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Geocaching and Streaking

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact is all about the streaks.  Top streaker in Canada is carnigrewal at 2,897 days and still counting.  Top streaker in the States is Drjay at an incredible 4,145 days and still going.

This week I want to look at streaking.  Streaking is the act of running naked through a public place as a prank, a dare, as an act of protest and is associated with sporting events but can occur in secluded places, like campgrounds.  That's not the kind of streaking I'll be talking about today.  Sorry to disappoint some readers, but I'll be discussing the type where you find a geocache every single day.  That's a little less daring than running around, naked as a jaybird.  Doing a daily streak looks and sounds easy, but is it really?  I have been asked by other potential streakers for any advice that will help them make it to their goal.  As easy as streaking sounds, it does require lots of planning and some strategy.

When I started my daily streak, I only had intentions of going one hundred days.  Going a whole year or longer wasn't even a thought.  So I would quickly find a geocache after work.  This is a good idea if you're doing a short streak but not if you plan on doing an extensive one.  Looking back, under different circumstances, I would have done things differently.  By grabbing a cache after work, I was limiting myself to a general area within a quick driving proximity of work.  In time, I was caching out my portion of the city.  This would come back to haunt me as I pushed on with a more longer daily streak.  The first bit of advice I'd give to a potential streaker is save the ones close to home for the days you don't have time to geocache.  This sort of planning has come in handy a couple of times for me.  In my third Winter of my streak, I was unable to get my car out of the parking lot of my apartment block after a snow storm.  I trudged five hundred meters through snow drifts to the nearest cache, found it, and made my way back.  That was one of the more difficult walks I've done for a geocache.  Second time was after I totalled my car.  With nothing to drive, I walked to one that was in the area and made the find.
(this one is part of a mini powertrail that I slowly picked away at)

Second piece of advice would be to run a pocket query of geocaches found in the past seven days.  If it's been found in the past week, then there's a good chance of the geocache being there.  There's always the chance that it could be a difficult/evil hide, prolonging your search and risking a DNF.  This strategy is also handy in the Winter.  Why search for something that isn't Winter friendly and therefor, covered by twelve inches of snow?  Although, I did do that once for an ammo can.  A little bit of digging with my hands soon found it's hiding spot under the snow.  One good thing about doing this pocket query in the Winter; geo-trails.  Hopefully it hasn't snowed since the last find and you can follow the potential trail to GZ.  This is hoping that the trail leads you straight to GZ and not around multiple trees and bushes.  As a hider, I will run around all over to create a confusing trail.  LOL.  I've relied on geo-trails plenty of times to find a cache.
(same power trail as day #500, just further down the road)

Planning and strategy.  Going out somewhere?  Shopping?  Visiting family or friends?  Check to see if there's a geocache near your destination.  Tie the two together and make a single trip.  One thing that may be forgotten while streaking is how much extra gas you'll be using to satisfy this crazy goal of yours.  When you live in a major city or a location that has plenty of geocaches, then it's not too bad for gas.  If you live in a rural area, then travel can be costly as you drive an hour just to claim a cache.  Another option is to take a slightly different route to work or home.  Plan your route.  Pick a geocache along that route that will be a quick find.

Have a backup plan.  What if you DNF on your selected cache of the day?  Now what do you do?  Have a secondary and maybe a backup to the backup if your caching mojo is totally off that day.  There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to find that one cache you had your sights set on for that day.
(another power trail along the Eastern edge of the city that I picked away at)

What also helps is doing a little bit of homework before heading out.  Is there a string of DNFs on a potential cache you might go out for?  It might be worthwhile to pass on that one.  You can try it if you already have your find for the day, but don't waste your time searching for something that could be missing.

A couple of strategies you could do to help you reach your goal.  Go out at 11pm and find one geocache before midnight.  Then find another just after midnight.  You just covered two days of your streak in about an hour or so.  Another is to find nearby geocaches, but don't sign them or log them as found.  Go back on a day when you need a quick find.  The downside to that it if the geocache goes missing between the time you originally found it and when you come back to claim it as found.  I did this during the first Winter of my streak.  I always went back on the day I was logging it as found to sign the log sheet.  One particular cache I had found in advance was a bison tube, attached by fishing line, inside a sign post.  When I went back to claim it as found, the bison tube became frozen inside and I couldn't pull it out.  The CO was nice enough to allow me to log it as found.
(a much bigger powertrail that I spent the day doing with angelFreak and Drewhouse.  132 caches found that day)

You can make your streak more challenging by focussing on a particular cache type, such as Mystery caches.  One local geocacher, rurbonas, has a daily streak of 401 days of finding mystery caches.  That's a lot of puzzle solving and challenges completed.  Sitting down and solving puzzles that you can possibly grab during your streak adds to the amount of caches that is available to you to find.  Attending events are always helpful and an easy way to tick off another day of your streak.  While at an event, you can ask about a puzzle cache that has you stumped or any other cache that you couldn't find but others have found.
(not a powertrail but a series of puzzle caches placed by 4elements5senses)

Sometimes you'll be faced with difficult decisions.  You get a notification of a brand new geocache very close to home.  It's mid-July and the cache is listed as Winter friendly.  Do you go for the first to find or save it for when you need a Winter friendly cache in January when you're trudging through knee deep snow?  That scenario happened to me.  I saved it and hoped the cache would still be there, six months later.  It was and I did get my daily find.

Power trails can be your best friend when doing a streak.  Instead of doing the entire trail in one day, do one each day.  You can even do what was suggested as a strategy; go out before midnight and find the next one after midnight.  Two caches found on two different days in one trip.
(another puzzle cache that I selected as day #1,000 for it's title.  "Dear Lord, I would like my life back")

If I was to do another streak, I would do it a little differently and be better planned.  That won't be happening as I have a good chunk of the city cached out and I don't think there's enough to sustain me for another lengthy run.  If I was to move to another major city, then I might think about it.  Easy to say that but I think sm66 may have something to say about that.  LOL.

That's it for this week.  If you decide to embark on a daily streak, I hope this week's blog is able to help you along.  I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goal.  One more tip for when you do start your streak; please keep your clothes on.  LOL  Until next time, enjoy, be safe, peace out, and remember, geocaching is suppose to be fun.


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