North Carolina Geocaching, Upcoming Events and The "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award

North Carolina Geocaching

Nana & I teamed up with Jim & Lynne (jtmlam59) last Saturday (9/10) and headed towards the NE part of North Carolina to see if we could grab some geocaches.  We had a target list of 47 caches some of which neither had found, some that SNAP!!! had found and some that jtmlam59 had found.  SNAP!!! ended the day with 23 finds while jtmlam59 had 25 smilies.  We did have some trouble with a few caches and even had 2 caches where even a TACO (telephone a cache owner) did not help!!!  

We did hand out a few favorite points during the day.  Here are our favorite caches found Saturday.

GC4690C - Bridges of Perquimans County

Hidden by pattycake3

A nice size cache uniquely hidden.

GC5ZKZN - Up River Cemetery - Est 1865

Hidden by steve-n-kim

Nana loves cemetery caches!

A fairly easy puzzle cache

GC6NDBT - daddy rayrays cache

Hidden by pattycake3

an evil evil cache

GC6K2BA - Betweixt and Between

Hidden by Wheels

cute with a little bit of trickiness

UPCOMING EVENTS

Here are some other events in the area we plan to attend.

 Mark your calendars – hope to see you at some of these events!

Saturday – September 17 – Norfolk, VA

GC6RCQ0 – Calvary Cemetery CITO

Calvary cemetery Norfolk

9 till 10 AM

you will earn a souvenir for attending this CITO

Saturday – September 17 – James City County, VA

GC6QHZ7 – Powhatan Creek PADDLING EVENTure

Just off of the blueway

10 till 11 AM

Tuesday – September 20 – Virginia Beach, VA

GC6Q9N0 – 3^rd Tuesday – HIDEY AWARD RALLY – GCHR Sept Event

Rick’s Cafe

6 till 8 PM

Saturday – September 24 – Virginia Beach, VA

GC6RM57 – Clean the Lakes Natural Area - CITO

Lake Lawson/Lake Smith Nature area

9 till 11 AM

you will earn a souvenir for attending this CITO

Tuesday – September 22 – Chesapeake, VA

SUBMITTED - GC6RGY0 – AACC – September 22, 2016

Elizabeth River Boat Landing Park

4 till 6 PM

Tuesday – November 1 – Virginia Beach, VA

GC6Q9TM – The Nominees Are…..

Rick’s Cafe

6 till 8 PM

Saturday – January 7 – Virginia Beach, VA

GC6HYJ2 – 10 Years! Milestones M-n-G and Hidey Awards!

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

5 till 9 PM

The "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award

Every day we go out geocaching, we award favorite points to the caches that 1) make us smile, 2) we really like or 3) make us wish we had thought of that.  Then, later in the day, when all the caching is done, we sit and discuss the best of the favorites.

  
That discussion takes anywhere from 1 minute to sometimes 30 minutes.  We are trying to figure out which cache was not only the best cache of the day but which cache, if any, was worthy of naming as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the day Award.

People ask us what it takes to be a winner of the Cache of the Day Award – well…. good container, lovely scenery, takes us someplace we didn’t know of, sometimes it is getting caught by the CO, sometimes it is just how the cache hits us.
 

Listed on the right hand side of this blog (towards the top) is a list of pages.  Each year, 2016, 2015, etc. has it's own page.  The 2016 page lists all the winners of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award.

So far this year there have been 28 caches awarded this prestigious daily award and all of those are eligible for the "SUPER-COVETED" SNAP!!! cache of the Year Award.   The idea of a Cache of the year came to us in 2011.  We took each of the winners of the Cache of the Day and laid them all out and eventually came down to 3 or 4 best of the year.  Here is the small list of each year's winners:

In 2011 we took a trip to Pennsylvania and visited GC59AF: Thousand Steps Cache.  To this day both Pam & I think of it as our best cache ever and it was named the 1st SNAP!!! Cache of the Year.

The 2012 winner was in Smithfield, VA,  GC3PTB0: Smithfield's Porcine Parade.

In 2013 the winner was a WVTim cache.  GC44RDE - The Key is the Key.  Note: This cache is now archived but there is a cache just like it in Virginia Beach - see GC59VFY.

In 2014 the winner was a great Wherigo cache in Norfolk: GC4XD7M - The Hermitage Gardens: A Walking Tour - hidden by Prytz+1.

