Geocaching with Geocacher Ken

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact is all about total caches found.  Ever wonder who has the most?  That would be a retired couple from Reno, Nevada by the name of Alamogul with 178,828 finds.  They've completed their fizzy grid an incredible 42 times.  At least 6 times they have logged 4,000+ found caches in a single month. How did we all become geocachers?  How did we here about this crazy/interesting hobby?  Do you remember your very first find? I don't remember exactly when I heard about geocaching.  I'm going to guess it was sometime between 2004 and 2006.  It had come up in a discussion forum on another tracking site that I was participating in at the time.  For that one, you track paper currency by logging the serial number into a website, writing the website URL on the currency and go out and spend that currency.  Hopefully whoever comes across that piece of currency will log the serial number into the websi...

Good morning everyone. This week's fun fact is all about the Webcam caches.  According to Project-gc, there are 114 webcam caches in the United States, with 14 in California and none in North Dakota plus nine other states that don't have one.  On the Canadian side of the border, there is a total of 7 webcam caches.  Three in Nova Scotia, 2 in Ontario and one each in B.C. and Saskatchewan.  I have only one webcam cache found so far.  That one was in Calgary (as noted in my last blog) and has been archived since. This week will be a little different.  Instead of caches I've found or adventures I've been on, I want to look at Geocaching in social media and what I've experienced so far.  When I started geocaching, getting involved in the social media side of things wasn't on my mind at the time.  I did post some pics on my personal Facebook page, but that was about the extent of my social media experience.    I'm not sure how I got start...

Good morning everyone.  I'm hoping that by the time this is published, my move will be completed.  All that should remain is unpacking and getting settled into my latest place to call home.  4th move in three years.  I'm wondering if I should change my name from Geocacher Ken to Gypsy Ken.  The initials would remain the same.  LOL. This week's fun fact is highest and lowest elevation for caches.  In Canada, the highest elevated cache is Mount Temple, GC1607, at 11,476ft above sea level.  The lowest is Eureka Coffee Pot, GCX4P7, at -8.458ft below sea level.  The highest in the States is Big Denali, GC4C79N, at 20,203ft above sea level, while the lowest is Dharma Initiative Phase II - Graduation, GC167RW, at -14,780ft below sea level.  Just to compare, the highest in the world is Earth's Roof - Mount Everest Peak, GC2BX63, at 28,921ft above sea level and the lowest is Earth's Orientation - South Pole, GC2BX66 at -18,235ft below sea leve...

Good morning everyone.  Welcome to blog #6.  Before I start with this week's topic, here is today's geocaching fun fact:  The province of Ontario has the most active Earthcaches with 500.  Manitoba ranks 7th in Canada with 63.  By comparison, California has 974 while Delaware and District of Columbia have 11 each.  Personally, I have only done 29 so far and hope to increase that total this year. This week's topic is encounters with animals of the fake kind.  These would be mostly crows, spiders, rats and snakes of the plastic, rubber type.  I'm sure we've found our fair share of these.  They're always fun to find and certainly are a break from film canisters in pine trees.  How many of these made you jump when you found it before you knew it was a geocache?  Most of these give me a good chuckle although I will have to admit that one did make me jump back initially.  More on that one in a bit.  If I was in a tropical loca...

Good morning everyone.  Welcome to blog #5.  Before I get started with this week's topic, I want to roll out a new feature to my blog; Geocaching fun facts.  Not to be confused with Fun with Flags.  This week's fun fact is oldest active caches.  The oldest active traditional cache inside the city limits of Winnipeg is "Bison Castle Cache" GCJAG7, hidden May 28, 2004.  Oldest active traditional cache in Manitoba is "C1BUA - cache 1n a builtup area"" GC21C and can be found in the town of Killarney.  It was placed on February 5, 2001.  I found this one in August, 2015 on a day trip with another geocacher, Auntie Mo.  I got caught with my hand in the cache. Now for this week's topic, I'll be discussing the coveted, most sought after prize of all geocaching.  The FTF or First to Find.  Bragging rights to being the first one to find a newly published cache.  There are a select bunch or individuals that will drive great distances t...

Good morning everyone.  Welcome to blog #5.  This week I want to look at the event cache.  It's one of the easiest caches to get.  What makes a successful event?  Is it the number of people who show up?  I don't think so.  Having a good number of people attending is always a good thing, but I think a good event is one where everyone enjoys seeing each other and the conversations that take place.  I have hosted 8 events so far.  The most logged attended is 29 and the fewest is 10.  I enjoyed each and every one of the events I hosted.  In fact, I enjoy every event I attend.  It's not always the same crowd at each event.  We all have lives outside of geocaching (hard to imagine but we do), and not everyone can make it to all the events (but some will try, I know I have). I've hosted coffee events (even though I don't drink coffee), ice cream events (who doesn't like ice cream in the summer), and just recently a wing night t...

Good morning everyone.  Welcome to blog #4.  This week I want to discuss the roadside attractions we find in our travels while geocaching.  For those not familiar with roadside attractions, or know them by another name, they are essentially a large statue or monument, often depicting something of the town or area it's located.  Some are very unusual and are more of a tourist attraction.  Most, but not all may have a geocache hidden within close proximity of the statue.  I have planned day trips where I've set out to get pictures of some roadside attractions and find geocaches along the way. Picking up where I left off with last week's blog, I'm caching along Highway #5 in North Dakota.  This is after my dead cat encounter.  I've made my way to Dunseith.  This area of North Dakota is part of Turtle Mountain, an area that stretches to the Canadian side of the border.  The area is named after the numerous painted turtles found in the area...