The GCPC Team
Scott Berks (scottberks) – Host
Born in the 1970’s, Scott was raised in the Chicago area and has some deep midwestern roots. His 2 sons keep him active and on his toes. He spends his weekdays as a UX Designer and weekends watching travel baseball, geocaching and spending time with family.
In 2008, Scott read an article about “geocaching with an iPhone” in a magazine. With the recent purchase of an iPhone 3G, he decided to give it a try. From that day on, Scott has been hiking forest preserves and lifting lamp skirts on a regular basis. Scott created his GC account on July 24, 2008 and has been geocaching pretty consistently since then.
Some of Scott’s Geocaching accomplishments include:
- 151 days in a row with a cache
- 245 geocache finds in one day
- 200+ hides
- 500+ FTF’s
- 31 FTF’s found in one day
- 10+ years with at least 1 FTF a month
- 15 different caching icons found in one day
- Found caches in 45 US states
Scott has been podcasting since 2010 and has been on the GCPC since 2013. For 4 years (2010-2014) he hosted The Chicago Geocacher Podcast.
Chad Courtney (TAZ427) – Host
Born in Berlin, Germany in the early 1970’s, Chad was raised in the Indianapolis area. Spent time as both a country mouse and a city mouse while growing up. Lived for 20yrs in Houston, TX where he met and married his lovely wife, and discovered geocaching. He now lives and caches in Northern California. He’s happily married with one son who used to geocache with him, but is now ‘too old’ for that sort of thing. He enjoys spending time with the family, swimming, hiking, and also vegging out in front of the TV.
In 2010, after seeing a colleague with a screen full of smilies and asking what the heck that was, he discovered Geocaching. He used a Garmin Nuvi (Car GPSr) to find his first 11 geocaches over the next week. This was followed by a 133 day day slump. He then found himself in Xi’an, China asking himself, if there were any caches around. One cache within 100mi radius, at the Terracotta Warriors Exhibit. Well, that set the plans for that weekend, and many weekends to come.
Some of Chad’s Geocaching accomplishments include:
- 31 US States, 8 Countries, 4 Continents
- 15 Caching Icon’s in a day
- 325 Caches in a day (over 300 of those Puzzle caches)
- Approaching 8.5x the distance around the world in caching miles
- Have APE Icon from two caches (Brazil and Snoqualmie Tunnel, WA)
- Attended – 1 Giga, 13 Mega’s, 2 Block Parties, and over 250 Events
Chad has been hosting the GCPC since 2014.
Craig Michell (Seemyshell) – Host
G’day, fellow geocachers!
Born in the 1970’s, just south of Sydney Australia, Craig is Seemyshell, your friendly Aussie explorer with a passion for the great outdoors and the thrill of the hunt. Now based in New Jersey, USA, he loves nothing more than road tripping across many states, finding Geocaches and meeting Geocachers along the way.
Craig stumbled upon geocaching in 2014, as a way to connect with his children and help with his mental health after issues and divorce. The blend of adventure, problem-solving, and the joy of discovery keeps him coming back for more. He am an avid traveler at heart and can be seen driving or jet setting around the country/world.
Some of Craig’s Geocaching accomplishments include :
- 1234 day Caching Streak
- over 12,000 finds
- 48 USA States & 6 Countries
- All States of Australia in 1 year
- 223 caches in one day
- Jasmer & Fizzy Complete
Craig is the Creator & now sponsor of the Geocaching Downunder Podcast and currently host 2x other Podcasts – Treasures of our Town with The Geocaching Vlogger & The official Munzee Podcast with the President of Munzee.
