Geocaching Update: 296 Connected Counties

 

As I'm reviving this blog, I'm updating some of the past posts. In 2023, I posted about having found geocaches in 183 counties connected on the map. Now I'm up to 296!

Previously, they encompassed 13 states and DC. I have since added Wisconsin, Kentucky, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine to bring the total to 21.

It's not going to be super easy to add more, though Vermont, Iowa, Georgia, and Alabama are all feasible with one good trip each. (Georgia and Alabama are already connected, so one trip between Greenville, SC and Athens, GA would add both.)

It will, however, be super easy to add more counties -- I'm hoping to get two more in Pennsylvania this weekend, and several more, mostly in Ohio, next month.

I have found all of the counties in Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Other states where I have more than half include Arizona, New Jersey, Maine, and Virginia.

Geocaching Update: 183 Connected Counties

I last did a geocaching update on this site in December 2021. I stopped, frankly, because they became boring to write -- I can only imagine how boring they were to read.

But maps are cool to look at, right?

In that update, I had found geocaches in 75 counties that were connected on the map, as shown.

I've been really connecting things up since then, getting to 183!

That stretches to 13 states (IL, IN, MI, OH, PA, NJ, WV, VA, MD, NC, SC, DE, TN) and DC!

Geocaching: Fall 2021

After not geocaching in August and September, I found 12 caches in October and 24 in November, for a pretty busy fall.

On October 3, I found a single challenge cache. On the 8th, I found my first Adventure Lab (and a bonus cache) along with 6 challenge caches. I had avoided adventure labs for a while because they count as a "find" but not a "cache," which is confusing. But I might want to do one with the boys at some point, so I thought I'd see what was going on. Two of the challenge caches were new difficulty terrain combos (D/T #47 and #48). Another challenge cache was the first cache I found placed in October 2018 (Month 224).

On the 11th, I decided to push towards my long-standing goal of finding caches in all 24 Maryland counties. I headed for the lower Eastern Shore and found one cache in each of the counties there (Counties 159-162). Two of them were from new months, May 2005 and July 2009 (Months 225 and 226). That left three Maryland counties.

In early November, an excursion to Delaware allowed me to get the 22nd Maryland County, Dorchester (County 163), as well as New Castle County (County 164) in Delaware. I now have 2 out of 3 Delaware counties, which makes me regret the hole the missing one forms in my map. It's about 90 minutes each way from work to fill that in.

On the 7th, I headed out in Northern Virginia specifically looking for unfound months. I found six of them (Months 227-232) and a challenge cache.

I found one more cache on the 12th, and then on the 13th, I headed for West Virginia, mostly with the aim of finishing the 77 Degrees West challenge (I have now found one starting W77 00, one starting W77 01, etc.). That day, I also found my first cache in Berkeley County (County 165).

On the 20th and 21st, I went caching in Pennsylvania. Somehow, I was right near an unfound cache, so I grabbed FTF #25, and my first in Pennsylvania. All in all, I found caches in five new counties (Counties 166-170). The FTF was actually placed on October 31, so I got October 2021 as Month 233.

Finally, I found four caches on Thanksgiving, including one placed in September 2021 (Month 234).