Geocaching with Woo

The last challenge in the "You Might Be a Geocacher If..." campaign is "You Might Be a Trackable Lover If..." This Geocaching Personality souvenir can be earned between December 3 and December 31 by earning 80 points. A running tally of your points can be found on your Friend League, they're scored like this: Log a Found It - 5 Find a geocache with 10 or more favorite points - 7 Attend an Event - 5 Activate a Trackable - 10 Drop a Trackable that doesn't belong to you - 5 In order to be a "Trackable Lover," you need to activate trackables and/or drop off trackables that don't belong to you, and earn extra points along the way.

The City Park GeoTrail in Hagerstown, MD was published in 2015. Five mystery caches were placed throughout the Hagerstown City Park, featuring five points of interest: the Railroad Museum, the Mansion House Art Center, the Peter Buys Band Shell, the Hager House and the Washington County Fine Arts Museum. I did a good amount of Internet research prior to arriving in Hagerstown, and aside from one sign that I wasn't able to find, all of my hard work made for quick finds. I thought that the caches were well camouflaged for each of their locations. My parents and I thought that the park was really nice, and my favorite part was the pond area on the eastern side of the park. Redemption of our passports was easy, too. The Hagerstown Welcome Center was only a short drive away, and the staff knew exactly what we were talking about when we came in. For completing the GeoTrail, we each received a Pathtag, and were able to purchase a trackable geocoin. Getting rewarded for geocaching...

After three long weeks, I've finally become a Social Butterfly! In the past two months, when each Geocaching Personality period began, I acquired the required number of points within a few days. By doing that, I wouldn't forget about it or feel the rush to complete by the end of the time period. This time, I actually made plans to attend some events, and since I knew that my parents were visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, I knew that we'd be geocaching up a storm - so there was no rush this time. My point total finally reached 70 today, now I can breathe easy, until December 3, when the next period begins...

So, I was checking the Geocaching blog after attending a GIFF event last night, and learned about two new souvenirs that can be earned pretty soon - "Thanks 2018" and "Hello 2019." As in previous years (2015/16 and 2017/18), in order to earn both souvenirs you will need to find a geocache or attend an event on December 31 and January 1. Pretty simple. Check out the blog post for more information.

The 2018 Geocaching International Film Festival (GIFF) begins today, November 8, and runs through November 12. Sixteen short films were chosen as finalists for the GIFF, and community volunteers will vote to see which one wins the Signal Award! There will even be a People's Choice Award, where anyone with a Geocaching account can vote. I plan to attend my first GIFF event tonight, and I'm excited to see what geocaching filmmakers around the world have put together. If you attend one of the 655 GIFF events held worldwide, you'll receive a souvenir for your profile page and earn 15 points towards your "You Might Be a Social Butterfly if..." souvenir!