The world of an 11-year-old is a complex ecosystem of school, sports, family and play. In 2011, play as a kid seems to only involve the pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus muscle groups. Those are the muscles that move our thumbs, as in playing video games.

But one 11-year-old is using his thumbs for something else. Evan works the buttons on a GPS device to hunt geocaches. He also recently picked up a pen and wrote a letter to Groundspeak.

The fifth grader is an avid geocacher. Evan writes, “Me and my dad go caching a lot.” He describes geocaching as, “fun-ga-cational.”

Here’s why. Evan says, “[Geocaching is fun-ga-cational] because first of all it helps with math, (working with miles and feet). Second of all because it helps with geography, maps and sometimes social studies, working with latitude and longitude, maps and sometimes you learn about the area around a person. And third of all because it is super fun.”

Well, thank you Evan. We work hard to make sure geocaching is as super fun as possible.

This fifth grader’s letter is peppered with ideas for geocaching and questions for Groundspeak. We thought we’d share a few of Evan’s questions.

Where did you get the idea for geocoins?

Geocoins are the creation of Jon Stanley, alias Moun10bike. He now works at Groundspeak as a Lackey. We even did a video with Jon about the invention of geocoins. He placed the first coin on September 30, 2001. Did you know, Moun10bike has thousands of geocoins in his personal collection? It’s true. He has books and books of geocoins.

Can you put locks on geocaches?

Yes, if an answer or a key you discover unlocks the cache. Geocacher Richard Garriott has a lock on his cache called, “Necropolis of Britannia Manor III.” We did a video about this spooky cache. The clues you find on this puzzle cache give you the combination for the lock. You can watch a story about the cache here.

Can one put more A.P.E. caches out?

Nope. There’s only a couple A.P.E. caches left in the world. In 2001, fourteen geocaches were placed as the movie Planet of the Apes hit theaters. Each cache represented a fictional story in which scientists revealed an Alternative Primate Evolution. These caches were made using specially marked ammo containers. There’s one A.P.E. cache left near Groundspeak H.Q. and one still active in Brazil.

Will you ever branch out and make multiple HQ caches?

Seems unlikely. There’s only one H.Q. We’re located in Seattle, Washington. You’re always welcome to visit. Just check out our cache page.

Thanks for writing Evan. I hope this helped! And we’ll see what we can do about your suggestions. We like the idea of miniature Signal and Lackey figurines.  But we’re not sure Geocaching will ever be an Olympic sport. Who knows though? Thanks again.

Happy Caching,

Your friends are H.Q.