Prologue
I last updated the page about a week ago for my Caching Christmas post. Truth be told, you haven’t missed much. My recent adventures paled in comparison to the ones before Christmas. No getting caught at the top of an unfamiliar peak and having to hike back down in the dark. Not a single night cache. Heck, I even failed on the one big geocache I tried to find a couple of days ago. All in all, I took this rest week seriously, even in the context of Geocaching. However, I wanted to update everyone on my mini milestone of 360 while geocaching New Year’s Eve and talk about my (possibly) insane goal for 2022.
The Geocaches (Finds Numbered 351-360, Days Numbered 113-118)
Although I called them all adventures on my Instagram, I hesitate to repeat that mistake here. Almost all of them are of the park and grab vintage. Even the one hike only brought me about a quarter of a mile along the trail to find two caches. But, I kept the streak going. Plus, I got some good pictures. And, they’re worth 1000 words a piece.
The Lost Towns Adventure (An Epic DNF)
I actually planned to have a big adventure cache this week. Searching the map brought me to the Lost Towns Adventure. It involves visiting local landmarks from towns lost due to the flooding to create the Quabbin Reservoir. I found the first two (Prescott and Nichewaug) quikly enough. I then went to find Dana, only to remember that it exists at the end of an almost two mile bike/hike and no amount of driving would get me there. Also, they don’t allow dogs on the Quabbin trails and I brought Bups along. So, the adventure ends there. I want to try again in the spring when I get a new bike.
A Geocaching Goal for 2022
As I mentioned, Geocaching New Year’s Eve only represented an excuse to write this post. Now that I have, I can write about the idea I came up with while finding one of the night caches. The Christmas music played softly on my phone in the darkness as I hiked quickly to the destination.
“What if,” my brain interjected in the middle of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, “you tried to find 1,000 caches in a calendar year.”
“Hmm,” I replied. “I’d only hae to find 3 caches a day. 20 or so a week. That doesn’t sound so difficult.”
So, starting tomorrow, I plan to find 3 caches a day. Barring that, I will try to make up for it on the weekends and keep the 20 per week pace alive. Above all, I remain committed to finding at least one cache per day until I get the streak to 366, so that I can order both the calendar and leap year Geocoins. If I plan it right, though, 1,000 isn’t out of the question.
Epilogue
I wrote today mainly to show that the page hasn’t gone dormant again. At least for the next few days, I have the time to write. After that, at least in the short term, I’m back to teaching. Long term, your guess is as good as mine as far as employment goes. But, I make a promise (and those who know me know how seriously I take my promises) that as long as I am able, I will continue to write here.