SNAP 2012 Year in review... and the Winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the year!!!!

Nana & I have had a terrific year geocaching not only around the Hampton Roads area but also in North Carolina, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland and Tennessee.

January found us geocaching around the local area but two of the outstanding geocaches we found that month were Raiders of the Lost Ark (GC34RA8) and Temple of Doom (GC37QBC).  We only found 96 caches in January but I was still recovering from the sickness I had over the holidays.

February started off with the 5th Annual Meet n Greet hosted by episcodad.  There was a terrific turnout and everyone had a tremendous time.  The month ended with the publishing of The Treasure of Tull's Bay series (see GC3AQP4).  One of the best geocaches we found that month was The Rune Stones of Harwood's Mill (GC1YBHP) a fantastic puzzle cache and we attacked it as part of a huge team.

March had us mostly in Virginia Beach.  Somewhere in the middle of the month we officially renamed the new Rock Band Series (see GC39AF3) as "The Damn Neck Death March" after we tried (unsuccessfully) to do the series on foot!!!  The new name stuck, at least for a few months as we received more than one comment about the new name.  Note: we still haven't finished all of the caches in this series.

April was our biggest month ever as far as finds.  We found a total of 635 caches this month and set a new personal record of 309 finds in a single day.  I doubt we will ever break that record but then again - we are talking about doing the ET trail out in Nevada!  Also in April we managed to find more of the Damn Neck Death march series and also started the Amazing Geo-Race series (see GC34QA0).  We still, as of this date have not finished the Race but plan on getting back to it now that winter has set in.  One of the single day road trips we did as part of Team S&M (Jim & Lynn of jtmlam59) was a tour of West Point then coming back to Hampton Roads via Gloucester.  We finished off the month by teaming up with Jim & Lynn to form Team S&M once again and attacking the Bling Shelter Power Run (see GC37PT9).  We finished off the entire run and then found out from the COs that they had just place another 50 caches along the trail.  Going back and finishing the run is on our to-do list.

May had us on three single day road trips.  One trip had Pam & I going up to Midlothian and visited fellow geocachers at one of their Meet n Greets.  For the second we formed team S&M and toured the upper portion of the Outer Banks all the way to the Virginia state line (the Corolla area).  The third trip had alara joining us to form Team TNA - we drove out to Roanoke Rapids and grabbed caches in several counties in that area.

June we toured Gloucester and Matthews counties, took a day trip to Williamsburg and had a really great time at the WWFM #9: Hokey Pokey Hampton Roads hosted by LeoCaptKirk.

July seemed to be a geocaching series month with a few side trips.  I had a business trip to DC and picked up a few older Virtuals around the capital.  We made a day trip to Petersburg to grab some more caches but most of the month we were busy with new caching series.  We started the Get a Clue Series (see GC3EWX3) which we never finished.  We then tried the Battleship series (see GC3F96T) which we also never finished.  We solved most of the Patriots series (GC37M91) but never went out and found them all (yet).  The one series we actually started and finished was Smithfield's Porcine Parade - this is a fantastic series using the new Smithfield Pigs that have been placed around the downtown area.

August was a month of local caches mainly concentrating on the Battleship series.

September started out with Virginia's first Mega-event - the HRGC annual picnic.  The rest of the month consisted of Team S&M attacking several different bike paths in the South Hill area.  Team S&M also made a short trip down to the Knotts Island area.  Pam & I participated in the M&G at the pier (GC3TYXV) and then had a great day taking the ferry over to Tangier Island.  There are only two geocaches on Tangier Island but it is well worth the trip.

October had us teaming up again with alara (Team TNA) and attacking one of the Wacky alara geocahes - GCP49Y - Hoop Hole Hide.  We then grabbed some other caches in that area and then headed over to Augusta county and started and finished the Miles of Smiles series.

In November Jim (of jtmlam59 and I went up to Fredericksburg and took part in the Night Caching events hosted by Chip'n'Lori.  Pam & I toured Williamsburg, Richmond and Petersburg but at the end of the month we decided (last minute) to take off and spent several days geocaching around the upper part of the state and finished the trip by completing the C&D Canal in upper Delaware.

For December  Pam & I started by going up to Charles City county and wiping out that entire county.  We then started the new D/T series but have barely put a dent into it.  I participated in all the events surrounding the 12/12/12 date and gathered a few caches in the dark between events.We finished up the year by taking a Christmas geocaching trip to the western part of the state.  We wiped out some more Virginia counties and managed to also get 2 more squares for the Virginia Delorme Challenge.

Pam and I were talking recently and decided to award winners for the year.  The problem was how do we separate caches but more importantly - how do we pick not only the best cache of the year but also the best trip.  To further complicate things we have day trips and then multi-day trips.  At the end of the discussion we settled on three awards.

Best single day trip during 2012:
Runner up:  our trip to Corolla with Jim & Lynn (jtmlam59)
WINNER:  Tangier Island

Best multi-day trip during 2012:
Runner up: The trip to Hoop Hole Hide and the Miles of Smiles with alara
Winner: C&D canal in upper Delaware

The BEST Cache of 2012:  There were numerous caches in consideration but once all the caches were listed there was an obvious winner.  Congrats!!!!

Smithfield's Porcine Parade

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa