Cornell Finch

Made My Geocaching Target!

When I started caching my first find was GC1FT7B – Shark Of The Gill(ies). Shortly afterward I set myself a target of 200 caches for the year.

Mid 2009 I thought it wouldn’t be a problem as I was going “great-guns” and at the beginning of August I was at 120 caches. No problem, 80 to go in 4 months – that’s only 20 a month I thought.

I then didn’t log a find between October 4th and November 23. That’s essentially two months without a find (slacker!) and I was starting to get a little worried. Thankfully I managed to log 20 in a week in London at the end of November bringing me much closer.

When the Christmas break started I had 7 finds to go. No problem I thought, I have loads of time. Yeah, and loads of rain, cold, sleep, outings and TV to get in the way! Realisation: Holy crap, it’s New Year’s eve and I still have six caches to find.

So, this morning I left my luvverly wife in bed and headed for my Mum’s. I shouted up to my brother who was just getting dressed “PUT OLD CLOTHES ON, WE’RE GOING OUT!”

He appeared in old clothes and after a quick cup of tea we were off. Thankfully there were six caches fairly close together in Portchester (about two miles from home) and we managed to get all of them, three micros (Portchester Common One, Two and Three and Portchester Micro One, Two and Four).

The photo is my brother at Portchester Common 1.

The coordinates for a couple of the caches were 40 – 50 feet out but with a little searching and the use of the hint and we found them with little trouble.  I even managed to get a geocoin into Portchester Micro 1!

So, with mere hours to go I hit my target of 200 caches, a great relief after days of panic over whether I was going to make it.

We have also set up an account for my brother on geocaching.com.  His account handle is FremaGoGo (his Star Wars name!) if you want to see how he’s getting on.  When I left him he’d logged 5 finds before having to go out.  He doesn’t have his own GPS but will be using Dad’s eTrex H and will either cache with me or Mum and/or Dad for the next few months until he’s confident enough to go out on his own.

Thanks for coming out with me this morning bro, here’s to many more finds during 2010!

Hitting 200 finds means it’s time for me to hide a new cache.  Right now I am thinking “ammo box” and “puzzle cache”. Watch this space!

2010 for me means at least another 200 caches, a couple of series – Sussex Amble, UK Mega, and at least 4 more hides (1 per 50 finds).

I would love to hear what other Geocachers have planned for 2010 – leave a comment and let me know!