Sluggo Stick™ – A GeoCaching Must

Patrick in a comment asked the question: “What is a Sluggo Stick™?”

I realized that this important geocaching invention needed some publicity and so a quick google to refresh my memory. Well, google does not index the comment history from geocaching.com so I had to figure out how to recover the history of the Sluggo Stick™. Luckily I use a piece of software, GSAK, that stores all the cache data locally (and allows me to export it to my palm but that should be another post) and I could do a full text search of the cache data.

Geocaches are always hidden (never buried). A common hiding tactic is to place the cache in some bushes (curse those juniper bushes), under some leaves, or in places only my kids will reach into because they have not the imagination their father has of what might be lurking in that cool, dark, and moist place. In addition to the advantage of not having to reach into places of unknown danger, the Sluggo Stick™ has the added advantage that as you probe, ‘thump, thump, thump,’ you know you have struck pay dirt when you hear that hollow thud of plastic or clank of an ammo box being struck.

So a Sluggo Stick™ is the trademarked term for what is generically known by many other names, most commonly just plain, ‘pokey stick’. As noted in my cache, Yellowstone NotSoNational Park:

This is not a juniper bush cache but a Sluggo-Stick™ would definitely make finding this one a bit easier. Sluggo-Sticks are also known by the generic terms Pokey-Sticks and Walking-Sticks.

The Sluggo Stick™ was born on February 1, 2003 when I went looking for the cache Be Careful Sluggo and found Sluggo, a geocaching legend (that means he has been around for a long time and there are a lot of stories being told about his exploits – and has caches named after himself by others), poking around (unsuccessfully) for the cache. In my log describing that fateful encounter I noted:

We drove up and saw Sluggo poking around with his stick…

The term Sluggo Stick™ was not coined for another 3 weeks when I was searching for Only Twelve Escapes and in my log of that find I wrote:

I do definitely need to get myself a Sluggo Stick™ to wack and poke in the bushes.

In my search for this history of the infamous Sluggo Stick™ I found these other references:

April 13, 2003 by YeOleImposter
Found this one after some thought. The thought was – Sluggo would not have climbed down this bank. And reading the page again, realized he said that we would not have to do anything so silly.
So back on top, Sluggo Stick™ in hand, we proceeded to find it.

March 20, 2004 by YeOleImposter
Went back today with my youngest and ‘steve kc7byp’. Still spent too much time looking for the cache before I had my youngest go back to the car and grab our “Sluggo Sticks” ? to poke around.
I was telling Steve why a “Sluggo Sticks” ? was so useful and with my first poke I hit it :) Next time I will not leave it in the vehicle.

April 14, 2004 by kootenay-ites (736 found)
On our way from Southeastern BC down the Oregon Coast and a little bit further.
It was just breaking into warmth on the day we were here. There were quite a few muggles with their fishing gear hanging out along the banks.
We found this cache with little effort in poking around (using a ‘Sluggo Stick’).

April 15, 2004 by YeOleImposter
Just about ready to call it a day and bring out the troops on Saturday (4 kids have a better chance of kicking up a cache than this old guy) when the ole Sluggo Stick™ came to the rescue. Thump, Thump. There it was!! WhooHoo.

May 13, 2004 by steve kc7byp (26 found)
I found the cache. It was a nice day for a walk and a nice area to walk in. I did smell one of those nasty b/w kittys in the area but thank god we didn’t meet. The Sluggo stick came in handy again for poking in the underbrush to find the cache. Spotted some guys fishing on the way out, the fishing wasn’t any good at the time accroding to them. Took the car and left toy robot.

September 12, 2004 by Niq&Luigi (29 found)
VERY well hidden. Forgot our Sluggo sticks so we had to improvise with the local vegitation. Took dog for Luigi who is unable to cache for a few weeks, left Purell and cases for CD’s.

July 15, 2005 by dthiede (45 found)
was right on top of it according to gps but with the weed height, tennis shoes, shorts and forgetting the required sluggo stick for a sluggo cache I didn’t feel like foraging. will try again when the temp is slightly lower than 100F. maybe in Janurary! the humidity was as bad as when I was in SC.

August 26, 2005 by Radguy
Great place for a walk. Paths are in very good shape and the cache location is very nice. The-Sniper and Daisy May tagged along and had a good time. Daisy May didn’t appreciate the snake we ran across. Need to fix her up with one of them patent pending Sluggo sticks. Took a toy slinky and left a toy dart. Thanks for the cache!

September 4, 2005 by jankrom
Bring a mini sluggo stick if you want to battle the spider for this one. Nice spot. Thanks