What is your real name?
Steve
What do you do for a
living?
Naturalist/Environmental Educator/Living
Historian/Wildlife Warrior
Care to share any
information on your family?
Father was a
botanist. Mother was a school teacher.
If you have a family, are any of them
geocachers?
My wife—“Mimichan”
When did you start
geocaching?
3/30/2001
Where did you first
learn about caching?
2001 If from another geocacher, who? Friend told me he found it online.
What is the origin of
your caching name?
“Crotalus” is the
Genus name for the rattlesnake and Rex is Latin for “King” I chose this handle because my favorite animal
is the Rattlesnake which I consider to be the “King” of all snakes because of
his amazing adaptations for survival.
What has been your most
memorable caching moment so far?
Well, there are so many
and I can’t choose so here they are: Finding
my first cache—without a GPS—using the clues in the description and hint. It was the “Moses cache GC455” near Blowing
Rock, NC and I was second to find behind David and Diana. Funny thing is that in the log I spelled
cache “kash” I also dropped off the
first of many GeoRovers “GeoRover #1” GC34AE (remember those ;-) I wonder where
it is today?? Another one of my
favorites is “Tumbling Waters of Panther Creek” GCH2G1, Mimichan and I found it
while on our honeymoon so it is very special to us. “Bradley’s Bottom” GC6A02 was my favorite
Extreme cache—that took me several tries to find—what a great hide in an
awesome place! As you can imagine the opening
day of the Tube Torcher series of caches was a very memorable day also but my
favorite of all has to be hiding my first cache with my nephew Cody on Bird
island, NC/SC. That cache was first called
the “
What kind of caches do
you most enjoy looking for?
Multis
What kind of events do
you most enjoy attending?
Small local cache
gatherings.
Describe your ideal
cache hunt.
Hiking and caching
in any remote and wild place with Mimichan on a sunny summers day. There would be a rather challenging 5/5 multi
to find, lots of wildlife to see, we find the cache, sign the log, take photos
then find a small clearing in the woods to have a picnic lunch with some wine
then we kick back for a nap while looking up through a tangle of branches and
leaves.
What famous person, dead
or alive, would you like to take caching?
Frodo Baggins—I
think he would have a blast with geocaching!
Have you introduced
other people to geocaching?
Yes.
If so, about how many
people?
I introduced
IndianaLee to Geocaching—enough said ;-)
What type of GPS do you
use?
Garmin eTrex
Do you use if for anything besides geocaching?
Yes, I use it to
log the positions of the turtles that I am radio-tracking for my
conservation/research project.
How often do you
geocache?
Not as much as I used
to and would like to—very busy with work and the research project.
What inspires you to
hide a cache?
Early on it was
simply just because I could but I quickly grew bored with the park-and-grab
style of caches. I wanted more of a
challenge and I felt that geocachers wanted more also so some friends and I put
together the
If you could hide a
cache anywhere on the planet (forget the guidelines for this one), where would
you put it and why?
If I had unlimited
money and time I would do a globe trotting cave/mountain cache that would have
a stage deep in all of the major caves on Earth. You would need tons of gear and tons of time
and tons of money to find each stage with the final stage being on top of
Can you think of a theme
song that would best describe your caching experiences or do you have a
favorite caching song/artist?
Indiana Jones Theme
and anything by Jimmy Buffett
What do you want to be
when you grow up?
It was a 5/5 road
to get here but finally I am what I want to be—a naturalist
If you were a cache,
what kind would you be? What would your name be?
5/5 Multi.
“Reptiles Revenge” I would be a hard
to find, remote, interpretive cache that teaches the finder about the wonderful
world of the reptile. Reptiles are very
beneficial and so important to a healthy ecosystem but unfortunately they have
a bad reputation due to erroneous stories and cultural misconceptions. The name of the cache would lead the finder
to believe that he or she should be on their toes or he may be attacked by a
“vengeful” reptile—a reptile like the movies and stories portray. The truth would be that the finder would be
rewarded with interesting and factual info on the local reptiles he may
encounter while caching in the area. I set up a website many years ago for the
benefit of kids and cachers caller “The Snakegame” it is a multiple choice quiz
that teaches the user about the local snakes in our “neck of the woods.” Take a
look: www.geocities.com/thesolorover/snakegame
Do you prefer Cache run,
long hike or something else?
Long Hike
Which cache of yours do
YOU like best?
I have several: the first has to be “The
Crocodile Hunter’s Crikey cache” because it was my first hide, it is still
active and now it honors my hero Steve Irwin.
