Reflections of ’09 Caching

[Trekkin and Birdin]

*Placing a cache in honor of our first grandson along the LaCrosse River.

Most of the rest pales in comparison to that milestone event, but we hit 5000 at the Beast of Big Island in August, joined the fun at Marsh to the Phillippines with a great group of people and met lots of folks at lots of events around the state and beyond. We surely got lots of numbers, but as always, the snowshoing, canoeing or kayaking or hikes into remote spots are what remain memorable and why we keep playing.

Birdin’ would add experiencing what geocaching can truly be by choosing special caches to visit on Oahu that took us to places even most locals didn’t know, and being granted the trust of the WGA membership when elected to serve on the Board.

[Mister Greenthumb]

I was going to compile a list of numbers and accomplishments for the past year, but after reading several of the other posts I realized what was most important. Three recent events stand out the most.

The day after Christmas we went out with our daughter’s family (OPPS5) and grandkids and helped them find milestone #900 in the snow.

The Monday after Christmas we went caching in the snow again with our 13 year old granddaughter Emma.

Both of those caching outings gave Emma the opportunity to use her new Garmin that we gave her for Christmas. The smile on her face when she opened it is my most memorable geocaching recolection of 2009.

[Grandma & Grandpa]

We don’t have a lot of numbers stats to brag about, but do have some favorite ’09 caching memories to share.

* Building a cool cache with our grandson Samson and seeing how excited he gets when folks post appreciative logs. Also, when his mom gets asked if she is “Grandma”… which she does not appreciate, but we all think is pretty funny.

* Integrating curriculum into other subject areas built around student TB’s that are now all over the U.S. and Europe.

* Searching for the correct Kodak moments while working on the 900 series WSQ caches.

* Meeting several cachers either on the trail or as they visited some of our caches.

* Caching in new places with our grown kids and other relatives as they move around to various new locales in the good ole USA.

* Introducing rookies to this fun activity!

Gram and I seem to do about 100 new caches per calendar year. She enjoys visiting cool new places and easy hikes, and is fairly tolerant of what she calls my “obsession”. I try to moderate my obsession, but am getting more into building creative caches and putting them in hopefully safe places. We see 2010 as continuing along these lines.

Happy New Year everybody, and God Bless!

Jim & Chris

[zuma]

Thank you for starting this wonderful thread. I am really, really enjoying what people have to say on this topic.

zuma

[Buy_The_Tie]

Battleship!
… was great!

[-cheeto-]

What I would deem my Caching Highlights for 09 –

– Attending the first Annual LCG Event and bowling with my Son.
– Finding See Through Characters after finally solving. I still remember how cold my fingers were when I opened that nano in a brisk -15 degree breeze.
– Helping with hiding temp and permanent caches for the WGA Campout Event at High Cliff and learning how fun being a part of the WGA is.
– Camping and Geocaching with my family at the WGA Campout Event. Our first time camping at High Cliff and were definitely going back!
– Solving Innervisions | Up the Rabbit Hole and hunting the cache with my son to score the FTF.
– Attending Lander & Lancelot’s Barbeque Event in Bonduel with my family.
– Camping at Peninsula State Park with my Family and revisiting many of our favorite Door County spots and caches with my kids.
– Solving and finding Carol for Papr Dolls.
– Placing a devlish tribute puzzle cache for Marc.
– Attending the West Bend Cache Bash with my family and again camping 🙂
– Completing 2 more of the “Pace Yourself” caches with my son
– My son and I taking a .5 mile “hike” in the Fox River to find Start Yer Yakin | Join The Club without a watercraft.
– Finding my 1000th cache – a tribute to me in an awesome spot 🙂
– Finding Urban Myth | My Blood-e-Valentine with my Son and Dave & Jackie.
– A cache tour to Stevens Point with Marc, Benny, & Ryan.

Each year brings many more great trips, events, and memories with my family and caching friends. Here’s to a great 2010!

[Northern Lightz]

-Starting our addiction on Memorial Day weekend…our first day we took a day trip to Wisconsin Rapids (our first time there) with Jerry’s Dad and family and found GCTVAQ Some Gave All. A Firefighters memorial & park. We were hooked!!!
-Our first cache by ourselves GCHVBQ Twin Bluffs not understanding what a terrain of 4.5 meant….we found out real quick 😆
-Helping Jerry with Jerry’s Dad do the 4.5 terrian Twin Bluffs cache, Jerry was such a good listenener and a trooper 🙂
-Spending more time with our cousin Jerry’s Dad and family
-Using our state park stickers for more than fishing
-Seeing how many caches we walked by when we were just muggles and saying everytime “We NEVER knew this was here!!”
-Birthday trips to West Bend and Green Bay
-Finishing & finding our first true puzzle cache GC1E18W The Hive
-Taking a TB to its final destination!!! Lambeau Field and Hall of Fame so much fun
-Day trips! Enough said
-Our very first event Monarchs and Moon party and meeting Pawn of Chaos
-West Bend Cache Bash and meeting Nurse Pat and caching with Elfdoctors
-Placing our very first cache
-Everything we would have missed or drove by if not for caching & pictures lots of pictures and memories
-Finally understanding how a cacher can make a 2 hour drive into 4-5 hour drive 😀

[amita17]

2009 saw me slowly getting more into geocaching. I attended a puzzle workshop, the campout at High Cliff, the West Bend Cache Ba$h, a flash mob, and several small gatherings besides. I hit three milestones and learned for the most part a milestone is just another number. An event I don’t care to repeat was my first truly bad caching experience–losing my car key 3 hours from home on a weekend night. Never did find it. In 2009 I got to go along hiding caches, and just this morning, adopted my own cache. I had my first FTF in 2009, and my second came today. I cached alone for the most part, but sometimes with others–even my mom wanted to go along once and see what it was all about. I may even be cultivating an interest in geocaching for someone who currently doesn’t cache. 2009 wasn’t a great year for me in other respects, but it was pretty good for caching!

[ecorangers]

Highlights:
😀 Wisconsin’s first Mega Event!
8) Alamogul #1 attends West Bend $1000 Cache Ba$h
😀 Gr@nny, Niens, GuareGirls start geocaching (family to earth angel).
🙂 Camp cache n jam rocks! Thanks starwarsguy (and family), MisterGreenthumb and Sunshine, Opps5 family….
😛 Owning 2 earth caches (will be Gold EarthCache Master soon).
😥 car got broken into while geocaching in late summer
🙂 Battleship series, state series, cemetery quest series, alphabet-city series, 8 tiny reindeer series, wizard of OZ series, peanut series..
😡 34 no finds (and 105 finds) in Minneapolis over Christmas with 2 feet of fresh snow and getting stuck in the snow at least 6 times not to mention getting rear-ended on Christmas day (night-time).
😯 Plus All the earth angel hugs I give and receive….keep em coming!
Tami

[zuma]

For me, 2009 was a great year caching, even though non-caching events were even more meaningful, that is the birth of Lauryn, a near perfect baby girl and getting married to Robin. Robin doesnt cache as much with me right now because of the baby, but other than that, we have had a great year.

No doubt my best caching memory of the year was sharing the 10K find with my good friends Seth and Marie and a bunch of other really good friends. We had a great time walking back to GCZYYE, the Natural Bridge Outback Cache, carrying Lauryn in a front carrier, and it was wonderful to be able to share 10K with so many wonderful people.

I also enjoyed many great events, and the great friendships that I have been lucky enough to make along the way. I particularly enjoyed the WGA events at High Cliff and Lake Wissota, the CITO in Wausua, and the WGA pancake breakfast in West Bend after the Cache Bash.

I started a bookmark list in 2009 called “Cache of the Day.” I selected one cache nearly every day that I cached and called it “Zuma’s Cache of the Day,” and was able to find at least one cache almost every day worthy of the COTD designation. The bookmark list is at http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=401010d2-4ed9-44e9-94b4-e5b4eae201a1

I was blessed to be able to enjoy many fun caching trips during 2009. Memorable caching trips of the year include a great trip with Robin to the Rhinelander area in June, a trip to Barnes with WI Zumette (Lauryn) in August, a trip to Hayward with KSpud in Feburary, a trip to Copper Falls with KSpud in August, a trip to Pipestone National Monument in August with Trekkin and Birdin, a trip yesterday to Rochester with KSpud and Trekkin and Birdin, a trip to Racine and the Kettle Morraine in January with Robin and KSpud, a trip to Illinois with Marc, Benny and Seth in November, and several day trips to the Twin Cities with Da Bloodhound and KSpud.

The most memorable caching trip of the year was the trip to Michigan with Seth in July where we started working on the Michigan Delorme by doing the NW corner of the lower pennisula. The most memorable cache of the year, other than the Natural Bridge Outback Cache, was also on that trip. That was GC1E0F2, the South Manitou Earthcache. What a trip!

Anyway, I had a great year caching, and a great year with my expanding family. I had a few less finds this year than last year, but dare say many more smiles along the way.

Thanks again for starting a great thread, and thanks to all the folks sharing their memories.

zuma

[elfdoctors]

I had my best year numbers-wise – finding over 700 caches in 2009.

Here are a few personal highlights:

I found my first international caches in Canada, Mexico, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica.
I really enjoyed my first mega-geocaching event in West Bend as well as attending my first WGA event (fall picnic)!

[Babokooks]

I enjoyed hitting 1000 and 2000 later in the year. Meeting area cachers at an event in Green Bay in March was fun. Geocaching with friends and family. All the new places to visit were highlights as well. Thanks to all for making those experiences possible.

[Team Black-Cat]

Caching with friends is the most enjoyable part of this hobby for me. Chasing all over the state for Delorme pages with rsplash40 has created lots of fun memories. Spending a day with Team Honeybunnies is always fun. Meeting up with about 20 cachers in the middle of the night to climb a tree for a FTF party is something that’s hard to forget. A couple of trips into Mathman Swamp with T&B, following a train of snowshows into a another swamp to find Eagle Source, taking the pontoon boat out on Lake Winnebago with Frmr and Lone Gunman to not find a nifty cache, paddling to eight or nine T5 caches in a day with THB and T&B… all noteable highlights of the year. Solving and finding a Seldom|Found puzzle cache for our 1000th is pretty high on the list, as are the two tribute caches placed for that milestone.
We also attended quite a few events including three mega events in 2009. We’re getting pretty good at caching bingo. We only hosted one event last year, but hope to host at least a couple this year.
I can’t say that I’m sad to see the end of 2009, but caching-wise, it’s been nothing but fun.

[Cachelovskys]

Here are my reflections.

– Getting all 50 (plus 2) at the Cache Ba$h
– Taking my first roadtrip caching trip…(4 states in two days)
– Spending more time with family, and realizing that numbers are everything.

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