May 16, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – May 16, 2012

Trackables Travel the World

Geocaching.com Trackables have crisscrossed the globe as travel companions, international ambassadors, and metal dog tags on a mission. Odds are you’ve launched, discovered, or moved a Trackable – such as a Travel Bug® or Geocoin – along to the next geocache. Your chances of encountering Trackables are on the rise. They come in many shapes and sizes but can be identified by a unique tracking code (a series of letter and numbers) that is trackable on Geocaching.com.

Trackables are now appearing on t-shirts, car decals, and even gear for your dog. But Trackables hail from a humble beginning. The first Travel Bug dog tag was launched in 2001. A rubber “devil duck” was attached as its hitchhiker.

Since then Trackables have tallied tens of millions of miles, including a Trackable that has logged more than 1.5 million miles; “Steve’s geo-backpack” continues to ride along with a geocacher who is a pilot. Another Travel Bug crossed through North Korea, one has been to outer space, and others have traveled from cache to cache completely around the world.

When you encounter a Trackable remember to log it on Geocaching.com and have the courtesy to use the proper Trackable etiquette.

Great American Backyard Campout

(US Only)

Geocaching joins forces with an American rite of passage – the backyard campout. National Wildlife Federation (NWF) invites geocachers to open the doors and sleep under the stars on Saturday, June 23rd. Great American Backyard Campout is a virtual fundraising event that raises awareness about the benefits of camping, especially how camping connects people with nature.

You don’t need to be an experienced camper to participate – all you need is a backyard, campground, or community location. Sign up for free and fundraise to support vital NWF programs that get kids outdoors for their health and happiness. By signing up you have an opportunity to Win a Trip to L.A. or NYC to go Behind the Scenes of a television appearance with a celebrity naturalist. You can also earn great prizes for fundraising! Join others in the geocaching and camping community to make it easy for you and your family to embrace an active, healthy, outdoor lifestyle. Join the movement and sign up at backyardcampout.org.

When you take part in Great American Backyard Campout, you support our Be Out There™ movement – dedicated to getting children outside so they can enjoy a lifetime of healthy, outdoor play.

May 14, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Fontana di Trevi GC1QC5D GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – May 15, 2012

Fountain 1 — Cache log near cache location

Geocaching as a tourist doubles the joy of sightseeing. Not only do you see what all other tourists see, but you unlock a hidden a treasure along the way.

Fontana di Trevi (GC1QC5D) offers Italian tourists the chance to see the fabled fountain just north of the city center and log a smiley nearby.

The cache was hidden by nemrodek in 2009. The difficulty two, terrain one has been found by geocachers visiting Rome from around the world. Fontana di Trevi has been logged more than 2000 times – making it one of the most popular geocaches in all of Italy.

The cache page understates the obvious, warning that the “cache is in an extremely muggled area.” Some other advice on the cache page offer geocachers a chance to potentially return to Rome. The cache page reads, “Legend has it you will return to Rome if you throw a coin into the water. You should toss it over your shoulder with your back to the fountain.”

One log reads, “Yes – we are in Rome – and we are not only looking at all the fantastic sites and monuments of ancient history… we’re also searching some geocaches… surprisingly easy to get and hide again – though there are quadrillions of people around – but they’re all just staring at the fountain. Good for us. 🙂 ”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View of Fountana di Trevi

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.

May 13, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching Mega-Event MOGA – Sock Hop and Caching Competition

Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly twenty Mega-Events worldwide. Nicole Bliss, aka Louie Bliss, attended the Iowa, USA Mega-Event MOGA 2012 (GCQM9C). Nicole has been a Lackey since 2010 and works in Customer Relations. This is Nicole’s account of her trip.

Written By: Nicole (Louie Bliss)

Nicole MOGA $ — Nicole (Louis Bliss) with local geocachers

Location: Rathbun Lake outside Moravia, Iowa, 60 miles south of nearest large city of Des Moine.

Time: 1pm, April 28, 2012

Who: 200 cachers competing (more than 1000 in attendance), including kids, elderly and one stroller

What: Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure 2012, aka MOGA 2012

The Goal: Find as many caches as possible in 2.5 hours

Terrain: Bushwhacking through prairie, sand dunes, climbing trees

Weather: Luckily dry, mostly cloudy and a mild 60°F

The scene: Everyone lines up at the starting lines. Teams plan out their strategies. The 40 caches are all downloaded. Most people have already found 1 to 200 caches in the last few days on the way to MOGA and they are hungry for more. Director Bumanfam makes a motivating speech and blows a whistle. The competition is on!

