Details

Written by Terri Nealon

Published: August 16 2024

Last Updated: August 16 2024

Hits: 1348

 "July is a POP of Color, a Burst of Sunshine,

and a Promise of Adventure," 

as is SLAGA's July Adventure Awaits Winner, 

brantole (Lena Dowers)!

Congratulations to Lena on her spectacular win and gift card prize.  She began geocaching on the 4th of July 2010 and was immediately hooked. She chose to participate in the SLAGA monthly challenges because they keep her motivated to go out geocaching. Lena commented, "I have been participating since the beginning when I was still working full time. Work made it difficult for me to find time to geocache. Sometimes the only caches I did find for the month were the five caches necessary to complete the Adventure Awaits. Now I am working part-time and my cache finds per month have increased! I like the variation of the requirements for each month." 

Lena has over 5000 geocache finds and 32 hides. She has completed her Fizzy challenge, geocached on every day of the calendar year (366 days), and cached in 5 different World Countries. It might surprise some geocachers to know that Lena's favorite type of caches are gadget caches. Her least favorite are Earthcaches.  She loves tree climbing caches, but doesn't much care about getting First to Find. 

Thankfully that was not a requirement for July's challenge. Instead, it was finding caches with at least 5 favorite points (FPs) and all qualifying finds had to add up to more than 40 FPs.  During this July, Lena knew she would be traveling to visit family which would make it very easy to qualify. She was also on a 'mini' mission to find a lot of multi geocaches and most of her multi cache finds had significant favorite points attached to them which also helped.  Her challenge entries included:

GC74ZB6: 50 Souvenirs Challenge  (17 FP)

GCJVBR: Round Mound of Sound  (19 FP)

GC947FC: Cascade- Goodbye 2020  (20 FP)

GCWMDF: West of the Mississippi in Illinois  (37 FP)

GCAN2WG: SLAGA Summer Picnic 2024

When asked about her most memorable geocaching adventure(s), Lena expressed her thorough enjoyment in doing the extreme caches placed by Forest Ghost, such as Grant's Fear Factor and The Architect. ("Thanks Ethan!")  She also fondly remembers  some great geocaching road trips through the years. But said, "Although all the road trips have been a blast, I am truly thankful I took one with my mother driving up through IL, IN, and MI into Canada in 2016."

Lena is a fearless, fun and friendly geocacher and no doubt awaits more spectacular geocaching adventures, not unlike every  SLAGA monthly challenge which holds a promise of a new adventure.  Join the fun and find and submit your entries for the August challenge soon.  

Details

Written by Robert Klemme

Published: August 06 2024

Last Updated: August 06 2024

Hits: 1052

2 months in and first place distance wise is still sitting pretty. However, much like summertime, things are still heating up!

Details

Written by Robert Klemme

Published: June 25 2024

Last Updated: August 06 2024

Hits: 1235

The travel bug race is underway! We're only one month in and we're seeing some good movement so far! It's very early in the race though so it's still anyone's game! Here's how things currently stand:

Details

Written by Terri Nealon

Published: June 09 2024

Last Updated: July 04 2024

Hits: 1267

 

 

Details

Written by Terri Nealon

Published: May 16 2024

Last Updated: May 16 2024

Hits: 1532

Congratulations to Dean Meredith, deancmeredith, who's name was drawn to win the $10 gift card and sticker for April's Adventure Awaits Challenge!  As prolific of a geocacher as Dean is, it might surprise some to know that he only started geocaching in January 2021, yet to date has over 6900 cache finds ... No Foolin'... he started caching as a way to keep active and entertained during the Covid pandemic, and he caches almost continuosly.  He has cached on every day of the calendar, including leap day (366 days) and has found every D/T two times or more (Fizzy challenge).  Dean's found caches in 40 states and 10 countries. 

As for Adventure Awaits monthly challenges, Dean states, "I enjoy these challenges as they give me something to work towards on my daily caching."  For the month of April, Dean chose the following caches with different terrain ratings.

GC4FGF9 Pendleton, Trad T1.5

GCA549 Origins of Alexandria, Virtual T1

GC1V1WR Westledge Mountain: Masters Series #1, Trad T2.5 

GC33Z7E Westledge Mountain: Sands of Time [Master Series], Trad T3.5

GCAMQMR CVGA Adopt-A-Highway CITO, Event T2

DEAN MEREDITH 

with county-run buddy cootie_man at the CITO Event in Virginia 

Part of the enjoyment of geocaching for Dean is taking county caching trips with friends.  He says he is 'getting to see every corner of America," and loves it!  Besides the monthly challenge, Dean has challenged himself from the start of his caching history in a unique way.  In 2021, he found 2021 caches.  In 2022, he found 2022 caches.  Last year in 2023, he found 2023 caches.  Adventure Awaits Dean not only every month, but every year as he continues his personal challenge. I'll let you all guess how many he intends to find this year!