geocache

The epic adventure is set to begin …

September 26, 2018

For those who geocache, you know there are a lot of milestones one can hit.

It starts with the first 100 finds.

And then 250. 500. 1,000.

The first “special” milestone I planned was my 1,000th. I attempt to make each thousand finds something special. My 1,000th was GC39, “The Spot.” It’s the oldest active geocache east of the Mississippi.

Then came 2,000, which was Europe’s first on my trip to Ireland.

On No. 3,000, it was the finale of the New York Delorme challenge. That was followed by 4,000, which came at the midnight madness event at GeoWoodstock in Pennsylvania. Several friends went and got a cake and “decorated it” for the find.

Good times.

But since then, it’s taken me a lot of time to get to 5,000. I wanted to make it special as this is a pretty big milestone, I think. So, I started looking at caches to plan out. Where to go? What to find?

All signs pointed to Mingo.

For those who don’t geocache — or those of you who do and don’t know what Mingo is — it’s the oldest active geocache in the world.

It’s a cache I have wanted for several years. And what better goal than to make it my 5,000th find.

Originally, this trip was going to be a weekend one. Fly into Denver, drive to Mingo. Do some other caches, and then fly out.

Simple.

Or not.

Instead, this has turned into an epic geocaching journey that will no doubt create a ton of memories and fun stories. I looked into a couple of states and such, but once I did the math, it was decided we’d go for the gusto.

It’s going to be a seven-day trip to the west. We’ll land in Denver, stay a night there and then hit a Rockies (vs. the Phillies!) game the next day. From there, we’ll hit eight states and a bunch of wild and cool things. This trip will take us from Colorado to Wyoming, and then from there we’ll hit Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

All in all, we’ll cover a bit more than 2,000 miles.

We’ll see some amazingly cool spots and hopefully meet a few people. I’ve had a few events published along the way to try and meet people.

This is going to be one heck of a cool trip. Hopefully it will not only be a great trip to get me recharged in my life, but also something to give me inspiration to blog more often again.

I’ll have plenty of stories and photos … and I look forward to sharing them here once I get back in and in the coming weeks!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Trying to once again break through the geocaching wall

May 18, 2017

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!

Back to geocaching

July 18, 2016

This past weekend I went to New Hampshire to visit some friends.

And the extra-cool part is they both cache, so I finally got to get some geocaching in (as well as a baseball game).

Finding caches!

This isn’t going to be an uber-long post, but it felt good just to be out and make some finds. For the weekend, I nabbed 30 (in New Hampshire and Maine), so that was nice. But one thing I noticed — I’m not that good at this game anymore.

There were some “easier” ones that we DNFd and there were others that took way longer than they should have. Further, I realized how self-conscious I am with the game anymore. I have a hard time looking for things for too long as I don’t want people looking and thinking I am up to no good.

I have a baseball road trip coming up in a few days and I hope to grab a new state while I am out and about, but it’s not as fun to go by myself.

That being said, it was a nice thing this past weekend and I really enjoyed getting out and about a little and exploring some.

Geocaching isn’t as fun as it once was for me, but I still enjoy getting out with friends, finding a few, and just being outside.

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

It’s always nice to get out and find some geocaches

June 8, 2016

It’s been a while since I had a caching day.

A week or two ago, a couple of us went out to tackle a state park and grab some geocaches in a new challenge. The idea is to find a certain amount of caches, get a stamp in a passport, and get a coin out of the deal.

Nice to find an ammo can in the woods!

I also helped places some of the geocaches in the challenge, so that’s been pretty cool, too.

To be fair, though, I don’t have to speed through this challenge as those who placed caches for the challenge will get a coin. Still, I’d like to “complete” it to feel like I’ve earned the coin that way, too. The first stop was one of the parks where we got six caches. It’s a local park — and one I haven’t been to before. It was a lot of fun to do and it was really good to get back out and geocache a little.

Geocaching has taken a slight backseat for me. There are some reasons with how the game is, but in the end, I still love it. I like to get out and find caches, and I also like to place them. But one thing is for sure, it’s not always fun to go solo. I know a lot of people like to cache solo, but I like the social aspect of the game.

It’s probably why I enjoy events so much.

Geocaching has taken a turn for me, that’s for sure. It’s like anything else, though … it goes in cycles for me. Take, for example, last year. I hit several mega events and had some good months where I went on good runs. Other times, not so much.

And that’s kind of how it is now.

I go on a spurt where I cache a bunch, then do something else, then go back. It’s good that way, because it keeps me caching.

I definitely want to plan a couple of caching trips for this year to be able to do a few number runs. It’s also possibly the first year in a while where I won’t go to a mega event, but that’s OK. I’ll still get some fun caches and events along the way.

How about those of you who geocache? Do you go in spurts or are you steady? I have found this is the best way for me because I have so many interests and hobbies — but I love hearing about others!

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

Recycling geolitter

May 23, 2016

Not everything in geocaching is good.

I know that will come to a shock to some people who think everything involved with the game is lollipops and candy, but it’s not.

Let’s think about this for a second.

There are people in the game who get mad and/or offended because others don’t play it how they think it should be played. Or the people who complain because the coordinates are off 10 feet (despite the finder using a phone or something in the middle of the woods). There are people who break rules that go beyond the game (such as caching somewhere in the middle of the night at a place that specifically says not to do it).

Turns out I was FTF on the now-recycled cache!

Then there are those who start playing the game, get excited, place a few caches and leave. While it’s true that all those caches won’t become crappy, many do. Or, there are times when a cache gets archived for whatever reason, yet the container remains.

That’s when you have to make lemonade out of lemons.

New York state parks are in regions and the one in which I live is going to have a caching challenge this year. Without going into everything with it, basically they reached out to local cachers to find place the caches and maintain them. That’s fine, but while I was at it, I thought I’d place a few, too.

In New York (as with many states), to place a cache in a state park, a person needs to obtain a permit. That’s a good thing, though, as it makes sure people have an idea what’s out in the park.

But when a container doesn’t have a permit, and the geocacher is no longer active, and then the cache gets archived … what happens?

The cache remains.

So as I was scouting spots, I came across one of these such places. The cache remained. It was in good shape and it had been archived more than four years ago and it has been nearly six since the cachers logged into the site.

Seems like there was only one thing to do – recycle, so that’s just what I did. Sometime this week, if all goes well, the cache will be published and see life again. The spot is solid and the cache is pretty strong, so it will give people the chance to explore the park some. I place three in the park, as well as placing three for the challenge, so the park should get a lot of action.

How about those of you who geocache? Have you come across situations like this? What did you do?