Monday, December 31, 2007
Reflections on 2007
After 3.5 years of geocaching the love of exploring the outdoors combined with the hunt for hidden treasure has failed to diminish one iota! I’m forced to geocache further and further from home but that’s a good thing! The hunt takes me to places I may never have otherwise seen. Rising gas prices haven’t really slowed down my outings but have forced me to plan a little smarter.
For 2007 I found 665 caches over 152 caching days. That’s about 30% more than last year.
One of the more significant highlights from early in the year was a trip to the ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE where the origin of geocaching is honored. Check out my blog entry HERE. I made this my 1000th find.
Geocaching with friends is always fun. Four specific outings stand out from this year......
North Fork Smith River Trail with a group of men from church
Long dune hike with Gblack and knightcb
Upper Table Rock with knightcb
Hike to Hanging Rock with church group
Pat’s job with SOCC has provided some interesting opportunities for geocaching. She has meetings/conferences/training throughout the year and I either tag along and get in some caching or used the time she’s out of town to go caching somewhere. I camped, hiked and cached near Santa Rosa, CA while Pat attended a conference in San Francisco. I camped and cached in the forest around Cottage Grove Lake while she was in San Antonio, TX attending another conference.
We also love getting out in our little trailer as often as we can and these outings always provide some caching opportunities. We made trips to South Lake Tahoe, Columbia Gorge and several up and down our Oregon coast.
The southern part of the Oregon coastline with it’s rugged scenery and many hiking trails continues to be one of my very favorite places to hike and cache.
I made progress on the challenge caches I’ve chosen to pursue. I picked up one more county for the CCiO cache, six more DeLorme pages, two more USFS Nat’l Forest caches and began a new one involving caches associated with forest fire lookouts in Oregon.
Terracaching and geodashing continue to be a part of my weekly planning but I didn’t do too many of these this year.
TOP FIVE cache hunts for 2007:
WHAT HAPPENED TO BRUCE?
Rock of Ages
Oregon Walkabout 2
A Giant Amongst Us
Forest Above Ocean Below
Overall, it was a fun year caching and exploring new places. I look forward to the next year - bring it on!!