NorthWes' GeoGerms Geocoin

This geocoin came directly into my hands from its creator, on a forested trail deep in the highlands of Oahu. I'd just found GC23, one of the oldest geocaches still in play, placed in July 2000 and now maintained by the very cacher I met on the trail just a quarter mile from his old and well-favorited Geocache. This geocoin travels in memory of my father, and in memory of meeting the gracious GeoGerms!

Long ago in 2012 while hiking and geocaching with my then-82 yr old father in the Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area on Oahu, we bumped into 3 other geocachers on a ridgetop trail who were searching for the same cache we'd been hunting for several minutes, We joined forces but couldn't find the cache despite twenty minutes of thorough searching. As we decided to part ways and continue our hikes in opposite directions along the ridgetop, we exchanged names and shook hands. I felt one of the other cachers press a geocoin into my hand as we introduced ourselves, and I realized I was meeting GeoGerms in the flesh just minutes after having found his GC23 Geocache placed in July 2000. As we made our way out of the Recreation Area, my dad told me this was one of the most memorable hikes he'd ever done, because of its unique terrain, the incredible vistas glimpsed of forested valleys and Pearl Harbor beyond, and the kind of people we'd met who had invited us out to find their special favorite 'secret places' in their homelands.

I had held onto this geocoin since receiving it, keeping it on my dresser as a memento of that singularly beautiful hike with my father on the ridges above Pearl Harbor. Hawaii had become a special place for us to visit annually in the years following my mother's passing, and we made sure to do something new and visit somewhere new on each trip. When my father was talking to me from what was to become his deathbed in mid-2018, he told me that our geocaching hunts were some of his favorite parts of what he termed the 'great adventure of life' he and I experienced together, and he particularly remembered the day we met GeoGerms on the lovely forested trail on Oahu. Thus, I'm activating this geocoin now to become one of the signature travelers taken along on my geocaching adventures everywhere, in memory of my father. I'm also extending special thanks to GeoGerms, for his generosity to my father and I, and for his very significant personal contribution to the game of geocaching. Hawaii is populated with some very special journeys in search of geocaches, thanks to GeoGerms!