good hide?
Well in reality a good geocache hide is one that the finder enjoys and has fun finding. If you asked different cachers what kind of cache they enjoyed you would get a variety of answers. The variety of answers is probably due to "flow". Flow is determined by the challenge vs your abilities. This is true in every life endeavor. If something is too challenging vs your abilities the experience ends in frustration. If the challenge is not up to your abilites the experience is boring. But find the right balance between the two and you are in the "flow" having fun!!
In our opinion a good geocache to find is one that is rated in the 5 - 7 range based on multipling the terrain rating vs the difficulty rating. In other words a 1 - 5 or a 5 -1 are good caches. On the other end of the spectrum a 2 - 3.5 or a 3.5 - 2 are good caches. What we are saying is that if you walk for several miles over tough terrain, canoe to the cache, or do rock climbing it should be an easy find. I am sure every experienced geocacher gets frustrated when they hike a couple of miles and have to search for hours for a cleverly hidden micro when there are many appropriate hiding spots for a full size cache. The more devious hides are more appropriate if the hike is a short easy one. If the cache is a devious hide, insure that your coordinates are dead on. This may take several readings from several days and if you can, use WAAS. Everybody likes good coordinates for all caches, but they should be a must for high difficulty caches.
There is an exception to the 5 - 7 rule. And that is a puzzle cache. These can be great fun, but in most cases the high difficulty rating is expeienced in the comfort of your home. Sometimes over a period of days giving great enjoyment and accomplishment. The second part - the actual finding - can be a high terrain rating yielding yet another time of enjoyment and accomplishment. Some good examples of these are Smith's Chase and Smith's Identity hidden by TheWilkens.
Our personal favorites vary. On a good day we like a few long hikes mixed with some easier hides at historic places. This makes for a full day of geocaching with a lot of stories for the way home. And many logs when you get home.
In conclusion. If you are hiding a cache you should consider flow, the combined ratings, what you want people to see and strive to get the best coordinates possible. When you venture out to find some caches, pick ones that match your abilities so that they are challengining enough for you to go with the "flow" and have fun!!!
Well in reality a good geocache hide is one that the finder enjoys and has fun finding. If you asked different cachers what kind of cache they enjoyed you would get a variety of answers. The variety of answers is probably due to "flow". Flow is determined by the challenge vs your abilities. This is true in every life endeavor. If something is too challenging vs your abilities the experience ends in frustration. If the challenge is not up to your abilites the experience is boring. But find the right balance between the two and you are in the "flow" having fun!!
In our opinion a good geocache to find is one that is rated in the 5 - 7 range based on multipling the terrain rating vs the difficulty rating. In other words a 1 - 5 or a 5 -1 are good caches. On the other end of the spectrum a 2 - 3.5 or a 3.5 - 2 are good caches. What we are saying is that if you walk for several miles over tough terrain, canoe to the cache, or do rock climbing it should be an easy find. I am sure every experienced geocacher gets frustrated when they hike a couple of miles and have to search for hours for a cleverly hidden micro when there are many appropriate hiding spots for a full size cache. The more devious hides are more appropriate if the hike is a short easy one. If the cache is a devious hide, insure that your coordinates are dead on. This may take several readings from several days and if you can, use WAAS. Everybody likes good coordinates for all caches, but they should be a must for high difficulty caches.
There is an exception to the 5 - 7 rule. And that is a puzzle cache. These can be great fun, but in most cases the high difficulty rating is expeienced in the comfort of your home. Sometimes over a period of days giving great enjoyment and accomplishment. The second part - the actual finding - can be a high terrain rating yielding yet another time of enjoyment and accomplishment. Some good examples of these are Smith's Chase and Smith's Identity hidden by TheWilkens.
Our personal favorites vary. On a good day we like a few long hikes mixed with some easier hides at historic places. This makes for a full day of geocaching with a lot of stories for the way home. And many logs when you get home.
In conclusion. If you are hiding a cache you should consider flow, the combined ratings, what you want people to see and strive to get the best coordinates possible. When you venture out to find some caches, pick ones that match your abilities so that they are challengining enough for you to go with the "flow" and have fun!!!
3 Comments:
Wow, great blog site. Figured since you paid a visit to my site I would return the visit. How did you get your stat counter to stay on your page? Mine kept disappearing after I would republish. Great blog ideas!
You may be interested in this piece. It investigates the same issue.
I highly recommend that you read the piece written by bob that is linked in the previous comment. He did a great job!
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