Skip to main content

Geocaching and Hakliva

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact is all about the favourite points.  Top 3 most favourite caches in the States are all owned by Geocaching HQ.  Geocaching Headquarters (GCK25B) - 3,998 pts, Original Stash Tribute Plaque (GCGV0P) - 3,357pts, and HQGT: Ode to the Golgafrinchan Phone Workers (GC32A0H) - 2,449pts.  In Canada, it's Table Rock Earthcache (GCMH1C) - 851pts, and Niagra Falls Virtual (GCABA1) - 725pts, both located at Niagra Falls.

This week I'm going to begin a series of spotlights featuring other geocachers, geocaching bloggers, vloggers, podcast hosts, anyone associated with Geocaching.  To get things started, I'm going to feature local cacher and YouTube vlogger, Hakliva.  She is a geocacher, hunter, fisher (wo)man, crafter, kayaker, photographer, videographer, baker, a little bit of everything.  What does the name Hakliva mean?
Absolutely nothing.  Experiencing a problem that many of us face when joining a website and you need to create a 'user name', but all the good names are taken, Hakliva was some sounds put together and eventually formed a word, or in this case, a name.

Hakliva first heard about geocaching while sitting around the table, playing cards with friends in July, 2009.  One of the friends was getting uncomfortable due to the fact he had trackables and geo-coins in his pocket, pulled them out and placed them on the table.  With curious on-lookers, he then proceeded to explain what these things were that was in his pocket and with that, explained geocaching.  That sounded interesting so they all went out to find some geocaches.  The first one was a pail in a tree which took some effort to retrieve (cheerleader moves as Hakliva describes it).  What captured Hakliva to the hobby was the fact that she walked that wooded area before and never noticed the pail in the tree.  Once she saw what was in that pail, Hakliva was hooked.  The next day, Hakliva borrowed a hunting GPSr and manually entered the coordinates for all the caches around her cabin.  Off they went and they found them all.  The very first cache she logged as found was "Steeprock Treasure Island #1" GC14NZQ, which has since been archived and presumed floated away during the flooding, (possible zombie cache floating around Lake Manitoba if it hasn't washed up on shore).

Hakliva would place her very first cache 2 years later in Steeprock, Manitoba.  "Hakliva's First Cache!" GC34BJG.  She now owns 40 caches, 33 traditional (2 have been archived), 2 Mystery, a LetterBox, a Multi and 3 Events.  One of those two that have been archived is her very first hide.  Found 22 times, Hakliva pulled the plug on this one last year due to an inability to properly maintain it.

February 12, 2012 saw the debut of Hakliva on YouTube.   She was looking for a creative outlet and has a passion for photography and making videos.  Hakliva watched other geocaching videos, but one that stuck out was a little known vlogger at the time, mngeocaching, better known today as The Geocaching Vlogger.  Hakliva saw that as something she could do, create geocaching videos of her own.  She has published almost 200 videos since then, chronicling her geocaching adventures, updates on her travel bugs, or cool stuff she's received in the mail.  She started off as strictly geocaching videos but has since adopted her personal life as well.  Her videos are published late Sunday mornings.  You can subscribe to her YouTube channel and get notification of the newest adventure.  Links to her latest adventure can also be found on the Manitoba Geocaching Association Facebook page.  Hakliva can be found on most social media forums.  Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for starters.

Just recently, Hakliva obtained her Pound Pro certification.  What is Pound Pro you ask?  Pound Pro is a workout that channels your inner 'rock star' with a full body cardio-jam session, inspired by the infectious, energizing, and sweat-dripping fun of playing the drum. (taken from the https://poundfit.com/ website).  Hakliva is certified to pound you into shape.


I'm not really sure when I first met Hakliva.  Probably at an event somewhere a couple of years ago.  I know I had heard the name as I search for and find geocaches in the city, "Ned lost his pants....now what?" GC36QQW, "A smiley on Smiley Road" GC3NZF1 (this is the first of her caches that I found), and I had one of her trackables travel with me (did some serious caching with Tiny Goodbite)

That's it for this week.  Happy Easter everyone.  Enjoy, Peace Out, and remember, Geocaching is suppose to be fun.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Geocaching and July, 2022

Good morning everyone.  Last month I was a little late in getting that month's blog published, but this month I want to get this out early.  I'll explain why later. July has been an interesting month.  I've been on a few adventures, rode my bike, and I've been hosting a weekly themed event. July started off with Auntie Mo and myself going on a spur of the moment road trip into the Southeast portion of Manitoba to do an Adventure Lab that takes us to some roadside attractions.  There was other ALs to do as well. (big Buffalo in Grunthal, Manitoba) (big deer in Saint Malo, Manitoba) Later in the month, I tagged along with Auntie Mo as she did the four Adventure Labs in the East part of Winnipeg.  I had done them already, but I couldn't resist giving Auntie Mo a tour of Transcona.  This also helped set her up to be close enough to claim her 800th find while she visits family back home in Nova Scotia.  As I write this, she has reached that milest

Geocaching and April in review

Good morning everyone.  Top favorite mystery cache in Canada is Ex Libris (GC4GZGB) in British Columbia.  Active since 2013, it has been found 722 times and has been given 282 favorite points.  Top favorited mystery cache in Manitoba is Water World (GC4MA6Y).  Active since 2013, it has been found 138 times and has received 99 points.  Top American favorite mystery cache is HQGT Ode to the Golgafrinchan Phone Workers (GC32A0H) in Seattle, Washington.  Active since 2013, found 7,313 times with 2,740 favorite points.  For North Dakota, Factory Outlet (GC576Q1) by trycacheus is the top favorited mystery cache.  Active since 2014, found 114 times and has 71 favorite points. How did everyone do for finding caches in April?  I found 41 caches.  Not exactly a big number like I use to do in the past.  Having my area mostly cached out will lead to fewer finds as I rely on newer caches to be published.  Last year, I did run out when I got the notification for a newly published geocaches nearby.

Geocaching and SM66

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact should be a favorite.  The Canadian geocacher who has collected the most favorite points on all their caches is Tupper T. Turtle with 8,314.  The top American geocacher is WV Tim with a whopping 23,587 points. You're probably wondering who or what an SM66 is.  SM66 is a casual geocacher, a full time nurse, a full time single mom, and my girlfriend.  She knew of geocaching before I had met her, had an account, but never had a chance to find a geocache.  So I can't take credit for introducing her to this hobby.  My tales of travel, adventures and my dedication to a daily streak interested her (or she thought I was crazy) and we made plans for SM66 to experience what geocaching is all about. We decided on a day trip to Hecla Provincial Park.  This was in September of 2016.  I had never been to Hecla and neither had SM66.  We set off early with a minimum of a two hour drive ahead of us.  We arrived at our first cache location, &q