Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral Degrees in Geocaching

I'll be using this post to check our requirements and see what we qualify for.  The Bachelors Degree is 7 hours from home from us... but since we are at least a couple of years away from earning the degrees, travel to the graduation ceremonies is the least of our concerns. 

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5CRR1_bachelors-degree-in-geocaching-challenge-cache

This is a really interesting geocaching challenge cache series.  There may be other versions, the series I refer to here is located in Ohio.  Each of the three degrees has a cache page with the "course requirements" to earn the degree.  Once completed, you receive a certificate with your geocaching name.  "Each degree recipient is eligible to receive an e-mailed diploma certifying his/her accomplishment. The President of the University will contact you for an e-mail address to which the diploma may be mailed."

This cache owner not only put in some serious thought, and work, to create this series, but what dedication to maintain it at this level!  These are challenge caches, all located at the posted coordinates, but you cannot log them until you complete all of the requirements.  The final caches appear to be pretty easy terrain rather quick finds.  The work is in earning the right to find them.

"You have hard work ahead of you to graduate, but you will learn about geocaching by following our curriculum, have a lot of fun, and meet many other students who will become lifelong friends. When you finish and become an alum, you will hopefully look back fondly on your time at good old "U of G"!

Listed in the "Bachelor's Degree Course Catalog" below are the courses offered by the University of Geocaching. For each course, you will find the number of credits earned by completing that course and the requirements for completing the course.

In order to earn your bachelor's degree, you must earn at least 50 credits. When you have completed at least 50 credits, you may attend graduation (sign the log and claim your find). As part of your graduation requirements, you must fill out your final transcript. Please list in your cache log: your total credits earned, the courses you completed (including credits for each course), your qualification for each course, and how your qualification may be verified for each course (please see my "Note" logs on 9/13/2014 for an example of how to log this challenge cache). Your geocaching profile at geocaching.com and either the output from the GSAK macro "FindStatsGen" or your Project Geocaching profile contain enough pieces of information to verify all of the course requirements. You may also verify your requirements in another manner if you like."

Bachelors Degree
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5CRR1_bachelors-degree-in-geocaching-challenge-cache

Bachelor's Degree Course Catalog (Course - Credits - Requirements)

Chronos I.B - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 100 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos II.B - 2 credits - Find geocaches that were placed on at least 100 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos III.B - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 31 consecutive days
Chronos IV.B - 2 credits - Find at least 50 geocaches during one calendar day
Chronos V.B - 3 credits - Find at least 500 geocaches during one calendar year

General Geocaching I.B - 5 credits - Find at least 1,000 geocaches
General Geocaching II.B - 5 credits - Find at least 10 geocaches of each size (micro, small, regular, large, not chosen, virtual, and other)
General Geocaching III.B - 2 credits - Earn at least 10 geocaching souvenirs
General Geocaching IV.B - 2 credits - Move or discover at least 50 trackables

Geography I.B - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 2 countries
Geography II.B - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 5 U.S. states
Geography III.B - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 1 Canadian province
Geography IV.B - 3 credits - Find a geocache in at least 50 U.S. counties
Geography V.B - 2 credits - Find a geocache at least 100 miles from home
Geography VI.B - 2 credits - Find a geocache at an elevation of at least 1,000 feet

History I.B - 3 credits - Find at least 1 geocache that was placed in the year 2000
History II.B - 5 credits - Find at least 1 geocache that was placed in every month of every year starting with January of 2002

Matrix I.B - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 41 spots in the difficulty/terrain matrix
Matrix II.B - 4 credits - Find at least 10 high-difficulty geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star difficulty ratings)
Matrix III.B - 4 credits - Find at least 10 high-terrain geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star terrain ratings)

Non-Traditional Geocaching I.B - 1 credit - Find at least 100 Mystery/Puzzle/Unknown geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching II.B - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Multi-caches
Non-Traditional Geocaching III.B - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Letterbox Hybrid geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching IV.B - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Earthcaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching V.B - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Virtual geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching VI.B - 1 credit - Find at least 10 NGS Benchmarks
Non-Traditional Geocaching VII.B - 1 credit - Attend at least 10 Events (does not include CITO, Mega-Events, or Giga-Events)
Non-Traditional Geocaching VIII.B - 1 credit - Attend at least 1 CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event
Non-Traditional Geocaching IX.B - 1 credit - Find at least 1 Webcam geocache
Non-Traditional Geocaching X.B - 1 credit - Find at least 1 Wherigo geocache
Non-Traditional Geocaching XI.B - 4 credits - Find/Attend at least 1 "unusual" geocache/event (Mega-Event, Giga-Event, Project A.P.E, GPS Adventure Maze Exhibit, Geocaching Block Party, or Geocaching HQ)

Masters Degree
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5CRR2_masters-degree-in-geocaching-challenge-cache

Like the Bachelors Degree, The Masters requires you to earn 50 credits

Master's Degree Course Catalog (Course - Credits - Requirements)

Chronos I.M - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 365 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos II.M - 2 credits - Find geocaches that were placed on at least 365 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos III.M - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 100 consecutive days
Chronos IV.M - 2 credits - Find at least 100 geocaches during one calendar day
Chronos V.M - 3 credits - Find at least 1,000 geocaches during one calendar year

General Geocaching I.M - 5 credits - Find at least 5,000 geocaches
General Geocaching II.M - 5 credits - Find at least 50 geocaches of each size (micro, small, regular, large, not chosen, virtual, and other)
General Geocaching III.M - 2 credits - Earn at least 50 geocaching souvenirs
General Geocaching IV.M - 2 credits - Move or discover at least 500 trackables

Geography I.M - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 5 countries
Geography II.M - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 20 U.S. states
Geography III.M - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 5 Canadian provinces
Geography IV.M - 3 credits - Find a geocache in at least 200 U.S. counties
Geography V.M - 2 credits - Find a geocache at least 500 miles from home
Geography VI.M - 2 credits - Find a geocache at an elevation of at least 5,000 feet

History I.M - 3 credits - Find at least 5 geocaches that were placed in the year 2000
History II.M - 5 credits - Find at least 1 geocache that was placed in every month of every year starting with January of 2001

Matrix I.M - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 61 spots in the difficulty/terrain matrix
Matrix II.M - 4 credits - Find at least 50 high-difficulty geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star difficulty ratings)
Matrix III.M - 4 credits - Find at least 50 high-terrain geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star terrain ratings)

Non-Traditional Geocaching I.M - 1 credit - Find at least 500 Mystery/Puzzle/Unknown geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching II.M - 1 credit - Find at least 50 Multi-caches
Non-Traditional Geocaching III.M - 1 credit - Find at least 50 Letterbox Hybrid geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching IV.M - 1 credit - Find at least 50 Earthcaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching V.M - 1 credit - Find at least 50 Virtual geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching VI.M - 1 credit - Find at least 50 NGS Benchmarks
Non-Traditional Geocaching VII.M - 1 credit - Attend at least 50 Events (does not include CITO, Mega-Events, or Giga-Events)
Non-Traditional Geocaching VIII.M - 1 credit - Attend at least 5 CITO (Cache In Trash Out) events
Non-Traditional Geocaching IX.M - 1 credit - Find at least 5 Webcam geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching X.M - 1 credit - Find at least 5 Wherigo geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching XI.M - 4 credits - Find/Attend at least 5 "unusual" geocaches/events (Mega-Event, Giga-Event, Project A.P.E, GPS Adventure Maze Exhibit, Geocaching Block Party, or Geocaching HQ)

Doctoral Degree In Geocaching
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5CRR3_doctoral-degree-in-geocaching-challenge-cache

Doctoral Degree Course Catalog (Course - Credits - Requirements)

Chronos I.D - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 366 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos II.D - 2 credits - Find geocaches that were placed on at least 366 days of the year (these do not have to all be in the same calendar year)
Chronos III.D - 5 credits - Find geocaches on at least 365 consecutive days
Chronos IV.D - 2 credits - Find at least 200 geocaches during one calendar day
Chronos V.D - 3 credits - Find at least 2,000 geocaches during one calendar year

General Geocaching I.D - 5 credits - Find at least 10,000 geocaches
General Geocaching II.D - 5 credits - Find at least 100 geocaches of each size (micro, small, regular, large, not chosen, virtual, and other)
General Geocaching III.D - 2 credits - Earn at least 100 geocaching souvenirs
General Geocaching IV.D - 2 credits - Move or discover at least 1,000 trackables

Geography I.D - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 10 countries
Geography II.D - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 40 U.S. states
Geography III.D - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 10 Canadian provinces
Geography IV.D - 3 credits - Find a geocache in at least 400 U.S. counties
Geography V.D - 2 credits - Find a geocache at least 1,000 miles from home
Geography VI.D - 2 credits - Find a geocache at an elevation of at least 10,000 feet

History I.D - 3 credits - Find at least 10 geocaches that were placed in the year 2000
History II.D - 5 credits - Find at least 1 geocache that was placed in every month of every year starting with May of 2000

Matrix I.D - 5 credits - Find a geocache in at least 81 spots in the difficulty/terrain matrix
Matrix II.D - 4 credits - Find at least 100 high-difficulty geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star difficulty ratings)
Matrix III.D - 4 credits - Find at least 100 high-terrain geocaches (4-, 4.5-, and 5-star terrain ratings)

