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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

new york delorme challenge

Three-plus years to DeLorme completion

October 3, 2012

The NY DeLorme final with the atlas that got me through it all.

I first discovered the New York DeLorme challenge in mid-2008, my first year of geocaching.

I watched it a bit. I thought about it and believed I’d never be able to go for this challenge. But I slowly filled in DeLorme square after DeLorme square. I’d go out of my way to get one or two others.

My first logged note on the page came April 11, 2009 when I said:

I just went over the halfway mark this weekend. I’m hoping to wax anywhere from 5-8 squares when out at the Allegany Geobash — I just have to line the map up with the squares and see how easy/hard it would be to polish some off.

Then it’s Northern NY and the Island/City. Those could be tough, but I’m hoping to make a dent in one or the other (or both) this summer!

In one day, two of us covered all of Long Island. That same weekend, I made sure I got the squares around New York City. Those, I figured, would be some of the hardest I would do.

On May 23, 2009 — still apparently going nuts with the challenge, I posted again.

Five more crossed off the list this past weekend on a road trip to Ontario for a caching event. Also polished off four the weekend before on a trip to the Allegany State Park Geobash. My hope is a NYC trip sometime soon to get all the squares and counties down there, then take a small trip later this summer, do some camping and caching along a route to complete the Northeast part of the state and possible the Northwest. We’ll see how it all goes. It’s still my summer goal to complete this challenge!

51 down.
29 to go.

With that progress, I figured finishing this challenge would be a cinch. A couple more road trips and I’d be getting the coordinates for the final and would be signing my name to the log in no time!

I posted an update on July 30, 2009 and again on August 15 of that year. At that posting, I noted I had 17 squares remaining.

I had the same amount of squares left Jan. 27, 2011 when I posted. And the same April 30, 2012.

This challenge was never going to get finished. Ever.

Giving up wasn’t an option, however. Knowing it would be hard, I started plotting a couple of trips — one to the upper part of the state — both in the East and West — to see what would have to be done to get this challenge done. After all, I needed but 17 squares. No matter that these squares were all over the place.

All filled in!

Eleven squares were crossed off August 11 when four of us went on a crazy 700-plus mile trip across the north country of New York.

Two weeks later, the final six were crossed off when two of us took a jaunt to the Buffalo area — covering some 600 miles. Those two weekends combined for nearly 1,400 miles, some 45 hours and 104 caches.

Yikes!

On Sept. 2, the epic trip was finally complete when I made my way about an hour southeast from my town to sign the logbook for the DeLorme final. I was the 18th person to log this challenge final since it started Jan. 1, 2007.

I was tempted to just put “TFTC,” but I figured I should do a bit more, eh?

This journey was about so much more than finding a geocache. In fact, the final was a mere 350 or so feet from the parking coordinates. It was in a small set of woods, slightly off a trail. To make it safe, it was also chained to the tree. That’s a nice bonus.

The new owner of the cache, Walkin’Ed, even met me there for the final, so that was a nice gesture.

In the end, I look back at this amazing journey. It took me to all corners of the state and everywhere in between. I made trips with many different people and have had a lot of fun doing so. There are memories that will last a lifetime, that’s for sure.

I would highly encourage any geocacher to look at the DeLorme challenges for their state or neighboring states. It’s a great way to see the state and different things. Plus, it helps with having to really plan trips and such.

And, as I’ve proved, you can take your time getting them done!

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

Filed Under: challenges, Geocaching, My world Tagged With: caching, caching challenges, delorme, delorme challenge, geocaching, geocaching challenge caches, new york delorme, new york delorme challenge

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Chasing DeLorme grids in a day of geocaching glory

August 16, 2012

During our geocaching odyssey, we came across a couple of rainbows and this was one of them.

When I’ve explained geocaching to people before, I’ve often gotten the look of them asking me if I was crazy.

“You do what? You look for plastic hidden in the woods?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Simply put, geocaching is another hobby. Some people do other things. I like to go find things people have hidden throughout the world. Sometimes it can get boring and old. Other times it’s crazy and fun.

The Jay Covered Bridge was one of the trip’s highlights for me.

And even other times, it’s probably downright insane.

This past Saturday ranks up there with the insane part of things.

One thing I don’t know if I’ve shared about geocaching are challenge geocaches. These aren’t the “challenges” that Groundspeak unveiled last year, rather ones I blogged about not too long ago.

These challenge caches require you to do something else to be able to claim the cache. In the case of the one we were working on, it’s the New York DeLorme Challenge.

Ready, aim, geocache!

Basically, DeLorme’s New York Atlas is broken up into 80 squares. To be able to claim this final cache, one must find a geocache in each square. A few years ago, I got it to the point where I had 17 to go — 11 in the North Country and six in the Northwest corner of the state.

I kept saying all along that I needed to make a few road trips to color in those boxes. In the post I did not too long ago, there was an image showing what I needed.

This past weekend, I finally made one of the trips.

