Happy First Geoversary!

6/6/07 was my one-year anniversary caching. My year involved:

• 569 Finds, 47 Hides, 34 FTFs & 125 DNFs in 6 states
• 10 Unknowns, 14 Multi's, 6 Virts, 1 Event, 11 Benchmarks, 1 Letterbox, 1 Earthcache
• 240 Geocoins and 123 TBs Moved or Discovered; 41 Geocoins and 9 TBs Owned
• Overall find Rate: 1.55 per day, 10.86 per week
• Total days with a find: 119. Average finds per caching day: 4.78
• Best day: 3/11/07 - 31 finds in San Jose, CA
• Most consecutive days with a find: 11 from 6/05/06 to 6/15/06
• Longest caching drought: 38 days from 11/30/06 to 1/06/07
• Average total cache difficulty: 1.64 - Average total terrain rating: 1.4
• Approximate cache-to-cache distance: 26,934 miles
• 528 of the caches I'd found are still active (92.8%, but this doesn't count the muggled caches I'd DNF'ed!)
• Average log size: 17.2 words - Biggest log: 166 words - Shortest log: 1 word - Number of one-word logs: 3

• (see all your stats in the same way if you're a Premium member at itsnotaboutthenumbers.com) •

I was lucky to encounter three good caches on my first day out -
a well-stocked ammo box cleverly and elegantly hidden (Higher Class
- GCRCK9), an informative virtual (Human Powered Flight - GCBA31),
and an unpretentious, well-hidden but findable medium-sized
challenge (blair's first - GCQVMF). Thanks to luv2fly1479c, Uncle
Alaska and blairwater101, these set the tone for my early days
caching. If I'd been presented with a run of log-only micros and
skirt lifters at the onset, well, I'd not be here writing this
right now.

Noteworthy caches this year? I remember cracking a huge smile driving up on Castleman's Multi-Meter in Porterville (GCW8JG) and having a good laugh at redwoodcanoe & Pleaides' Can You Give Me A Boost? (GCPBTC) in Hanford. I loved the elegance of CA Royal Flush's Our Name Is The Game (GCV01H) puzzle cache in Bakersfield, and the straightforward defiance of Cobalt's Pitcairn (GC55B7) physical challenge not far away. I DNF'ed hard on Razor Sharp Catwalk (GCT4ZZ) in San Jose - what a heinous location! Blue Man's Orlando Airport TB Hotel (GCBDC2) in Florida held over 20 TBs and Coins, and always seems to stay stuffed with goods.

… shuffles papers, returns …

Yeah, of 569 finds this year, there were twice as many micros as regulars, and I have to admit that very few stand out as remarkable as I look back. Dreck hides are the death knell for geocaching, something we have got to get under control if Geocaching is going to have a future beyond 20-find tries. In a year, I've seen excited explorers out to cache for the first time, and, after a series of skirt lifters, obvious hides in trashy locations, standard issue micros and bush dives, return home disenchanted. Then I hear And this is the Geocaching that you're so into, Hedge? Embarrassing.

That said, I see that I'm going to be spending more time hiding than seeking this year. If only because I've exhausted caches to find in the Bakersfield area (actually, I pretty much ran the table for Kern County in my first couple of months this year) and it will take less time to plant a new hide than to drive to the finds.

I said a few things about hiding caches in the forums, under the heading "Hiding and Marking your New Cache - for Newbies!" Maybe some of it still makes sense.