Non-Traditional Geocaching I.D - 1 credit - Find at least 1,000 Mystery/Puzzle/Unknown geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching II.D - 1 credit - Find at least 100 Multi-caches
Non-Traditional Geocaching III.D - 1 credit - Find at least 100 Letterbox Hybrid geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching IV.D - 1 credit - Find at least 100 Earthcaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching V.D - 1 credit - Find at least 100 Virtual geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching VI.D - 1 credit - Find at least 100 NGS Benchmarks
Non-Traditional Geocaching VII.D - 1 credit - Attend at least 100 Events (does not include CITO, Mega-Events, or Giga-Events)
Non-Traditional Geocaching VIII.D - 1 credit - Attend at least 10 CITO (Cache In Trash Out) events
Non-Traditional Geocaching IX.D - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Webcam geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching X.D - 1 credit - Find at least 10 Wherigo geocaches
Non-Traditional Geocaching XI.D - 4 credits - Find/Attend at least 10 "unusual" geocaches/events (Mega-Event, Giga-Event, Project A.P.E, GPS Adventure Maze Exhibit, Geocaching Block Party, or Geocaching HQ)


=================================================================

Other Geocaching Degrees:

PHD In Geocaching (Kansas USA)
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC441J5_p-h-d-in-geocaching-degree-challenge?guid=d4e49575-6c91-4419-8f04-c3504ccafc47

PHD In Geocaching - (Maryland USA)
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4XZ7N_p-h-d-degree-in-geocaching-challenge?guid=23f74164-7c3a-4d07-b755-a5caf7b4c58d

PHD In Geocaching (New Jersey USA)
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC44Y02_p-h-d-in-geocaching-degree-challenge-nj-edition?guid=9ead11d4-e4a3-465c-98f7-5bf86626f1bc

Using Google My Maps to Plan a Trip

When our kids were little, we once passed a sign for a waterfall and our youngest piped up with "well there's another hour added to our trip".  LOL!  I do love to stop and see everything along the way on our trips. To balance out my need to stop at every interesting sight, with my husbands need to actually get where we are going, we plan ahead with My Maps.

It's a google app, separate from google maps, named My Maps.  This is the most awesome app ever. (I may say that about several apps.  Many of them made by google actually.  But I always really mean it.)

You can create as many maps as you want.  You can add many layers to each map.  You can add routes to maps, to show distances between locations.  You can color code locations, use different icons for different locations...  You can share your maps.  So when I create a map for a trip we are taking, I share it with my husband.  We can both then use the map to navigate to the locations.

You can go to  https://www.google.com/mymap and you can download an app for your phone.  The two sync, of course, this IS google after all.  :-)  

It's really just awesome.

Here are a few of my public maps, to give you some ideas:

Pa Road Trips - 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QvfavMSj4P7G80ZmXGDWKMAYrAI&usp=sharing

Columbia County Pa Covered Bridge Tour
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vP180EhBv9P9MmhITmlpticZ7iE&usp=sharing

The Pine Creek Rail Trail
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WBfhFICiTKJZ62lAM-jUrefCsJU&usp=sharing

Where to see the Elk Near Benezette Pa - 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wvcY5EEx3ti5E8nNJpyKgU853hA&usp=sharing



Other Uses - 
My maps is also great for mapping out genealogy.  I've traced where our ancestors have fought in the civil war, and some of their properties, etc, along with homesteads, graves and places to visit.

It's also useful for geocaching.  Have you ever solved a BUNCH of geoart puzzles and then were not sure how to tackle them in a logical order?  Plug all the coordinates into mymaps and it's easy to plan your route.  :-)

How to Solve The Geocaching August Souvenir Puzzle #1

In August 2016, Geocaching is doing a series of souvenirs based on "missions" premium members receive as puzzles the week before the mission.  Non premium members just receive the answer the weekend of the mission.  

The first puzzle was VERY simple, so simple that many were overthinking it.

The bottom of the first plate gives you the hint to solve this - "A six is G"

A= 6 letters after A = ABCDEFG
C= 2 letters after C = CDE
N= 1 letter after N = NO

Continuing with the next 3 plates until you have the code to type into the page linked in the email, where the mission was revealed.  The answer had to be entered completely in lower case, I think that may have been more confusing than the actual puzzle. :-)

On the 3rd plate, for W6 - you go back to the start of the alphabet.  So it was WXYZABC

If you completed the mission, finding a cache with more than 10 favorite points that week-end, you received this souvenir:

For us, this meant traveling a bit, since we've found all the caches less than 40 minutes from our home.  We found a cache that fit the requirements, and it was a nice large ammo can in a driveway.  That inspired this post  - There are Better Caches Than an Ammo Can In A Driveway - http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2016/07/there-are-better-caches-than-ammo-can.html

Battle Ship Wherigo (Geocaching)

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4JGFV_seattle-you-sank-my-battleship?guid=0a24bd76-ce69-47f2-bc30-ccc38b0dbfca

This was by far the most unique, and probably the most frustrating, wherigo that I have ever done.  We spent a good hour or more walking around an empty grass field playing virtual battleship.  

