Slow December, Even Slower January!

Since the first of January, I've only found 1 cache in 9 days. A big problem is of course the cold and snow. It takes a lot to plan out a caching route during spring-summer-fall. In winter though it's even harder. Your looking for caches that aren't going to be buried in snow. That are in trees or some other object above the ground. Maybe even looking for caches that have been found recently, not just for footprints but to know they can actually be found. Just leaving the comfort of your warm home is difficult.

Another problem is the lack of caches. In good season you'd get a couple of new caches every couple days. In January there's only been about 5 new caches so far. I'm not worried about my FTF streak yet, the month is still young.

Good news though. Yesterday I did get an important cache. GC22320  was updated by its owner who found out that the information needed to get the coordinates had changed. I've probably been trying to figure out this cache since April, and it's the last cache I hadn't found located in my home geocaching territory, so to finally cross it off my to do list is a huge relief.

2010 In Review

January & February- I was... a....... muggle!
March- Got my first cache (and first DNF) on the 19th. Sharon12's first cache was on the 26th. First Multi on the 30th.
April- First Puzzle and Series cache on the 1st. My first US cache and Earthcache on the 13th. On the 27th I went on my first power trail and got my 100th cache.
May- Started off with a bang getting 15 caches in Petrolia, Ontario.I got my first Virtual and I had my first event too.

At Introduction to Geocaching, my first event cache

June- I reached my 200th cache. I got my first FTF and did one of my favourite caches of the year.  I also introduced my friend Rob to geocaching.
July- An excellent month with dozens of fun caches, including more caches in New York and the amazing Devil's Punch Bowl Earthcache. The things right in our backyard that we don't even see.
August- I attended my first major event- Dairy Daze V and the last Harvestfest and got my first Letterbox cache.

Our first and last Harvestfest

September- Got 50 caches while on a trip including caches in Arizona, California and Nevada where I got my first Webcam Cache. I also placed my first cache!
October- I attended the Petrolia Discovery Event where I got my 500th cache. I set personal records for most finds in a day (38) and most in a month (95). No doubt getting my Magellan Triton 500 this month helped.
November- I started the Geocache Tribune and got my first puzzle FTF.
December- I hate the cold, I only got 12 caches for Dec. But one of them was my 600th cache and an FTF making it 7 months of FTFs

Looking at 2011: 2011 is going to be a good year. I plan on attending Geowoodstock and getting some challenging caches. My goal for the year is 2500 caches.  That would be 4 times more than this year. I have a bunch of ideas for caches and I can't wait.

Sharon12 holding up a cache

Have a good 2011 everyone!

Find of the Month

My personal find of the month is a puzzle cache located in Hamilton, Ontario. The cache title only states a couple words and a number which is the clue. The cache was newly released so my geocaching partner and I went off in search of an FTF (new caches are becoming more scarce as winter begins to roll in). Upon our arrival we could not find anything at the GZ that would would point us in the direction of the cache. We even tried several times to add the number of a local by-law off a street sign to the number in the title of the cache. To no avail of course.

Finally I went inside the building by the GZ (a library/recreation center) and it hit me. The number was a Dewey decimal! Of course the library wasn't open until 10 am, so we had to wait it out (similar to something on the Amazing Race). Luckily no one else came and we made the FTF (6 month streak now). It was a great cache and my first FTF puzzle cache.

Got any stories to share?
*Note I'm not naming the cache because it could spoil it for others