In 2015 the winner was a fantastic cache just outside Clarion, PA: GCT397: Train Trestle Falls - hidden by Captain Crash.

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

On Twitter at: @SNAPgeocaching

On Instagram at: snap_geocaching

Logs, Updates and Last weeks finds

LOGS

 If you ever want to bring a really big smile to my face - - - all you really have to do is write a unique or even humorous log on one of our caches!!!

Here are 3 different logs we received last week:

Found It

TFTC

Got It

As a cache owner who has over 170 active caches, I rely on logs to let me know if there is a problem with any of our caches.  That being said, I really enjoy reading logs which have some meat in them.  Let us know how your day went.  Are there any geocaches you did that day that you recommend (favorite points)?  Did you find a particular interesting location?  Or, do you have a interesting or funny thing that happened to you that day?

I know there are other cache owners who love reading interesting and amusing logs as much as we do!!  Also, if we are really stuck on a particular cache, we will read recent logs to see if they contain anything that could help us out! 

Don't be afraid to log a DNF - there is information that can be learned from them also.

UPDATES

When you are on the home page for this blog, look to the right side - listed there are some pages you can get to by clicking.  The 2nd page listed is "14th ANNUAL GCHR PICNIC Information ".  If you go to that page you will see a list of other pages available.  I have been working on updating each of those pages.  Please feel free to check them out and let us know if there is anything else you are interested in.

LAST WEEK'S GEOCACHING FINDS

Spent a few days doing maintenance on some of our caches and even grabbed a cache while out there: 

 GC3D89X - Cross Breeze - wish I had done this one in the winter time!

On Thursday (5/19) the rain decided to take a break for most of the day so alara and I teamed up once again and headed to North Carolina for some country caching! (in alphabetical order)

GC5WBCC - 3 Red Diamonds - quick P&G.

GC5WF0J - 3 Red Diamonds #2 - another quick P&G.

GC5NPKC - 67 NC CWGT Blount Bridgers House - love this historical series.

GC45RGJ - Army Men Rock - another quick P&G.

GC2YHY1 - Astoria Road's Forgotten Cemetery - we love cemeteries and it was sad to see this place in such a state of disrepair - awarded a favorite point because of the history here.

GC56Z39 - First Ladies:  Ida McKinley - another quick P&G.

GC4TYB9 - MagicRodes:  Windsor's First - I had DNF'd this one years ago and was very delighted to make the find quickly!!!

GC6FZGY - Martin County Geocaching Trail #10

GC6FZD9 - Martin County Geocaching Trail #5

GC6FZDM - Martin County Geocaching Trail #6

GC6FZE3 - Martin County Geocaching Trail #7 - we finished up this great series put out by the County.  Loved the series and we have already received an e-mail from the county stating our prize package is on the way.  A very simple series, once you make the first find and know what you are looking for.  My only comment would be that the coordinates are not always accurate so, once you know what you are looking for, expand your search area until you make the find.  I went back and gave all 10 geocaches in the series each their own favorite point mainly because 1) I love it when local officials (city, county, state) take advantage of the tourism they can bring in with geocaching and 2) there is history in this series!

GCWJQ0 - Moratoc Park - took us 4 tries here over many years but, armed with a good hint, we made the find!

GC11Z21 - Road to Nowhere - quick P&G - watch out for the ANTS!!!

GC1HM75 - Road to Nowhere #2 - another quick P&G

GC5XAHJ - Ruby Wednesday - not where we expected it - quick P&G

GC3CGX6 - The Odors of Astoria - laughed when we realized what the name was referring to!

GC1HKE8 - We're gonna need a bigger cache... - another favorite point awarded, this time for the pun.

GC46JZF - Wings of Hope 19 - this one gave us problems - it should have been a quick P&G.

Only 5 counties and one city left - gonna work on this soon!!!

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

Last Week's Recap plus some notes

Last Week's Geocaching

(May 9 thru 15)

We basically only cached on two days last week but... On Thursday the 12th, we hosted our 50th event!  It was just a quick AACC event.  So for those of you that do not already know: Way back in August of 2013, Geocaching.com awarded souvenirs for everyday in August (that year) for which you either attended an event OR found a geocache.  I came up with the idea!  Since most cachers were busy during the weekdays doing that thing called WORK!  Why not hold a fast meet n greet, just to allow those few dedicated individuals to get their souvenir by pulling into a random parking lot on their commute home and attending, even if for just a minute or two, a very short event.  These quick events were called AACC events which stood for August Afternoon Commuters Club.  At the end of the month, the attendees voted to continue the events but not everyday.  Since August of 2013 we have held these events sometimes on an every 2 week schedule and sometimes on a monthly basis. Recently, we have been asked to increase the frequency of the events so they are now on a every 3 week basis and they are now called All-Year Afternoon Commuters Club events!!!

