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Do you formulate your own quirky personal challenges when caching? In other words, do you create challenges for yourself rather than join in on established challenges or challenge caches?

 

For example, my beloved would like to find the oldest caches in each state. I would like to collect cache finds that use the word 'Beaver' in the title. (Because the idea of having a collection of Beaver caches makes me laugh uncontrollably.) My beloved also wants to keep our difficulty/terrain average up (for reasons of personal honor).

 

So, what's your quirky (or not) personal challenge? Is it hiding-focused or finding-focused?

 

Carolyn

Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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Well, gee ... I'm not sure how to follow that act. I certainly don't have a beaver fetish!

 

If anything, my objective will be to clear an entire area of anything but :) faces. That means setting aside time for the nasty 4.0 and above difficulty caches, setting aside time to get to locations that require a sizable hike or a tough drive or ... and includes getting those puzzle caches converted to ;) faces, too. I feel good when there are no "blemishes" on my map. It's not the same as trying to make "numbers", but the net effect is certainly the same. For me, it's a "map thing".

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Do you formulate your own quirky personal challenges when caching? In other words, do you create challenges for yourself rather than join in on established challenges or challenge caches?

 

For example, my beloved would like to find the oldest caches in each state. I would like to collect cache finds that use the word 'Beaver' in the title. (Because the idea of having a collection of Beaver caches makes me laugh uncontrollably.) My beloved also wants to keep our difficulty/terrain average up (for reasons of personal honor).

 

So, what's your quirky (or not) personal challenge? Is it hiding-focused or finding-focused?

 

Carolyn

 

I don't know that I have any quirky personal challenges but I do like beavers!

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I'd like to find a cache in each of the 50 states in the U.S. to the point where on my most recent road trip I would decide my route to dip into little bits of a few (montana, south dakota, missouri, kansas) to grab geocaches only. I realized that non-caching, I'm shy alabama and missouri and maine. I wanna grab em all :)

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Well, gee ... I'm not sure how to follow that act. I certainly don't have a beaver fetish!

 

If anything, my objective will be to clear an entire area of anything but ;) faces. That means setting aside time for the nasty 4.0 and above difficulty caches, setting aside time to get to locations that require a sizable hike or a tough drive or ... and includes getting those puzzle caches converted to B) faces, too. I feel good when there are no "blemishes" on my map. It's not the same as trying to make "numbers", but the net effect is certainly the same. For me, it's a "map thing".

 

It's not precisely a fetish. They're just big silly mammals that are very cute. Also, one finds beavers in really pretty areas so you know that any cache with the word "Beaver" in the title has to be beautiful. Finally, beavers are more common than otters (who are hands-down the cutest mammals).

 

How does this clearing an area work for you? I'm just the opposite. When I see a lot of smilies replacing treasure chests on the map, I get sad. It's like when I go back to my bag of chocolate chip cookies and find I've eaten almost all of them and soon I'll be left with an empty bag with only the fragrance of chocolate chip cookies. :)

 

Carolyn

Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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How does this clearing an area work for you? I'm just the opposite. When I see a lot of smilies replacing treasure chests on the map, I get sad. It's like when I go back to my bag of chocolate chip cookies and find I've eaten almost all of them and soon I'll be left with an empty bag with only the fragrance of chocolate chip cookies. :)

 

Carolyn

 

Me too! Although I do work on eating the cookies all the same. Although I have a few areas reserved for when I just need a good quick caching trip ;)

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It's not precisely a fetish. They're just big silly mammals that are very cute. Also, one finds beavers in really pretty areas so you know that any cache with the word "Beaver" in the title has to be beautiful. Finally, beavers are more common than otters (who are hands-down the cutest mammals).

 

 

if you've ever seen the aftermath of a beaver attack, you might think twice before calling them cute.

 

i used to live in a town where a woman was involved in a fight with a beaver and it very nearly killed her. right in the middle of downtown, where the river went under main street.

 

compound fractures, broken ribs, nearly severed arm.

 

beavers mean business. get in their way, and they mean business for your local rescue squad, ER, and possibly undertaker.

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Funny, I was thinking something similar about beavers. I've been charged. They're big darn animals. And boy, do they have teeth.

