A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

challenges

Geocaching: Attacking challenge caches

Getting closer to finishing the New York DeLorme Challenge.

As part of a way to find the love of geocaching, I’ve taken a page out of a fellow cacher’s book.

Challenge caches.

This is something a caching pal has done for a long time. It doesn’t matter if the challenges are many miles away and that he might never get to find the final, he still tries to fill in the requirements.

It’s not a bad idea. It gives you something to shoot for and, maybe, the chance to get a cache that not many other people have found.

So, I’ve started doing it some, too.

Again, it comes down to the reality of being able to maybe get the final cache, but it’s still something to work toward.

Let me make sure I’m straight with the challenge caches. These are actual geocaches that require you to do something else to be able to log them. It’s not those silly and worthless “challenges” that Groundspeak unveiled a while back to try and make people forget about the fight to bring virtuals back.

No, these are challenge caches.

Basically, the idea is to have done something in caching and then you get this bonus cache. So, maybe you’ve found 10 5/5 (difficulty/terrain) caches and a person has put out a cache where you need to have done 10 5/5 caches to be able to claim it.

Or the DeLorme Challenges.

Or a state County Challenge.

The list is endless.

Originally, the plan was to try and scratch off a couple of these challenges with a weekend trip to the Allegany GeoBash. However, plans have changed and Mr. Economy is kiboshing those plans, so I’ll be staying closer to home and hoping to just go out and do some caching and take advantage of a great weekend.

Still, the idea of challenge caches is something I’ve become intrigued with. They are listed as mystery/puzzle caches (something I know people love) and they require you to get geocaches in certain spots or certain makeups to be able to find this challenge cache.

For example, one of the challenge caches we had looked to do this weekend was the “Our First 100 Stars Challenge – When & Why.” The cool part to this  challenge is it brings you back to when you started caching.

You need to make a list of your first 100 stars. What are stars of which I speak? Each cache is listed with two sets of stars — difficulty and terrain. Each of these are ranked from 1 (easiest) to 5 (hardest). From these, you go back to when you started caching and you make a list of total stars. Once you reach 100, you have matched the requirements. Then you go find the cache and can log it.

Two of the biggest ones in many states are the DeLorme and County Challenges.

The DeLorme refers to the atlas. Each state is broken down into squares. You must find one cache in each of those squares. Once you do, you are eligible to go make the find. The plan had been to go get many of the squares I have left to find this weekend, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out. My hope is to finish the New York DeLorme by the end of 2012, but we’ll see.

The County Challenge is basically the same — find one cache in each county in New York.

I’m not too far from this, either. It basically lines up well to be able to get the counties when I get the DeLorme squares.

My County Challenge grid in New York.

There’s a couple more intense challenges out there, too. So much so that there are many of these “final” caches to get, so that when someone gets it done, they might not have to travel all over the place to claim a final. These include the Fizzy Challenge (getting all 81 combinations of the difficulty/terrain chart), the Jasmer Challenge (finding a cache placed in every month since caching began, which is May 2000), and the AlphaNumeric Challenge(s), which can include anything from having caches that start with letters A-Z, or cache finds where the owner’s name starts A-Z etc.

There are also challenges where you have to finds by placed date and finds by found date. There are also the most well-rounded days, which include days where you find the types of caches, sizes of caches and the most difficulty and terrain ratings.

Here are some of my challenges and where I stand with them:

My Fizzy Challenge.

Finds by placed date (got 'em all!)

Finds by found date (I have a long way to go!)

Jasmer Challenge

Some of my most well-rounded days.

My best difficulty/terrain day.

Challenges, as I’ve found, are a lot of fun in regard to being able to make caching fun in a different way. It makes you concentrate on the caches you find as it might help fill in a challenge.

There are so many of them, too. I have several I’ve already done the paperwork on and can claim, I just have to travel and get them. Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to get those final caches and claim the smileys. It’s been fun lining them up and hopefully there’s a few more!

If you have any that you’ve done or are working on, link them or leave the GC number in the comments below as I’ve love to bookmark some more and work on them on the chance that one day I can find a few of these excellent final caches!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Man v. Food — Ithaca style

The challenge...

If you’ve seen the television show Man v. Food, you probably know where this post is heading.

In Ithaca.

Four of us headed to Ithaca on Saturday to catch a 2CW pro wrestling show. We had planned to stop somewhere for dinner and found this place Rulloff’s, which had clam chowder (score!) and reportedly good burgers. That turned out to be the plan and we got there with plenty of time before the show to have a good meal.

But one thing stuck out at us in the middle of the menu.

The 20-ounce burger seemed like a decent challenge. Add the fries and everything else — in 30 minutes?

Kevin surveys the situation.

The four of us in attendance were me, Rod, Bill and Kevin. I need to put the names out there, so you at least know who these people are — in a way — as I mention them.

We saw the Monster Burger note right away. It was mentioned by others that Kevin should give it a go. He got a shit-eating grin on his face, so you knew he was totally interested in trying. Free t-shirt? Sweet.

Then Rod offered to pay the $20 for the meal if Kevin went for it.

Yeah, sold.

The waitress came over and explained things a little — but we wanted to make sure there was Kevin’s size in the shirt. She went and checked and it turns out they were OUT of the shirts. Really? How do you have a challenge and run out of shirts? Sheesh!

But, the shirts were on order. Kevin had two choices — take one of the regular establishment shirts (should he beat the challenge), or they would mail one. He chose the mail option, but as we told him — get her name and the number of the joint and follow up if the shirt doesn’t arrive!

The challenge -- taken with Hipstamatic.

That’s, of course, if he beats the challenge. But at this point, we didn’t think there would be any issues with it whatsoever.

Oh how things change.

The meal takes time to prepare — up to 45 minutes for the burger (it actually took a little longer).

So, the order was placed. After the wait, out came the food. The burger was impressive. But it looked delicious. The bread, especially looked fantastic.

The fries? Not so much. I am not sure of everything that went into these loaded fries — but I saw some meat sauce, beans, some peppers and not sure what else. Chili, for sure. But probably some other crap, too.

And the pickle? Monster-sized as well. But excellent looking.

Though each of us wanted to offer words of wisdom to Kevin, the reality was he was doing this challenge and he had to decide how to attack this meal.

As time starts to tick off, Kevin digs in.

His plan?

Eat the burger, then half the pickle, then the fries, then the rest of the pickle.

Down the hatch we go!

Honestly, the other three of us didn’t think Kevin would have any issues with this challenge. It didn’t look as big as we thought it was going to look. In fact, we were putting the over/under at 23.5 minutes in Kevin finishing.

So, away things went.

The burger — again, which looked excellent — posed no challenge to Kevin. I’m pretty sure any of the four of us could have handled the burger. (The rest — maybe not so much)! But that burger would have been a meal all by itself.

Kevin did note that it was one of the best burgers he’s ever had, so that was a good thing.

By this point, two people had sat at the table behind us and they were intrigued by this and were watching as well. Believe me, it’s an impressive thing to even attempt this, let alone get it done. All for a t-shirt.

And the burger ended up being gone in 12 minutes.

Kevin’s pace was rocking at this point. But there was still a challenge left. He had 18 minutes to down the fries and the pickle.

Kevin crunched away at half the pickle. He noted that the fries didn’t look too good (I think the three of us agreed). With myself, Bill and Rod cheering on, Kevin dug in.

And after his first bite, he didn’t look so good.

Digging into the fries.

He said it didn’t feel good going down. So he took a drink of water. Took a few breaths and took another bite — a big one. A deep breath and he started going for another bite.

Then Kevin got an odd look on his face. Was he throwing in the towel already?

He found a hair.

Seriously.

A hair.

After calling the waitress over, he pulled the hair out to show her.

Needless to say, the challenge was over. She said she could get a fresh order of fries. Kevin, to his credit, offered to cut off a part of the fries and valiantly continue. The three of us vetoed that and I had said — who knows what else is in there?

In the end, the challenge was over. Who would want to wait for a new set of fries after that? Not me. My appetite would have been gone. So, the place did the right thing and made that meal fully free, which worked out well. Kevin did finish the pickle.

Kevin did admit as we walked out of the place that he would have given it his best, but he didn’t think he’d have gotten through the fries to win the challenge, so all is well in the end. He had a great burger — for free — and didn’t get sick.

On a side note, I think if Man v. Food host Adam Richman took this challenge, it wouldn’t be much for him to pull it off. That dude has eaten a lot of crazy things, so this would be like an appetizer.

And, despite the hair, I’d go back. Good place to eat. My chowder was excellent and I had a fruit and brie cheese platter, which was awesome. Three of us (sans Kevin) shared some nachos and their salsa was excellent with a slight kick. Rod and Bill each had burgers and seemed to enjoy as well. The prices were decent, too.

I just know that no matter how hungry I was — I wouldn’t try that challenge!

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