NWOG's Fall Featured Cacher is jleecollins (AKA CL02Jim, AKA Scouter Jim.) If you've ever found a cache on the highway near Marathon, it was probably one of Jim's. He's a prolific hider of caches all around the region and an even more prolific finder! He has been caching since early 2004 and has been a fixture ever since. (September 2008)

1. How did you get your geocaching alias?

   At the time I signed up in 2004, I could not think of a good user name, so basically the name I registered is basically deviation of my name. You will see a lot of my later caches with the user name ClO2Jim. I work in the pulp and paper industry (Senior Process Engineer at Marathon Pulp Inc.) My specialty, if you can say that, is dealing with chlorine dioxide (ClO2), either in pulp bleaching or chlorine dioxide generation. Some day, I should change my user name to ClO2Jim. Both my thesis's at University of Toronto dealt with chlorine dioxide bleaching.

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

   Recently, I have been having fun with my 1930 Ford Model A Roadster (by the why, it has a magnetic TB attached to it). I bought the roadster last fall. The body had already been restored about 9 years ago. This spring I installed a new original style interior. I have entered it in several car shows. I won third place finish (356 points out of 500) in Touring Class Judging at the 2008 Dallas Ford Model A Meet. It also won Spectator's Choice Award at the Show & Shine in Manitouwadge. The car has been used for one wedding. And some people may remember a picture of myself in the roadster was on page 2 of the Chronicle-Journal on August 14, 2008. (if you real close at the picture, you will see the TB on the car). The interesting thing is that working on the roadster and having fun with it has keep from putting out more caches in the Marathon area. Some people would think that this is a good thing. Fewer evil micro caches are getting out.

3. When and how did you get started geocaching?

   In the Fall of 2003, I saw a program on TVO about geocaching and thought it would be interesting to try. Shortly after I bought a Magellan Meridian Gold GPS. My first cache find was GCGB26: Bluelean Logic 4 - The Ghost Ship, on March 15, 2004, when I was on March break in the St. Catharines area visiting my grandmother. I am now on my 3rd GPS - Magellan eXplorist XL and recently (this past weekend I found my 1400th cache)

4. What do you like most about geocaching?

   Geocaching has lead me to many interesting areas that I probably would not have visited otherwise, like the top of Mount McKay for Nurse Duncan's First, down in the Niagara River Gorge below the Whirlpool, hiking trail for Red Rock to Nipigon. It has allowed me to spend some quiet time by myself exploring different areas to find geocaches. Similarly, my wife and son also like geocaching also and we also spend a lot of time together geocaching. I have geocached in 4 provinces, 7 states and 2 countries. I would also like to have the opportunity to geocache in other countries. That will come eventually. I find geocaching event interesting, especially to meet other geocachers and share experiences.

5. Do you have any geocaching pet-peeves?

   I don't really think so, except for those caches I cannot seem to find. I will keep returning to look for a cache until I find it. If I can say I have a pet peeve, it is caches that some people do not appear to maintain. Who wants to open a slimy cache. That just reminded me, I have to go out to do maintenance on my Hike to Sturdee Cove cache series.

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

   GPS (of course), spare batteries, whistle, usually a pack pack, small first-aid kit, cell phone, bear bell usually, high visibility vest in the fall during hunting season, small cache repair kit, compass, if it is a long hike a water bottle, cache write-up, my PDA with caches loaded on it and sometime a spare GPS. Depends on how far I have to hike, what items I take with me.

7. Have you introduced anyone to geocaching?

   I have taken my cub pack and scout troop out geocaching. Have introduced my wife and sons to geocaching. My wife and oldest son, if they are on any trips, will go out geocaching (They have geocached in Italy, France, Belgium, Monaco on school trips). I have also introduced geocaching to my sister in Winnipeg. She has several of her own caches set out in Winnipeg. I talk about geocaching at work all the time. This past weekend, I was in Thunder Bay for a Beaver, Cub, Scout Venturer camp at Grey Wolf Camp. I was leading the activity of GPS and Geocaching. We probably had about 30 people go through the activities to find several caches we had hidden on the property. During the sessions I talked about different cache containers and some of my geocaching adventures. I think I have a few converts to geocaching. When our scout troop went to the Canadian Scout Jamboree in Quebec in July 2007, we geocached on the way to the jamboree.

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

   "Murfster", who lives in Timmins, is probably that geocacher. I think we have got to the point where we will try out devious caches on each other. His caches are probably some of the best I have ever seen. Sometimes it has taken my several trips to find his caches. One things I am kind of proud is that he has been to my CN 78175 cache 3 times and hasn't been able to find it. He has helped me on a couple of my hides. His devious hides keeps me thinking about devious hides I can come up with.

   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?

   Actually there are 2 places that stand out to me:

   1. White Otter Castle - My family had won a half-hour flight on Kasabowie Air out of Eva Lake near Atikokan. We asked how much extra it would cost to go to the White Otter Castle. We paid the extra and we flow by Beaver Float Plane to the castle. We took pictures of our selves in front of the castle and were able to claim the virtual cache GCAD29: Jimmy's Castle. The only way to this virtual cache is by canoe, boat, snowmobile or float plane. I think we took the best method.
   2. Screaming Skulls near Magnetawan - The "skulls" and castle near this cache are great.

    

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

    Although there are lots of great cache finds, probably is probably 2 caches that stand out:

    1. GCY1TP: DPR #5 The Mystery of the Soma Quilt - It took 4 months to solve this puzzle. I was off work at the time after double-bypass surgery following a heart attack in October 2006. So solving this puzzle cache, occupied my time when I could not do much else while recovering from surgery.
    2. GC13ATE: Lets ride the rails" in Chapleau - It took at least 6 tries to find this cache, sometimes by myself and sometimes with a group of us. We were all over that steam locomotive. It was finally great to get that DNF off my list.

     

    Two series of caches that were both memorable and very challenging were:

    1. Bluelean Logic Series (St. Catharines, Ontario area)
    2. The Dreaded Pirate Roberts Cache Series in Thunder Bay

     

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

    Probably the best one is "CN 78175" because it has given the most problems to many people to find, even the master devious cache designer - Murfster. And it is such a simple cache.

12. What's with all those nano caches?! Are you trying to punish us for something?

    That is what geocaching is all about, making devious caches and hides. I am particularly proud of the very small micro-nano cache I have been using lately. (got the containers from work) They make an interesting hide

Thanks for making me the fall featured cacher. It is a honour to be considered.