Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger

Opening Day

I am going to digress from writing about geocaching for a moment to celebrate the opening of the baseball season today. Although the NFL has become king of sports in the United States, I’ll take baseball any day of the week, including Sundays in the fall.

I was listening to the Detroit Tigers play the Cleveland baseball team. When I came upstairs to write, the Tigers were up 3-0. Yes!

In addition to today being the first day of the baseball season, it is also the first day of #30DaysOfBiking, in which people pledge to ride their bicycles each of the 30 days of April. I’ve been looking forward to it all winter. As the snow and ice of February melted in March and temperatures warmed up, some days even hitting 70 degrees, I knew warm weather would rule throughout the 30 Days of Biking.

Well, Day 1 was anything but warm. The wind was howling out of the north, and snow was falling as I began my ride this morning. Here’s where geocaching comes in. I rode my bike across town to attempt an FTF. Since my FTF streak died in November, I have just one FTF. In January, I got an FTF on GC8FRY2 Flag on the Play, a puzzle cache that was hidden in November 2019. So far, I have the only find on that cache.

This morning I saw there was a new cache published in a cemetery here in town, and my first inclination was to hop in the car and drive over there, drive home after finding the cache, then go out on my bike. I was reminded it’s the beginning of 30 Days of Biking, so I did what any person would do, I got out my bike, checked the tires and went on my way. Nearly 4 miles later, I was at GZ with cache in hand. And a blank log.

After signing the log, I went to look for two other caches in the cemetery. One was in a pine tree, and I have not had much luck of late with pine tree caches. I found it quickly.

This monument was near the second cache I found April 1, 2021

After that find I went to a third cache. This one I did not find. I’ll have to go back. Maybe when it warms up a bit or the wind dies down.

For the ride home I found myself fighting the wind most the way home. The closer I got to home, the more worn out I felt. I wanted to stop and take a nap. When I got home I had a couple PB&J sandwiches, some hot tea and found the ballgame on the internet.

New souvenir challenge

Geocaching HQ announced a new souvenir challenge — The Science of Discovery — on Tuesday.

Beginning April 12 and running through July 11, we can earn up to four new souvenirs. This one emphasizes Adventure Labs, though all geocaches count. The goal is to get 300 points. Each Adventure Lab find gets 10 points, so if you do a five-stage AL, you’ll get 50 points and the first souvenir — Rocket Science. The others are Geology, 100 points; Environmental Science, 200 points; and Futurology, 300 points. Other breakdown for points are:

Found cache with 10 or more favorite points, 9 points
Found EarthCache, 8 points
Found Mystery cache, 7 points
Found Mult-cache, 6 points
Found any other cache type, 5 points

So you could go out and find 60 traditional cache and get your 300 points. But, clearly, Geocaching HQ is emphasizing Adventure Labs. I also like the added emphasis to EarthCaches.

A few Sundays ago, my wife and I went to Bluffton, Indiana, and completed an Adventure Lab there. There is also an EarthCache at the courthouse in Bluffton. I’ll have to go back and complete that one.

On top of this souvenir challenge is the continuing Wonders of the World challenge. I have gotten three of the four souvenirs, and I am missing just one cache to complete it.

I like these souvenir challenges because they make you rethink your geocaching agenda. I admit, though, the final Wonders of the World souvenir will come about organically just by finding a number of caches. I specifically searched out caches that would count for the Natural souvenir, and purposely found an EarthCache to complete that one.

What about you? What do you think of these souvenir promos?

Born explorers?

On one of its subchannels, my local public television station runs a promo between shows that claims we are all born explorers. I like that idea. Maybe that’s why I like geocaching so much. It gives me a chance to explore.

Back before geocaching was invented, I participated in something called volksmarching. I was first introduced to it during the 1970s after Uncle Sam’s Army sent me to West Germany. Large numbers of people gathered and walked a set route, either 10 kilometers or 20, at their own pace. At the end the walk, participants got an oversized medal.

