First Winner Claims Prize In Pocahontas County Geo Cache Challenge

Marlinton, WV – It was a dark and stormy night . . . but that didn’t stop an intrepid geo cache enthusiast from seeking to claim the First Finders prize in the Pocahontas County Conventions and Visitors Bureau geo cache challenge. He’s Travis Burris from Putnam County and he arrived late Monday night, April 30th to begin the search for the multiple sites throughout the county that comprise the challenge. Pocahontas CVB Special Events Coordinator Sarah Shearer explains.

“Well he emailed us yesterday and we got him the coordinates; he started really late last night [Monday] he said,” says Shearer. “Obviously you probably heard the storm; he said he was just kind out all night. There were a couple of caches he was having trouble with, but he just then went to the next one and then came back, and he just worked all night long.”

He showed up at the CVB office at 8:21am Tuesday morning to claim his prize.

“He was our first finder and I was shocked!,” she says. “So I rushed into work just so I could make sure we got a picture with him. Presidio Studios had given us a First Finder gift which is the beautiful compass that they designed and he received that.”

Burris also received a CVB designed geo cache coin, something only the first 50 finders will get. Additionally, his name goes into the pot for a drawing at the end of the challenge for an all expense paid overnight stay at Watoga state park.

[Heather] “He literally went out on a dark and stormy night to do this “

“You know what, I didn’t ask him but I would think that if he had known it was going to storm the way it did he probably would have held out a little bit, maybe not,” says Shearer. “From what I understand, people that geo cache-it’s kind of like a passion or they really enjoy it so much. We’ve already gotten a lot of phone calls, emails about it.”

“Geo cachers are really into the hunt and the seek and the find; yeah we’re excited to see how the month goes. It’s a month long challenge and we put in our caches not only some swag, but we put some little notebooks so people can leave notes, and tell us about their experience and what time or when they were there. So I’m really excited to see what the caches are going to end up turning out to be at the end of the month.”

So have we whetted your appetite for a geo cache adventure? Shearer says there’s an easy way to get started.

“Actually they can now go onto www.geocaching.com , and if they search Natures Mountain Playground’ there’ll be 12 caches that pop up,” says Shearer. “So for example there will be Natures Mountain Playground-Greenbrier River Trail; Natures Mountain Playground-Droop; there’ll be 12 of those all throughout the county.”

“They have to claim all 12 right?”

“They have to claim all 12 because what we’ve done is we’ve put together a word puzzle, so there’s a county fact in each cache that will give you a county fact and will also give you a clue to the word puzzle.”

She says if you find all 12 caches, the answer to the puzzle is pretty obvious. And even with the promise of a night at Watoga, she says what the geo cachers really prize is the coin.

“I think that the big prize is the coin,” she says. “They like things that they can have, that they can trade; the coins we’ve found [are] really popular among geo cachers.”

The coin has an outline of West Virginia with Pocahontas raised slightly on one side with the words Pocahontas County geo cache challenge. The other side shows the head of an Indian warrior and the name of the challenge. If you want to claim your coin, don’t wait, they’re sure to go fast.