Jump to content

What adventures are you having with August Challenge?


Recommended Posts

I wanted to start a positive post about the August 31 day challenge because I personally think it is a great idea, and I applaud Groundspeak for doing it. I hope we see many more of these types in the future!

 

I wanted to hear about some of the fun, challenges and adventures that folks are having with getting a cache each day!

 

This challenge has really helped my wife and I carve out more time together, which is awesome. We will only cache when we are together, and we often work opposite and strange schedules so we are having to do more caching at 2 and 3 am than normal. While at first it seemed like it was going to frustrate us, it has turned into something we both look forward to!

 

We have had pretty good luck each day, except on the 10th. We weren't able to meet up until almost 330am on the 10th and we had 3 DNF in a row! 430am rolls around and we are exhausted from work and frustrated and decided to call it a night. Luckily we ended up being able to hit a quick one before work during the day on the 10th so we didn't miss the challenge. I'm sure it won't be the last time it happens...

 

Good luck everyone!

Link to comment

You're brave caching at 2 AM! Although, in this heat, I might be tempted :)

 

I've had fun doing this streak, and it's helping motivate me to complete my 365 streak too, which ends on the 22nd.

 

Let's see, well on the 8th day of geocaching, my true love gave to me..... a stolen moped in the woods...

 

Then today, I found my first chirp cache. I cache with an Iphone, so I used the Wahoo Fitness key and it worked perfectly! So fun to add a new cache type during the streak.

 

Since it's 8 billion degrees here right now, I'm finding myself doing more urban caching, and working on a few puzzles for a few extra minutes in the AC.

 

I think the new graphics are great - fun to see those pop up every day. :)

Link to comment

I was hoping to cache for all 31, actually take this in the spirit in which it was intended. August is traditionally one of my slump months, especially living in the South.

 

But then my daughter was born two weeks early, so I had to take a few days off.

 

Today mom needed a break, and I wanted to see if driving around would put her to sleep, so we had a father-daughter caching morning.

 

9e37059e-7336-4fed-b6be-2d883b25ed6f.jpg

 

She's great at quality control, looking forward to when she can be a cache gopher. That might be a while, though.

Link to comment

Thank you for starting a positive thread about the August Challenge! I'm finding that it has jump-started my interest in geocaching around my home area, because I am choosing interesting and challenging target caches. It will be hard to top hzoi's post with its good news and awesome picture, but here's what I've done so far through August 11th:

 

To complete day one of the challenge, I searched for a cache near my office during lunch, and met another geocacher who works downtown and had the same idea. It turns out we both do volunteer work for our churches. I hope we can go geocaching together on future lunch breaks.

 

On the first Saturday I visited a park where I hid the first cache more than ten years ago. There are now a dozen caches in the park! I enjoyed finding three of them. It was my first trip to that park in years.

 

On the first Sunday I found a challenge cache that also filled in missing grid for my Fizzy Challenge. In the same park was a gem of an old style ammo box cache that had been there, untouched by me, since 2005. It's 15 miles from my house. Sheesh, it's about time!

 

I've found two caches on a stretch of riverfront walking trail just a few blocks from my office that I've NEVER walked on since the trail was extended several years ago.

 

Yesterday I had my best hiking day in years, at a new conservation area less than four miles from home that's been filling up with challenging old-school caches. I racked up 25 terrain stars on just seven caches, including one rated 4.5 stars with a 200 foot hand-over-hand climb up a shale ridge. Score another Fizzy Grid! Other highlights from that four hour adventure included hiking legally around an abandoned Nike Missile base from the Cold War, splashing across a stream past a waterfall, and meeting another local geocacher for the first time who had the exact same idea as I did for how to complete the 31 Days Challenge. I cannot remember the last time when four consecutive caches all made it onto my "Top 5% Greatest Cache Hunts" bookmark list.

 

Today I narrowed my unfound Distance/Terrain combinations down to three remaining grids, because I found a five-star difficulty "micro in the woods" on the first try. Others are racking up two or three DNF's before discovering this well-hidden cache.

 

So now we are 11 days into the 31 days challenge - my longest consecutive find streak since I started caching in 2002. What's ahead later in the month? On Thursday I fly to Seattle for Block Party weekend. Then, I take a road trip to find some caches in Montana, knocking off my 43rd state cached, and then in Idaho where I have a two-day business meeting.

 

This is shaping up as one of my best geocaching months ever! Thanks to Groundspeak for getting me off my butt by issuing this challenge.

Link to comment

I was hoping to cache for all 31, actually take this in the spirit in which it was intended. August is traditionally one of my slump months, especially living in the South.

 

But then my daughter was born two weeks early, so I had to take a few days off.

 

Today mom needed a break, and I wanted to see if driving around would put her to sleep, so we had a father-daughter caching morning.

 

9e37059e-7336-4fed-b6be-2d883b25ed6f.jpg

 

She's great at quality control, looking forward to when she can be a cache gopher. That might be a while, though.

 

Congratulations on the birth of your child.

 

Film cans put me to sleep too.

Link to comment

Great thread!

 

We're in a good position of being surrounded by caches of all kinds in our home radius, since usually when we go out caching we have a "destination" and so haven't done so many around home. This challenge is encouraging us to clear a bit of our home radius.

 

So far, so good, though the really challenging part will be the last two weeks when I'm back at school and we'll *both* be tired from work in the evenings. Our diciest moment was the evening of the 9th, when we went out to dinner and then tried to do some urban caching in the area. After a couple of DNF's and having to avoid a couple of sites due to too many lurking muggles, we finally made one. Caching in our evening wear was a fun experience. :laughing:

 

Though we have picked up a few of those notorious skirt-lifter micros, we really prefer larger caches or at least more challenging micros, so we've tried to home in on a few of those. The folks came up to cache with us yesterday and we picked up an amazing hidden cemetery / historical marker regular cache plus a few micros. I've launched two travelers this month and wouldn't mind sending out a few more.

 

Almost halfway there!

 

--Q

Link to comment

I was hoping to cache for all 31, actually take this in the spirit in which it was intended. August is traditionally one of my slump months, especially living in the South.

 

But then my daughter was born two weeks early, so I had to take a few days off.

 

Today mom needed a break, and I wanted to see if driving around would put her to sleep, so we had a father-daughter caching morning.

 

9e37059e-7336-4fed-b6be-2d883b25ed6f.jpg

 

She's great at quality control, looking forward to when she can be a cache gopher. That might be a while, though.

 

Congratulations on the birth of your little cacher!

 

Actually, it won't be very long at all before she's helping hide and find. Here's the Tx Tadpole helping me hide a Cache at just 3 months of age.

 

c9bf6859-d8d3-4c18-af4e-e430197b8bb3.jpg

Link to comment

I'm doing pretty well on the cache-a-day thing, was out finding Tattletales caches on Saturday with a bunch, one cacher notching 5,000 on one of the more recent hides. Most Tattletales hides rate very highly on the Favoriteometer.

 

On another note, I'm doing my bit to help people with their cache-a-day thing, but hiding a cache-a-day, which is proving to be more the challenge.

Link to comment

I am having fun with the August souvenirs. First of all I am getting good at spelling souvenir!

 

I knew that I would not be able to get all 31, as school starts at the end of the month, and I will be working crazy hours. So I decided to use the souvenirs to help me fill in my 366 grid. I am only looking for caches on days that will add to my 366 grid. I thought it would be a cool way to remember why I got those specific days. (well I made a mistake and found one on the 5th that wasn't needed....oh well)

It has been fun because I almost never look for LPC's when I cache, and I always plan my caching day. The last two I grabbed I drove to an area and said I'll go for that one! Pretty fun actually.

 

As for the theme of going for a streak, I should be able to beat my last streak of 5 days this week with 7 so I am happy for that.

 

I forgot the art part, there always has to be an art part for me!

I enlarged the 31 days map, and I found an orange bandanna (could not find an orange sweat band), and am taking a photo with the day's souvenir near GZ for my gallery.

Edited by gspotter
Link to comment

Mudfrog: What a cute baby! Congratulations.

 

It's hzoi's baby, but I'm sure he'll still accept the congratulations. And from me, also! :lol:

 

I am not a streaker, but I find it interesting a long time, but not very active (in the past) cacher is going for the streak (The OP). Groundspeak has definitely generated interest. From what I've seen in my local fourm, and in some cache logs, I'd bet there are at least a dozen cachers/teams playing along in my area. Probably more than that, but that's how many *I* have noticed.

Edited by Mr.Yuck
Link to comment

One nearby town has an event a day. Where I live we have 15 events during the month of August. I've been attending these events with my wife and then we go for a cache afterwards. Have made some new friends at the events and learned a lot. I have been working on a cache a day for 100 days challenge so August fits right in. Also in checking the challenges in my state I have realized that I will have qualified for several of them by the end of the month. I had most of the caches on my side of town cleaned up and now I have over 100 new ones to work on that were placed for the month of August.

Link to comment

We are 11 for 11 so far and really enjoying it. To us, it's not about the souvenirs but the challenge itself. It is difficult sometimes to be disciplined enough to stick to something every day - it's a common problem in our house - so it is a big deal that we have all agreed to go the extra mile for this silly little geocaching challenge. Baby steps :lol:

 

So in our adventures this past week we have watched several amazing sunsets, tromped through a pitch-black forest after a run-in with a bat, discovered that a major subdivision used to be a race track, were swarmed by dragonflies, got our fingers bitten by an alligator (or was it a crocodile?), and spent a lovely afternoon caching with my sister, who works for the Okanagan library and now wants to organize a cache series for their branches.

 

All in all, I'd say it has been a successful venture thus far :D

Link to comment

On Saturday, I drove to Eagle River (about 45 minutes away) and found some caches in the Eagle River Valley: North Fork 4

6ac0fcbe-8a25-442d-af5f-5e5ce5bdf94c.jpg

 

Last night, I cut it close by not going out until 2200 to finish up a night cache (1,1,11) I started nearly two years ago and got stuck on because an intermediate stage was missing. I was reminded that I'm not at the top of the food chain:

c9e8ca83-ed2f-42ef-8c78-324c7052138a.jpg

 

Had it not been for the 31 Days of Caching Challenge, I most likely would have stayed closer to home due to the heavy overcast and rainy conditions and just taken the dogs for a trail run in my regular haunts. Instead, I drove out of the rain, connected with visiting cachers, saw the bear print, and came nose to nose with a mother moose and her calf and lived to tell the tale.

 

This evening's find will be minor milestone #6500. I'm beating my head against a couple of tricky puzzles, at least one of which I'm hoping will take me some place scenic.

Link to comment

Mudfrog: What a cute baby! Congratulations.

 

It's hzoi's baby, but I'm sure he'll still accept the congratulations. And from me, also! :lol:

 

I am not a streaker, but I find it interesting a long time, but not very active (in the past) cacher is going for the streak (The OP). Groundspeak has definitely generated interest. From what I've seen in my local fourm, and in some cache logs, I'd bet there are at least a dozen cachers/teams playing along in my area. Probably more than that, but that's how many *I* have noticed.

sorry hzoi--Congrats Hzoi! That is a beautiful baby.

Link to comment

Decided to do this cache one day. http://coord.info/GC1VCR0 Takes you to a tiny park. From the bench at the park, about 100 yards away is a bald eagle's nest. The park is called Eagle Nest Observation Park, and the only reference to the park I can find online is an announcement of a ribbon cutting ceremony. One of those little gems that most people would never know about except when looking for a cache there.

Link to comment

I wanted to start a positive post about the August 31 day challenge because I personally think it is a great idea, and I applaud Groundspeak for doing it. I hope we see many more of these types in the future!

 

I wanted to hear about some of the fun, challenges and adventures that folks are having with getting a cache each day!

 

This challenge has really helped my wife and I carve out more time together, which is awesome. We will only cache when we are together, and we often work opposite and strange schedules so we are having to do more caching at 2 and 3 am than normal. While at first it seemed like it was going to frustrate us, it has turned into something we both look forward to!

 

We have had pretty good luck each day, except on the 10th. We weren't able to meet up until almost 330am on the 10th and we had 3 DNF in a row! 430am rolls around and we are exhausted from work and frustrated and decided to call it a night. Luckily we ended up being able to hit a quick one before work during the day on the 10th so we didn't miss the challenge. I'm sure it won't be the last time it happens...

 

Good luck everyone!

 

 

I love it, some daysI find one. another day not so lucky, however, the challenge helps me explore new towns, new parks, or stop on my way home from work to try to find one, I love the challenge and hope it continues every Austust. ;)

Link to comment

We have gone on trails that we hadn't been on before. Last year I intended to hike a lot with the kids and it never happened, but DD wanted to go for the streak so it has kept us getting out there. We had a weekend away so we saw new trails in another area, too. A couple of days I had to grab one myself because there was no time to go with the kids. But one Sunday the family went to see my in laws while i had plans with friends. My plans fell through so I went out for a series based on Alice in Wonderland that sounded too hard and too long to go with the kids. I was glad I didn't bring them, between thorns, disappearing trails, PI, and broken bridges! I am still scratched up. But it was a good challenge and I was glad I got them all! Going every day has also gotten DH out a couple of times that we may not have done, and he is starting to really enjoy it!

Link to comment

I wanted to start a positive post about the August 31 day challenge because I personally think it is a great idea,

 

Dang! I didn't know there was a challenge??? Is it listed as a mystery cache?

 

I find the souvenirs to be inane. Far better things that GS could have done. Perhaps another example of making better mistakes? This one is a doozy.

 

I do not go caching after work. Something about traffic jams in suburbia, needing to get dinner ready, and the fact that I've found most of the nearby caches. My best friend is undergoing chemotherapy, which eliminated several days to go caching. Got more important things to do.

 

Not even a 'better mistake'. A far worse mistake.

Link to comment

Umm...this was supposed to be the one positive thread about the 31 day streak. There's another one for griping / hating on / general disdain about the streak. C'mon, can't we have nice things?

 

We're still going strong! Spent much longer on a bush hide than we should have this evening, finding only duck eggs rather than the cache (no, the cache was not one of the eggs!). Finally DNF'ed and moved on. Wouldn't have spent so long on it, but it finally cooled down some here: only 91 degrees. :lol:

 

I've enjoyed reading about the adventures so far.

 

--Q

Link to comment

Our longest streak prior to August was 10 (up to 15 as of today!). We are trying to get all of the days but the weekdays are tougher. Between work, my fiancee's volunteering, and rain, some of the days have been challenging. We had some P&Gs nearby that we have been doing on the days where we can't get out until after dark. Nothing too exciting yet but I can see where the challenging days will be once we use up the P&Gs around the corner for the days we can't start until 8-9pm.

 

So far so good though! While a lot think the souvenirs are silly we're having fun trying to streak so far. I don't know how some of you have thousands of days in a row - I'm already getting a little burnt out!

Link to comment

It is the usual hot and humid summer here in SE FL so it has been mostly PnGs for me, but I've been filling lots of calendar grid dates in addition to getting souvenirs. August is usually a really slow caching month for me: my combined total for August 2010, 2011, and 2012 was only 41 caches (out of over 2000 total finds 2010-2013).

 

For one I did make a 2 mile roundtrip hike past lots of cows, around lots of cowpies, and with the 200 ft to GZ crossing a field covered with knee-high grass and several inches of water.

Link to comment

I was hoping to cache for all 31, actually take this in the spirit in which it was intended. August is traditionally one of my slump months, especially living in the South.

 

But then my daughter was born two weeks early, so I had to take a few days off.

 

Today mom needed a break, and I wanted to see if driving around would put her to sleep, so we had a father-daughter caching morning.

 

9e37059e-7336-4fed-b6be-2d883b25ed6f.jpg

 

She's great at quality control, looking forward to when she can be a cache gopher. That might be a while, though.

 

GOOD JOB DAD. Shhhhhhhhhh

Link to comment

I've taken it as an anti-challenge - Groundspeak is not the boss of me. August makes it easy.

 

  • Music festival last weekend.
  • Theater festival this weekend and all next week.
  • I checked up on some of my own caches.
  • I fixed up a cache for a CO that's moved out of town.
  • I did all the stages of a fun multi, except for the final which I'll get later.
  • I've futzed around in the garden (no mosquitoes, yay!), planted a tree, and caught up on my reading.
  • And I'll finish the month with a week backpacking in a beautiful and remote wilderness with no caches, just grizzlies and other wild things.

The challenge - rejecting it - has been great for keeping the balance in my life. B)

Edited by Viajero Perdido
Link to comment

I've taken it as an anti-challenge - Groundspeak is not the boss of me. August makes it easy.

 

The challenge - rejecting it - has been great for keeping the balance in my life. B)

 

Well, they do encourage us to be "well-rounded" so I guess they got what they want out of you after all! :ph34r::lol:

 

We're going to the Block Party on Saturday and when I get there I'm going to find Jeremy, kiss him smack on the lips, and tell him he can make as many mistakes as he likes because I LOVE THIS GAME! :P

Link to comment

The non-caching (or caching-but-not-finding a cache) activities are fun, too. We've had many a cache-free month...and about to come up on a couple, probably, as the dog show season gets on a roll. Gotta be well-rounded! I've also finished a couple of quilts this month.

 

In fact, school is about to start up again, and I know that these last couple of weeks will be the most challenging in keeping our streak alive. I'm treating this as a fun-and-light-hearted part of my Geocaching hobby, trying not to take it too seriously, though I love the little "officially sanctioned" incentive and knowing that a lot of other cachers (if not a whole lot of forum readers) are in it, too. I can count the number of times I've encountered a fellow cacher on the trail on one hand, but a few days ago we encountered one at one of the hides. It was fun introducing ourselves and hunting together (it wasn't a skirt-lifter so it took a little sharp-eyed hunting), and I gave her a geocoin of mine to move to another cache. It was a neat experience. Guess I need to get to some events!

 

Take care, everyone, cache on!

--Q

Link to comment

I live in a pretty cache-dense area, but before now I've always focused on anything other than PnGs. This month has been a great way to clean up my map of all those caches I would probably never have gotten to. This is also my first attempt at maintaining a streak, and that has been a real challenge for me. The majority of my finds so far have been 10pm or later, with a few barely squeaking in on the last few minutes of the day. However, it is blisteringly hot here in Texas right now, so night caching works out well. All in all, I've really enjoyed this. Haven't missed a day yet!

Link to comment

This has been an interesting month. I have been busy since school started (Aug. 6th - I'm a teacher). But the Atlanta Area Cachers have been having a Mega Flash Event daily. It is called the Historical Flash Mobs of Atlanta. Cool idea! Carter Center, Peachtree Road Race finish, Waffle House Museum, Martin Luther King Center, Georgia Tech, and of course the Varsity! Just to name a few.

 

I was surprised to see that someone is creating new caches (daily) down around a mall a few miles from my school. Good motivation and excuse to get back into my favorite hobby after work.

 

After all, geocaching is like running. Each person decides how to do their caching. For me, this is my longest caching streak (17 days).

Link to comment

I live in a pretty cache-dense area, but before now I've always focused on anything other than PnGs. This month has been a great way to clean up my map of all those caches I would probably never have gotten to. This is also my first attempt at maintaining a streak, and that has been a real challenge for me. The majority of my finds so far have been 10pm or later, with a few barely squeaking in on the last few minutes of the day. However, it is blisteringly hot here in Texas right now, so night caching works out well. All in all, I've really enjoyed this. Haven't missed a day yet!

Fellow Texan here! I've been snapping a pic with my weather app to attach to my August streak finds, and so far the hottest one has been 103, feels like 106. Yikes! :shocked:

 

Having lots of fun. Today we re-visited a cache we had DNF'ed a couple of years ago. After an exhaustive (or so we thought) search, we DNF'ed it again. (To indicate how determined we were to find it, we unloaded a couple of boxes of pork riblets from the car to form a stepladder to reach higher up into the cleft of a tree. Where the cache wasn't, of course.) Left, found another one from the same series...and went back to the first one with another idea. This time we found it!

 

--Q

Link to comment

Most caches are 15 - 20 k's from my home base but at the end of July a bunch were published along a logging road not far from me. I purposely did not go out for the FTF's as I knew that this challenge was coming up. So now I mix up some walks in areas I have been to before that have some new caches in with some drive up PT's on the odd day with just getting on the motorbike and puttering out to the ones close to home and grabbing just one right after morning coffee. So far it's been working great.

Link to comment

The souvenirs were incidental to any caching I was already doing. However, when I was looking at some of those I had collected, one stuck out over the others -- it actually reminded me of the caching I did that day.

 

This is the souvenir for 18 August:

 

1a0cf1bf-b1a8-42ad-be00-f57eeec51f8f.png

 

And this is a picture from the gallery of one of the caches attended that day:

 

5f3d5138-5426-4bdd-9dd8-90ffbf1892d8.jpg

 

I didn't take that picture -- I haven't a waterproof camera and I was afraid to extract my iPhone from the nested series of baggies into which it was secured while we were in the canoe. But we did encounter a mother duck and ducklings, and a bunch of other waterfowl.

 

While any paddle cache is memorable, that day was in my top three for sure. My daughter actually volunteered that she was having a good time without being asked. My sister, who only recently became hooked on the caching, got her very first FTF, on a 5/5 cache whose puzzle she solved. It was neat to see how excited she was -- I didn't know that this was the first time she had ever paddled!

 

Best. Day. Ever.

 

A musician's paddle

A quiet paddle

Link to comment

My caching buddy and I stumbled out of the woods in McKinney Falls State park to be confronted with a giant man in what looked like a Greek warrior outfit of some sort. He said "I have a strange question for you - do you know where the wardrobe trailer is?" I said "Are you going to kill us?" He said he was not going to kill us, and that he was part of a group that runs a camp where they act out the entire Percy Jackson series in the park.

 

That was fun, and strange. We found him a park ranger to help him find the wardrobe trailer. He didn't kill us :)

Link to comment

I've taken it as an anti-challenge - Groundspeak is not the boss of me. August makes it easy.

 

The challenge - rejecting it - has been great for keeping the balance in my life. B)

 

Well, they do encourage us to be "well-rounded" so I guess they got what they want out of you after all! :ph34r::lol:

 

We're going to the Block Party on Saturday and when I get there I'm going to find Jeremy, kiss him smack on the lips, and tell him he can make as many mistakes as he likes because I LOVE THIS GAME! :P

Whoah, intense! :laughing: He gave me a hug, but I draw the line at kissing. ;)

Link to comment

Day 23: Which Rock Is It?-Seven miles, 2000' elevation gain, low bush blueberries the size of my thumbnail, warm overcast day after a week of cold rain, one cache, priceless.

4896dc7e-d2ea-4ed7-8d67-3faca49fdaf5.jpg

 

Day 24: Hook a Left at Wolverine-Eleven miles, 3400' elevation gain, warm extreme blue day, three caches, also priceless.

779302f8-0530-499c-8481-648e4bda4590.jpg

 

I eventually would have done those hikes/trail runs, but the Challenge spurred me to get up and out while the getting was good.

Edited by Ladybug Kids
Link to comment

We're going to the Block Party on Saturday and when I get there I'm going to find Jeremy, kiss him smack on the lips, and tell him he can make as many mistakes as he likes because I LOVE THIS GAME! :P

Whoah, intense! :laughing: He gave me a hug, but I draw the line at kissing. ;)

 

I'll admit I didn't kiss him - or hug him - it was late in the day and the poor guy was exhausted :lol: We did have a very nice chat though, and I had a chance to just say thank you. I hope all the Lackeys hear that more often.

Link to comment

We're going to the Block Party on Saturday and when I get there I'm going to find Jeremy, kiss him smack on the lips, and tell him he can make as many mistakes as he likes because I LOVE THIS GAME! :P

Whoah, intense! :laughing: He gave me a hug, but I draw the line at kissing. ;)

 

I'll admit I didn't kiss him - or hug him - it was late in the day and the poor guy was exhausted :lol: We did have a very nice chat though, and I had a chance to just say thank you. I hope all the Lackeys hear that more often.

Sounds good! B)

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...