In the 1980s, I discovered the volksmarching had come to the US, brought back by returning servicemen and women and their families. A local club was formed here in Fort Wayne by couple who had been school teachers at a Department of Defense school in Germany. In the 1990s, when my job changed and I consistently had weekends free, I would travel quite a bit to volksmarch. I have completed walks in New York, all of the New England states, as well as the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri.

In Indiana, walks were frequently scheduled in state parks. One of the state parks that seemed to host them annually was Mounds State Park near Anderson. I had not been to Mounds in probably 20 years. Mounds is named for the earthwork and mound building by the Adena and Hopewell cultures around 160 BC. The park contains 10 mounds and earthworks.

Wednesday, Capt TailWagger and I went to Mounds to hike and maybe find a cache or two. Mounds has four EarthCaches, two traditional caches and a Wherigo cache. I did two of the EarthCaches and a traditional.

The first EarthCache took us to the Great Mound, the largest and best preserved mound in the park. According to the Indiana DNR, the mound was used to track the seasons, the positions of more than 100 of the brightest stars as well as the moon and planets.

From the Great Mound, we hiked along the White River to a second EarthCache. This one looks at seeps and springs.

Along the way, Capt TailWagger decided to get as close to the river as I’d let him. Funny thing is until last summer, he did not like getting near water. Then he walked off the end of a dock at Sylvan Lake and ever since apparently has a new appreciation for water.

Near the seeps and springs EarthCache is a tradition that I decided to skip this time. The cache page warns of a steep hill, and I’ve had Capt TailWagger pull me down a steep hill before, so I decided to skip that cache. We went on and found an ammo can in the woods. I didn’t take a photo of it though.

We finished our hike, had lunch (Capt TailWagger had a couple of banana-flavored dog treats) and made the trek home. Along the way home we saw an American bald eagle flying over the Little River valley near Roanoke, Indiana.

With those finds, I am at 1,962 finds, including 28 EarthCaches. According to Project-GC, I’ll go up a badge level after I find two more EarthCaches.

Back at it

On Tuesday, Capt TailWagger and I took off for Jackson County, Michigan. We took a walk on the Falling Waters Trail, a 10.5-mile long asphalt rail-trail that starts in Concord and finishes someplace south of Spring Arbor. We chose a section directly south of Spring Arbor.

It had a fairly large trailhead parking area. And that is a good thing. The trail was crowded. Well, crowded might be too strong a word. It was busy. When we arrived, there was a school bus in the lot. It was gone after I returned from the john to get Capt TailWagger and begin our trek up the trail toward Lime Lake.

We heard redwing blackbirds and sandhill cranes, though we did not see any of either on our walk. Much of Lime Lake was still frozen, though Capt TailWagger sipped some water when we found a cache that was just a few feet from the water.

I got to GZ for the first cache on the list and then waited for a gaggle of muggles to pass before going up a hill to find the cache. It was a regular. I had some SWAG with me but decided I really didn’t want to trade anything.

When I got to the next cache, I didn’t find it right away. Rather than give myself a DNF, I went on to the next one and made a quick find. I found a couple more and then returned to the one I didn’t find. This time I gave it a more thorough look, and, lo and behold, there it was. Five caches searched for. Five caches found. Basically a month off didn’t knock out my geosenses.

After finding the five caches, it was back to the car for a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some water and a banana. Then it was off to Livingston County and a cache there. We got to a trailhead on the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail State Park, a mixed-surface rail-trail that we crossed several times between Stockbridge and our trailhead.

We found just one cache, although the map shows many on the trail in this area. I look forward to going back and possibly find more.

For kicks and giggles, I looked at the geocaching profile of some area cachers who have more than twice the finds I have to see where they’ve cached and what their milestone caches are.

None of the people whose profiles I’ve looked at have cached outside the United States. I feel fortunate. I have cached in Canada (all of two finds, both in Ontario), Iceland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. I have also found caches in 19 US states. I am looking forward to the day the US-Canadian border reopens and we can go back to Canada and cache some more there.

I am approaching 2,000 finds and I’m debating in my mind what I should do for the milestone. For finds 500 and 700, I found a multicache. For find 900, it was my first Wherigo. And for 1,000, it was a megaevent, the 2018 Midwest Geobash. A friend said there is a challenge to find different icons at each milestone, and he found an Earthcache for find No. 2,000. I was thinking of finding GC8NEAT for my 2,000th find. Or maybe an Earthcache. Or a virtual. Or a webcam cache. I have yet to find a webcam cache.

Any suggestions?

Some news from HQ

Geocaching HQ announced today that the 20th anniversary events in the Pacific Northwest, originally scheduled for August 2020 then rescheduled for August this year, has been postponed until summer 2022.

Everyone wants to find ammo cans when geocaching, right?

I think this is a good idea. The coronavirus is still not under control. Billions of people worldwide still need to be vaccinated, including millions here in the United States. Here in Indiana, people have been vaccinated by age groups. For instance, last week Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration announced that people 60 to 65 could schedule their vaccine. I hopped on the state’s signup page and got an appointment for later this month. Today, the state announced that people ages 55-59 could sign up.

We’re making progress on the vaccine front, but we’re not there or even close yet. I hope that by the end of this summer, we’ve made a huge dent in both the U.S. and the rest of the world. Then, maybe, we can start going to huge events again.

Speaking of huge events, the Texas Challenge & Geocaching Festival, scheduled for March 13 in Cisco, Texas, and Mingo Madness, scheduled for May 8, in Colby, Kansas, are still on. Organizers appeared on recent episodes of the Geocache Talk podcast and said the events will take place outdoors and encourage masks and social distancing.

Two mega events are scheduled for this summer in Ohio. One is the Midwest Geobash, scheduled for July 24 in Wauseon, Ohio, an event I was really looking forward to last year because the GPS Maze is scheduled to be there. The other event is a new one, the Ohio GeoClash & Festival 2021, scheduled for June 5 in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

What about you? What do you think of the decision by Geocaching HQ?

In a bit of slump

A month ago today, on Groundhog Day, I drove up from Fort Wayne to Angola, Indiana, to do an Adventure Lab and possibly find the bonus cache attached to it. We had gotten a bit of snow the previous weekend, our first real snowfall of the winter.

I completed the first two stages, then hit a snag at No. 3. The answer was buried in a foot of snow. When the street and sidewalk were plowed, the snow was left at the base of a piece of art that was part of Adventure. Oh well.

Capt. TailWagger and I packed up and head to the multiuse trail that goes from the north end of Angola to Pokagon State Park. A bunch of new caches went out on the trail last year, and this was my first opportunity to find some of them. I parked the car and found three traditional caches. I drove home and figured I’d find many more caches in February. Instead I found none.

After finding a few caches in Angola, Indiana, on Feb. 2, I stopped at a rest area. There is a geocache there but I wasn’t wearing the proper footwear for the snow that day.

That’s right, I found five caches in February, all on the 2nd.

Snow and cold weather descended. In fact, it felt more like January than January did. I found 37 caches in January. We had very little snow in January, and most days were above freezing, so geocaching wasn’t difficult.

I completed a pair of Adventure Labs in Marion, Indiana, in January. It was cold but no snow was on the ground.

In February, I found any excuse not to go geocaching. I doesn’t help that I’ve found virtually every cache within 2 miles of home. There are a few high-difficulty caches that I haven’t found, plus a puzzle that for whatever reason I’ve not yet found and a challenge cache that I don’t qualify for.

I pulled out my snowshoes for the first time in years. I got out four times between Jan. 30 and Feb. 21.

I was out on my snowshoes when the sun set Feb. 9.

Here it is March 2, and I have yet to find a cache this month.

My slump also includes blogging. I haven’t kept up this blog as well as I’d like. I owe to my readers to put out blogs more often. I will make every effort to do better.

Welcome to 2021

We are a week into the new year, and what a crazy week it’s been. I won’t get into US politics and the events of the past few days. I want to take a moment to look back at highs and lows of geocaching in 2020 and a look to the future.

I found 367 caches in 2020, two fewer than in 2019, although I had one more day to cache. My best month was July with 52 finds and my worst was April with just 4. I added three new states — Arizona, Nevada and California — on a trip west last January. I added just two new Indiana counties — Fayette and Union — and 8 Ohio counties. We had a couple of trips planned to other parts of Indiana that fell through for various reasons.

I found 38 Adventure Labs, and I placed an 8-stage AL as part of the Lincoln Highway series. I did my first canoe caches over the summer and attended two community events.

Now a look to 2021. I’ve already attended an event. I was disappointed by how few people wore masks. Yes, it was outdoors, and for the most part, people were keeping socially distant. I just hope no one there brought COVID home with them. Capt TailWagger and I went out Thursday and our car battery died at a P&G cache. We got a jump and got home safely.

Last year, I had a goal of find 100 puzzle/mystery/challenge/unknown (the blue ? caches). I found 15. Maybe this year. I solved a number of puzzles and completed several challenges. I just need to go find the caches.

I also hope to add greatly to my Wherigo numbers. There is a Star Wars-themed Wherigo geo-art in southwestern Michigan. I have about two-thirds of them solved. Now it’s time to finish solving the rest then going to get them. There is also a Flash-themed Wherigo geo-art in southwest Indiana. I have maybe half of those solved. I don’t know when I’ll get there.

How did your 2020 geocaching year go?

Streak to end?

Since June of last year, I have gotten at least one first to find on a geocache in every month. I have had months in which I had just one FTF, including July 2019 when I found my FTF on the 31st. So the streak nearly died before it started. In looking at my stats, I see that I had two FTFs in April 2019, none in May, then four in June.

I don’t think it was until November or December of last year that I thought about the FTF streak and trying to maintain it. I don’t know if I saw a challenge cache that required a streak of FTFs or if it was something else. In December, I didn’t get my FTF until the 30th.

My streak included one virtual cache and one challenge cache.

I write this on Nov. 30, the last day of the month. I count just five caches within 20 miles that have been publish this month and none closer than 15 miles. I know that’s not an excuse. I’ve traveled farther than that to get an FTF. Maybe my motivation has waned a bit.

An FTF on a cache I found in Kosciusko County

Whatever the reason, I’m going to keep my eye out for a possible FTF today. Otherwise, the streak will end.

Thanks fellow hiders

I want to take this moment to thank all of the cache hiders in the Fort Wayne area. Without them, there would be no geocaching here. The top hiders of my finds are 13RPoor, Critter_Sitter, OLD RANGER, FortIsldander80 and SixDogTeam. They’ve all put out caches that have made geocaching around here interesting and rewarding.

Beyond those five, there are many others in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio who put out fantastic caches. Thanks to all of them.

It takes effort to place and maintain geocaches, so again, thank you.

Finally, thanks to everyone who hosts events. Events are a great way to meet other cachers, learn some tricks and share secrets. I know 2020 has been unusual with events.

International EarthCache Day

I got an email from Geocaching HQ on Tuesday announcing this year’s International EarthCache Day is Oct. 10 and 11. Here’s what they wrote:

“How do you best prepare for an EarthCache outing? You planet!

“Learn more about Earth and how it formed through history on Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11, 2020 in celebration of International EarthCache day! Earn the official souvenir for completing your research and receiving your smiley.”

I’m the first to admit EarthCaches are a bit intimidating, although the last one I found I gave it a favorite point. It took me on a hike at Chain O’ Lakes State Park, one of my favorite Indiana state parks, and I learned about some of the ways glaciers formed the land of northern Indiana some 10,000 to 14,000 years ago.

My wife and I at Chain O’ Lakes State Park completing an EarthCache

Capt. TailWagger looking for a place to go into the lake while on the EarthCach hike

Earlier this year, I found a couple of EarthCaches at artesian wells — one in Steuben County, Indiana, near Lake James and other in Wayne County, Indiana, in Richmond. Both required getting a reading for how fast a bottle filled. For one, I had a half-gallon bottle. For the other, I had a gallon jug. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any pictures from those trips.

In July, I did an EartchCache in Ohio where we learned about flint. That one, I thought, was quite informative.

Probably the best EarthCache I did this year was at Zion National Park in Utah. Our family flew from Indianapolis to Las Vegas on a really inexpensive flight and spent a few days exploring southern Utah, western Arizona and southern Nevada. We made a quick stop in Needles, California, to get a California geocache.

The Zion EarthCache I did took a walk deep into the heart of a canyon. I think there were questions abut the rocks. It was a beautiful hike on a brisk January day.

For International EarthCache Day 2020, I have a couple of nearby EarthCaches picked out. One is at Eagle Mash here in Fort Wayne on the continental divide (separating the Great Lakes watershed from the Mississippi River watershed). The other is a wetlands in Garrett, Indiana.

What are your thoughts on EarthCaches?

Reaching a milestone

Today I set out for Wells County, Indiana, to do another Adventure Lab, this one in Ossian. And after completing the five stages of the AL, I drove a bit south of Ossian to find a traditional cache — find No. 1,800.

Find No. 1,800 today in Kinglsand, Indiana

Ossian is in the northern third of Wells County, on Indiana 1, about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne. Current big-league baseball player Josh VanMeter is from Ossian. According to Wikipedia, it has an estimated population 3,382. Also, according Wikipedia, the town was named after Ossian, the narrator of a cycle of epic poems by the Scottish poet James Macpherson. Beyond that, I don’t know much about the town.

The Adventure Lab visits five locations, four in town and one in West Ossian. Before a ditch was dug between Ossian and West Ossian, swampland separated the two towns, and it was easier for residents to get to Cincinnati, more than 100 miles away, than to Fort Wayne. The ditch helped drain the swampland and made travel north to Fort Wayne easier.

I learned that tidbit of history on the Adventure Lab and from a traditional cache I found along the way. The town’s founder is buried in the Old Cemetery, which really appeared to be run down. Many headstones were broken and knocked over.

I learned of a local family that was dedicated to auto racing and one of the letters of another family name on their headstone in the other cemetery is backward. Oh, and a town marshal served more than 20 years. I decided to walk the Adventure Lab, so it took me probably 90 minutes to complete. Driving would have been faster. Taking my bicycle would have been faster. In either case, I walked and except for a few places where the sidewalk ended, it was a nice day to be out.

After completing the Adventure Lab, I headed south to the small settlement of Kingsland, where in September 1910 there was a deadly train wreck. The cache is at a historical marker signifying that event. For reasons unknown, I’ve had this cache on my watch list. Since finding it and logging it, I’ve wondered why I have it on my watch list. It doesn’t meet a Jasmer month. It doesn’t meet a date hidden need. Every time it’s found I get an email. I got an email today when I found it.

Over the past two days, counting the Adventure Lab, I’ve found 12 caches. I hope to find another 200 before the end of the year. I’ve already picked out my target cache for No. 2,000. I’ll keep that my secret for now, though I should put that one on my watch list, right?

On Tuesday, Capt. TailWagger and my sometimes geocaching partner and I drove to northern Whitley and southern Noble counties to find some caches. Three were in cemeteries, one was at the site of church fire, and one was at a beach. The one at the beach was just published the day before. We got second to find on that one.

How has your geocaching gone?