As far as I can remember these are the challenge caches that we have completed:

GC1HMCJ – WSQ – Shawano County Cemetery (SCC) Challenge
GC1XKGZ – Wisconsin Falling Waters Challenge
GC15WT3 – Badger State Challenge – 72 Counties
GCXPZR – Wisconsin Delorme Challenge
GCR7WQ – Linda’s Cache Michigan UP
GCR7T4 – Linda’s Cache Michigan LP
GCR7WR – Linda’s Cache all of Michigan

I think this is it, and of this list, I would have to say that the Falling Waters Challenge was my favorite, We started out searching for waterfalls using a GPS a year before we started Geocaching, then after that we returned to some of the greatest places in Wisconsin, to take more pictures and sign the logbook. Sometimes the cache was just feet from us during our first visit.

Even though the Falling Waters was our favorite, Each one of the above was special to us in some way or another.

As a purely personal opinion, I really really like challenge caches, and I have completed quite a few challenges, and own several challenges, including the Wisconsin County Challenge.

However I should point out that I dont think that one’s views on Challenge caches or the amount done either qualifies or disqualifies anyone from being a part of the WGA Board. Other than Team Honeybunnies, I am pretty sure that I have done the most challenge caches of anyone in the state. I enjoyed doing them, and am going to answer your question in detail because I like talking about Challenge caches, but I dont think this makes me more qualified to be on the board then someone who has done few or even no Challenge Caches. Personally I believe that a better predictor of who is going to be good on our board, is to look for people who have helped us out at our events and who have helped us out on our committees.

Anyway, now that I have established that I dont think the answer matters much, I am going to answer it anyway, because I really like Challenge Caches. I consider geocaching to be a game, and the ability to develop and participate in interesting Challenge Caches as a way to increase the challenge of the game, and for me, it makes the game a lot more interesting.

In any state, I would consider the three most important Challenge Caches to be the DeLorme Challenge, the County Challenge, and the Fizzy Challenge, in that order. I mention that in case folks are wondering which of the many challenges out there they should work on first, and those would be my suggestions.

In Wisconsin, The Cheeseheads put out the Wisconsin DeLorme in 2006, and I was lucky enough to have the time available to go get the FTF on the Wisconsin DeLorme. Since then, Splash has taken over Wisconsin’s premier Challenge Cache and moved it to Wausau, and it remains a great challenge. And recently, TBC has developed a second DeLorme based on the new maps, and I look forward to working on doing that one as well.

I am pretty happy to be the owner, with Da Bloodhound, of Wisconsin’s County Challenge, and quite a few people have found since I put it out. I consider the County Challenge to be second only to the DeLorme Challenge.

And I was also first to find on the third of the trifecta of key Wisconsin Challenge caches, the Wisconsin version of the Fizzy Challenge. Trekkin and Birdin’ put out the Wisconsin Fizzy in 2008 and called it “The “Cheesy” Well Rounded Cacher.” Those who want to experience the real challenge of a genuine Fizzy Challenge will want to try this challenge, and accept no substitutes. Unfortunately, we have started to see Phony Fizzys pop up here and there that water down the challenge of doing a Fizzy by removing the requirement that the qualifying caches be found by a set date, which allows some people to spoof the harder to find D/T combinations.

I also like some of the newer Challenge Caches that have come out that get you to go places and do things that one might not otherwise do. The Rustic Roads challenge I found particularly fun to do. And even though I am the owner of the Wisconsin Falling Waters Challenge, I made it a challenge to myself of getting to every one of Wisconsin’s waterfalls, and that has been a lot of fun this past year.

I have done quite a few other Challenge Caches as well, and a partial list of the more important ones is listed on my gc.com profile.

Challenge caches that I am looking forward to working on this coming year include the Indiana Delorme and the county challenges in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota.

zuma