From zero to 10

When I woke up Tuesday morning, I had yet to ever find a geocache on the First of October. When I went to bed Tuesday night, I had found 10. Seven of those 10, by the way, were FTFs, or first to finds.

Monday evening when I was at work, I thought my phone was going to explode as a I kept getting notifications for newly published caches. I looked. One, in New Haven, looked like a possibility. I could drive out there after work and maybe get a first to find. Then, I remembered I had ridden my bike to work and I wasn’t going to ride out there at 12:30 in the morning, so that idea was quickly scuttled.

I got home from work, published a blog post and went to bed figuring all of those caches published Monday night would all be found before I had a chance to find any.

Well, that wasn’t the case. Nine caches published east of Waterloo, Indiana, went unfound all day Tuesday, and after I took my teenage son to his theater class in Auburn, I drove up to Waterloo to see if I could find them. One, which on the map looks to be on private property, I decided not to go for because it had a 4 difficulty, 3 terrain rating, and I was wearing sandals (88 degrees Fahrenheit). The others were park and grab caches. Off I went.

Before I continue the Waterloo adventure, let me back up to Jefferson Township Park here in Allen County. Early Tuesday a new cache was published in Jefferson Township Park near where a local radio-controlled airplane club has a runway. I drove the 10-plus miles out to the park and quickly found the cache. Fresh log. My first FTF of the day, and my first find ever on the First of October. Just six days left in my 366 grid.

Since I was at the park, and three other caches were in the park, I decided to see if I could find them too. So on a hot cloudless day, I crisscrossed the park on foot looking for the other three caches. I found them all and got wet feet along the way.

Pretty good day, as far as I was concerned.

Now, back to Waterloo. I skipped the cache that appeared to be on private property. I’ve since learned that the cache is in a pocket park in Waterloo. Google satellite map shows what appears playground equipment, but the Google street view shows none of that. The park recently opened, and the street view was photographed six years ago.

Well, I drove to the first cache on the list, next to a small cemetery, opened the container and found a fresh log. I drove to the next at a T intersection. Same thing. Fresh log. I drove to the next and after signing the log, I was stopped by a guy in a red Cadillac. He wanted to know what I was doing out here. I pointed to a small pond and said I was taking pictures of it. He was skeptical, told me about another small pond on the other side of his property, and drove off. I get to the next cache. This time a guy driving a jeep stops to see what I’m up to. Taking pictures of the milkweed, I explain. He drives on. I’m spooked.

I skip the next cache because I feel as if the eyes of rural DeKalb County are watching and decide to head back to Auburn. I come to the first road that appears to go south all the way to U.S. 6. There is one-room schoolhouse. I stop and start taking pictures, and find the new cache near the schoolhouse. Another FTF. About a half-mile south I come to where the road jogs and there was a cache there too. So I find it and sign it. Six caches in a nine-cache series. All newly published. All FTFs. Nature was calling and I really needed to get back to Auburn. I skipped the final cache in the series and drove west toward Waterloo and Auburn.

The seven FTFs is a record for me. My previous high was three, back in June when I rode my bike up near the Purdue University Fort Wayne campus to find those.

Now, I don’t consider myself an FTF hound. I now have FTFs in five straight months, a streak that started with those three in early June. Project-GC says I have 25 FTFs, and that was before Tuesday’s seven, which puts me at 32.

Are you an FTF hound? If so, are you like the guy in this video?