The (first) 10K Mystery Cache

Milestones are a fun thing to celebrate. For crossing my 10,000th find, and with 'shout out' caches being such a trendy thing recently, I wanted to take an opportunity to look back at people with whom I've had the honour, pleasure, and enjoyment of caching - but for those who we don't often see recognized in cache listings! Shout outs for some of the perhaps less visible of the community, who are just as special, and who've been wonderful friends and acquaintances for me since I started caching in 2009. Back then, some of the first people I cached with called ourselves Team KO (inspired by the sports bar we often frequented after our caching excursions). intrepidca and I thought a lot alike - he a university student, mathematician and programmer, we bounced puzzles off each other often - one time solving a puzzle for a cache in Ohio that hadn't yet been found, though published two years prior! That was a pretty spontaneous road trip for a 2-year FTF. He still owns a few caches, and I also credit him with scripting a custom encryption algorithm to further thwart wherigo hacking ;) Also troye70 and gg7 - a great couple of guys with whom we all shared a few road trips and a bunch of laughs and good times, including my first challenge completion, Tequila's 81Proof. I'll not forget our first (and only) Team KO cache placed - Ode To A Wonderful Magical Animal. Placed as a group, with a 5D puzzle which prompted a response puzzle, from dfx and t4e: Swine Flu - Bacon's Revenge. That duo upped the ante on techie puzzles in the region. I learned a lot from that one! Long ago that pair lived a block away, and we often ran out for spontaneous FTF runs. They're a great couple who are adventurous (recently they've been sharing many beautiful scuba diving videos, gorgeous underwater explorations) and quite intelligent puzzlers! Around that time I'd also connected with karlmuddy, a great guy (and his wife) with whom many laughs were shared, great hikes, and in the company of a beautiful geopup. Another local, K9-Crazy, was a frequent cacher and also loves her pups; and we went for some really nice hikes while they rushed ahead to find caches for us! Also down in Cambridge is Just Give'r and his enthusiastic son, who've hosted a number of events and CITOs, and with whom I was privileged to accompany on a Nevada trip to find 2400 caches in 3 days on the ET Highway! With 4 of us dedicated guys on the team, we had a few full-day marathons in close quarters; good thing all of us guys were on the same page! It was an unforgettable time in great company. Road trips are really common when you find a great crew of cachers, and years ago I partnered up with discuskrib and drealynx to tackle a significant hiking series (now archived) up at Lingham Lake; it was a second visit there for me, and their first. Now that was a memorable hike. We ended up hopping islands of ice in the dark over a marsh with the sound of coyotes echoing in the distance, after following a wrong ATV trail away from a downed tree. We arrived back at our vehicle around 4am after making it an 18 hour round trip hike. We've each shared other great little excursions, and made some great memories, much like this next crazy group of cachers I find myself quite often drawn to for the hijinks that tend to ensue - together we form Team FARRT: FreeSpirited1, alli-oop, rogking, red headed fury, and myself. These are also the friends with whom I crossed the 10K milestone. After numerous road trips shared, hikes, FTFs, puzzles, challenges, and me often being the monkey of the group for some difficult climbs and terrains, there's no question that in every outing we have an absolute blast! We've been far west and south, now we just need a road trip east, eh? :) Around the time I started joining up with those peeps, friendships were also forged with teamvoyagr - hilarious caching business partner who loves it at night; hot coffee - caring, friendly and kind and a pleasure to call friend whom I presume likes her coffee hot; youngkingkole - an adventurous guy with whom I've raced up trees a few times and who's creatively placed a number of quality refreshing cache ideas in the Guelph area; and the wild and entertaining indigodave - who once took a skinny dip on a hot day's hike (in a relatively hidden area, yet with onlooking geocachers - sorry if that was still a secret, lol!). When the KW area was really starting to grow, another group of prolific cachers gave to the community and helped to foster the amazing environment of geocaching we have today, and they are (were?) the CREW, the Caching Regulars Encompassing Waterloo. As the literal local 'crew' grew, the original CREW kept their circle strong, but passed on their friendly ethic and character to others, and we now have numerous gatherings and an enormous community of friendly folks who welcome newcomers to the hobby. Thanks to the CREW for paving the way and keeping our region strong and connected as the hobby grew! A prolific, well-rounded caching CREW couple is Geocite, who've seen many sights, and though they're not in it for the quantity, they truly enjoy caching and the people who enjoy likewise, and were very encouraging and welcoming as I started out caching. The energetic Galloping Gourmet never ceases to bring a smile to people's faces, especially when he runs around during Oktoberfest as the chef at the single remaining traditional CREW event! A true German if there ever was one :) ElectroQTed, the tall friendly electrician who always had a ladder with his van, made his name with me by his cache "Electricitree", repeatedly recommended for its container, an unconventional twist (for a new cacher at least!). Other names that I think really helped set the tone and shape the community while I integrated for the first few years included cache4pat - a wherigo fanatic and active outdoorsman; Sargents - a multi of whose was nearest to my home for the longest time and I finally (after about a month) went on the "excursion" to find it; dundeejim - who loves graveyards, and K'J' - fun guy who also placed a few multis and which introduced me to benchmarks. Recently I was impressed with the puzzling work of princessninja21 who was the first to solve (seemingly out of the blue) a cache set up that required a bit of geek-cred. As of this writing, she's still the only one to have solved it! Ninja indeed... I also want to give some cred to 13coach13 (and greenthumb9) for all they've done for the greater community in southwest Ontario. They host numerous 101-type events for new geocachers in the community and meetups for everyone far and wide, and their passion for the hobby and for people is quite obvious! Locally, a newcomer to the scene kksmoky (and steele84) made a splash by hosting a well-crafted event as newcomers in town, just around the block from home! At the event they also allowed me to do the ice bucket challenge, a trendy viral stund raising awareness for ALS, a disease from which my mother died in 2012. My sincere thanks for their willingness to incorporate it into the event (although it was a refreshing challenge! :). I couldn't close this monster paragraph without also mentioning the strange ones - DrStrange1 and mrsstrange01, who've added so much to the local caching community as well, including their phobia cache series. Numerous well constructed and themed caches that are fun, and educational, to find :) But finally, a few more personal friends-now-cachers and cachers-now-friends in other common areas of life I want to mention: Wulfjack - who bravely took up kung fu just before I began, and has become a wonderful friend both through that journey and this caching one. Missbug - who used to live nearby but moved so far away to Ottawa *sadface*, yet remains a good friend, having shared a number of fun caching memories (like that all-nighter 6am group FTF on a BFL night cache series!). MrBarth and D.Eckel - good friends for many years, whom I convinced to casually (relatively speaking) take up geocaching, and who still continue in their own time, to some degree, for their own enjoyment :). And of course, imilce, my closest friend and companion, who picked up geocaching very shortly after we met, and shot off to a running start (in the summer, when the schedule allowed), sharing a few really nice road trips, sunsets, hikes, views, and special moments together!