I last posted in May. I’m not sure why I stopped then. I can explain my more recent inactivity. It’s going to sound stupid, but that’s okay. I’m not the kind of person who shies away from sounding stupid every now and then. Also, I can’t explain why I’m suddenly back in October 2022. Maybe that will come through as I write this post.
I haven’t been geocaching since early in September. After successfully finishing my 365 day streak…I got absolutely nothing for it. I thought they might give me one of their virtual souvenirs for completing the streak. Nope. All I get is a mention on my statistics page about my streak.
And, so, I got frustrated by that development and got out of the habit of finding geocaches. I also said to my wife yesterday that I don’t have the same kind of time this year that I did last year. I took on two new clubs and am team leader. The only days that I get out close to on time is every other Monday and Friday. Even so, I am currently at 693 geocaches found this year. While exploring the boat ramp where Liam got his senior pictures done, I came to the realization that if I find 7 more geocaches this month, I’d only have to average about 5 per day over the last two months to get to the 1000 I hope for this year.
The Adventure
Mathematically, the more geocaches that I find in October 2022, the less I will have to average over the rest of the year. However, now that I’ve completed two of the longest “power trail” series of geocaches, it now becomes more difficult to find clumps of 5 to find every day. Therefore, I need to do some research and planning to properly utilize my free time.
Luckily, now that I know that the Geocaching web page doesn’t offer any souvenirs for streaks, I don’t have to kill myself finding caches every single day. I can find some on every other Monday, Friday, and maybe pick up some of the slack on the weekends. True, by taking off most of September and October I made things difficult on myself. But, aren’t comeback underdog stories the exact type that Americans love?
So, stay tuned as I figure out how to get these 1000 caches. As this post shows, I already have some ideas to get me to at least 700 by the end of October. I can go back to Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire for about a dozen. After that, things start to get difficult and that’s where I need to sit down with the map and put together a plan.
Epilogue
Truth be told, I don’t know what I will do if I actually succeed in finding the 1000 geocaches in 2022. The streak kept me interested and I can find inspiration to push through the end of the year for 1000. After that, though, what goal can I come up with to keep getting outside and keep this page alive?
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.
Just some pictures from the last week.
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.
Before I talk about the Harvard Forest #1 cache, allow me some brief therapy.
How long has it been this time? Last post was November 7, so just over a month. Why so long? Put simply, work is ridiculous this year. I just had my first observation on Friday. He came into my worst class. I’m trying hard to take the approach that it is a blessing in disguise because maybe he will be able to help me with the class. Past trauma tells me that this is the beginning of the end. I guess we will see which of these is true over the next 6 months.
Why did I start with that? Why do I do anything that I do? Clearly, this is weighing on me and will be until there is some resolution to the situation. Also, I suppose it serves the purpose of showing how crazy the year can be. Plus, that’s one of the least crazy thing to happen the last few weeks. Okay, two paragraphs of therapy out of the way. On to the actual introduction.
Over the last month, I found a cache every single day. I branched out into finding them at night. So far, only two can be classified as actual night caches, but they both offered new and exciting ways to treasure hunt. As I wrote to a friend, “I just stomped through the pitch black woods last night for about an hour to find a piece of Tupperware in and keep my streak alive.”
Granted, the search was fun and the entire time I worried that El Chupacabra might eat me. But, I found it!
Plus, the moon during this hike was absolutely gorgeous. Totally made up for the fact that I had to pass through a spoopy tunnel while walking along the trail and I’d have died a satisfied man.
Yesterday’s Cache: Elwin’s Cache (Day Number 98)
I went searching for another geocache called “Bird’s Eye View“. Unfortunately, that one looked to be in a residential area and that scared me off. While out, I checked the Geocaching app and found that there was still a cache in the Bearsden Conservatory that I hadn’t found. Being that’s one of my favorite places to hike in the area, I quickly adjusted my plan. The directions brought me to the cabin on the premises (that I had actually forgotten existed and is able to be reserved) and I parked there. The reservation season is over for the cabin until March. That’s a bummer because March hasn’t been very winter like over the last couple of years. Oh well, there are two lean-tos in the area as well that maybe I can take my 4-season tent over for a weekend if it snows.
A pretty pond near where I parked, the cabin in question, and a couple of pictures from the actual parking area.
That’s neither here nor there other than the fact that it may become a post later in the winter. The important part is that I parked and then hiked for a bit, completely unaware (having forgotten) that there was a parking area a bit further up the road. Oh well, I got to hike a little bit, which is nice because the cache was hidden in the parking area. I quickly found the cache and then scooted off to the dump.
While at the dump, I got a call from Liam. I completely forgot that he offered to work a birthday party to pick up an extra hour. Once I saw the missed call, I came home, picked him up, dropped him off and then scooted back up to Bear’s Den to drop a trackable into the cache. I also put together a replacement cache for one I found on Friday (more on that in a couple of weeks), and tried to come up with some ideas for some hides of my own. All in all, it was a successful day for Geocaching.
Today’s Cache: Harvard Forest #1 (Day Number 99)
I planned to find this one yesterday. These Harvard Forest caches, including Harvard Forest #1, are “puzzle” caches. In their case, that simply means that you have to answer a question about something related to the forest. The question for this cache asked how many acorns are in the Harvard Forest logo. To Google! I would later learn that the cache owner kindly included a picture of the shield, so it wasn’t necessary to go to Google. Oh well, I was fact checking.
Spoiler Alert: There are two acorns.
I started to get ready to head over and Christine asked where I was going. She then suggested that I bring Quinn because she’s convinced (and I agree) that he would have fun with geocaching. We also brought the dog. The last one of these I found was a bit of a hike, so I figured why not. This one ended up not being any of a hike, but originally I thought we might get at least a half mile total.
That’s because I put in the wrong coordinates and drove us through a few of these massive puddles and then started hiking before realizing my mistake.
After figuring out that we were going in the wrong direction, I turned us around and parked in the Fisher Museum parking lot. The find was easy enough, but I gave Quinn a chance to try before showing him where to find it. Admittedly not the most interesting or exciting first trip. As Quinn said, “It wasn’t a hike and it wasn’t really a treasure.” Oh well, he did get a pretty goo indication of what it’s like to go caching with me. Driving 20 plus minutes for a quick park and grab, wrong coordinates, turning around, taking a good 15 minutes to figure out how to open the container, and remarking how helpful a pair of tweezers in my hiking go bag would be. Next week I will have to find a better treasure to find.
Epilogue
Overall, the last three days of caching have been great. I got the idea to help maintain the one I found on Friday and I have been low key obsessed with doing that ever since. Saturday ultimately took me to a favorite place and I got another trackable out into the wild. Then, today, I took Quinn along with me to find Harvard Forest #1. Again, even though this one wasn’t the most fun, there have to be some good hides around here for him to find. Plus, I found my bag of trackables. He will have fun with those as well. Tune in tomorrow for the big 100.
