Sparkyfry 5K Tribute! Traditional Cache

I sat down to write a Haiku to honor sparkyfry, and soon realized that 17 syllables was not enough for a person of my verbose nature to say what I wanted.  Mike was one of the first cachers I met “in the wild.”  He was very encouraging to me as a newbie, and I have since seen him offer that same encouragement to other cachers, old and new.  He is always willing to share an FTF or a puzzle hint, and  has made some amazing finds at all levels of difficulty and terrain.  He has hosted events, even a CITO one.  Sparkyfry does this all while working full time, serving the community of Golden Valley, and being a husband to his awesome wife and a devoted dad to Rose Duffy, the supporting actress in many of his music videos.  Way to go, Sparkyfry!  Congratulations!

So...no Haiku, but this kept going through my head... (think Schneidermans...)

Sparkyfry,  Sparkyfry,  FTF hound.
Sparkyfry, Sparkyfry, 5,000 found...

I've shared many an adventure with sparkyfry, including searching in questionable locations for rare elements and, well, tree climbing.  He brings a great mix of talent, creativity and common sense to the geocaching world, except maybe when he's creating craters.  Congrats on 5000!

An Ode to a Cacher who's name is Sparkyfry
I consider him a great friend and one heck of a guy
His array of accomplishments are vast and abundant
Starting with Challenges that are nearing two hundred
Then there are puzzles both created and found
That express his great knowledge and help him to be a great hound
Today he is hitting finds of 5000
Worthy of Tribute and loads of fanfair
May the next 5000 finds be filled with the same joy
That you had reaching this Milestone each and every day

Congrats on 5,000!

Raccoon hats off to the man of the hour – Sparkyfry! It seems like it was just a few weeks ago when I was logging his 2000th tribute and then days later, I was with him on an epic caching adventure when he celebrated #4000 with some peanut butter jar in a retaining wall. Later that day he almost died on a FTF chase down a steep embankment when he lost his footing and almost impaled himself on the train tracks. Did that stop sparkyfry? No way … he just kept hobbling along that day for 150+ caches across 3 states – simply amazing.

I was just looking back at my FTF logs and realized that sparkyfry has been involved in almost half of them – and a number of them come with good stories and fun times. And I will be forever grateful that he was there to witness firsthand my legitimate ‘V’ FTF. I cannot wait to see what our next adventure together will be and I’m proud to be able to call sparkyfry a friend. Congratulations on not only finding 5000 pieces of Tupperware in the woods with million dollar satellites, but doing it with dignity and class and maintaining that healthy balance between family, community, work and hobby! We’ll start planning your 10,000 tribute for next spring!

By the way, I am still waiting to see these Olympic Geocaching Medals that I keep hearing about.

Here's to good friends,
Tonight is kind of special.
The cache we'll place
must say something more, somehow.
So tonight (tonight),
Tonight,
Celebrate Sparkyfry (celebrate Sparkyfry).
He's found 5,000.
And fallen off a mountain.
Here’s an box,
full of mostly wacky swag
So tonight (tonight),
Celebrate Sparkyfry!
(apologies to the lion’s brew)

Sparkyfry’s caches were some of the first we found when we started geocaching. After meeting him on the trail we learned that we had known him vicariously for a long time. In conversations with him, it turns out that the female half of our team had worked with his mom, he had played piano in the concert band in which our son is a member and we read his name in a Golden Valley newsletter while doing some research on a cache we were developing on the history of Golden Valley. It was then that we discovered he was working on a cache on this very same theme! This series of coincidences has carved a special fondness for him and we are always happy to read his great log narratives when he visits our caches. We’re even happier when we meet up with him on the FTF trail. We admire his ability to create intriguing puzzles and his skill at solving those of others, his devotion to his very cute daughter, Rose Duffy, and his dedication to the geocaching sport. Congratulations Mike on reaching this milestone.

Congratulations on your 5000th find Sparkyfry. When I first started caching one of my first finds, after three or four times looking, was Baby Sparkyfry. I read the cache page and wondered who is this Sparkyfry guy. It wasn't long afterwards when I was asking you for help on one of your puzzles. We met face to face at a cache soon after that and I can honestly say that the help and guidance you gave me made me into the geocacher I am today. Now I am not sure if that is good or bad but it is the truth. Keep up the good caching.

I first met Mike about 70 miles from the Twin Cities, and watched from a distance as he and another cacher looked for a geocache. It intrigued me, so I went outside and began asking the typical muggle questions. Mike described the process and said the hint was “one of these things is not like the other”, I looked down and saw a fake rock - wow, what a great feeling, finding a cache! (beginner’s luck?) After signing the log, I went about my merry way, and back in the Twin Cities, I started caching a bit here and there with my kids, and my good friend Laura.

We began recognizing names in the logs, and “sparkyfry” was one of them. Laura and I started on the FTF trail last April, and at our second ever FTF, we were signing the log, when across the field sprinted someone, who yelled out “hey, did you find it yet?” After we all signed the log, & celebrated our FTF, we exchanged stories, realizing in the process that it was Mike who I had met at that very first geocache.

Strange coincidence? I think not, as Mike-aka-Sparkyfry is one of the friendliest geocachers I’ve met. Honestly, I don’t know how he does it, balancing a FT job, service to Golden Valley, as well as being a dedicated husband and father. On the FTF trail, I’ve heard multiple times, “I’d love to stay and grab another cache, but I want to get home and tuck Rose into bed” – what a great dad!
Thanks, Mike for introducing me to this great sport of geocaching, encouraging me and other newbie’s, sharing FTF’s, creating great puzzles, helping me solve puzzles, hosting events, and sharing your adventures in your fantastic logs and stories.

Oh, and btw, that cache at Gustavus? I’ve been back about 3 times with Ms Sunshine, and I’ve never found it again… Congrats on your 5000! I look forward to hearing about your next 5K.

Just how amazing is Sparkyfry, Golden Valley’s premier cacher? Well, here are some true facts about The Most Interesting Geocacher.

• His car GPS asks him for directions.

• Instead of driving, he once jogged five miles to a newly published cache just to see what Second To Find felt like. It didn’t work. He still got the FTF.

• MN.Fruitcake asks him if it’s okay to publish caches.

• His personality is so magnetic that nanos stick to him.

• When he DNF’s caches—ha, that’s a good one.

• Caches that have gone missing are so afraid of him that they return to ground zero on their own so he can find them.

• So he doesn’t get bored, he caches at night—without a flashlight.

• 1.5/1.5 caches find him.

• He has beaten Khoda to a FTF, and once solved a puzzle faster than pfalstad.

• Cache owners thank him for finding their caches.

• He can't hold event caches because the largest venue in Minnesota (the Metrodome) only holds 50,000 people.

Congrats on 5,000 caches! See you in another 5,000!