Jasmer Geocaching Challenge

The Jasmer Challenge is one of Geocaching's ultimate challenges.  It involves trying to find a geocache that has been hidden in every month since the hobby started back in May 2000.  The challenge is a bit of a moving feast but as of the June 2016 it involved finding caches placed in 194 months.

The difficult part of the challenge is finding caches placed in the early days of geocaching.  That's partly because the hobby was new so there weren't many caches hidden and partly because many of the early caches have now disappeared for various reasons.  Its therefore a challenge that's getting harder as the years go on. 

Some dedicated cachers will travel thousands of miles trying to complete their Jasmer grid. It's impossible to complete by just finding UK or even European caches, it involves going further afield, mainly to USA, to get some of those very old ones. I think only about a dozen UK cachers have ever completed the challenge.  Having now completed the challenge I thought I'd record some of the memories here in a blog before old age wiped them all!

The challenge was devised by Bryce Jasmer in 2008.  He has his own geocache set up based on completing the challenge: The Jasmer Challenge (Northern California Edition) (GC1GBC1) . When I emailed Bryce he said he called it that in the hope that it would encourage others to set caches based on the Jasmer Challenge.  It seems to be a successful ploy as there's a fair number of such challenge caches set up around the globe.

It wasn't till summer 2013 that I started to look at the Jasmer challenge more closely.  Yes, I knew of its existence and seen it pop up on various geocaching stats pages but had no idea whether it was achievable for me.  It so happens that without trying I'd been making pretty good progress.  That's partly luck and partly because of the very fact I started out caching in 2004.

The ninth cache I ever found happened to be Europe's First (hidden June 2000).  I wasn't targeting it because it was the oldest cache in Europe more because it was the closest cache to where my parent's-in-law lived in Bray, Co Wicklow in Ireland and where I got married.  We were in Ireland at that time to start another challenge of mine, my European Guinness Challenge of trying to have a pint of Guinness in every capital city in Europe.  On the same trip we found Kyle Cache 1 (hidden Feb 2001).

All smiles having just found Kyle Cache 1 in 2004

When I studied my Jasmer grid in 2013 I discovered I had some thirteen gaps that needed filling.  I decided to tackle some of the older caches still available in the UK.  After a pretty miserable year I was straining at the leash for a weekend away so I planned a bagging weekend in Northumberland.  I would combine geocaching with some other collecting hobbies such as hill-bagging, trig pointing and trying to stay in the Youth Hostels of England and Wales in alphabetical order (and you thought geocaching was a weird enough hobby!). 

I started by paying homage to Angels View (GC781) even though April 2001 wasn't a gap in my Jasmer calendar as I'd happen to have filled it by finding an old cache in Gothenburg a few years previously.  It was then onto Percy's Cross (GCAA2) hidden in May 2001. Its a straightforward enough cache, almost a drive-by, but with historical significance as being the site of some Scotland-England shenanigans in the 1300s.  The next Jasmer cache was a bit more challenging.  It was Reivers Revenge (GC132F) hidden in July 2001 and high up on Windy Gyle in the Cheviot Mountains.

The original logbook has survived in Reiver's Revenge, on top of a mountain, for all these years!

The trigpoint next to Reiver's Revenge.  Is this the highest a copy of UK Cache Mag has ever been?

Early in September 2013 another opportunity presented itself to search for a few more Jasmer caches, this time combined with taking my son back to university in Liverpool.  Alberts Famine  is a two stage virtual, originally a physical cache hidden in Dec 2001, on the quayside in Liverpool docks.  It is associated with the commemoration of the many thousands of Irish people who arrived in Liverpool in the mid-nineteenth century to escape the famine in Ireland.  



A day out in Liverpool Docks with plenty to see.

Not too far outside Liverpool, in a very different setting is the Sankey Waters cache (GC688) hidden in Aug 2001.  Its on, or should I say in, the first canal built in England, first used in 1757.  There's good footpaths in the area and my dog certainly enjoyed his run around after being on a lead all day in Liverpool itself.   



The oldest canal in England and site of the Sanky Waters cache.  There are plans to renovate it.  Hope the cache survives!

For the final cache of the day I traveled north east in the direction of Chorley to visit  Lead Mines Clough (GCBEC) hidden in June 2001.  The caches's name gives an indication of the industrial heritage of the area but its all leafy green nowadays. I can certainly recommend this cache from a scenery point of view.  Just near the cache is a memorial to the crew of a Wellington bomber that crashed here in November 1943.

  



The memorial close to Lead Mines Clough

I had a business trip to USA coming up.  I looked at one month where I had a gap in my Jasmer calendar and realised that the Power Island (July 2000) cache wasn't too far away.  There turned out to be a problem with this cache however in that, as the name suggests, its on an island.  I made some enquiries and unfortunately discovered that the boat that most people charter to take them out to the island comes out of the water for winter the weekend before I was due to arrive.  I became a bit disillusioned.

A few weeks later my moral returned and I ran a series of pocket queries on gc.com. Lo and behold I found that for five Jasmer months I was missing there were no caches available in Europe but there were in the Mid-West of USA.  It would need some careful planning and a good helping of luck as my trip ran into early November when the weather in the region can suddenly change to being very wintry.

I had a free weekend in the middle of my trip so plenty of time to go caching.  The forecast for Saturday was a bit threatening, certainly in the north of Michigan where I was heading, a couple of hours dive north of where I was staying.  My target for the day was Geocache 612 (GC36) one of only four caches remaining that were hidden in Aug 2000.  It was hard to tell from the map how close I could get to GZ in a car.  It turned out that the road a mile north of the cache was fairly sizable but I daren't risk driving down the mile long sandy lane to the cache itself for fear of getting stuck.  A wise decision I think in hindsight given the condition of the track.  Shooting season had recently started so I wore my bright yellow jacket to make myself more visible.  I was so relieved when I found the cache.  I didn't hang around too long.  In fact, rather than continue caching in the area I returned to Midland and went caching there where the weather was quite a bit more mild. 

 

Cache 612 safely found.  Now to get out before it snows.

The next day was more straightforward.  It was only a 90 minute drive south today to the more populated area of Lansing.  At least if I got lost here there was more chance of someone finding me!  In fact I spent a pleasant day caching in Lake Lansing Park which included finding Ian & Sam's Lake Lansing (GC5AA), hidden back in March 2001.  Again it was a big relief to find it hadn't been muggled even though its positioning seemed be be pretty vulnerable.  One missing cache now and my whole plan would be blown out of the water. 

The Lake Lansing cache - caches in USA tend to be larger and therefore harder to camouflage. 

As part of my planning I'd decided to fly home via Chicago rather than Detroit which I normally do.  I'm arranged to have a 30hr stopover at the airport and a hire car. I had three caches lined up but no idea whether it would be possible to visit them all.  What followed was a caching adventure I'll never forget.

First stop was to be Beverly (GC28), the third oldest live cache in the world that was placed just a couple of days after the hobby started.   It's not too far out of Chicago, probably only 45 minute drive.  I had a sat-nav with me so that helped.  What I hadn't bargained for were the toll roads.  I knew there may be some so had some cash with me but hadn't realised quite how many there would be, every few miles it seemed, and that most people pay using electronic tags.  The real surprise was that the cash booths are unmanned and need exact change.  I was forced to dive off from one as I didn't have any coins left.  Will I ever be allowed back into USA I wonder?

I found the Beverly Nature Reserve parking lot just fine but my heart sank when I saw some red and white hazard tape across the path into the reserve.  I thought the whole place was closed for some reason but it wasn't and I'm none the wiser as to why the tape was there.  It's about a mile stroll to GZ.  It took me a good 15 mins to find the ammo box cache and another one of those heart stopping moments when you think it may have been muggled.

The Beverly cache - the third oldest cache in existence.

OK.  I've achieved that.  Now do I go for the cache about 200 miles away in Indiana or be satisfied with the one a bit closer about 80 miles away.  Let's be brave I thought.  I found the freeway around Chicago a real nightmare.  Tense doesn't begin to describe it!  No sooner had I begun to feel at ease than another toll booth appeared and I had to negotiate across eight lanes of busy traffic hoping I'd end up in the correct lane.  Eventually I cleared Chicago and as the afternoon wore on the roads got less busy.  I was heading for the Turkey Run State Park.  A big unknown here was how close I could drive to the cache site and could I dive out again before they locked any gates. 

It was mid-afternoon by the time I arrived at the park and the gate was open.  I drove the mile or two down the dirt tracks and found I was the only car around.  It was another mile walk to the Turkey Run Stash  cache itself (GCC6) hidden Nov 2000 and I found it no problem. I sped back to the car and exited the park without being locked in.  Now it was decision time again.  Find a bed for the night or press on.  The one thing at the back of my mind that sort of terrified me was the thought of having to drive the Chicago Sky Way in the morning rush hour to get the car back tonight.  I decided to press on and head back north.

As I drove it got dark.  I stopped for a meal but still felt wide awake with the adrenaline pumping around. It was about 11pm when I approached the town of Elkhart and site of my final cache Indiana's First (GC93) hidden in Oct 2000.  This had altogether different risks.  The danger here seemed to be being spotted by a suspicious resident who calls the cops.  I parked up in a church car park the size of a football pitch, crossed the road and tried to find a path towards GZ.  luckily I had a head torch with me. There'd been some tree felling in the vicinity so negotiating the area in the dark wasn't easy.  Relief, I found it!    Back in the car I tried to hatch a plan. I decided to drive back across Chicago towards the airport thereby avoiding the rush hour traffic tomorrow. 


