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Geocaching and Filling Some Gaps

Good morning everyone.  This week we'll look at Hawaii.  The oldest geocache is on the island of Oahu (same island as Honolulu).  'Geocache'  GC23 was hidden in July, 2000.  It has 1,761 logged finds and 548 favorite points.  The geocache with the most favorite points is an Earthcache on the island of Maui.  Pu'u'u'ula'ula (Red Hill) Haleakala Volcano Summit (GC18Z99).  Hidden in January, 2008, it has 2,163 logged finds and 702 favorite points.

One thing that I use to do all the time was look at my stats page.  Either on the official geocaching website or on Project-gc.  I would see where I had a gap in my stats and what cache should I go after to fill in that blank spot.  I was always planning road trips to somewhere.  Anywhere.  This year, I really haven't done that.  I did look at the 360 degrees from home stat and filled that in back in March.  

A nice green circle.  No red missing sectors.  Until I moved.  Moving for the most part shouldn't change your stats much, if at all.  Except the 360 degree from home stat.  With my new, updated coordinates, I was able to see if that stat changed at all.


 





As you can see, it changed.  A LOT!  Eighty eight missing sectors.  I haven't really looked to see how far I have to travel to find caches in those missing sectors.  Let's put that eighty eight into perspective.  So far this year, I have found sixty one caches.  That eighty eight is more than what I have done so far this year.  Another thing I considered.  I have a history of moving.  I have moved six times since 2015.  Basically, every year.  I could be on the move again next year.  Who knows?  Should I even expend all that energy just to move and have that stat change on me again?  Probably not.  I could find the ones that'll are closest to me at the very least.  If it fills in a sector, awesome.

Another stat that I checked on frequently was my calendars.  In this case, the month hidden.  I've been fairly consistent with my finds, grabbing the newer published caches sooner than later.  I have a gap in my calendar.  I haven't found any caches that was published or hidden in the month of March.  This would be at the early stages of the pandemic.  I checked the project-gc map to see where the March caches are.  Mostly to the West.  Not much in the city of Winnipeg.  I have no immediate plans to go out West for any of these caches anytime soon.  My options are few if I want to fill in that gap. 


There was one cache that stood out that I could get.  This one is hidden in Erocks and Crazy Owl Chick's front yard.  If you recall, the caching community lost Erocks to melanoma cancer just a short time ago.  I made it a point to come and claim this cache as found and pay my respects to Erocks.  It didn't take long to locate this ammo can.  I signed the log book, dropped off the two trackables that I've been carrying around for far too long, and took a few pictures.  



I placed the container back where I found it.  I could hear Erocks having a good laugh, watching prospective finders look all over, then trying to retrieve the ammo can.  Before I left, I gave Erocks a wave.  I knew he was around somewhere, so I said hello and thanked him for the fun hide.  It is definitely worthy of a favorite point.  That fills in my gap in the month hidden stat.


Now there's that business of the 360 degrees from home stat.  I did locate a few caches that fit into one of the sectors.  I've never gone for these caches before because of the roads, if you call what I have to drive on a road.  The road starts off as gravel, but soon becomes dirt.  I'm not too crazy about driving on dirt roads.  I have in the past.  Got myself stuck once and had to get a nearby farmer to pull me out with his tractor.  With the lack of rain and the really hot temps lately, I figured the roads should be drivable with no issues.



All the caches I found were of decent size or larger.  Most were a fairly quick find so I could move along at a decent pace instead of searching for half an hour.



I thought it was only appropriate that I found a toy camel inside this cache.  It's Wednesday.  It's Hump Day.  Maybe I'm the only one who got that.  That's me.  Ask sm66 what it's like to be around me.  LOL



This was the smallest container I found on this day.  I'll take a container of this size over a nano any day.



Always nice to find an ammo can in the woods instead of a nano or micro.



I have found many things inside geocaches, ants included, but not larvae.  I posted that picture to Cache the Line's FB page 'Things in Geocaches'.  Someone identified those as ant eggs.  Either way, I wasn't about to open the bag to find out.  Needless to say, I didn't sign the logbook.



Last find for the day wasn't in very good shape.  The lid was missing and everything inside looked grody.  The logbook was a little damp, even from being inside a bag, but I was able to sign it. 



As I write this, I still haven't logged any of these caches online yet.  I use to be very deligent about doing my online logging in the past.  Lately, it could be a couple of days before I log online.  That isn't good.  As a result, I don't know how far along I am with the Memory Lane promotion.  

That's all for this week.  Until next time.  Be happy, be safe, wear a mask (I should get a geocaching mask, that would be cool), wash your hands, and most of all, have fun.  Peace out.


Sassy

Tinkers

They have both grown since they came home four weeks ago.

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