The Manitoba Memorial Trail pays tribute
to Manitoba geocachers who have passed away.
Rekal
(active 2008 - 2024)
Rekal found his first cache, “Pinewood Place - TCDNON” (GC1BZX4) on July 3, 2008 and he was immediately hooked. His head spun with ideas and he began planning his 257 hides… his first hidden on June 21, 2009. The last cache hidden by rekal was in 2020 when he put out another mini power trail in northwestern Ontario. In total he found over 7000 geocaches, and recieved an amazing 701 favourites on his hides.
Where did the name come from? It is Laker backwards, not for basketball, but for the fact that he loved the lake. He was, through and through, a lake guy.
After completing the infamous Route 66, rekal was intrigued by power trails, and set up several small ones along the roads near to their family cottage in Northwestern Ontario. He also set up a trail of 30 caches along his favourite hiking trail in Palm Springs, California. One of those caches was mentioned on a podcast from southern California when it was found - but not signed. The cacher asked for permission to log as found and sent a photo of the container lovingly surrounded by a rattlesnake. “I think this might be a Difficulty of 5…”, they wrote. (GC4Z3WA)
Rekal loved creating new caches and could often be found puttering in his workshop designing new containers. He helped Skoki to create many caches for the zoo events. His diamond-drilled granite containers are still a favourite and led to his name becoming an adjective as a hint for a cache in Winnipeg. The hint “ rekal-esque” made us laugh. He absolutely loved his golf ball containers because they are so hardy and able to withstand severe heat (for the desert in California) and severe cold (in northwestern Ontario).
Even in his later years, rekal continued to love the game and eagerly joined Skoki (daughter) and Mrs. rekal on caching excursions. Team rekal (Mr. and Mrs.) along with Skoki, found their last cache together “Bokeh” (GCA2G06) in Kildonan Park on October 15, 2024.
Team rekal will continue to play the game. Mrs. rekal has always been actively involved helping with the creation of caches and finding the treasures on their caching excursions. (She’s a marvel at S.M.I.T.H hides!) His family is maintaining his caches, and Mrs. rekal always keen to cache with rekal, will continue to cache with her family - her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren - in honour of him, so you will see rekal’s name continuing to appear on logs. We know that he would love to see us all enjoying the game… and visiting his caches.
Rekal is missed by the Manitoba geocaching community.
Please feel free to include your memories about this cacher or their caches in your log entry.
The Manitoba Memorial Trail would not be possible without the generous contributions of margaretgary, dani_carriere, Lord Yorlik, and ernie&bert&elmo&grover. Thank you!
