It took us almost 6 years, but we finally reached our #4,000th cache milestone!
On March 24th, 2018, we went to SPD #1 Welcome in Sedona to claim our 4,000th find. Below is our log entry:
#4,000! Our #1,000 was during a time that we were still getting used to geocaching, and had no idea that our milestone was approaching. We earned milestone #1,000 during the Hatfield McCoy Mega event in West Virginia/ Kentucky. Looking back, this was a cache that was part of the Hatfield McCoy History geotrail. History and forgotten worlds is one aspect that we love about geocaching. We would have never stopped at certain run-down towns if it weren't for geocaching. We learn so much about the culture and history of the people that shape certain towns. Though this wasn't a planned milestone, it does mean a lot to our geocaching style. Milestone #2,000 was in Georgia, our homebase for the first 3 years of geocaching. Though we don't mind park and grabs, there is something satisfying when finding an ammo can in the woods. We did a six stage series in a park where all of the ammo cans were straight uphill. Talk about a climb in the woods! We printed off a sheet of paper with the number "2,000" on it and smiled with joy when we found that sixth ammo can. This milestone represents our love for hiking and enjoying nature. Some like to say that "Geocaching is hiking with a purpose." Geocaching keeps us in shape and helps us reach our daily step goals. We will never turn down an ammo can in the woods. During winter break of 2016/17, we finally hit #3,000. We took a mini-vacation to explore Death Valley National Park before the weather was unbearable. We had a great time finding virtuals and earthcaches. After counting our caches, we would find milestone 3,000 on the trip back home to Flagstaff. We took a small detour and went to the Stonehenge in the Desert cache right outside of Las Vegas. The cache container itself was not anything special, however, geocaching takes us to some amazing places. Once again, geocaching takes us to sights that typical tourists might bypass. Now, we are at 4,000. We had a milestone for events/geotours/history, a good hike in the woods, amazing and unique locations, and now we dedicate our 4,000th milestone to creativity. When we first started geocaching, we were spoiled to find high quality geocaches in Georgia. We always wondered how TexasPete302 created those awesome gadget caches. In the past year, we rekindled our love for field puzzles and gadget caches. We found great caches in Apache Junction, Prescott, Yuma, and Flagstaff. We know that a lot of time, energy, and money can go into these intricate caches. And we always have a smile on our face when we get the logsheet in our hand. With so many great caches to choose from, we decided to head south to Sedona to finally check out Ahern Clan's cache that received Geocache of the Week. We dropped geopup off at doggie daycamp, printed off our 4,000 sign, packed lunch, and off we went! Saturday in Sedona can be crazy, but we took it slow and went to the not-so-busy part of the city. We arrived at City Hall and parked the geo-mobile. We read the cache page to gather any details we may need to extract the log book for the container. We went inside and saw the cache waiting for us. We quickly had the extraction tool and opened the container. How Cool!! We wrote a small note in the log book, traded travel bugs, and replaced everything as we found it. A huge thanks to Sedona Police Department and Ahern Clan for placing and maintaining this one-of-a-kind geocache. We encourage everyone to go out and find this cache. Dropping a favorite point! Now, we are off for a small hike to enjoy the beautiful day, grab a beer at Oak Creek, and find SPD #2 before heading back up the mountain. How long will it be until we reach 5,000? Who knows. It's not the destination, it's the journey along the way. It's all those caches that teach us something new, that takes us on a beautiful hike, that brings us to a unique location, and shows us in the inside of someone's mind.
This cache is nothing special. This cache is dedicated to that "one more". May this cache bring you one more to your goal, either long or short term.
Congrats to chris&Annie for FTF!!!!