January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments
They put on events, they readily share geocaching tricks and tips and they challenge new and seasoned geocachers with their hides. They are the January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees.
Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for January.
Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be awarded the Featured Geocacher of the Month title.
In December, Wayne, a.k.a. Moneydork was recognized for establishing himself as one of Australasian’s most prolific geocachers. His efforts to support the community as a Geocaching volunteer reviewer and good Samaritan have not gone unnoticed. He even managed to organize New Zealand’s very first Mega-Event from 3500 km (2175 miles) away. According to fellow geocachers, Moneydork’s hides and events are legendary Down Under and he never hesitates to give his all to the sport.
Here are your nominees for the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
Kirret
Mr Bluesky writes, “On November 29th, Don, [a.k.a. Kirret] will have found a geocache every single day of the year, since November 2011. He has done this in three different countries and on two continents. This year alone he has found over 1,700 geocaches, including a grand haul of 100 on March the 27th. Don worked in Scotland in 2010 and 2011 and I got to meet him through geocaching. We immediately became firm friends. I had the pleasure of geocaching with him in Canada in July 2012 and then again on August 18th in Scotland. Don is very enthusiastic about geocaching and has, just by meeting people while out geocaching, gotten many involved in this hobby by informing them of what he was doing and how enjoyable it is. He mostly geocaches with his wife and son and is one of Guildford, England’s most prolific geocachers. He is out in all weather conditions with a smile on his face and a GPS in hand. I think his achievements this year is a remarkable feat.”
The Raven
ttcm4geo writes, “If you visit Prescott, Arizona as we were one weekend, you will note something curious. Many of the geocaches you visit will have a note stating that ‘while you are in Prescott, you must find a geocache called Raven’s Labyrynth.’ So many geocacher said this that we finally decided to pursue it. The geocache itself is amazing, which I am sure took weeks to construct. Then we found out that the geocache owner has many similarly thought-out geocaches in the area. In fact, Prescott is known as ‘Ravenland.’ But, even more amazing is that if you email Dan, a.k.a. The Raven with a question, he promptly replies and tells you to call him. So we called him and got some assistance. He was very nice, and you can tell that his only goal is to help people enjoy geocaching. His geocaches are creative, well thought out and so much fun. He does all this work for people many of whom he will never meet. Therefore, I think he deserves this recognition.”
The Weasel
SuperGoober writes, “Tim, a.k.a. The Weasel is what geocaching is all about. He gives back so much more than he takes. He hosted the very first CITO in the Midwest: EIGA 2004 CEDAR RAPIDS CITO EVENT. He is an active member and Board Director for the Iowa Geocacher Organization and a volunteer for the Linn County Conservation. Tim has conducted and assisted in over 50 geocaching 101, 201 and 301 classes and workshops throughout the State of Iowa and abroad. His knowledge of the wilderness extends well beyond that of an average geocacher. He uses his extensive knowledge of the outdoors to help other geocachers by placing some very creative and educational geocaches. The Weasel has an impeccable sense as to what geocaching is all about. He realizes that cache maintenance is very necessary to ensure that geocaching is fun and that the geocache is there. He is just unstoppable.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon and a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for January’s award through Sunday, January 20th.
Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and include the following information:
- Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
- A picture of the nominee
- Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award.
Nominations for the February Geocacher of the Month must be received by Friday, February 8th.
Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.
I vote for The Raven. I have completed quite a few of the Raven’s cashes and they are all amazing and I have given each of them a favorite vote. I feel he is well deserving of this honor.
I have to admire The Weasel. He is the complete well rounded cacher in my opinion. Keep on keeping on Weasel!
Congrats Weasel! I always new your hard work would pay off and we would see you on this page! You deserve to win!
My vote goes to the RAVEN from Prescott AZ, USA I’ve know the Raven for about four years if not longer. And find him to be the most knowkedgeable Cacher around anywhere. He has some very fantactic caches ever placed. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do to help you with a caching problem . Not only that but he is a great guy . I’ll vote for him anytime for the cacher of the month or year. If you want to know just how much fun Dan’s caches are, I posted a picture from his Ravenland Facebook page. Just ask this little girl just how much fun you can have with his caches. Koala Glen
After reading these comments, I can’t wait to visit Weasel Disneyland theme park lol. Your kayak caches sound amazing! I will look you up when I am in the area to see if you can accompany me to this!
My vote is for the cacher short in stature but mighty in heart….The Weasel!!
I vote for the raven to be selected. Great caches! Go Ravenland!
I’m voting for “Mr Fix-it” or “Captain Maintenance” aka The Weasel. I, like a bunch of other cachers these days was trying to fill in my 81 grid. The Weasel’s “sappy cache” was a cache I needed to fill in a spot. I got to GZ and after a bit of looking, found where I thought the cache should be. I called the weasel to verify I was in the right spot. Not only did the weasel verify the cache was missing, he made it to GZ in less that 15 mins with a new container. Now THAT is service with a smile!!
