Yep another FTF!  A clinical psychologist might say that I have an addiction problem.  He might be right.  I cannot help it.  I love the little twinge when I get that new email from Geocaching with the subject “New Traditional Cache”.  I love the bigger twinge when I see that it is close and I have a chance.  I love the anticipation as I (safely & legally) race to the GZ and that final moment of triumph when I see the clean log sheet awaiting my FTF signature.  Ahhhh the rush. Today was that day.  Being that the cache was newly published and a good ways out of the normal FTF “mad-race-to-claim-the-find-first-signature slot” zone of San Diego, I felt pretty confident of my odds, but one can never really know.  I have come in second on an FTF hunt with the first cacher scoring the honors in under 10 minutes from publish time (I was there about 15 minutes after publish!) With today’s find, it was a nice drive out into the country on a gorgeous morning.  The cache is called, “Washed Away.”   SEVERE SPOILER ALERT: cache container and location revealed below!  

I ended 2013 with an FTF on New Year’s Eve and decided to set a New Year’s Resolution to try to get at least one FTF every month this year! I started 2014 off with a real quick FTF on January 2nd, but some months really came down to the wire. Today concludes my resolution with my December FTF coming on Witch Creek CDF cache. We spotted the cache location as we drove up to the GZ and were rewarded with a clean log sheet to sign!   SEVERE SPOILER ALERT: cache container and location revealed  below!         And just in case you were wondering, here is our FTF list for the year: 1/2/14 GC4W6V3 TSJNAC #3 1/14/14 GC4X049 Too Much to Carry 1/22/14 GC4XCQC Cache of the Day – Cobia 2/12/14 GC4YFB2 Another Beer for my Horses 2/12/14 GC4YFWW Go Green 3/23/14 GC50VPA Mollusk cache of-the-day-atlantic-sea-scallop 3/31/14 GC51CJ5 Calavera Hills Volcanic Plug 4/17/14 GC52GBH Cedar Creek Trail 5/30/14 GC55XC9 Freshwater cache of the day – Largemouth Bass 6/1/14 GC55BT3 PH – Not My Fault 7/2/14 GC582C5 The Legacy of Captain Red 7/2/14 GC582CF Dat Moss Do? 8/12/14 GC5AQ7F SNM 8/24/14 GC58VH1 Helicopter Rescue Viewing Area 9/1/14 GC5C3M7 Mount Gower Open Space Preserve 9/18/14 GC59GHX South Clevenger Trail Head 9/18/14 GC5D610 Are you local? 9/23/14 GC5DFC7 Cows and Airplanes 10/16/14 GC5EXBK Cable Goes Thru 10/16/14 GC5EXCA A Pile With A View 10/27/14 GC5FGTX MRF1 – Point Beach 11/26/14 GC5GT05 Find me, Find me not 12/6/14 GC5HFTX Witch Creek CDF

I love the FTF as you are well aware by now.  For this hunt, team SBlookers and I were in NYC and I saw this one had just published so off we went early the next morning (okay kinda early – noon – but in our defense, we were on west coast time!)  I was a little worried when we arrived at the GZ because there were footprints, very fresh footprints, all over the place.  ARG, had we been beaten to my first New York FTF?  I checked the smart phone app and hooray, they were indeed fresh footprints from a geocacher, but he had DNF’ed!!! Here is my Found it log:    Found it 10/27/2014 FTF baby, oh yeah SBlookers and I headed out from Queens to grab this one this morning. As we arrived at the GZ, I saw a ton of footprints in the sand all around the GZ. Oh no, did someone beat us here? I whipped out the smart phone app and refreshed the listing. A DNF, hooray, there was still a chance – but looking at the area, it could be a tough find, but unlike the first cacher, we had ALL day So with a little perseverance and a lot of looking, we made the find – Woot Woot! A big TFTC SEVERE SPOILER ALERT: cache container and location revealed  below!

Yes, another FTF! I love the anticipation of racing (well, obeying all traffic laws in an attempt to get to the GZ as quickly as possible) and the thrill of a clean log sheet. This video pretty much sums it up.     SEVERE SPOILER ALERT: cache container and location revealed below!    

Yes, another post about an FTF attempt.  What can I say?  I love them. Here is my “Found It” log:    Found it 07/11/2014 FTF baby, oh yeah  I saw this one publish on my way home from Costco. So I hustled up and tossed the cold items in the fridge and jetted back out. I hit the GZ at 2:00 pm and made the quick find on the quiet street. I quickly opened the container and pulled out the log… whoohoo! The #1 line on the log sheet was blank. I did a small happy dance and penned down my name. I was on the phone with fellow cacher finkbr so he could grab the FTF in spirit since he was stuck at work. As I was putting the log sheet back into the container I noticed something…. ARG! Someone had beat me to the cache and the FTF; he had just signed the back side of the log sheet  No FTF for me today… or do I get it since I was the first to sign the log sheet in FTF slot? Yeah, I guess that’s a stretch. Thanks for putting another hide out in our neck of the woods! A big TFTC

Admittedly, I am an FTF hound.  Yep, there it is, out there for everyone to know.  I love FTF’s… and I have hunted them down at all hours, in all locations, through rain and swarms of bees, up hills, down hills and back again. This little FTF adventure was due to an incredibly stupid early show time at work, fortunately that fresh, clean log sheet gave me a little boost – quite important in that not even Starbucks was open yet! SEVERE SPOILER ALERT: cache container and location revealed below!