“Bear Bait” – Could be pies, brownies, or even donuts if you’re thinking of Yogi and Boo Boo. But in this case, it refers to a fellow geocacher and work team member. He was given the name Bear Bait a number of years ago. The story goes something like this...
Once upon a time, there lived a coworker who had an envious habit of taking a 3 week summer vacation of camping, hiking, and generally “roughing it out” at one of Canada’s national parks each year, while the rest of us sweated it out covering for him. One year, he decided to go “high tech”, so he combined his GPS and amateur radio hobbies, enabling the tracking of his moves on the internet. Interestingly, the online graphics represented him as a tent icon with an associated movement vector (speed and direction information). A number of times during his vacation, certain followers noted movement of a tent flying along an interprovincial trail at 80 km/h. One could only surmise that the tent (and its occupant) must have been fleeing something. And what would you be fleeing at those speeds in the Canadian wild? Bear, of course. Based upon that visualization, when this gent returned from that vacation, he was given the name “Bear Bait. Thankfully, the Bear never caught him. So, I guess you might say this story ends with "... and they all lived happily ever after."
But wait!, The story doesn't end there. Now, y2k has decided to pull the plug after more than 40 years on the job. And those 3 week vacations of fleeing bears can turn into “52 week vacations”… Hah! At any rate, CONGRATULATIONS on your retirement! Enjoy the good life, and enjoy this cache in your honor.
Permission for this hide was received from the Cedar Rapids Parks Department.