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Goals (not ghouls)


Jayeffel

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Just wondering how many cachers make some sort of goal to achieve in regard to geocaching.

I know  there are those people who say you need goals in every aspect of your life, not me.

 

Last year (2020) I did have a plan if not a goal, to find more caches in the year than I did the previous, in the process also find more per month. That did work out, except for a few months.

 

This year I fell behind, some due to my wife being in and out of the hospital and now rehab in a nursing home. I did look up what I need to find per day until the end of the year to match last year. I need 41.1666 caches per day to accomplish that, counting today.

 

I wish all cachers a great new year in all aspects of their lives.

 

edit 12/31: I figured out today that I need 246 caches to tie last year, may be a little short.

Edited by Jayeffel
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https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/354345-goals-for-2020/

 

https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/350740-goals-for-2019/

 

And there are more... typically someone starts a Goals for .... the coming year.  And updates happen periodically tthroughout the year  as we see how we are doing ... 

 

The thread for 2021 goals seems to have disappeared, but it IS time to start a new thread for 2022.

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3 hours ago, Jayeffel said:

Just wondering how many cachers make some sort of goal to achieve in regard to geocaching.

I know  there are those people who say you need goals in every aspect of your life, not me.

 

For me, one of the appealing things about caching is its spontaneity. Things like the (increasingly rare) surprise of a new cache being published locally, or just deciding at the drop of a hat to go for a drive or train trip to Newcastle or Sydney to do a bit of caching. I've seen others set themselves goals that have turned caching into a chore and then, once the goal is reached, have burned themselves out and disappear from the game. I don't want that to happen to me as I hopefully have plenty of retirement years ahead and want caching to remain an important part of that.

 

As a result, even after nearly nine years in the game I still have eight empty squares in my D/T grid, my longest streak is 7 days which was for the Streak Week promotion a few years back and my "best" caching day was 22 finds at the 2018 Morisset mega. Statistically, 2021 is shaping up to have been my worst caching year:

 

image.png.e8cfaf4cd0f8598a2b42dfeabc980979.png

 

I also set my longest slump of 104 days this year, due to the extended COVID lockdown. I suppose if I do have a goal, it's not to beat that record next year! But looking back, 2021 was also a pretty good caching year for me, with five new caches published (including one in a national park), two events attended and another coming up this Friday (much better than 2020), some memorable finds, some memorable DNFs and, most importantly, some memorable days out with my caching friends:

 

CachingFriends.jpg.6788f5909d3c6aa37348159b8f0c759c.jpg

 

Those are the things that keep caching fun.

Edited by barefootjeff
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I generally don't have goals for geocaching, but this year I was trying to complete a fourth year of caching trips each day.  I needed a find on the 23rd, 25th, and 26th of this month.  The 23 third was no problem, I was able to sneak a find in on the way to Christmas Dinner yesterday, but today didn't start off well.  It was snowing this morning when we got up (there had been flurries yesterday but nothing stuck) and by afternoon there was 6.5 inches around our place.  Late afternoon the snow stopped and enough traffic was out that I thought I'd try of a couple of GRC's down in the valley (400 feet below us) - since those wouldn't be affected much by this snow fall and we have Subaru's which handle the snow well.  The road down the hill was pretty clear (wet with slush in places) and there was only 3-4 inches in the valley.  I found both hides (just over a 1/10th of mile apart) just at sunset (not noticeable with lighting, but the GPSr changed to night mode at the last cache).  Whew!  Made it.  Now I can relax until 2024 when I can get a fifth Leap Day cache trip...

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The only goal I try to meet is get more caches per month and year than there last. The first few years were okay. Last year  I was able to get out more and find more. This year is not so good for a few reasons.

 

One is the distance to caches not yet found. It is getting more costly to go to them. In have all but one in my home town, a few in neighboring towns ( most of these I will probably forego--- crawling through drainpipes etc). 

 

The second and main reason is since April my wife has either been in the Er, Hospital, Doctors Office or Nursing Home rehab (which may be until March) so often that caching is not that feasible. I know it be a good diversion from worries though. But I kind of feel guilty because she is not able to enjoy herself.

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I still managed to hide a few caches this year, and find some despite the lockdowns and restrictions going around. I found 113 caches this year, which might go up to 114 for New Years Eve...and had 11 caches hidden. 3 events too.

 

I'm happy with what I have hidden and accomplished this year, despite not finding many caches. (this is the smallest amount of finds since 2017).

 

Next year, I have some intentions...

 

--> Hide 6 caches. (I already have a decent amount in the city I live in...hiding a lot more would be tough for me since maintenance is already starting to be a bit annoying at times)

 

--> Host 4 events. I want to beat my events record in a year, partly because I find being a host is rather fun frankly!

 

--> Host my C.C.E. : THis is a tough thing to do....I had plans to host this event in a park, but city limitations are rather annoying and well, costly.

 

--> Find a few caches. I'm not going to put out a number or anything, but I would be happy finding  afew, of different tyes and sizes. But nothing as a goal that I should feel compelled to do.

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While I keep track of all the challenges in my region and work both passively and actively at completing them over time, I wouldn't call that a 'goal' in this context; that's just my way of enjoying the hobby, working towards a well-rounded variety of experiences and accomplishments, as it were. I think the most prominent goals though are the ones that more directly dictate my geocaching habits - mainly, time sensitive goals. Date-found requirements, or count-per-time-periods.  I'm 2 of 3 years complete for an old challenge to find 2000 caches for 3 consecutive years. And I'm working on a couple of date-found year grid challenges. Those can't be passively completed, relatively speaking, so those I'd consider my active goals.

 

Otherwise, find awesome geocaches and geocaching experiences, and work to continue to promote the awesome hobby to the general public :)

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My goals were modest.  Two years ago my goal to find a cache on Pitcairn Island ended when I was in a serious accident - and then the Island shut down due to Covid  - so I don’t expect to ever complete it.  When I was in the ICU an earthcache of mine was archived by a reviewer so one successful goal in the past year was not to let that happen again.  
 

During 2021, I successfully completed a goal of finding a kayak cache, finding a cache while tracking down petroglyphs, caching with friends, adding some National Parks to my find list.  Certain goals eluded me when I overestimated my recovery or underestimated the weather.  

 

In the coming year a cache in the Yukon might be a goal, but my goals have always been associated with places rather than numbers.  

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It looks like I've just been given a goal. One of my caching friends had an old (2012) traditional at Phegans Bay (GC41F6J) but the container melted in a recent bushfire hazard reduction burn and, rather than replace it, he archived it to open up the spot for someone else. He's since messaged me to suggest I should be that someone else :o.

 

It's certainly an impressive place, with expansive views from the top across Woy Woy Bay and Umina Beach to the sea:

 

TopViews.jpg.652583db62fb61520e1a9a233d8807e2.jpg

 

There's another track that runs along below the cliff-line with an equally impressive assortment of sandstone caves:

 

Caves.jpg.b93790119e85115292db44b04bfaa612.jpg

 

If I accept his challenge, I want the new cache to be something worthy of the location so my early thinking is a multi with stages at the views and in some of the caves. It's a bit of a muggle hot-spot, though, so part of the challenge will be to come up with waypoints and a final that won't be likely to go missing. I'm also thinking of building some redundancy into the waypoints so that if one does go missing it won't make the cache unfindable. The nearest other cache is over 600 metres away so there aren't any saturation constraints on the headland and I can use as much of it as I want.

 

Opportunities like this don't come along very often, particularly so close to home, so this isn't something I'm going to rush into. My goal for at least the early part of 2022 will therefore be to mull over ideas and try to come up with something truly befitting this amazing site.

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I only have three geocaching goals:

1. To find a cache or caches in 50 countries around the world. I'm currently on 44 countries.... darn Covid!!! No overseas travel for me at the moment. 😖

2. To find a cache or caches on all 7 continents. I've found them on six continents so far, just Antarctica to go. One day!!!

