Interesting post... Here are my thoughts: (1) I am concerned about the concentration of caches. Will areas get oversaturated with caches? Too many caches in an area can take some of the fun out. Imagine a day of visiting public parks in Gilbert and doing 15 caches. Right now I'll suggest that the SE Valley and the Phoenix Mountain Preserve have a very high concentration of caches. (2) Will more geocachers mean more caches are created simply because someone wants to create a cache. Will this lead to oversaturation in areas? I saw recently that someone I've crossed paths with in another interest has started geocaching and can't wait to start placing caches. I suggested to him that he should wait until he's found 20 or so before hiding one so he can get a better feel how it works. I admit the "Where's George" cache that I placed was placed just to see what placing a cache is like. I guess this point gets to the issue of do a lot of "poor" caches get placed just because people have the cache-placing desire. (3) I'm concerned about caches being placed in inappropriate places. The "Cooked" one in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve is hidden in an area designated as an archaeological site. I encountered 2 cache placements this past weekend in San Diego that were hidden well within areas designated as "do not enter" due to revegetation efforts (one was even in a county park). Given that geocaching is governed by those who participate, there needs to be a clear way to deal with caches that are obviously outside of reasonable guidelines for placing a cache. As the hobby grows, there will be more people involved in the hobby who will not care where they place a cache. (4) Team Wyle E's 200+ caches is impressive now, but a year or two down the road there will be many people with 1000+ caches. I think the number of caches placed will grow. I bet Team Wyle E is kept very busy just trying to catch up with the new caches that are place each week. (5) Look at the AZ rankings now. How many people are diehard geocachers? (Maybe 15-20?) How many are active but not in a race to find as many as possible (Probably the majority of the geocachers.) People's interest in things wax and wane. (6) Personally, my hope that new geocachers will add more creative caches. I've been in it now for 6 weeks and I have some ideas for creative caches that I haven't seen yet. I love the creativity that Team Wyle E has put into several of their caches. As the hobby grows, I'd love to see the challenge revolve around creative caches than quantity of caches. -Stephen (srdrake)