An interview with LeviCol – Official Blog

Meet Levicol, the mastermind behind our recent Geocache of the Week, Captain Haxton’s Treasure! (GCAEZD2). This mind-boggling soda machine has a sweet surprise that’s wowed geocachers from across the United States and beyond.

Levi has perfected the art of upcycling pre-loved items alongside NaviTator, the other half of The CurioCabiniteers duo. With their combined skills in antique hunting, Levi has crafted dozens of creative geocache hides, accruing 222 Favorite points in the four years since he started geocaching.

Considering hiding your own cache but unsure where to begin? Read Levi’s tips and tricks and some inspiring words about what it takes to be a quality cache owner.

What’s your background outside of geocaching?

For as long as I’ve been caching, I’ve worked at a Home Depot. This has been great for catching some deals on fun containers or materials I need for new caches. Outside of work, I volunteer at an animal rescue and help relay cats to a vet for a Spay and Neuter project for stray and abandoned cats. Other than that, I’m a fairly typical boring guy who spends most of his time playing video games or scanning for new Geocoins for my collection.

How and when did you hear about geocaching?

December 21st of 2021, I went out and found my first geocache. It was after scrolling social media on a lunch break I saw a video of a guy finding a cache… On that lunch break I downloaded the app and saw around 12 in my city. My first trip was to a ballpark cache that had you solve coordinates which I had to DNF due to not understanding coordinates at first. My next attempt was a micro at a local park. Was a pretty quick find that time and I was hooked. From there, I tried getting everything within 30 miles to better understand the variety of challenges geocaching had to offer.

It wasn’t until I got to Quincy Illinois however that I REALLY experienced variety and unique caches. ROAD KILL! and luckycharmer really filled the map with a variety of difficulties, terrains, and unique containers. They used a lot of creative methods for these. I’m still working through those as I can and have a long way to go. These types of cache hiders who go the extra mile for variety really help keep the game fun and make us want to keep getting out!

You’re part of a geocaching duo called The CurioCabiniteers. Can you tell us more about your adventures of antique shopping while geocaching?

The CurioCabiniteers is NaviTator and myself, LeviCol. We met at work and our skill sets were pretty different. This made for a great team up.

Geocaching is often about the destinations we visit, the sights we see, and the experiences we gather along the way. For the CurioCabiniteers, we go one step further in our search for treasures by pairing up our caching with antique shopping along the way! Not only is it a great way to stretch your legs on a long drive or wait out sudden weather downpours, it’s a great way to find unique trinkets and collectibles for our curio cabinets back at home!

Many fun items make their way into the geocache swag system, but we each have key items we look for ourselves. I collect antique lighters and NaviTator collects miniature perfumes and oil lamps. Of all our favorite grabs, I’d have to go with a lava lamp floor lamp I found. For NaviTator, their favorite find is a cabinet we found in Iowa.

Your geocache GCAEZD2 was recently featured as Geocache of the Week. You previously shared that this cache was inspired by a gadget cache contest. How has this Event inspired you as a cache owner?

Caching and Campfires was my first Geocaching event I attended. It will always hold a special place in my heart for that.

When we got back for lunch break, we got to have a go at some great gadget caches. These were some of the first intact gadgets I had done and I knew I wanted to make my own. I love all varieties of creative caches but gadgets are always the best!

Events like Caching and Campfires and MWGB also helped solidify the best part of what Geocaching has to offer: It’s cachers! I’m very introverted but meeting other cachers and sharing stories is really the best part of any event. Sitting around a campfire among similar minded individuals just can’t be beat!

What, in your opinion, makes for an outstanding geocache?

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if a cache is large or small, expensive or cheap. The most important thing is the theme. Every memorable cache I’ve done has had some sort of theme to it. Micros that look like other things, ammo cans with paint, goat statues, literal trash from the side of the street put together to make a puppy. Just a little something to help break finding 300 silver micros. Almost every favorite point I have given was to something with a little extra splash of uniqueness.

Do you have any tips for the new geocache hiders out there?

Geocache hiding is for absolutely everyone! At the end of the day, the most special part about me as a hider… is that I’m not special! I just applied a little effort and bounce ideas off friends I’ve made like DinkinFlicka392 who aren’t afraid to give some constructive criticism. None of my caches take any particular skill or intelligence (lucky for me). I definitely have a lot of filler caches to help pad numbers and make it worth the trip to visit my little middle of nowhere city, but at the end of the day, people detour for favorite worthy caches.

So when hiding, think of what you like most in a cache. Maybe it’s a theme like pirates or superheroes? Maybe you love the view of being on the lake? A good puzzle to confuse the cachers like myself? Whatever REALLY excites you, grab onto that. Think of the coolest version of your favorite thing you can and OWN IT!

I loved unique containers so I hunted down fun ones. From there, I kept bouncing ideas off my team and friends till I made it happen. I definitely had a bunch of failed attempts and changes, but I was stubborn. I was determined to make my vision come to life. I definitely ruined materials, glued my fingers together, and had to completely scrap many attempts. Haxtons is largely held together by a hot glue gun, spray foam, and a whole bunch of random screws. There’s tons of things people with any skill or artistic talent could have done much better than me. But this is my cache. It’s what I could do.

I followed what I loved and what I wanted to see out in the world. That’s what’s most important as a cache hider. Micros can be great, but showing your own heart in a cache is what makes it favorite worthy. I’m happy so many liked what I had to contribute, but even if no one else would love it, I’d be proud of my project.

Do you know an inspiring cache owner? Share them with us in the comments below and tell us what makes their cache hides memorable!