7 Souvenirs Of August

If you are not aware, the 7 Souvenirs of August is a geocaching challenge put on by Groundspeak.  It requires one to find at least one cache in six different categories.  Each one grants you a geocaching.com souvenir.  When one collects all 6 souvenirs, it unlocks at 7th souvenir.   It is the essence of gamification, so like a good boy I immediately jumped in with both feet - cause, ya know, special pixels would be granted, and I couldn't be the only one without them.  Like most people of the Internet Generation, I'll do anything for special pixels (except Farmville - for even I have standards).

Many folks did the challenge in a day. I did too, tho not intentionally.  I wasn't planning on doing them in a day, and I found 4 of them very early in August, but needed to wait until I got to Canada to finish the rest.  However, during my recent road trip to central Ontario I ended up accidentally finding caches in all 6 categories.

This is the a breakdown of how I did it.

	This souvenir requires one to find a regular geocache.  Simple enough, as this is by far the most common geocache. The cache used to qualify for the challenge is A Little Storage (GC4KWH8) on August 3rd in Charlotte NC. On the road trip the cache was called Poulin run - Sighting in Hagersville (GC5993P), near Hagersville ON
	This souvenir requires one to find a mystery cache. The cache used to qualify for the challenge is: Time for T (or R or L) (GC1J2MQ), found near Charlotte NC. On the road trip the cache was: COG goes International (GC48JD9), found at Geneva Park on the eastern shore of Lake Couchiching.
	This souvenir requires one to find a multi-cache. The cache used to qualify for the challenge is: The Hilton Sisters (GC3XQK7)  found near Charlotte NC. On the road trip the cache was: Cavi-Tree (GC2MF95), found in Penetanguishene ON.
	This souvenir requires one to attend a CITO event, or to do an earth cache. The cache used to qualify for the cache is: Great Rockin’ Combination; Earth Cache (GC4RNGT) near Charlotte NC. On the road trip the cache was: Tor Thorwald Lithographic Quarry (GC48JDA) found at Geneva Park on the eastern shore of Lake Couchiching.
	This souvenir requires one to attend an event - Mega, Giga, or a regular event. The cache I used for this is: COG's Penetanguishene Souvenir Socializer (GC58E6P) in Penetanguishene ON. I wasn't planning on an event for the road trip, but this one was published at the exact place and time I expected to be anyway, according to my schedule. (the coincidence is overwhelming).  Gotta love it when a plan comes together
	The collector requires one to find one of the following:  virtual, webcam, letterbox hybrid, or WherIGo. The cache I used for this is: Lest we Forget... (GC322A), which is located at the Korean War memorial in Brampton ON.

Once I had logged these caches I unlocked the 7th souvenir:

I locked it in as the 8805th person to complete the challenge.  As of this writing just over 20,000 cachers have completed it.  If you haven't yet, there is still time.  You have until midnight on August 31st to log your qualifying caches, so stop reading this and go hit the trails!