Category: Interview

/ Andrew Baldwin

Do you think you’re smarter than a geocacher? — An interview with Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings

Ken Jennings is best known for his run on Jeopardy!, an American trivia game show, where he won 74 games in a row over a six month period. He’s a brilliant man with a vibrant personality and has since launched a career of writing, podcasting, and regular appearances on Jeopardy!’s Tournament of Champions.

Did you know that Ken Jennings is also an intrepid geocacher? His passionate love for maps, geography, and puzzles made geocaching a natural hobby for him and his family. He particularly loves the challenge of Mystery Caches; if he can’t initially figure it out, it will “eat at him for days.”

Geocaching HQ collaborated a while back on his book, Mapheads, released in 2011, but we wanted to learn more about Ken, his geocaching experiences, and what he’s been up to after his famous run on Jeopardy!

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/ Andrew Baldwin

Creating story-worthy geocaches: Interview with cache owner jewilk1

In Beaverton, Oregon, cache owner jewilk1 and his son OmNom! create fun hides by using a 3D printer, puzzle logic, and googly eyes. You may recognize the name from this week’s Geocache of the Week. They are examples of creative freedom in the geocaching world because they make both a simple cache and a puzzling cache memorable. After 7 years of caching, 60 hides, and 6,700 finds, jewilk1 continues to add a unique touch or a new level of deception into their cache creations. Some of their puzzle caches have knobs, codes, and keywords to search for on the back of books that help make their hides so interesting.

Often jewilk1 caches with his son OmNom! and his wife. Aside from the technical side of cache hiding, they enjoy the social aspect of the game and how it brings their family together. In their own words:   

The hobby has led us to places we would never have experienced, such as The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution or the view of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. Likewise, it is hard not to smile after a fellow geocacher relates a positive story about finding a geocache which you designed and introduced to the game. These smiles have inspired us to continue to create unique cache designs and become a better designers.

We wanted to know more about their creative process, what got them interested in geocaching, and what makes for a quality hide so we interviewed jewilk1 to get the inside scoop.

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/ Andrew Baldwin

Arcade claw machines, mirrored illusions, and mazes: Interview with cache owner mrradach

Everything from arcade claw machines, mirrored illusions, and mazes have been used by creative cache owner mrradach. To break up the monotony of his day job as a tram driver, he was looking for something with action, adventure, and a creative change-up to ease his ambitions. In his own words, “I’ve been looking for such a pastime for a while and found it in geocaching. I especially like the creative aspect of it, as a geocacher and cache owner.” 

Geocaching was the perfect outlet for this, and mrradach’s 31 geocache hides with 90+ Favorite points (2 hides have over 400 FP’s!) speak for themselves in terms of their quality. Though if it weren’t for his dad and two brothers coming home late to Christmas dinner seven years ago, angering the whole family, he wouldn’t have known about geocaching. At the time mrradach didn’t understand why or how they could have forgotten the time but now he says he totally understands.

These cool, fun, and interactive caches inspire cachers at all experience levels. Their appeal sparked some interest at HQ so we reached out to mrradach to get to know what goes on when he is daydreaming of future cache hides, what excites him about the game, and where his inspiration comes from.

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