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By Peter Kleinhenz
 For most people, life is a
series of goals. Some want to make a lot of money, others want to see the world
and still others strive for a happy and healthy family. These are arguably the
most common goals for most of us. Some people need to challenge themselves even
more. Case in point: Craig Hablewitz (right).
Craig,
a 55-year-old software specialist for Florida Southwestern State College,
described himself in a recent phone conversation as “fairly active.” I’d be
curious to learn who he considers “very active” because fairly active for Craig
means a few half marathons here, a few full marathons there and a love of
exploring matched by very few people I know. Take his approach to geocaching,
for instance.
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It’s
fair to describe the geocaching community as an active bunch. Scroll through
the reports on geocaching.com, and you’ll find log entries from people who have
searched for hidden caches in Finland, South Africa, New Zealand and Saudi
Arabia to name just a few of the listed countries. Craig, as you will see,
takes geocaching to a whole new level.
 Craig's view, looking south, from the top of the observation platform at Guana River Wildlife Management Area
This year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) placed 49 geocaches on the wildlife management areas it
oversees in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Florida’s
wildlife management area system. Each geocache has a code under the lid that
must be entered for the find to count. Beginning on March 6, anyone who finds
all of the geocaches wins a prize pack. Craig, a man who had previously found
each geocache hidden on Florida’s state parks, was intrigued.
“I like a challenge,” Craig understated. “I
found the first one, which was Lake Wales Ridge [Wildlife and Environmental
Area]. I checked for caches to look for on my way back from Orlando to Fort
Myers, and saw that nobody had found a couple of them yet, one of them being
Lake Wales Ridge. So I went out there and found it, was the first one to find
it. Came back and, when I was logging it into the website, noticed that it was
actually part of a series. I knew when I found this first one that it was a
challenge and, of course the prize at the end, I knew that I would end up doing
it eventually.”
And so began Craig’s quest to
find every WMA geocache in Florida. These WMAs exist from near Pensacola to the
Florida Keys and many of them aren’t exactly right off the interstate. Yet by
May 22, Craig had found every one and became the first person to complete the
challenge. So, how did he do it?
“I had a plan,” Craig divulged. “I travel around
the state a lot. What I did was download a map of where all the WMA caches were
and then, each time I’d go to a race or something, I’d look at the route I’d
take. And, on the way or on the way back, I’d kind of clear a swath of all the
geocaches.”
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Craig's 4-foot walking stick leans against this massive cypress tree at Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area
Some, it turned out, were easier
to find than others. Craig told me one particularly harrowing story about his
experience trying to find the cache at the Hickory Mound Unit of Big Bend WMA.
“Hickory
Mound was hidden in a little shelter area and the bridge going over to the
shelter area had been pretty much taken apart, pretty much destroyed [by
Hurricane Hermine], so it was a balance beam act across the water. And that one
I actually did at night. That…was interesting. I rode my mountain bike, a
possum jumped out in front of me, there was water on both sides, lots of
noises…and then doing that balance beam across the water. Yeah, it gets your
blood going.”
 Craig photographed this "werewolf moon" at the Spring Creek Unit of the Big Bend Wildlife Management Area
On the contrary, other WMAs Craig visited seemed to slow
his pulse. I asked him about his favorite WMA experience and he described
something that I think every visitor to a Florida WMA can identify with.
Craig
explains, “[My favorite] is actually the Osprey Unit of Hilochee WMA. It’s the
one right near Orlando. I travel up to Orlando a lot and cut up to I-4 and it’s
right off of there. I’ve been through that area quite a bit, never knowing that
there was a WMA right there. So when I went to it, it was just really
pristine-looking, there’s a nice lake. It was a nice walk around it. You could
still hear, off in the distance, the traffic on I-4 but, other than that, you’d
think you were in an idyllic little setting out there in the woods.”
Most
of us who challenge ourselves with outdoor goals, whether it’s catching every
type of saltwater sport fish or hiking the Appalachian Trail, partially pursue
these to experience moments like the one Craig mentioned above. It’s the little
things, the stops along the way that surprise you and cause you to slow down
for a second, that make it all worth it.
 Craig followed this creek at Triple N Ranch Wildlife Management Area
I find Craig’s accomplishment inspiring, and I hope that
you do too. WMAs are scattered all over Florida and truly include Florida’s
wildest parcels. This was not an easy feat to pull off, but he developed a new
perspective as a result.
“I
really didn’t know a whole lot about [WMAs] before I started this series,”
Craig expressed. “It’s amazing to see how much of Florida is put aside for
people to use and they don’t even know it’s there.”
“It’s just, it’s great being out
there,” Craig adds. “You don’t realize when you’re trying to fight through
traffic on I-4 or something just how close wild Florida is.”
In
other words, if your personal goals involve nature, you don’t have to travel
statewide and complete the geocaching challenge. The only challenge you truly
face is figuring out where to begin.
 After rounding a bend in the road, Craig saw this pond at Split Oak Forest Wildlife and Environmental Area
Would
you like to try the geocaching
challenge for yourself? It’s easy to get
started (remember your bug spray) and it’s easy to find a WMA near you.
If geocaching across the state is a little too intense, get involved with our 75th
Anniversary photo contest. It’s a great way to experience our WMAs and,
best of all, you can still win prizes! Whichever option you choose, you’ll
likely see amazing wildlife, so be sure to log your finds onto our Florida Nature Trackers program.
This program uses iNaturalist
to log observations of Florida’s species and helps us better understand their
distribution.
All photographs in this issue are by Craig Hablewitz.
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