366 grid complete, now what?

I did it. I found a cache Wednesday to complete my 366 grid. I have officially found a geocache on every day of the year, from January 1 to December 31, including February 29.

I found GC50JZO I Wanna Walk Like You Challenge. I had completed the challenge some time ago, but just found the actual geocache on Wednesday morning between appointments. It is located at the Plex, a soccer and cross country complex owned by Purdue University Fort Wayne. In fact, some guys were running the cross country course while I was looking for the cache. I don’t know if they were college athletes or not. There is a big high school meet scheduled for Saturday at the Plex. Enough digression

With this find, I have found a cache each day of the year.

I’m not sure what my 366 grid looked like at the beginning of the year. I completed December last year. I was shy three days, I believe, including Christmas Eve and, I think, New Year’s Eve, this despite the fact that Geocaching HQ has started offering a souvenir for finding a cache or attending an event on New Year’s Eve and another for finding a cache or attending an event on New Year’s Day.

In 2017, I attempted a streak from the beginning of November to the end of the year. I stood there Christmas Eve 2017 in a snowstorm knee deep in snow somewhere past 11 p.m. looking for an elusive cache. I thought it would be a quick park and grab. It’s not. I’ve never found that cache. I’ve looked two or three other times. Anyhoo, my streak ended that day. I did little caching through the end of the year. My excuse? Too much snow.

After that streak, I decided I really don’t want to attempt another streak. Geocaching started taking over my life. I still find myself obsessing over it from time to time, but I really try to do other activities to keep me grounded.

So, I’ve completed the 366 grid. Now what? There is my Fizzy grid (the 81 D/T combo grid) and the Jasmer (find a cache that was hidden in each month since May 2000). I have also been working on an Indiana county challenge. Indiana has 92 counties, and I have found caches in 52 of them. I live in the northeast corner of the state. It might be easier if I lived in, say, Indianapolis, which in in the center of the state. But I’m not letting my geography stop me. It just means I have to work harder at it.

Fizzy Grid

Another challenge that I’m working on is the Tri-State challenge. Up near where Indiana, Ohio and Michigan come together are three challenge caches. For one, you need to find 100 caches each in Indiana and Ohio (I’ve met that challenge), find 100 caches each in Indiana and Michigan (I’ve found just 57 caches in Michigan) and find 100 each in Ohio and Michigan. After I find another 43 caches in Michigan, I’ll qualify for all three challenge caches.

Back in July when I was on a county run to northwest Indiana, I signed a log for a 366-day challenge cache in White County. Wednesday I was able to log the find. I also found three other challenge caches in White County — find 1,000 or more traditional caches, finding a cache in three states in one day and one for have 15 geocaching souvenirs. There is a 366-day challenge cache here in Fort Wayne that I still need to go find and sign.

What about you, dear reader? Any challenges you’re working on? Memfis Mafia of the Geocache Talk podcast has written a book on geocache challenges. I don’t own, but I hope to some day. Have you read the book? If so, what did you think of it?

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.

One of seven FTF logs from the first of October 2019

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?

Another month down, one more to go

I began the year with a goal of completing my 366 grid. That is, find a cache every day of the year, including 29 February. I don’t recall if I needed to find a cache in January, but I know the whole family (three of us, plus Capt TailWagger) loaded into the car and drove to Monroeville in the far southeast part of Allen County and found a cache near a fighter jet. We did that sometime in January because I think I needed to find a cache that day.

Somewhere on this jet is a geocache.

My quest for completing my 366 grid began in earnest in May. I had previously filled February, March and April. In 2017, I did a streak of 66 days that encompassed all of March and April.

My 366 grid at the beginning of May.

At the beginning of each month, I’d write down the days I needed to find a geocache on a post-it note and pin to a bulletin board. I’d memorize the days I needed to find cache all in the hopes of completing the grid in 2019.

Well, here are and it’s the first of October and I need to find a cache today. Several new caches were published in the area between late Thursday and late Monday. I have found a boatload of new caches recently, so much so that if I’m ever going to fill my Jasmer, I’ve got a lot of work to do. Saturday, my wife and I found GC8DN3F (that’s an ominous GC number I suppose) A Cache with a View. It’s at an observation platform overlooking a quarry. I first went there when I was in eighth grade, and we looked for fossils. I had been there a few other times over the years, but Saturday was the first time I looked for a geocache there. In addition to the cache we found, there is a multi that has it’s first stage at the observation area. Our plan was to find that cache too. But life intervened and we got a much later start on the trip and I had to eat lunch and get to work, so despite what Cache the Line says, we didn’t have time for one more.

Quarry in southwest Allen County, Indiana

With Saturday’s find, my September grid is full. Just one month, seven days, left. And it begins today.

Only October remains. Apparently, Project-GC hasn’t caught up yet.

According to Project-GC, I found just 18 caches in September, my worst month since March. I don’t know why September is statistically my worst month for caching all time. In 2017, I got a bad case of poison ivy right at the end of August and I spent all of September that year in misery. As for other Septembers, I have no clue as to why it’s my worst month.

What about you? Is there a single month that seems to have your number and it’s hard to get as much geocaching as you’d like? Are you working any goals for the month or the year. If so, what are they? I have a couple ideas for goals once I complete this 366.

Geocaching in Amish country

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is often the place most people think about when the Amish are mentioned. The Harrison Ford movie “Witness” took place in Lancaster, I believe. Although Lancaster is home to America’s largest Amish population, it’s certainly not the only one.

Elkhart and LaGrange counties in Indiana have the third largest population of Amish in the United States. Just about anywhere you go between the town of LaGrange and the city of Elkhart has a thriving Amish population. A local caching family rode aboard an Amish carriage when they completed September’s Geo-Challenge of the Month from Cache Advance and the Geocaching Vlogger.

The local cachers went to Shipshewana, a town in western LaGrange County with a large Amish and Mennonite population, and rode a horse carriage to the geocache they hoped to find to complete the challenge. Here’s their YouTube video.

Now I haven’t used a horse carriage to find a cache and I doubt that I will. I have been caching recently in Amish country though. Eastern Allen County, Indiana, has a large Amish population too, centered around the town of Grabill. A local cacher, Critter Sitter, has recently been randomly putting out a series of caches called the Buggy Trail. Every day or two for the past couple of weeks a new one is pubished. Critter Sitter says on the cache pages that they’re all park and grab, or P&G, caches. Of the handful I’ve looked for and found, that has been the case.

On Tuesday, I headed out to Eastern Allen County to find some caches. The sun was bright and the weather had a slight chill, though that didn’t last.

The first cache I found was published Monday night, but there was no way I would get the first to find. I was at work when it was published, and X-Ray Penguin found it Tuesday morning long before I woke up. I was second to find on that cache. Next, it was a drive down the road a bit more than a mile and a half to another. I don’t recall when it was published, probably sometime last week. Finally, I drove over to wide spot called Milan Center and found a third cache. None was unique, yet all were worth the effort. I saw plenty of horses, all were in fenced-in fields. A few had foals. I think that’s the right term for a baby horse.

What about you? Have you cached in Amish country or somewhere else similar?

Cemetery geocaching

I have found Forrest Gump’s grave. You remember Forrest. He was a football-playing, running-across-the-country, Medal of Honor winner played by Tom Hanks in the movies. I found his grave while geocaching. I also found a monument commemorating racing officials who died in a 1978 plane crash near Arlington, Indiana. These are just some of the things I have discovered while geocaching.

You see, one of my favorite places to geocache are cemeteries. They’re not caches stuck on a sign post along a back country road. With cemetery caches, I can linger and look around the cemetery. See who’s buried there. Forrest Gump, for instance. The Forrest I found obviously isn’t the Forrest Tom Hanks played. Hanks’ Forrest lived in Alabama. The Forrest I found is buried in Allen County, Indiana. Now if you read Winston Groom’s book, you’ll discover a Forrest Gump who was also a professional wrestler whose wrestling career ended in Fort Wayne, the county seat of Allen County. Who knows, maybe Groom came to Allen County and discovered that grave and decided to create his Forrest Gump based on that Forrest Gump. I digress.

Cemetery caches allow my mind to wander down all kinds of rabbit holes. When I see a grave for a person who lived from the late 19th century into the late 20th century or even into the 21st century, I think about all the marvels that came about during that person’s lifetime. The Wright Brothers, for instance, first took to flight in 1903. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon less than 70 years later. To me, that’s amazing. And it’s one of the ways I let my imagination wander when I visit cemeteries to geocache.

What about you? How do you feel about geocaching in cemeteries?

Wiffleball and geocaching

September Wiffle Ball Game (GC8AP2J) (Photo by Katie Watson)

I have watched movies at geocaching events, picked up trash, had breakfast and supper, eaten ice cream and drank coffee. I have been to three mega events (500 or more people in attendance) and one giga event (5,000 or more people in attendance). But until Saturday, I had never played Wiffleball at a geocaching event.

In December, Geocache Talk published a blog post I wrote: “Is Geocaching Cliquish?” I wrote about an event that took place a year earlier in which an attendee wrote on the log that they had never felt so unwelcomed at an event. I personally have always felt welcomed at geocaching events, and I’m not the most outgoing person.

Anyhow, MangoBoy84 decided to host a Wiffleball game last week and invite people he knew. He tries to host a fall game and spring game every year. In the spring, weather kept the game from ever taking place. For his fall game, he decided to submit a geocaching event. All told, many local geocachers stopped by. In addition, many non-geocachers MangoBoy84 knows played too. It seemed to me everyone was intermingling and having a good time.

Some of the action from Saturday’s Wiffleball event (Photo by Mike Roeger)

The games are extremely informal. No teams. Most everybody bats, and most everybody plays in the field. We run bases and have a good time. And that’s the point — to have a good time.

This Wiffleball event was a first for me. I saw a video today on YouTube from 3 Happy Campers in which they went to a geocaching fishing event, though no actual fish were caught. They caught fish by finding several unpublished geocaches, each containing paper fish.

What’s the most unusual event you’ve been to? Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Streak Week complete

For the last week of August, Geocaching HQ put out a challenge — find at least one cache each day from 25 August to 31 August. Those who did that received an electronic souvenir on their geocaching profile.

Geocaching HQ Streak Week souvenir. The frog is Signal, the mascot of geocaching.

On Friday I picked up two First to Finds. A First to Find, or FTF, is awarded to the first geocacher to find the cache after it is published. I needed to run some errands, so an FTF or two was not on my radar when I left the house. After stopping at the bank and then paying a bill, I headed for the first cache. Surely, it had been found, I figured. But when I got to the cach and opened the container, it contained a blank log. FTF.

I immediately posted a log that the cache had been found then drove to a nearby discount store. While there, I checked to see where the other new cache was. Five miles due north of the store. I hopped in the car and drove up there. Again, I figured someone else had already made the find. Once again, I found a blank log. Another FTF. That made three for Streak Week. In June, I found three in one day up near the Purdue University Fort Wayne campus.

I had my two caches and I was at six days for Streak Week. Saturday proved to nearly be my undoing. My hay fever erupted with a vengence. I couldn’t stop sneezing and blowing my nose. I was miserable. On top of that, I was running errands with my wife and son. I got to Aldi to pick up some avacados to make some guac. My wife and son decided to go to Starbucks across the steet while I was a Aldi. A light-pole (or lamp-post) cache was in the parking lot nearby. I put the avacados in the car then headed to the cache. Quick find. Streak complete. Yes!

What about you? Did you complete Streak Week? Any highlights? Any lowlights?

Streak Week

Geocaching HQ is encouraging geocachers to geocache every day from 25 August to 31 August. Those who find a cache each day during this week will get a souvenir.

Geocaching HQ awards souvenirs for a variety of reasons. Whenever geocachers find a geocache in a new state, they are awarded a souvenir on their profile page at geocaching.com. Geocaching HQ also plans a handful of promotions throughout the year to encourage geocachers. For instance, all geocachers who attend a Cache In, Trash Out (CITO) event during a specific period receives a special CITO souvenir.

Today, Capt TailWagger and I took a walk on the Pufferbelly Trail, a rail-trail in Northern Allen County, Indiana, to find a pair of recently published geocaches. According to the app on my phone we walked 2.25 miles from car to caches and back. I sort of doubt that we walked that far becasue it we were made the trip in less than 45 minutes, including time to find the geocaches and sign the logs.

Sunday when Streak Week began, I found four caches, including one in Swayzee, Indiana, featuring Garfield. Swayzee claims to be the only Swayzee in the world. Monday, we drove up to Michigan to sign a couple of challenge caches I have completed and to find the BIG Orange Travel Bug Convention Center.

If you’re a geocacher, are you streaking this week? Are you interested in getting souvenirs? Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks. And please subscribe.

A little about me

My name is Mike and I geocache under the name Teamtailwagger.

We chose the name Teamtailwagger because our dog at the time, Domino, had won a contest as the best tailwagging dog in the city. Domino, who looked like a small Dalmation, passed away Oct. 30, 2018, at age 18. On April 11, 2017, Kinsler, a German shorthair pointer, came to live with us. On the way home from picking him up, we took him geocaching. We bought him a trackable for his collar and gave hime the geocaching name of Capt. TailWagger.

Capt. TailWagger doesn’t come on all of our geocaching adventures. Sometimes, it’s just too hot for a dog to be comfortable. Sometimes, we’ll leave Capt. TailWagger at the kennel if we’re going to be out of town for a few days. But for the most part, Capt. Kinsler is with me when I’m out and about looking for those hidden treasures.

If you’re unfamiliar with geocaching, I’ll give you a quick primer: Geocaching is often said to be using billion-dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods. Well, yes and no. Geocachers are using billion-dollar satellites to find all kinds of hidden containers. A geocacher hides a container, gets the cooridinates and posts it on geocaching.com. After a volunteer reviewer checks to make sure the new geocache meets the guidelines, the geocache is published and geocachers begin the search, often using a smartphone with a geocaching app on it or using a handheld GPS receiver. When the geocache is found, the finder signs a log sheet inside the container and places it back where it found for the next person to find it. That’s it.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.