3. To visit the site of the first geocache placement near Portland, Oregon. From Australia, it's a long way to that spot!!!! 🦘

Edited by Calypso62
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I have had past goals like getting a higher D or T average than any earlier year. They are not allowed as challenge caches since they make me skip caches to achieve the goal.

 

Another one was to log more than one cache per day on the average. Also not allowed as challenge cache since... oh well.

 

This year, I had two goals: Full calendar with traditionals (fulfilled today) and double calendar (can be finished two weeks from now). Both are allowed as challenge caches despite that they make me skip even more caches to achieve the goal! Challenge caches are weird so I make my own goals.

 

I make no goals that require long travels. I don't want to waste resources on long travels that are made only for caching. If I have some other, more important reason, then the caches will be a bonus.

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Obviously the last year or 2 has put many thoughts on setting goals on hold - though that said a few have been achieved.

For 2021 one goal that we considered late on (we hadn't thought about it until we realised we were close only a few weeks ago) was to find our 2021st FTF before the end of the year and then hide the car keys before Saturday 1st Jan so that our first FTF of 2022 would be our 2022nd FTF. 
We were lucky to have a few odd single new caches pop up over the last few days and yesterday we got that 2021st FTF 

 

For 2022 however we maybe looking to finally completing the Jasmer grid - with only a couple to go and hopefully one of those organised (travel permitted) we could get that goal achieved before the end of 2022
Also we could look to completing our DT grid 12x during 2022 - and if we find the right trail that could stretch to 13 or 14x -
Add a few more countries to our current tally too - but again that is all travel premitted dependent 
So a few goals there 

 

Happy New Year to all

Tim

 

 

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My goal for 2021 was to finally cross the 1,000 counties cached in bar. With the help of a cross country move and some LONG weekends in Pennsylvania, I was able to finally do that this year (currently sitting at 1,061 counties cached in). 

 

My goal for 2021 is to reach a 366 day streak (currently at day 208) and to finish up two more state county challenges (based on where I'm currently living I'm hoping those will be Oregon and Washington). 

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On 12/30/2021 at 10:54 PM, Calypso62 said:

I only have three geocaching goals:

1. To find a cache or caches in 50 countries around the world. I'm currently on 44 countries.... darn Covid!!! No overseas travel for me at the moment. 😖

2. To find a cache or caches on all 7 continents. I've found them on six continents so far, just Antarctica to go. One day!!!

3. To visit the site of the first geocache placement near Portland, Oregon. From Australia, it's a long way to that spot!!!! 🦘

 

I've decided to add a 4th goal......

 

4. Complete more barefootjeff caches!!! 👍😀👍

 

The caches I've done of his have been fantastic. They are well maintained and in great places. I'm more about geocaching experiences rather than grabbing smileys to fill grids, streaks, etc. BFJ caches certainly give me terrific geo-experiences.

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https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/01/top-5-new-years-geocaching-resolutions/

 

As we ring in 2022 with open arms and open minds, there’s nothing better than taking a few moments to acknowledge what we accomplished in 2021 and to look forward to new experiences. New Year’s resolutions are a great way to set and visualize goals. They can be small and achievable, or elaborate and inspirational.

To help you set new goals for your geocaching adventures in 2022, we’ve created 5 New Year’s geocaching resolutions to add to your list!

Edited by Max and 99
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9 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/01/top-5-new-years-geocaching-resolutions/

 

As we ring in 2022 with open arms and open minds, there’s nothing better than taking a few moments to acknowledge what we accomplished in 2021 and to look forward to new experiences. New Year’s resolutions are a great way to set and visualize goals. They can be small and achievable, or elaborate and inspirational.

To help you set new goals for your geocaching adventures in 2022, we’ve created 5 New Year’s geocaching resolutions to add to your list!

 

I seem to be going okay so far:

 

Find more cache types

The nine caches I've found this year consist of four traditionals, four mysteries and a multi. Plans are afoot for a group kayaking expedition in a couple of weeks to a new virtual on an island in Lake Macquarie, and there was also a new water-access T5 EarthCache published up-river from here that I want to attempt when I have half a day free and the tides and winds are favourable.

 

Attend an Event

I attended one on New Year's Eve and have logged Will Attends on a couple more in the coming months. There was also an informal gathering of our little caching group on New Year''s Day for some caching in the bushland around Newcastle.

 

Group.jpg.6fc37e49aa1080f4b99b134eb37d423b.jpg

 

Attempt higher difficulty and terrain geocaches

My average D/T rating for this year is 3.4/3.0, with the highest a 5/4:

 

CaveCaching.jpg.9c9d46078e5329290deb3d43be348089.jpg

 

So I think I'm doing okay although it'll probably be mostly downhill from here for the rest of the year.

 

Hide a cache

The new multi that I mentioned earlier in this thread, The Bushranger's Legacy, is getting close to completion and I hope to submit it for publication next week. The spot I've found for the final is pretty awesome, I think, and the themed container and contents are ready to go:

 

Cache.jpg.6fc2b710598e980e566fb87f9f0e0912.jpg

 

Go Premium in 2022!

That comes up for renewal in April and, barring anything unforeseen, will continue.

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On 1/14/2022 at 7:09 AM, barefootjeff said:

Attempt higher difficulty and terrain geocaches

 

My average D/T rating for this year is 3.4/3.0, with the highest a 5/4:

 

CaveCaching.jpg.9c9d46078e5329290deb3d43be348089.jpg

 

So I think I'm doing okay although it'll probably be mostly downhill from here for the rest of the year.

Wow! That was really high! I would be happy if I could bring the average over 3. I am fond of high-T caches so taking it up in that region would be managable. But bringing both D and T up that high sounds impossible. But I might try.

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23 minutes ago, Ragnemalm said:

Wow! That was really high! I would be happy if I could bring the average over 3. I am fond of high-T caches so taking it up in that region would be managable. But bringing both D and T up that high sounds impossible. But I might try.

 

That 3..4/3 was only the average of the six caches I'd done since the start of this year. Overall, it's sitting at 2.08/2.22. One of my caching friends has an overall D/T average of 2.72/2.76 from 1455 finds which is pretty impressive I think!

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On 12/30/2021 at 10:51 PM, barefootjeff said:

Opportunities like this don't come along very often, particularly so close to home, so this isn't something I'm going to rush into. My goal for at least the early part of 2022 will therefore be to mull over ideas and try to come up with something truly befitting this amazing site.

 

My goal has been achieved, with The Bushranger's Legacy (GC9M6X5) now published. I think what I've come up with does justice to the location, particularly the final hide that has bushranger's stash written all over it (not literally, of course!). Being a T3.5 multi with the Difficult Climb attribute, I'm not expecting it to get more than a handful of finders, but I hope those who take up the challenge will enjoy it.

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I completely forgot to set goals in the forum for 2022. (And I don't know what happened to the 2021 goals thread, either.)

 

My 2021 goals were probably:

 

Attend the HQ celebration and visit HQ - not done, COVID booted it to the right again.

- Complete a county and DeLorme challenge - done! Did most of the New Jersey challenges in May 2021.

- Add two new states - not done. Not even one.

- Visit a new country - done! Logged finds in Cuba, finally.

- Find more "first/oldest active in" caches - done! Found gerbiL cacHe in May 2021.

 

My 2022 goals would have been:

 

- Attend the 2022 HQ celebration and visit HQ - done!

- Finish the West Virginia county and DeLorme challenges - done! Completed both during a very long weekend over five days earlier this month.

- Add two new states - done, Oregon and Indiana!

- Visit a new country - not done, my leave for Bahamas was denied. :tired:

- Find more "first/oldest active in" caches - done! Found GCD in WA and GC12 in OR in August, didn't go for WV's oldest in October, but got Ohio's (putative) oldest, Shawnee Lookout Cache, in October.

 

And one last 2022 goal: start a 2023 Goals thread before I forget!

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On 1/17/2022 at 10:02 PM, barefootjeff said:

 

That 3..4/3 was only the average of the six caches I'd done since the start of this year. Overall, it's sitting at 2.08/2.22. One of my caching friends has an overall D/T average of 2.72/2.76 from 1455 finds which is pretty impressive I think!

It is definitely high. I am at 2.11/2.18 and that is when actively prioritizing high T and D!

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The only goal I set myself for 2022 was the Phegans Bay multi which was published in late January. In spite of the almost constant rain that plagued most of the year, it was a pretty good caching year for me with 168 finds so far, a big improvement on last year's 98. There were also quite a few group caching trips (and several others planned but washed out), the highlight being a weekend in the Blue Mountains with lee737, Mighty Minions and Banj5150 culminating in the D2/T4 virtual Fortress (GC7B6E4) atop the 70-metre high Fortress Falls:

 

02f20008-5dd9-4e44-929f-75a985352c55.jpg

 

That cache went on to win this year's Geocaching NSW Cache of the Year.

 

This year I also placed five new hides (2 multis and 3 traditionals) and hosted a Community Celebration event:

 

2022Hides.thumb.jpg.d94ad7284cb8b8489f7b257d3b5c2f0f.jpg

 

The hides haven't generated much community interest, though, with none reaching double-digit find counts although it's still early days on the most recent two:

 

image.png.e9bb23875f0cb228cddaefd677cb5984.png

 

It seems most cachers these days only want to do quick roadside micros so maybe I should take a step back from bushland hides in 2023.

 

Sadly I had to archive six of my caches this year, mostly due to weather damage to the locations or access to them. Three consecutive la Ninas plus this year's negative Indian Ocean Dipole have taken their toll on a lot of caches here. The other disappointment has been a cache I wanted to place at a vantage point along the Great North Walk in Brisbane Water National Park. I visited the proposed site with the park ranger in June and, while she was happy enough that its hiding place wouldn't pose any direct danger to finders, she was concerned about the nearby cliffs and was unsure whether she'd be able to get it through her managers. To date they still haven't reached a decision and there now seems little likelihood of it eventuating.

 

To wrap up the year, there's another group caching trip planned for early next week plus a couple more Community Celebration events hosted by some Newcastle friends. So all in all, in spite of the weather, it's been a caching year to celebrate and fondly look back on.

 

 

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On 12/29/2021 at 12:31 PM, DreamMachine74 said:

I still managed to hide a few caches this year, and find some despite the lockdowns and restrictions going around. I found 113 caches this year, which might go up to 114 for New Years Eve...and had 11 caches hidden. 3 events too.

 

I'm happy with what I have hidden and accomplished this year, despite not finding many caches. (this is the smallest amount of finds since 2017).

 

Next year, I have some intentions...

 

--> Hide 6 caches. (I already have a decent amount in the city I live in...hiding a lot more would be tough for me since maintenance is already starting to be a bit annoying at times)

 

--> Host 4 events. I want to beat my events record in a year, partly because I find being a host is rather fun frankly!

 

--> Host my C.C.E. : THis is a tough thing to do....I had plans to host this event in a park, but city limitations are rather annoying and well, costly.

 

--> Find a few caches. I'm not going to put out a number or anything, but I would be happy finding  afew, of different tyes and sizes. But nothing as a goal that I should feel compelled to do.

 

This year went much differently with how I geocached compared to what I expected. 

 

- I only hid 3 hides as of today (I just placed a new cache today) and doubt I'll hide 3 more by next year.

 

- I had 3 events published, but cancelled one sice my schedule got in the way. So..really I hosted two events. I think next year I'll hit 4 event, I already have one for the 1st of January happening.

 

- My Community Celebration Event happened, but I think I could've hosted it another time. It wasn't ideal for most cachers and their schedules, but oh well.

 

- I found more caches than last year, and in multiple countries. That in itself is something I'm really quite happy with. I also finished my first fizzy in Fabruary, it took me 5 months to get that 81st square.

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