A new year..

Read below or WATCH here –> Video of Presidents Favorite Points Jan 2024

January is the time of year where many people make new year’s resolutions for their health, family, finances, and social gatherings.  For those of us who enjoy geocaching, we probably come up with a few extra resolutions or goals.  Could be to attend more events, host events, find or even publish more geocaches.  There are those who like to keep up with streaks or stats, filling the calendar or their grids.  If you don’t have a resolution yet, or are just starting with geocaching and are unsure what goals you should make, stick around and I’ll give you some hints.

Events are Social:

If you have never been to an event, I definitely suggest you attend one.  They are the red dots on your groundspeak geocaching app and there’s got to be one relatively close to you soon!  NoVAGO also posts local events on our page to make it easy to find, just go to our site and visit any page, scroll to the bottom and there’s the calendar!  (reminder.. If you are not a member JOIN today)  Once you’ve picked an event use the app to log your “will attend” and you can “save it to your calendar” right from the cache page.  *New this year groundspeak added the actual time of the even, so you don’t need to change anything, it will just add it right to your chosen calendar.  Then show up on the date and time.  You will meet many other geocachers who are excited to talk about all things geocaching!

Are you filling your calendar with events, bring it on!  We want to see you and can’t wait to grow our friendships and help you reach that goal.  Never know, maybe someone will host an event on a day you need, so let us know how to help you reach your goal.

Hosting your own events is just as fun.  You may not know this, but you can LOG YOUR OWN EVENT!  So if you have event goals, your own published events count!  Yaye Double Prize…  Plus you get to pick the place and the time, so if you have ever thought of a place that would make a good event, here’s your chance to do it.  Would you be interested in co-hosting an event with a NoVAGO Board member?  Reach out to us and someone who lives near you will help you with your first event and show you the ropes.  Plus you’ll get to know one of NoVAGO’s finest and make a new geobud!

CITO’s are for lovers:

Love the land you geocache on?  This is the 2024 goal for you!  Plan a CITO, Cache In Trash Out, event.  Find an area that needs a clean up, contact the park or property owner and set up a CITO event!  Post on the cache page what you will be providing, like trash bags, picker-uppers, gloves, coffee or whatever else.  Make sure you have a plan where all the bags of trash will go at the end of the event.  Having a CITO is another great way to socialize with fellow cachers and make a difference as well.  Would you like to partner with NoVAGO with a CITO?  Again.. Contact us and if you have a place in mind, let us know and we will help guide you through the process.  You can also check out the geocaching page for more info HERE.

Lets go Streaking:

Say what…  Yep streaking, like in finding caches in a row streak.. What else did you think I meant? So many of you have heard about this said streaking and some go crazy with this, I heard this one guy has almost like a 7 year streak, I’ve heard of the 7 year itch but a cache every day for 7 years – that’s dedication.  So take it as crazy or low-key as you wish, a streak can be difficult but rewarding if you are on a mission.  Plus it will help with the calendar grid that we will cover next.

Gettn’ GRIDDY:

Fizzy Grids, Jasmer and Calendar Fill – OH MY:

No idea what I’m talking about?  Here’s the tea.  Inside your geocaching profile groundspeak tracks all the cache types, difficulty and terrain levels and dates you have found those geocaches.  You can see stats on all of that in a chart/grid and a lot of cachers have goals to fill these grids.  

Which one should you try for?  That’s up to you since one might be more difficult than another depending on your caching style.  For instance, if you are pretty new and stick with the caches who have a lower terrain and difficulty level, filling your Fizzy might be a more extreme goal since it requires you to have found a cache falling within every single D/T available from a 1/1, 3/2, 2,4 all the way up to 5/5.  So if you don’t plan on finding any caches that have a 4 or 4 terrain or difficulty, this wouldn’t be the goal for you.  However, if you have been caching a while, you may already have a lot of caches filling these holes and you can dedicate 2024 to the year of those missing D/T holes.

If you Jaz for the Jasmer plan, this takes a little research and a few road trips.  The Jasmer requires you to find one cache hidden each month since geocaching began in May 2000.  If you want to start this one, make this your year since there are only less than 120 caches still active that were placed in 2000! 

The calendar fill officially called the 365 Challenge requires you to find a cache every day of the year even if it’s over time, you don’t have to streak to fill this calendar.  You can take your time, or do the streak and reach two goals at once! (FIND OUT MORE HERE)

Cache Publications:

Want to hide a geocache or two or three?  If you are a seasoned cacher, get out there and place some new caches.  You know how to hide them and I’m sure you have some good places in mind.  If you are new to caching, make sure you have done your research on placing a new cache and have found a considerable amount of caches and types so you know what makes a good cache that will stick around for years to come.

Personal Faves

There are many other types of obsessions, I mean goals that you could have.  Some of these aren’t tracked specifically through groundspeak but you can track them on the side.  Some examples are:

• More FTF’s (First to Find) 
• Birthday Caches (finding a cache on their “birthday”).  
• Increasing finds on specific container types, terrain, difficulty or attributes.  
• Finding more caches with high favorite points.

Fun with Friends:

If you are social, finding more time to cache with friends might be a goal for this year.  Find some others with the same goal and set a plan in action.

NoVAGO Support:

Did you say yes you are social?  Becoming more involved with NoVAGO could be a new goal of yours.  Volunteer your time on a special committee, do a small project, write an article for the web page, adopt a NoVAGO cache, post more on social media, give NoVAGO shout outs and spread the word.  Current members may also add the NoVAGO logo and “proud to be a member” on the bottom of their personal caching profile.  Take it one step further if you are a CO and add it to your cache pages.  The logos can be found on the NoVAGO webpage.

Never Stop Learning

What I have realized is that being a geocacher isn’t just one thing, there are so many different types of events, caches, programs, apps and items to collect.  If you want to fill your head with more geocaching goodness, attend a learning event.  There are many posted throughout the year and provide a lot of great information about geocaching from a newbie geocaching 101 event to other programs that can help you track those geocaching goals you have made.  

Do you have a wealth of knowledge you wish to share?  Maybe YOU could be the host of one of these events.  Reach out to a NoVAGO board member and let them know you are interested.

Have another goal?

I know I went over a lot of ideas, but there’s so much more out there that can be accomplished by geocachers in 2024.  If YOU have a good goal you’d like to share, pop it in the chat and share with others.

Cache ONWARD