: New: Over-Engineered Walks a Year Later: Geocache Vicinity

When I want to get out from behind the computer and go for a walk and don't want to choose the route myself, I still do this: Choose a geocache that I haven't visited yet that's a little further away than the geocaches I have visited. From there, go to the nearest unvisited geocache, and then go to the nearest unvisited geocache to that and so on. Don't actually try to find the geocaches; that would just distract from the walking.

I do it less often, though. A year ago, I pointed out that I sometimes put off these walks because the algorithm might say: this time, my walk starts on Angel Island; so I'd better plan my day around getting there. Nowadays, the system picks out starting spots about 24km from my apartment. San Pablo, San Leandro, Foster City. If the system wants to send me to Marin County or south of Pacifica, it's more than 1.5 hours away by public transit. That's too much time on the bus; I skip those. Instead I allow only spots more accessible by public transit; but many of those take too long to get to on Sunday bus schedules; so I only take these walks on Saturdays now. Thus: less often.

I'm guessing I'll only keep using this system for another few months: eventually, it will only pick far-far-away places: maybe there will be a last couple of in-transit-range walks that start in Orinda or nearabouts, and then it will be time to abandon this system. (Or perhaps restart it, perhaps altered.)

Tags: pedestrian

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