Numbers, Numbers, and More Numbers

I have only been into geocaching for a little over a year and already I have begun to notice one of the key trends that cachers are leaning towards. It appears as though obtaining higher cache numbers is the key to this era of geocaching. Gone are the days when people will simply go out and look for a few multi caches for a thrill. Traditional caches are by far the most popular cache found and it makes sense as to why. Don’t get me wrong, I still do believe that the other specialty caches do get found a fair amount of the time. However, it has become more apparent that cachers want to get out there and find as many caches as possible in as little of time. I myself am guilty of this and I alright with admitting that. There have been days when Erin and I are aiming for 50 finds (which is still little compared to the veterans) and all of them will be traditional. There are also those times when we try to mix it up and try to search out the other caches. Those days we try to recognize that numbers are not going to be on our side. It is more a time to enjoy the environment and also get a few caches out of it. I have come to realize that although it is nice to obtain a lot of caches in one day they are not always the more fun days. It feels as though we are always in a rush with no time to relax and enjoy our surroundings. Time is constantly against us and we typically will only spend about ten minutes searching for a cache before we make the judgment to move on. Sometimes that can be fun while other times it becomes more stressful than fun. I personally enjoy taking my time and finding the difficult caches that I know I will always remember. Now, I say this here, but there are definitely those times when I am extremely focused on getting those finds and moving on.