Finally Done...

My 100 Days In A Row of Geocaching is done. I ended my streak yesterday with 101 days caching from May 5th to August 14th. I chose not to go on simply because it isn't really necessary. Beyond 100 days I would have to go for the 365 challenge, the problems with that are:

• Cache density in my area isn't high enough. 
• I will have to make it through the winter months, and my experience from Valentine's Day earlier this year (trudging through a huge snowstorm to get a cache) was not fun.

Instead I want to focus on making caches. I have 7 cache ideas that I need to put in motion. My time geocaching will be spent on filling up my calendar and finding more on specific days. I want to start a vlog and I'll also try to post more here.

For some reason, July/August have been pretty quiet, geocaching event wise. (Odd because it's peak summer months) Walking Woody's Event is this weekend and there is another event in south Haldimand near the end of the month. September will be much busier with GAGAFAP and then hopefully a triple event on the 10th-11th weekend, that's not mentioning my job and starting school!

I should also mention that I'm waymarking. Yup I know, hypocrite. But it's mostly for some geocaching challenges that require waymarking (example1 and example2), so I've just started taking pictures of everything with my cell phone and if it has a waymark I log it, if not I'll try and make one quickly. I'm almost to 200 visits and have close to 50 waymarks.

I'm actually kind of excited to see what the upcoming challenges feature turns out to be, I'm going to try and post one on the first day.

Multi-Record Breaking Day

Last Saturday was the COG (Central Ontario Geocachers) Mega Event in Barrie, Ontario. I set several personal records there:

1. 1000th Geocache
2. First Mega Event
3. Continued my Streak with 37 Days in a row
4. New Best Day Record with 42 caches
5. Farthest North: Old Smokey
6. Oldest Cache Found: Water Spout (July 26th 2001)

I'll post more on my experiences at 007 COG Mega Event soon!

Geocache Season has Begun!

At "Hockey Cache In Canada - Gretzky #99 (Revisited)"

Today is the first day of spring, but geocaching is already in full swing. Sharon12 and I kicked the season off in Brantford on March 2nd, grabbing excellent caches such as the first half of Coach's Crew Sails the 7 C's and March Madness! both of which 13coach13 helped create. I also finished the requirements for an Alphabet Soup, I just need to go get it!

After that was a small drought thanks to a winter "last hurrah" snow/rain storm. But I still managed to grab a few caches, including an early March FTF (which was certainly interesting), a birthday cache and introducing geocaching to someone while on a date! I was also busy publishing two caches which have thus far received very positive responses! 

Sharon12 at the Battlefield Falls Cache

Smith's Knoll Battlefield Cemetery

Finally it was the 15th and my first (in season) geocaching event of the year. Sharon12 unfortunately had to work that night but that didn't stop us from using the morning to grab some amazing caches in the Stoney Creek area of Hamilton. Of course Hamilton being the "City of Waterfalls" we got an amazing view of the Battlefield Falls. Cache of the day for us would have to go to A Tropical Drink by the legendary Blue Quasar.

One of our favs

After that I went to Brantford alone for the event and to do some caches. My first cache had unfortunate incident that had me spreading profanity non-stop. Luckily I've survived so far, but this does nothing to ease my concerns regarding the Event Curse. I mean, serious personal injury? What's left? Only broken bones and death! Anyway the cache turned out to be an FTF for me so it evens out. I got a few more caches including a my first letterbox of the year. The event itself was great, I heard a couple good stories and had a good meal. 

This Saturday was GHMGC's (Golden Horseshoe Monthly Geocaching Club) meet up in Burlington/Oakville. It was my first non-event meeting of multiple cachers and caching as a large group. It certainly made for an interesting time. After a few caches me and Sharon12 split apart from the group to get some of the most interesting caches (we were on a limited time schedule) including my first Earthcache of the year. We trooper'd through from 9 till 2:30 with no drinks or food to finish the Big Smiley Series!

Beautiful day to go caching

Overall an excellent way to celebrate my first GEOCACHE B-DAY! There is no debate that geocaching has profoundly changed my life (for the better). The people, places and things that geocaching has brought me to are unimaginable and I can't wait for more!

And its definitely not over yet, on the 30th I have another event that Sharon12 will be attending with me. And after that I'm looking into the future for possibly going to a couple CITO events, the Spring Fling mega event in Barrie and the Geobash mega event in New York!

