Ontario Geocaching Association

Geocite has been voted this month's Cacher of the Month. Lets see if we can get them to slow down enough to answer a few of our questions.

Q and A with Geocite

A: Kitchener, Ontario

A: The geo is short for geocaching and the cite stands for our family's first name initials: c=Charlotte (youngest daughter), i=Irene (the mom), t=Tim (the dad), e=Emily (oldest daughter). When we first started caching, the kids were very keen. After the 300th cache they quickly lost interest and groaned at the thought of going caching again or maybe it was one too many mosquito-infested cache hiking marathons. Every once and a while they will come with us if there is a high coolness factor.

A: The kids, of course, are still in school (grade 6 and grade 8), Tim works for Research In Motion (the Blackberry folks) and Irene works in the IT department at Sun Life Financial. Other than caching, the family really loves to travel. Our last trip was a Central and South American cruise through the Panama Canal, great fun. The girls in the family (includingmom) take piano lessons and Dad is really into Lego mostly the Technic stuff. Both Mom and Dad are attempting to learn Spanish through our local community college in preparation for more geocaching in Spanish speaking countries.

Q: How long have you been geocaching?

A: Our first cache was found on May 15, 2003 at Waterloo Park and we've been caching ever since!

Q: How did you find out about geocaching?

A: Through Tim's brother Andrew who pointed out the website to us after we bought our first GPSr. He found a few caches and then gave up on the sport.Irene and the girls bought Tim a Garmin Etrex Legend (same model as hisbrother) for Father's day in June of 2002 and it was initially used for, travelling around unknown locations and finding the nearest Tim Hortons or Wendy's while on the road.

A: Irene's brother and nephew although they don't have a GPSr yet and only cache when we visit them in Ottawa. Irene drags her muggle girlfriends along to caches whenever she goes on girls getaway weekends.

A: Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, a Microsoft Pocket PC, a BlackBerry for occasional Googling while on the trail (painfully slow though), Fenix P2D flashlights for night caching, a cool geocite stamp that we had made last year and a backpack with snacks, water bottle, swag, camera and first aid kit. And of course, our All Wheel Drive Subaru Outback for those back road caches.

A: First was 1962 (GC73D3 - hidden on July 20, 2002 and after 245 finds,it's still active.

Most memorable caches:
Skeeder Lookout (GC8664A) - our 5th cache and wow, what a view on top of TheSleeping Giant in Thunder Bay overlooking Lake Superior
The Big Canoe (GCJEZC) - our first FTF cache.
Ghagafap III - Third Time Lucky (GCJKQZ) - our first event cache, that'swhen we found out we weren't the only geeks in the world.
The Talented Mr. Bean (GCHM4W) - very cool puzzle cache that we solved in the evening while staying at a B&B near Stratford.
Canso Crash Cache (GCA30F) - cargo plane crash from 1945, all 12 on board survived and the plane is still intact on the side of the mountain, verycool. Too bad it's archived.
MirrorView on Fairvew (GCJE0C) - gorgeous view of Mirror Lake on one of theLake Louise hiking trails.
Peel The Onion (GCH51N) - this one was a particularly hard Binthair puzzlecache that Tim worked on for a couple of weeks, very satisfying find.
NOS1 & NOS2 - Never on Sunday Stage 1 & 2 - a great bike trip through some very scenic areas and our 700th find.

Best FTF:
A Little Bit of Marathon History (GCK5KR) - FTF in July 2007 at a cache hidden in Aug 2004! 10 stages, lots of challenges and a canoe to the final.

Funniest Cache:
Can You Resist The Urge (GC12RGR) - a silly urban lamppost micro but it was a FTF race when Tim found it with 4 local cachers involved within 5 minutes of publishing, Tim and Brendan (of eelow&beelow) were in a split second rush to the find with Tim losing by mere seconds because he parked in the wrong spot, ElectroQTed and Galloping Gourmet showed up a few minutes later, a mini-cache event at the site resulted, very funny.

Best Crafted Caches:
BFL Bootcamp II - Creepshow (GC16X6X) - very creepy!
The Cache Butler (GC16JWX) - definitely our favourite cache ever.

A: The ones that take you off the beaten trail to scenic sites that you never would have seen if it weren't for caching. Cool puzzle caches are also favourites. Caches where the owner has built clever contraptions that blend well into the terrain.

A: Micros in box store parking lots. What's the point other than to up the stats (of course we always do them when they are nearby but we still don't like them). Also not big on caches that look like rocks hidden in a pile of rocks. We don't do well in rocks.

A: We recently returned from a cruise on the Panama canal where we did one of our favourite virtuals of all time, The 8th Wonder of the World - The Panama Canal (GC6CD6).

A: The best part about caching is meeting up with fellow cachers at events and on the trail. The comraderie and story-swapping are all part of the fun of the sport. We have made so many new friends because of geocaching. And not only is caching fun, it's great exercise too!

Thanks to Geocite for taking time out between finding caches to share a few moments with all of us. Always looking forward to reading about your adventures.

If you know an OGA member who you would like to see in the Cacher of the Month spotlight, send me an email to cast your vote.

Geo-quote