Our old friend HikerJamz alerted us last week to a relatively new face on the Geocaching scene who might be interested in being interviewed for this blog; Amber, who goes by the handle The Ginger Geocacher. We quickly contacted her, and yes, she was happy to agree to an interview with us. She joined Geocaching.com in early January, where her username is thegingergeoacher (all one word). She is also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and of course has her own YouTube channel. Above, you see embedded what is, at the time of this post, her latest video, “It happens to the best of us Geocaching”, when she went out Geocaching on the Birthday of the hobby (May 3rd). We are also embedding another one of her videos at the bottom of the post. On with the interview!
OCNA Blog: Where do you call home?
TheGingerGeocacher: Home for me is Alabama. I live with my Husband and Son, and my in laws live right across the street. 🙂 Â
OCNA Blog: Your Twitter profile says you are a Military Vet. Which branch and how long? Did you receive any land navigation training? Which one would think is helpful for Geocaching.
TheGingerGeocacher: I was in the USMC for 4.5 years. I had one of those jobs where if I told you what I did I would have to kill you, haha!! I did receive some land navigation training, I really enjoyed it. I have always had a good sense of direction, so it the training helps but not as much as my natural ability to gauge where I am.
OCNA Blog: We’ve heard you were introduced to Geocaching by stumbling on a video by Joshua, The Geocaching Vlogger. Do you remember what you were searching for on YouTube? Did you get hooked by that very first video, or did it take a while before you decided you were going to try Geocaching yourself?
TheGingerGeocacher: I wasn’t really searching for anything on YouTube. One of his videos was actually in my what to watch feed, so I watched it, thought it was cool and just kept watching all of his videos and did some research about geocaching and decided that I had to at least try it.
OCNA Blog: And how long before you decided to start make Geocaching videos of your adventures? Do you have experience making YouTube videos on other topics?
TheGingerGeocacher: It wasn’t long before I started making my own videos. I maybe had 12 finds under my belt before I started recording my adventures. I do have some experience making other videos for YouTube, mainly commercials for events held at my college. I have always enjoyed making videos and taking photos.
OCNA Blog: What gear do you use, as far as your GPS Unit, taking the raw video in the field, and editing/finishing it?
TheGingerGeocacher: As for my gear I use a Garmin Etrex 10 to find the geocaches and my car GPS to get me close to the area so I dont get lost. As for video I use my Nikon coolpix s60 for my video and my iphone mostly for quick photos. I use Wondershare video editor to put my videos together.
OCNA Blog: Can you tell us a little about your Son and Brother-in-Law who have appeared in your Videos? Does your Husband have any interest in Geocaching, or appearing in the videos?
TheGingerGeocacher: My son aka Lil’ Ginger is 3. He has only been geocaching with me once so far but he loved it. He is a smart lil fella and I cant wait to take him geocaching with me more! My brother in law aka Fast Sock has only been geocaching with me a couple of times. He likes it and doesn’t like it all at the same time, he is more of a lets go hunting or fishing kinda kid, but we have plenty of fun geocaching together when we do go together. As for my husband he has absolutely no interest in geocaching. He doesn’t understand the point of it (his loss), but it is kind of nice that way because then geocaching is something that I can do alone or share with our son and it is always nice to have something just for you to do.
OCNA Blog: Your videos are all in the 4-5 minute range in length. Do you feel that’s just about the right length? How often would you like to release new videos in the future?
TheGingerGeocacher: I do think that 4-5 minutes is just the right length of time. Any more and people probably wouldn’t watch the entire thing and any less and it kind of takes away from the adventure. I plan on releasing a new video every week. Hopefully consistency is key to getting people to watch and subscribe
OCNA Blog: Obviously, no problem being referred to as a “Ginger”?
TheGingerGeocacher: No I have no problem being referred to as ginger, that’s actually a newer thing for me. I used to hate it when people would call me ginger, but having a ginger son helped me accept the gingerness, and I want to teach him that it’s okay to be who you are, embrace it, and people wont give you problems.
Ginger Pride! (I saw that on a T-shirt once). We thank Amber, The Ginger Geocacher for taking the time to answer the questions. We think she would be very happy if many of our readers would subscribe to her YouTube channel. We will leave you with another of her personal favorite videos, “Lil Ginger’s First Geocaching Adventure!”Â
Very good interview ! Hope to see many more videos on YouTube.