Three cache finds may seem to be rather insignificant to most, but it was a great afternoon of caching. First: it was fun to be out with the two girls in my life on a perfect Outer Banks day. Second: one of the two caches was an Earthcache.

Mind you geocaching means something different to different cachers. Some cachers seek out the most difficult of caches, while others may search out P&Gs. Some cachers chase down FTFs, while others like the thrill of logging big numbers.

I, for one, got back into geocaching because it was something our middle grandson wanted to try. We'd originally attempted it in the early years of  geocaching, but never really got into it. Then a little over a year ago we tried it once again. Our grandson loved it and it was off to the races. Every find was a thrill. We were actually stumped when we first encountered our first "skirt" hide and had ear to ear smiles when we finally figured it out.

Now, just a handful of months later, what we once found exciting now tends to bore us to no end. We can spot a "skirt" hide before we turn into a parking lot. We just hate it when we pop the lid of a 35mm canister and find yet another soggy log. FTFs come and go.

So, for me, an Eathcache is an opportunity to seek out one of the still exciting aspects of geocaching. It's a chance to actually learn something while participating in a pastime I enjoy.


Communities of Currituck Banks
Big Chair
Surprise, Surprise

My Cache Stats as of 4/5/2010 (Generated by CacheStats 3.0. Get your own stats at
www.logicweave.com)

Cache Finds
Total Found:	319 (# found/attended logs)	Find Rate:	0.102 per day (0.7 per week, 37 per year)
Caches:	319 (# unique caches visited)	Avg. difficulty / terrain:	1.76 / 1.66
# Archived:	35 (10%)	FTFs:	17
Avg. in 1 day:	4.7	Oldest Cache:	Four Dances (GCABC placed 5/28/2001)
Most in 1 day:	24 (4/24/2009)	Most in 1 month:	85 (3/2009)

Days Cached
Total days cached:	68 (every 45.9 days or 2.2%)	Most consecutive days with a find:	7 (3/16/2009 - 3/22/2009)
Most in 1 month:	21 (3/2009)	Most consecutive days without a find:	2698 (9/22/2001 - 2/9/2009)

History
Year	Total Found	Rate	Days Cached / Frequency
2001	1	0.010	1 / every 102.0 days
2002	0	0.000	0 / NA
2003	0	0.000	0 / NA
2004	0	0.000	0 / NA
2005	0	0.000	0 / NA
2006	0	0.000	0 / NA
2007	0	0.000	0 / NA
2008	0	0.000	0 / NA
2009	308	0.844	61 / every 6.0 days
2010	10	0.104	6 / every 16.0 days

Milestones
Number	Date	Cache	# Days between
#1	9/21/2001	Four Dances
#100	3/21/2009	South end of the trail	2738
#200	4/26/2009	Music City Audition #3-Executive Decision	36
#300	6/7/2009	"Have mind upon your health . . ."	42

Size Breakdown Size # Found Percentage Micro 153 48.0 Regular 60 18.8 Small 60 18.8 Not chosen 22 6.9 Other 14 4.4 Virtual 9 2.8 Large 1 0.3

Type Breakdown Type # Found Percentage Traditional Cache 284 89.0 Mystery 16 5.0 Virtual Cache 7 2.2 Multi-cache 6 1.9 Earthcache 3 0.9 Webcam Cache 2 0.6 Cache In Trash Out Event 1 0.3

Difficulty Breakdown Difficulty # Found Percentage 1 60 18.8 1.5 113 35.4 2 93 29.2 2.5 33 10.3 3 14 4.4 3.5 2 0.6 4 4 1.3 4.5 0 0.0 5 0 0.0

Terrain Breakdown Terrain # Found Percentage 1 64 20.1 1.5 149 46.7 2 77 24.1 2.5 16 5.0 3 5 1.6 3.5 3 0.9 4 2 0.6 4.5 1 0.3 5 2 0.6

Difficulty / Terrain Combinations

Terrain Difficulty    1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 1 31 22 3 2 1 - 1 - - 1.5 16 72 20 4 - 1 - - - 2 14 33 35 7 3 - 1 - - 2.5 2 13 14 2 1 1 - - - 3 1 6 3 1 - 1 - 1 1 3.5 - 2 - - - - - - - 4 - 1 2 - - - - - 1 4.5 - - - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - -   34 out of 81 combinations found

Favorite and other Notable Caches
Category	Cache	Log	Comment
Most difficult find	Tripping Billies	View	My first of this type and it stumped me on several trips.
Cleverest hide	Out On a Limb	View	Appreciate the effort that went into this cache.

FTFs
Number	Date	Cache	Log
1	4/9/2009	The Currituck Club	View
2	4/17/2009	Quack Attack	View
3	5/5/2009	Daisy's Surprise Cache	View
4	5/12/2009	Molly's cache	View
5	5/13/2009	Time to Think	View
6	5/14/2009	Don't Be Fooled	View
7	5/20/2009	Yahoo at Wahoo	View
8	5/20/2009	Eeny Meeny Miny Moe	View
9	5/28/2009	The Beach Cache	View
10	5/28/2009	Lindy's Yard Sale Cache	View
11	5/29/2009	Cudworth Cemetery	View
12	5/31/2009	Flying Horsegeeks	View
13	5/31/2009	When Pigs Fly	View
14	5/31/2009	Mark William Calaway	View
15	6/1/2009	The cameleon	View
16	3/19/2010	Let's Go Crabbing!	View
17	3/27/2010	HDTV minus the TV	View

Locations
US States (3):	MT (1), NC (312), VA (6)
Countries (1):	United States (319)

Steamer Pots, Beachcombing & Geocaching

Simply a great Easter weekend with so much to do and so much to enjoy. We even managed a few cache finds and another hide in between beachcombing, steamer pots and trips to the sound to let the dogs swim. The weather was near perfect; a little sea fog in the mornings, but sunny once that burned off.

The sad part of the weekend was having our family head back home.

Got Crabs?
Top of the Tower
I Want my Baby Back
Rachel's Doll House
Pipe Dreams

Peer @ The Pier

This cache was the idea of our daughter-in-law and hidden by her, our son, grandson along with my wife and I. Jennette's Pier was destoyed by Hurricane Isabel in September 2003. Recently, construction of the new pier was started and this cache was placed to bring fellow cachers here not only to find the cache, but also to view the new pier as it's being constructed.

Will That Be Cash Or Credit?

I'm standing in the check-out at Home Depot and I get a text message alerting me of a newly posted geocache. Where is it? Home Depot. So, I check out, grab the GPS and claim my FTF.

HDTV minus the TV

Three Down, Eleven To Go

If I counted correctly there's fourteen geocaches in my area that I'm yet to find. All winter I thought about seeking them out but the weather was just too nasty to venture out as much as I would have liked. Mind you we weren't buried in snow nor was it well below freezing. However it was cold for here, and wet, and we were bombarded by one nor'easter after another. When it was nice enough to be out there always seemed like there was something more pressing I should be doing.

Several days ago the planets all lined up and I was able to get out. Still it took the possibility of an FTF to lure me away from my recliner and the big screen TV. And even then I just took the time to find the one. Today I logged on to geocaching.com just to see what was out there. That's when I totaled up what was available  and came up with the fourteen I mentioned earlier.

This afternoon I decided to head out and log a few finds. I downloaded the ones nearest the house, threw Libby (our chocolate lab) in the truck and headed out. I probably could have searched for all of the eleven, but with Easter coming and the grandkids all coming, I thought I'd leave a few finds for them.

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore
The Phoenix 
Laundry Time

FTF!

It seems like I haven't cached in decades, so it actually took some OJT to actually figure it all out again. Several days ago this cache popped up in my email and it's remained undiscovered since. Finally it began to gnaw on me. Why hadn't anyone found it? Or, if it had been found, why hadn't it been logged? Was it there? Was it that difficult, even though it wasn't shown that way?

Anyway, it was only 1.8 miles from the house so today I downloded the coordinates into the Garmin and headed out. It was kind of like riding a bike; it all came back to me as soon as I jumped on board and started to petal.

Lets Go Crabbing

Holed Up!

My plan was to place new batteries in the Garmin and see if I actually remembered how to use it, but Mother Nature put all that on hold. I did get the new batteries installed and gave myself a basic course in GPSing 101.

Now all I have to hope for is that the batteries are still good when this cold spell is over.

Ho . . . Ho . . . Ho!

A friend emailed the other day about a project I'd just started and as a side note asked why I hadn't geocached in a long time. It then dawned on me that this blog has been sitting idle during my inactivity and that I should at least jump on here to update those who do on occassion read it.

We live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which some know, and others don't, is a series of islands out in the Atlantic Ocean. Being surrounded by water means we have fish. In fact, the OBX is a saltwater fishing Mecca. When our weather, and water, warms everything gets placed on the back burner and fishing takes precedence. My days are spent on Nags Head Pier, and it's there I stay until it closes on Thanksgiving weekend.

Also, if you look at the geocaches that are located around me you'll find that they are few and far between. Those that were here I'd already found. In the months I haven't cached a few more have popped up and it's nearly time to begin to track them down.

AND, while I'm here, have a Happy Holiday and please travel safely.

July 4th Find

We took a little out from our Independence Day festivities to try for a FTF. Unfortunately we ended up 2nd.
Logical

300+

Malinda & Libby

Downtown Washington

Waterfront

Today was spent geocaching in the Washington, NC area in an attempt to reach the 300 plateau.

Today's Cache Finds:
1. The Sentry
2. Be On Your Guard
3. Don't Get Stumped (Elf King's 1K # ONE) REDUX
4. EWG #3
5. EWG #2
6. The Inbetween
7. "Have mind upon your health . . ." This is my 300th find!
8. EWG #1
9. A Haven with Room to Rest
10. Where the Rivers Meet the Sea, easy version
11. DiSS - missed it
12. You can't hide your Lion eyes
13. Bells of Tacos
14. "...Or what's a heaven for?"
15. BellHaven Grand Slam