Most geocachers have taken a day or two off from caching. It is rare to meet a person who has never taken a break from caching since there very first day. If you are one of those people you qualify for this challenge right off the bat. Some people may qualify more easily for this challenge than others. This challenge requires that you have a geocaching streak longer than your longest dry spell. That is, you must geocache every day, finding at least one unique cache per day for a period longer than your longest period of days without finding a geocache on geocaching.com.
I have done this, and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. You see, my longest dry spell lasted almost a year to the day. Here is my story: Fossil Hunter is a good friend of mine. For what seemed like years, she had been asking me to go geocaching with her. I had heard about the activity previously when a college friend had found some bones from the foot of an animal during a geocaching quest back in ’01 or ’02 and asked the paleo community to help identify it. For whatever reason the activity didn’t really interest me, especially since I didn’t own a GPSr. Well, Fossil Hunter and I traveled together to Trona, CA to attend a mineral show/collection event. There was a geocache at nearby Trona Pinnacles, a National Natural Landmark that she wanted to find. So, on 10/10/2004, we went over there together and found an ammo can full of paperback books, mostly romance novels (not my favorite kind of book to read) and a few sci-fi books. The cache was called Pinnacles Sci-Fi Book Box, GCJGYM. I must admit, we probably would have never gone there to see what a cool place it was, if not for that geocache, it was fun looking for the cache and finding it, and even though I wasn’t really interested in the type of books in the cache, the idea was pretty cool. But with all that I wasn’t hooked on the game … not yet! Nearly a year passed and we planned another trip to Trona on October 7, 2005. This time we were accompanied by another friend of Fossil Hunter, Mc5, a mineral enthusiast and, what do you know, a geocacher. I was informed that we would be stopping for caches during the entire trip and even though I would be driving, I had no choice in the matter. We began with a cache in Auburn that Fossil Hunter had previously DNF’d. I found that cache and the day was off to a good start. We ended up geocaching until it got dark. We found 19 caches in all, covering 6 counties (still the most counties in a day for me). My longest dry spell was 361 days. As of today, 10/10/2014, my geocaching streak is 643 days! Don’t check, I’m not currently caught up on logging. As I am writing this, I realize that the date I am publishing this cache is my 10-year “cachiversary”. PRETTY COOL! It has been exactly 9 years since I became a geocaching.com member. Fossil Hunter stood over me and walked me through the sign-up and logging processes. Now, Species5618 is the one to help me out when I need it.
The cache is hidden in, what I consider, an unsavory location. Species came with me to hide the cache. He hid it high and he had to remove some residents and their residence. One was big and black with a red belly. So, be very careful and bring someone tall and not afraid a webs or those that make them. To log this cache you must have found caches everyday for a period of days (streak) longer than the period of days in a row that you didn’t find a cache (slump). Please state the number of slump days and the number of streaking days. If you have a story to tell, please share it. You can get your stats on geocaching.com. Go to the “Your Profile” tab, click “Quick View” and then the word “Statistics” in the links at the top of the page. You may sign the log sheet when you are in the area, but please don’t claim the find until you qualify for the challenge. Remember to state the date that you signed the log sheet in your online log.
I have a goal for 2014 of hiding caches on days when the month and date match. I hid one cache on 1/1, two caches on 2/2, and three caches on 3/3. With luck and hard work I can keep it up all year. Its getting tough but this is one of my 10 October hides.