Would you believe there is a cache in there???

On Saturday the 14th, we joined up with alara to tackle a list of North-East North Carolina Geocaches.  alara is one of the geocaching gurus that first taught us this great hobby so, yes - it is partially his fault you are reading this!!!

We managed to wipe out 37 of the 59 caches on the list knocking them off in quick order.  This list consisted of numerous caches but the main reason I mention it is the 3 interesting series of caches we had on the list.

1. Generals in Gray - these 13 geocaches (so far) detail information about different Generals during the Civil War.  They were hidden by  Civil War buff tpd2100.  The hides are very basic park n grabs and he promises more caches are to come.
2. Martin County Geocaching Trail - hidden by townofwilliamston.  You collect a coin at each of the hides and once complete present the coins to the Martin County Tourism Development Authority.  They will then, once verified, present you with a prize pack.
3. The NC CWGT series.  This state wide series consists of 150 Geocaches which have been hidden along the highways and by-ways of North Carolina.  This series is one of our favorites because of all the historic places it takes you.  

All three of these series are well worth your time.

A Couple of Notes

1. If you were a member of the Facebook page called SNAP!!!-land Geo-Art (Grafitti) - the page name has been changed to SNAP!!! Geocaching.  This Facebook group will now have information not only of our geo-art but also all active SNAP!!! geocaches.  Don't worry, you can still find the cheat sheet for the geo-art in the files section of the group.  If you are not a member of that Facebook group - and want to be - Click here to go to the page.  
2. I have started to update older pages and publish newer pages with tons of information of concerning the 14th Anniversary GCHR picnic.  If you look to the right side at the top of the page, the second page listed there (the first being Home") will be a page containing all sorts of links for information on this year's picnic.  Each one of the links is being updated but you can still access the entire page - you will see notes letting you know which links have been updated.

That's all for now - headed back down to North Carolina in a couple of days to finish up one or more of the series!!!

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

Happy New Year... and the WINNER IS......

First of all, we want to thank all you readers out there that take the time to leave feedback or drop us a note, an e-mail or come up to us at a meet n greet.  

2014 was a pretty good year for Pam & I.  We found just over 1000 caches during the year, finished # geo-arts {VTCC, The Tobacco Heritage Trail, Star Trek and Final Approach} and started one other one we have yet to finish.  We also visited 8 states, other than Virginia.

In late March, Pam & I published what is currently Virginia's largest Geo-art (or graffiti).  SNAP!!!-land contains 100 easy puzzle caches and can easily be completed in a 6 to 8 hour period.

So, enough of the small talk, let's get to the main reason for this blog.  In our second year of caching, while traveling back to Suffolk from a day of caching, we would talk about the best cache of day.  It didn't take long for this to develop into The "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award. 

The idea of a Cache of the year came to us in 2011.  We took each of the winners of the Cache of the Day and laid them all out and eventually came down to 3 or 4 best of the year.

In 2011 we took a trip to Pennsylvania and visited GC59AF: Thousand Steps Cache.  To this day both Pam & I think of it as our best cache ever and it was named the 1st SNAP!!! Cache of the Year.

The 2012 winner was in Smithfield, VA,  GC3PTB0: Smithfield's Porcine Parade.

Last year the winner was a WVTim cache.  GC44RDE - The Key is the Key.

So here we are, the moment of truth:

3rd Place: GC5CVD9 - NHT:  Symbols of the Cemetery - hidden by cameramoose - located in Norfolk, VA.  This is a very well put together Wherigo that teaches you about the different types of headstones and monuments.

2nd Place: GCA8E - Great Big Rock - hidden by 9ingers - located in Forsyth, NC.  This cache was hidden in May of 2001 and is well worth the visit.  A nice walk through a park and a short hike up a hill to a great location.

The 2014 WINNER of the

"EXTREMELY COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Year

GC4XD7M - The Hermitage Gardens: A Walking Tour - hidden by Prytz+1

located in Norfolk, VA

This is another really well put together Wherigo cache and it takes you on a great walking tour of one of Norfolk's hidden gems.

