Part of the reason that Dartmoor has so few trails is that there are very few actual tracks to base a trail on. Any caches on the open moor are going to be placed pretty much at random, and the terrain doesn’t really lend itself to trail placement.
As for frequency of finds, whatever your preferences, and whether or not you are after the numbers, human nature will always tend to favour the walks which give you the highest return on your investment of course. Also, not everyone has the physical ability or inclination to venture onto the moor, and so these caches will always have relatively few visitors.
It’s a bit of a dilemma when placing a cache too. If you want lots of visitors then place an ammo can in a layby on a busy minor road. But there’s no fun in that, so we place them on the moor instead. Given that people are after numbers, though (and there’s nothing wrong with that), a greater concentration of caches on the moor will definitely attract more visitors. Perhaps we do need a power trail after all…