 

Re Challenges, I've been influenced by these forums about hides, and have been actively working to trim the numbers of micro caches I own. Well, the forum opinions + my inherent laziness about cache maintenance have lead me towards an all ammo can all the time hide mentality. I've created a "to do" list of maintenance, replacement and archival of my own caches. I've been hacking away at it for a while. When I started I had 100 active caches, roughly 1/3 each micro, small and ammo cans. Now I've got 90 active caches, 7 micros, 28 small and the remainder ammo cans. Also, I'm a believer in "hide what you like". What I like are multi-caches so that's what I've hidden lately. Time consuming getting those out, and then they're maintenance heavy. Oh well, I guess that's the challenge.

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How does this clearing an area work for you? I'm just the opposite. When I see a lot of smilies replacing treasure chests on the map, I get sad. It's like when I go back to my bag of chocolate chip cookies and find I've eaten almost all of them and soon I'll be left with an empty bag with only the fragrance of chocolate chip cookies. :D

 

Carolyn

It works well! I never get sad because out this way, we have more bags of chocolate chips than I will EVER have time to eat. The Front Range is loaded with caches, both trivial and wonderful. Besides, those little green box pimples keep popping up on my map all the time and need to be dealt with. We have a very active caching community here, so except for people with a lot more time on their hands than I've got (Hi there to GHP and Mondo!) there's no way to exhaust the opportunities.
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Do you formulate your own quirky personal challenges when caching? In other words, do you create challenges for yourself rather than join in on established challenges or challenge caches?

 

For example, my beloved would like to find the oldest caches in each state. I would like to collect cache finds that use the word 'Beaver' in the title. (Because the idea of having a collection of Beaver caches makes me laugh uncontrollably.) My beloved also wants to keep our difficulty/terrain average up (for reasons of personal honor).

 

So, what's your quirky (or not) personal challenge? Is it hiding-focused or finding-focused?

 

Carolyn

 

theres a beaverfork lake here in conway, ar theres several caches with the word "beaver" in the name. i see youre not far away so dont forget to grab those. my challenge is finding a cache everyday. ive been caching for 77 days and have found a cache on each of those days.

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How does this clearing an area work for you? I'm just the opposite. When I see a lot of smilies replacing treasure chests on the map, I get sad. It's like when I go back to my bag of chocolate chip cookies and find I've eaten almost all of them and soon I'll be left with an empty bag with only the fragrance of chocolate chip cookies. :D

 

Carolyn

 

Being a chef I don't have that problem with cookies. If I run out... I just make more! :P

 

For me... I personal goal is to actually find a 5/5. However, for me at least that would have to end up on the top of K2 or something similar as far as the Terrain goes. I don't really know what to expect out of a difficulty rating of 5 though. I would almost have to be a puzzle cache or a multi. I can't even begin to imagine what a traditional cache would be like with a difficulty rating of 5.

 

TGC

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if you've ever seen the aftermath of a beaver attack, you might think twice before calling them cute.

 

 

Cute is not a synonym for harmless. If it were my beloved couldn't opine that Siberian tigers are cute.

 

I assume that people who name their caches after beavers are not intending the name to be a warning in the same way as, say, Vinnie's Psycho Urban Caches is meant as a cautionary admonishment. However, I will gladly add "Courageously Hunting Beaver-Named Caches" to my self-description. It is even more amusing as a tagline than as a personal goal. :D

 

Thanks to everyone for all the beaver cache suggestions! I see that I will have to explore each corner of this great country (and perhaps visit the UK as well) to capture all those naughty beaver caches.

 

Carolyn

Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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Do you formulate your own quirky personal challenges when caching? In other words, do you create challenges for yourself rather than join in on established challenges or challenge caches?

 

-SNIP-

 

So, what's your quirky (or not) personal challenge? Is it hiding-focused or finding-focused?

 

Carolyn

 

I like coloring my map red. I've cached 26 states and 3 countries, and attended events in 6 states. I'd like to have all of North America red and at least some red on all 7 continents plus attend a mega-event in Europe before I die.

 

My main personal challenge is to keep geocaching fresh and fun as recreational activity for my free quality time.

 

My formula:

 

I don't run out for FTF as a general rule unless the particular cache is less than 5 miles away.

 

I wait until I hear about a cache or caches that have excellent word of mouth and good logs before I plan an outing.

 

Otherwise, I grab only the most convenient caches along my route UNLESS it's a must do cache.

 

I used to never miss an event, but now I'm a bit evented out. I go when it's convenient or when I really need a fix. I'm also hosting less.

 

The goal here is to never burn out. 7 years isn't a long time but in that 7 years I've seen MOST (on the order of 90%) of the cachers I started caching with fade away. I honestly don't think I CAN burn out entirely. I'll always be a cache hider. I was a cache hider decades before geocaching existed.

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I had a run-in with a beaver on a dark rainy night, scared the living heck out of me when I was hunched down reaching for a cache and it charged out of its den... It jumped in the water slapping its tail which woke up the ducks which woke up the neighborhood dogs which woke up their owners. As they were all out in the rain yelling at each other to shut their dogs up, I calmly signed the log and went back to my car.

 

As for personal challenges, I set goals of X number of caches in a year and X FTF's. So I look like a numbers and FTF hound, which is kind of true, but those have been slowing down significantly. I made both goals, now I want to up my D/T average. tough to do.

 

Still looking to beat my personal best for finds in one day, but I don't worry too much. I remember every cache - except one a few weeks ago. But apparently I signed the log.

 

I am a coin hound and fully admit it, we try to do all the local coin challenges as a family. We have a few pages in my coin book dedicated to those endeavors.

 

Working on writing better logs...

 

I want the APE cache, it's only a few hours away.

 

Trying to get more local communities to do geocoin challenges - that's a big one for me.

 

I also do the clearing of map areas, at least traditionals. Multi's and Puzzles just don't do it for me. That's not a numbers thing, but most Multi's don't thrill me and most of the puzzles are beyond my ability to understand. I don't play the game to be frustrated.

I'll even go back a week later to get caches I missed or got placed just to keep it clear. I have to be real careful about that one.

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Do you formulate your own quirky personal challenges when caching? In other words, do you create challenges for yourself rather than join in on established challenges or challenge caches?

 

For example, my beloved would like to find the oldest caches in each state. I would like to collect cache finds that use the word 'Beaver' in the title. (Because the idea of having a collection of Beaver caches makes me laugh uncontrollably.) My beloved also wants to keep our difficulty/terrain average up (for reasons of personal honor).

 

So, what's your quirky (or not) personal challenge? Is it hiding-focused or finding-focused?

 

Carolyn

 

My ultimate goal would be to find at least one cache in every state - and then branch out to other countries. But I've got a long ways to go for that - in the meantime, my only goal is to get out, be active and shed a few pounds!

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I had a run-in with a beaver on a dark rainy night, scared the living heck out of me when I was hunched down reaching for a cache and it charged out of its den... It jumped in the water slapping its tail which woke up the ducks which woke up the neighborhood dogs which woke up their owners. As they were all out in the rain yelling at each other to shut their dogs up, I calmly signed the log and went back to my car.

 

It is my secret hope that if this thread devolves into off-topic heated words, as so many do, that the topic of the controversy will be "Beavers: Cute Mammals or Furry-Faced Fiends?"

:D

 

I am a coin hound and fully admit it, we try to do all the local coin challenges as a family. We have a few pages in my coin book dedicated to those endeavors.

 

<snip>

 

Trying to get more local communities to do geocoin challenges - that's a big one for me.

 

What is a geocoin challenge? I haven't run across that and while my mind is frantically circling trying to figure it out, nothing is gelling.

 

Carolyn

Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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...Thanks to everyone for all the beaver cache suggestions! I see that I will have to explore each corner of this great country (and perhaps visit the UK as well) to capture all those naughty beaver caches.

 

Carolyn

 

The European beaver died out in the U.K. a few centuries ago but only a couple of months ago some were re-introduced in Scotland for a trial period. Beavers back in Scotland. I don't know whether we have any beaver-named caches in U.K.

 

I think folks here are more familiar with river otters which are now making a come back after years of decline.

 

Just slightly off-topic, but worth mentioning... I was watching a interesting TV documentary last year where one of the contributors was an American doctor: Her name and medical specialisation made quite an impression on me at the time.

 

MrsB

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The goal here is to never burn out. 7 years isn't a long time but in that 7 years I've seen MOST (on the order of 90%) of the cachers I started caching with fade away. I honestly don't think I CAN burn out entirely. I'll always be a cache hider. I was a cache hider decades before geocaching existed.

That's my goal too. I'm working on my 8th year caching and I'd love to get to 10.

 

Like you I'm also "evented out" and only go to one or two a year that are special. Standing around in a greasy spoon at 8 in the morning on a Saturday talking about caching gets old after a while.

 

Edit for spelling

Edited by 9Key
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For example, my beloved would like to find the oldest caches in each state. I would like to collect cache finds that use the word 'Beaver' in the title. (Because the idea of having a collection of Beaver caches makes me laugh uncontrollably.) My beloved also wants to keep our difficulty/terrain average up (for reasons of personal honor).

For what it's worth, the oldest cache in Georgia is called "Beaver Cache" (GC1D); both of you would want to find that one. I believe it also happens to be one of the 10 oldest caches in the world. But it's south-east of Atlanta, and is quite a drive from Memphis.

 

As for my personal goals, I put them in my profile. Plus I'm trying to get my average terrain for physical caches rating above 2.0 (doesn't count non-physical caches, so I can still find 1-star earth- and virtual caches, plus still attend events without affecting the goal). I'm almost there at 1.99.

Edited by J-Way
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I don't really know what to expect out of a difficulty rating of 5 though. I would almost have to be a puzzle cache or a multi. I can't even begin to imagine what a traditional cache would be like with a difficulty rating of 5.

 

The way I read the guidelines, 5 means special equipment required. So a 4.5 may be more physically demanding / difficult than a 5. There's a 5 difficulty puzzle I solved that required you to figure out the programming language, obtain the compiler for it, and build it. A 5 difficulty traditional I found (only one I've found, BTW) can either be a needle in haystack, or you can use a metal detector.

 

I didn't have any quirky personal challenge until I started using FindStatGen.

 

And what do you have in the way of personal challenges since FindStatGen?

# of consecutive days with finds, % of 3 or higher difficulty / terrain, % of puzzles, # of different cache types in a day, longest distance in a day, things like that.

 

In fact, I'm interested in a day of caching that would change anything in "Some Numbers" except consecutive days without a find :D

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For me... I personal goal is to actually find a 5/5. However, for me at least that would have to end up on the top of K2 or something similar as far as the Terrain goes. I don't really know what to expect out of a difficulty rating of 5 though. I would almost have to be a puzzle cache or a multi. I can't even begin to imagine what a traditional cache would be like with a difficulty rating of 5.

 

TGC

 

Actually terrain 5 is the need for special equipment. A cache on an Island that requires a boat would be an example of a terrain 5. Or a cache that requires you to repel up a cliff with climbing gear. A difficulty five is a really hard cache to find or a really difficult puzzle. So if you had a very difficult puzzle with the actual cache on an island that can only be reached by boat you can get a 5/5.

 

Jim

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I had a run-in with a beaver on a dark rainy night, scared the living heck out of me when I was hunched down reaching for a cache and it charged out of its den... It jumped in the water slapping its tail which woke up the ducks which woke up the neighborhood dogs which woke up their owners. As they were all out in the rain yelling at each other to shut their dogs up, I calmly signed the log and went back to my car.

 

It is my secret hope that if this thread devolves into off-topic heated words, as so many do, that the topic of the controversy will be "Beavers: Cute Mammals or Furry-Faced Fiends?"

:D

ROFL!

 

I am a coin hound and fully admit it, we try to do all the local coin challenges as a family. We have a few pages in my coin book dedicated to those endeavors.

 

<snip>

 

Trying to get more local communities to do geocoin challenges - that's a big one for me.

What is a geocoin challenge? I haven't run across that and while my mind is frantically circling trying to figure it out, nothing is gelling.

 

Carolyn

A geocoin challence is either an event that revolves around a challenge - or series of caches laid out - that participation is rewarded with being given an unactivated geocoin of a specific design, usually specifically minted for that individual event.

