By: Mackenna Handeland (BirkenstockReport)
The Golden Ammo Cans: A GeocacheAlaska! Tradition
How an idea from the East Coast, with the help of a few sourdoughs,
became Alaska’s most beloved geocaching tradition
AN ORAL HISTORY WITH BLAZINGPATHWAYS, TOMANOBLE & VALERIESEAKER · INTERVIEWED SPRING 2026
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BLAZINGPATHWAYS Victoria Noble Geocaching since 2007 · Co-founder of the Golden Ammo Can Awards · Known for the extensive “AlaskanCachers” series hidden with her husband, Tom. · Hider of the Archangel Road letterbox series |
TOMANOBLE Tom Noble Geocaching since 2007 · Former board member, Geocache Alaska · Longtime supporter of community events and inclusive outreach, one of the first to hide Challenge Caches in Alaska. |
VALERIESEAKER Valerie Manfull Golden Ammo Can recipient · Active member of the Geocache Alaska community · Regularly brings her can into the field at community events · A puzzle-master |
It started with a story someone heard from back east. Famous Alaskan Cacher Douglas Leiser (Cohofive) had a daughter, IDAKrew, who was living out there and building up her find count, and when she hit one hundred caches, the local community gathered together in a café to celebrate. They gave her an ammo can. Simple as that. Victoria heard about it, told Tom, and the two of them took the idea to the Geocache Alaska board.
“The board said, well, we don’t want to do it for a hundred [finds],” Victoria recalls, “but why don’t we do it based on an Alaska theme?” And that’s exactly what happened. The milestone numbers were anchored to Alaska’s identity: 1959, the year of statehood, and 49, for the 49th state. A committee- the Celebrating Alaskan Caching Hallmark Experiences, or C.A.C.H.E for short– was formed, and the Golden Ammo Can Awards were born.
A Surprise in the Beginning
The very first Golden Ammo Can ceremony wasn’t advertised as an award night. Guests arrived not knowing what they were walking into. “It was a surprise,” Victoria says, laughing. “Uncle Joe’s.” The recipients didn’t know they were about to receive anything, just that there was an event worth showing up to. By the second gathering, word had gotten around, and the tradition began to take its recognizable shape.
At each event, the committee would research recipients in advance — counting hides, noting milestones, finding something genuinely specific to say about each person’s geocaching history. They’d read clues aloud to the crowd and let attendees guess who was being described before the can was presented. “We would look up what they’d done,” Victoria explains, “talk about their badges, where they’d placed, name a couple of things that were special about their finds.” It turned a simple handoff into something closer to a roast and celebration: warm, community-centered, personal.
Over the years, the program expanded to include multiple can sizes. The standard large ammo can covered the baseline milestones; a bigger one came at 100 hides; and for those reaching truly remarkable numbers — 10,000 caches — there’s the Project-A.P.E.-sized can, roughly the dimensions of a small carry-on bag. Victoria has one of those in her shed. Tom counted at least four between them. Past recipients of the 10,000 find can include Karma!, Lilgray, and Cavyguy.
“We said, if somebody has a can, then what else are we gonna do? And we said, we could keep the activity going by having badges they could earn.”
— Victoria (BlazingPathways)
Earning Badges Keeps the Cans Fresh
The badges were developed shortly after the first Golden Ammo Can awards. Cachers wanted more ways to display their achievements, so the board added stickers that could be earned and put on the cans. Nowadays, recipients can earn badges by hosting events, hosting CITOs, planning EDUEvents, serving on the board, passing 10,000 finds, and advocating for Geocaching statewide, such as negotiating the state parks permit biannually. The C.A.C.H.E. committee is currently reviewing new ideas for badges to be earned. Eaccippi (Emily Stewart) can be contacted via geocaching.com if you have ideas on good badges to be earned.
Over the years, the committee has also modified requirements for earning the golden ammo can, including requiring two years of Sourdough level membership with GCAK, to help offset the costs of the cans.
Keeping the Can Alive Through COVID
Like most community traditions, the Golden Ammo Can program had to adapt during the pandemic years. Indoor events gave way to outdoor gatherings, and some cans were handed out in quieter, more improvised ways — the Taco King near the Midtown library, at scattered outdoor meetups, shipped to recipients in Juneau and Fairbanks. Valerie mentioned Eaccipi, Emily Stewart packing some in her carry-on to deliver to Kodiak. The geography of Alaska, always a logistical challenge, made individualized delivery feel oddly fitting. “I think we got them different ways,” Tom says simply.
“My goal was to try to make it easier on people who didn’t know other people — how to start something, if it wasn’t easy to just say hi.”
— Victoria (BlazingPathways)
What the Can Means
Ask any of the three where their ammo can lives, and you get a window into their relationship with the hobby. Tom and Victoria’s cans are in the shed now — a recent house reorganization moved everything into boxes — but Victoria says hers used to live next to her shoes, ready to grab for events. Valerie’s can has made public appearances at the community Trackable gatherings, stuffed with trackables and geocoins. You might find other notorious Alaskan cachers with theirs if you ask nicely. Recent awardees include Eaccipi, RSPace, and GeoFootstomper. To find a golden Ammo Can in the wild, you’ll need to visit ilikebuttermilk’s in Wasilla. It is featured in the hide at New Haven Little Free Library GCA26T0. Bring something gold to add to the swag!
The most recent awardee was PenTrek, who received one at his goodbye event in April, GCBMN0C. He plans to move “home” to Michigan this summer. He was honored at the most recent Ammo Can Awards event, but couldn’t make it, and the CACHE committee didn’t want to send him off with the can still in GCAK storage.
The program, at its heart, was never just about numbers. It was about finding a reason to gather, to look someone in the eye and say: we see what you’ve done out there, in the rain and the dark, on the side of a mountain or in a grocery store parking lot, and it matters. “The goal was to try to bring as many people into the club,” Victoria says. “To foster membership, and to give back to those members who had been around for a while.”
As the 2026 Golden Ammo Can Awards approach, the tradition enters its latest chapter — one still rooted in those original values. If you see a beat-up, gold-painted ammo can sitting on someone’s shelf at the next event, now you know the story of where it came from: a café, somewhere back east, a family celebrating their daughter’s hundredth find, and two Alaskans who thought, why don’t we do something like that?
The Golden Ammo Can Awards have been held across at least five major events since the program’s founding, with additional cans distributed individually during the COVID years. Recipients have been recognized across Alaska, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kodiak. The CASH Committee — Celebrating Alaskan Geocachers with Heightened Recognition — continues to coordinate the awards program through GeocacheAlaska! Contact CACHE Committee Chair Emily Stewart at eaccipi@geocacheAlaska.com for more information and keep your eyes peeled for the next event announcement!