Geocaching June 2024

The month started on the third for me at the usual coffee club meet up. Then I avenged a Did Not Find at High Ridge Park near my home. I found As the Buzzards Fly, a mystery cache involving tricky calculations. Luckily, online tools at geocaching toolbox helped me find the coordinates for the final location. The day before, I made an unsuccessful attempt based on the information in the cache description. The cache was adopted by someone else who was unable to edit the description. Some details change, like the size of the container, which threw me off. With a little info from the new cache owner, I was able to make the find.

Virtuals Around the World Challenge Cache was easy to qualify (for me) thanks to our proclivity for traveling. Cachers only need finds in three different countries, including the USA, to qualify. The cache was in a typical spot but of an atypical size.

A typical hiding spot

I found BEATLES: PAPERBACK READER, part of a series of mystery caches centered around Beatles trivia. Solving the puzzle wasn't too hard. The real difficult was the soaked log that would not come out of its micro-baggie. I took a photo to prove my find.

We had a camping trip up to the Gettysburg area. The campground had a bunch of caches that I found: DO PA BEARS ____ IN THE WOODS?, What's at the End of THIS Rainbow?, and Teddy Bears' Picnic-WHERE'S POOH? all in very similar containers.

Outhouse?

Not a pot of gold

Stucky situation

At the battlefield, we visited The Devil's Den, a rocky outcrop of stones that had a virtual cache and an earth cache.

Photo for the virtual cache

Back in Maryland, I found HC Soccer Series - Rockburn Branch Park, another mystery cache involving trivia about a famous soccer player. The puzzle wasn't hard and the park also has Rockburn Branch (a traditional named after the stream in the park) and MGS 2022 Summer Picnic Bonus from an earlier Maryland Geocaching Society gathering. 

Bike park near the soccer fields

The next day, I had an errand in Annapolis so I found another of the Labyrinth series of caches, Maryland Hall Labyrinth. Nearby traditionals NAPs of Naptown: Brown-Leanos Memorial Park and Bloody Mary Horror Series #2 were easy finds. "NAPs" is Nano Annapolis Parks, so tiny finds in public parks, this one with a statue of an artist who painted frescos at the US Capitol. The horror series has two more in Annapolis, I'll have to try for them another day.

Labyrinth

Statue of Constantino Brumidi

To fill a calendar day, I found Log The Library! which is in front of a museum.

Smallest museum ever?

I went over to Virginia and found the challenge cache Changes in Latitude Challenge: 75 Degrees. The cache requires the finder to have found two caches with at least 75 degrees of latitude separating them. My greatest north-south distance is 97 degrees, so an easy qualification. 

Then we went on a trip to Minnesota and found dozens of caches there (see this post). 

Back on the east coast, I found Changes in Latitude Challenge: 25 Degrees in Virginia near a non-descript location. Obviously, I am trying to spread out the finds to cover more days on my mystery/unknown calendar.

A standard location if there every was one

The next day, I found Changes in Longitude Challenge: 50 Degrees in the same neighborhood.

Back in Maryland, I went to a nearby park where Where's Chick? Part 2 is hidden. I solved the puzzle and made the find, which included an intriguing travel bug.

A big bug in the shape of a lure

My final find for the month was The Backside, a cache on the far side of Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia, Maryland. It was a clever container that I had missed on a previous walk.

A nice evening on the lake

I ended the month with 1319 finds, 298 this year. Last year was my best year with 300 finds, so this promises to be even bigger...much bigger!