From the cache description:

"You must sink all battleships before your ammo runs out. To start the game, stand in the middle of the field and select the "Start Game" item.

The ships will be hidden from view until you damage one. To shoot where you are standing, select the caliber shell from your inventory and click the "Fire!" button. All ships within the shell's area of effect will be damaged.

To win the game, you must sink all five ships before your ammunition runs out."

The location takes you to an empty field, bordered by trees, across from a very popular lake with busy walking trails.  Even though this is a VERY popular area, we had the patch of grass to ourselves.

You cannot save this game.  And when you restart the game, the locations will not be exactly the same - so just because you sunk a ship from one spot, does not mean you will sink the same ship in a new game, from the same spot.

You start by firing ammo, blindly.  When you hit something, you will then be shown how close the ships in that group are, so you can sink all of them.

You have a limited amount of ammo.  My strategy, after the first practice game, was to shoot fairly large ammo in any direction to locate the ships, then use smaller ammo to sink them.

Dan and I were both playing simultaneously on two different phones - two separate games.  We'd mark the areas we found ships with our shoes, camera, key fob...  because even though the locations were not the same, the general area would often get us close to something.  It took me two games to actually get the hang of it, and it was on the 3rd game that I finally won.

Then in an extra frustrating ending - the actual final for the geocache is pretty far away!  As if we hadn't already spent the entire day walking... 

But all in all we really loved this.  So much so that Dan is hoping the owner will share the cartridge so we can recreate it here in PA.

We both played on Android Phones   - Me on a Note 5, Dan on a Turbo II.  We both use the Where You Go App for Wherigos - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=menion.android.whereyougo&hl=en

How to Solve a Cemetery Puzzle Geocache Without Actually Visiting The Cemetery

 

Two of my biggest hobbies are geocaching, and genealogy.

So when a cemetery puzzle cache comes up, it's always one of my favorites.  And yet, as much as I love searching for both geocaches, and for find a grave entries, driving around a cemetery to look at another cachers families stones, and then doing math and entering new figures into the geocaching app is just not my favorite thing.  In general, I prefer to solve puzzles at home and use geochecker before heading out.  Unless they are really fun field puzzles, like actual PUZZLES (Mr Data Goes Caching) at the stages, not just math problems. :-)

Most cemetery geocaches can be solved without stepping out my door.  

Step One:

This applies to most puzzle caches.  If you know the basic location (in this case, exact cemetery) and the puzzle is completely letters, it's pretty quick to solve the first few.

Example:

AB CD.EFG
HIJ KL.MNO

AB & HIJ are easy solves.  They are probably the same as the fake coords listed in the puzzle cache.  In our area, that means they are probably 41 & 076.  Often, in smaller cemeteries, you can even sole CD & KL really quickly.

So we know already A4 B1 H0 I7 J6.  And possibly C, D, K, & L.

Step Two:
In almost all puzzles, although not ALL, you won't find the straightforward A-O scenario in my example.  In most cases the letters will repeat, as there are only 9 one digit numbers and there are 15 numbers in most coordinates.

So if the coords look like this:
CF FD.IGH 
BH BF.EAG 

Having, using the step 1 method, already solved for C, F, B & H, there are only 5 one digit numbers left. 

Step Three:

Find A Grave.  www.findagrave.com 

Often you won't have a full name given in the puzzle hint.  Sometimes you will.  Even in a REALLY large cemetery you can search by whatever name is given, and often find not only all of the information from the stone, but quite often a photo of the actual stone.

A clue in a recent nearby cemetery cache is "How old was Louise when she passed away 10F"

So I know her first name is Louise, and that she was over 100 years old.  I know, from the "fake" coordinates, which cemetery she is buried in. (use google maps if you need help figuring out the cemetery name. Just type the fake coords into the google maps search bar and see what cemetery is really close by.)

  Even in a VERY large cemetery, I could narrow that down really quick by searching for all the Louise's in the cemetery and skimming down through the list to find one over 100 years old.  Even if there is more than one Louise over 100 years old, if I find one with the same surname as someone else in this puzzle, I usually try that one first.  I can also go to my list of 5 remaining one digit numbers, and make an educated guess from there.

When we are looking for geocaches in cemeteries, I almost always attempt to fill any find a grave photo requests while we are there.  These are such a huge help for genealogists!

Step Four
If there is a full name given, and no find a grave listing, I will check ancestry.com and google.  Often birth and marriage dates and even obits with further information can be found that way.  It's basic genealogy research at that point.

Usually those steps give me all the information I need.  In some cases I may have one digit I'm not sure of, but in caches that use geochecker, that just means plugging the options in one at a time until I see the "success".