September's Find Of The Month - A Gadget Cache!

   Realizing it has been nearly a year since we named a Find Of The Month, we decided to shine our little spotlight on a new cache, created by a new cache owner in the Fountain area.  "Bug, Bed & Breakfast "Gadget Cache" TB Hotel" is a very creative and inspiring cache - it also happens to be our first FTF in September!

The Cache - it is so fancy!

 

   The cache itself is unique in many different ways.  Obviously, from just the name you realize it is going to be a "gadget cache", meaning there is some sort of mechanism involved in order to access the log.  When you look at the satellite map (habit of mine for most caches), you realize that this is in someones backyard.  Indeed - the CO's have placed this cache in their backyard, and have granted all geocachers permission to enter their property in search of this cache.  They have also added a 'Geocachers Welcome' sign at the entrance to their backyard as a little reassurance to those who feel a little apprehensive about entering private property in search of a geocache.  It is also unique in the fact that the cache requires a special TOTT (Tool Of The Trade) that most cachers may not carry with them.  Have no fear though, as the CO's placed the TOTT in an area within arms reach of the cache, easily spotted by tiny cachers.  Finally - the CO's have placed a secondary 'bonus cache' in their backyard, just for the tiny cachers out there.  The only way to find the 'bonus cache' is by using the treasure map found inside of the main cache.

Some kiddos (Carpe Crew & #36) holding up the treasure map for the 'Bonus Cache'!

   I originally wasn't going to go for this one as soon as it posted.  I had some GeoArt things to take care of that day, and I get a little nervous about caches on private property (funny, since I have one on my back fence).  However, a few hours after the cache published, there were still no 'Found It' logs.  I decided since we needed to get a FTF for the month, I might as well give this one a try.  I hopped into the truck and away I went.

   After arriving on scene, I was surprised to see nobody at the cache!  I could feel eyes watching me - I knew there was somebody inside the house.  I continued my investigation anyway.  I noted the different panels on the cache container, and that some things moved, while others did not.  I then started searching for the TOTT.  I'll admit, I spotted it almost immediately - however I thought it was just a piece of the landscape.  I kept looking around for a few minutes, then I felt really silly when I noticed it was clearly labeled as 'TOTT'.

Picture taken from inside the house by the CO as I finally got the cache opened as FTF!

 

There are some feathered friends that the kiddos can get acquainted with as they search for the hidden treasure!

   This blog isn't about spoilers, so I won't go into detail as to how to get into the cache.  I will say there are various interesting elements, locks, and gizmos used to gain access to the cache.  Honestly, this cache is definitely one of my favorites.  It is extremely creative, uses lots of elements, and best of all it is from a very new caching family!  The CO's (HandyHomestead1120) are very friendly, and will probably say hi after you have signed the log.  Also, being a large cache that is easily monitored by the COs, it is a great spot to drop off some TBs!  Two thumbs up for this excellent Find Of The Month!

Another Grand and Enchanting Milestone!

   Well, it has happened again.  We made it to another milestone by finding our 2,000th geocache!  There was plenty of adventure and some planning requires to make it happen.  Not only did we make it to the milestone, but the 2,000th find was at an epic geocache!  For our first post in October, let's recap this adventure.

MikeAndJuli holding up our 2,000 Finds Milestone Coin

 

   When I first realized we were approaching our 2,00th find, I started doing some research into some notable caches that we could find for this milestone.  There are plenty of great choices in our state - including night-time caches, gadget caches, 5/5's, and interesting mysteries.  I mentioned in our post about Slender that we have a soft spot for multi-caches and adventure-style caches.  After some research, I stumbled upon the page for an interesting sounding cache in City Park in Denver.  The cache was 'Enchanter - An Adventure Cache' or GC2VEBH.  I did some quick scanning of the page (recent logs, favorite points, etc.) and knew this would be a fun cache.  It mentioned a 'choose your own adventure' style of adventure.  I had been wanting to find a cache of that type for some time, so I was exceited to make this our next big multi.  All I had to do was make sure we got to find number two thousand on a day that we could make the journey to complete this cache, while still maintaining our daily find streak.

   I had a side-gig type of job in Highlands Ranch on the morning of Monday September 22nd, and I knew afterward I would have time to do some caching.  I wanted to find quite a few caches, so I calculated how many I could get without going over our magical number.  With this in mind, I found a few puzzle caches that I had solved, and avoided the powertrails.  I found just enough caches to get us within 8 finds of the milestone.  We had the very next day off, and could possibly make the milestone within 24 hours, but just in case I wanted to make sure that we had a buffer so we could continue our daily finds streak for one more week without messing up the milestone.

 

   Luckily, we were able to clear our schedule for Tuesday the 23rd (the very next day!).  We made a slight detour to the library to print out the required material from the cache page.  Afterwards, we started making a few easy park-and-grab type cache finds until we got to 1,999 finds.  At that point, we ended up going directly to City Park and the listed coordinates for our selected Milestone find...

   At the listed coordinates, we were at a playground.  Once Juli started reading the text, the playground started looking more and more like a grand castle.  With a little imagination, we suddenly found ourselves in a grand kingdom.  The mighty king charged us with the task of restoring the magic to the kingdom by locating an Enchanted Walnut.  Already, we realized we made a fantastic choice for our 2,000th cache find!  Soon, we got to our fist decision in the text.  Do we charge into battle against a mighty sorceress, or meticulously hunt for clues leading to the Enchanted Walnut?  I decided to go with the sleuthing route, as we just started our adventure and I wasn't sure how we would fare in battle. 

   At our first clue, we searched and searched and searched for our hint - but could not find it!  After finding hundreds of spiders, a few wasps, and almost getting to the point of giving up - we finished reading the page about the clue.  'If you are unable to locate the symbol, please go to page xx'.  The cache owner put in a contingency for those of us who were apparently blind!  We followed the additional instructions, using simple counting of elements in our surroundings, and easy calculations.  It was easy to continue our journey from there.

   Our next stop was much like the one before.  We searched for clues in our surroundings, and there was a small calculation to make to get to the next stage.  As we continued, there were a few sections where we were given multiple choices.  All of the stages used clues from our surroundings, and had a different storyline depending on the time of day/year, whether or not fountains were turned on or turned off, etc.  It seems the Cache Owner not only has an amazing imagination, but also put a great amount of thought and planning into this adventure!

Juli with the Enchanted Walnut and the Log Scroll

   I don't want to give too much away about the cache, and let others enjoy the adventure for themselves.  I will say I was greatly impressed at the creativity behind the entire experience - especially the epic final battle with the dragons!  We were able to defeat the dragons, retrieve the enchanted walnut, and restore magic to the kingdom.  And yes, for those who are wondering - the walnut is in the final container!  I recommend this adventure for all cachers, but especially for those who cache with children.  Stay tuned for our next milestone - 3,000 finds!

2014 Goals Progress Update!

   In just the second post for our new blog, we set some pretty lofty goals for the year 2014.  There were 3 goals we would like to achieve this year.  We would like a FTF every month of 2014, We would like to maintain a 'find-a-day' streak throughout the year, and finally we would like to find 2,014 caches in 2014!  Now that we are more than halfway through the year, let's analyze our progress.

   A FTF per month for the entire year: When we set this goal, we figured it would be the easiest of the three.  We had already maintained a FTF in each month since July of 2013, and hadn't even been trying.  Turns out, there seem to have been fewer caches published in 2014 than there were in 2013.  January started out very strong - we were actually able to make eight FTFs!  It gave us a false sense of security for February, as we passed up the first few caches that had published.  Suddenly, the end of the month was approaching and we hadn't made our FTF!  After an exhuastive search, I came up with a few possibilities for our final weekend of the month.  We were able to make the FTF some 38 miles from home near the town of Elizabeth, Colorado.  That is when we realized this goal wasn't going to happen as passively as we had hoped for.  There have been a few similar struggles in making the FTF happen in the past few months - but hopefully our persistance will pay off.

Sweet FTF prize!

   Find-Per-Day: This would have been a pretty easy goal, however we cleared out a majority of the park 'n grab caches near our home and work.  That leaves us with more difficult hides, or hides that are a distance away.  We seem to be doing a fairly good job of keeping up.  There are some days where finding a cache seems more like a chore than a hobby, especially when the sun would go down and we still hadn't found that cache of the day!  We keep pushing on, though; knowing that if we miss a day we may never be able to maintain a streak like this again!

Sometimes a cache needs to be found after dark to keep a streak alive!

 

   2,014 finds in 2014:  Upon setting this goal - I realized it was probably going to be the hardest.  We have never found 1,000 cache in a single year, yet alone over 2,000!  Early on I set a weekly goal as to how many cache finds I would need at that point to be on track to make the goal.  As of this post (August 1st) we are a few HUNDRED caches behind that goal.  We should be well over 1,000 finds, however we are only at 780 finds in 2014.  I have saved a few lists of powertrails that we have yet to complete, which should help us get back on track for this goal.  It's quite the challenge - I hope we can meet it!

If Every cache was a big red one - it would be easy to make our goal!

Colorado GeoArt

  The past few months we haven't posted anything on our own blog!  It's been a blur of things to keep up with; a new multicache, a few events, and then the biggest secret project we have ever heard of (let alone had the honor to participate in).  With that in mind, Today's post will focus on that secret project - the GeoCaching COlorado GeoArt project!

   It started in February for us, at the Weeknight in February Meet and Greet event.  During the social time, Juli was involved in a conversation about a state-wide powertrail and asked if we would help out with something like that.  Of course she said 'Yes' and told the GCCO board that if they needed anything to contact us.  Little did we know that the board would be calling on us just a few weeks later.

   In late March, Scott (one half of imyy4u2) introduced us to the team creating the next big GCCO cache project.  To our surprise, instead of a powertrail, there was a plan for a massive art project on the Northeastern plains.  At first we thought it was impossible.  The amount of planning and materials needed just seemed unwieldy!  We joined, eager to see if this project would even work and how we could help make it happen.

This picture is one of the first visual concepts that we were given from Keith (WitzAbout) of the GeoArt

   Our first secret meeting was at Deb's house (KBOUMW) - and from there we were able to see the extent of planning that Keith put into all of this.  We had google map images, sectioned 'zones', and spreadsheets with approximate hide coordinates for each cache in each zone.  While at the meeting, we discussed what kind of cache containers we would used, how the letterboxes and Wherigo caches would be set up, and even devised an idea for 'Supply Caches' outside of the art for those who want to help in maintaining it.  Toward the end of the meeting we starting volunteering for hide zones.  Some folks in the group wanted to find Mingo on the same trip that they hid caches, so they volunteered for the easternmost zones.  Some folks wanted to cache in an area they haven't been yet, so they took zones that fit them.  We decided we didn't care where we hid caches, we just knew we wanted to make a weekend of it, so we volunteered for roughly 18 hours worth of hides - which apparently meant 128 caches.

An image showing the hide zones and assignments.  The westernmost area was eventually picked up on a second round of hides and corrections

   After the meeting, we went home and started to prepare for over 100 cache hides.  I ordered 400 containers, a small stack of RITR paper, and a pile of plastic baggies.  Over the next week, we started printing logs, cutting paper, stuffing baggies... however the containers got delayed in shipping.  When our containers didn't arrive by the Saturday before we went out, I asked the GeoArt team for assistance.  They were more than happy to help, and had 140 containers for us by Sunday morning.  That gave us less than 24 hours to camo and stuff all of those cache containers, and somehow we managed to get it done by Sunday night.  We were ready to ride!

Our logs all printed, cut, and ready to go.  The front page is RITR paper!

Quickly threw together all of these caches.  There were a few that had to be 'improved' on the drive up - but not bad considering we only had a few hours.

   The 'weekend' (a Monday/Tuesday weekend for us) that we headed out to hide our caches, the weather was beautiful.  Good thing, too - as there were a few spring snowstorms the week before.  We decided to start our hides in the far north area of our assigned zones, and work our way south, then west.  That way, hopefully we would be close enough to I-70 or Hwy 36 toward the end of the first day that we could easily find a hotel to stay at.  That plan worked pretty well, as we were able to hide 88 caches in that first day!  The projected hides that Keith had mapped out using google earth were simply amazing.  Some caches we were able to drop right at the very same coords, and not have to change anything even down to the 1,000th of a minute!  For most of them the coords that Keith estimated were only off from the actual hide by a few 100ths of a minute (30-100 feet).  Great planning on his part!

 

Even though the weather was great - there were still some leftover snowdrifts.

Moonrise over the eastern plains as our first day was coming to an end

 

   When we finally made it to a hotel in Stratton, we emailed back to the rest of the team that we only had 40 hides left and a whole day to do them.  We counted our remaining containers and decided we could help out by taking one more zone of 14 caches.  Within 30 minutes Keith emailed us the list for a new hide zone on the west side of the art.  We were excited to help out even more, and were soon asleep dreaming of hiding more caches!

   The next morning, we awoke and after breakfast and fuel, we headed straight for our nearest set of hides remaining.  We seemed to have breezed through those final 40 - the coords were very well lined up and there were lots of good hiding spots.  Soon we were headed west to make our final hides in the new zone we acquired the night before.  excited, we turned south off of Hwy 36 onto a dirt road.  I noticed a muddy spot from the recent snowmelt, so I sped through it hoping to get to the other side which appeared drier.  Turns out, the other side of the mud was NOT much drier, and the tires sank in.  We ended up getting stuck in the mud some 50 feet off of the highway and had to call the local Co-op to pull us out!  Defeated, we let the team know the route from our location was blocked off by mud, and that we couldn't complete the extra hide zone.  We managed to make a couple of finds on our way back home, and warned the next group that there was some sloppy mud out there.

Stuck in the mud.  If you see the tracks behind us, you can see that we managed to get turned around - just not free.

   This was our only trip out to the hide zone.  We were going to make one more run to move a few caches and make sure others survived the weather, however we could never get our days to sync up.  So while the rest of the team rotated trips up to the area to hide caches, we worked on digging up facts about Colorado to use for the puzzles and organizing them on a spreadsheet.  Once we got the spreadsheet started, the team went crazy adding facts to it.  We soon had enough facts to use for all of the puzzles, letterbox hybrids, and the Wherigo cartridges, plus a few extra just in case.  Those in the group who were more computer & software saavy found a way to create a quick puzzle using the facts we all came up with.  Others encoded the puzzles into HTML and added them to the cache pages.  It worked quite well, and it was soon obvious everyone on the team was chosen for a reason.

A pile of spreadsheets from inputting hide coordinates

    After months of preparation and multiple trips to the high plains, we were finally ready for the big reveal.  The question was, how do we present this giant piece of art.  From what we can gather, it is the biggest geoart in the world, measuring 60 miles from tip to tip in either direction - that constitutes a big reveal!  The idea of publishing during an event right in the middle of the art came up - and we almost went with it.  I mean, how cool would it be to see a bunch of geocachers all speed off in different directions?  Instead of that, we decided to host an event in Bennett - just a short drive east of Denver.   The main difference being that we believed folks would be more apt to attend an event that less than an hour outside of the city; rather than one out in the middle of no-mans land. 

   Once we had a location picked for the event, all we had to do was generate some excitement without giving away what we were up to.  Not an easy task with Colorado's group of 'super-slueths'.  We ended up using some of the facts that we had accumulated for the puzzles as daily trivia questions throughout the month of May.  We posted each question in a Geocaching group on Facebook, and told everyone to save their answers to bring with them to the event at the end of the month.  We eventually told people that the answers would give them a huge advantage at the event, and used words like 'this is big' and 'you don't want to miss this'.  That seemed to work at building interest, and the 'will attend' logs kept rolling in!  Finally, somewhere towards the middle of the month, we injected one more thing into the event to really bring out the Geocaching masses - A GPSr to give away!

The GPSr we gave away at the reveal event - we loaded it with a few of the caches yet to be published ;-)

 

   Finally all of the pieces to the event were in place.  We even got a timeframe from the reviewers as to what time they would publish so we could try and coordinate our event for a big reveal!  I decided at the last minute (the day before the event) that a slideshow presentation would be nice to go along with our big reveal.  I had all of the pieces to create an outdoor display and hook it into a laptop, so it worked out quite well.  After coordinating with the board, I came up with a pretty sweet presentation to go along with their big reveal!

The presentation display (this picture was from my test the night before the event)

 

   Finally the big day came for the reveal.  Those of us involved in the event showed up about 30-45 minutes prior, thinking we would have time to set up and coordinate.  Little did we know how much hype we generated - and attendees started showing up within moments!  We quickly set up our tables and before we knew it the park was getting packed.  After some short delays, we presented the Giant GeoArt to the masses!  It was a fun event, where we gave away a gold GCCO coin (which can only be won at events), The GPSr, some Colorado GeoArt tee shirts, and some cool cache containers.  Just a short 30 minutes after the actual reveal of the GeoArt, the 1,005 caches were published - and folks were out to make their FTFs. 

 

Even my truck was dressed up for the event!

There was quite the impressive turnout!

Even Bounce The Frog was there!

 

   In the end, it was a lot of fun being part of this amazing group.  Just like any cache placement, our next challenge will be maintaining the hides!  With the energized team of cachers we have, I don't think that will be a problem at all.  Until next time, happy caching!

Farewell to 2013, as we welcome 2014! (warning: long post ahead!)

   Much like November, December was not a very busy Geocaching month for us.  With a few household emergencies and the holidays to worry about, we really didn't get many chances to head out and hunt.  I have decided instead of a 'Find of the Month', I will use this post to reflect on a year of Geocaching, and set our goals for 2014.

A fun geo-moment in 2013 at the final for Ask Alice (GC404WN)

   2013 was our busiest Geocaching year yet!  We reached 1,000 caches, cached in one new state and 3 new countries!  We had our longest streak of 76 days, and started our very own geo-blog.  Let's highlight our top 6 geo-moments of 2013 (in no particular order)!

Number 6:  Reflections (GCH308)
   Reflections was our first night-time caching experience.  I happened to stumble upon it while I was headed south on the interstate looking for new, easier caches during a sleet/rain storm.  A few days later, I convinced BelgianSquiggy to go out with us for this unique cache. 
   If you aren't aware of how night caching works, apparently instead of the cache being at published coords, you go to a starting point and follow a set of reflectors toward the cache.  Most of the time, the reflectors are arranged in patterns that give you directions (two reflectors on the left side and one on the right might mean turn left, etc.).  In order to see the reflectors, it will have to be dark out and you will need a flashlight.
   So after dark, we all loaded into the Belgian's truck in Security.  We checked our flashlight batteries and away we went!  It was a little creepy at first, and probably wouldn't have been as comfortable going after the cache had we not been in a group.  Since it had just rained (and looked like it might rain some more), we saw lots of frogs on the trail.  We had to have one flashlight out ahead looking for reflectors, while another one was scanning the path below to help us avoid stepping on our new amphibian friends.

One of the many frogs scattered along the path to Reflections

   We found it fairly easy to follow the reflections - that is until the end.  We ended up walking for about a 1/4 mile without another reflector before we turned back around and try to find what we missed.  Upon returning to the last reflector,  we walked just a few feet down the path and noticed a geotrail.  We shined our lights down the small trail and finally noticed the final reflectors. 

   Arriving at the end of the geotrail, we split up and looked around in obvious spots for the hide.  it only took a little searching and stirring up one snake.  It  was an excellent cache, highlighting a fantastic cache experience.

Us and BelgianSquiggy on the Reflections trail.  Yes, we wore reflective jackets!

 





Number 5: Cartoon Cache (GC39BWA)
   Cartoon cache was the third Multi that Juli and I completed together.  It was a whole lot of fun and the various stages were extremely unique.
   We knew of the park, as we grew up in this area.  We hadn't done much caching up here, but decided to give it a shot.  It was a little chilly and foggy, so we pretty much had the area to ourselves.
   The first stage was actually outside of the park, but still a fairly cool puzzle.  Once we figured it out, we decided to pick up the required tools (listed in the cache description), and then continue our search for the next stage.
   The second stage was quite difficult to get to.  We couldn't quite find the best way to get from where we were to the cache.  After some serious soul-searching, we decided  to go with what looked like a game trail (though we are in town, so it was probably more like a trail left by kids from the nearby school).  It led us over a creek.  We got past the creek and headed in what we thought was the proper direction.  Of course, once we got to a point to re-check the GPSr, I realized we had gone to far.  I saw the likely spot for stage two, and what do you know - we found it. 
   I don't want to give away the details of the various stages, so I will just say we used one of our special tools and acquired the next clue.  All of the clues had a Disney theme - and lucky for me, I happen to have a Disney Encyclopedia for a wife!  We deciphered the clue and had a destination for our next waypoint. 
   All of the waypoints have the same basic theme.  Hike into the cache area, use a special tool to acquire a clue, and decipher the clue to find out the next stage.  All in all, we hiked in a spiral that totaled of about 1 to 1.5 miles.
   The final stage is the actual cache - a rewarding ammo can filled with goodies!  We even found some trackables to trade out!  This Multi has a little bit of everything - challenging puzzles, fun hikes, and a few unique 'containers' at the various stages.  Definitely one to remember!

The view from part of the hike through Cartoon Cache.  There was still some snow on the ground in March

Number 4:  Brennan7's Sophomore IB Project -- Multi (GC42Y5Q)
   This was another exciting multi-cache Juli & I completed together.  This one we spread over 2 different days.   We started on a Tuesday before a bi-weekly appointment Juli has in the area.  We got as far as we felt comfortable without being late to get to the appointment.
   The first stage was a great indication as to how awesome this cache would be.  The puzzle was just that - a literal puzzle!  We assembled the puzzle and soon realized the next set of coordinates was written in permanent marker on the back of the puzzle.  After a few failed attempts at figuring out how to flip the whole puzzle over in one piece, I reluctantly disassembled the puzzle while reassembling it upside-down.  With the new cords in hand, we continued on to the next stage.
   Instead of simply moving on from stage to stage, we found the first stage of another multi which started on the same path, and found a traditional that was just a small distance off of the path.  Finally making it to stage two, we found and solved the puzzle at that stage.  We then had to turn around to get back to the vehicle to make our appointment.  Saving this puzzle for a later date.
   Just a little over a week later, we decided to finish up the multi.  It was raining (early May rainstorms), but we didn't let that stop us from trying.  We made  our way to the third stage, solved the puzzle in the rain - and got the cords for the fourth and final stage. 
   At the final, we were a little confused as to where the cache actually was, and finally found it about 40 or so feet off of coords.  To get into the cache, there was a padlock requiring the answer to one of the clues from the puzzle.  However, the numbers on the padlock were wearing off.  We ended up having to take a few guesses as to the combination, and finally got it open. 
   After signing  the log, we went back to the truck to retrieve a trackable and try to put the symbols back on the lock..  Best Multi we had done up to this point.

Number 3: Alphabet Soup: The Final Dish (GC45EPB)
   Alphabet Soup was a great first experience for us.  It was our first time completing a cache series in a single day, and it was also our first non-traditional FTF.
   We went after this series the day after it published.  It happened to publish on a Monday night, and we always have Tuesdays off.  One of the fun things about this series is that it pretty much covers the entire city.  If you have friends and/or family coming in from out fo town who also happen to be geo-nuts, this series is perfect for taking them all over our fair town.  Most of the caches (except for the final) can even be done on a day with bad weather.
   There are 26 traditional caches in this series - each named for a letter in the alphabet.  Inside each of these traditional caches (I was told by a reviewer they are called "feeder" caches) is a cryptic clue that will help you get the coords for the final.  Once you have gathered all of the clues, you must find out how to decypher them into a set of usable coordinates.
   We set out in the morning to find the 26 'feeder' caches - hoping we could get a FTF.  Each cache we went after, we found at least one signature already on the log (most of the time two, some times up to four!).  There was one of the letters toward the east side of town that we simply could NOT find.  We spent extra time searching after refreshing the cache data and seeing nobody had found this one yet.  After about 30 minutes of searching - we left a DNF log and hoped we could still figure out the clues with one piece missing.
   While driving to the next feeder north of us, I got an email from the Cache Owner.  She offered help with the cache we couldnt find and left us her phone number for future PAF calls (Phone A Friend).  She told us there was an issue with the original location for the one we couldnt find, and was in the process of updating the coordinates to reflect its new hiding spot (some 150 feet away!).  After finding one more of the feeders, we went back to find the missing cache.  A short search turned up success, however we were the second to find this one.  We shrugged it off and continued our journey.
   By the end of the day, we had found all 26 traditionals.  Just in time, too - as the sun had just finished setting for the day.  We stopped at Panera Bread, because all of this talk of soup made us hungry.  After ordering our soups, we went back to the truck to grab a notepad.  Might as well try to work out our clues while we are eating, right?  Organizing the 26 clues was a challenge in itself.  Should we put them in the order they were found, or is there a different pattern we are missing?  In the end, we used up two full sheet on an old yellow legal pad before the clues starting coming together to form workable coordinates.  After double checking our work, we looked up the final location on Google Earth (middle of a hilly, rocky area with no potential to street lights), looked outside at the darkness, and faced a dilema.  Do we dare venture out in the cold night to find the final?  The snow hasn't even melted from this year's storms, and we haven't gotten FTF on any other caches today, so the odds are against us making FTF on this one.  On the other hand, even though we weren't FTF on any of the caches we found, we noticed not one of the other cachers who were before us on the 26 traditionals had signed all of the traditionals, yet.  It was possible we were the only ones who had all of the clues!  That is enough of a possibility to make us get excited and brave the dark and the snow to go after this final!
   A closer look at google earth revealed there may be a trail leading to the cache from a neighborhood cul-de-sac.  However, when we got to that area in the dark, the trail was actually a drainage ditch between two homes.  We decided to check the slightly longer way (from what we saw on the map).  Upon reaching that 'secondary' access point, we quickly realized in was entirely private property.  We managed a three-point-turn on the one lane driveway/road and headed back to the original access point. 
   Parking on the side of the road next to somebody's back yard we grabbed our jackets and flashlights and started making our way for the final.  At first there were a lot of footsteps in the snow on the trails above the drainage ditch, assuming from the nearby school.  However, they soon faded to just a couple of pairs of tracks.  after following the tracks around for a while, and doubling back more than once, we decided to stop following human tracks and follow some deer prints that seemed to be headed in the right direction.  Wouldn't you know it?  The deer path led right up to the cache!  Shivering from a mix of cold and anticipation, we opened the container.  All of the listed TBs were still there.  We opened the log book, and squealed with glee as we realized we were FTF!  We signed the log, traded a couple of trackables, and made our way back to the truck.
   One thing we found amazing about this particular FTF was that we were not first on a single feeder cache.  There was always one (if not three or four) cachers that beat us to all 26 traditional caches.  It was VERY exciting to be the first to find the 27th cache for the final!

Number 2: The Sangres (GC4DGW5)
   Our first long-distance FTF!  I was bored one night at work and needed to keep myself entertained.  I ended up pulling up the search list of caches from my home cords and sorted it by date last found, so the caches that hadn't been found would be at the top.  There are a few intimidating ones that have been published for years and not found, and a few brand new caches that I believed were probably found, just not logged yet.  I then spotted this puzzle cache.  It was perfect!  Hadn't been found for a month, and was a puzzle I could solve in my downtime using research from the internet.
   Work stayed relatively slow throughout the night, and before my shift was up I had successfully extrapolated a good set of coordinates from the puzzle.  The problem was, this cache was a long distance from home, and I wouldn't be able to take a small road trip for a few more days.  I hoped I would still be able to make FTF, and stored the cache and new coordinates in my phone.
   The next Tuesday, Juli and I had a day off, and I convinced her that a drive out to Westcliffe would be fun.  She agreed, as she had crafts she could do along the way, and we never made that particular drive.  We headed out - driving straight for this cache without detour - in case someone else was going for it the same day.
   We arrived without incident at GZ, and began our search.  There were lots of conspicuous looking locations where we thought we would easily find the cache, however our searching turned up no results.  We expanded our search radius by 100 feet or so, checking from one fence line to the other.  I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as the thought crossed my mind; maybe this cache hadn't been found because it's not here! 
   Right at the point I thought we were about to give up and call it a wasted road trip, Juli spotted something odd.  The smallest detail, in one of the first hiding spots we checked.  Upon further investigation, we realized it was the cache container!  I'm not giving away the camouflage or the hiding location, just know that this cache is among the best palced and camoed I have ever seen - and I would not have noticed the small detail that Juli noticed.
   We signed the log as FTF, claimed our First To Find Reward (a $1 bill) and headed out to grab a few more on our way back home.  This cache was very memorable as the first time we have driven more than 15 miles in hopes of a FTF.

Number 1: Warcrack - Stormwind - Meet the King (GC3B349)
   I was showing one of my geo-friends (BelgianSquiggy) the Warcrack series I stumbled upon.  I had the cache series saved on my phone, so we used his computer to investigate all of the caches. While we were looking at page for the final, he noticed there was a Geocoin in the cache that hadn't moved for a long time.  After looking at the logs for the traditional 'feeders' leading to the final, I tried to let him down softly - there was a good chance that the clues leading to the final were lost forever.  Well, apparently I didn't do so well at quelling his desire to find that trackable, as the next time I met him to go caching he said the thought of that coin being lost haunted him.
   Off we went on a quest to retrieve this missing coin.  The Belgian brought his step-son and went out to a nice trail in fountain where the feeder caches were located.  The first couple were easy enough, however the third traditional was the troublesome one.  Upon arriving in the area of Ground Zero, we quickly realized where the cache should be.  After a tiresome search, involving BelgianSquiggy completely disappearing in a culvert, we realized we were destined to become among the many DNFs for this missing cache.  Judging by the location, we all assumed a heavy rainstorm caused high water that destroyed the cache.  We continued on to the last feeder in the series, which was rather trashed, however findable.  There was no clue on the damp log, and the cache container was quite literally a piece of trash (old Coke bottle).  After signing the log, we started trekking back towards the vehicle. 
   I sent out a mass of messages to previous finders to try to retrieve the missing clues, thinking that maybe they saved them somehow.  Meanwhile, we went in search of other caches nearby, just to kill some more time as we try to figure out what to do.  While hunting for one near a red caboose, I got a phone call from Hartsdale - the original FTF on the puzzle.  He told me he didn't keep the clues, or the coordinates from solving the puzzle.  However, he could try to talk us into it, giving me directions like a letterbox.  He gave me directions from the caboose, and we were off.
   When we got to the area near the final, we were a little freaked out.  The place Hartsdale described as GZ was right between two driveways on what seemed to be private property.  After a short search, the Belgian pulled the cache out of it's hiding spot.  We excitedly opened the cache, and retrieved  the lost coin.  After signing the log we put the cache back and wondered if we would be the last ones to ever find it.  Turns out, we were, the reviewer ended up archiving the cache for lack of maintenance on the feeders.  It was a pretty unique experience - however it probably would not have been the same if we hadn't had to use the caching community to help locate the final.

BelgianSquiggy going the extra mile for a find (this pic was actually at an unrelated cache)

   And now we begin the year 2014!  It took us until after the new year started, but we finally set some geocaching goals.  We made 3 goals - and here they are, ranked from easiest to most difficult!

1st: A FTF every month for the entire year.  We kind of started this back in July with a FTF near our house.  We figure we should be able to keep this up for the rest of the year pretty easily.

Nothing like a blank log to make you smile!

2nd: We are going to have a streak going through the entire year.  That's a cache find every day from January 1st to December 31st - 365 days straight!  Our longest streak up to this point was 76 days (from our July FTF to our September wedding) - so 365 is going to be quite the challenge.

Nothing like a nice Lamp Post Cache to keep a streak alive!

3rd: The most difficult goal I think we could set, we are going for 2,014 finds in 2014.  Our best year was 2013 - and we found 626 caches. As a matter of fact, combining all 4 years leading up to 2014 we barely got over 1,000 finds.  This is going to be the toughest goal to reach. 

Powertrails sure are going to come in handy!

   Wish us luck, as we move forward into 2014 with our lofty goals.  I'm certain there will be some fun new geocaching experiences in the future, and many surprises along the way!