Caching Name:  Delicious “D”

Real Name: Dave Yannes

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?                                     My brother and his family “The Lowpers” started geocaching in January of 2010. They came for a visit Memorial Day weekend and said there are a few caches in Rittenhouse Park just up the road. I never heard of geocaching before but we decided to try it. We searched with their automobile GPS but came up empty as one of the caches was missing and the other one “TGPTBM -Tourist Spot – Newark, Delaware” (GC1K2GK) was in the middle of a mud pit surrounded by stickers.  Having read the clue and having a sense of the general area, I went back out myself and found the cache without a GPS. I was hooked now. The next day I went out and bought a Magellan Explorist GPSr and signed up to become a geocaching member. As of today I have over 2000 caches and the “Lowpers” have 12.

2.  How did you choose your caching name?                                               I was playing video games with my niece and nephew and they said, “Uncle Dave, you need to come up with a name for your player”. I was eating a red delicious apple at the time and we came up with the name Delicious ”D”. It stuck so I decided to use it as my geocaching name.

3.  What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?                                                                                     I like being outside either hiking or riding my bicycle so I prefer traditional caches in the woods. I also enjoy mystery, field puzzle, multi, and challenge caches.

4.  Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?                                                                                             The most physically challenging so far was Mike Ott’s “Delaware Centum Challenge at C&D Canal” (GC35VCC) where you needed to find over 100 caches in one day to qualify. I put my bicycle in the car and drove to the C&D canal where I did the C&D power trail. I rode my bicycle on both sides of the canal and went from one end to the other – from Chesapeake City, MD to just south of Delaware City, DE. After traveling over 20 miles by bike I ended up with 122 caches for the day.

There have been other caches where you had to climb a tree or climb up rocks to get to a cache.

5. What are your current geocaching goals?

* My next milestone is 3000 caches (I finally reached 2000 caches in January).

* I want to get some more caches published. In February I placed my first 4 caches in Middle Run Valley Park and in May I placed another 4 caches in Iron Hill Park.

* I want to get at least one cache in all 50 states. So far I have caches in DE, MD, PA and MI. I sure have a long way to go on this one.

* Finally, I want to go out west to attend a Mega Event.

6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?              I would like to travel out west and geocache in the Colorado Mountains or the Grand Canyon or maybe even in Hawaii.

7. What is your most memorable caching experience?                            I took a trip to Petosky, MI with my brother and his family (The Lowpers) and some of their friends where we rented a log cabin for a whole week. It was located in the northern most part of Michigan and only 50 miles or so from the Mackinac Bridge leading to the Upper Peninsula. On one day of our trip we took a Star Line hydroplane ferry boat ride from Mackinaw City, across the Mackinac Strait (which separates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron) to Mackinac Island. We explored the historic Fort and buildings on the island and geocached as well.

Other camping/geocaching trips included going to Cunningham Falls State Park in PA and to the Herrington Manor/ Deep Creek Lake area in western MD.

8. What do you like about geocaching?                                                            I like the friendliness of geocachers and I like attending events where new and old geocachers meet to eat and swap geocaching stories. One of my favorite events is the “Picnic on the Brandywine” in PA. I also like traveling to some out of the way park or historic building or even abandoned ruins in the woods which I would not have seen if not for someone placing caches in those places.

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?

* The first cache I ever found – “TGPTBM – Tourist Spot” (GC1K2GK).

* The archived “World’s Largest Bison Tube” (GCYPE6) but has been reborn by me as “Return of the World’s Largest Bison Tube” (GC5KD29)).

* Caches in the LOTR series (#01 to #20) [even though #01, 11 and 16 are archived the rest of the caches are fun to do]. (See “LOTR #01 – Gollum’s Lake” (GC3HA6Z) for more info on the series)

* Several multi-caches: “Hillside cache” (GCWFY7) and “The Smithmill Devil Returns” (GC29T0E) in Delaware, and the “Ruined-Chicken Multicache” (GC2BE4) and the “Fair Hill Multicache” (GC2570) in Maryland.

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests?                                        I love bowling. I average around 200 per game and have even bowled a sanctioned 300 game. I also like camping, fishing, hiking, bicycling and gardening.

Caching Name: Crafty Wolf
Real Name: David and Janet MacDonna

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
While Janet was in Vet school, our neighbor in Stillwater, OK introduced us. He took us and group of friends on a puzzle cache adventure around town. (Painted Walls GL1B167Q). We were intrigued enough that he took us on a few more the next day. We then decided to create our own handle and started caching on our own once David found an App for his old phone that worked.

2. How did you choose your caching name?
David loves wolves and Crafty was Janet’s Girl Scout Camp name. We find caches together so we combined them to form our name.

3. What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?
Typically “traditional,” but it depends on the location and what is around. All are fun however some of the puzzle ones are very complex.

4. Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?
There was this one puzzle/ multi in Oklahoma that was very frustrating. We got the clue wrong 2-3 times and one time ended up by this abandoned house and a police officer stopped us for loitering. We still were FTF! (Philosopher’s Journey GC2Q3GA)

The most exhausting physically was one off a bluff lookout on the Illinois River. We canoed all day on the river then hiked 3 miles to the cache. We were sunburnt, dehydrated and with cramped muscles—however we found the cache!! (SparrowHawk Vista – Illinois River GC5D81)

5. What are your current geocaching goals?
Have fun and continue to cache. Try to cache a little more frequently. Hide more caches.

6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
New Zealand

7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
There was a cache on an island the middle of Lake Boomer in Stillwater OK. David walked out on the semi frozen lake during his lunch break from work. Janet was waiting for the call from Stillwater Police that David was rescued from falling through the ice; however, David made it safely to the island and back!

8. What do you like about geocaching?
Love seeing different places and the thrill of the find. Like how caching gets everyone outside and has a reasonably low cost to get and stay involved. How almost any age can participate and that it is really fun getting new people involved!

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?
UD’s Solar system, Mike Ott’s Route 9 Series

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
Skiing, walking and hiking with our 2 Alaskan Malamutes, game nights with friends, and cooking.

Caching Name:  Evanspack

Real Name:  Jan Evans

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
In 2006, when my son was a young teenager, I tried to find a hobby that we could both participate in. I had heard about geocaching and thought this might be something we could do together as a family. We cached together for the first couple months, but he soon lost interest. I did not!

2. How did you choose your caching name?
I wanted a name that would include both me and my son. A pack of Evans’, so Evanspack was created!

3. What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?
I prefer virtuals, although they are quite a challenge to find now. I like that virtuals take you to some cool location! Since there are not many virtuals around, I will try to find a traditional that takes me somewhere historic!

4. Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?
Some puzzle caches have become a real challenge for me. I will work on puzzles off and on until I am completely stumped. Sometimes I will write the CO for help.

5. What are your current geocaching goals?
I would like to become the number one cacher in Delaware! No, I am kidding!
Here are my real (which are all attainable) goals.
1. State Stars
2. Oldest cache challenge
3. 30 earth caches in 30 days challenge
4. 30 State challenge

6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
I have always wanted to do the ET trail! It is a rite of passage for all geocachers I have heard!!

7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
I have had quite a few. Caching with 12 women, in three days completing 4 states comes to mind. I have gone on a lot of crazy caching trips with my caching friends!

8. What do you like about geocaching?
I like that you get to see a lot of unique and interesting locations that may have gone unnoticed if not for a geocache.

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?
I like Mike Ott caches, he will always take you on a nice hike in a nice area.

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
I like to run in the early AM!

Caching Name: Geoliottis

Real Name: Chris Gigliotti

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
A friend from work introduced me to it, about 7 years ago, after she learned I had bought a GPS. I couldn’t believe that caches existed and were all around me without my knowing!

2. How did you choose your caching name?
My son came up with the name. “Geoliottis” is just a play-off of our last name. I went under “csgig” for a while after I first started, but changed it after he gave me the idea.

3. What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?
I mostly prefer traditional caches. I won’t pass up a multi, but I don’t go looking for them. I will do a Virtual if I discover I’m near one. I typically find myself frustrated over puzzle caches…something I’m trying to get over!

4. Which caches were the most challenging, either physically or mentally?
Although not physically challenging, every year we do the FSC Challenge and mentally pressure ourselves into getting it done over a two or three day period. We’ve been out in the dark using flashlights to get the last few in an area that we wouldn’t be able to get back to, or would not want to drive the distance, just go get one or two caches.

5. What are your current geocaching goals?
Other than getting numbers, my only other goal is to get one in as many states as I can.

6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
I totally want to do the level 5 caches that you can only get to by kayak or boat. We rented a paddle boat and got one at Killens Pond last year and had a blast. I know DE has a lot more of them, but I don’t have a kayak or boat. One day…

7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
Definitely “A Devilish Hole” in the Poconos! One of my first several caches. We set out for a hike, not really knowing how the GPS worked. Walking off the beaten path in a true forest. We were so turned around we crossed the same creek three times, ruining four pairs of shoes. If took us over two hours but we wouldn’t stop until we found it…and we did. WAY more work than was necessary!

8. What do you like about geocaching?
I love the fun my family and I have every time we discover some place new, that we probably would have never discovered, unless we were caching. We’ve lived in DE since 1998 and we are constantly seeing and learning new things about De while caching.

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?
I found one in Ocean City NJ called “A Chase around Ocean City” It was at a large gazebo and the container was a silver bison tube. The fun part was that there were a total of 25 containers hidden in various spots in and around the cords. If you found one and it wasn’t the right one, there was a note inside telling you to keep looking or asking “does this look like a silver bison tube?!” I found 14 before finally getting it right!

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
I’m actually pretty boring. We are involved in year round travel softball with our daughter, so that keeps us busy. Our son does baseball and soccer. Not much down time between all that and work. We also really enjoy watching sports on TV, and reality shows.

 Caching Name:  Scrapple-ers

Real Name:            John and Dawn Tomeski

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
In April 2006, John’s brother, #1Papabear, came to visit from NC and said, “I have this cool new hobby for you to try, I think you’ll like it.”

Our first adventure was actually in Redden Forest, when they allowed caches, we got muddy and walked all over the woods and had the best time EVER, and we were HOOKED.

2.  How did you choose your caching name?
We live in Bridgeville. It is home to an apple orchard and a scrapple plant, so we did a little play on the name.

3.  What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?
Traditional are the most favored, but we LOVE virtuals because you learn and see so much more with them. NOT fans of puzzles.

4.  Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?
We like the physical challenges. We did one in NC that we had to walk on a guide wire (tight rope) over the top of a pond to get the cords and cross back to climb a tower about 150 ft high to get the cache. THAT WAS AWESOME!! Some of us had a little more difficulty crossing on the wire, when things start to jiggle and wiggle, ya kinda lose your balance.

5. What are your current geocaching goals?
We would like to travel a little more and find some unique caches. And maybe place a few more caches.

 6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
Well, we’ve been mainly in the Mid-Atlantic states, I think we’d like to just head west and see wherer the GPSr takes us.

 7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
We have experienced so many different caches, there are some really challenging ones out there. We’ve been on a tightrope, in wells, under streets, climbed trees in the middle of a highway, kayaking, crossed a river on foot, and did the BLING trail in a day (can we say exhausting?) It really is hard to pinpoint one cache specifically.

8. What do you like about geocaching?
We love the adventure and the really great people we’ve become friends with. It is a great sport/hobby that anyone can do. We love travelling and getting off the highway.

 9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area? 
The kayak caches are really the most fun to us.

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
We are crafters, we make a lot of different wood crafts and small furniture.
John and the older kids (KATnissT and BMXer17) are fire fighters.
Brad (B.A.Tman) is going into 1^st grade and plays baseball and ice hockey.

Caching Name:  ivorybilledbirder
Real Name: Dominic Morrell        

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
I first discovered geocaching in Knights of the Dinner Table, which is a comic that follows the lives of 5 people who play roleplaying games. That’s why my profile says I joined in November. But once I realized there were no caches extremely close to my house, I never signed on again. In January, I started reading Ken Jenning’s Maphead, in which he discusses the topic of geocaching and his experiences finding caches. Then I remembered I already signed up in November. The next week, I tried to find 10 caches in Dover, failing to find every single one. I stopped again, but when I was home sick on the last day of February, I went out and found a cache just around the corner, which was Opus Caementicium (now archived.) Not only was it muddy, but the place was quite overgrown. Just before I was going to give up, I spotted a huge lump of concrete with the container on the underside. I was hooked from then on!

2.  How did you choose your caching name?
I loved birding when I was a bit younger, but one of the birds that always fascinated me was the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, a bird down in the lower Mississippi that many presume to be extinct, despite a possible sighting back in 2005. That bird is also my avatar.

3.  What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual?
 I very much enjoy seeking any type of cache, but one of my favorite ways to pass the time is to look at a challenging puzzle.  And pester the CO for hints.

4.  Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?
Hmm… that’s a tough one. Most of rehobch’s puzzles take a heck of a lot of effort and hints to crack. There was one by the Canadian border whose hint was ‘stump’, not because it was in a stump but because you had to stand on a stump to reach it. It took us forever to find. Oh, and there was one cache that was hidden along a hunting path. We took the best path; however the cache was actually on the other side of the path, across a large ditch and through a field of tall thorns. Ouch.

 5. What are your current geocaching goals?
Well, I am planning to hit 500 on August 16^th, as it is International Geocaching Day. After that, we might attend GWXIII, and along the way find 5 states and 10 icons in 1 day. It would also be nice to solve Pure Evil and complete the Delaware Fizzy Challenge.

 6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
It would be nice to take I-90 from Massachusetts to Washington! Or cross the border from Massena, NY into Ontario, or visit another Western European country. Some day…

 7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
Wow, I really have quite a lot. In fact, I might just have to make a list of those. But I have to say, the #1 caching experience I’ve had caching was up in New York. There was this one cache that was next to the Chateaugay River, however to get there you had to take a steep path from a small gravel parking lot down under the river bridge. Not only were there great views, but the hider provided a picture map hidden by the parking lot, so I didn’t even use my GPS! 

8. What do you like about geocaching?
I’m not exactly an outdoors person, but ever since I discovered geocaching, I’ve found that it’s my excuse to go outdoors. I now know of so many more interesting places- parks, monuments, museums, and even Melvil Dewey’s birthplace! (If you didn’t know, he invented the Dewey Decimal system, which categorizes library books.)  

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?
Some of my favorite Dover caches were:
(GC22ZY1) St. Jones Reserve Beyond the Marsh
(GC43RYY) king of the world at the dog park (my 1^st cache)
(GC104JE) Flash Cache
Mainly because they involved nice, short hikes or fun climbs.

 10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests? 
I run a Dungeons & Dragons group every other Friday with some friends I’ve known for a while now, which inspired me to create my D&D cache. I also enjoy a bit of coin collecting and birding now and then. 

Caching Name:  minpin

Real Name:  Kathy Saturday

1. How did you become involved in geocaching?
It’s a family sport!  My brother got involved with geocaching in 2004.  He tried to get me involved.  I looked at the information, but never went out for a find.  Then, my sister visited my brother in 2006 and he took her out caching.  When I visited my sister for Christmas took me out caching and I was hooked.  I’ve been a member since 2007.

2. How did you choose your caching name?
My caching name comes from my dogs.  They are Miniature Pinschers or minpins.  So I used that as my caching name.

• 3. What type of cache do you prefer seeking – traditional, multi, and puzzle, virtual? 

I like the traditional hides, especially those in the woods or other natural setting.

4. Which caches were the most challenging, either physically/mentally?
The difficult puzzle caches are challenging for me.  I would rather be outside in nature than spend the time required to solve some of these mindbenders!

5. What are your current geocaching goals? 
I do geocaching for fun, so I try not to set too many goals.  I’ll probably try to get to the next thousand, 7000, this year.

6. Where have you always wanted to go caching but haven’t?
I’ve cached in 22 states; I’d like to cache in the other 28!

7. What is your most memorable caching experience?
I found a dead man while I was caching at Horsey Pond near Laurel, DE on my first day of retirement! That is something I will never forget.  The guy had committed suicide and had been out in his truck near the pond for 10 days.  I was trying for a multi-cache near the pond and came across him.  This is an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone!  At least his family and the police were able to get some closure on his whereabouts as a result of this encounter.  And I didn’t even find the cache that day!

8. What do you like about geocaching?
I like getting out in nature.  Geocaching has taken me to some very interesting and very beautiful places that I would have never visited otherwise. I also enjoy talking with other cachers and attending events.

9. Do you have some favorite caches in the area?
Well, the Horsey Pond multi (GCD3C9) is one I will always remember!   Your Key to Cache (GC3DYYT) was certainly a big hit with me.  No Panda’s Here (GC15M76) was a real adventure.  More recently, the New Lite Pole (GC4Y7MQ) gave me a good laugh.
 

10. Do you have any other hobbies or interests? 
I am a singer and perform with the Diamond State Chorus, a local Sweet Adelines Chorus.  I am an avid cross stitcher.  I like working in the yard and playing with my dogs.

Mike Ott has been named the Geocaching.com Geocacher of The Month!!

http://blog.geocaching.com/2014/03/announcing-the-january-geocacher-of-the-month/

CONGRATS MIKE!!!!!