On June 17, geocacher and adventurer ClayJar set off on his history-making journey through 15 states and three Canadian provinces, with an ammo box attached to the rear of his car...Along the way, 223 geocachers logged the cache as a find, and 84 travel bugs passed through. Which cache recently gained 11332.6 miles and 223 visitors? Why, ClayJar’s Hyundai, of course!
Say what?
That’s right. On June 17, geocacher, adventurer, and founder/proprieter of the #geocache chat room (accessible through the forums page or an IRC client using the irc.slashnet.org server), ClayJar set off on his history-making journey through 15 states and three Canadian provinces, with an ammo box attached to the rear of his car and everything he needed (MREs and all) packed for the trip. Along the way, 223 geocachers logged the cache as a find, and 84 travel bugs passed through.One question: Why?
Well, some of us in #geocache know that ClayJar has aspired for some time to travel through all of the states in his car...and now that he has completed his AlaskaQuest, all that remains on his future itinerary is Hawaii. That will definitely be the challenging one.
Another of ClayJar's aspirations was to log Arctic Crossing and drop off a travel bug. Mission accomplished!
But, how to plan this trip logistically? First, ClayJar negotiated the cache idea with TPTB (The Powers That Be at GC.com). I’m not familiar with this process, but it sounds as if it must have been arduous. He rigged up a really cool tracking page that could be updated remotely, and employed a few #geocache regulars to help him with the updating and additions of new stops. He updated the cache page to show the registered stops, and promised to notify each of us as he got close to our locations. He also arranged for someone to care for his cat while he was gone.
How to prepare the vehicle? ClayJar removed the passenger seat from his car in order to pack in a cooler and containers of food, and installed a makeshift bed. He attached the cache itself to the back of the vehicle. And then, after a dry run to an event in Georgia on June 12 and an impromptu Alabama visit, he was on his way!
He drove through his home state of Louisiana, meeting up with a few cachers along the way, and then on through Texas and Arizona (where I managed to help him arrange an impromptu Phoenix stop). California was next, where he met many cachers.
I was lucky enough to catch up with the ambitious ClayJar on June 19, in remote Lathrop, California, along with a few other cachers. Alas, due to the traffic, we kept him waiting longer than we should have, and
before too long, it was time for him to hit the road once again. From there, he proceeded north through the rest of California and into Oregon before nightfall.
On June 20, he traveled through Washington and into Canada, and by dinner time on June 22, he had arrived in Alaska.
During the Alaska portion of the trip, the cachemobile apparently suffered two flat tires, but by June 25, he was back in Canada and headed toward the United States. Along the route through the U.S., he met up with various other cachers, just as he had on his entire trip, until he reached home on June 29th.
On July 3, ClayJar made an appearance at Geo-Woodstock, bringing the total number of find logs to 223 (as of this writing).
This was a fascinating journey to observe and follow, and I was pleased both to be involved with setting up ClayJar's last-minute meetings, and meeting the man himself. I look forward to Hawaii Quest 2005!