Rock Chalk’s 2019 geocaching goals
Chris (Rock Chalk) has worked at Geocaching HQ since 2014. He loves climbing and paddling for geocaches, and has gone caching in 14 countries and every U.S. state.
One of the best things about geocaching is there are so many ways to play the game. It’s the same with geocaching goal setting. Goals can vary widely depending on your experience level, specific interests, and other factors.
Like many geocachers, when I first began playing, I was attracted to the Fizzy Grid and 365-Day Challenge, as well as the Jasmer. Those challenges kept me motivated (and busy) for quite awhile. But if you play the game for a long time, you may find yourself searching for new goals to help direct your caching.
Here are a few of the things that keep geocaching fun, fresh, and exciting for me:
Challenge caches
A challenge cache requires seekers to find an associated physical cache, and to find an additional set of geocaches as defined by the challenge owner. As of this month, there are nearly 25,000 challenge caches in the world waiting to be found! I keep a lengthy list of the many challenges I’m working on, as well as bookmark lists of caches that will help me qualify for those challenges. This helps me decide which caches to attempt both in my home area and when traveling. Tools such as GSAK and Project-GC are invaluable for keeping track of progress on challenge caches.
Visiting new regions
You know how they say geocaching takes you to places you may never have visited? It’s really true when you start “collecting” countries, provinces, states, counties, and other regions. Here’s an example: while driving through California, I realized I had not found a cache in a county “near” our driving route. By “near,” I mean we only had to detour for an hour, and then hike for 20 minutes to find the cache along a desolate creek! I certainly never would have seen that place without geocaching. You will probably have similar moments if you experiment with finding caches in new regions.
Achievements I’ve dreamed up for myself
Don’t let yourself be constrained by the “usual” geocaching goals. What may seem crazy to someone else might be tons of fun for you. For example, when I was working on completing my Fizzy Grid, I met someone who had completed the Fizzy Grid more than 50 times. That is, he had found at least 50 caches for all 81 fizzy grid squares. I thought that was sheer madness. Who could be so crazy to do such a thing? Well, after I completed the Fizzy Grid, I decided to keep going and try to find at least 2 caches for each grid square. Then 3. And then it just got out of hand. Today, I’m four caches away from completing the grid 50 times. Madness? Maybe. But it’s a lot of fun for me because I enjoy the Fizzy Grid. There are so many aspects of geocaching that your imagination is the only limitation to creating a goal that is especially meaningful to you!
And now that you’ve learned what will motivate me in 2019, I’d love to hear about the goals that direct your geocaching!
