KB Challenge - Minnesota Bakers Dozen

Last week I spent all of my caching time working on the King Boreas Minnesota Baker's Dozen challenge cache. I've written about this challenge before so you've probably heard about it, but the essence of the challenge is to find 1 cache on day 1, 2 caches on day 2, 3 caches on day 3, all the way to 13 caches on day 13. Now the day's don't have to be consecutive days or that would be impossible for me to complete - I don't cache 13 day's in a row. The other major rule is that at least one of the caches found on a particular day must be either a multi-cache or a puzzle cache. That throws an interesting twist into the whole thing. Visit the cache page for more details.

So last week I found myself ignoring the coveted FTF's just because I've either already hit my number for the day, or the FTF might be a multi or a puzzle and I can't go get it because I already have my multi or puzzle for the day. So I passed on a couple of FTF hunts.

However, last week I was able to complete some of the bigger number day's. Here's my cache bookmark which shows my progress so far. I focused on the bigger number days on the weekends because it's almost impossible to get 12 or 13 caches at lunch. I used to be able to do it but now I have to drive too far because I've cleared out the area close to work. Now just getting 3 or 4 caches takes up the lunch time (and sometimes I'm only able to get 1 or 2).

The progress last week looks something like this:

• Sat June 14 - Day 13 - Tbone and I did this. Another post talked about our adventures on our bikes.
• Mon June 16 - Day 4
• Tue June 17 - Day 7 - This required a longer lunch, though.
• Wed June 18 - Day 2 - The multi I did here was a killer. Took way too long - but fun!!
• Fri June 20 - Day 12 - I was at a baseball tourney and was able to get enough caching in between games to get the full 12 done.
• Sat June 21 - none - I had high hopes of getting day 11 out of the way - but there was no time between baseball games today.

So overall it was a successful week - getting Day 12 and 13 out of the way. Only 4 days left, 5, 9, 10, and 11. I'm afraid it will take a couple of weekends to get 9, 10, and 11 out of the way, though.

Back in the Saddle

Wow, it's been a while since I've been able to get out and do some geocaching. I've been dealing with pneumonia for the past couple of weeks and am finally well enough to get out there. So TBone and I decided to take our bikes and go ride some trails. Of course the trails we picked were loaded with caches, too. We ended up grabbing 13 today - just enough for day 13 of King Boreas' Minnesota Bakers Dozen Challenge. I still have a few more day's to fill in but I'm getting there.

Tbone and I had a great day. We found some pretty tough caches, Tbone found some fun SWAG, and we traded a few Travel Bug's and Geocoins. We scared up 5 or 6 deer - got to within about 30 -40 feet of a couple of them before they ran off. The mosquitoes were out in full force! I think they almost carried us away a few times. The worst part is when you're stopped to sign the log - the mosquitoes are relentless when your not moving!!

Then of course there were the tics. Ton's of them. As you can see from the pics we were in grassy areas so I went first to try and break the path for Tbone. That also meant that I got most of the tics. I think we pulled 15-18 tics off of my clothes. Tbone had about 4 or 5 during the day. None of them bit us, though, so it looks like we found them all.

All in all, we had a great day finding 13 caches, 5 or 6 deer, a few ducks, and lots of dragon flys - and doing it all from our bikes. Thanks for going with me today, Tbone. I had a great time!!