This Golden Hour

38. Chris Ronan and Geocaching

• Timothy Eaton

Share episode

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Chris Ronan from Seattle, Washington. Chris is not a homeschool parent or connected to homeschool really at all, except that he works for a company that facilitates an outdoor experience that many homeschool families enjoy: Geocaching. Chris is the senior public relations manager of Geocaching, and he also spends a lot of time training Geocaching volunteers. Over a decade ago, Chris and his wife became interested in Geocaching on a trip to visit his sister. They fell in love with it and Chris found himself, like Charlie Bucket who was fortunate to visit Wonka's chocolate factory, eventually working for Geocaching. The company started in the year 2000 after a man from Oregon hid a container and challenged people online to find it. Four months later, Geocaching was official, and today there are more than 3.3 million geocaches in more than 190 countries throughout the world. Homeschool families tend to love time in nature and going on field trips, and Geocaching provides an ideal activity for both. In this conversation, listeners will learn more about Geocaching, and they might feel more inclined to give Geocaching a try.

Connect with Chris Ronan
https://www.geocaching.com/play

This Golden Hour

Chris Ronan:

So geocaching at its most basic is. It's a high tech game of hide and seek. So somebody hides a container for other people to find and the container, it's called a geocache. They place it somewhere in the real world. They post the coordinates the latitude and longitude for the location and details about the geocache through geocaching. com, and then other people use the geocaching app. Or geocaching. com to go out and try to find the container. And once they have found it, they sign the logbook that is inside, re hide it as they found it, and then use the app or the website to share their experience.

Timmy Eaton:

Hi, I'm Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and doctor of education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out. But people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling. And homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of this Golden Hour Podcast as you exercise, drive, clean, or just chill. You're listening to this Golden Hour Podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Chris Ronan from Seattle, Washington. Chris is not a homeschool parent or connected to homeschool really at all, except that he works for a company that facilitates an outdoor experience that many homeschool families enjoy, geocaching. Chris is the senior public relations manager of geocaching and also spends a lot of time training geocaching volunteers. Over a decade ago, Chris and his wife became interested in geocaching on a trip to visit his sister. They fell in love with it, And Chris found himself, like Charlie Bucket, who was fortunate to visit Wonka's Chocolate Factory, eventually working for geocaching. The company started in the year 2000, after a man from Oregon hit a container and challenged people online to find it. Four months later, geocaching was official. And today there are more than 3. 3 million geocaches and more than 190 countries throughout the world. Homeschool families tend to love time in nature and going on field trips and geocaching provides an ideal activity for both. In this conversation, listeners will learn more about geocaching and they might feel more inclined to give geocaching a try. Welcome to this golden hour podcast today. We have a special visitor with us. Chris Ronan, who is the senior public relations manager at geocaching and and do you guys usually call it geocaching. com or do you just call it geocache or what's like the The formal way to, to name it,

Chris Ronan:

I guess if you were to have a formal name, it would be geocaching HQ. But certainly geocaching. com is what most people know us for. So you can call us whatever you like.

Timmy Eaton:

Perfect. Thank you so much, honestly, for taking time and doing this with us. We're excited. And Our audience, like you and I have talked about is a homeschool audience and lots of homeschoolers love geocaching and actually have a unique opportunity with it because they have time during the day, I would say that a lot of people don't have. And so it's a good niche when it comes to those types of activities. Can you just start us off and maybe tell us what you were telling me before we started recording. About your position with volunteers, and then you're, you have a dual role as the PR manager.

Chris Ronan:

Yeah, exactly. I came to Geocaching HQ about nine years ago. Before I came here, I, my hobby was geocaching. Really crazy about it and love doing it. And so getting to come to work here was, I always tell people it's a little bit like when Charlie Bucket got to go to the chocolate factory it's a little bit like that. So I love being here and I came here for a role on what we call the community volunteer support team. So there are hundreds of community volunteers around the world who volunteer Geocaching communities. A lot of those people are what are known as reviewers and reviewers are the ones who, if a person submits a geocache on geocaching. com wants it to be published on our website, it doesn't just happen automatically. After you submit it for publication, a local volunteer will look at it, make sure that it complies with the guidelines of the website, make sure it's not in a restricted area or private property, stuff like that. And then if everything works out, they'll hit publish and it goes live. So my team works with The volunteers to make sure that they have the tools that they need to do what they do. And again, those might be reviewers. There are also people who translate for our apps and our website are they're translated into more than 20 languages. We have forums, online forums with moderators. And so those moderators are volunteers as well. So my team works with those volunteers. And then the other part of my job is I get to talk about geocaching as the public relations manager for the company, which again is awesome because of my love for geocaching. I love talking about it. And yeah, having conversations like this is one of the best parts of what I do.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah, it is fun. So when did you get into it? Like, when did you start geocaching yourself?

Chris Ronan:

Yeah, I started about 12 years ago. My wife and I lived in the Kansas city area in here in the U. S. I know you're up in Canada. I

Timmy Eaton:

actually, I actually lived in Kansas city when I was about two years old. My family, are you kidding me? And then we moved to then we moved to Chicago. That's where I grew up in the Chicago area. But anyway, I married a Canadian and here we are.

Chris Ronan:

We've got that connection then together. Yeah. So I'm, I, yeah. Grew up spent almost my whole life in Kansas City, and there was this one summer that my wife and I were going to go visit my sister in Colorado, and we were going to be doing some camping along the way. And when I looked for camping information on the. State of Kansas parks website, I saw something about geocaching and I'd heard about it here and there, but never tried it before. And I thought that might be cool to do while we're camping. So I downloaded the app and look to see that there were some geocaches in these. Places where we would be going camping and by the end of that, we got so into it that by the end of that year. We had so basically this, what the state parks thing was what they had placed a geocache at every state park in Kansas. And by the end of the year, we had been to almost all of those state parks where we just kept going. And that just started our love for it. And do you guys have

Timmy Eaton:

any kids at the time?

Chris Ronan:

No, we don't have kids. And which is really, I've taken my nieces and nephew geocaching, but. There is something really fun about going with kids and I've got friends with kids and have been able to share the experience with them and because it is like this high tech. Game of hide and seek and what's better as a kid than playing hide and seek and going and finding things. Yeah it's great with kids and that's another reason why it's so fun to talk about it with your audience.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes, indeed. I I noticed on the website that it talks about it being the world's largest treasure hunt. And it's funny that you said 12 years ago, because that's just about when we started here in Southern Alberta, we live. About a half an hour. 45 minutes from Glacier national park on the Montana side and then Waterton national park on the on the Alberta side and it's, there's good geocaching here. And so my wife, like we, we started homeschooling about 15 years ago and my wife is always looking around and she came across it and we had heard it just like you were saying, we heard about it and then we we started doing it and I still remember the places where we planted some cause we moved away for a while for about six years. And then we moved back and I still remember the places. And then now my kids just did one recently. So it's just about not even a kilometer from where I live right now. And it's so fun. We'll be coming back from something and we'll see people. We'll actually get a notification and and then we'll see people there. And so it's awesome to see people discover it. So can I ask just, this is totally just out of curiosity. What's been like the coolest stuff that you have either found or left. Oh my

Chris Ronan:

gosh, that's a great question. It's hard to pick cause I've literally found thousands of geocaches. And maybe

Timmy Eaton:

you should tell people how it works. Cause I'm just, I'm here. I am assuming that every listener knows how geocaching works, but maybe tell them how it works. And then you can say, Oh, this was a cool thing I found, or that I left or whatever.

Chris Ronan:

Yeah that's a great idea. So geocaching at its most basic is. It's a high tech game of hide and seek. So somebody hides a container for other people to find and the container, it's called a geocache. They place it somewhere in the real world. They post the coordinates the latitude and longitude for the location and details about the geocache through geocaching. com. And then other people use the geocaching app. Or geocaching. com to go out and try to find the container. And once they have found it, they sign the logbook that is inside, re hide it as they found it, and then use the app or the website to share their experience. So that's the gist of it. And For me, it's funny. I don't, I guess I don't think so much about the containers themselves. Although I found some really fun Gadgety type stuff with electronics. That's really intricate But I guess what I think more about are the places and the experiences The experience

Timmy Eaton:

is just looking and seeking and then actually find it, right?

Chris Ronan:

Yeah, exactly and a lot of times If you're just in your local area, being able to discover a place that maybe you never knew about. Again, when I started, I was in this area in Kansas City where I had spent my whole life and I would end up going to neighborhoods or seeing viewpoints that I just never even come across before, because I think, as humans, we get into a routine. We go to work, or we go to school, or we go to the you. Places that we like to go and we don't deviate necessarily from those places. Yes. And we miss a lot of stuff around us because of that. And geocaching tends to take you out of those routines and take you to places that you might not have found otherwise. And that's probably my, that's probably my favorite thing about it. I

Timmy Eaton:

agree with that. And, I took a, I grew up in the city, like right outside the, in the suburbs of Chicago. And I remember when I went to university for the first year, I went to university in the West and I took this humanities class and it was like, I had never experienced something like this where basically the class was teaching. It was all about poetry, about classical music, about Independent films. And the whole premise of the class, I would say was slow down, put the box office stuff behind you and find things that are going to help you to sit still and consider things and ponder and think and slow down and like you said, be present with what's around you. And it does like geocaching one, one, one of the, I would say one, a huge commonality among homeschool families is that we love the outdoors and as much as we can to limit screen time and at least that's typical and geocaching gets you outside and it gets you doing something very productive, very educational. And I love, we lived in Edmonton and I remember I've driven on this one main road a million times and there was this geocache that we finally did and it was by a Home Depot. And it just every time I pass that Home Depot, I think of that cache and I love that it changes the mundane and the common into something special. And I feel like that course that I took in university did the same thing. And it's, and that's, I think that's a real. Value that a lot of homeschoolers have in a lot of families. I'm not saying all like just homeschoolers but it's just to get outside, slow down and behold the things that are all around us. And so geocaching definitely definitely facilitates that.

Chris Ronan:

So I love that. Yeah. I, and I never, I'd never put that, made that connection with like humanities and stuff like that, but I really like it and it, yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

Timmy Eaton:

So can you give us a little bit of a history, like background, like when did geocaching start and then what's been your involvement with the main creators or whatever. And give us a little bit of

Chris Ronan:

history. Yeah. So geocaching started in the year 2000 and that's when. The U. S. government effectively de scrambled GPS signals. And when that happened, GPS devices, like consumer devices, instantly became 10 times more accurate than they had been before those signals were de scrambled. Wow, I didn't realize

Timmy Eaton:

that. That's really cool.

Chris Ronan:

Yeah. And so it went from, I don't know, they were accurate to a couple hundred feet to they were accurate to 15 to 20 feet. So a man in Oregon named Dave Ulmer. Wanted to test the accuracy of these GPS devices. So he hit a container in Oregon, mark the coordinates, put the information online. This was before big websites, back in the year 2000, there was, it was more bulletin boards and stuff like that and challenged anybody to try to find this container and three days later, somebody did find it and that was the start of what we now know as geocaching. And four months after that, in September of 2000, geocaching. com went live and that the website was started by the founders of geocaching HQ, which were Jeremy Irish Brian Roth, who is currently our president and CEO and Elias Alvord. And there were 75 geocache locations on geocaching. com at the very beginning. And now fast forward, and

Timmy Eaton:

that was all in the Western United States at that time. No.

Chris Ronan:

No. They were not all in the Western US, but I would say primarily, but no, they were, they had spread out a little bit by then. And if you fast forward, it's been 23 years. There are just over 3. 3 million. Geocaches in over 190 countries around the world waiting to be found. So yeah, it's pretty remarkable to think about the explosion over the

Timmy Eaton:

past. No, that's amazing. Like you said, especially when it originated in a time where it wasn't like today where something goes viral in a, in a couple of hours potentially. And so have you. Are you able to, I'm sure that you guys have an idea of like where, what countries are like way into it. And I know, obviously out of 190, that might be difficult to to discern, but who where is the concentration happening? What are some main players in the, in geocaching? Sure.

Chris Ronan:

The U S is still the, I would say number one, if you want to, if you want to do that, but Germany is also very into geocaching and I would say per capita, probably more than the U S Canada, UK, France Czech Czech Republic. Yeah, those are some of the major countries. But what's really interesting about it is over time watching as Some countries like the U. S. is a fairly mature country as far as geocaching goes. Germany is similar in that way. But then you see a country like France that has really grown in geocaching in more recent years and other countries similarly are. A little later to the game, but now they're discovering it. And I was actually in Japan on vacation earlier this year, and I got to spend some time with some geocachers. And it was really fun to see how enthusiastic they were about the game, which is they are at a different point in their evolution when it comes to geocaching. And so it was just fun to see their perspective on the game compared to people that have been playing it for 20 years here in the U. S. Yeah, yeah. So it's fun to see how the game is played differently in different places and how it differs a little bit based on how Old the game is in those countries totally.

Timmy Eaton:

So did you find yourself like giving tips? That kind of thing? Is that what you mean? Like when you say the way the game is played, I haven't heard it said that way. And so talk about that a little bit.

Chris Ronan:

What I would say is for instance if you go to Germany. And you say to somebody, I want to go find a tree climbing geocache like the ones that I'm used to in the U. S. would be think about just climbing a tree like you probably do in Canada. It's very, it's just very basic. If you go to Germany, a tree climbing cash is, they almost all have climbing gear in the backs of their cars and it's a whole pulley system where they're bringing themselves up a tree. So it's a very different experience than what we have here. That's

Timmy Eaton:

intense. So they're not joking

Chris Ronan:

around. Exactly. So it's just interesting that they've taken the game in that direction. Whereas when I was in Japan the game was much more basic. There wasn't, I didn't need. Any equipment or stuff like that. It was, they haven't gotten to that point yet. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. It depends on the culture of a country and that's what's cool about it is just each country and can do it there. And people can just do it their own way, whatever works for their country. So that's, what's fun for me is I've traveled over the years and gotten to see. The game played in different places just to see that there are little differences, sometimes big differences, but often it's just little differences that are again, just vary by culture. It's just fun to

Timmy Eaton:

see that. That's interesting. Like I wouldn't even know what to guess, but that's interesting that Germany have you been to Germany and seen those kind of ashes and trees? Is it like the kind of thing where if you're not into heights, you're not doing those or

Chris Ronan:

probably not. I can't imagine. And I. It actually wasn't just that. They also, there was some repelling, there was a lot more repelling going on than there is here in the States. And that's not really my thing, but I thought when in Rome, or in this case, when in Germany I ought to give this a try. And so I did, I'm glad I did it once it's again, it's still not my thing. I don't think it ever would be, but but it was just fun to see how. That was their thing for a lot of those people. And that's the other thing I would say, I, I don't want to hear people to hear this and be like, Oh, geocaching is all about climbing trees and repelling that's one of the really neat things about it. And we can talk as much or as little about this as you want, but a geocache is given a rating by its. By the person that placed it on a one on a scale of one to five by terrain and by difficulty. So a one being easiest and five being hardest. So if you see a one, one one terrain, one difficulty, that's should be a really easy thing to find in a really easy place to get to. Whereas a five, five, Would be very hard to find in a very difficult place. You might need a boat or a kayak or climbing gear or whatever

Timmy Eaton:

to get somebody moderate that. Or does somebody arbitrate that in the sense that they go, that's accurate. Does anybody from geocaching go or is that just up to the

Chris Ronan:

players? It's up to the players because it's so subjective that it would be. Really impossible for the volunteer reviewers to try to accurately assess that. So it's, it, the community polices itself in that way. And a lot of times if somebody places a geocache with a certain rating, they'll probably find out pretty quickly via the logs on their cash page where people say, boy, this was a lot harder than it was made out to be, or this was a lot easier than it was made out to be. And so the. The owner can maybe make some adjustments there in the early going to make it more accurate. But I say that because one of the great things about the game again is you can choose your own adventure. So to speak, you can decide, Hey, I've got a couple of four or five, six year old kids. We want to stick to stuff that's just going to be a nice, pleasant.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. We want to give them a reinforcing experience. Like you, you find stuff, man. Like

Chris Ronan:

exactly. So you can direct yourself to stuff like that. Whereas if you're more advanced in the game, you've been doing it longer. You want more of a challenge. You can go and find those two. So that's one of the great things about geocaching as

Timmy Eaton:

well. And I remember when we were starting, we would be like going somewhere as a family and we'd be like, okay, we got two hours open. Let's go do this. We have six kids and they were pretty close together. And so it was so fun, man. Like you would just see them scramble. I'd be driving. We'd be copping out of the car. It was like Halloween because you'd go a little bit, they'd jump out and they go, it's not here. And then I loved those days. Those memories are awesome. And I liked the point you made about the community. And that's one thing I would, that's one thing I would endorse as well. The community is and I'm sure there's a few exceptions to this, obviously it's, but People are just good to keep a good log and put in things and take things and. And put it in places it's accurate most of the time. And so I found that so impressive, especially when something is so self directed by the community, that's impressive. And so that's a great thing. What else what would you tell people that are like wondering what to use to learn about the coordinates and what's, is it just your, is it just cell phones that people are using today, or do people actually get like probably 12 Eight or nine years ago, we got like an actual Garmin GPS, type thing. And we were getting into it, but what would you say now, if you were talking to people that are just starting out or what's out there, what's the best thing to start with?

Chris Ronan:

Yeah. I think if you're just starting out that just downloading the geocaching app to your phone is going to be fine for you. And then if you, because the app's free, you can get started for free. If you decide that you. You really want the extra features that come along with premium membership. That's 30 a year, but but just to get started doing it for free is going to be fine for you with your phone. And I do use both a phone and I have a GPA, a dedicated GPS device. I more use that personally, if I'm going to be out. In in the mountains here in Washington or a place where I am afraid I'm going to drop my phone. I'm not so much afraid about dropping a GPS. They're pretty rugged. But if I'm just out, if I'm just out in town and I'm, I decide, Hey, I want to go find a geocache. There's nothing more convenient than just opening up the app and seeing what's close by. So for finding geocaches for most people the app is going to serve your needs very well.

Timmy Eaton:

And you said there's, would you say 3. 3 million caches all over the world?

Chris Ronan:

That's correct. Over 3. 3 million in, in, in the world. It's pretty remarkable. And and yeah, more happening every day and, some go away and then others replace them and it's, it's, yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

is there a steady, is there a steady rate of growth as far as like new caches coming out? And yeah, it it,

Chris Ronan:

it, again, it depends. On the country, there's certain places where it's more mature. It's more of a plateau and there's other places where it's just starting. It's great. Yeah. It's growing by leaps and bounds. So they all kind of balance each other out a little bit. So yeah, but yeah, 3. 3 million. It's pretty, pretty amazing to think about.

Timmy Eaton:

It's fun when you're with the kids. Like this is something I would tell homeschool families. It's fun when you, Go out and you can see them all over like the area. And then, the kids can, it's just it's one of those activities, I teach and it's one of the challenges of teaching right now is the kids have so much entertainment in their pockets or on their phones or whatever. And so it's hard, you can't compete with that, but this is something that I have seen universally engaging. Like I haven't seen a kid be like, I'm not into this. I just see them get into it and they want to learn and they learn how to use the coordinates. And so they're learning skills. And so I think it's a, I think it's such a great activity. Do you know anything about, do you have any like knowledge about how many homeschoolers, I don't know how you would ascertain that information, but do you have a hunch about how many homeschoolers use geocaching or is there anything specific to homeschool families? Yeah, no,

Chris Ronan:

We don't keep a lot of demographic information on people for privacy purposes. So I wish I could say more about that. I feel the same way you did. You alluded to earlier that it's a great activity for homeschool families. And so I, I expect there probably are quite a few people out there using it. But no we don't have any exact statistics about how many there might be. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

You and I were talking about just like the idea that there's time and like where, it's not it's not like you, it's like this giant crowd is at a geocache and you can't get to it but it's just nice to be able to use the day, get outdoors and do it now. Is there an element of geocaching that kind of happens at night? I've never really done that. We've always done it during the day. Is there anything going on with that?

