The countdown to Brown Belt

We're still a little way off, but I'm starting to think about earning my Brown Belt from BadgeGen now. Currently on Blue which had very few requirements by comparison. Where are purple and red, I wonder.

Well, here's the Brown requirements:

BROWN: This awarded if the following conditions are met:
- 2000 cache finds (any type) AND
- 50 cache hides AND
- 3 events (any type) attended AND
- at least one cache find in 8 distinct states AND
- hosted one event (any type) AND
- any 5 of the following conditions are met:
-- at least 50 FTFs
-- at least one find in 4 distinct countries
-- at least 72 out of the 81 D/T combinations completed (89%)
-- one 5/5 D/T rated cache
-- 30 consecutive days with a cache find
-- 50 caches found on a single day
-- Maximum distance in a day of 500km or more
-- 3 gold badges for container size
-- at least one cache found above 1000m elevation
-- 3 distinct types of caches hidden (any types incl. events)

• So first up I need 2000 finds. Amazingly, I am fast approaching this target, not that I have any plans to get another 100 in a day any time soon but 50 in a day would be nice so I actually earn the Silver Olympics award! Somehow I've earned Bronze and Gold but missed the Silver!

• 50 hides. This is also tricky for me. In the space of three years of caching, I've hidden under half that amount. I guess all I need really is to find a suitable place to do a loop and then put out a set, but I am not in the habit of doing that. I tend to hide caches when I come up with ideas. I'd want my series to have a theme, and I have no idea where I'd put one. We can think on, there.

• 3 events attended - CHECK

• At least one cache find in 8 distinct states - this means a sub-area of a country. In the USA, it means what it says, a State. In Canada, it means Provinces; in Australia, Territories. In other countries and the UK, it's an area of the country defined by Groundspeak. It's not done by county (they confuse even me now. I can't keep up with them and I go by the traditional counties as opposed to the town and cities which technically are also counties).

So here are the UK regions, as used by Groundspeak:

I have done eight of these (South West England, Southern England, South East England, South Wales, West Midlands, East Midlands, Northwest England, Yorkshire and Humberside). Soon I will add London to the list, and hopefully more next year on our planned road trip to Fife in Scotland.

Even so, I would qualify with fewer than eight UK regions; I've cached in other countries.

• Hosted one event - OK, not done this yet. Perhaps a flash mob would be an easy way for me to start hosting. Maybe I'll host one to celebrate my Brown belt? I'm sure an idea will come to me in due course.

And finally I have to meet any five of the other requirements:

• At least 50 FTFs - not going to happen any time soon unless a loop is published on my doorstep when I'm at home and online. I think I have a mere 13 FTFs from the last three years. Much easier to get in Swansea when I was unemployed. Now they get published too far away, after I've gone to bed or while I'm at work!

• At least one find in 4 distinct counties - CHECK: done 7.

• At least 72 out of 81 D/T combos - Ha! Again, severely unlikely for the near future. Not that I'm making my D/T grid a priority. I'm looking at all my other stats before considering whether it's a new D/T combo. There are some that I doubt I will ever find.

• One 5/5 D/T cache - CHECK: somehow got three and will have a fourth when I get the Gold Olympics one.

• 30 consecutive days with a find - not done, but doable if I put my mind to it. Perhaps going into the winter is not a good time to start aiming for this target.

• 50 caches found on a single day - CHECK: only thanks to last weekend!

• Maximum distance in a day of 500km or more - how on earth do I work this out? I guess GSAK can tell you. Even then I don't know how. Answers below please!

• Three gold badges for container size - I am actually one Regular off achieving this!

• At least one cache found above 1000m elevation - Since First in Wales on Blorenge is my highest cache find to date, this is not going to be one of my qualifiers unless I go somewhere higher.

• Three distinct types of cache hidden - CHECK: Traditional, Multi, Puzzle, and of course I will have to host an event anyway to qualify.

So yeah, I am simply one Regular off the five additional requirements. Then all I need to do is hide 26 caches, host an event, attend my event, and find 246 caches. Nearly there, right?

New red splodge!

I've just updated my Michael Fish map of the UK, and noticed that a red splodge has appeared in Dorset after doing a power trail of 100 caches. Well, I should do more of these if I want a totally red country!!

Unique logs for 100 caches

I know exactly why people post generic logs for power caching trails, and I have no criticism of people doing this, but I like to try and remember the individual caches I've found, and quite often interesting things have occurred or been seen whilst doing a day's worth of caching. So when I set my eyes on the Cranborne Chase Circular (starting here) I wondered just how feasible it would be for me to write 100 unique logs for some quite unremarkable caches... well I did it! But thanks to technology. In the past when I've done twenty or so in a day I've somehow been able to rely on my memory and the hints to help me remember the individual hides, but when you're talking triple figures, they all mush into one! So I took my iPhone caching with me. I don't use my smart phone as a phone; in fact I've removed the SIM card. I was finding it a rather irritating phone for a variety of reasons I won't go into now and the sheer size of all the smart phones on the market is not attractive to me. I happily reverted back to my 2006 "ancient" Motorola V235, and no I don't give a damn that it's not in fashion. I only want it for phone calls, texts and the occasional photo. But my iPhone come iPod Touch (since that is in effect what I use it for) came in very handy with this power trail. After each find I simply recorded a short message to myself reminding myself of how the cache was hidden, where I was at the time, what I could see and what I had encountered on my way to it. A lot of this information didn't end up on the logs, but it served its purpose of helping me jog my memory about individual hides. As a result, I will remember this series with even more fondness. I was quite surprised that the CO was actively encouraging copied and pasted logs but I can't bring myself to do it. Nor can I add photos to a cache that it doesn't apply to. Sorry. 

Record notes in the field on your phone or whatever - it really does make it easier to write up your logs later!