Give The Raven one vote for me!
I think this award should be awarded to The Raven because he is truly Outstanding in the field of Geocaching. He puts every bit of himself into the caches he makes. He will go help any cacher that calls and gets great pleasure out of it. He is a wonderful ambassador to the sport and encourages everyone to have fun.
I have had the esteemed pleasure of experiencing “the raven’s” remarkable caches. And was excited when he contacted me directly with a thank you for favor pointing the ones i had found. also was very helpful with a puzzle cache i was stumped on. His creativity and effort that goes into his love for caching is why I can’t stop talking about the raven when describing the wonders of cahing to others and new recruits.. GOOD LUCK Sir Raven!!! you got my vote LV2RIDMX.. from Cali.
Who? From what I understand, they both have taught about the same amount of classes and given about the same amount time and energy back to the community. I personally voted for The Raven, but in all seriousness: why can’t they award Geocacher of the Month to both individuals? Does anyone else feel that way???
Outstanding job to all the nominees , but my vote is for The Weasel.
That’s funny. I just posted that idea too. I agree with you. Award both The Raven and The Weasel Geocacher of the Month.
My vote…..da wease!!! 🙂
The work Raven has done with local authorities in the name of geocaching sets an example for us all! Good work, dude!!!
Not a bad idea….I voted for the Raven, but I wonder if the award could be split.
I’m casting my vote for THE RAVEN so creative . GO RAVEN 🙂
Great job Tim (weasel)!!
When you think of Eastern Iowa, The Weasel’s caches are at the top of the list. People know they are creative, fun, and will be we’ll maintained!
Dan, “The Raven” puts a lot of thought and time into his caches. Creativity has NOT escaped him!! While from New Jersey, I look forward to another trip out to Tucson to visit Carmel and do some more RAVEN caches. He’s more than deserving of this award!
I vote for the Raven. Me and my dad visit the Ravens Labrenith a lot .We enjoy it every time we go. The Raven is a thoughtful, fun, creative guy.
My vote is for the Raven, good job.
We visit our parents in Sedona often and they always encourage us to seek out some Raven caches in Prescott as they are fun for the whole family. With such popular caches, I was amazed to get a personal response after logging our finds! For these reasons, I post my bote for The Raven! Thanks!
“The Raven” deserves this honor! He is the greatest geocaher!!!! He is a great guy!!!
Our vote is for Dan “The Raven” While visiting in Arizona, we had family take us to some of his caches and were so impressed with the clever, thoughtful, professional presentations he puts out there for our pleasure. After those experiences there in Arizona, we came home and wished we had our own “Raven” here in California. Our experience there was instrumental in stroking the fires of interest in GeoCaching. As time allows for us, we do as much caching and event attendance as we can because of “The Raven”
nailbenderca Ken & Dee Collins
The Raven has some of the best caches ever!! We have had so much fun— the WHOLE family!!! And the Raven will help you whenever you need help solving or finding his caches!!! He deserves this honor—- we vote The Raven!!!
We have had a great time in Prescott doing ‘The Raven’ caches!! Prescott has a lot of great geocachers that place some really fun caches, but the Raven stands out because his caches are so involved!! Thanks Dan for inventing all these wonderful caches for us to find! Can’t wait to get back to Prescott- RAVENLAND!!- to do more!! GO RAVEN!!!
The Raven has given us many hours of fun up in Prescott, Arizona!! I can’t believe the hours of work that went into building ‘The Labyrinth’!! … and ‘The Keyhole’, ‘Indiana Jones’, and ‘AMAZING”!!! WOW!!! These are masterpieces!! We can’t wait to go back and try more!!
The Raven is it. Go Arizona. We got introduced at about the same time to Geocaching, and he just blew me away with his interest in finding and then went on to making the coolest caches and I can’t keep up with him. It’s TOTALLY in his blood. My friend Dan (THE RAVEN) is completely dedicated to Geocaching. He is THE Winner (in my book for sure) and he’s got my vote.
I’m a professional product designer. What that means is that people hire me to invent stuff for them and make those designs manufacturer. It also means that I have to look for weaknesses or room for improvement in everything I interact with, becasue if I can’t make it better I am out of work.
I was awestruck when I visited Ravenland because of his craftsmanship and the way he uses the local area as the canvas to paint his creations.
I defy enyone to do Best Friends and not think it one of the best and most fun hides they have ever hunted. My group wanted it to go and on.
A simple hide like ‘Adventurers first stop’ is so seamless and well crafted my initial reaction was not to look *there* because everything was so perfectly right it couldn’t be… could it?
That is what Dan does.
And I sure would like to see the cache that took more work, more creative energy, more working with the city, and more out-of-pocket expense that was expended, than on the Ravens Labyrinth. On just that one cache there’s probably over a thousand dollars of material and hundreds of hours of fabrication time, and he just placed out there on the hopes that others will enjoy them. And did I ever!
I’m sure that the other nominated cachers are fantastic people and are well loved in their community, and I applaud them for their work and contributions. And their caches have got my attention (thanks groundspeak for this forum!) But just looking at favorite points, and seeing the energy, money, and time Dan put into placing stuff so guys like me that he didn’t know could have their minds blown has me firmly in the camp for the Raven.
As an educator, teaching people something new is the most important part of this sport. Yes, a neat cache container is great, but if you can take away something from doing a cache, to me, that’s a winner. For that reason The Weasel is getting my vote!
If you ever come to Iowa, especially the eastern half of Iowa, people will tell you that you have to do The Weasel’s caches! Not only that, but if you email The Weasel, he will probably be able to take you on a guided tour. Everything you have read about The Weasel is true… A master cache placer, a ambassador of the sport, a teacher of the sport, and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. I can probably speak for Iowa (and MANY people outside of Iowa) when I say the Weasel deserves to win!!
I’m giving my vote to The Weasel. Even though Iowa caches might not be as easy to do year round like caches in AZ do to the winter, The Weasel’s try’s to make his caches as winter friendly as possible. I think this is something that needs to be taken into consideration when you look at the big picture. Yes, you can cache in the winter, but I am willing to bet more people cache down south around this time than Iowa. I know for a fact that The Weasel walks his entire powertrail twice a year, once in early spring and once in early fall to ensure all of caches are not only there, but have a fresh logbook as well. That is what the Weasel is about… Great caches, great location, great maint on his caches, and a huge educational value!! The Weasel has done all the right things to deserve this high honor.
I got to spend a day up in Ravenland with jcanyoneer and the Raven. We did the Raven’s Labyrinth. I have no idea how many hours went into this caches but I would have guess close to 300. I vote the RAVEN!!!
I am also a Girl Scout mom who is lending her support to Tim the Weasel. I not only attended his class that he did for the Girl Scouts, but also a regular class he did for for Geocachers. He did an outstanding job of having programs that he taught for both groups. The passion Tim has really shines when he is presenting. He made sure all of the Girl Scout troop had fun and made sure every girl was involved and not left out. To me, that is what separates a good Geocacher from a great Geocacher. I’m not sure what all the criteria for winning is, but if it us by how many people a person has taught and helped, then the Weasel wins hands down. I am willing to bet that the smiles he sees on these young faces he is trying to mold, means more to him than any “smiley” or favorite point you could give him. Thanks Weasel for all you do for the Geocaching and other communities.
I vote for the Raven! Never been to any of his caches, but when jcanyoneer raves about something, you better believe it’s the best there is!
I don’t know the other guys, but the raven is legend-fer sure!
The Raven!
The Raven of course!
The Raven-Has to be! No way there is anyone better!
Gotta vote for the Raven! Can’t imagine any other cacher putting as much work into a cache (or caches) as this guy does! If he’s not GOTM, then something in wrong with your system!
I’m a Weasel voter. This is just an unfortunate month that there are such great nominees. I think only having 1 winner this month would be very unfortunate. You have a very good engineer and a very good conservationist/educator. This is like comparing apples to oranges. I have seen good engineered caches and know they can take a lot of hours to create. I think what you can’t see is the amount of hours the Weasel has donated to his countless number of classes he has taught. Since these are not “official” events, people do not get to see the big picture of all the Weasel has done. Hopefully the voting committee takes this into consideration. The number of votes that each The Weasel and The Raven have received, show that they both are very well respected by their fellow cachers. Hopefully the powers that be do the right thing and award both of these great people the award!
What’s a Weasel look like? I vote for Tim.
I think that the raven is a great choice!!!!
Going for the Iowa guy Weasel
I don’t geocache often, but when I do it is to one of the Raven’s
Raven is the best!
Voting for my friend, The Weasel. As a former cacher, I was with The Weasel when he did his first cache find back in 2002. I bailed out after a few months, but Tim has put in going on 11 years….amazing! Tim’s work with the Linn County Conservation has actually spanned more than 20 years when was a volunteer back in the early 1990’s. I think this a important fact as when Geocaching came around, this made it very easy to bring that park service on board and allow Geocaches to be placed on park property. I think their familiarity with Tim and his work in conservation made them feel at ease that Geocaching was a good thing. In fact, Tim’s maintenance cache is placed at the Linn County Conservation headquarters. Tim’s close relationship with the LCC has opened the door for caches to be placed by other Geocachers. It’s the “behind the scenes” things like this that most people don’t know about Tim, that I felt people should know about him. If it wasn’t for Tim, I am willing to bet it wouldn’t have been as easy to get the Linn County Conservation involved in Geocaching and support it.
Our vote goes to “the Raven”. After seeing a post about Prescott and the “Labyrynth”, last year, we had to go there to see for ourselves. WOW!!! Didn’t get many other caches that day as we were consumed with trying to conquer this tricky one. Before we even knew it, we had been there for over and hour. Never did get to the second reward. We will return this spring and dive into more of “The Raven” caches. Looking forward to meeting him one of these days.