Year: 2012

/ Eric Schudiske

A North of the Border Mega-Event Adventure

Lackey Nicole Bliss at Island Spirit 2012

Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Jen Smith aka J2B2, attended the Mega-Event Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) (GC349MK). The Mega-Event took place outside Westholme, British Columbia. Jen has served as a Lackey since 2006 and is Web Developer. Here’s Jen’s account of her adventure.

Lackey Jen Smith, aka J2D2

Written by: Jen Smith

On the weekend of July 7th, I was excited and honored to be one of two Lackeys representing Groundspeak at the Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) Mega-Event. While my fellow Lackey Nicole Bliss (Louie Bliss) is a Mega-Event veteran, I had never been to a Mega-Event outside of Seattle, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I had been to Canada once before, but it was so long ago that the only thing I remember from that trip is watching The Empire Strikes Back in French on the hotel TV.

Ferry to Canada

On Friday afternoon, I packed up my car and drove to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, WA. The mega was on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the heart of the Cowichan Valley. Though it’s only about 100 miles from Seattle as the crow flies, they are separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands, so unless you’re really good at swimming, taking a ferry is a must. And on a weekend of incredible sunny weather, there are few nicer ways to travel. In fact, the infamous Pacific Northwest rain was nowhere to be found. I was even able to find my first EarthCache along the way!

Saturday was the big day. Nicole spent the morning helping out at the registration tables, while I wandered around checking out the event. There were all kinds of interesting presentations and vendors to see, Trackables to discover, and of course, lots of geocachers to meet! It was amazing to hear how far many cachers had traveled just to attend – I talked to several who had come from as far away as Ontario and Quebec.

Island Spirit MILESTONE Wall

A major centerpiece of the event was the emphasis on local history and culture. From the beautiful Island Spirit logo (featuring a spyhopping orca against a backdrop of rolling evergreen hills) to the awesome performance by the Quw’utsun’ First Nations Dancers at the end of the day, the natural heritage of the Cowichan Valley was constantly on display.

Even some of the event challenges followed the theme. Cachers who successfully learned to identify Douglas fir cones, differentiate between male and female Dungeness crabs, and draw sea creature GPS art could earn pieces of a special puzzle Trackable. I really got the sense that this wasn’t just a geocaching event — it was also a celebration of a very beautiful and unique little corner of the world. Best of all, the legacy caches placed for the event will keep people coming back and rediscovering this incredible area, hopefully for years to come.

Geocachers are also welcome

The day closed out with a delicious group dinner and a comedy magic performance by featured Geocacher of the Month winner Magicman65. All in all, the event was a total blast and I can’t wait to go back to Vancouver Island for a longer visit. Major kudos and thanks go out to all the organizers and volunteers who made the day such a great success.

/ Adela B /

The Moeraki Boulders (North Otago) – GC124MY – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – August 27, 2012

The Moeraki Boulders

The Geocache of the Week takes us to a striking location. The New Zealand beach looks like a scene from a science fiction movie.

The Moeraki Boulders (North Otago) (GC124MY) is a difficulty one, terrain two EarthCache located just south of Oamaru, New Zealand.

Local Maori legend has it that the boulders are the remains of eel baskets, kumara (sweet potato), and calabashes (a long, squash-like melon grown on a vine) that washed ashore from the wreck of a large sailing canoe hundreds of years ago.

Scientists explain that the boulders were formed over the course of millions of years by a layering process similar to the formation of oyster pearls. The seabed was lifted to form coastal cliffs that have eroded over time causing the boulders to tumble onto the beach.

boulder with septaria cracks
The boulders are impossible to miss. Some are up to four meters (13 feet) in circumference and egg shaped.

Since the creation of the cache by tomsqrd in 2007, nearly 200 geocachers have logged a visit to this magnificent attraction, awarded it 30 Favorite Points, and shared an incredible 436 images.

One geocacher logging a visit writes, “What a great location to come to and explore! Really enjoyed the walk on the beach. It is quite amazing how spherical the concretions are. Thanks for an added reason to stop on my drive south!”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com

From one boulder to another
/ Eric Schudiske

Geocaching.com Presents: How to Log a Geocache on Geocaching.com

(Click the ‘CC’ button to watch the video with subtitles in: English and German)

[vsw id=”FEQCBv56FiI” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Click on the image to watch the video

Watch this Geocaching.com video for easy tips on how to use logs to share the joy of geocaching and help increase the quality of caches. There are five different log types and a comments section for each. Your Geocaching.com logs are your chance to tell other cachers about a specific cache find, about an event you plan to attend, or even notify a Volunteer Reviewer that a geocache may need archiving.

Subscribe to the Official Geocaching.com YouTube channel for the latest tips and tricks in geocaching. Watch the more than 100 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Why You Should Log Your DNF’s – Geocaching.com Weekly Mailer

To DNF or Not To DNF?

Geocaching is full of codes and clues to decipher. You can offer other geocachers a clue about a cache before they even begin their search. When you log a DNF (Did Not Find), you’re telling geocachers that the cache may be more difficult to find than anticipated or may even be missing. You’re also letting the cache owner know that they may need to check if their cache container is still at the posted coordinates.

If you’re a geocacher who logged any of the 8,530,163 DNF’s posted to Geocaching.com so far, thanks from the geocaching community. It’s a small way to help ensure the quality of geocaching. So maybe DNF means more than “Did Not Find” — maybe it also means “Doing (the) Next (cacher a) Favor.”

Go to the official Geocaching.com Facebook page to discuss your thoughts on logging DNF’s.

International Geocaching Day Success

You did it! You made International Geocaching Day the biggest day in Geocaching.com history. More than 94,000 geocachers from around the world charged into the wilderness or perhaps walked casually down the sidewalk to find a geocache on August 18. A souvenir for the day could be earned by logging a “Found it” for a physical geocache or an “Attended” on an Event Cache. Thank you to all those cachers who organized the more than 250 events, including 3 Mega-Events, on International Geocaching Day this year.

International Geocaching Day is the third Saturday of August each year. Next year it will be commemorated on August 17, 2013

/ Eric Schudiske

Two Mega-Events in One Weekend

Crowd at Piratemania V

Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Jonathan Zbikowski aka jzbikows, attended the Mega-Events PirateMania V (GC365FT) and Geolympix Mega:Oxford 2012 (GC22T2T). They took place in Ashbourne and Oxford in the United Kingdom. Jonathan has been a Lackey since 2008 and is an API Developer. Here’s Jonathan’s account of his adventure.

JZ holding an Olympic Torch

Written by: Jonathan Zbikowski

Having been lucky enough to work with Groundspeak for a little over three years now, I recently was given the opportunity to travel internationally to a Mega-Event. There were many events to choose from, but Piratemania V caught my eye – a Pirate-themed Mega-Event? Count me in! I was fortunate enough to attend along with co-founder and Mega-Event veteran Bryan Roth.

Bryan and I awoke on the day of the event bright and early – excited for the day. We surely looked a little foolish walking through a nearby bus station on our way to the car – Bryan dressed in full pirate regalia (“Fancy Dress” to the locals), me with a sword, sash and bandana. However, for the hundreds of attendees at the event 30 minutes down the road, at a beautiful campsite surrounded by farms and wilderness, we fit right in.

We arrived to find many people still waking up and having breakfast at their campsites, where a multitude of makeshift flagpoles had been erected. The flagpoles were flying a motley collection of pirate-themed flags and banners to represent the different groups assembled throughout the campsite. All present were already in the pirate spirit, even the kids!  ‘Arrrrrr!’ was the preferred greeting by many attendees.

Bryan Roth, co-founder of Geocaching, part-time pirate

After talking a quick walk around the campsite and signing the log sheet, we caught up with the organizers Mark (PopUpPirate) and Liane The Cache Hoppers and were promptly asked to choose allegiances. Bryan, ever the neutral arbitrator, chose to support both the Red and Blue team. I however (unintentionally) only supported Blue. We were then given a map with the location of 24 caches specifically placed for the event, spread out over eight miles of English countryside. After finding a few older caches in the area while following some random groups of cachers, as well as some wrong turns and dead ends, we caught up with two fast moving cachers, Karl(Doyboyz ) and Colin(Flamedodger).

They were hot on the trail of the newly placed caches. We ended up hiking, slogging through muddy public footpaths, and enjoying their company for the next 18 of the 24 caches. After making it back to the campsite very parched, we enjoyed a few drinks at the “Outside In” bar onsite. We encountered a couple who were staying at the campsite but were unaware of geocaching. By the time we finally left they were hooked and excited about getting out and finding their first cache.

Luckily, another Mega-Event Geolympix Mega: Oxford 2012 was being held much closer than we had previously thought. The opportunity to attend two Mega-Events in short proximity was too much to miss out on. So after saying goodbye Saturday night, we woke up early Sunday morning and set out for Geolympix which was held two hours south in Oxford. We signed in and happened to see a few others who also made it to two Megas in a weekend.

Flags at Piratemania V

We stopped by our new friends Karl and Colin’s booth for their upcoming Mega (Halloween Hides and Creepy Caches Event).  We also had a chance to meet Wendy (Dorsetgal & GeoDog) who had the opportunity to carry the Olympic Torch while it traveled through the United Kingdom before the 2012 Summer Games. She was kind enough to let both Bryan and myself hold the torch! After talking to a few different groups of people, we ended up joining a group venturing out to find a Wherigo cache. We were lucky enough to walk around with creator of the cartridge, James (metal-bijou), who had worked on the cartridge during a Geolympix talk about Wherigo.  Our band of cachers also found a few other caches including a Letterbox cache, helping me to get both a Letterbox and a Wherigo icon on the same day. After parting ways with the group, we found one more cache as we headed back to our car for the ride home.

I was exhausted after two full days experiencing two unique Megas, and am still in awe of the fact that we are lucky enough to support the community that helped make all of this possible. I have the best job!