We first mentioned the “Finds for Each Day of the Year” challenge in this February blog entry. After finding at least one geocache on each of eleven days in March, one in June, one in August, and a few this afternoon, we’re still on track to complete our “finds for each day of the year” grid on February 6, 2013.

One stretch in March was a bit of a challenge, as we needed to find a cache on 8 out of 9 days, right around the same time Mrs. GeoK came down with her annual spring cold. But it all worked out and we’re now sitting at 309 of 366 days with at least one “found it” log.

At this point, we’ve got about a month to go to the next blank our grid. After that, we’ll have our work cut out for us, with all 57 blanks falling between late October and early February. Depending on accumulated snow fall and temperatures, these can be challenging months for geocaching in the Calgary area.

There are two notable benefits to paying attention to our “finds for each day of the year” grid. First, it’s brought a little bit of focus to our geocaching, encouraging us to enjoy the game more regularly and acting as an antidote to our protracted case of geocaching burnout. In fact we’ve already found almost twice as many geocaches in 2012 as we found in all of 2011.

Second, we’re doing a better job of planning our geocaching to minimize the associated carbon footprint. For example, in March Mrs. GeoK often chose to walk several km to find just one cache, since that’s all that’s needed to complete any particular day. Other days, where a time-consuming walk just wouldn’t fit into a busy day, we’d check for geocaches near places we’d already be, and take a short walk from one of those locations to search for a smiley.

Here’s hoping Calgary weather and personal schedules allow for this same approach as we do our best to finish the “days of the year” challenge over the coming winter. After that, we’ll be able find and log GC2THDD The “Cache Every Day of the Year” Challenge cache!

What about you? Have you already filled in all the days of the year? If so, have you found a “366 Challenge” cache? If not, will you beat us to the finish line?