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GOALS for 2014


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With 2013 coming to a close and folks reviewing what they did over the past year, or you joined in 2013 and want to get more out of the game, discuss what goals you have set for 2014. It can be a numbers thing (reaching X number of caches by the end of the year, caching for 365/6 days, finding only large size caches, etc.).

 

Some may not have a goal, and you just want to go out and have fun. Great, but I'm sure many are goal oriented. I'm curious to see what others aim for.

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Interesting...

 

We finished our D/T grid this year, did lots of caching while traveling, including in four countries we had not cached before, and finished a few challenges we'd been working on.

 

For next year my wish would be to find more quality caches, continue traveling and caching, and slowly fill up our Jasmer calendar, which would mean more traveling :P

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Well, we had been hoping to get The Spot and State Game Lands 109 for the Jasmer Challenge in 2013. But due to health conditions, that did not happen. Maybe next year? Or, maybe we'll go to Hawaii, for Geocache place in July 2000! Maybe The Spot and SGL 109 as well! That would only leave us with one month to go!

Work on the Fizzy Challenge as well. But those 5 terrain caches are tough!

Try to seek good caches, and ignore those cheap power trails, nanos in the woods with coords 40-50 feet off, throw downs never maintained. And those new geotrails: Oh! Your cache is in our way. We're going to get it archived!

Yeah. Those are becoming more and more common.

So, we will try to have fun! Wish us luck!

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We finished (well, it's never really finished) the basic Jasmer in 2013. We almost made it to the Ape Cache...got within 9 miles. I think going back to Brasil in 2014 and getting that darn thing and viewing the park is a good goal. I came across something next to a dumpster that I would like to turn into a container in 2014. It would be cool to publish a cache with one of those creative artsy containers. That's a good goal also. I'll stick with those two for now.

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I'm not a power cacher by any means, but I think next year I'd like to set a new personal best for caches found, hide at least a cache a month, and host my first event (I only attended a couple of events for the first time this year). I'd also like to go on a couple of caching outings with other cachers for a change.....I usually cache solo, or sometimes the family tags along but they're not really cachers....my wife doesn't cache at all (but she will drive all day and enjoy the road trip aspect of the outing), and my daughter gets out sometimes, if the cache sounds interesting, but wouldn't know what end of a GPS to hold. 😉

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It has been a long time since I have had any particular goals related to this game, but somewhere in the back of my mind I think it would be nice to reach 500 earthcaches and 1000 virtuals. Neither are likely to happen during the coming year, but since they both require travel to interesting places, that fits in nicely with any kind of goal.

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Hmm...my goal for 2013 was to find more than 365 caches, which I achieved. I think in 2014 I'll shoot for 500. I'm not much for power trails, so that means lots of hiking for me! I'd also like to add another country, province, or state, which would require travelling either east or south or both (or really far west!), and there aren't currently any plans to do that. I'm trying to fill in my calendar grid too, which other than the 2 missed days last week was going reasonably well. Gotta get through winter!! Still achievable in 2014 if I don't muck it up!

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2014 will be our 11th full year of caching. We think that 2014 may be the first year that we do not get more caches than the previous year.

 

Every year we get more caches than the previous year. We will no longer work on doing that. This year we are working on getting 3650 for the year (average of 10 per day). Starting next year we will try again to get 3650 per year but not necessarily more than the previous year.

 

We currently have 5 cache finds on every day of the calendar and we hope to finish the year with 10 caches on everyday of the calendar. We also hope to collect a few more souvenirs for US States and Canadian provinces.

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I'm really not sure what 2014 will bring. Hopefully mostly close to home stuff, as I really traveled too much in the past year +.

 

In 2013 I managed to get 5 new states, 3 new countries, 1 new icon (Lab Cache), and a ginormous amount of virts and ECs (lots of National Parks and other natural areas). I was able to take an epic (for me) hike (log), as well as lots of other wonderful hikes over the year. The best part, was being able to visit with cachers from all over the world (twice!), and being able to see two of my best friends who live 2,000 + miles from me.

 

The only known trip coming up next year is to Wisconsin, so I'll be able to get two more states. I'd like to be able to meander on the trip and get a couple more Canadian provinces and a couple more U.S. states, but I'll be traveling with a big group so it likely won't happen.

 

I'm hoping for lots of hikes/nature, and lots more visits with friends! I have a "Must do" caches bookmark list, and I'm always trying to chip away at it. I was able to get a few on the list this year, and I should be able to get more next year.

Edited by Ambrosia
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Mostly to have fun. But there are 2 specific things that come to mind:

 

1. My calendar. Currently I am missing 15 dates in my "Finds found by Date"; 8 of those are this month. If I fill those in then I just have 7 dates (the last being March 1) to fill in.

 

2. My D/T Grid: I'm missing 7 combinations (all are T 4.5 or 5). I'd like to fill those in. Probably not until the summer.

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Put out some more perplexing caches - I have 3 puzzle ideas up my sleeve.

 

Have the cache with the most fave points in town. I've got a 6 and a 5 but there's one on 9...

 

Keep my fave point averaage up above 20%. I think 6 out of my 8 caches have earned points and I'm proud to be adding quality not quantity to the game.

 

Get to 365/366. I only started last October 27 and am on 339. By Valentine's Day I'll only have about 7 to do I think. then just wait for leap year!

 

Chip away at D/T grid if only to see some more challenging caches. On 43 or 44 or something at the moment, doing better on D than T!

 

I was actually going to start a separate thread but will just keep the idea on here - which of the myriad of stats are people actually trying to improve on their profile? I've just noticed my trads constitue 90.5% of my total and it would be nice to get that below 90%. I always enjoy puzzles and multis. Just noticed on the log of the puzzle I did at lunch, the previous finder was picking up ther 500th "?". She's now on 617 out of 2877 finds with 227 multis! I know another caching couple who've done over 50 puzzles in their total of about 540. Colouring in countries and counties is always good for a map freak like me. Can't really see any other stats that make me fret.

 

http://coord.info/GC14CGC is an interesting idea - chase 4 TBs to get to the final cache. Have got 2, "acquired" info about a 3rd so could walk to the final tomorrow as the 4th only changes the co-ords by a few feet. But I want to do it properly.

 

A significant part of my caching, with OS Junior and Mrs OS, and anyone else who happens to be with us, is caching on a Sunday afternoon after a pub lunch. So 52 new pubs, walks and anything from 1 to 20 caches each Sunday, will be lovely.

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I have no goals in geocaching (that sounds more like work for me). I have a wish instead, namely that my physical condition and the circumstances will allow me to at least get started with a further long distance hiking geocache (I completed two of this type in 2013 where one of them has been started back in 2012) and to visit a few nice hiking caches in the mountains that do not involve too many height meters.

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This year I have found a cache for ever county in my state (FL) and completed the corresponding Challenge Caches (North, South, and Final Florida Challenge Quests). I also filled my Placed Date Grid and Calendar Grid. All three were goals I had set for 2013. As an unintended bonus, I've also set a new personal record for Finds in a year (over 900, with a hope that I reach 1000 by Dec 31st).

 

For statistics my main goal is to fill the rest of my D/T Grid in 2014. I only have 9 spots left, but 7 of those are D4 or higher.

 

In general, my goal for 2014 is to resume going cache the areas that really interest me for the caches in places that really interest me while ignoring the rest. To fill my Calendar Grid this year I had to hunt a lot of urban micros and force myself to go find a cache on certain days where I was busy or tired or the weather sucked or whatever. This past Saturday I went to a preserve and two state parks, getting 18 Finds and enjoying myself (other than the heat of our faux-winter here in Florida). I look forward to many more weekends of the same (but hopefully with cooler temps).

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I would like to make a ton of progress on my local Open Space Preserves challenge-find the cache in each preserve and earn a special geocoin. Each one involves hiking and exploring new parks that I have not been to, so I am very excited. I just need to dedicate the time needed. There are about 20 different parks to complete the challenge.

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Really my only 'goal' is to keep my average for the year at or above 1.0

 

I don't care about grids or streaks or anything like that. I just like the idea of having found more geocaches each year than there are days in that year. ~shrug~

Funny, I started doing that too a couple of years ago. "A cache a day" seems like a good plan to live by... I need to get a few more by the end of the month.

 

Also, at least once during the year, when I'm out in the woods somewhere jumping a creek or climbing a tree I want to say, "This feels exactly like it did when I was 13 years old."

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I want to do many a a hike

Especially with people I like

I want to hike in the forest

I want to hike in the field

I want to do puzzles

And see their solutions revealed

I want to see new places

And put names to new faces

I want to do a lot of things

Though I might not do every single one

But out of all those things

I really just want to have a lot of fun

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I would like to make a ton of progress on my local Open Space Preserves challenge-find the cache in each preserve and earn a special geocoin. Each one involves hiking and exploring new parks that I have not been to, so I am very excited. I just need to dedicate the time needed. There are about 20 different parks to complete the challenge.
Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about the MROSD series. I'm working on that, as well as the Bay Area Quad Challenge, but I'm working on both slowly enough that I hesitate to call either a goal for 2014...
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Great idea for a thread. You've got me thinking now. :)

 

  1. Travel more - we love working on the Country, State,County, and DeLorme Challenges. Exploring is one of our favorite parts of the game.
  2. Hike more - we love getting outside and into the trees. Side benefit: fantastic exercise opportunities. I know that we want to start working on a challenge in Washington that requires visits to fire lookouts. I sense some beautiful vistas (ergo: "How I Spent my Weekend..." update pics) in our future.

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Finding someone to go geocaching with!

 

This is also a goal of mine. My daughter is always resistant - although she admits we have fun every time we go.

 

In addition, I'd like to make progress on GC11PZW

 

Completing the requirements for GC280PA (or its replacement).

 

No luck on the first one.

 

Found 20 more for the second one, only 21 to go.

 

Finished the third one.

 

Fun!

 

Interesting that I never set any tangible goals last new years -- I was probably still in recovery from the streak I did.

 

My perpetual goal is a date-restricted fizzy -- I managed to find three more for GC11PZW so only 18 left to go.

 

I fulfilled some Jasmers this year, casually, so I guess completing those might be a goal. This would also give me an excuse to visit Canada's first geocache

 

This was the year that one of my siblings became hooked on caching, while my daughter increased her resistance, rudely, to anything less than a T4. So I guess the goal is to better and further indoctrinate my family without proselytizing.

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Most of this year's resolutions are continuations of last year's:

 

1. Try to finish the Jasmer challenge. Hubby and I are hoping to travel to the western U.S. in September, and I hope to add stops to get the last 5 months I need. I managed to knock off 12 months last year.

2. Try to double my cache count - maybe even hit 10000. I've got plans for a caching trip to Nevada/So. Cal. in March with a few other cachers, and they're all hungering for some really high count days. Last year my summer geocaching was out the door because of house/yard renos.

3. Continue the cache streak I started on December 1st until I set a new personal record (prev. record was 192 days). I think it would be awesome to be able to make it to 1000 days, but I don't know how long into winter I can maintain my perseverance.

4. Enjoy traveling with my hubby, caching all the way, whether it be a day trip to drive around the countryside or on a 2-week adventure including driving the Rubicon Trail again!

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I'm so happy that geocaching is getting me out of the house everyday going for hikes or nice walks. I want to continue that.

I would like to find a cache every day this year.

I would also like to try some of these challenges I see mentioned. I think there is a challenge for the Massapequa Preserve which is steps from my home. That would be really great.

I've been invited to hike up Mt. Marcy in June and finding the Benchmark up there would be awesome.

 

Most of all, I would like to find people to cache with.

Edited by Sway_xx
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Good question.

 

- Have geocaching.com interface translated into Russian language.

- Continue the SideTracked series in Moscow, reach the milestone of at least 50 SideTracked caches, involve at least 3 more cachers into being COs of the SideTracked.

- Organize our 9th annual CITO event in May, probably early June, in Moscow region, use Facebook more actively, get more then 50 people involved in this meeting.

- Organize at least 5 smaller events in the downtown Moscow with historical/cultural sightseeing tours.

- Move another dozen of existing geocaches (mostly multi-steps and puzzles) back to game (they need some maintenance work and translation into English at the moment).

- Give a push to my first travel bug (I'm not a big fan of this sport but I've got one as a gift recently).

- Visit my first Mega-event, most likely in Latvia.

- Place a couple of dozens of caches apart from SideTracked in historical areas of our city and in the region.

- Travel abroad to get more knowledge about how geocaching is played here and there (haven't thought about any destinations yet).

- Hopefully travel to some mountain region in summer, need to settle questions about my maintenance plans for future caches in the middle of nothing :)

- Make my personal geocaching website nicer, it looks abandoned at the moment.

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Now that 2014 has begun, I can see few items I would like to do for 2014:

 

- Double my finds from 625 to 1250.

- add 10 more difficulty grid squares

- change the month I've found the most caches from April to another month

- change the day of the week I've found most caches from Sunday (or Saturday) to a day of the week

- Try my best to keep my annual find rate above 1.0000 the entire year.

- Increase calender days cached from 178 to 225

- Finally do some power trails (I stayed away from them in 2013)

- Increase new states by four

- more rare icon caches (Wherigo, webcam, virtuals, letterbox, mega event, etc.)

- more CITO. Maybe host a CITO

- place some super, ultra creative caches

- place some super, ultra ANNOYING caches (teases, time consuming, super hidden, etc.)

 

There is more, but that is the bulk of it. Oh, and I will continue to advocate for cachers to not be bullied into having their caches removed (archived) by groups or governments.

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My plan is to get back into Geocaching much more than I have of late. I started caching when I was a single dad with my two youngest kids, but they've grown up and went their own ways, so it's just me. Obviously, since I have only about 193 or so cache finds, I am not a power cacher of any kind. I slacked off once the kids went to live with their mom, etc.

 

I started caching back in 2000 - 2001 when all this first got started up. In 2002, during a trip to Yellowstone National Park, we got all six virtual caches that then existed, as well as a few traditional caches from outside the park in the surrounding areas. There weren't very many back then. Now, I am going to be working in Yellowstone this summer and when I went to look at the caches in the area, with a mind to get started back up, it is amazing how many caches are out that way now! I have a few virtuals up in that area from back in the day, when we could do that sort of thing, and now there are probably 20 or more virtuals just in the park alone! I'm going to be in cache heaven this summer, that's for sure. So I'm looking forward to that for sure.

 

Mac

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