Spotlight on – Medic208!

What is your real name?

Doug Calhoun

What do you do for a living?

 I worked as a Paramedic for about 10 years before I became burned out and frustrated with shift work. Currently, I work at First Health Moore Regional Hospital in the EMS division as a Medicare/Medicaid compliance specialist. One of the benefits of my current job is it allows me to visit the NCGO forums on a regular basis during the day, so I jokingly tell most people I don’t really work I just make an appearance. Unfortunately, one of the down sides is that I no longer get a chance to cache while at work. I used to do that quite regularly when I worked in SC, and there were several occasions when I was on the way back from the hospital or had some down time, my partner and I would stop to pick up a cache.  One time while looking for a cache, I was driving along a dirt road near the Sandhills State Forest and almost got the ambulance stuck in the sand. It was really bogged down, my partner was freaking out, and it took me about 15 minutes to slowly work it out of the sand. Luckily I didn’t get a call, since that might have been tough to explain! 

Care to share any information on your family?

Well I’m single and looking and so far I haven’t found another single female on the cache trail.

Are any family members geocachers?

No, my Mom lives not too far from me, but she never caught the geocaching bug,

When did you start geocaching and what was the first cache that you found?

My first cache find was Airborne Heavy Drop near Laurinburg on December 25, 2003. Since I had heard about geocaching a couple of weeks earlier from a friend at work, I thought a GPSr would make for an excellent Christmas present. After receiving the gift Christmas morning, I looked up the closest cache and it was only about 5 miles from my house near an historic church. Since I was clueless on how to use a GPSr I ended up parking about .2 miles away and looked around unsuccessfully before I realized I was nowhere near the cache.  That cache is hidden next to an old cemetery… some of the graves date back to the early 1800’s. As a lot of caches, it’s located in an interesting area that you might not see otherwise. The owner of that cache is not that active anymore, so I have unofficially adopted the cache.

Where did you first learn about caching?  If another geocacher, who?

When I used to work in Cheraw SC, one of my nursing friends was an active hiker and ran across an article somewhere about Geocaching. After reading the article, he found a few caches in Kalmia Gardens in Hartsville SC and was quite excited. He told me about this area and not long after I found my first cache I took a road trip to try the caches he had mentioned. For those who have never visited Kalmia Gardens, which is near Coker College, it is a beautiful place, and there are numerous wetland trails where most of the caches were located. One of the caches is about a half mile down the trail, on a hill overlooking a small river that runs through the gardens and is definitely a great place for a cache.

What is the origin of your caching name?

I get this question quite often, but unfortunately the answer isn’t that interesting. Years ago, I used to work with MedCenter Air, which is the trauma flight service based out of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.  One day, I was setting up an email, and needed a random number to create a unique address. “208” was the Helicopter number that happened to be based at the hospital that day. Ever since, that number has stuck… it’s in all of my login names and email addresses.

What has been your most memorable caching moment so far?

A couple of great caching moments come to mind, but I think the one that really sticks out is when Wimseyguy and I went to Washington DC about a year ago. I’m a huge history buff, and after arriving in Washington that Friday, our first destination was Arlington National Cemetery. I’ve been there a couple of times before, but our plan that day was to find the virtual caches within the cemetery. Instead of taking a routine bus tour or a walk to the most visited sights, we walked around for about 5-6 hours seeing the lesser known areas of the cemetery. It’s amazing how big Arlington actually is, and how much history is there. It was an excellent day!  That Saturday, there was an event at the House of the Temple, which is the headquarters of the Scottish Rite. This event was sponsored by the Masonic Geocaching Society, and the group gave a tour of the beautiful buildings and the program was a short lecture on Masonic Codes and Ciphers and how they can be used in puzzles. It was very interesting talk, and I have since seen a few geocaches using these ciphers. After the event, Matt and I walked around downtown Washington DC and found about 25-30 virtuals. Washington DC is such a beautiful city and there is so much history there.  We were able to see so much more of the city than most tourists.

What kind of caches do you most enjoy looking for (size/location/etc.)?

When I first started caching, I mainly enjoyed looking for quick Park ‘n Grabs. Most of my early caching experience was around Fayetteville and Raleigh, and I would travel almost every weekend to try to find as many quick caches as I could.  Since then, my enjoyment has taken a big change… now I enjoy hikes and caches in more scenic areas. I don’t cache as much as I used to, but I do enjoy going in groups and finding the more creative and interesting caches that are out there. I’m also a micro fan… I enjoy looking for creative micro hides, and I really enjoy hiding difficult or evil caches.  I’ve even heard once or twice that some people near Fayetteville refer to my hides as “Medic Micros”.  Not sure what they mean though … (insert evil laugh here!)

Do you enjoy events? If so, what are the things that you like about them?

