The Membership Relations Committee is happy to showcase some ArkGeo Geocachers through the "Geocacher Profile". The committee thought Susan and Mike Dodson aka St. Rock should be the next cachers to be in the spotlight.

What is your geocaching name?

St. Rock

How did you choose your handle?

Susan was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Mike was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. We thought St. Rock was funny. Mike also says Susan is the saint and he is the rock (hard-headed.)

How long have you been geocaching?

We have been caching with the name St. Rock since 2011. We used to cache under the name Pei Parents in 2005 and 2006. The name was related to the dog we had at the time. She died in 2006 and we had a lot of changes in our lives and we just fell out of caching. When we started back up, we didn’t know you could change your name, so we created a new account.

How did you find your first Geocache, and which one was it?
We asked for a GPS for Christmas, 2004, so we could start geocaching. We were at Susan’s parents’ house in St. Joseph, Missouri, and found a cache by the name of Fore! in the days after Christmas. The cache was in a PVC pipe near a golf course.


Who usually goes with you when you go caching?
We try to bring Henry, the cache dog, with us as much as possible. Susan’s mom and brother frequently go with us when we visit each other.

How long will you work on puzzle caches before you give up?

Susan usually looks at the puzzles, but doesn’t work on them very long if she doesn’t have someone to assist her. Susan keeps thinking she is going to get some big block of time to sit down and try to learn how to solve puzzles, but it hasn’t happened yet.


What town/areas have you most enjoyed caching in?
We love to geocache when we are on vacation. GeoWoodstock in St. Charles, Missouri, was great fun and we didn’t find even a tenth of the caches we wanted to. When we visit Susan’s parents in St. Joseph, we have a great time because there are a lot of fun caches there. In Arkansas, we aren’t picky. Anywhere that has caches, we are happy to go hunt them whenever we can find the time.


Do you do paperless caching?
Yes. We cannot imagine having to use paper again like we did back in 2005.

What kind of geocaching rig do you use?
Most of the time, our iPhones. We do have our original GPS we got, a Garmin eTrex Legend, that we use for backup and when we hid caches.


Why would you recommend anyone else to take up geocaching?
We always tell people if you like the outdoors and to use your brain, geocaching is for you. We also tell other geocachers to attend events so that they can meet other people who have the same hobby/obsession.

Where are you originally from?
Mike – Little Rock, Arkansas

Susan – St. Joseph, Missouri

In what states have you geocached?

Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska.

What was your first event ever attended?
We attended one in Clarksville put on by nonnipoppy and golfnutz, we think in 2006. It was so cold that day that we just socialized, ate and didn’t look for any caches.


How many caches have you found?
Almost 1550, but Susan is behind on logs!

Which type of cache container do you prefer over the rest?
Any well maintained container is fun for us to find.


What was the most famous cache that you have found?
That would have to be Mingo. We found it this past summer while visiting Susan’s parents over the 4th of July. Susan’s mom came with us and we left their house at 6:30am and returned home that night about 11pm. We only found about 10 caches on that road trip, but we had a lot of fun.

Do you use disposable batteries or rechargeable batteries?

On the rare occasion we use our GPS, we use rechargeable.

Do you enjoy hiding or finding more as your part of the hobby?

At this point, finding. We haven’t hidden many caches. Susan does most of the scouting for hides and gets a little intimidated when reading about only hide a cache if there is a reason to come to the area or hearing/reading other cachers complain about light pole caches or unimaginative caches, etc. We guess we need to not worry about what others say and just hide some more caches, unimaginative or otherwise!
We have, however, hosted a few events this year and have enjoyed doing that.

Do you have a personal goal in mind when you make a hide?

No.


What is you favorite type of cache hide?

Susan probably enjoys EarthCaches and virtuals the most. Mike probably likes any cache that involves history in some way.

Out of all your hides, what are your personal favorites that you take pride in?
No favorite hides, but we really enjoyed hosting a CITO this past spring.


What do you think the proper hide to find ratio should be to keep the sport fresh?
We have no idea. If cachers would maintain their caches or archive caches they don’t want to keep up, we think it would help keep the sport fresh.


How did you end up getting into this wacky hobby?
Susan read about geocaching in the paper and thought it sounded like fun. We got a GPS for Christmas in 2004 and cached for about a year and half. We then got back into geocaching because Susan heard about the state park caches and thought it would be fun to visit all 52 state parks. Since we currently are on a geostreak of 500 and some days, we definitely consider ourselves addicts now.


What's your favorite geocache?
We couldn’t name a single favorite one. We really enjoyed all of the state parks caches and finding the final. Susan likes any cache she can find and not end up with poison ivy or snake encounters. Susan also likes caches Mike can physically make it to.


If money was no object, where would you like to go geocaching?
Mike says the Caribbean or Australia. Susan would like to visit all 50 states and visit all of the national parks while we are there.

Do you like geocaching by yourself or in a group?

We usually just cache with the cache dog. Lately though, we have gone out with different people and it has been fun. It especially nice to go after some of the higher terrain caches with others since Mike usually can’t make it to them.


Mike also has been enjoying a lot of lunchtime caching with his boss, Canada Team. Canada Team decided to try for a one year streak about the time we finished ours, so they frequently will grab a cache on their lunch break when their workflow allows it.

How many First to Finds do you have?

Only about 10. FTFs are pretty hard to come by where we live if you have a set work schedule.

Are you a First to Find person who is always set on go and if so, how many miles out do you have your settings on to get notifications?
If we happen to get a FTF, it generally is a cache that is published on the weekend and other cachers have to be out of town. Hence, we rarely even try for them.


Do you have any other hobbies besides geocaching?
We enjoy doing things with the cache dog. We also are trying to visit as many national parks/historic sites/battlefields, etc. as possible and getting stamps in our passport book. So I guess we like to road trip whenever we can!
Mike also enjoys genealogy and Susan used to like to scrapbook, although she hasn’t done it in quite some time.