NWOG's Winter Featured Cachers are Hunter & Killer. They burst onto the geocaching scene in March of 2008 and quickly started tearing through caches faster than anyone could hide them! Very enthusiastic, and very friendly, H&K have quickly become prominent features of the region, racing out for FTF's and seemingly finding every cache from Marathon to Atikokan, from Thunder Bay down to Duluth and beyond. (February 2009)

1. How did you get your geocaching alias?

   First off Kathy and I would like to thank everyone for their nominations. We are honored considering how new we are at this.

   I got the name Hunter from an old timer on the 11 meter radio band (C.B.) when I first got on the air years ago. I had just joined and needed a handle, they selected Hunter because I hunt. Clever little monkeys. We are both still active on radio and have a tower in our yard and have talked all over the world during peak skip periods. As far as Kathy er ah, Killer… well I gave her that name when we first met in high school. We were only good friends back then, and come to think of it still are, and I would razz her and call her Killer Kowalski after the wrestler and her maiden name at the time. That name has stuck with her since.

2. What do you do when you're not geocaching?

   We both work, Kathy has been in grocery retail for 28 years and I have been with C.P. Rail for 33 years. Other than caching, we both enjoy the outdoors. Fishing and hunting have always been our passion, but we also enjoy just taking off for drives in the bush even when it’s not hunting season and always pack the cameras. Kathy loves drawing, gardening and the back yard is full of flowers in the summer She freaks when she see’s a bee or a wasp. I don’t get it but she likes it. As for me, computers keep me occupied, I enjoy picking up cheap used newer motherboards and processors, cases, video cards, hard drives, etc. put everything together, and give them to our sons friends if they do not have one or cannot afford one. Nice to see that smile on their faces.

3. When and how did you get started geocaching?

   A long time friend and co-worker of mine and also a ham radio operator and a member of geocaching.com, paul4051, mentioned it to me at work in the winter. I checked it out talked to Kathy about it, then forgot about it. It was during the winter blahs that we started talking about it again, looked on the site, seen there were a few around our place and said to each other, this might be good exercise and fun. Killer lost her sister a few years back, and she was the same age Killer is now. Killer found out her blood pressure was way out of whack, got it under control and the doctor told her to get out keep active and exercise. We both had GPSs so we joined up on March 27 2008. We were caching fools in those early days, running around like chickens with their heads cut off until we met matthewsmommy’s sister Tacomatose at a cache. She set us straight on how to do it, and after that things just got better, and the finds easier.

4. What do you like most about geocaching?

   Finding them!!! Is this a trick question? I hate not finding them and Killer has been known to thrash wildly and violently in bed after a DNF. And she punches in her sleep. Me I sob and weep uncontrollably. Besides that, we as others like the thrill of the hunt and the places they take you.

5. Do you have any geocaching pet-peeves?

   Not one to complain but pencils in log book bags drive us nuts. Does not take long to fill the bag full of holes. Hides on cabooses, you know, goofy hides, they are a pain. Just kidding Jim. You know what, it was tough but fun. Actually we love and enjoy all caches and will continue to try and do every cache in a reasonable area, like say, planet earth. Although we did a cache called Uranus.

6. What do you take with you when you go caching?

   It all depends on whether it is a city cache or one out in the bush. City caches, just the GPS and some swag, but usually we leave a loonie (dollar coin). If we know we will be shwacking, then we bring our GPS, cell phone, good quality compass, maps, GMRS radios, pens, pencils, swag, flagging tape, cooler with some food preferably garlic sausage from the Commissary, lots of water. The question is kind of tough, because if we have to drive far for one cache out in the bush, then we make a day of it, and bring the propane stove and cooking utensils, but then one time, dang Killer forgot the kitchen sink. So as far as the question, every thing including the kitchen sink for some, others just our shadows.

7. Have you introduced anyone to geocaching?

   Kathy and I have both mentioned it at work and people say it sounds fun and interesting. We have shown them on the computer, but so far no biters. My sister and brother in law are active with the Scouts, as well as Lakehead search and rescue, but so far their busy schedule just does not allow them to get out. I am trying to kick start paul4051 to get caching again, and his daughter is bugging him to go. So lets hope more join and I am a sure there will be a new batch of enthusiastic cachers this coming year in the area.

