Year: 2012

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocoinfest Lisboa 2012

By: Lackey – Annie Love (Love)

Lackey Annie Love

What do the inventor of the Geocoin, one of the oldest cities in the world and a night time cycling tour have in common? They are all aspects of a unique Mega-Event known as Geocoinfest. Geocoinfest Lisboa 2012 (GC3N1YQ) takes place in just about three weeks in the capital of Portugal. It promises to be an exciting event and I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to attend.

This will be my fifth Geocoinfest Mega-Event I’ve attended and yet another opportunity to connect with the amazing community. I enjoy working with geocachers and Geocoins every day as part of my work at Groundspeak. I’m privileged to attend this event with my coworker Jon Stanley (Moun10bike), who plans to bring the very first Geocoin for all to discover.

Geocoins add a fascinating element to the game of geocaching for me and many others.  Beautiful designs, unique icons, and the stories and pictures they collect as they move from cache to cache, or as they’re discovered in private collections, provide a fun experience for enthusiasts everywhere.  I love walking around Geocoinfest events and seeing geocachers showing off the pride and joy of their personal collections to new friends and old.  It always reminds me that the task of generating tracking codes (the unique set of numbers and letters that identify each Geocoin) at Groundspeak HQ  has such a greater meaning than I realize on a day-to-day basis.

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A dedicated event committee of over 50 Portuguese geocachers came together to organize this amazing event for Geocoin fans and collectors in a short amount of time. The committee is divided into eleven groups that cover the individual pieces that make up the Mega-Event.  One of these organizers, António Casimiro (Acasim), explained that “A Geocoinfest event is a special Mega-Event, a themed event related to Geocoins. But in reality it is much more than that. It’s a gathering of people from many different countries, an opportunity to meet some Groundspeak Lackeys, famous Geocoin designers and producers, and many many Geocoin collectors and geocachers in general, who often carry their Geocoin collections to show around or to trade at the event.”

Along with viewing the latest and greatest Geocoin designs, I’m hoping to enjoy some of those other aspects involved with the event. Music, games, a flashmob, tasting local wines, attending an evening bicycle tour of Lisbon to discover the city, and of course finding geocaches! The organizers have done an amazing job putting the event together and I personally can’t wait to see their efforts in person.

Silva provides some great tips for those interested in attending the 2012 European Geocoinfest:

– Book travel and hotel as soon as possible, to get better prices (accommodation pointers are provided on the event website)

– Add your “will attend” log and register for the event, providing the requested information

– Look at the provided program and prepare your own schedule, to make the best possible use of time

– Periodically look at the event web site for news and updates

– Contact the organization in case you have any questions — everyone will do their best to help you!

Find more details for planning on the official event website.  If you can’t make it to the European Geocoinfest,  the annual US event (GC2XW58)  is in the U.S. state of Colorado this October. Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 offers a similar experience in North America. Check out the official Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 website and register here.

 

 

/ Adela B

Gold Country – The Painted Chasm GC1TTW8 – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 16, 2012

Colorful view from the Painted Chasm Canyon

The Geocache of the Week is not only rich in history and natural beauty, it is also a part of the Gold Country GeoTour.

Gold Country – The Painted Chasm (GC1TTW8) is rated a difficulty 1 1/2, terrain 2 traditional cache.

Placed in June of 2009, it is one of 72 Gold Country GeoTour geocaches. GeoTour caches are designed to showcase a destination with a tailored series of geocaches hidden at the destination’s points of interest. The Gold Country GeoTour directs adventurers to discover the region’s gold mining legacy.

Located in a remote area of southern British Columbia, Canada, the cache accumulated nearly 225 logged visits and 17 Favorite Points over the last three years. The cache sits along the 8km long painted chasm canyon, whose serene red, orange, pink, and purple colors have been forming for 16 million years.

Geocaching in Gold Country

The page provides detailed information about the history of the area, its natural beauty, and geological importance.

One adventurer logging the cache said, “This was one very special, very beautiful, very scenic, absolutely fantastic, most educational and truly memorable Geocaching trip. Yours to discover….Wish you were here.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the world. 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.

Exploring Gold Country by horse
/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Spoiler Alert – The Air of Your Ways

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Click the image to watch the video
Click the image to watch the video

Check out this Geocaching.com Spoiler Alert video for a dose of caching inspiration. The video was shot with cache owner permission. The geocache is located in Washington State, USA. ‘The Air of Your Ways” is easy to find, but a tough cache to crack open. The cache owner frequently updates the cache page and lock to change the code required to access the cache.

Explore the Air of Your Ways cache page, the cache is a Premium Member Only cache. Check out Premium Membership options.

Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – July 11, 2012

101 Reasons to Watch Geocaching Videos

Has this ever happened to you? An epic dust storm keeps you inside and away from geocaching, a blinding blizzard freezes your front door shut, or the threat of zombies makes geocaching temporarily unsafe?

Don’t worry; the world of geocaching is still just a few clicks away. Geocaching.com has produced 101 videos (so far) showcasing geocaching adventures. They’re all available online. Use your time indoors to learn tricks and tips with basic videos like those in the series “Getting Started with Geocaching.” Graduate to adventurous “Extreme Geocaching” videos that take you under the streets of the Czech Republic and off the side of bridges in Germany. Share the videos with friends to introduce them to the wide world of geocaching.

Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. A new video is posted every week! Watch the more than 100 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

Gold Country GeoTour

Geocachers exploring British Columbia, Columbia have a new destination: Gold Country. A new Geocaching.com Gold Country GeoTour directs adventurers to discover the region’s gold mining legacy. More than 70 geocaches are placed at historic sites in southern British Columbia.

One geocacher who logged the caches writes, “I love the program as it takes me and my family to places that we otherwise would not explore… I love the fact that the program is child friendly and teaches us about local history.” Each geocache reveals a picture of the area’s rich past and includes a detailed cache page.

Geocachers who complete the current 72 geocaches receive a special puzzle Geocoin that leads them to an exclusive bonus cache. The Gold Country GeoTour is one of six current GeoTours around North America listed on Geocaching.com. Explore them all.

/ Adela B /

Announcing the June Featured Geocacher of the Month

June’s featured Geocacher of the Month is known for his kindness and ability to engage the geocaching community through his creative caches.

Congratulations to SniperChicken for pulling in an incredible 108 votes! We greatly appreciate your dedication to geocaching.

June Featured Geocacher of the Month, SniperChicken

SniperChicken is the Board President of the Mississippi Geocachers Association. He owns over 140 caches and is known to go above and beyond to research every hiding location to provide fellow geocachers with a unique cache and story.

According to one geocacher casting a vote, “SniperChicken is a great guy…you won’t find many more dedicated. He does whatever he can to help others, to make a cache different and exciting. He’s a real inspiration to newbies and seasoned cachers alike. All the candidates are great, but SniperChicken stands out above the rest.”

SniperChicken will receiver a collector’s edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon, and a certificate acknowledging his contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.

Thank you to the fellow June nominees and all those who supported them. The nominees not chosen as featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Groundspeak. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.

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The geocaching community is encouraged to re-nominate those who have yet to be honored as featured Geocacher of the Month.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. 

Every nomination must meet the following requirements: Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and description (in 500 or fewer words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month. Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award. Nominations for July featured Geocacher of the Month must be received by the end of the day on Monday, July 16th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the Latitude 47 blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.