The8Searchers

    For only the third time in three years our featured cacher is not a Delawaregeocacher.  The 7Searchers are from Snow HillMaryland, but they will be familiar to most Delawarecachers since they have cached heavily in Delawareand attended most Delaware Events.

How would you introduce yourself?  (Give us some general background and introduce everybody)

We are the 7Searchers, otherwise known as the Goddards.  We are - Shawn, Tiffany, Brianna (13), Madeline (10), Chloe (7), Emelia (4), Aaron (2), and Searcher #8 is due in March, 2009.  Shawn is a Worcester County Deputy Sheriff and Tiffany is a stay-at-home mom.

• How did you become involved with geocaching - and how long have you been doing it?

We’ve used a Garmin vehicle GPS for years.  In February, 2006, Tiffany got on the Garmin web site to look for updates for our GPS and saw a section on “Treasure Hunting”.  We went to the www.geocaching web site and saw that there were several caches just down the road from our house.  That weekend we went out (with our vehicle GPS) to try and find those caches.  No luck.  We wandered around and around and around in the woods.  It was a full month before we found our first cache (Ben’s Red Swings – GCPPCM) on 3/7/06.  You should have heard the hollering!  We were so excited about actually finding something!  From that moment on we were hooked!

• How did you get your caching name?

At the time, Tiffany was pregnant with Aaron, so the family decided to use the name 7Searchers.  If we had known that we’d actually like geocaching, and keep up with it, we would probably have chosen a different name.  We’re now expecting Searcher #8 and we’ll more than likely change our name (thanks to changes at Groundspeak).  We’ve also wondered what will happen when our kids grow up and leave the house.  So ... we probably would have chosen a name without a number.

With seven people how do you split up what everybody does.    Is there any specialization or is someone really good at some part of geocaching.

 We all work as a team when we go out caching.  Since we have little ones that need to  be carried or pushed in a geo-stroller, we all take turns pushing, carrying, and using the GPSrs.  We all try to relieve the person who’s getting too tired with a specific task.  For the most part, one adult and one child carry the GPSrs.  All of the kids are excellent at finding caches.  We’re lucky in that we have a person at every height, so we’ll usually send a small Searcher to check under bushes or benches.  At LEAST 40% of the caches we’ve found were found by one of the kids!   

How many GPS units do you have?  How do you decide who gets to use the GPS units.
We currently own 6 GPSrs (due to frequent upgrading and the need for duplicates), but we usually only take 2-3 with us when we go caching.  Nobody wants to be the one to have to follow around the guy with the GPS!  We take turns using the GPS depending on who’s hands are full at the time.

  From a lot of your posted pictures you all seem to dress alike.  How did that start and who gets to decide the “uniform”
We’ve traveled all over the country as a family.  On our trips we visit the major tourist spots, airports, fairs, etc.  With so many little ones it can be hard to keep track of each other.  On our trips we like to dress alike so that we can readily spot each other in a crowd.  Our gallery photos showing us dressed alike were taken while we were on trips or at major geocaching events. 

Which find was the most challenging?
Mentally? – All of Hostanut’s Brain Exercise caches.  Physically? – the wrong trail that we took to the Maryland All Counties Challenge final combined with a pregnancy and a very heavy toddler. 

Here is our log entry from What’s the Deal? – GCW4NV –

“It was 70* today, so we thought we’d give this one a try.  Nice, smooth trail.  Probably would have been a nice walk had it not been for the SEVEN snakes that we encountered ON THE PATH.  SEVEN!  (we believe that they were brown water snakes).  That’s not including the 50 or so partial snake pieces that we found and the 15 dead little moles.  Then we got to the last 400 feet of the trail and found out that we were experiencing High Tide. 

There was no “best route” and the road circle itself was deep under water.  Well there was NO WAY that we were going to turn back without that cache!!  So we carried the little Searchers to the only knoll, and trudged through the over-knee-high water to the cache.  We tried to take the “least direct route” hoping that the water would be less deep.  Nope. 

So, after finding the cache, we just headed out as quickly as possible, mindful not to step on the fish that we swimming around our legs.  We got back to the trail and then the wind kicked in.  Wind so strong that it knocked over our jogging stroller and threw one of our little Searchers into the reeds.  All in all, a beautiful area.  When we got back to the vehicle we checked the weather report (since it seemed early for high tide).  It turns out that there was a severe weather warning for coastal flooding.  Yep.”

What advice would you give to a beginning geocacher?
Don’t use a GPS meant for a vehicle!  Attend events!  You get a lot of useful advice and information at events.

    How do you decide when its time to bushwhack or to stay on the trail?  Any stories on when you seem to             have made the wrong choice?
    Trails?  What are trails?  We ALWAYS make the wrong decision.  Usually it’s because we don’t have the time to         pre-plan our caching trips or read the cache description and previous logs.  Bushwacking and a lack of planning         always add to the fun!  See our log for CAM 2007 Janes Island – GC11D2K – 10/18/07. 

How many caches have you placed? How did you get started or come up with the ideas?
We’ve hidden 20 caches (15 are still active) and have adopted 3.  We’ve also helped place a traveling cache in the area.  We work as a team to hide caches.  Together we decide on the name, write-up, and location.  Several of the kids have their own caches.  They came up with the ideas, and then we helped them implement those ideas

Have any of them proven to be more "popular"  or more difficult than what you expected?
Our caches Glory Days – GC17FAJ and It’s Stanky – GC17FZV give people a hard time.  We didn’t intend for the caches to be difficult, we just wanted to hide them in a way to keep them safe from the elements.

Have any of them been muggled? If, so how did you handle this?
We had two caches that were both muggled AND destroyed.  One was muggled, moved and replaced, then destroyed in a bush hog accident.  The other was destroyed in a bush hog accident, moved and replaced, then muggled.  Both have been archived.  

What advice would you give to someone designing a cache placement?
Get advice from cachers with experience.  Find at least 100 caches first.  Take lots of readings and averages to obtain the listed coordinates and check them over several days and at different times of day.  We STILL struggle with getting accurate coords. 

What's your best caching story - the one you tell others to let them know the kind of fun and adventures one can have while geocaching?
Our best memories are of walking together down a wooded trail jumping around in the fallen leaves.  Walking down a trail together gives your family a quiet time to visit together and really talk. 

What are you current caching goals?
We're working on completing the Fizzy Challenges.

Beside geocaching, what other things do you like to do?
We love to travel, go camping, and just spend time alone together.
 

Is there a really special cache on Maryland Eastern Shore that you would recommend to Delaware cachers.
Any of the caches by Run&Hike in the Pocomoke City, MD area.  Their caches are all more than the standard box-in-the-woods caches.  Some of their most unique are – Crossing the Wagram -GC17DOC, You Are Here – GC1H7CW, and First Hudson Geo-Coin Bank of Maryland – GC19FQ3.  We keep their caches on our watchlist because the log entries are always so fun to read.  Also in the Pocomoke City area is ... No Turtles Allowed – GCVHF7.  This is a great, must-do, one-of-a-kind cache.

Thanks to The 7searchers for sharing these answers with us.