Spotlight on – NCTreker !

What is your real name? 

Greg Mitchell    

What do you do for a living?

New Product Engineering Manager for an Electro-Mechanical Enclosure Manufacturer.

Care to share any information on your family?

My wife Mildred (NCTrekess) and I have lived in the Triangle area for the past 20 years.  Son’s Tanner and Eric both live in the area as well.

Are any family member’s geocachers? 

Mildred enjoys events and we plan weekend getaways throughout the year around some of our favorite events, particularly the Fall Fling, and the Hampton Roads early fall event.  Tanner went caching a bit when he lived at home but only caches now if he’s in the car with us and I say “pull over there’s a cache only 200 feet away”.

When did you start geocaching? 

I began geocaching in the fall of 2002 soon after getting my first GPS.  The first cache find was a “Cache on Delivery” devilish hide by Lake Lynn.  I learned to DNF early and often.

Where did you first learn about caching? If another geocacher, who?

I first learned of geocaching via an American Airlines in-flight magazine.  My birthday was fast approaching so I got a Magellan Gold as a birthday gift.  After getting the GPS configured I was surprised to find the nearest geocache was only a tenth of a mile away on a greenway at Lake Lynn.  

What is the origin of your caching name? 

I have always been a fan of Star Trek, and since Trekking in the mountains was another past-time, NCTreker seemed like a fun name to adopt.

What has been your most memorable caching moment so far?

I doubt I could distill it to a single moment.  But a brief top 5:   (1) Climbing for a cache at Dragon’s Tooth near Roanoke.  I began before daybreak in a pea-soup fog and found the cache just as the fog broke and the sun came out providing spectacular views.  (2) The first Team CHB trip to Nashville, TN.  Three days of non-stop caching with six guys in van.  One of the highlights was finding a cache on a bridge late after midnight as a clothing commercial was being filmed on the bridge. (3) Being present at Fraygirls’ infamous “Drown All the Cachers” Flash Mob event on the Cape Fear river, forever to be known as the (S)wimseyguy incident. (4) Caching trip to Hickory with Team CHB when the locals got wind and stalked us by leaving Polaroid pictures of us looking for the previous cache in the next cache on our list.  (5) Completing the original Tube Torcher solo and doing a few of the stages at night. 

What kind of caches do you most enjoy looking for? 

I like caches that provide a challenge or bring me to a spot worth visiting.  When WE4NCS first put out “Black Thing #1” I spent an entire summer looking for that cache.  Probably visited the cache site 30 times before finally finding it.

What kind of events do you most enjoy attending?

I tend to prefer events held outside at parks or other venues.   It’s great to be able to just mingle with different groups of people and pull up a chair and compare experiences.

Describe your ideal cache hunt. 

I use geocaching as a way to escape after a busy workweek so for me the ideal hunt starts at a trailhead and meanders through a variety of woodland environments before ending at a spot where I say “wow”.  Finding the cache is just icing on the cake at that point.

What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to take caching?

I’d actually choose a fictional character:  “Sherlock Holmes”   I could use some tips on the powers of observation.

Any other interests outside of geocaching?

I try to stay attuned to technology and how it impacts business and people.  I enjoy reading, and before geocaching I spent many a frustrating afternoon attempting to play golf.

Have you gotten other people interested in geocaching?  If so, about how many people? 

My niece Ashley got a GPS for Christmas a couple of years ago and I hid a special cache for her that she enjoys watching and refinding.  I’ve taken co-workers on cache finds while on business trips.  Once, while in Rochester NY we came out of a business meeting and there was a cache only a couple of hundred feet away on the Erie Canal trail.  Dressed in business attire, 3 of us slipped and slid around before coming up with the cache.

What type of GPS do you use?

I use a Garmin 60Csx. 

Do you use if for anything besides geocaching? 

I use it on all business trips for navigating from the airport to hotels and business sites.   I can’t even imagine using a paper map anymore.

How often do you geocache now?

Caching has been curtailed a bit over the last several months.  I still try and grab a cache whenever I have some free time, but haven’t devoted a full day to caching in a long time.

If you could hide a cache anywhere on the planet (forget the guidelines for this one), where would you put it and why? 

Outside a retirement home.  I don’t recall the hider who did this in Durham but I had a fantastic time seeking one hidden there.  The residents were all lined up on the porch in rockers yelling hotter or colder.   After finding the cache I talked to them for a bit and found they just delighted in watching someone search out this cache.   I’ve always thought that was the perfect binding of geocaching and community support.

Can you think of a theme song that would best describe your caching experiences?  

I’m pretty laid back and mellow so I’d probably go with something like James Taylor’s “Going to Carolina in my Mind”

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Not so much what I want to be but what I’d like to do.   I’d love to be able to take a sabbatical and hike the AT sometime.  I’m not certain I’d do a through hike, but definitely would like to hike some of its more memorable sections, i.e. Maine 100 mile wilderness, Shennedoah Valley, Clingman’s Dome.

If you were a cache, what kind would you be?  What would your name be?

 I’d be a traditional cache hidden well off the beaten path named “Gee, I never expected to find this here”. 

Do you prefer cache run or long hike? 

I actually enjoy them both for totally different reasons.  Cache runs are fun done as a group.  The camaraderie that you build on these is incredible.  Long hikes are very soothing to me, so they fit the bill after hectic work weeks.  

Many of your hides have been highly recommended by a wide variety of geocachers – what for you is the most rewarding aspect of hiding caches? 

Unique spots I want to share with other people.   I love history and so much of it is being lost.  I enjoy finding those spots that we have a habit of flying by and give folks a reason to stop there for a few minutes.

Which of your own caches do you like the best and why?

Paint the Town is a favorite because of the background.  My father-in-law was in Durham Regional hospital with an extended illness so we spent a lot of time there.  I found a brochure on the murals of Durham so decided to seek them out during the trips.  This evolved into the idea for the multi-cache.  Another cache I enjoyed placing was Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water because of the unique location of each stage and the challenge of tying them all together.   But the best thing about any hide is the log entries of the finders.  It’s always gratifying when they share the experiences they had in finding the cache.

Of the areas of the country and state that you have geocached in, what is your favorite and why?

The mountains of NC and southern VA are by far my favorite.  There is such natural beauty in this area.  I’ve spent many a wonderful day just disappearing into Pisgah Forest at dawn and re-emerging as the sun is setting.  I envy those who live there and get to enjoy those views everyday.

You are on the Board of Directors for NCGO, what is that like? 

It’s been a very enjoyable experience to see the growth of NCGO in its short period of existence.  The fellow board members and officers have done an outstanding job leading the charge on some of the statewide issues that are going to increasingly come to the forefront as geocaching grows.  Issues such as CITO, land manager relations, community relations, and forums for cacher interactions.  It’s also been great to see the interactions that increasingly take place between geographically disperse cachers in the state.  Its great watching the family of geocachers grow and evolve.

What would you like to see more or less of at NCGO?

I would love to see NCGO continue to grow as a focal point for geocaching in NC.  I think its real strength can be a place where policies that effect geocaching throughout NC can be debated and resolved.  NCGO can be a visible face for issues such as opening state parks to caching, providing support for large scale CITO events, and providing a clearinghouse for expertise to be shared throughout the state.  What NCGO must not do in my opinion is overwhelm any of the local groups and organizations.  I love the fact that local groups like the mountain areas, foothills, piedmont, Fayetteville, and triangle have maintained local user groups where they foster relations and continually welcome new users.  Both NCGO and the local groups serve vital functions that enhance caching throughout the state.

We understand that you had some recent injuries in an accident, how is the recovery coming? 

I’m not up to long hiking speed yet, but expect to be back to full strength soon.  I do appreciate all the well wishes from the many friends I’ve made in the caching community.

Anything else you would care to share? – the soapbox is yours!

 I think it’s been amazing to see the proliferation of caches in 6-8 years.  When I began there were less than 100 caches within 100 miles.  Now there are literally 1000’s.  II have mixed feelings about that level of growth.  I feel the game has evolved from the concept of showing people some special spot or clever hide technique to simple “can a cache be placed here”.  This has led to some backlash against micros and park and grabs.  Some of this is because the game hasn’t evolved a rating system or robust filtering methodology.   I think both are becoming increasing necessary so people can find the caches they want to find.    The real shame is that many of gems of caches that made us fall in love with the game are now bypassed or lost in the clutter of so many caches.  

Increasingly as caching becomes a more urban pursuit I see incidents of environmental damage.  One of the responsibilities we take on as both hiders and finders is to leave a place as pristine as we find it.  (Within reason).  Some of this is education and some of it just being more responsible caretakers of the places we play the game.