Camouflage Series Hat Trick!
When I woke up on Thursday, January 4, I noticed three new geocaches in my inbox. They were #4-6 of the "Camouflage Series" by Champro. Would it be possible to get another FTF or two? Or THREE? The notification had come in the night, just past midnight. It was now 9:00 am, so I had a good shot at being First To Find. I headed for #6 and #5 first, since they were harder, and in the same area. Six was a multi-stage cache, and both required some walking in steep terrain. Number four was over in Sunnidale Park.
I started with the number 6, the multi-cache. At stage two, I corrected an error in the listing to get the final target. On the way there, I made an unsuccessful search for #5, as I was walking right past it. After about 15 minutes I moved on to the final of #6 and scored the FTF.
Back to #5... wait a minute! Luckily I had only gone about 20 paces before I realized the cache was still hanging on my body. I had placed it there for the picture. A quick return to the hiding spot, then I headed back into the woods for my second shot at #5. I had to widen the search net since the coordinates didn't seem to be working out for me. Eventually I found it once I started looking in the "usual" places. That's when I realized the name of the cache -- Back to the Basic -- indicated it would indeed be a "usual" hide. (Unlike Camouflage Series #2 Stick It, which I actually touched without realizing it the first time searching.)
I hoofed it out of there, and headed over to Sunnidale Park. By this time, it was around 11:00 am. I really didn't expect to get this FTF as well, but there it was patiently waiting for me.
I had been caching for over six months before I got the first FTF. The second came toward the end of the year. In 2005, I scored a pair on my birthday in April, then one each in August, September, and October for five in 2005. In 2006, Jennifer and I scored a couple difficult FTFs in one day, I picked up another one in September, then the final FTF at the end of the year for a total of four that year. Now, in 2007, I have four in as many days. Maybe I better hold off and let somebody else score the FTF for a change!
