On Wednesday, November 26th, I found my 5,000th cache on my 1,000th
consecutive day of geocaching.
I'm lucky. I did have many advantages to help me along.
- I love to travel and I live in a cache-rich area (southeastern Michigan).
- I have an adventurous sweetheart who caches, too.
- And I did this as several other members of Team Free Range Lobsters were streaking, too.
I thought after one thousand days, I'd share what I learned. Here are my “streaking tips” especially
for winter.
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Incorporate your cache-a-day as part of your routine. I plan my target cache (plus a backup) as I
get dressed in the morning. Before long,
it becomes second nature. When planning
your cache, consider what’s on your agenda for the day – last Thursday the
family gathered for Kriket’s birthday. She chose a restaurant in a very target-rich
area so I saved my cache for later that night.
Download a weather app.
According to the weatherman, the warmest part of Monday was first thing
in the morning. By noon we would drop below
-3°
and have snow squalls. Hence, I grabbed
my cache on my way to work.
On nicer days, drive a little to get your cache and/or pick a cache
with more difficult terrains. Save
the ones closer to home for severe weather days or days packed with family
commitments. If I’m on the road
somewhere with friends, I will ask them to stop for a few minutes so I can make
my grab, saving the ones closer to home.
Sounds trite but it’s a “cache a day
“ so pace yourself, even on a power trail.
Our local Cachers have setup a several mile-long power trail along the
I-275 bike trail. There are multiple
places to park and access the trail. If
you grab a cache a day, you are set for the next 4 months (or so)!
If you need a “numbers run” (to reach a milestone or to complete a
challenge), stay away from home.
Again, I’m lucky that I’m in a cache-rich area so I don’t have to travel
far for a pocket of smiley-goodness.
FTF-runs are not “streak friendly”.
I know it’s a downer, but when you get the notification you may not want
to run out and get that new cache 3.4 miles away. Save it for a rainy day.
Know your local hiders. In
our area, we have some Cachers who turn over their cache hides every six months
– make sure you grab them when you can.
There may be others where you have to grab their cache within the first week
of publication before it disappears, never to be “maintenanced” again. Another
hider nearby has an excellent history series with very basic hides (bringing
you to the local site is most important) so his caches are excellent for very
bad-weather days. One puzzle-master
disables his caches for the winter and another revels in particularly evil (and
unsolvable) hides.
Attend events in inclement weather. I, personally, prefer to grab a
physical cache on event day, but events are caches and will add a smiley to
your streak. They are also a way to learn the local hiding habits (see entry
above). Another reason to attend events…
 |
Team Gates, Alona Spiegel, Caching Fire,
the Grundalows and afishoutawater |
Make friends with other “streakers”. They’re running out of caches, too, so help
each other out! If each of you hide a
dozen or more P&G’s, you can get yourself through the winter.
Don’t assume just because it’s an LPC it’ll be a quick find. Last year TaGeez and I were standing on 6-foot
snow mounds, trying to dig out the skirt.
 |
| It was in there. Trust me. |
Don’t assume because it is “high terrain” makes it unattainable in winter. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve used a
convenient snowbank to grab that tree cache!
Create a bookmark list. You
don’t want to be rushing to a family birthday or in the middle of a snowstorm and
trying to think of a cache to grab. Many
of the items on my list were recommended by other Cachers on our local FB group
in case I need a find in their area.
Speaking of bookmark lists, make sure you have access to an offline
copy of it. I have an offline list
saved in Geosphere in case geocaching.com is down for maintenance or we have a
severe windstorm, knocking out power and/or cellular service.
Expand your Cache Type repertoire.
Grab those Earth Caches on warm days. Many Virtuals are not
weather-dependent. There is such a thing
as simple Multis, too.
 |
| TaGeez and scrapcat at the Great Falls of Tinker's Creek |
Solve those puzzles. I LOVE
puzzles, but I know so many people who avoid them. Winter is not only a good time to sit in your
snug house solving puzzles, but, in many instances, a good time to go for the
puzzle final. For many creators around
here, the puzzle is the interesting part and the final can be a simple
park-and-grab.
Surround yourself with supportive friends
and family. Just shy of the first
anniversary of my streak, my car died and I had to car shop, relying on others
to get me back and forth to work and to the various dealers. I had just as many offers from friends and
family (Cachers and Muggles alike) to take me for my daily cache. My Dad pulled over on the way to a memorial
viewing at a funeral home so I wouldn’t have to walk to a cache in arctic
weather. This challenge is so much
easier when surrounded by those cheering you on.
 |
The AWESOME members of
Team Free Range Lobsters! |
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I hope this helps, and maybe I'll add more as I work my way to the next thousand.... possibly....
