My 2018 geocaching photographs cover a considerable range. There are giant event letters in Cincinnati, sandstone walls in Arizona, homemade foil hats in Ohio and a snowy railway stop in Michigan. Somewhere in that collection is a duck that helped mark twelve thousand finds.
The year gave me plenty of reasons to travel, but it also gave me reminders that a good outing did not have to be far from home. An interesting hide, good company or an excuse to get outside could be enough to start the next set of plans.
Adventure Journal Highlights
Twelve Thousand, With a Duck
On March 18, I went caching with djpd1023 and chose DST and Me Just Ducky (GC7K866) as my 12,000th milestone. My log mentions earning the terrain rating on the trek and calls it one of my favorites of the day.
That seems a good way to mark a round number: make a day of it with a friend and choose a cache worth remembering. The duck in my photographs gives the day a suitably dignified visual record.
Going Giga in Cincinnati
May brought GeoWoodstock 2018 (GC5AX15), the first Giga-Event in the United States. Being there for that first was a big deal to me and especially exciting. The road trip included CanisMinor and djpd1023, with bapierson and LEGOexplorer part of the event-weekend group. We mixed the gathering with Donut Trail stops, geoart and two early caches.
The full event account and Oldies but Goodies: Chasing Historic Caches Around Cincinnati give those days their own space. The early start and planning that went into completing the Donut Trail remain a particular highlight. It was a good example of the fun beginning well before the main event.
A Family Vacation Through the Southwest
June took bapierson, LEGOexplorer and me through Arizona, Las Vegas and California. The trip included national parks, roadside landmarks, sightseeing and plenty of photography, with geocaches worked into the places we were visiting.
Antelope Canyon was beautiful. That visit had everything to do with the landscape and photography. Elsewhere, a Virtual or EarthCache added something to a sightseeing stop, and a traditional container gave us a different sort of search. The full stories are Canyons, Craters, and the Mother Road, Standin’ on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona and From Neon to the Batcave.
Foil Hats and Familiar Faces
July brought another Midwest GeoBash (GC7BMHE) weekend with family and friends. The photographs from the Tin Foil Hat Party & Bonfire (GC7Q137) preserve some impressive headwear. Apparently, ordinary hats were insufficient preparation for this particular gathering.
Events remained part of the year close to home too: meals, ice cream socials, a paddle and chances to catch up with familiar people. I recorded 30 event attendances across the year, including the Giga, the GeoBash Mega and one CITO.
Iowa, a Cleanup and Bacon Syrup
In September, CanisMinor and I headed to Iowa for IGO Hike-n-Seek 2018 (GC7JAM0). The weekend brought cache searches and city stops, including a photograph at the stone fountain in Davenport’s Vander Veer Botanical Park. The city’s history dates that fountain to the 1930s; it made a handsome place to pause between searches.
The next morning’s CITO Before Breakfast (GC7RWDY) supplied a different kind of discovery. My log singled out the large corrugated drainage pipe someone found during the cleanup. That is a more substantial object to carry away than the usual bit of litter.
Then Breakfast After CITO (GC7RWET) gave us pancakes and a new discovery of my own: bacon syrup. My original reaction was, essentially, yes please. A productive cleanup followed by breakfast was a fairly persuasive way to spend the morning.
One Last Big Day Out
On December 29, CanisMinor, djpd1023 and I left Chicagoland around 2 a.m. for a day of bee-themed geoart in Michigan. Honeycomb 01 (GC6V4QT) was among the finds, and our group signed as Bee Beards or Team Bee Beards. My log says we managed not to get stung, which I consider a useful feature of any honey-harvesting expedition.
We also found a few other things along the way. Highland Station (GCM5MY) appealed to the railfan in me and supplied a snowy photograph. Even with a large collection of puzzles as the day’s goal, there was room for a little railway history.
There was still time for one more outing with bapierson and LEGOexplorer on New Year’s Eve, including Little pig, little pig. Let me come in! (GC5JKY9) and The FLC meets for New Year’s Eve (GC7ZNMV). My event log talks about good food, familiar faces and putting faces to familiar names. After a year that included a Giga, a family vacation and a winter geoart run, a gathering close to home was a fitting way to finish.
By the Numbers
Geocaching.com and Project-GC agree on 1,656 credits for 2018. That includes 1,574 “Found it” logs, 30 event attendances, two Webcam finds and 50 individual Lab Cache finds. Project-GC records 93 days with geocaching activity. That left plenty of ordinary days in the calendar, but the days we did get out gave me a lot to remember.
2018 activity by month
1,656 credits, including 50 individual Lab Cache finds
Chart data
| Month | Credits |
|---|---|
| Jan | 161 |
| Feb | 27 |
| Mar | 54 |
| Apr | 70 |
| May | 443 |
| Jun | 139 |
| Jul | 215 |
| Aug | 104 |
| Sep | 136 |
| Oct | 18 |
| Nov | 96 |
| Dec | 193 |
May was the busiest month in this source-based tally. The range of cache types is just as interesting to me: traditional hides and Mysteries supplied most of the records, alongside Multis, Letterboxes, Virtuals, EarthCaches, Wherigos and events.
The kinds of caches and events
Cache and event types, with individual Lab finds listed separately
Chart data
| Cache type | Credits |
|---|---|
| Traditional | 993 |
| Mystery | 472 |
| Lab Cache finds | 50 |
| Virtual | 38 |
| Multi | 28 |
| Event | 27 |
| Letterbox | 23 |
| EarthCache | 15 |
| Wherigo | 5 |
| Webcam | 2 |
| Giga-Event | 1 |
| Mega-Event | 1 |
| CITO | 1 |
The 1,606 regular geocache and event credits cover ten states. Illinois supplied more than half, while the longer trips added variety to the scenery and to the searches. The state chart excludes the 50 Lab finds; the monthly and cache-type charts include them.
2018 activity by state
1,606 geocache and event credits across ten states
Chart data
| State | Credits |
|---|---|
| Illinois | 877 |
| Ohio | 319 |
| Michigan | 154 |
| Iowa | 79 |
| Indiana | 68 |
| Kentucky | 57 |
| Arizona | 33 |
| California | 11 |
| Nevada | 5 |
| Utah | 3 |
What I’ll Remember
The big gathering in Cincinnati belongs among the year’s highlights, as do the family vacation and the twelve-thousand milestone. But I am also glad to have the smaller details in my logs: the Donut Trail, a cleanup that produced an enormous pipe, bacon syrup and a railway stop on a winter caching day.
Those are useful reminders of why I keep doing this. The next cache might give me a satisfying search. The outing around it might give me a story I would never have thought to plan.
Field Notes
- Period: January–December 2018.
- Year totals: 1,656 credits =1,606 regular geocache/event records +50 individual Lab Cache finds.
- Lab evidence: 50 individual Lab finds in saved Project-GC evidence: 30 in May and 20 in July, separate from the regular GPX.
- Chosen milestone: DST and Me Just Ducky (GC7K866) — March 18, 2018; my log names this as 12K.
- Coverage: Ten states in regular GPX. Lab locations unassigned. Notes and Will Attend logs excluded.
- Photographs: Steven Pierson.
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