Welcome to my first blog. I want to start off by thanking two people; Glacier Ice and Jangie for answering my questions and offering advice.
I am a geocacher as well as the stats guy/treasurer for the Manitoba Geocaching Association. In 2017 I successfully reached 1,000 consecutive days of logging a find.
When I first started geocaching in 2013, I noticed that the regular cachers all had a daily streak of some kind. The second event I ever attended was to honour a local cacher who became the first person to reach one thousand consecutive days in the province. The thought of having a daily streak of my own intrigued me. As a newbie to this hobby, I lacked the skill and the planning to accomplish this feat.
Fast forward to 2014, almost one year of geocaching under my belt. I was determined to make a daily streak succeed. How long will it last? I didn't have an answer to that, but I was better prepared to make it past 3 or 4 days. As I set my sights to streak over the months of July and August, I noticed there were some challenge caches that required a daily streak of some sort to complete the challenge. A baby streak of 14 days, a teen streak of 30 days, a daddy streak of 50 days, a grampa streak of 100 days, and finally, the zombie streak of 365 days. I calculated that if I could make it to early October, I'd have completed the Grampa Streak. Totally doable before the snow falls. Now I had a goal of caching for 100 days with no DNF's.
All great plans will have a wrinkle to them somewhere. Mine was my then wife. I knew she wouldn't approve of such folly. That added a new challenge. Being able to do a streak without her knowing. To get around that, I started work 15 minutes earlier and left 15 minutes earlier. That allowed me a 45-60 minute window to drive to a cache location, find, sign, replace, and get home before she did. That left the weekends to work around.
This plan worked as I made it to 100 days. Since this became my routine, it continued beyond the 100 day mark. With Winter coming, I figured it was inevitable that I'd DNF one day. Thoughts of completing a zombie streak was still far away. During this time that I separated from my then wife and revealed my daily caching streak that had passed 100 days.
Over the Winter, I had accumulated a handful of 'reserve' caches. Geocaches that I have found, but never signed the log sheet or claimed as found. These would help in a pinch when I needed a find and the Geocaching Gods were working against me. I still had to go back to re-find those caches to sign the log sheet. What also helped during this time was running a daily pocket query of recently found caches. Hopefully with the aide of a geo-trail in the snow, it would (and did) make things easier.
Surprisingly, I made it through the Winter. The zombie streak now became possible and was my new goal. I had a particular cache in mind to find to complete my zombie streak. It was a recently found 'zombie' cache. A geocache that has been archived, but the container is still out there to be found. A zombie cache to complete a zombie streak. On a rainy day in June, I found that zombie cache to complete the zombie streak. I was with another geocacher to share the moment. Then it was back to the car (just in time as it started to pour) and go sign off on the streak challenge caches.
With the zombie streak complete, what was left to do? One thousand days was still very far away. I had to get through two more Winters of geocaching. I continued on, thinking I'll DNF sooner than later. I made it through the next Winter and completed the zombie streak for a second consecutive time. Now what do I do? I continued on, thinking that one thousand days was still out of my reach and I'll DNF sooner than later. With a third Winter approaching, I became more determined to make it through and hit one thousand days. It wasn't easy as the caches were getting further and further away. Again, I had a particular geocache targeted for day one thousand. A puzzle cache with an appropriate name. "Dear Lord, I would like my life back"
I knew this insanity had to end and I had decided before reaching day one thousand that I would pull the plug on this daily caching streak on day #1010. I finished out the month of April. Now I geocache when I want to. I have no regrets of doing a daily streak of that magnitude as I have had many adventures, all of which I hope to share in future blogs.
I am a geocacher as well as the stats guy/treasurer for the Manitoba Geocaching Association. In 2017 I successfully reached 1,000 consecutive days of logging a find.
When I first started geocaching in 2013, I noticed that the regular cachers all had a daily streak of some kind. The second event I ever attended was to honour a local cacher who became the first person to reach one thousand consecutive days in the province. The thought of having a daily streak of my own intrigued me. As a newbie to this hobby, I lacked the skill and the planning to accomplish this feat.
Fast forward to 2014, almost one year of geocaching under my belt. I was determined to make a daily streak succeed. How long will it last? I didn't have an answer to that, but I was better prepared to make it past 3 or 4 days. As I set my sights to streak over the months of July and August, I noticed there were some challenge caches that required a daily streak of some sort to complete the challenge. A baby streak of 14 days, a teen streak of 30 days, a daddy streak of 50 days, a grampa streak of 100 days, and finally, the zombie streak of 365 days. I calculated that if I could make it to early October, I'd have completed the Grampa Streak. Totally doable before the snow falls. Now I had a goal of caching for 100 days with no DNF's.
All great plans will have a wrinkle to them somewhere. Mine was my then wife. I knew she wouldn't approve of such folly. That added a new challenge. Being able to do a streak without her knowing. To get around that, I started work 15 minutes earlier and left 15 minutes earlier. That allowed me a 45-60 minute window to drive to a cache location, find, sign, replace, and get home before she did. That left the weekends to work around.
This plan worked as I made it to 100 days. Since this became my routine, it continued beyond the 100 day mark. With Winter coming, I figured it was inevitable that I'd DNF one day. Thoughts of completing a zombie streak was still far away. During this time that I separated from my then wife and revealed my daily caching streak that had passed 100 days.
Over the Winter, I had accumulated a handful of 'reserve' caches. Geocaches that I have found, but never signed the log sheet or claimed as found. These would help in a pinch when I needed a find and the Geocaching Gods were working against me. I still had to go back to re-find those caches to sign the log sheet. What also helped during this time was running a daily pocket query of recently found caches. Hopefully with the aide of a geo-trail in the snow, it would (and did) make things easier.
Surprisingly, I made it through the Winter. The zombie streak now became possible and was my new goal. I had a particular cache in mind to find to complete my zombie streak. It was a recently found 'zombie' cache. A geocache that has been archived, but the container is still out there to be found. A zombie cache to complete a zombie streak. On a rainy day in June, I found that zombie cache to complete the zombie streak. I was with another geocacher to share the moment. Then it was back to the car (just in time as it started to pour) and go sign off on the streak challenge caches.
With the zombie streak complete, what was left to do? One thousand days was still very far away. I had to get through two more Winters of geocaching. I continued on, thinking I'll DNF sooner than later. I made it through the next Winter and completed the zombie streak for a second consecutive time. Now what do I do? I continued on, thinking that one thousand days was still out of my reach and I'll DNF sooner than later. With a third Winter approaching, I became more determined to make it through and hit one thousand days. It wasn't easy as the caches were getting further and further away. Again, I had a particular geocache targeted for day one thousand. A puzzle cache with an appropriate name. "Dear Lord, I would like my life back"
I knew this insanity had to end and I had decided before reaching day one thousand that I would pull the plug on this daily caching streak on day #1010. I finished out the month of April. Now I geocache when I want to. I have no regrets of doing a daily streak of that magnitude as I have had many adventures, all of which I hope to share in future blogs.
Nice entry for your first post! Way to go!
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