One of Spirit Way's new initiatives within the City of Thompson is an activity that has been rising in popularity across the globe - geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoor activity where participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator to seek caches anywhere in the world.
Volker Beckmann, volunteer project co-ordinator with Spirit Way, says the committee thought it'd be a great idea to start geocaching using the Spirit Way wolves located in Winnipeg, Thompson and Churchill, which would take participants across the entire province of Manitoba.
Beckmann, who works at Design North, put together a wolf hunt passport booklet, copies of which are sold at different locations in Thompson, Winnipeg and Churchill. He says that it seems like people are catching on and becoming more and more interested in the Spirit Way wolf hunt.
"Colleen Smook had two different motor home groups at her campground over the last few weeks - people that were going to Churchill to see the beluga whales," Beckmann says. "She asked me if I could come to a coffee and doughnut thing for breakfast one morning, so I went there to explain what Spirit Way is and where you can find it, and all about the GPS wolf hunt."
The first people to locate all the Spirit Way wolves in the three different communities are Stan and Lynne Ritz of Winnipeg, who are now known as Master Wolf Trackers. After they found all 49 Spirit Way wolves they will receive a special Spirit Way GPS Master Wolf Trackers certificate, signed by the mayors of Winnipeg, Thompson and Churchill.
"This was an awesome adventure and we really enjoyed the wolf hunt," says Stan Ritz. "Our adventure left us with memories to last a lifetime."
According to Beckmann, even more people have since located all 49 wolves, including people from Kansas and Pennsylvania. He says a vice- president from a major corporation in downtown Vancouver won a contest put on by Calm Air in Ontario, with the prize being a trip to see the wolves in Thompson and the whales in Churchill. Beckmann gave walking tours to him and his wife, saying they quickly got excited about the idea of the wolf hunt.
"In an e-mail he sent me he was so excited. He said the wolf hunt thing is really addictive. This is a vice president!" Beckmann enthuses. "He showed everybody in his office what he was doing and he said everybody was really excited to see what Thompson and Churchill have."
Beckmann says the Spirit Way wolf hunt is a great way to drum up more tourism for Thompson and to keep people interested in the area.
"Now these people are talking it up in Vancouver, Pennsylvania, Kansas, about what they've done, and this is all linked out of Thompson," he explains. "It keeps people here longer, it keeps people talking about Thompson, and it gets them back to our website to show them all the other things Spirit Way is about."
The Spirit Way GPS Wolf Hunt campaign is 30 months long and ends in November 2011. People can pick up their wolf hunt passports in Thompson at the Heritage North Museum, the Thompson Trading Post and McCreedy Campground.
