It seems wherever you go, there are different traditions for people when a geocacher reaches 1,000 finds. I’ve heard many different things on what people do, but one thing seems for sure — 1,000 finds is the ultimate milestone.
Some people will eventually go so far past 1,000 finds, it won’t matter. But in the geocaching circles I’ve looked at and such, 1,000 finds is the main goal. Everything else is gravy.
For me, reaching 1,000 was almost a weight off the shoulders. I don’t know why. When I got to 100 finds, I was super pumped. At 500, I was stoked. Then, reaching 1,000 became an obsession.
Once I got to 1,000, I realized that geocaching had gotten too much into the numbers (though I do like the numbers!) and now I don’t go as nutso as I once did.
So, this tip is about what you can do when someone you know reaches that magical milestone.
Here are some ideas I’ve heard to celebrate someone’s 1,000th:
- An event in his or her honor
- Golden Ammo Can (several ways of doing this)
- A full-stocked cache gift to the person for them to hide
- A FTF for their 1,000th
I’m sure there are a few more, but these are the ones I’ve heard most about.
With that in mind, let me tell you what we do in our area — the Golden Ammo Can.
When someone reaches the milestone or is closing in, we usually start planning the Golden Ammo. That usually means a few of us discuss ideas, share costs (sometimes) and decide places to put the cache. We try and make it so the people will enjoy the hide — so try and make it some sort of hide that they like the most (long hike, multi, mystery etc.)
The idea is to not publish the geocache until the person has found it (in other parts, I’ve seen they have it published, but request that nobody finds it until the honoree logs the FTF). We usually try and do them around an event or a planned weekend. Then we all go out, the honored person finds the cache and then all the others sign in and log it.
It’s a fun time, usually.
I’ve done two Golden Ammo cans — one for monet37 and one for the Devil Duckies. Monet’s was an in-depth puzzle cache based on art as she’s an art teacher. The Devil Duckies is basically a park-and-grab, though it would be a walk from their house to a park where they bring their pooches. So it’s one that’s close to home for them and that they can walk and check on when they want. Alas, they ended up parking close the day they found it as it was cold!
Here’s the Devil Duckies at their Golden:
Here’s monet37’s Golden:
As you can see, we spray paint the ammo cans gold. I try and do it inside and out. Usually these have pretty decent swag in them. For the Devil Duckies, it had a lot of Devil Duckies on the inside. Monet’s had a lot of art supplies.
So, as this week’s tip — when someone you know reaches this wonderful milestone, do something nice for them and recognize them. It’s hard to get to 1,000 finds, so it’s worth celebrating!
More later!