About a month ago, I talked to a few others about making the trip. With three others on board, I started the planning. When going on a trip through the North Country and looking for square filler and everything else, it’s not too easy. After all, we’re looking at several hundred miles, so long hikes wouldn’t work.

This roadtrip took us to some interesting cache locations!

In the end, I made a list of more than 70 caches.

I went over the list several times and kept an eye to make sure things weren’t disabled or hadn’t been found. Still, you can never plan perfection for a day. Things will always take longer. Or, something could screw things up — such as a DNF.

The day of the trip was interesting. I needed to wake up at 3 a.m. I had tried to hit the hay at about 11 p.m., but was wide awake. See, I’m used to going to bed at 3 a.m., not waking up at that time.

Needless to say, I got about a whopping 45 minutes of sleep. I set out at about 3:40 to pick up one member of the crew and to go meet the third member by 4:30 a.m. From there, we stopped for a few other caches before meeting our final member at about 5:30 a.m.

Signing after a find.

The sun was coming up and we were already geocaching!

The day was filled with many things — laughs, geocaching finds and memories. We found some really amazing caches — creative and well-hidden. Depending on the person, we crossed off anywhere from one to 15 Delorme squares and covered many a county.

It was worth the trip.

We covered more than 700 miles that day. I left my town at 3:40 a.m. and arrived back at 3 a.m. the next day. All on 15 minutes of sleep. (It’s a good thing I wasn’t driving the whole day — I might not have made it).

Besides the counties and DeLorme squares in New York, we also managed to nab three caches in Vermont.

Throughout the Adirondack Mountains, there were some amazing views. And a lot of trees. Oh were there a lot. We hit one pretty crazy rainstorm.

One of the highlights for me was the Jay Covered Bridge. I’ve long wanted to visit each historic covered bridge in New York State and I honestly wasn’t sure when I would be able to visit this. When I saw we were going past here — and that there was a cache here — I made sure this was on the list!

My updated Delorme map… getting closer!

Geocaching.com has a feature where you can give a favorite point to caches that you really enjoy. On this trip, I handed out five favorite points and at least one of those caches is, by far, in the top five caches I’ve ever found when it comes to favorites.

This trip was fun. There was no craziness. No bickering. Just a lot of fun and a lot of caches.

In the end, we all had a different amount of finds. I finished with 55 (a new record in a day for me). Of those finds, two were mystery caches, two were virtuals and one was a webcam, of which there aren’t many left. I filled in 11 DeLorme squares (six to go) and colored in, I think, four counties (five to go for that challenge).

This is what geocaching is all about. Good times with friends and a bunch of find. I’ll look forward to planning the trip for my final six squares in the hopes of getting the DeLorme final for my 3,000th find, which is fast approaching.

Hopefully, it will be just as fun!

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

Filed Under: challenges, Geocaching, My world, outdoors, Travel Tagged With: caching, delorme, delorme caching challenge, delorme challenge, geocaching, geocaching challenge, new york delorme challenge, new york delorme geocaching challenge

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Tis a dreary and rainy day. What better than to ha Tis a dreary and rainy day. What better than to have a cup of tea in my new mug, which was a birthday gift from my nephew/godson Cameron!
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Saturday was national dog day… posted on Faceboo Saturday was national dog day… posted on Facebook, but forgot here! Harper was spoiled all day!
How could we skip this? North of the border this How could we skip this? 

North of the border this weekend to get away and hit a few caching events and geocache. Dinner tonight was at @harpersburgers, especially with outdoor seating and dog friendly! @harper_dublin got to enjoy a little of my #burger, of course. And, yes, I got poutine, duh! Great service and great food! Went back later for a spiked shake. This one was a Malibu Colada (malibu rum, dark rum, vanilla ice cream, and pineapple juice) … yum! 

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Haircut day! I got mine done, as did Cameron. He g Haircut day! I got mine done, as did Cameron. He got some waves for when he goes to the shore next week! One shot of me getting the straight razor too! Nice job @studio11chris at @studio11barbersuite ! 

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Part one of the backyard work is done. New patio h Part one of the backyard work is done. New patio has been installed ... (the rock garden area is basically done, too ... but i need to put a few things up with it). The guy who did my patio did a great job... looks cool. 

I think Harper approves. 

One more step and we'll be set to really enjoy it back there with some shade!

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As a @sunydelhi alum, and local, I still love walk As a @sunydelhi alum, and local, I still love walking around the campus. It’s especially nice in the morning when college isn’t in session as it’s quiet and @harper_dublin can sniff and explore her surroundings (if in session, she will want to stop and meet every student etc.). I know a lot of people local walk the campus, and it’s really nice that we have something like this in our community to be able to do so. 

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Ok folks… barbershop experience is good times. H Ok folks… barbershop experience is good times. Hair, tend to the beard … you get it. In Oneonta, check out @studio11chris at @studio11barbersuite ! Tell him I sent you! 

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A video looking at my first year and a half of owning a golden retriever, my first dog. It's had its ups and downs, but I've truly loved the ride and look forward to the future. 

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