“Quest of Iconic Proportions”

By Gary Braman (Fried Okra)

(May 7, 2009)

 

Gredgeman and I would like to thank everyone that took an interest in our Quest of Iconic Proportions – The Quest for 13.

 

Gredgeman and I have had a trip to the Seattle area planned since mid December of last year.  As time grew near we realized that we had a unique opportunity to claim 13 of the 14 active Geocaching icons in one day.  The only icon we were not able to log was a MEGA event.  We decided to make this trip more about completing this quest than stacking up numbers.  We were glad we did.  We were fortunate enough to see many incredible places and meet some even more incredible people.

 

During our trip, I carried my SPOT messenger http://www.findmespot.com and posted a link to my route on my website.  http://www.garybraman.com  We also logged our status from time to time using Twitter and Facebook.  Several of our Geocaching friends and many members of our family followed our journey and commented on our status throughout the trip.  A select few individuals were able to follow me in real time using Google’s Latitude.

 

Our trip also included a visit to the Groundspeak HQ.  We enjoyed meeting several cachers at HQ including one cacher that knew who I was.  Weird.  We also made a trip to the Original Stash Plaque on May 3rd,  the Anniversary of Geocaching.

 

The 13 are:

1. Traditional http://coord.info/GC18693 Geo Java Fix by ToniR and the hubbe

2. Multi http://coord.info/GCYKEX Spin the Globe by Eye Cacher

3. Mystery http://coord.info/GC1BHEA  Periodic Insanity by Smylegirl

4. Letterbox http://coord.info/GC9DE5  Padden Puppy Trove by ECO Trackers

5. Earth http://coord.info/GC13E3X  Chockunut Fossil Finds by Half-Canadian and Scooter the Wonder Dog

6. Webcam http://coord.info/GCH6MG  University of Christi by GEM's

7. Virtual http://coord.info/GC1E63  Local Meridian by CragSeeker

8. Event http://coord.info/GC1NWAR  Zombies in the Park by GEOBELLS

9. CITO http://coord.info/GC1NKEV  by WSGA 48 North Chapter

10. Benchmark http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=SY4314 Space Needle

11. Maze http://coord.info/GC1MMFN  GPS Adventure Maze by Groundspeak BONUS - WAYMARK - PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER

12. APE http://coord.info/GC1169  Mission 9 by Project APE (Moun10Bike)

13. Wherigo http://coord.info/GC1A738  So Simple, Even a Caveman can do it. by shutle64

 

Our trip also included a quick trip into Canada on Friday night.  We wanted to grab an Earthcache and a couple of more in Canada just to say we did.  We did.

 

During our trip we found three very cool night caches in Bellingham, Wa.  These caches were a bit different than your standard reflector on a tree caches.  I’m sure there will be a variant of these caches placed here in Missouri sometime this year.  They are: http://coord.info/GC1CCFG - Dark Knight by Rinkster & the Rink Rats; http://coord.info/GC1G564 - Queen of The Night ~ ToniR's Laser Light Show! By Geobells & Legoboyjj; and http://coord.info/GC1HAVE - Brian the Goblin King by Tye. (We came across a group of people dressed as witches huddled in a circle during this cache hunt.  They were NOT playing cribbage, so we moved on.)

 

The trip to the A.P.E. cache was the highlight of the trip.  We had to rent snowshoes at R.E.I. and were glad we had them.  We displayed some MAD hiking and Geocaching SKILLS during this hike.  I don’t think I’ve laughed harder than watching Gredgeman try to get over a downed tree buried in four feet of snow.  I returned the favor by face planting while traversing a 45 degree snow covered hill in snowshoes.  All photos and videos of these events have since been destroyed.

 

We had to drive WAY out of our way to claim the WHERIGO icon.  There isn’t a Wheirgo cartridge (cache) anywhere near Seattle.

 

One last note.  I did NOT eat any watermelon on this trip.  I also did not see any Oompa Loompas or shaved squirrels during our quest.  We did see an abundance of Hippies, witches, and….. (not that there is anything wrong with that.)

 

Thanks again for following along and the kind words.  If you don’t care, why are you still reading this far into it?

 

GW7 will make all 14 available icons in one month.

 

What is next?

 

Fried Okra.

 

Camdenton, Mo.