Last summer on our way home from New Hampshire, as we were driving on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, we crossed into Jefferson County. I immediately started to looking to see where there might be a cache close to the highway. We were running low on gas and we were hoping to get back to Indiana that night. I needed Jefferson County to complete GC53G0K MaxB’s All the Presidents Men – County Challenge.
The challenge was simple: Find a cache in 10 counties that share the last name of a president. We’ve had 45 presidents, though I doubt there is an Obama or Trump County anywhere in the United States.
I had found caches in Monroe County, Michigan; Adams County, Indiana; Grant County, Indiana; Clinton County, Indiana; Johnson County, Iowa and Johnson County, Indiana (two President Johnsons — Andrew and Lyndon); Madison County, Indiana; Van Buren County, Michigan; and Polk County, Florida. That’s nine counties representing nine presidents. I needed one more. And there at a truck stop where we could get some gas, I found a cache in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Ten counties, 10 presidents. Challenge complete.
I found the cache signed the challenge near Niles, Michigan, on Aug. 26, 2019. Challenge accepted, challenge complete. Ever since I first heard of challenge caches and saw that one on the map, I have spent time working on it. In July, I had planned to drive to Ford County, Illinois, but I got a late start on the day and went out of my way to find an EarthCache that didn’t meet my goals for that day, so I skipped driving an extra 30 miles one way to Ford County, Illinois. That left me still one county short.
I’ve got a list of more than 100 challenge caches I’m working on or have already completed and I just need to find and sign the cache. I recently completed the necessary requirements for two tri-state challenges near where Indiana, Ohio and Michigan come together. All I need to do is go find and sign the caches.
In July, the day I did not go to Ford County, Illinois, I found and signed a number challenge caches in White County, Indiana, including a 366 days a year challenge. The beauty of challenge caches is that you can sign them ahead of time, you just can’t log it as a find until you complete the challenge. I signed that log in July. In October, I completed the challenge and recorded a find. Other challenges I signed and logged as finds that day included three states in a single (which I’ve done several times), 1,000 traditional finds and 15 souvenirs. One challenge I wanted to find and sign that day but missed it somehow was finding a cache in each of the states that border Indiana. I have just two Kentucky finds and just four finds in Illinois, but they’re finds and they count.
Other challenges I’ve completed but haven’t found are 10 nontraditional caches in a day; two countries in one day; 31 day streak.
Challenges I’m working but haven’t completed include the Ada to Zion Great Lakes Cities Challenge. I still need a J, an X and a Y. I hope to get to Xenia and Yellow Springs, Ohio, on the same day. Jackson, Michigan, is my target J. Another is A Capital Idea. That involves finding caches in 10 capital cities. I have seven — Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Concord and Boston in the US and Reykjavik, Amsterdam and Paris in Europe. Neither Columbus nor Lansing is very far away.
Some challenges are a little more difficult. Find so many different cache types in a day; elect Signal the Frog president (my recent trip west in which I found a cache in the Electoral College-heavy state of California pushed Signal over the top); connect 20 states with contiguous counties. I’m working on them.
In December I got a first to find on a challenge cache. It was find 100 or more caches with the restroom attribute. When I saw the cache in my email that morning, I ran the challenge checker, saw I had qualified, so I high-tailed it to New Haven, Indiana, to sign the cache.
What about you? What challenges do you chase when geocaching? Or do you not chase challenges?
Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger 