2025 was not a particularly memorable year in terms of specific cache finds. I had no really epic high-terrain finds, super challenging puzzle solves, or anything like that. This year actually was more noteworthy for hiding caches: I hid 16 of them, which is more than any previous year by a large margin. I did, however, find a number of caches that I really enjoyed, and I’ve chosen 10 of them for this list. This time around, I’ve listed the caches chronologically by placed date.

• miocene milieu (GCDC9) – 2/17/2025
  This cache was hidden on June 24, 2001, and is located in Flag Pond Nature Park in Calvert County, MD. It’s not the oldest surviving cache in Calvert County, but I believe it may be the oldest cache in Maryland that still has its original log book. The park itself is well worth a visit, as well, although the hours are somewhat limited, so advance planning is recommended.
• Douglas #20 Castle Rock (GCKGXM) – 12/8/2025
  This is a fun letterbox-style hide near Castle Rock, CO. It features really nice views of the town, as well as some history and vintage photos of the area. It was neat finding a cache at the same outcropping shown in one of the photos from the 19th century. The cache was hard to find, but worth the 45-minute search. 😀
• Play Minstrel Play (GCZ5GH) – 6/26/2025
  This was a bit of a bug-fest, but when you’re only at the Delaware shore in the summer, you do what needs to be done. I turned this into a paddle cache, putting in at the Kent St kayak launch in south Bethany Beach, and paddling along the canal to Sassafras Landing, where I coated up with DEET and permathrin and took the short hike to find the cache in a small patch of woods. This was memorable mainly for the fun adventure to find an old-school cache at the shore.
• C&D for the ManBear (GC571KV) – 3/23/2025
  It’s hard not to include this iconic Carroll County, MD cache on the list, in spite of it being somewhat less of an adventure than the owner intended when he hid it. I missed out on wading to it “back in the day”, but it was still nice finding it, as I suspect its days may be numbered. It was also really nice to be back at Liberty Reservoir, which, as I alluded in my log, kind of felt like coming home to my caching roots.
• Chania (GC8E470) – 4/15/2025
  I’ve always enjoyed “walking tour” multicaches when visiting other cities, but they’re becoming a dying breed as adventure labs proliferate. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a well-crafted AL, but I’ll always be partial to this type of multi. This one is in Chania (Crete), Greece, which was one of my favorite stops on our Mediterranean cruise in April. It was nice to see all of the sites and get off the beaten path for the final cache find.
• The First ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (GC8H4Z7) – 12/21/2025
  This was a fun puzzle and a nicely-themed hide that I found at a very appropriate time of year. It was my first visit to Loch Raven of the 2025-2026 winter hiking season. 2025 was a very lean year for me for puzzle solving, so I had to include at least one “classic” puzzle cache, even though I solved this several years ago.
• Βόλτα στην Πειραϊκή / Walk in Piraiki (GC97Z5Q) – 4/19/2025
  Another Greece find here, this one in Piraeus, which is the closest major port to Athens (and hence where all of the cruise ships dock). This was a really fun letterbox hybrid that had us walking along a rocky shoreline and looking for old gun emplacements.
• Pumpkin Head is Missing an EYE (GC9QQ68) – 7/18/2025
  While not really a “true” 5/5 geocache, this was a fun hunt in a really cool gorge that involved some perilous rock scrambling. I tackled it with a group of old friends who I typically only see once or twice a year, usually for occasions like this. Both stages of this cache were challenging to find, and all in all, it was a fun time outdoors in southern Pennsylvania.
• Rainy Day Caching (GCB1E1V) – 3/20/2025
  I was familiar with the first stage of this multi from a cache I found back in 2014. I knew of the second stage location’s existence, but I had never been there before. Without giving too much away, it is one of the last surviving vestiges of the surrounding area’s rural past, and is teeming with local history. Well worth a visit, if you dare!
• DPL Series: The Da Vinci Codex
 (GCB3D39) – 12/10/2025
  Last but not least, we have this cache that replaces an earlier hide at the Central Branch of the Denver Public Library. The original cache made my “best of” list of 2014, and this one gets the honors 11 years later. It is a really fun scavenger hunt that takes people to several locations inside and outside the library, followed by a final find in the stacks, which is everybody’s favorite type of library cache (or if not, it should be).