We all know that caching, at its most basic level, is just searching for something hidden by someone else. We also know that the game has developed many layers and degrees of complexity in response to players’ feedback, for commercial reasons, for environmental reasons and by the ingenuity of all those involved. One such development is that of using the calendar as a way to make the game more interesting. Sometimes I’ve marked a particular date with just a comment in my log or a tweet, sometimes by placing another cache to mark the occasion and I’ve also celebrated by holding an event. I was musing on this today as I turned my thoughts to the old year behind me and the new one ahead. Here’s a few date-related activities that I’ve enjoyed over the years.
The Cacheversary
I found my first cache on 28th July 2006, as you can read elsewhere in these pages. (For years I was celebrating on the wrong day, having first joined on 24th July 2006, although I didn’t actually find my first cache until four days later.) In recent years I’ve tried to find a geocache on this same date to mark the occasion and have even held an event at the the location of that first find where I served hotdogs to attendees. I’ve now found a total of 35 caches on this date. When I first thought of marking this occasion, I imagined that it was me who first coined the term ‘Cacheversary’. This seems to be in general use now, so maybe I picked it up from someone else! Either way, it sits there as a recurring event in my calendar.
The 365 Challenge
This is one of the three great challenges of the game. Along with the ‘Fizzy‘ and ‘Jasmer‘ challenges, completing the 365 Challenge is a rite of passage for all developing geocachers. The idea is quite simple- find a geocache on every day of the calendar year. This doesn’t have to be all in the same year; in fact it took me until September 2013 to complete mine- over seven years after I started. It was only then that I first realised that the 365 Challenge was a thing. Luckily for me, the previous year had been a leap year and I’d found a cache on 29th February, meaning I didn’t have to wait a further three years to complete it. Having completed this challenge once, I then went on to do it again and again. This year I completed another ‘loop’ of the calendar having now found at least four caches on every day of the year. And it doesn’t even stop there- some cachers go on to complete this challenge using only Mystery caches, for example, or FTFs! Completing the 365 Challenge and other such milestones, also opens up a number of Challenge Caches as now being achievable.
As with many other players trying to complete certain milestones, I was keen not to complete my calendar with an obscure roadside cache in a layby or something equally mundane and so, once again, I held an event to mark the occasion. Earmarking a certain cache or event to mark the completion of a challenge or for a milestone can be fraught with difficulties though. First I was anxious that I might miss a date, making the event pointless, and then I worried that I’d miscalculated and that I’d already finished it! I checked and checked, again and again, but managed successfully to reach both my 3000th find and complete the 365 Challenge at the same time and in the company of my friends at the Magna Carta pub in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral!
Birthday Cache
Never let it be said that I don’t enjoy a spot of self-indulgence, and so it was on the occasion of my 50th Birthday in 2016 that I held a brief flashmob event in North Hykeham. Short and simple; no frills, dancing, speeches or gift exchanges. Sometimes all you need to be happy is to gather with a mixture of friends and strangers for a self-fulfilling rendezvous! I must do that again one year!
Christmas Day
At the time of writing, I’m a single man, living alone, and I do largely as I please, especially when it come to caching. If I fancy holding an event, it’s only my own calendar which needs checking. If I wish to go camping one weekend, I just do it. If I feel like going caching on Christmas morning, I just lace up my boots and off I go. If, like in 2017, I feel like doing all three at once, then I would. I did in fact! But it wasn’t always that easy. For many, Christmas Day is a busy time, especially for those with families, and for many years, the suggestion that I might nip out for an hour or so to look for a magnetic container a couple of streets away would have been met with a steely glare! It can, however, be a good way to walk off the brussels and the stuffing, and perhaps test out those new boots or that Barbie scooter. I missed getting one this year, but have somehow managed to find 22 Christmas Day caches over the years and a further nine which were hidden on that date!
Leap Day
As previously mentioned, Leap Day, 29th February, is by definition a special day, created by learned people many years ago, partly to correct an error in their own calculations, but mostly in anticipation of a future mass-search for film pots every fourth year at that time. For those working towards the 365 Challenge, this is a date not to me missed, even if it might take them another two to three years to complete the rest of the calendar. I’ve been in the company of many a cacher in early March who suddenly and devastatingly realised their error of omission! Groundspeak also likes to encourage caching on this day, rewarding cachers with a virtual souvenir for finding a leap day cache. In fact, in 2016, they encouraged cachers around the world to hold Leap Day events, and so it was a that a 182-mile road trip ensued, during which a group of us hosted and attended all nine Lincolnshire based Leap Day events!
Special Dates
For many years, my friends and I have looked out for amusing or palindromic dates 10/10/10, for example, or 7/10/2017, and 5/10/2015, when the date read the same forwards and backwards! Some of these dates are rewarded with a souvenir, but many others have been marked with a suitably random gathering on a hillside, in a car park or (more likely) in a pub! When I’ve finished writing this, I’m going to study the 2022 calendar for suitable dates worthy of our attention!
Not only…but also…
I really enjoyed my 30th birthday and didn’t want to wait another ten years for a big celebration. I noticed (as you do) that there were several prime numbers in the 30s and 40s and so I decided to celebrate them instead. I took this approach into my geocaching and made special celebrations of reaching certain Prime Number milestones (my next one is 11,027!). I also took to choosing entirely random numbers to celebrate for no other reason than my own amusement I’ve held events and hidden caches for no particular reason and sent celebratory congratulations to random, and confused cachers upon their reaching an apparently unremarkable total number of finds.
You don’t really need a reason to celebrate anything in this game, but if you do, there’s plenty of dates to choose from!
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