I think events are my most enjoyable aspect of geocaching. It’s always fun going to different areas and meeting new cachers and just spending time socializing and drinking a good beer.  I’ve been to numerous events across NC and have made many friends from them. I’ve also enjoyed attending many events across the country… Five Geowoodstocks, the Midwest Geobash in Indiana, The Alabama Rambler’s Alabama Open/Beach event, and a meet and greet event in New York City. One of my more interesting long distance events was a couple of years ago when I went to a Karaoke event in Florida co-sponsored by Paintfiction and a couple of other crazy NEFGAN’s.  They host some excellent events in Florida! Strangely enough, one of the cacher’s who published the event uploaded the wrong coordinates to her house onto the event page. When a friend and I were on the way to the event, we ended up lost down an abandoned dirt road about 5 miles from the correct location! Luckily, my friend had a few phone numbers for a PAF, so we were able to make it to the correct location. That would have been horrible to drive almost 500 miles and DNF an event!

What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to take caching?

After thinking quite a bit on this one, I would say either Edmund Hillary or Roald Amundsen. Both were famous expeditionists, and between Mt. Everest and the two geographic Poles, I’m sure they could lead me to some very beautiful sights. Afterwards I would leave a cache or two to be found!

Do you have any other interests outside of geocaching?

Hockey! I’m a huge Carolina Hurricanes fan and have been a season ticket holder for three years. Unfortunately, this season hasn’t been great, but nothing beats the playoff hockey atmosphere from last season. I’m also a Mason and very active in the fraternity. I’m a member of two lodges and a Past Master of my home lodge in Laurinburg.

What type of GPS do you use and do you use if for anything besides geocaching?

I still have my old Garmin 60C that I have used for several years now and it’s pretty much on its last leg and quite often I have a difficult time acquiring a decent signal. It’s definitely time to upgrade to a new Garmin! The past few times that I have been caching by myself I have used the geocaching app on my iPhone. Surprisingly, I have had good success with the iPhone and have found several caches with it.

How often do you geocache now?

Not as much as I used to. Usually, I will go out with friends, maybe once or twice a month and find a few caches. Once I finally upgrade to a new GPSr, I’m sure I will cache a little more regularly. There are several new caches in Laurinburg that I still haven’t gotten around to finding yet… one day though!

Do you prefer to cache alone or with others?

Definitely with others. So many more stories and crazy things happen when you are surrounded by other obsessed cachers.

If you could hide a cache anywhere on the planet (forget the guidelines for this one), where would you put it and why?

Going back to one of the questions above, I would love to hide a cache on Mt. Everest or in Antarctica. I love to travel, and these are two extreme places that are on my bucket list of places to visit.

Can you think of a theme song that would best describe your caching experiences?

The theme song to the “A-Team” TV show. Several years ago, a few caching friends and I created “Team U-Turn” during our visit to Geowoodstock 4 in Texas. That was a crazy week and we found over 300 caches, ran into the cops a time or two, broke numerous traffic laws, and had way too many absurd conversations. Spending 5 days with 2 other big, smelly guys in a small vehicle really is an experience and takes a lot of febreeze! Since then, we have often related “Team U-Turn” to the “A-Team”… too bad we didn’t have a cargo van that week.

Do you have any geocaching goals you are getting close to (milestone number, DeLorme or County challenges, number of states, etc.)?

I’m actually pretty close to finishing the DeLorme challenge. The last time I looked, I have around 60 pages completed, and I think with 2 or 3 big trips I would be able to claim a find on it. It’s actually on my to do list for this year.

Do you have any advice to beginners for seeking and/or hiding caches?

I think the best thing is to team up with an experienced cacher the first few times that they go look for a cache. This way, they can learn how their GPSr works and learn a few tips on how and what to search for.  They should also join their local regional and state websites. This is a great way to learn more about geocaching and a good way to meet others who are active in it.

You seem to travel a lot for events and other caching activities – how do you find the time and is the cost of gasoline having any affect on your travels?

Luckily, since I no longer work an EMS shift schedule, my job is very flexible when it comes to vacation time. Often, I will either take Fridays off or work a half-day and this makes it easy when I try to plan a caching trip. One mistake that I made when I went to Geowoodstock 6 in California was to rent a Jeep Cherokee for my trip. Although it was quite nice to have it on the back roads in Washington State, especially since there was still a lot of snow on the ground, the gas mileage was horrible! It definitely wasn’t fun driving to Sacramento from Seattle and that definitely put a dent in my wallet!

You played a very critical role during the planning for GeoWoodstock 5 and during the event itself.  What was your role, what all did it involve and what do you think about the experience? For Geowoodstock 5, I was in charge of registration and First Aid. Once nittany dave created the event’s web site, and people registered on the site, we had a master file of all the attendees and any items that they purchased. The biggest tasks were trying to decide what to include in the registration packet, what the name badge should look like, what should be included on it, and how to match the store purchases with each attendee’s registration packet. For the event, we had just over 1,800 attendees and roughly 1,200 registration packets. Thankfully, Kenny and Rita of the Horsegeeks were nice enough to let me have their den, living room, porch, kitchen, and deck one Saturday afternoon while several cachers stuffed registration packets for several hours. At the event, we had an early registration Friday evening and most of the attendees were in a mad rush to try to get their registration packet first. Honestly, it was a mad house that evening, but luckily we didn’t have any major problems on our end. A few people misread the registration page and they didn’t actually register for the event. That led to a few issues but I was able to handle them pretty easily and we had a few extra blank name tags and excess swag items.  Most of Friday night was a blur and I don’t remember too much from that evening. Since a majority of the cachers picked up their registration packet Friday evening, Saturday was much more relaxed and I was able to walk around the site and just enjoy the event.

I was also in charge of First Aid during the event. At the previous GW’s , Doc Dean, a Florida cacher and a General Practitioner, had a small medical bag and pretty much staffed a small table by himself during the entire event. For our event, I decided to change the staffing structure quite a bit by recruiting EMT’s, Nurses, and Physicians to volunteer for a couple hours during the event.  Luckily, I was able to get a nice selection of medical equipment and supplies from work. Thankfully, other than a few small cuts and abrasions, we didn’t have any medical emergencies to deal with during the event. That definitely made my day!

Looking back, I really enjoyed being a part of the planning committee for the event. It was a lot of work and numerous volunteers went all out to make it a successful event.  Some things worked really well for my section of the event, and a few things could have been improved on. If we ever get another chance to hold a similar event, I actually wouldn’t mind helping coordinate it. It’s been a few years since I stuffed a registration envelope, so that nightmare is long gone!

Have you ever had to use your professional skills to render medical help to someone while geocaching?

Well sort of…  I almost had to save “swimseyguy” from drowning during the infamous Fraygirls Kayaking event. Then there was the copperhead incident… after Matt got bit, instead of going to the ER, he called me instead! Hmmmmm… unfortunately, I forgot to send him a bill for my professional services!

What was the most interesting thing you did/saw on your trip to the Pacific Northwest in 2008?

When I went to Geowoodstock 6 in California, I decided to take a side trip before the event to Oregon and Washington. After flying in to Portland, I went to find the Original Stash Cache. Afterwards, I drove to Mount St. Helens and spent two days in that area. That year, they had several severe snowstorms, and the visitor’s center just opened up two days before my visit. There were still 15-20 foot snow drifts at the top of the mountain… it was amazing how much snow was in the area. Most of the secondary roads and trails were still covered in snow! However, it was a beautiful place and I could easily spend a lot of time there exploring. My trip wouldn’t be complete to Washington without finding the A.P.E. Cache and the cache at Groundspeak. As I mentioned, there was a lot of snow in that area, and only two cachers were able to find the cache that winter before me. From reading their log from a couple weeks before, they actually needed snow shoes and a shovel to dig the cache out of the snow. Luckily, my experience wasn’t that tough. The tunnel was closed due to ice, but the walk along the mountain trail was beautiful! Some places along the trail the snow was waist deep and it was quite strenuous getting there… but in the end it was worth it!

Editor’s note:  We sent these questions to Doug while he was in office as the President of NCGO.  Nothing like speedy response is there Doug?  ;-) 

What possessed you to run for NCGO office?

Before I started with the NCGO, I had been an officer in a couple other Civic groups, and I thought that experience would be helpful in starting an organization from scratch. Over the past four years, I have enjoyed working with the different officers promoting the goals of the NCGO. It’s been a fun ride and I’ve enjoyed helping out the best I can. My favorite part has been helping plan the annual Fall Fling event. This has become one of the premier events in the area!

What do you see as the top priorities for NCGO?

 I still hope we can improve relations with the State Parks system. We have made a lot of progress with our CITO events and from holding the last two Fall Fling events at a State Park, but we still have a little more work to do. We also need to continue to have PR events to promote geocaching across the state. One of the best projects that we have been associated with is the outreach program at the NC Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill and the World Burn Congress. Three years ago, we started working with the Burn Center to promote geocaching as a team building exercise to burn survivors. This past fall, several cachers from the NCGO traveled to New York City to the annual World Burn Congress and promoted geocaching and team building to over 60 burn survivors and attendees in Central Park.  

Anything else you would care to share – the soapbox is yours!

Well, I’ve definitely enjoyed being a part of this activity for the last 6 years. I’ve made a lot of friends, traveled to great places, and had a lot of fun in the process! I’m now looking forward to my next trip… Geowoodstock 8 in Seattle this July!