 

Currently we are working on The Mt. Hood Territory Geocoin Challenge, a series of 10 caches hidden in the region. Inside the lid of each is a code word. once you return all 10 (in some cases 7 of 10) code words, they award you a geocoin celebrating the challenge.

 

Some are sponsored by a local chamber of commerce, local business, business association or other affiliated group that could benifit from bringing more people into an area. Lets face it, if 100 cachers descend on a small town for half a day, that whole town benefits. Plus if it's a cute town, you might come back.

 

(edit to fix quotes)

Edited by Unkle Fester
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For me... I personal goal is to actually find a 5/5. However, for me at least that would have to end up on the top of K2 or something similar as far as the Terrain goes. I don't really know what to expect out of a difficulty rating of 5 though. I would almost have to be a puzzle cache or a multi. I can't even begin to imagine what a traditional cache would be like with a difficulty rating of 5.

 

TGC

 

Actually terrain 5 is the need for special equipment. A cache on an Island that requires a boat would be an example of a terrain 5. Or a cache that requires you to repel up a cliff with climbing gear. A difficulty five is a really hard cache to find or a really difficult puzzle. So if you had a very difficult puzzle with the actual cache on an island that can only be reached by boat you can get a 5/5.

 

Jim

 

Exactly what I was thinking... Terrain 5 would deffinately be given to a cache on top of K2. :D

I figured there would be lots of Puzzle / Muliti's that would have a difficulty of 5. Just can't imagine a TRADITIONAL cache with a difficulty of 5. Although someone mentioned the ole needle in the haystack requiring a metal detector, but to me that would seem easy. Get a good strong electro-magnet and pull that needle right out of that haystack! LOL

 

TGC

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For me... I personal goal is to actually find a 5/5. However, for me at least that would have to end up on the top of K2 or something similar as far as the Terrain goes. I don't really know what to expect out of a difficulty rating of 5 though. I would almost have to be a puzzle cache or a multi. I can't even begin to imagine what a traditional cache would be like with a difficulty rating of 5.

 

TGC

 

Actually terrain 5 is the need for special equipment. A cache on an Island that requires a boat would be an example of a terrain 5. Or a cache that requires you to repel up a cliff with climbing gear. A difficulty five is a really hard cache to find or a really difficult puzzle. So if you had a very difficult puzzle with the actual cache on an island that can only be reached by boat you can get a 5/5.

 

Jim

 

Exactly what I was thinking... Terrain 5 would deffinately be given to a cache on top of K2. :D

I figured there would be lots of Puzzle / Muliti's that would have a difficulty of 5. Just can't imagine a TRADITIONAL cache with a difficulty of 5. Although someone mentioned the ole needle in the haystack requiring a metal detector, but to me that would seem easy. Get a good strong electro-magnet and pull that needle right out of that haystack! LOL

 

TGC

 

This one is getting pretty close. Almost a 50% DNF ratio. Ammo can on a train.

 

#576

Edited by webscouter.
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I got tired of being a radius slave and chasing a moving target of clearing my local area so instead I've been working on finding every pre-2007 traditional cache in my county. I think I have one cache left after actively caching for more than 3 years.

 

I was thinking it might be fun to hike to the highest point in every nearby county. If there are caches at each one it will be a bonus.

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Not sure if this is the type of challenge you are looking for but.....

 

Recently I ran FindStats macro in GSAK. I rarely used this macro and don't post the HTML, but my eye caught the chart at the end. Turns out we have cached 298 of the 366 available calendar days in a year. We are now trying to fill in the missing blanks.

 

The only other one I can think we do aon a regular basis is we find a cache that we really like and, if it is a prolific cacher, set up bookmarks to complete all their caches.

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I have two personal challenges - 1) to catch up with my ex-partner in smilies. :mad: Not just in the numbers but in the actual caches so that when we go out caching together he doesn't keep saying "Oh, there's a cache up that xxxx that you haven't gotten yet" :blink:

 

and a brand new challenge for me - there was a major archiving of a now defunct groups caches. I just counted 11 of them that are within a 50 mile radius of me. I am now on a mission to retrieve the archived caches, some still have TB's in them. No smilies in it for me, just the knowledge that they've been CITO'd.

