Year: 2012

/ Adela B /

Wellingtonie GCXGEX – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 2, 2012

The two mammoth trees

Question: What’s green, 35 meters (114 feet) tall and lives just outside of Stuttgart, Germany? Answer: Two gigantic mammoth trees near the Geocache of the Week!

Situated in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Hirsau is the home to Wellingtonie (GCXGEX), a difficulty 2 1/2, terrain 1 traditional cache.

Perfectly suited for strollers and bicycles, the family-friendly path through the Redwood trees to the geocache is a short walk from the nearby parking area.

A nice walk through the woods

The hidden treasure is close to two “miracle”  trees, which were planted in 1865 by botanist William Lobb, who discovered the sequoias in the California Sierra Nevada during a visit to the US. Lobb and fellow colleagues were amazed by these incredibly tall and very old trees and decided to import and plant numerous seeds for experimental purposes. Two of those seeds were planted in Hirsau.

The cache was placed by dgumg in August of 2009. Since then, nearly 1100 geocachers have logged this cache and awarded it 380 Favorite Points.

As one geocache logger put it, “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Was für ein Cache! Ich neige mein Haupt.” Simply translated, “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. What a cache! I bow my head.”

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.

View from below the tree

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocacher Finds Lost Child

Mark Case on the day he found the lost girl

In the last 30 days 6.9 million logs were submitted on Geocaching.com. Most of the logs claimed a “Found it,” followed by details of a caching adventure. Or the logs gave a story about the cache that got away under the banner of a “DNF” (Did Not Find).

But Mark Case’s (markcase) June 19 log gives “Found it” a new, more powerful, meaning. Mark was searching for the North Carolina, USA EarthCache “The Sauratown Mountains” (GC1G4Py).

His “Found it” log entry began with, “Wow. How do I start this log? This cache has to be one that I will always remember.”

Mark not only found the information to claim a smiley on the EarthCache – he also found a lost girl.

His log reads, “I passed a very nice stream bed on the way up to the summit. On the way down, as I got closer and closer to the stream, I heard a child crying. When I got to the stream, I found an 8 year-old girl alone and crying. She was lost and had no idea where she was.”

Mark quickly devised a plan. He had been involved with scouting for nearly 40 years. He says he discovered geocaching in 2010 at the Boy Scout National Jamboree. He got hooked. Mark learned plenty about geocaching with nearly 4,500 finds in two years. Mark sets memorable locations in his GPS device as waypoints. Following a waypoint he’d just set, Mark was able to lead the girl to a nearby campsite with a pay phone. There had been no cell phone coverage.

He wrote, “She was tired and scared. I wound up giving her a ride on my shoulders most of the way. When I offered to let her wear my hat, she stopped crying. When I got to the pay phone, I dialed 911 and told them I had a lost girl and where I found her. A ranger showed up within about 15 minutes.” It turned out the girl had been missing for three hours. She’d followed the stream collecting rocks, until she was far past her parents. She was reunited with her parents shortly after. Mark says he never ever got the family’s name.

Mark Case geocaching

Mark finished his log with this, “Does Geocaching make a difference? It did today. I’ll always remember this hike and cache.”

Mark says one of his other memorable caching experience was topping a peak with his wife as she was rehabilitating after knee surgery. He says he likes sharing his caching experiences with fellow cachers, like reaching that peak, or finding a lost girl.

Mark says geocachers also share a common trait, “Most cachers operate on the “Do Right” philosophy.  Do what is right.  I like that in my fellow cachers.”

 

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske

Geocaching.com Presents: Cache Types

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Explore seven of the most popular Geocaching.com cache types. Watch this video to discover the meaning behind the icons. The video showcases three cache types that involve navigation, such as Traditional caches,  Multi-Caches, and Mystery or Puzzle Caches. The video also features popular non-physical cache types, such as Event Caches, Mega-Event Caches, Cache in Trash Out (CITO) Events, and EarthCaches. How many of these seven types of caches have you logged?

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 /

Geocaching.com Refer a Friend Challenge – 2012

 You Refer a Friend, Groundspeak Donates $1 to Charity

Bryce's Thank You Letter

A letter to Geocaching.com from a boy named Bryce is signed, “With Sincerity and Joy.” Bryce’s letter is really written to the entire geocaching community. Geocachers combined last year to raise nearly $10,000 USD for a charity that supports students in the classroom. The charity is called DonorsChoose.org. Donations went to support classrooms using geocaching to enhance learning.

Bryce’s classroom was one of several classrooms to receive new GPS devices.

Bryce wrote, “Dear Groundspeak Employees,Wow! What a super generous donation! In my short eleven years on this planet I don’t know anyone who has been so generous to donate so much money to a single project. Now we can explore the rest of the planet with our new and fantastic GPS. You have made an absolute difference in our classroom! With Sincerity and Joy, Bryce”

You can help more like Bryce. By sharing your love of geocaching in July you’ll help two worthy causes. This year, all funds raised will be split evenly between DonorsChoose.org and the Special Olympics. From July 1- 30, 2012, for each new member that you refer to Geocaching.com, we’ll donate $1 to charity. You can take your friends out on the trail with you, send them the “tell a friend” email, share geocaching on Facebook, or simply shout about it from the rooftops. The more people you refer, the more those in need receive, up to a total of $10,000 USD!

Signal Donation Thermometer from 2011

Please note that your friends need to create an account (Basic or Premium) via this Geocaching.com membership page, (not Facebook Connect) and fill in the “referred by” field on the account creation page, and log at least one cache between July 1 and July 30 to count as a referral!

During the month of July, we will provide regular updates on the number of referrals here on the blog and on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page. Thank you for spreading the word about geocaching, and helping others in the process!       

/ Adela B /

Jonah’s Journey GCJA3V – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – June 25, 2012

Enjoying the view from the cache location

Join us on an adventure to find the Geocache of the Week. Beautifully situated and high in elevation, Jonah’s Journey (GCJA3V) is a difficulty 5, terrain 5 cache.

While finding the cache may be a physical challenge, and it requires a flashlight and a rope, the journey to get to the treasure is nothing short of an incredible experience.

Located in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, England, it’s a short walk from the nearby parking area to Froggatt Edge. Comprised of hard sandstone slopes, the Edge is frequently visited by rock climbers and hikers.

leled placed this small, traditional cache in April of 2004, attracting fellow adventurers to experience a breath-taking journey to get to the hidden treasure.

The view along the path and at the final destination is spectacular. Over 200 geocachers have logged a smiley. They have shared over 150 images in the cache’s photo gallery.

Sunset at Froggatt Edge

This remote cache has earned more than 60 Favorite Points and geocachers have logged notes like, “this one’s for the books,” or “aaaaaaaaaaaamasing!!”

Should you decide to embark on this epic journey, the cache page provides a lot of clues. However, for those who prefer to experience the full challenge, we recommend holding off on reading the logs.

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’d 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.

A climber near the cache location