Challenge Juggling

[+Vicious Cycle]

One thing that I find challenging (pun intended) is trying to juggle all of the challenges. For instance...I'm working on the DeLorme, Counties, Jasmer, Fizzy, and 366. There are also some local challege caches such as finding various amounts of different tyes and sizes of caches (e.g. 1000 micros or 100 mystery). I suppose I'm at a point in my Geocaching "career" that I'm really enjoying seeing the progress I'm making. I just hit 1,000 finds last month so I still have a long way to go to finish a lot of these challenges, but I'm starting to see that I may in fact one day actually finish a bunch of them. It will just take some time.

 

I particularly enjoy planning trips. In fact...I probably spend more time planning the Geocaches I'm going to find on trips than I do actually finding the caches when I go on these trips. LOL

 

What challenges are you all working on? There's probably a lot out there that I'm not even aware of yet.

 

 

[+Smitherington]

Working on challenges is something fairly recent for me. I have been at it for a while so I do qualify for a substantial number of the challenge caches.  I have not taken trips specifically targeting challenges but I am willing to go out of my way to access them.  So ahead of time I look for them.  And even though they may be LPC or guardrail caches I prefer them to traditional caches hidden in the same locations because with the challenge I get more of a feeling of accomplishment.
 

Recently I came across Challenge: tsiwT a htiW egnellahC ciremunahplA, GC4JKF3.  I almost qualify but I need a cache that ends in ‘J’.  I would certainly go out of my way for one of those.

 

Normally if I see a challenge cache I assume there are others around. They are referred to as Challenge Row at times.  That gives me several to find or to work on.

 

There were some near GeoWoodstock XIX and BAMARAMA which I included in my travels this year.

[+GeoElmo6000]

I finished my 366 challenge with my 800th cache which was pretty good.  This year my goal was to close out my Jasmer for years 2001-2006, but I wound up finishing up every month from October 2000 through this month.  Which means my next step is going to be two trips to get the other five months from the year 2000.  Two months are driveable with an overnight trip, but the other three need a plane ride.  I'm hoping to get those last five this year, completion my 2nd tier stretch goal.

[+barefootjeff]

The challenges I enjoy the most are the ones where the qualifying caches are themselves great experiences. The most memorable so far is one that required 24 finds on caches with a 2/4 D/T rating. At the time it was published I only had four qualifying finds but spent a year travelling about and building that up until I finally got there. There are a couple of others in a similar vein that I'm slowly working towards, one requiring 40 finds on T4+ caches with the Scenic View, Cliffs/Falling Rocks and Difficult Climb attributes (so far I have 23) and the other requiring 42 2/4 caches of which 4 have to be in each of 4 different Australian states and 2 have to be outside Australia. Another good one I enjoyed, which was published fairly recently, requires 55 T3.5+ finds on caches within the NSW Central Coast local government area, as many of the qualifying caches for that are in awesome locations.

[+MNTA]

Juggling challenges is so true. I've resorted to using a document to detail all the challenges I'm actively working on. Days I need to make a find and key words, attributes

 

Currently working on:

 

1) Mystery caches every day of the year. Down to three days left in November 

2) Five caches every day. 16 days left scattered from tomorrow to December 

3) Attributes: >10km need 1 & 3, <10km need 41, cows need 11

4) Key words: "End of the Road", "balanced", wine related

5) type: Need 15 Letterbox, 46 virtual, 25 lab

6) Locations: Nevada Multi, Tennessee, Alaska, Louisiana,  Kauai Hawaii, counties named after presidents

 

Every trip I look for caches that may help.

[+NanCycle]

Recently took a trip to southeastern New Mexico just to get five more NM counties.  (We were staying in SantaFe for a couple weeks.)  While on this trip I also scored a cache hidden in the month of Mar 2021.

[+JL_HSTRE]

I want to finish my Jasmer but I don't know when I will get out west to fill the missing months in 2000.

 

Every time I pass through Georgia I make a point to nibble away on the counties and Virtuals (there's a challenge cache for the latter). I'm also trying to visit all the state parks there. The corresponding series recently got refreshed, but that was more a convenient checklist.

 

I started Cache Across America for my 5000th. I'm only up to about 6 now. I make sure to include them in my travel plans.

 

Florida now has a series of challenge caches for 5 of the 7 oldest caches in each county (one per county). I already gave some preference to oldies so that's added incentive. Orange County is frustrating as 4 of the 7 are Virtuals on Disney property and I'm not planning to go there any time soon. (I've been once in the last decade. Unlike most Floridians I an not a Disneyphile - I hate crowds and waiting in lines.)

[+Vicious Cycle]

2 hours ago, JL_HSTRE said:

I started Cache Across America for my 5000th. I'm only up to about 6 now. I make sure to include them in my travel plans.

Oh man! I just Googled "Cache Across America" and found the cache page. I'm going to regret ever asking what challenges people were working on! LOL

 

On 5/30/2023 at 4:47 PM, Smitherington said:

Recently I came across Challenge: tsiwT a htiW egnellahC ciremunahplA, GC4JKF3.  I almost qualify but I need a cache that ends in ‘J’.  I would certainly go out of my way for one of those.

I found someone who posted a link to the Project-GC challenge checker for this cache and "J" is the only one I'm missing too!

[+jasmerb]

FWIW, I'm working on the Jasmer Challenge myself.

[+niraD]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:48 PM, Vicious Cycle said:

What challenges are you all working on?

Before we moved in 2020, I had been working on a USGS quadrangle challenge and a "bingo" challenge. The USGS quadrangle challenge is grandfathered; new location-based challenges using USGS quadrangles or other GPS coordinates are no longer allowed. And the "bingo" challenge had 24 different challenges; you have to complete 5 challenges that form a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally (or only 4 challenges if you use the "free" middle square).

 

Alas, I didn't complete either one before we moved. I haven't started working on any other challenges since then.

[+Vooruit!]

I'm actually working on stuff for which no challenge exists, and probably never will:

• complete the virtual D/T matrix
• complete the earth cache D/T matrix
• find 1000 large caches

[+thebruce0]

I've been all about challenges for years. We started the Challenge Talk podcast in 2020 which is great for challenge enthusiasts.

Personally there are so many challenges in Ontario now that I'm not so much working focused on specific challenges any more, but passively working on any I don't qualify for yet As mentioned above, I have a doc that lists all the challenges I know of and I periodically update them all with current progress, and whether they're qualified (then log it as such with a note); and if I sign in first I mark it in the doc as found as I know once it's qualified I can just log it found.

 

Going on trips is prime time to prioritize finding qualifying caches. But I also have them sorted by priority. Dates needing find specific qualifying caches go straight on my calendar so I know "today I've got to find 5 caches, 2 letterboxes, 1 Other, and a 3.5/4" for example. If I'm traveling then region and location becomes priority. Any rare caches in the vicinity of travel go on the stop-and-find list. Especially region oldests, jasmer caches, rare DTs, or even just properties that don't appear nearly as often near to home.

 

Rarely ever on a trip do I just casually find caches. There are too many and the vast majority don't help towards any qualifications.  Even so, before casual caching I'd be searching for high favourite points for the best chance at maximizing my travel's experiences.

 

Challenges give that extra goal, a new layer on top of regular geocaching (like geocaching on top of the real world :P)

[+sloth96]

Maintaining jasmer level.

Completing a fizzy grid for as many cache types as possible.  

Completing fizzy grid for as many attributes as possible.

Completing as many US counties as possible. 

Completing as many states as possible regardless of country.

 

Completing as many cache types for 365 placed and found dates seems to have slid to background.

 

I still like chasing reviewers even though no new challenges can be issued for this.

 

 

[+Mysterion604]

It's happening to me quite a bit lately. I did not used to do challenges when I first started, but after a year I started and gradually tackled more "serious" challenges.

I doubt I will ever complete the grid of 81 because I am very limited in my ability to go to T5 places (what few T5's I have done were more like T5 for technical reasons). 

 

However, I am chipping away at some 365ers: Mysteries (a long way off, and boy do I wish I had been more careful with my logging of those types early on), traditionals (just completed), and small-sized caches. Juggling those is proving tricky at times, and add to that my effort to not duplicate the days when I log multis (not for a current challenge, but in case of a future one). Another toughie has been filling in a 365er of "hidden on" dates, and the full alphabet of cache owner names. I am not 100% going after those, just being opportunistic.

 

I have never cached outside of BC, so I won't even come close to qualifying for any cross-Canada, 50 states, or multi-country / continent challenges. However, this is by far the most mountainous province in Canada, so even as an urban dweller, I have qualified for some minor altitude-based and terrain-based challenges.

 

I have only been caching since August 2020, so I have never encountered the Feb. 29th leap day yet. You can be certain that I plan to get one of every type (including an event) I can on that day next year, if only so I don't have to wait another 4 years to qualify for some of these 366ers. I may even  hide a cache that day (official hide date),  if I can manage it. 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by mysterion604

[+Smitherington]

Now that is planning ahead!