+BaylorGrad Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 This post serves two purposes: To celebrate one year of Geocaching, and to discuss my goals for my next year of caching! A year ago tomorrow (June 3, 2010), I stumbled across a Facebook post by one of my friends--it said that she was going to go Geocaching that day. I had a vague memory of the word--a staff member at my undergraduate university mentioned that she was going to take her son Geocaching a couple of years back, and they had explained the concept to me. But on June 3, 2010, I had recently acquired a GPS. So I logged into Geocaching.com, and the rest is history. I found my first cache that day not far from where my parents live. It was a little black nano under a bench: Uncle Lumpy takes you to Church. Of course, the only favorite vote is mine. Clearly, my Geocaching addiction built steadily from that point. I found 18 caches that June, and by December I had was finding over 40 caches per month--mostly thanks to my move to Terre Haute, Indiana for graduate school. I found great joy in winter (snow!) caching, and even greater joy in caching when Spring rolled around. Over the last year, I have also had the great opportunity to hide some fun caches, mostly on the Indiana State University campus and in the surrounding area. Although I know many of you aren't a fan of urban micros, I wouldn't be a Geocacher if it weren't for urban micros--and I thought I'd give the local students a chance at some nearby Geocaching by hiding some caches on and around campus. My favorite cache (that I own) continues to be the first one that I set: Don't Look Down!. Not only was this cache fun to set (see the picture on the cache page), but I have enjoyed everyone else's reaction to a high-terrain urban cache as well. The cache has sustained hurricane-force winds, two inches of solid ice, and temperatures around -5F, but to this day it still stands strong--and I haven't had to do any maintenance... Yet. I have also had some memorable finds (of course!) over the past year. I of course remember my third find--my first LPC cache--which took me over an hour to find: T&C Mini Park. I remember my first multi-cache: Gone But Not Forgotten # 1 and of course my first regular sized cache (although it's not listed as regular, most cachers would say that it is): Oz on Crawford. And I couldn't forget my first and only *large* cache find: Don't Fowler me, I'm Stumped. But most enjoyable of all are those caches with great stories. Here is a cache I visited three times and spent three hours searching for it before I FINALLY made the grab: We've been malled, again. And here's a cache I searched for five different times totaling about 4-5 hours worth of searching: Rabbit Hole Revenge. And I could never, ever forget Discarded Creosote Tree's... I'll just let you go to the cache page and read the story on that one! It's worth it. - - - - - I have several goals for my next year of Geocaching: (1) Find Tombstone before I leave Arlington... I have about 50 days left, but I have already had to DNF the cache twice. Good news is it's only about half a mile from where I'm living! (2) Develop a better "Geosense." For whatever reason, my Geosense is downright awful. Obviously. I have DNFed Tombstone TWICE already. Many caches evade me like this. With 373 finds, I also have 148 DNF logs. WOW that's a bunch... (3) Find a cache in every state that I visit during this next year. Last July, I took a roadtrip with my younger brother, intending to find a cache in every state. I dropped the ball on that one, and forgot about it. We went through TEN states--TX, OK, MO, IA, MN, WI, ND, SD, NE, & KA. I currently have found caches in exactly 1 of those states. Such a bummer... Good news is that I'll be in the mountains in North Carolina in about a month, so I look forward to some real rural Geocaching--super excited. Maybe some big hikes? Never done that before (for caching purposes). (4) Avoid setting any new Geocaches in Indiana, because I will be finishing graduate school in May of 2012. I also plan on archiving all of my current caches there when I graduate. However, I will leave one ammo-box-in-the-woods cache as a final farewell. I know many of you would disprove, but I have several individuals in Indiana who I know I could count on for continued maintenance. Thanks to all of you for contributing to my addiction and to my great Geocaching adventures. I look forward to another year of fun! BaylorGrad Quote Link to comment
GOF and Bacall Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Has it really been a year? I think I only had three month and 4 days in the pool. OK, ok, just kidding. Happy anniversary. Go find yourself a cache. Quote Link to comment
+Coldgears Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 (4) Avoid setting any new Geocaches in Indiana, because I will be finishing graduate school in May of 2012. I also plan on archiving all of my current caches there when I graduate. Yep, I'd die to go out of state to college. I seriously considered it, just so I could spend 6 years of my life geocaching in a brand new area. I then realized that it probably isn't worth paying nearly 15-30K a year extra when I could get an even better education in Philadelphia. You still make me jealous though :anibad: Quote Link to comment
+wigoweb Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 Sounds as if you are off to a great start with geocaching and hopefully with your post-college career, too. Congratulations on finding a great hobby and for being an active participant as both a finder and a hider. When I did my out of state post-grad schooling, 1966-67 in California, geocaching wasn't yet possible. Quote Link to comment
+JL_HSTRE Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 (2) Develop a better "Geosense." For whatever reason, my Geosense is downright awful. Obviously. I have DNFed Tombstone TWICE already. Many caches evade me like this. With 373 finds, I also have 148 DNF logs. WOW that's a bunch... (4) Avoid setting any new Geocaches in Indiana, because I will be finishing graduate school in May of 2012. I also plan on archiving all of my current caches there when I graduate. However, I will leave one ammo-box-in-the-woods cache as a final farewell. I know many of you would disprove, but I have several individuals in Indiana who I know I could count on for continued maintenance. Congrats on one year of caching. Best wishes for your second year, your goals, and your college time. I think sharp Geosense takes some time for most of us, especially depending on what kinds of hides are found. I think some hides simply no amount of Geosense will help; it's just a long careful search. Don't be discouraged by the DNFs. I, for one, appreciate you being diligent about logging them which many are not. If you're doing alot of caching by yourself and searching for higher difficulty caches (especially early in your caching 'career') then you will have more DNFs than those who often cache with others or search mostly easier caches like LPCs, GRIMs, and ammo cans. Thanks for not abandoning your caches. I see nothing wrong with leaving one behind if you can trust someone(s) to check on it when you've moved. Quote Link to comment
+GeoReapers Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Congratulations! We just hit a year of active caching about two weeks ago and have somehow lumped four different challeneges on ourselves (Double Century, Delorme, Cities & Towns & County Challege). Cache on! Quote Link to comment
MisterEFQ Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 We are going to hit one year at the end of the month. Took off about 4 months of this year and didnt look for any though. I still love it. Quote Link to comment
+BaylorGrad Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Thanks to everyone for the kind responses! I definitely do log my DNFs, and believe strongly in doing so. (I have DNFed a couple caches here in Arlington, TX that I'm pretty sure have been gone a LONG time, but no one has bothered to DNF them over the past several months.) Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Congrats! Almost seven years myself. Now. As to #3... We plan one vacation a year to add new states! Last year we visited South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. This year, we're in for a grueling trip to Michigan, Ontario, Indiana, Illinois, Minnestoa, Wisconsin and Iowa. Wish us luck! My niece is getting married in Maine in October, so the trip back home will take us through PQ! Next year, my sister wants to visit NS, PEI, Newfoundland, and St. Pierre. Should be a strange trip! Congrats on your year, and continue to have fun. Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 That was a nice post, thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully you will do better than me at working on your geosense. I just had my 9 year anniversary over a month ago, and I still have trouble finding caches. It's a good thing that I'm usually with other people when I cache, I may have given up in frustration a long time ago (just kidding, I'm too addicted). I've given up on myself, I don't think I'll ever get better. I get frustrated and talk to myself crankily a lot when I don't find the cache within a minute. Most times, I let other people look while I take lots of pictures. That seems to soothe the crankiness. Quote Link to comment
+Team LegoMINI Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Congratulations! As someone who has only been doing this for two weeks, I hope to enjoy it as much after my first year anniversary as you obviously do. Good luck on the move! Quote Link to comment
+Coldgears Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Congratulations! As someone who has only been doing this for two weeks, I hope to enjoy it as much after my first year anniversary as you obviously do. Good luck on the move! The best thing you can do, if your like me and have a highly addictive personality, it try to limit yourself, lest it should take over you life. Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Congratulations! As someone who has only been doing this for two weeks, I hope to enjoy it as much after my first year anniversary as you obviously do. Good luck on the move! The best thing you can do, if your like me and have a highly addictive personality, it try to limit yourself, lest it should take over you life. I can stop whenever I want to. I just don't want to right now. Quote Link to comment
+deercreekth Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Congrats on the first year. But why did you had to go and bring up Rabbit Hole Revenge? That cache used to give me nightmares. (4) Avoid setting any new Geocaches in Indiana, because I will be finishing graduate school in May of 2012. I also plan on archiving all of my current caches there when I graduate. However, I will leave one ammo-box-in-the-woods cache as a final farewell. I know many of you would disprove, but I have several individuals in Indiana who I know I could count on for continued maintenance. I'm saddened by this since you've put out some nice caches during a time when there haven't been a lot of new ones published, but I understand. I don't know if I'll ever find the courage to attempt Don't Look Down, and while my puzzle solving mojo has grown stronger lately I've not figured out Campus Highlighter #2.01. But if you wanted to put some of them up for adoption next year rather than archiving them, I'd be interested in some and maybe others in the area would be interested as well. I'm sure the farewell cache would be well taken care of. I know I'll be stuck in Terre Haute unless my kids move away when they grow up and my wife decides we should follow them. Even then, we're talking another 15-20 years... gulp. Quote Link to comment
Mr.Yuck Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Congratulations!! Why not consider the offer in the last post to adopt out some of the Indiana caches? Quote Link to comment
+geocat_ Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Just wanted to thank you for one of the best posts I have read on here. I can tell you are truly addicted and it is a joy to share your enthusiasm as someone who will not celebrate my anniversary until November. As for the DNFs, I don't know how many I have off hand but as you can tell by my signature, I am not afraid to admit defeat! Sometimes the stories are even better than the ones with smileies! Quote Link to comment
+RhinoInAToga Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 [/snip] . Good news is that I'll be in the mountains in North Carolina in about a month, so I look forward to some real rural Geocaching--super excited. Maybe some big hikes? Never done that before (for caching purposes). [/snip] Feel free to email us when you arrive in WNC. We would be more than happy to either go caching with you, recommend some good ones that we've found (we haven't found too many yet..we have a while to go before our one year anniversary! ), or just be a phone-a-friend in a new area to you. Or all of the above. We love meeting fellow cachers. You'll like this area. It's very cache dense & the cachers are really nice people who go out of their way to make you feel welcome. Plus there's Ozzguff. Who has the second most hides in the world. The WORLD. Lol Quote Link to comment
+BaylorGrad Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 Congratulations!! Why not consider the offer in the last post to adopt out some of the Indiana caches? That is an excellent idea indeed. I'm honored that other cachers would want to carry on with my caches, and I will definitely be giving them that opportunity. I replied to Deercreekth directly. Quote Link to comment
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