Huzzahnian Dragon heading this way!

This is just too exciting!

Our friends in Mr. Miller’s Room 162 in central California have included us in a very exciting project: they are sending a travel bug our way. Now, who sends their friends bugs? Geocachers do!

Here is our cute-as-a-bug bug, the Huzzahnian Dragon:

Huzzahnian Dragon

According to Geocaching.com, there are 1 210 622 active caches all around the world. It’s an outdoor sport–a hide-and-seek sort of game–that’s only been around for a decade. Geocachers hide things for others to find. Some of the more active geocachers have thousands of finds. Such is the case with VCTrails, an avid cacher who is currently transporting our dragon: he has over 3400 finds to his credit! Some caches contain travel bugs that are on their way somewhere. The Huzzahnian Dragon is travelling to a cache near us!

The dragon started in California, near San Miguel. He/she/it was placed in a cache by Mr. Miller, then sat in the dark for three weeks. Luckily for us, he/she/it was was found by VCTrails who is heading north to–of all places– Vancouver, British Columbia, just a ferry ride and one hundred or so kilometres away!

And what an adventure he/she/it is having! Take a look at these photos by VCTrails (captions added–but I am sure that is what the dragon was thinking): All three were taken at Redwoods National Park. The map at the bottom shows how far the dragon has gone–more than a 1000 km. We are really grateful that VCTrails is going out of his way to show our dragon a good time.

Redwoods National Park

waves1

Fern Canyon

Map 11 Oct 2010

Huzzahnian Dragon: hero, villain, or just a regular guy?

So what is this dragon like? Well, cute for sure, but about other important things? Is it a boy or a girl? Young or old? Friendly? Quirky? Intellectual? What does this dragon eat? Drink? Read? What does he/she/it sound like? Does he/she/it miss the kids in Room 162? (If you are from Room 162, please let us know how you are managing without him/her/it.) Would this dragon be a good partner in charades? Does he/she/it have good table manners? What do you think? We are starting a new page with our best guesses about the Huzzahnian Dragon. Please feel free to add your thoughts there! But if you just want to say hi, or tell us about your geocaching experiences, please comment below. And VCTrails, we’d love to hear from you!

Image credits: Dragon indoors–Mr. Miller Dragon outdoors–VCTrails

17 comments

  1. I think this is such a neat idea. I actually have a travel bug that I would love to use and really I would like to set up an actual geo-cache with my grade 6 class. We can only do one thing at a time though and right now we are just starting our own blog. 1st time! Please come check out our blog and comment on our posts, my kids would be so excited to hear from another class. We are in Kanata, Ontario and I believe you have other friends out this way, too? http://quirkyteacher.edublogs.org

    1. I think the one thing at a time is a good idea for sanity’s sake, Ms. Quirk! I have left a message on your blog. Good luck with your geocaching–and your blogging!

  2. Hi Ms. Smith,

    This is what I think about the dragon:

    He is a boy and he comes from royalty just like you. His favourite colour is purple so he dyed his skin that colour. He is short, he stands at about 5′ 2″ at full size. he is friendly with all people around him and he enjoys flying his pet flies in the park. His favourite meal consists of steak with a glass of fire water. He has a sister but she went away on a trip. When he is bored he always pops out a book. He tends to like Sci’Fi and adventure stories and he also own a couple of fantasy books. He plays several sports including Air Dodgeball and Stunt Pilot, he holds records in both sports. He dream is to become the president of dragon town and hopes to see the people of division 4 soon.

    This is what I imagined about the dragon.

  3. I am so excited to read this! I love geocaching and have found travel bugs in Tasmania that have come from many far away places. Maybe one day your lovely dragon will end up here for me to find!
    I have planned to do some geocaching with my class when we have our school picnic in a month or so. There is a lovely bushland area around our local swimming pool and there are several caches stashed away in the bush reserve.
    We have also thought about hiding a cache somewhere near our school. When our town was first settled, the area where our school is was set aside as a Botanical Garden or Aboretum and several lovely trees were planted. These trees are still here today and are all that is left of the garden. They would make an interesting focus for a geocache as caches are often placed where there is something interesting to see or do.
    Good luck with your Dragon! May he/she travel safely and see lots of wonderful things!

  4. This little guy is a demon dragon from the Realm of Golden Ennui. Favorite meal: human souls and Pain Viper venom. He doesn’t talk much, seeing as he exhales cyanide vapor. All in all, he is DEFINITELY a villain.

  5. Hi Mrs. Smith, I agree with Amber, not a he or a she. The young dragon is to be released into the wild! Very friendly and a little bit on the quirky side. Drinks and eats whatever it can find. Likes to read comedy books and has a voice opposite from us, yells when it’s happy and is quiet when angry.

    From, Maya

  6. I cant wait,
    Its going to be so fun trying to find it! I cant wait to here from it again. Do you think that they will drop it off in our field or in our forest. Are those pictures photo shopped?

  7. Hi, I self-consciously think of toys and pets as boys if I don’t actually know what it is. Anyways I imagine him as a clever, sly super villain. He has the power to morph into a human. He wouldn’t be very good at charades because villains, especially super villains, always have to cackle evilly. He drinks and eats human food, and he has deceptively good manners to trick innocent people into helping him with his plan… To destroy his captors, the room 162. He doesn’t know whether or not no destroy our class but we will see…

    Bye, Max

  8. Well first of all she is a girl. She came to us from outer space telling us that she was on a mission to go to Canada. She was very friendly and young. She likes to eat mini flying pigs that are purple. She loves to read scary novels and drinks pink goo for dinner. I’m from room 162 and I believe that she misses us bunches. We are doing pretty well without her, but it is not fun without her because she has the funniest laugh in the world. Believe me she got in the Gunness World Record book for it. She isn’t very good at charades, but she can play a very good dragon. She doesn’t have the best table manners considering she has to caught her food alive. Thanks for this activity it was very very fun.

  9. Hi I’m from room 162 and I’m going to tell you about the huzzahnian dragon. It suddenly popped up out of nowhere and started to cry. We asked him why he was crying. He said he needed to go to Canada but would not tell us why. The dragon is a boy and he is 15 years old and he is 25 feet tall. He likes rare stake, mash potatoes, and cranberry juice because it is red. He is very smart because during class he was giving me all the answers. He is very polite and loves to give people rides on his back when he flies. He has a normal voice like you and me but he can only talk in song.

  10. I Think the dragon is a girl and it was hand crafted and with a little faith and trust and pixie dust it came to life. Also, it is very freindly and she will mean you no harm if you cause her no harm. She loves to eat a nice and fresh deli sandwich, he also does not talk for he talks with his brain and if he does not say anything he is very shy. He would one day if ever possible visit New York City. And just so you know he is anxois to see the kids in room 162 again but at the same time he wants to travel the world. ALSO she is only so young she is only 9 years old but was smart enough to skip a few grades. Also she loves to read about her ansistors in the books “The fire within, Fire star and so on.” IN room 162 we are trying to hold in our care and love for her we deeply miss her.

  11. Hello my name is Michael. I’m from room 162. The dragon is a boy who likes to play extreme chess. His favorite color is turquoise with a little purple. His favorite food is cows. He only eats the legs of the cow. He has a pet that is a frog that is bigger than him. That is what I think about the Huzzahnian Dragon.

    1. I think you are right, Adrian. He does look cool. But I can’t claim any responsibility for it. We look forward to your visit!

Leave a Reply to Arwen Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *