Today as I write, it’s 2 January 2020. I am setting a goal for the new year to write and post a blog entry at least twice a week. I haven’t posted anything since October, and that’s way too long to go.
Before I dive into 2020, I want to look back on 2019. I found 369 caches in 2019, including three on New Year’s Eve to earn the Goodbye 2019 souvenir from Geocaching HQ.
In addition, I cached on 147 days, not quite every other day. My best months were July (69 finds), October (68 finds), August (50 finds). My worst months were January (5 finds), February (12 finds) and November (13 finds). I found 70 Blue ? puzzle/unknown/mystery caches for a total of 99. I found 4 multis, 11 virtuals, 3 letterbox hybrids and 7 EarthCaches. I attended 1 mega — Midwest Geobash.
I think earned all of the souvenirs Geoching HQ put out last year except the second season of CITO. There was none in my area, and I guess I was too lazy to set up one myself.
I picked up seven new states (Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachsetts and New Jersey) on a camping trip my family took in August.
On to 2020
This year, Geocaching turns 20. It was in May 2000 that the Clinton administration removed the blocks that were on GPS satellites, which allowed civilian GPS devices to get within 20 feet of accuracy rather than 300. Shortly thereafter, a man named Dave Ulmer hid the first geo stash somewhere in Oregon and posted the coordinates on a message board. Soon, others were hiding similar stashes. And from that Geocaching.com was born.
Geocaching HQ has big plans for 2020. They are planning community events throughout the world in addition to a big party in Seattle in August. People attending those community events will get a special icon on their profile page. Plus, Geocaching HQ is releasing one locationless cache that is tied to Signal the Frog, geocaching’s mascot.
In Colby, Kansas, an event is planned called Mingo Madness that will celebrate GC30 Mingo, the oldest active geocache in the world. It was hidden in May 2000. In the Chicago area is GC28 Beverly, which was also hidden in May 2000. The Mingo Madness event is May 2.
On the Geocaching Podcast last night, it was announced that the GPS Maze will be at Midwest Geobash in July. The GPS Maze returned to the US last year for the Geowoodstock Mega event in Fort Worth, Texas. I was unaware of the GPS Maze before the announcement that it would be in Texas. I’ve seen different vloggers’ videos of the maze. I’ve never seen anything like it. The maze included a history of geocaching along with examples of different kinds of caches and cache containers. I’m looking forward to going to Wauseon, Ohio, to do the maze.
I would like to go out to Seattle in August for the HQ event and then to British Columbia the following week for Geowoodstock. Cash — yes, that kind of cash — could be a problem. So I might just organize my own non-Geowoodstock event here in Indiana. Don’t know yet. It’s months away and yet it will be upon us before we realize it.
It’s early January, and I already have more finds this month than I did all of last January 2019. I co-hosted a New Year’s Day event here in Fort Wayne and then a bunch of us went into a nearby wooded area at the park and did a bit of geocaching. I found five in the park and had a couple of DNFs. Several new caches were published on New Year’s Day. I did not get any FTFs. I hope more are published this month so that I have a shot at an FTF. I have an FTF streak going. I have at least one FTF in every month since June.
Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger 