Thirteen Counties Challenge

We posted our latest challenge today. We have a planned list of different challenges, including a few twists on Busy Day Challenges, a county challenge, and a state park challenge. We really enjoy our journeys when we chase some of the tougher challenges so hopefully our new challenge will inspire others to seek finds in the thirteen colonies.

We are still working on two tough challenges. The Great 880 is still on our plans some day. We are down to 319 caches remaining, and we've reduced the number of counties where we still need finds from 48 to 43. We are also still hunting The Ohio State Parks Geocache Challenge. We added four more state parks to the found list last year bringing our total to 36 and leaving 19 more to go for the 55 required parks.

Last year's Great 880 hunt took us to find an unexpected wildflower prairie in Seneca County.

The Year in Review... and Looking Forward

It's the start of a new year. As numbers geeks we make geo-goals every year and then check back at the end of the year before making new goals for the upcoming year.

If we were keeping score, we missed a lot more goals than we made. Since all that really matters is having fun, this past year was a super year for us geocaching.

The winter was unusually warm, but we got to enjoy a bright, snowy day geocaching in January.

We had enough snow so the attendees at our Winterfest event had a great time.

In April, we spent a Saturday on Cattaraugus County New York completing the Amish GeoTrail.

The early May weather didn't give us sunshine and blue skies, but we got to enjoy a mini-vacation while returning east for Ali's nephew's graduation from college. The return trip gave an opportunity to find a few caches along beautiful Pine Creek and to inch a small step closer to completing the Legacy of Conservation Geo Trail.

May was also the month we enjoyed our favorite mega event, ASP Geobash.

We made three trips during the summer to Clarion and Venango Counties as we worked to complete the Clarion NCT Geo Trail. Our journeys included hiking and biking with a few tunnels included.

We also continued our newer-ending quest to complete the 100-cache North Country Trail Geo Trail. A few caches each time and a few visits were the best we could complete this year, but one of those journeys included a wonderful holiday hike on the NCT near Kinzua Reservoir.

For the late summer, we enjoyed the amazing Seaway Trail GeoTrail.

Adding Arizona as a new state with caches found was an unexpected and happy surprise.

How do we top this past year? We'll reach our 10,000 find milestone early in the year. We've been trying to decide which Pennsylvania cache will be number 10,000. There's still twenty states where we haven't found geocaches. We've talked about Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, Nevada, and maybe Florida. One or two is probably all we will visit, but it is fun to think of the adventures that may await.

We will try to finish the Clarion NCTGT this year and hopefully the NCT GeoTrail. We'll also spend some of our caching time finishing the Legacy of Conservation Geo Trail. It is scheduled to be closed by summer so we will be making a spring trip in Pennsylvania. Hopefully we will be able to add on a day or two at Pine Creek Gorge. Whereever we go, it will be a new adventure.

Of course, this post would be no fun without new goals for 2013 so here they are...

I hope your finds are plentiful and your dnf's few.

Kinzua Valley Trail

Last fall we had the chance to complete the Kinzua Valley Trail. It may be the shortest geotrail in existence. Just four caches need to be found to earn a trackable geocoin. Most of the trail is flat, but the caches were spaced far apart. The whole journey is about seven miles round trip. We've enjoyed prior visits to the Kinzua Valley Trail, and this was no different. The trail has been extended since our last. We got a late start and returned after dark, but it was a super adventure. I was late in sending in paperwork for our coin, but will post an image once it arrives. It will be the first wooden coin in our collection. I think the coin was made by our friend at Elkwood Arts. Coin or not, the caches make this trail worth a visit.