8. Which other geocacher has influenced/stands out to you the most?

   Tacomatose. Being new and not having a whole lot of luck, we had the pleasure of meeting up with her while doing a cache. I had no Idea what we were doing, Killer was also scratching her head. We were trying, but dammed if we could find anything. It was at that cache, Tacomatose with kids in tow, Palm Pilot in one hand GPS in the other walked up to the cache as if she hid it. And to find out she is from B.C. and a cache owner. I thought, she owns caches? In B.C. and she’s here in Blunder Bay? Looking for caches? Not knowing how caching worked and to be with someone that owns a cache, I thought WOW. I was impressed. Knowing now that it is no big deal to own a cache, but back then, at the time, it blew us away. She was a good teacher, and after her talk with us we realized we were going about this all wrong and that not all caches are easy Tupperware out in the open. There were devious hides out there to be found. Latter we found out she was matthewsmommy’s sister.

   Of course there has been some wild hides from geocachers in the Thunder Bay area, e.g. caches from shroomAzoom, ragbag, get_off_the_paved and many others.

9. What is the most interesting place geocaching has taken you?

   The most interesting place, lets see. Had to be in the office of the United States customs at the Canada U.S. border, waiting to see if they were going to snap on some latex gloves. We were on one of our regular trips to Duluth. We took the GPSs the laptop, my radio power supply and other electronic goodies that are necessary while caching. The customs officer asked the nature of our visit and we mention, shopping and geocaching. We had to explain geocaching to him several times, then as we are waiting to get our documents back we see him handing them to someone else and says to us park on the side and come on in. Now Killer panics. What’s going on? After 20 minutes of sitting in the office no one saying anything to us, them at their computers typing away and staring at us, finally an officer walks up to us and asks for the keys to the truck. We ask what’s going on, barely a response other than wait here we will be back. Killer is trembling now and another 30 minutes go by. They are going over the truck with a fine tooth comb. Finally he returns and asks the nature of our visit. Again I tell him shopping and a bit of geocaching. He hands us the keys and says I hope you find what you are looking for. Guess they were looking up what geocaching was. That was the most interesting place that geocaching has taken us. Needless to say on subsequent visits we just tell them shopping and make no mention of geocaching. Not sure if the mention of geocaching triggered a red flag or this was just a random search, but it scared the hell out of us.

10. What has been you most memorable geocaching find (or DNF?)

    Without a doubt, we both say Ragbag's Eagle Ridge cache. That was one of the longest hikes we have done for a cache with a nice added bonus of a long steep hike up after you thought you had walked more than far enough. The reward? A view worth every drop of sweat. We learned that day that you cannot carry enough water. Always bring more. After the almost four' hour hike in and back, we were bone dry, and had there been an ice cold beer or that ice cold water in the truck, as odd as it seems we would have chosen the water that day. Water never tasted so good and that’s what we remember.

11. Which of your hides are you the most pleased with?

    For Killer it is Shrimp. For me, Pine Baron. That tree was planted in 1978 in my fathers memory.

12. You've got so many finds in such a short time, how important are numbers to you, and what is your strategy for a successful (geocache) hunt?

    It is amazing how fast they do add up. As far as numbers, well yes they do mean something, but we do not say we are trying for “x” number by the end of the year. We never put any goals in our life style at home. It just adds to the stress in life. We do what we can be it caching, fishing hunting. There are limits on fish, partridge, deer, moose, but if we get one or two fish or birds and have an enjoyable outing, the memories last a lot longer. We take caching the same way, some days while on trips we may do a bunch of caches but they are easy, other days we may only go for a few and it may take longer, but the main thing is we enjoy it. When we no longer enjoy it, we stop and do something else, like go to Wal-Mart, shopping site seeing, then your brain says “Wal-Mart sucks, we should be caching,” and out we go again.

    As far as our strategy, we have learned to slow down when approaching ground zero, stop, look around you, and most times you can say to yourself, if I were to hide something where would I put it? Nine times outa ten we are wrong. Then we go full out and basically ripped the heck out of anything in sight. Much more satisfying, and a great stress reliever.

    That’s about it, again we would like to thank everyone for the nominations, and hope we meet up again at a cache somewhere. That is the part we really enjoy. Always more enjoyable speaking with someone in person, instead of on the computer.

Thanks for making us the winter featured cachers. It is a honour to be considered.