Geocaching Progress

I'm starting to feel somewhat like a geocacher again. Maybe it's the fact that a long snow-filled winter is over and it's nice to be outside again. And I guess some travel doesn't hurt either, as I have always loved findings caches in new states or counties, or just generally places I haven't been before. I know that part of the reason for my lengthy hiatuses over the last couple of years is that the pursuit of numbers purely for the sake of numbers doesn't hold as much appeal to me if it means running around and finding a bunch of stuff in parking lots and behind stores. Not that I don't still enjoy that from time to time (such as in Reading last Sunday), but within reason. I get much more excited about geocaching somewhere new, as an excuse to go somewhere different, or to find caches as part of a hike or trip. In that respect it seems like my geocaching sensibilities are becoming more like Brother Dave's.

I will chase numbers, but different kinds of numbers.

With that in mind, what little geocaching I have done since August of last year has been limited in quantity but good in quality. Since last updating my stats in August of 2013:

• 52 new finds, to get to a total of 1092. This includes a 215 day hiatus between September 2013 and April 2014. On the bright side, my 47 caches in April are almost half of last year's total and more than the puny 40 I found in all of 2012. I've only had one other month that big since the Spring of 2011. Wow.
• These 52 included 1 cool multi-stage cache, 7 virtuals and 3 earth caches. The virtuals and the earth caches were split between Maine, Washington DC and Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern PA.
• 1 new state (Maine). Total is now 22.
• 8 new counties (5 PA, 2 ME, 1 VA). Total is now 84 nationally (out of 3142, yikes), and 26 out of 67 PA counties.
• Only 1 new calendar date. Sitting at 279 out of 366.

I have no particular short term goals, but there are 10 open calendar dates in May. And earth caches are fun. And there are a few new counties not too horribly far from home. And the guys are discussing potential locations for a 4-day weekend trip sometime in the summer in lieu of a bigger trip this year, so that will likely be in new territory (some destinations in the western PA, northeastern West Virginia, western Maryland, northwestern Virginia area are being considered).

That and clearing out some of these pesky new caches that have appeared close to home should keep me as busy as the mood strikes.