Geocaching Maps Part 1

Geocaching Map of Your Milestones & Extremes

 

Today I’d like to introduce you to Wayne, also known as geocacher cajunabear.  He’s come up with the coolest way to proudly display your geocaching milestones.  He makes old world style maps and inputs data taken from your geocaching statistics and then creates beautiful, personalized maps for display. 

Join me in a little Q & A with Wayne:

This first map is the one I made for DinaWorks.....

 

 

You’re a geocacher, correct?  How long have you been caching and how many finds do you have?

I have been geocaching since 2007 and have just over 3000 finds.

How did you become interested in map making?

My profession is as a GIS analyst and a Professional Land Surveyor in 2 states, both having a heavy mapping requirement.  I have been mapping since the 1970s.

This map belongs to Salz69 and was made commemorating his 25,000 finds..... Go Salz!

 

How did you come up with the idea to make these maps?  It's a very cool idea.

The New Orleans Metro Area has some great geocachers. I know, not the only area with great geocachers, but they took me under their wing as a newbie and had regular meetings.  There was always the recognition of geocachers that made milestones.  ShortCircuit2 was one of the torchbearers for such recognition and always had something for the latest achiever.  We were also close to some great south Mississippi Geocachers, who also have a great tradition of hospitality and recognition for achievers.  I do NOT have enough time to plan and hide caches, but I do love mapping and wanted to do something as a way of recognizing all the memories that our hobby affords us.  Hence the maps started out crudely at first, and as I worked with each geocacher some themes and techniques for displaying all the fun came about.  I love that the challenge and EVERY map is a challenge in a sense to capture the spirit of the hunter and the way they play the game.  

This map was made for Dutchlandian.  It was a difficult map to do because it shows both East and West Hemispheres.   At 3700 finds and counting, she is tearing up 2 continents!

 

Each map contains a large center map and then a variety of smaller maps on the outside edges.  What are some of the different categories people like you to map out?

Thanks for bringing this up.  This has become the best method to capture various themes of a geocacher's history.  The themes have almost always consisted of  the following series:

• First Finds by type, i.e., First Traditional, First Event, First Multicache, etc.
• First to Find map
• Best Day
• Best Weekend
• Detail Milestones
• Detail Extreme Finds
• Busy Day Challenge
• Max Distance/Day

But there have been inset maps also for the following:

• First finds by State or Country
• Delorme State Completion Map
• County Challenge Map
• Alphabet Challenge Map
• Favorite Finds
• Hides Map
• Favorite Trips showing multiple days of finds from a geocaching vacation.

As you can see the variations are really only a matter of conception, challenge, or imagination.

Astarandsons map has special geo-art features.....

This one with the hummingbird and smiley face is very cool - how did that come about?

 Geo-Art has been around for a while, but the geocacher that wanted that map had a special desire to have it shown on the map along with a couple of others.  She specifically requested and provided the info so that I would not miss it and therefore used some insets for the GEO-ART.  This is the very thing that I hope every geocacher would provide.  I run a number state generators on the myfinds file from a geocacher, but this level of detail requires the knowledge of the geocacher to let me know what may be missed in the process of looking for extremes and milestones for mapping.

This concludes part one in the Map Making series with Wayne, aka Cajunabear.  Please come back tomorrow to read Part 2, find out how you can order your very own map, hear all about 2 geocachers who are near and dear to Wayne and see their awesome maps.  See you tomorrow!