Happy caching!

Idea for 11/11/11 Event

UPDATE: Not happening because of Remembrance Day I guess, maybe 12/12/12

Last year for 10/10/10 Groundspeak held a "event" where all cachers were encouraged to log at least one cache that day in an attempt to set a record for most caches. Cachers were promised a new Souvenir. It succeeded and thousands participated. For the Groundspeak this must have been exciting, however for your average cacher the results were only shown through given statistics and the Lost & Found video.

So what can Groundspeak do for 11/11/11 that can top 10/10/10? What about getting everyone to log the SAME cache in one day. My suggestion: A one day only Locationless Cache. "WHAT!?" I hear people crying out in agony. Locationless Cache is the only cache type that would work in this instance, any other cache requires a specific spot, severely limiting your numbers.

Locationless Caches were "Grandfathered" (retired so to speak) several years ago for good reason. They don't really require you to go to a location. But this is exactly why a Locationless Cache would work in this case. The fact that they're Grandfathered is incentive for the thousands of cachers who don't have access to them!

I think that in light of how well 10/10/10 did, it proves that the Geocaching community can get the word out. I think it would take a tiny bit of work on Groundspeaks for this to succeed. Let's make this happen!

Long “Weekend” Geo-Fun

Last weekend was “Family Day” Weekend in Ontario. This was perfect for a good geocache trip for a big reason: there was an event near Toronto and I needed to find an unusual cache for the Ontario Public Holiday Challenge.

I started the weekend of right with a quick geocache FTF run on Sunday before work. Carnigrewal got the FTF (which I had called since FoamFollower placed the cache). But I was able to meet some cachers including JoeyF who teamed up with me to look for a nearby cache we hadn’t found yet. We came up short but it was still fun and got me in the spirit of going to a geocache event.

On Monday it was go time. I woke up and I looked like a blizzard outside. “Darn” I thought, “How am I going to find caches in this?”. Oh well, I packed my needed accessories and left (whoops forgot extra batteries, no way that could bite me later…). Luckily the snow died out completely as I left town.

I started caching of right with Wheel of Fortune ... Spins a tough yet but interesting Dex4 cache which prays on my fear of heights.  I moved on towards the event (I was running late as it was) but I wanted some caches! So I drove around Kilbride collecting the Kilbride Country Cache, a nice tricky hide, Grandpa's Cache which has a great cache container and Restin' in Kilbride a fun multi-cache. Kilbride overall is a good place for caching a couple of hours.

After that I had to speed it up. I drove straight to the event but was still fifteen minutes (fashionably) late. I walked up to the top of the hill. Met up with Rez2100, the event organizer and the other attendees. After a quick slide down the hill I was back to caching. I quickly found an event only cache and then moved on to try and find a letterbox. Big mistake, that whole area was still covered in two feet of snow. I moved on and got two more caches before heading back to the car.

Now my batteries are dying. Bah! I fill up on gas and then the search is on for batteries. I grab another quick cache by the event and then move towards home. I’m luckily able to grab Reservoir Ducks without needing my GPS on hand. I finally roll into Milton and buy a pack of batteries ($5! might as well steal my money) and finish off the day checking off two caches in Milton and Campbellville.

Tuesday was going to be tougher. I was going to Chicopee for some skiing. Just before I leave a new cache get published… in Brantford… on the way to Chicopee! Before I can even write down the hint or read the description I’m gone. Finally I’m in Brantford and I’m walking towards the cache. The first thing I notice about the GZ is the snow. There’s no footprints! I find the cache and open it up. I see that it’s been signed a whole bunch of times? Wha? Did I write down the wrong cache or something. Weird. I put a travel bug in and leave. More on that later…

Then its on to Chicopee, I arrive in Kitchener and move to find Tube Slides and Ziplines a thankfully quick find for me.

After my enjoyable day of skiing I return home and go online to log my caches. I come to the FTF cache and I see that some else has claimed the FTF? What?! First I examine the description, it’s a cache that was formally a multi that was republished as a Traditional. That explains the strangely full log book. Now to address the FTF controversy. How can I prove I was first, other than the “no footprints”? It hits me, the travel bug! I look at the travel bug page and sure enough the cacher claiming FTF picked the bug up from the cache. Meaning he had to have come after me! February FTF complete.