2019 - A Geocacher's Year in Review

After reviewing my Geocaching goals for this past year, I wasn't able to accomplish the big one, but I did accomplish a few of the smaller ones. Of the 44 remaining Find Your Chesapeake GeoTour caches that we needed to find in order to earn the souvenir, we found two. Yup, two. But they were great! We rented a paddle boat (the kayak didn't work out because of Tom's back) and paddled around Trap Pond at Trap Pond State Park in Delaware to find them. We completed both the Eight Wards of Washington, D.C. GeoTrail and the Caching the Rain GeoTrail, put out one new geocache, and hosted a Creation Celebration event. What else did we accomplish? I've put together this graphic to illustrate these achievements:

In addition to the souvenirs that are familiar to most geocachers, we completed, and received awards for, the Eight Wards of Washington, D.C. GeoTrail, the 2019 Cache Across Maryland, the Mystery Caches of Berkeley County, the 2016 Hanover GeoTrail, the Smart Caches of Berkeley County, the Berkeley Gadgets GeoTour and a first-to-find on the Smokey Bear 75th Anniversary GeoTour. I have yet to receive awards for completing the Maryland Chocolate Trail, the next coin in the Smokey Bear 75th Anniversary GeoTour and the Caching the Rain GeoTrail. I found a new cache type, the GPS Adventure Maze Exhibit, finding eleven cache types in that single day, and got the New Zealand souvenir from a partnership that spanned three continents. I was also published in the FTF Magazine for solving the previous issue's puzzle, and winning a trackable, and have submitted my 2500 find geo-achievement for publication.
So, for this upcoming year, an easy goal, which seemed way out of reach, and ambitious, last year, is the Trifecta. Because of all that is happening in Washington in a 1+ week period, I convinced Tom that we could afford to fly out, if we use up a bunch of my Frequent Flyer Miles. We would also visit his daughter and her family while out there. The plan is to attend the Geocaching 20th Anniversary Celebration, attend the Project APE mega event where we'll find the last Project APE cache in the United States, complete the HQ GeoTour and visit Geocaching Headquarters, do the Finding Bigfoot GeoTour with my step-daughter and step-granddaughters, and taking a quick dip down into Oregon to visit the Original Stash Plaque afterwards. Then, GeoWoodstock 2020 in Canada and a cruise to Alaska to top it all off. Due to the 20th Anniversary Celebration, a Locationless cache will be available for one year only, and I hope to "find" that. There will also be 20th Anniversary Community Celebrations hosted everywhere, and I'm not sure if I'll apply to host one, like I did the Creation Celebration this year, but I'd really like to attend one. But locally, there's the remaining three caches in the Berkeley Gadgets GeoTour and 42 caches in the Find Your Chesapeake GeoTour. It's going to be another big year for us, and we're looking forward to it. I hope that your year was great, and that your next one is just as good, if not better.