[Az-Geocaching] Undervisited "Far Above the Greens" Cache

[Mike Schwarz]

Mike:
Some interesting stats from Ken.  It does seem to me that AZ is a 
"hot spot" for Geocaching activity (no pun intended).  When I went 
to California last December, there were relatively few Caches 
around Riverside, compared to a similar area here.  I think 
the interest level in Geocaching is much lower in Southern Cali.

In fact, I planted a Cache out there, since I was disappointed in how
few there were near where I was staying, in Moreno Valley.  Its in a
very similar situation to Club 2400- near the top of a mountain with
1,000 feet of elevation gain, and about the same round-trip mileage.
Lots of people live not too far away; in fact, the 2nd biggest metro
area in the country.  So why did this get only FOUR finds in almost
5 months, while Club 2400 had 17 finds in about 2 months?

The Cache is called Far Above the Greens, and its URL is:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=11802

Any thoughts on why so few finds?  Riverside is about 12 miles away-
over 1 million people live there.  Moreno Valley and its subdivisions
extend east to just below Mount Russell.  The LA metro area, just
west of Riverside, has 12 MILLION PEOPLE.  Either southern Cali is
a "cold spot" for Geocaching, or a lot less people there are in
good cardiovascular shape!  I'm not meaning to insult Californians,
just reporting facts!

I DO know that there is an abundance of rattlesnakes in the hills
of southern Cali during the warmer months, apparently its actually 
more of a problem than here.  But that doesn't explain why so 
few visits to this Cache in the winter months, when rattlers 
are hibernating.  1 team went up to this Cache in January, 
and ZERO teams in February!

I wouldn't recommend that any of you visiting this area over the
summer attempt this Cache, because of the rattlesnake danger.  But
if you're out that way after late October, stop by and pay it a visit!

Mike (Malthusian)

At 09:47 AM 5/17/02 -0700, Highpointer wrote:
>From: Highpointer <ken@highpointer.com>
>To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Ranking of some states in terms of geocaching
activity (best to worst):  UT, OR, AZ, NM, CA, CO
>Reply-To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
>
>Baja Fleg <fleigle@hotmail.com> wrote: 
>>Here is another good way of killing your geocaching activity, move to a
>>state that has almost no caches!! I think New Mexico has around 110
>>geocaches total. New Mexico is as big a state as Arizona but with
probably >>1/10th the population so geocaching here suffers.
>>
>
>Actually, New Mexico has fewer people than Arizona, but its population is
>greater than 1/10 of Arizona.  According to the 2000 Census, the
population >of Arizona is 5,130,632 and that of New Mexico is 1,819,046, so
the ratio NM >population to AZ population is about 0.35.    Right now NM
has 139 caches >and AZ has 545, so the ratio is 0.25, so the geocaching
activity in NM is >less intense than it is in AZ.  AZ has one cache for
every 9,414 people and >NM has one cache for every 13,086 people.
>
>However, NM has a better ratio to caches to population than Colorado.  The
>ratio of NM's population to CO's population (4,301,261) is 0.42, but the
>ratio of caches (139 to 282) is 0.49.  CO has one cache for every 15,253
>people.  This is surprising, considering that Colorado is one of the
>nation's leading states in terms of high-tech activity, computer
ownership, >and household income, while NM ranks near the bottom of those
categories. 
>
>The real hotbed of Geocaching, at least in the western USA, appears to be
>Utah.  Utah, with 685 caches, has one cache for every 3,260 people.
Oregon, >the birthplace of Geocaching, is the second-leading state in the
western USA >in terms of number of caches (746) and has one cache for every
4,586 people. > While California has the most caches of any state (2,349),
the state does >not rank highly in when this number is compared to the
state's enormous >population - in CA there is one cache for every 14,420
people.
>
>I suggest that if you really want to increase your cache finding totals
>quickly, then move to Utah or Oregon.
>
>Highpointer
>
>