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I have two personal challenges - 1) to catch up with my ex-partner in smilies. :mad: Not just in the numbers but in the actual caches so that when we go out caching together he doesn't keep saying "Oh, there's a cache up that xxxx that you haven't gotten yet" :blink:

 

and a brand new challenge for me - there was a major archiving of a now defunct groups caches. I just counted 11 of them that are within a 50 mile radius of me. I am now on a mission to retrieve the archived caches, some still have TB's in them. No smilies in it for me, just the knowledge that they've been CITO'd.

 

The attempted rescue of travel bugs is noble. I wish you all the success.

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A geocoin challence is either an event that revolves around a challenge - or series of caches laid out - that participation is rewarded with being given an unactivated geocoin of a specific design, usually specifically minted for that individual event.

 

Currently we are working on The Mt. Hood Territory Geocoin Challenge, a series of 10 caches hidden in the region. Inside the lid of each is a code word. once you return all 10 (in some cases 7 of 10) code words, they award you a geocoin celebrating the challenge.

 

Wow! That is deeply cool! I want to do a geocoin challenge. It is a dreadful shame that you live all the way off in Oregon.

 

Carolyn

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A geocoin challence is either an event that revolves around a challenge - or series of caches laid out - that participation is rewarded with being given an unactivated geocoin of a specific design, usually specifically minted for that individual event.

 

Currently we are working on The Mt. Hood Territory Geocoin Challenge, a series of 10 caches hidden in the region. Inside the lid of each is a code word. once you return all 10 (in some cases 7 of 10) code words, they award you a geocoin celebrating the challenge.

 

Wow! That is deeply cool! I want to do a geocoin challenge. It is a dreadful shame that you live all the way off in Oregon.

 

Carolyn

 

Now wait a second!!!

There is NOTHING shameful about living all the way over here in Oregon.

But it's kinda funny that you Suhthanahs are jealous.

 

:blink:

 

I need to get on that Mt Hood Challenge....

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Not sure if this is the type of challenge you are looking for but.....

 

 

I'm not picky about other people's challenges and what type they are. I just like to know how they organize their minds and how they make their own fun. I am fascinated by how individual everyone is and that you can see their personalities peeking out through their personal goals. I'm also surprised that most of the goals focus on finding rather than hiding. Also, the goals are almost all non-competitive. I didn't think that would be the case.

 

The only other one I can think we do aon a regular basis is we find a cache that we really like and, if it is a prolific cacher, set up bookmarks to complete all his caches.

 

We do this as well. When we find a fantastic hider we set our hearts on finding their caches.

 

Carolyn

Edited by Steve&GeoCarolyn
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Now wait a second!!!

There is NOTHING shameful about living all the way over here in Oregon.

But it's kinda funny that you Suhthanahs are jealous.

 

:blink:

 

I need to get on that Mt Hood Challenge....

 

Not shameful that he lives in Oregon, but deeply shameful that he isn't here in Memphis organizing geocoin challenges.

 

Carolyn

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I have two personal challenges - 1) to catch up with my ex-partner in smilies. :mad: Not just in the numbers but in the actual caches so that when we go out caching together he doesn't keep saying "Oh, there's a cache up that xxxx that you haven't gotten yet" :blink:

 

and a brand new challenge for me - there was a major archiving of a now defunct groups caches. I just counted 11 of them that are within a 50 mile radius of me. I am now on a mission to retrieve the archived caches, some still have TB's in them. No smilies in it for me, just the knowledge that they've been CITO'd.

 

You absolutely can log a find on an archieved cache and get your smilie!!!! If you find it, and sign the logbook, just log a Found It as normal.

 

And Carolyn, here are our goals for this year:

1500 finds by January 1st next year wil be a good challenge.

Only up to 1149 now as we've been considerable slowed down by illness the last three months, so getting to 1500 is seriously in doubt now.

 

we might try and stop at 50 active caches,

Still on track for this one!! We have 50 hidden but as four have been archived, we need to do four more now.

 

Get to 10 earthcaches - currently on 5. (And may be able to work on the three states thing in 2010)

Well and truely done this one - now up to 15 earthcaches found. Would now like to try placing one before the end of the year.

 

Get to 50 combinations on our Difficulty/Terrain chart - currently at 43

We are up to 45 combinations now, so this one is still possible, but even more tricky as we are not likely to get many of the higher terrain caches now.

 

I just copied our goals from a similar thread on our New Zealand forum. You might like to look there too Carolyn to see what goals others have for themselves

New Zealand local forum

 

Annie

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Also, the goals are almost all non-competitive. I didn't think that would be the case.

 

Carolyn

 

I think you will find that most high number cachers have a goal that isn't competitive. It does however involving finding lots of caches.

 

That is why so many high number cachers say it isn't about the numbers. The high numbers are just a byproduct of their goal.

 

For instance to hit my goal of 50 caches in each of the 50 states I will need to find 2500 caches. That is a high number to many folks but to me the number isn't as important as feeling like I have experienced each states particular flavor.

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It didn’t start out on purpose, but my100th cache was on Christmas day and I did a Christmas related cache. I thought I would try to get my century marks on holidays with a cache that had something to do with that day. Number 200 was on Easter and I put Easter eggs, with coin in them, in the caches I found that day. Number 300 was on 4th of July and I found a 4th of July cache. I was able to fine a Valentine cache and an Easter related cache (Rush Creek Rabbits). This worked until I got to 600 and I couldn’t find anything for Labor Day, so now I am trying to find a cache that has some kind of meaning to me or a high difficulty rating. I have a list on me profile if you want to see them.

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Also, the goals are almost all non-competitive. I didn't think that would be the case.

 

Carolyn

 

I think you will find that most high number cachers have a goal that isn't competitive. It does however involving finding lots of caches.

 

That is why so many high number cachers say it isn't about the numbers. The high numbers are just a byproduct of their goal.

 

For instance to hit my goal of 50 caches in each of the 50 states I will need to find 2500 caches. That is a high number to many folks but to me the number isn't as important as feeling like I have experienced each states particular flavor.

We too are doing a 50 in 50 personal challenge. We figured it was the best way to get a feel for caches in a state and to explore different states.

 

When we did a cache machine a few years ago and hit a bunch of Oregon caches we thought we had made out 50. So we skipped a few on the way home as we were running out of time. Only to discover we were at 49 for the state!!! Can't wait to go back.

 

We have a goal of a find in every state and someday 50 in 50 plus 50 in DC. We may extend the goal to include Canada's provinces as well.

 

My personal goal is to hit the oldest caches I can when visiting areas on trips. Someday we hope to get Mingo and the APE cache in Washington as well.

 

Jen

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I don't have any specific goals as I like to cache for the enjoyment of it. However, I hate having a DNF and view it as "unfinished business" (as I'm sure most folk do), so aim to return to it eventually. A few I've been back to several times, the most recent of which was Yobbies? (GCWH8V). For those who wish to try it, it's a fantastic cache, but I'd suggest you don't try it as a cache'n'dash.

 

I've only found over 300 so far, so haven't had too many milestones. However, as I get more experienced, I'd like to mark the 100s with more challenging caches. That's not to say I haven't already done a few challenging ones. I think the highest rating to date is 5/3.5 (GC1DNC3), although that wasn't as challenging as a 1/5 (GC6DAE).

 

I would like to clear my Edinburgh map of caches, but have a long way to go yet...

 

Anyway, it's all about the fun of the chase, or as my dad put it about his interests: "Mainly alpine, and getting there".

 

:blink:

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After running some stats programs a while ago I wanted my goal to be to have my average terrain rating be 2.0 or higher (i was very close at the time). As time went on I realized that I always hovered near that number because the hiking-required caches were the ones I liked the best (thus, naturally raising my number). Now and then a road trip sets me back, but I check just for kicks.

 

Back in November I completed a goal of finding caches in all of California's counties. Man, I live in a big state....

 

I also created the first of the Fizzy Challenge caches although I have yet to complete the requirements myself. I just don't have the time to cache that I'd like.

 

All in all, my goal is much like what Snoogans and others have said. Keep it fun, and keep it going.

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