It seems my geocaching world has been much like my blogging consistency the past few months — pretty crappy.
Last year, I blogged every day of the year. It kind of burned me out and when I finally missed a day, it was somewhat refreshing. January was fine with the 20 Days of Chill, but then February came and I barely touched the blog.
March, April, and May have been somewhat the same.
While I can’t say that the full year of posts totally did me in, it definitely didn’t help. But I am trying to amend that. I need to visit blogs, read more, and get back in the flow. I’ve had this blog way too long to let it go away.
I need to get back into geocaching more to get outside and be moving.
The same can be said about geocaching.
I started with the game in 2008 and reached my peak in 2009, when I found 1,030 caches trhat year. Since then, it’s been pretty steady. But friends I’ve caches with have moved away or don’t cache as much anymore. And, honestly, it’s not as fun to me to go solo.
That’s kind of funny, if you think about it, considering I like solo board games. Anyway …
Last year, I had my lowest total since starting as I found just 138 caches total. This year hasn’t been any better as I currently have nine cache finds this year. Four of those are events, so I’ve found five physical geocaches in 2017.
Part of the reason is this area hasn’t been as active as it once was. For a long time, I had most of the caches placed around here. That’s changed in the past year or so, which will allow me to go out and cache locally again.
Some other reasons are the caches being placed. I realize not every cache can be a nice container in the woods. And I like the urban ones and park-and-grab ones as much as anybody else. But when that’s all you are going after, it can get a little tough on the fun aspect.
The game as a whole is healthy. I know people who live to geocache and have thousands and thousands of finds. There are millions of caches placed throughout the world. But with the apps on smartphones and such, it allows for people to quickly get into the game and, often enough, quickly get out of the game. That means the caches they places two or three days into playing the game might not be so well thought out and, at times, might be in bad shape. If they are out of the game, how does that help?
It doesn’t.
The reality, though, is that I still like to geocache. It’s a fun way to get outside, stretch the legs, and enjoy an afternoon of hunting for items. With that in mind, I know I have to get back into it and I will — I have plans on how to do it.
Some thoughts on those plans include:
- Trying to plan a few cache outings with friends
- Getting out and placing a bunch of new caches this summer (I have many ready, I just need to put the time in and find the spots/set them up)
- Find a weekend or two to get out there and perform maintenance checks on my current caches
- Slow it down when geocaching (ie: look at the surroundings more, take photos)
- Maybe do some videos of the adventures and have some fun with that
The reality of everything is I am not going to probably be scoring 1,000 finds in a year again under normal circumstances. Now, if the ET trail in Nevada came into play, that thought goes out the window.
In the end, the game is fun. Just like any other flow, it will have positives and negatives when it comes to experiences. But for me, the experiences have been highly positive. It’s my hope that by the end of the year I will be back into the game with many more than nine finds. Only time will tell on that end, though.
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!
Hi P.J.! I saw “geocaching” on Twitter and instantly clicked the link. Great post. I started in geocaching in 2012, and I like to see myself in the middle of the “first gen” and “recent gen,” as in I didn’t start right in the beginning, but I am pretty known in my area. I see a lot of first gens in your situation – they have flatlined a bit on the finds or only go after the original sounding caches. I hope you can find something that lets you feel passionately about the hobby again (periscope is a fun way to play with the video aspect and I’ve enjoyed blogging :)! I’m sure those around you will appreciate the new caches, show them how it’s done;)! If you’re ever around western ND, let me know! Have a good summer!
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Hi! I am sorry you are feeling uninspired to geocache. Funny thing is, I have been geocaching for years now and still have less than 500 finds so I guess I have always been in a geocaching rut. Haha! I get tired of finding the nanos and mint tins, too, and unfortunately that seems to be the bulk of what is available in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is not much wilderness around me for the big meaty finds.
I am most inspired when I travel which is why I started writing about that aspect of geocaching.
But that makes it hard because I am then trying to prioritize between sightseeing and finding geocaches. I am not one of those people that can walk up and spot a cache right away so it can suck up a lot of valuable time when I am on vacation.
If you come out my way again, maybe we can cache a little together and go see an A’s game. By the way, did you know that the A’s are one of the teams that just launched a ballpark pass for monthly subscriptions to their home games for only $19.99 a month? I got one!
Since you mentioned trying to read more blogs, I hope you will check mine out again.
I did a similar thing in geocaching, that you did in blogging. On June 1st, 2015, I started a 30 day streak of finding at least one non-traditional cache for each day for a challenge that was hidden out here.
I’d never done a consecutive day streak longer than 56 days previous to that date. After June 30th, I kept going, keeping small goals which helped me along tremendously. Once I got back to school, I figured it might slow down, but I kept going and went the full 366 days to May 31st of last year.
Sometime in the spring of 2016, I signed a challenge cache for 420 consecutive days. I was at 366 at this point and just starting my summer vacation Piece of cake right? Actually its pretty easy to keep a streak going if you’re not working. So I kept at it, figuring work, once again, would end the streak. But I kept at it taking it to 500 days. That got me up to the early part of November. At that point, I’m thinking of taking it all the way to the end of the year, so I could claim a “Pure” 366 day streak during an entire leap year. When you’ve found caches 500 days in a row, 50 more is easy.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I took the streak to 601 days and then stopped. The day after my streak ended, it poured so hard here that it would have been very unpleasant to go out and find a cache in all the muck. I’m glad it’s over. I don’t go out and cache every day anymore. I do still geocache, but it’s more on my terms. I have other goals for the hobby, so that’s what I’m concentrating on now.
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