Another of my favorites is the “
What inspired you to
hide Tube Torcher with IndianaLee?
It all started with
a birthday gift to Indy. I set it up as
a multi cache hunt and hid some of the clues in some nearby tubes and in one of
the silos. He liked it so much that we
started taking more about it and Tube Torcher just grew from our
discussions. We talked for hours on what
we should call it. One of the early
ideas was “Pipe Dream” J but then Indy said “it’s in pipes and it is
torturous so how about pipe torture…no wait…tube torture?” That just sounded painful so we changed it to
Tube Torcher because the finder would need torches (flashlights) to find all
the clues…and that’s how it came to be.
Were you surprised with
all the fame TT had?
Yes! Very!
We knew we had something unique but we had no idea the monster that it
would become! It was a wild ride that
was sad to see die so that is why we decided to do TT2. Visitation to TT2 has been slow lately so Indy
and I made a cheesy promo video that is posted on my YouTube site—check it out
here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXVmjAMTGDA
You have had some
geocoins made, can you tell us more about them?
The Crikey
Fundraiser is so far my only coin that has been produced. I made it in memory of my fallen hero Steve
Irwin “The Crocodile Hunter.” The coin’s
goal is to raise money for Steve Irwin’s wildlife conservation organization
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide. So far the coin
has raised several thousand dollars for Wildlife Warriors and there are still a
few coins left to sell! Another goal of the Crikey coin was to travel the world
raising awareness of Steve Irwin’s cause—wildlife and wildlife habitat
conservation. It makes me very happy to
see all the Crikey coins traveling around all over the world doing what I
intended them to do and picking up photos and stories from folks who admired
Steve Irwin and his work. Check it out at: www.geocities.com/thesolorover/crikeycoin
My second coin will
be our personal geocoin. It is still in
the design stages so I can’t reveal very much about it other than it is going
to be VERY unique. The coin producer
coinsandpins.com said that to their knowledge it will be the first of its
kind. It has been a long process but it
is getting close to being complete. Once
it is finished its purpose will be to raise money for my box turtle rescue and
rehabilitation facility and conservation study.
For more info on the coin and my study you can take a look at: www.geocities.com/thesolorover/BoxtrackCMcoin
How did you meet
Mimichan (if you don’t mind us asking)?
I used to go into a
coffee shop in
Are there any changes
that you would like to see in geocaching ?
I’m not trying to
be mean here because I believe Geocaching should be open to everyone but less 1/1
park and grabs and micros would be nice.
In some areas the countryside is blanketed in hundreds of 1/1 park and
grabs and micros with their associated 600 foot radius no cache zones. This makes it very difficult for other cachers to
place quality caches and clues. When we
were constructing TT2 Indy and I had to contact several local cachers and ask
them to move their caches because they were within the 600 foot zone. Even though the clues we were placing were
going to be “underground” and on the other side of the hill and in no way
infringing on the nearby cache it was still inside the 600 foot zone so unless
their cache was moved we would not be able to use that site for our clue. The cachers we contacted were very helpful and
graciously moved their caches—but other cachers may not be so helpful and some seem
to do nothing but choke the countryside with random park and grabs. It is almost as if some folks seem to want to
control an area with their caches rather than share the space with
everyone. Less park and grabs and a
little more thought put into caches would make the sport more fun for all.
Are there any changes
that you don't want or wish had not already occurred?
Yes, I don’t really
like the premium member idea. When
Geocaching started everyone was on the same level. All you needed was a GPS and a sense of
adventure. Now it seems that you can
join an elite club whose caches are available only to those who pay the
premium. I hated to see Geocaching
caching in and selling out for the almighty dollar. That’s really bogus.
What other interests
outside of geocaching keep you busy?
Spending time with Mimichan
and family, my work at Earthshine Lodge, my reptile conservation project, civil war
living history reenacting and playing my Didgeridoo.
Anything else you would
like to tell us about?
Keep your eyes and
ears open for the next Tube Torcher annual gathering sometime in the summer of
this year and the upcoming release of my personal Geocoin. Also, if you are
looking for a really fun place to go on a family vacation this summer check out
Earthshine Mountain Lodge at www.earthshinemtnlodge.com
or feel free to email me if you have any questions at: snakesteve@gmail.com
It doesn’t get any better!
Editor’s note:
For
lots more good stuff, check out the links Steve has included. Also, his profile is full of more info and one of
the more informative profiles we have come across if you want to see more than
a statistical thesis.