Celebrate New England, and Get A Smiley
NOTE: Big changes in Connecticut! Click the Connecticut link below for details.
Here's a true New England-wide challenge that will have you exploring every corner of our unique place. The New England states often act like a dysfunctional family, six siblings each with their own personality & charm, constantly shifting alliances, almost guaranteed bickering among some members of the family if not outright nastiness. But just let someone from the outside world (like New York) slam one sibling too hard, and all band together to ward off the threat (probably while still bickering amongst themselves.) Now doesn't than sound like the quintessential New England clan?
This cache continues the challenge first introduced via our cache in Hebron ME in 2012. Previous completers are listed below, and are welcome to claim a find for this cache if they cannot visit GZ in person.
Each of our six states are divided into various counties. Some counties are small, while some are downright large. Some are easy to access, while others are quite difficult indeed. A couple are completely surrounded by salt water.
Your challenge is to find a cache in each county in New England. Any kind of cache counts, but remember the challenge. You have to have stepped foot in each county, including the island counties. It's tougher than it looks, but it's certainly doable. You can do 'em as a forced-march of driving if that's your style, or you can pick 'em off at a leisurely pace. The idea is to enjoy this corner of the USA. The CO's have done a fair bit of traveling, and trust us: there's no place like New England. For all its foibles we love it here.
Here's the list of New England states, starting at the top and circling counter-clockwise:
So, to get the smiley you need to visit 16 + 10 +14 + 14 + 9 + 5 + 1 = 69 caches.
Optional: You will notice a list of items that capture the essence of New England. Please let us know if in your New England travels you have found an item or two to add to the list:
- Lobster
- Candlepin Bowling
- Moxie
- Whoopie Pies
- Autocrat Coffee Milk
- Laconia Bike Week
- Frappes and Jimmies
- The RED SOX!!!
- Lighthouses
- Covered Bridges
- "You can't get they-ah from he-ah"
- Katahdin at sunset
- The AMTRAK Downeaster and MBTA Purple Trains
- New Haven apizza
New England County Challenge - Completed!!
- Mountain Wanderer - 8 December 2012
- ~Bailey~ - 6 April 2013
- diorex - 4 July 2014
- nosirrah52 - 4 July 2014
- captainmath - 28 October 2016
- STNolan - 25 March 2017
- Maine to Massachusetts - 1 May 2017
- MaxB on the River - 7 August 2017
- FLtravelers - 23 August 2017
- GeoGerry36 - 18 July 2018
- yukionna - 19 January 2022
- JEM3 - 25 January 2022
- Hipointer and Capiti - 11 February 2022
- CarriVT - 7 June 2022
- sloth96 - 7 June 2022 * Mr Sloth finished his county quest and came to Maine in 2018 but the final container was missing.
- ExitStageLeft - 3 July 2022
- geo.duck - 4 August 2022
- RW and VJ - 5 October 2022
- PulmonaryHip - 10 October 2022
- twilighter - 15 December 2022
- magtfplanner - 22 July 2023
- AF BEE - 19 September 2023
- GeoWench78 - 19 September 2023
- Team Bullis - 2 June 2024
- MagicRide - 26 May 2025
- MrDBF - 29 July 2025