Chris Ronan:

There is. So for every geocache listing, there are attributes there. They're called. So if you look at the geocache page on the website or the app, you can look at the attributes and it's supposed to be a place where the cash owner can list things like there, there might be thorns or there might be I don't know. There's lots of different attributes that they can use to Help to describe the environment where you're going to find this geocache. And one of the attributes is night cash. So the way a night cash is supposed to work a traditional night cash is that you would use. Glints to find your way to the container. So you would like, you would start at a trailhead, for instance. Like the accordances would take you to a spot on a trail. And then you would start following these glints that are on trees or whatever. Of course, with a flashlight, you'd be looking for the fire tax or the glint, whatever you wanna call them. Yeah. And then eventually that would lead you to the geo cash container. So that is. A description of a traditional night cash. And I really love personally night catches. I think they're awesome, but the, one of the things that can be a little fresh first of all, there aren't a lot of them, but the ones that are frustrating is you really need to maintain those fire attacks because over time with weather, they can fade. And then if you miss one or two of them, you're off, you're really in trouble. So I've had those experiences too, where I'll be going along for. 800 meters or whatever. Walk on my walk, finding the fire tax and then they're gone. If you can find a good fire, a good nightcatch experience though they really are a

Timmy Eaton:

lot of fun. That does. That sounds really fun. I haven't done that. Who do you typically go with? Or do you go alone or like you said your wife, but. Yeah, my,

Chris Ronan:

so my wife and I mostly will go geocaching together, but it's fun, especially I have had some great in particular nightcash experience with groups. That's a fun thing to do is to go out with five or 10 people and everybody's got their flashlights and it's pretty, and it's also just safer. Even if you're in a what you expect to be a very safe place, like a, a park or a very, whatever, quiet area. It's nice to have a lot of people with you if you're gonna be out in the dark. And

Timmy Eaton:

is this like the what is it like the, they say the shoemaker, the kids have no shoes. Like when you started working with Geocaching, do you find yourself doing it less or do you still get to get out and do it quite a bit? Oh, I,

Chris Ronan:

oh, I do it just as much. I Cool the joke. Yeah. The joke I always make is that. Before when I went to work and I was looking at geocaching. com, I'd have to I changed to a different browser tab on my computer so that my boss didn't see what I was doing. Whereas now I'm supposed to be looking at the website. So it's great. But no I do most of my geocaching on the weekends personally, but we also do, we are very much encouraged to be. We uh, the company, yeah, going out. We were, we're told we've got a couple hours a month that we're supposed to go out on work time. And because they want us to be using the apps and using the website and experiencing what the users experience. And there's people like me, you don't have to convince me to do it. I'm going to be out there a lot, but then there's other people that. Haven't geocache much before they came to work here. And so the more that they can get to know the products and get to know the community, the better job they can do with building those products.

Timmy Eaton:

And how many people are working at geo? Is it like in different locations or is it in Seattle or or there, do you have locations throughout the U S or. Nope,

Chris Ronan:

are we are here in Seattle. We have about 90 employees between our primary office and we have a small warehouse in downtown Seattle with our shop team. They're the ones that we sell geocache containers and various geocache items, but all of us are here in Seattle.

Timmy Eaton:

And what's like the latest developments or what can people be like, Oh, that's cool. That's what's coming. Or what's the, what are you guys looking forward to? Or what do you, what's the, what are you consistently working on type thing? I think the

Chris Ronan:

thing that I would call the most recent development is probably our adventure lab app. So that's a separate app where you're trying to find non physical. Thing. So there is not a physical geocache. With Adventure Lab, you are going on an experience that will take you to, for instance I'm just trying to think of an example, like here in Seattle there's a cemetery, for instance, where it'll take you to the graves of some famous people. And so you might go to one and enter It might say go to Chris Ronan's grave or you'll find Chris Ronan's grave. Okay. What is the date of death kind of your date of birth? And you type that in and it says, you got it. And so people can use what's been great about adventure lab is it enables people to take the. Adventuring experience to places where maybe a physical geocache doesn't work out. Maybe it's a place that has a whole lot of people around it, or it just doesn't support a physical cash placement. And we have found that that, again, it's just opening up that opportunity to have discovery and adventure in places where you may not have been able to do it before.

Timmy Eaton:

Or not, there's not a physical opportunity for it. And

Chris Ronan:

Exactly, but again, you're still getting to discover a location. You still if you find that thing and plug in the code word or whatever it is, the number you're you actually still get a find on your geocaching account. So it's the same log in that you use for geocaching. It's. It's reciprocal and so if you just download adventure lab that's just a completely separate app, but it goes together really nicely with a geocaching.

Timmy Eaton:

I'm just thinking, I don't know if that example you gave was just because you said I'm just thinking about it and going to Chris Ronan's grave, but I was just, on, on the site, I noticed that you talk about How geocaching can be cross curricular as, educationally. And I want you to talk about that. But one thing I was just thinking is, honestly, the idea of family history, some kind of somehow tying in, that's such, that's on the rise too, as far as people really looking, I don't know if there's a market for that, where you can, use geocaching to identify what you were saying and not a physical cash, but. That'd be cool. But what did you guys what is the idea of cross curricular? Explain that a little more when you say, I just on, on the site, I was looking up different things and it had a I was just exploring the site and it said under education that it's cross curricular. I didn't know if it was just saying, and I didn't know if there was activities. There's a thing that says geocaching one on one, which basically helps new people that are new to it, to do it. And then I wondered if it was saying like it incorporates different kind of like subject matter, not just coordinate finding or scouting is a big part of that implements geocaching. I didn't know if there was another idea, if there's something that geocaching is doing to make it cross curricular among subject matters.

Chris Ronan:

No, I think, from our standpoint, it's more just making sure that educators and facilitators are aware of the activity and giving them ideas for for how it could potentially be used. And as you mentioned, there's a Boy Scouts merit badge, there's a Girl Scouts badge. So there, there are those bigger organizations that have found ways to incorporate geocaching and And then we do find that there are in various educational systems that that they're, some of them are doing it more officially. And some of them are doing it on a, just a classroom by classroom basis. But but, yeah it's certainly something that that we see out there. Yeah. And whether it's at camps or at or in a more official way in classrooms, but certainly it's a great way to be able to learn, as you said about latitude and longitude and about the, you look at the. Pamphlet I've actually working with the Boy Scouts of America on their pamphlet right now to help them with updates and stuff. It's pretty fascinating to see how they use it for way finding and for teaching people just about being in the outdoors, but then also just, about taking care of the environment and things like that using geocaching to, to teach those lessons to young people is really exciting. Yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

that's great. Are there other did you, are there ever any kind of competitions there actually

Chris Ronan:

are there. So the first one that comes to mind is there's a major geocaching event called MOGA and it's usually held somewhere in the Midwest of the United States and it is a competition Type of a thing I've actually competed in it once before, before I came to work at you, but they have a team competition and an individual. And so what they do is they have this defined I guess you'd call it a playing field. What they do, they, they don't hide containers. They hide these punches and you're, you carry a card around with you. And when you get to 1 of the punches, you punch it to show that you. You, so basically they, they give you the coordinates for all these punches. Yeah. You

Timmy Eaton:

can't really cheat in that system.

Chris Ronan:

Exactly. And then you have to see how many you can get to within the allotted time. And that's the competition. So there's that there's a couple of other major geocaching events that have various types of competitions, but mostly I would say that one of the good things about geocaching is it tends to. Be non competitive and that it's just something that you, yeah, do whenever you want to do it. But certainly as with anything, people are going to gamify it even more. And people have done that in various ways through some fun competitive

Timmy Eaton:

aspects. And again, I emphasize again, I just love that it's outdoors and then it's taking you to places and what are, what's typically being used as containers now? Cause I've seen a variety of like crazy duct tape stuff. I've probably the most common thing I've seen. Is like those little canisters. And sometimes people will have them camouflaged, but like little canisters of almost like a mint, like those little canisters that have a little like mints and then they'll put something small and yeah, like an Altoids thing and and, but I've seen some different ones. Some are really well done. Others are really sloppy,

Chris Ronan:

but yeah. And what we always recommend is that people try to use. Waterproof type containers that are which in Altoids container is not certainly, it largely depends on the environment. I just came from, I would spend a week in Arizona and you think you're in the desert. It's a very arid place. They get some rain occasionally, but a lot of they're going to have containers that are. generally going to fare better than we do here in Washington State where it's a much rainier moisture and you really need a waterproof container. So like a lock and lock type of a thing or a repurposed ammo can. So a lot of people go to those military surplus stores and get ammo cans that are waterproof. And those are some of the better containers because they stand up to the elements better, but, geocache containers can range from something as small as a thumbnail to, I've seen huge, again, you go over to Germany and one of my favorite examples is this group of people took these, I guess you would, shipping containers essentially, and put them all together and they essentially created I don't know if I call it an escape room, but it's basically you go from one to the next as you're solving puzzles. Oh, cool. From each of them. And it's incredible that somebody thought to dream that up and then put it together. And and then here and again, I've seen people use electronics to come up with ways to you have to I did 1 1 time where you had to do a assignment puzzle 1 of those with pushing these buttons until you got the sequences over and over again. And then once you got through them all. This little drawer popped open with the log book inside. So that's cool. Yeah, it's really amazing. But honestly, for me just finding that lock and lock in the woods or an ammo can on the top of a mountain, I'll take that every day. The,

Timmy Eaton:

we live right, very close to the mountains and I haven't actually done it in the mountain, I've done it in the national park, but I haven't really done it in the mountains, but I would love, a little bit, but not like high up and stuff like that. I wanted to transition just for a couple of questions to to wrap things up that are probably. Thing, questions you wouldn't have anticipated but first, I really thank you for that was awesome because I love I love what it is as an activity for any family. Like again, it doesn't have to be homeschool family, but obviously this is my, that's my audience. And and so I just definitely encourage that as an activity. It's such a great way to get outside and to be with your family and to learn and to enjoy nature. And it's fun and it's so enjoyable and educational at the same time. I was just wondering with your perspective, I just wanted to ask you a couple of homeschool questions. Because that's my audience and it's fun to have somebody, I don't know what your background is or what your exposure has been to homeschooling, but I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions because you're in this this is like one of those activities, geocaching that a homeschooler likes to latch on to they we typically like this kind of stuff. And so in your perspective like, first of all, just what is your, what's your thought on homeschooling? And you can be like, totally be totally straight up with me, but, what's been your exposure to it and what do you think

Chris Ronan:

about it? I Grew up in a, in, a, I guess you'd call it a traditional educational system going to public school and I later I guess most recently coached a cross country and at the high school where I attended. And so that's. So that's my primary personal experience. But, one of my best friends was homeschooled. And so I've, that's probably been my most exposure has just been talking to him about his experiences growing up and contrasting them with my own and, hearing some of the advantages. from my perspective that he had versus things that he thought I had advantages with. So it's it's fun to again, compare and contrast and see what the experiences were like for each person.

Timmy Eaton:

Do you, would you if you had kids, would that be something that you would consider, or is it like you've, have you ever thought about that before? I'm saying, I guess the thing that's surprised me, cause I had, I was one of those typical guys, like I just. My little exposure to it. I was your classic. I thought it was weird. And then, when we started having kids, we just started asking questions and really like the principles behind it. But from your perspective, back in the 80s and 90s, it was such a. It was such a thing that was it was so left field for the majority of people, but it's become more commonplace. Has that been your experience or is it still in your world? It's still like this weird thing that people do.

Chris Ronan:

Oh, no. I wouldn't say it's a weird thing. Again, as I said, one of my best buddies had a great experience with. I think for me personally, again, I don't have kids, but personally, don't really just don't see myself as a somebody who would be an effective teacher, and so that's probably where I would say I'm probably not the best person for that. And don't know that I would have the patience to be good at it, but it seems like a lot of people do yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

No. And I didn't give you the warning that I was going to ask that just, and that was just more like interesting to me than anything else. And so thanks for being willing to field those. Those are, that's just an interesting thing to think about when I'm talking to somebody who hasn't really had that exposure to it, perhaps. You have like with your friend but it was such a surprise. We, my wife and I surprised ourselves. And yeah. It's interesting but again, thank you so much for for spending time with us and sharing that was like, I, what I love about that is that, I would have never learned those inside things without talking to somebody that's that's a part of the company. And so thank you for taking time to be with us.

Chris Ronan:

Oh, it's absolutely my pleasure. Like I said, I love talking geocaching. It's I've pinched myself that I get to do it. So I'm glad to be able to come on here and talk with you. And hopefully one or two folks, at least from your audience might think about giving it a try.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, I think they will. I think they will. Thank you again for being with us. I appreciate it.

Chris Ronan:

My pleasure.

Timmy Eaton:

That wraps up another edition of this golden hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it. If you would take a minute and give us a review in Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps out a lot. And if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.