How many boots and shoes does it take to go 1000 miles?

What is it about big round numbers that make us want to celebrate achievement of some kind of milestone? I once wrote a log at this cache about how milestones can be just about anything. From the cache size, to the species, to the D/T rating, to how many in a certain month, or on a certain day, or... just about anything. Numbers are everywhere in this game, and in life in general and when you want to go looking for them, they surround you. But that doesn't change the fact that numbers that trails a lots of zeros from them are especially favored. And for geocachers on of the favorites of these is 1000. Usually this means 1000 finds, and is a goal set by many cachers to reach. Once they reach it, it is not uncommon for the local group of geocaching friends to celebrate the achievement with an event, and the presentation of a golden ammo can, or some other such ridiculous geocaching trophy. My own 1000th find was at a particularly challenging challenge cache which had got me thinking about numbers of a different sort, from the outset of my geocaching addition. The cache, 100,000 Ft Challenge, involved keeping track of the elevation gain on geocaching hikes you have done, and trying to accumulate 100,000 ft of elevation gain. This is quite a lot, and the cache remains elusive, with only 15 finds over 7 years. It was also a challenge I was determined to meet, and I diligently kept track of all my hikes. After nearly two years of hiking and geocaching, I finally crested 100,000ft, and it was a wonderful feeling to go and find the challenge cache and add my name to the short list of other serious geohikers.

Elevation gain wasn't the only thing I kept track of though, I also recorded miles traveled since it just made sense to me. And I happened to notice that I was getting close to passing the 1000 mile mark back in July when I passed the 200,000' elevation mark. A few months later, and with a nice 12.8 mile hike in a wilderness area in North Carolina, I finally passed 1000 miles!

My book keeping has some quirks, making it not so straightforward to determine how many distinct hikes/runs this encompasses, but it is roughly 230 different instances. My average outing is 4.71 miles in length. My maximum outing was 26.5 miles on a huge wilderness hike with my friend Birddroppings to find Reed's Peak. The minimum is a bit wonky since I typically do not record a hike or run that is less than a mile unless it had over 200' elevation gain, in which case I did because that was one of the criteria for the 100,000' challenge cache. Basically, if it is a relatively short walk, I don't feel like it is worth recording. This probably cuts out hundreds of additional miles, since out of the nearly 3000 caches I've found, only 230 of those "trips" qualified as hikes/runs, so the majority were quick grabs with little significant mileage, and all those add up I'm sure. But to me, they just didn't seem worth keeping track of. By this methodology, 0.3 miles on a cache called Navajo Bill Hill, was my shortest hike, and it just barely popped over 200' elevation gain, making it short but steep. There were quite a few short but steep caches in New Mexico, the topography lends itself well towards placing caches on random high hilltops out in the desert.

In the course of hiking and running over 1000 miles, I've gone through 3 sets of running shoes and 4 pairs of hiking boots. But in all those miles, there is hardly an injury to be found. The worst thing I can recall that happened while out hiking for caches was getting severely dehydrated in the Organ Mountains. Hopefully, I can keep this safety record up and garner many more 1000s of miles. Here's to getting out and having fun!