Searching for Challenge Caches

A dear friend of mine emailed me - she wanted to know how to pull a list of challenge caches from Geocaching.com. Here is my quick and easy pull, but be aware. Premium members have better filtering rights than Basic members.

1. Access Geocaching.com and execute a search for the State or Region you are interested in.
2. After executing your search (notice the 34,503 results for Michigan), click the Filters button.

3. In the Filters window, deselect all but the Mystery Geocache Type.  This will prevent inclusion of other caches in your query (like a Traditional called "This is a challenge!")

4. Enter the keyword challenge in the Geocache Name Contains... field.

5. (Optional) Select I haven't found to exclude your found caches.

6. (Optional) Select I don't own to exclude caches hidden by you.

7. Click the Search button (or Update Search button, if you are updating your query) to execute your search.

Your search results now appear. Notice we went from 34,503 to 346 results in Michigan (for me).

You heard it here second.. or third.. or fourth...

Interesting geocaching bits from social media or the blogsophere...

I admit that I love geocaching blogs, podcasts and social groups. There's just something about being around other LMW's (Like Minded Weirdos). Here's a collection of interesting tidbits from this week.

• I read on a group site that this guy read elsewhere that this other guy from Houston attended an event in Kansas where a Lackey was present. The Lackey said Challenge caches are coming back, and that he's on the group hammering out the details. Crossing my fingers.

• The new site for Midwest GeoBash is online and usable. Just 6 more months until Bash!

• Don't forget two new CITO souvenirs! Attend a CITO event the weekend April 16-24 and another the weekend of September 17-25 to earn them. Check out this cool site by the A-Team of upcoming souvenirs.

• NPR posted an interesting article about The Best Way to Keep Mosquitoes from Biting? Rates the different  sprays and how to effectively use them. Interesting, though, that they left off the surest way to avoid mosquito bites - just cache with me! They LOVE me - ugh.

• The 104-stage D/T 5/5 Multi (L.E.G.O. - Mega Multi: The Devils Run) in Canada was archived for for lack of maintenance. I can't imagine how much room that will free-up for new caches. 

• Speaking of maintenance, this is my pick for funniest maintenance log I've ever read.

Challenge Cache Survey!

Deadline: December 21st!

Geocaching.com just posted their survey to determine the fate of challenge caches! You have just 3 weeks to post your opinions!

#BringBackTheChallengeCache! I love the thrill of this chase!