Congrats!!!

May everyone have a safe and Happy New Year!!!

As Always: Stay Safe & Keep Caching!

Suffolk Nana and Papa

SNAP!!!

Thanks Becky!

Yesterday, as we were all standing around in a parking lot trading stories about our latest tick find, geocaching mistake, or the abundance inch worms in the area, I half-jokingly asked fellow cacher bdramatic, to ride all the way out and check one of our SNAP caches.  It is simple math really.  Now that the SNAP!!!-land geo-grafitti (or geo-art to some) has been published, Nana & I now have about 174 active caches.  The only way to know which ones to do maintenance on is to read each and every log that we get and sometimes even read between the lines.  The problem is: we have a few that are way out in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest town, burg, city, or even intersection and those don't get found very often.  So yes, I was half joking and half hoping she would take my offer to go check on SNAP 80 - Free Ride (GC3HK6D) as it hadn't been attempted since June of 2013.  I had explained to her, as we were soaking up the sun at the latest AACC event (GC525CE), that it was a glorious country ride, that you could see just about any kind of wildlife in the area, and to top it all off, you get to take a free ferry ride, courtesy of the State of North Carolina, after finding the cache!!!

Well - - - Thank you - - we appreciate you going all that way!!!  We hope you enjoyed the drive.  We really enjoyed your log!  Logs like these are the types that make our days!!!  Kinda wish we could award favorite points to certain logs!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - - - Suffolk Nana & Papa

August 2013 - What a fantastic month!!!

August 1st - the first day of the Geocaching.com 31 days of August.  Attended an local afternoon AACC event.  our only find on the day but then again, it was a weekday!!!





August 2nd - Attended another afternoon AACC event and grabbed a nearby cache.  Those would have been our only two but we were lucky enough because of some much need cache maintenance to grab one more for a total of 3 caches.

August 3rd - 11 finds on a beautiful Saturday and we named GC41RZ1 - Mysterious Marsh as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award.

August 4th -  15 finds on a beautiful Sunday caching with alara.  We named GC4ERGE - Ivy Back as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award.

August 5th -  Back to work today and the only cache we earned was an quick AACC event.

August 6th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 7th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 8th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 9th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.  (I think I see a pattern here!)

August 10th -  NOT!!! a  work day but alas, the SNAP-mobile is getting a face lift so we use Papa's car and only get 6 finds!!!

August 11th -  Sunday - Teamed up with jtmlam59, checked on some newly adopted caches and then made a quick run up to Charles City.  16 finds total.

August 12th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 13th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

14th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 15th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 16th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 17th -  Saturday - only 8 finds today but they involved quite a lot of hiking so we recovered by attending a Gloucester Meet n Greet!!

August 18th -  Sunday - 7 finds today and loved the Meet n Greet down in Elizabeth City!!!  Bypassed Find #5300 today and named GC4HJYY - Hide a Key as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award!!!

August 19th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 20th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.






August 21th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 22th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

23th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 24th -  Time for a weekend geocaching trip.  Teamed up with jtmlam59 once again and made a run in and around Rocky Mount NC.  87 finds on the day and named GC3D61T - Am I still Lion? Is it under the LPC? as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award!!!

August 25th -  Finished up our weekend geocaching trip with 49 finds and surpassed the #5400 found mark.  Named GC41K12 - Pasturized - as the winner of the "COVETED" SNAP!!! Cache of the Day Award!!!!

August 26th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.

August 27th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.  But this was a special event as today was SNAP's 35th wedding anniversary.  So the winner of the day for the best excuse as to why I was not at home was........ mbbaumann.  Congrats!!!

August 28th -  Another work day so one afternoon AACC event find and two finds on nearby caches!!!

August 29th -  Another work day so only one afternoon AACC event find.  This was the last of the AACC events and thanks to everyone that attended.

30th -  Friday night we attended the pre-event for the picnic.  Great crowd and just knew that the picnic was going to be great by the size of the crowd at the Friday event!!!

August 31st -  August 31 is my birthday and believe it our not GCHR is throwing me a great big party - they named it the 11th GCHR picnic but that was just so I wouldn't know about all the plans.  The turn out was fantastic and it is not every year when over 500 people sing you Happy Birthday!!!  There will be another blog specifically for the picnic but thanks to everyone who attended!!!

Till next time - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa