18-Years-Old and 1800 Finds – A Teen Geocacher’s Journey

By Kara Bonilla

Jeffrey with Geocaching.com Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Irish at GeoWoodstock VI .

Geocaching teenagers are becoming easier and easier to find as geocaching gains popularity. Harder to find are teenage cachers who  have found nearly two thousand geocaches. Jeffrey Bushnell, 18, from Utah, USA is better known in the caching community as tico jeffrey. He started geocaching when he was 14. Jeffrey has found 1853 caches to date. He’s also discovered a true passion for the high-tech treasure hunt of geocaching.

It all started for Jeffrey as a young Boy Scout, when he won a GPS device after selling tickets at a Boy Scout expo. “I went home after the expo, looked it [geocaching] up online and made an account. Then, less than less than five minutes after creating my account, I got on my bike, grabbed my new GPS, and headed out to find the cache closest to my house.”

Jeffrey loves geocaching because he explores new places he has never seen before, gets to spend time outdoors, and relishes the thrill of finding a cache.

Now a seasoned geocacher, Jeffrey owns 92 caches. He  has gone geocaching in twelve states and two other countries besides the US: Canada and Costa Rica. Jeffery owns 70 Trackables and has moved over 800 Trackables throughout his many geocaching adventures.

Statistics from Geocaching.com: Jeffrey's Cumulative Finds, as of July 20, 2011.

Besides his aunt, Auzzie Dogs, Jeffery’s family is full of muggles. For Jeffrey, geocaching on family outings takes planning  and convincing  his parents to let him find a cache. He has to promise not to take a long time. Having a muggle family often makes the game a bit difficult for him, but Jeffrey never lets this slow him down.

Jeffrey has found so many geocaches that he can’t even pick a favorite. He loves the thrill of a good find and always enjoys finding caches hidden by some geocachers in his area: “Both of my favorite users (Baad Daata and Billionj) have many caches that I have looked right at and even touched without finding it at first, these caches require a lot of thinking and strategy to find the exact cache container.”

Jeffrey at GC10FB, Magic Kingdom, one of many Virtual Caches in Disney World.

Jeffrey  became an Eagle Scout and graduated high school this year. He will be attending Brigham Young University this fall where he plans to major in civil engineering and minor in graphic design and production. He loves to cache in his local area of Southern Utah, where he has many friends who always go out geocaching with him. Jeffrey also loves to take his grandma and other relatives out on geocaching adventures.

One of Jeffrey’s favorite geocaching memories is when he received GeoWoodstock VI 2008 tickets for Christmas and went to the event in Wheatland, California with his aunt, Auzzie Dogs. “We had a great time and enjoyed meeting Jeremy Irish, also meeting a lot of old and new friends.”

As some advice from Jeffrey for new teen geocachers, he suggests taking on one cache at a time, and to have fun with it.  To learn more about Jeffrey’s geocaching career and to see his incredible geocaching stats, check out his user page, tico jeffrey. It is easy for teens to become outstanding geocachers, like Jeffrey. It is as simple as creating an account, getting a GPS, grabbing a group of friends, and heading out to find the first of many geocaches.

 

DISCLAIMER: Underage geocachers should always geocache using the buddy-system! Take a parent, relative, or friend along and remember to tell a responsible adult the exact caches you plan on finding and the routes you plan on taking. Safe geocaching is fun geocaching!