It was good seeing the Chicago skyline in the early hours of the morning, all lit up, but I wouldn't say relaxing.  The roads were still pretty busy even then.  It was such a relief to get back to the airport that I abandoned the idea of finding any accommodation and just returned the car and grabbed some sleep at the airport when eventually I calmed down!  A well-satisfying 14 hour, 600 mile, road trip indeed.

2014 arrives and with it another opportunity fill in one of my three remaining Jasmer months by way of a business trip, this time to Brussels. You can tell from my experiences in USA that driving abroad isn't my favorite pastime and I don't like driving in mainland Europe.  The cache I was heading for is simply called Geocache  (GC40) hidden in July 2000.  I worked out that I could actually get there by train from Brussels, with just one change in the pretty town of Dinant.  It all worked out pretty well. I had time for lunch in Dinant before catching the train south to the tiny station of Gedinne. The cache site was about a mile from the station which wouldn't normally be too bad but I was carrying my laptop and wearing my smart clothes which made it a bit more challenging.  The cache is hidden only just off the road and again appears vulnerable so again I was most relieved it was still there.  Phew!

So that left just two gaps left to fill and one of them could be got in the UK with Scotland's First (GCF0) hidden in Dec 2000.  My first thought whenever I look at this cache page is whoever climbed up this mountain to hide this in December of all months!  The second thing you spot is that the D/T rating is the wrong way around.  It is definitely not a terrain rating of 1.  It involves a good slog up a Scottish 3000 foot mountain, or at least two thirds of the way up, which is where the cache is hidden.  I chose to tackle this one in June which gave me plenty of daylight.

I left Coventry at 6am and was at the starting point at 12.30.    The first part along the zig-zag track is pretty gentle. I then chose to head straight up the stream gully. There was no path but the going wasn't too bad. I got to the cache some 80 minutes after leaving the car, signed the log, swapped TBs, took some photos and had my dinner.

I then headed up the hill to the top to bag the Munro and trig point. There was a little bit of snow left in some gullies but not much. It took another hour to get to the summit. The very top was in cloud so I didn't get great views. I came down the other gully to the south. The going was less craggy and it was sheltered from the traffic noise which was nice. This left a longer walk back to the car along the track.  I stayed the night in the nearby youth hostel and visited a few other hills and trig points on the way home the next day.

Fine views to be had from Scotland's First cache

So that left just one cache to get to complete the challenge that needed to have been hidden in Sept 2000.  There are two possibilities in Europe, one in Denmark, not too far north of Copenhagen (Kippers in the Jungle) and one in Finland again north of the capital Helsinki (Sun Gear).  I've already visited Copenhagen as part of my Guinness challenge but hadn't clocked the Jasmer challenge then.  Helsinki was one of the capital cities remaining that I still had to visit that eventually got picked out of the hat when I visited Paris in Spring 2016.  That was lucky.  I think getting to the Sun Gear cache site can be somewhat challenging in Winter months.

The trip to Helsinki therefore took on an added dimension.  Not only did I have to do my research on whether there was any Guinness available there but I had to plan my trip to the Sun Gear cache.  I posted a note on the Sun Gear cache page asking for advice on how to get there by public transport.  Someone was even kind enough to offer to pick me up from a nearby train station and take me there but I wanted to keep my plans fairly fluid in case Riga got picked out as my next Guinness destination and I needed to make a mad dash over there.  The story of my whole visit to Helsinki is in fact in my Helsinki blog

Some of the old logs from Sun Gear cache

After successfully finding a Guinness on the Saturday evening I headed out to travel to Sun Gear on Sunday morning.  The weather looked threatening but luckily it stayed dry.  My trip by train from Helsinki to Savio station some 30 minutes away went very smoothly.  I then wound my way via the roads, tracks and footpaths to the edge of the forest and picked my point to enter. I had no real idea what the terrain would be like from here on in.  There weren't any defined paths it seemed so it was more a case of picking your way over the felled trees.  As I got nearer to the cache site the the less flat it became but a few path materialised and I followed one of these and ended up at the cache site.  From there it was a pretty simple find and the relief and elation were tremendous, even though I was on my own with only hungry mosquitoes for company.  It was amazing to see that this was another of those old caches where some of the original logs were still present.

Completing the Jasmer challenge in June 2016 at Sun Gear in Finland.

I sat there for a while thinking back over the adventures this challenge had led me on.  I'd had a lot of luck in being in the right place at the right time.  Lots of happy memories so many thanks Bryce Jasmer and thanks geocaching.