Most people go to the closest cache and then quickly disperse. To make the process faster, each cache is a decon container with a nail punch inside. Each team has a punch card. They punch this card when they find the cache, and then run on to the next. It’s a race against time and other cachers.

MOGA is different from many other Mega-Events. It is mostly based around this competition, although there are plenty of other activities and side events. There are 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place medals for three different age groups and three categories – male and female individual, two-person and four-person teams. This gives ample opportunity for people to get an award.

I’m proud that I participated with my new caching buddy, ScorpioRed48, and we found 13 caches with minutes to spare. Three other teams found all 40 caches within 2.5 hours. The overall winning team found all 40 within 1 hour and 41 minutes, and one of the participants even swam across the lake to race ahead. Very impressive!

This year’s theme was a 1950’s sock hop. People dressed in poodle skirts and danced to Elvis all weekend. The traditional night-before-MOGA event even had a live band to keep people dancing in the brisk night air.

Nicole MOGA 3 — Geocachers dressed in sock hop apparel

This was my 6^th Mega-Event including the Groundspeak Lost & Found Celebration and Geocaching Block Party, so I thought had a good idea of what to expect going into it. I had no idea the competition would be so much fun. Most people joined for the social aspect, but of course there were the die-hard athletes.

At the event, I spent some quality time with past and present the MOGA organizers. It was really eye-opening to see the detailed planning that goes into an event like this. Given all the possibilities of what could go wrong, I was amazed at how smoothly it ran and any minor hiccups were quickly resolved and attendees had no idea.

I think this is because the directors of past MOGAs stay on as advisers and support organizers each year. This way, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch, especially with the Mega-Event being in a different location every time.

This is the 9^th annual MOGA event and fourth one that’s achieved a Mega-Event status. Well over 1,000 people pre-registered and plenty more showed up that day to join the festivities. For a very rural area that was suddenly bombarded by 1,000 cachers, I’m sure the local farmers were wondering why there was so much traffic and people were pulling over to the side of the road every .1 mile. Nothing to see here folks, just a Tupperware container at a road sign…

MOGA 2012 (GC3GN2E) will be in Shelbyville, Illinois. Next year’s theme: Cachelot – Quest for the Dragon’s Cache. If their YouTube video is any indicator, it’s going to be epic.

[vsw id=”4Xp6hKS0Lik” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

May 11, 2012 / Adela B /

April Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

Geocachers often come two by two: as couples or best friends out on the trail. April’s featured “Geocacher of the Month” nominees are great examples of couples who love nature and their communities. Though many other qualified candidates were nominated, Groundspeak Lackeys selected these international and inspirational nominees. Now it’s your turn to help select one of the couple below as April’s Featured Geocacher of the Month.

Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocaching teams you feel should be crowned.

Last month, Alexschweigert was chosen as the March Featured Geocacher of the Month. Alexschweigert was recognized for sharing his love for geocaching and the sea with others by inviting them to experience a geocaching adventure like no other.

Here are your nominees for the April Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

Milosheart

: Milosheart

Nominated by vbpad, Gwen and Terry, a.k.a. Milosheart, “have been very instrumental in the success of geocaching in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They have been hosting a monthly breakfast in various locations in Fredericton and have organized a winter geocaching contest for the past three years, with the third annual wrap-up event just finishing this month. Not only have they put so much of their time into organizing events and contests, but they still take the time to greet and welcome new cachers in the area.”

Isle

: Isle

Nominated by geo-traveler, “Team Isle, Isle and Karl, a.k.a. Charly, together count for 163 years of life. Both have always been nature lovers and are in constant panic mode of falling rusty if they don’t exercise every day. For eight years now, Charly starts his laptop every evening and prepares the geocaching tour for the next day. Without fear, Isle and Charly search even for T5-caches in their hometown of Munich and in the near mountains of the Alps. They do not back off from crawling into dark and ugly tunnels, and they don’t fear high mountains or deep canyons if there might be the chance of a geocache. Night caching? No problem at all! I remember Christmas Eve 2008 with minus 20 degrees Celsius, when we hunted through the Holy Night for a cache whilst other families were sitting in front of their Christmas trees.”

Frog Dog and Corker

: Frog Dog and Corker

With several nominations under their belt, Frog Dog and Corker, a.k.a. Jerry and Gina, are best described by Mermaid&Hornytoad as “very active in geocaching. They host an event at least once a year, sometimes twice. They have hidden some of the most unique and creative caches and have close to 5000 finds under their belt. They encourage newbies in their finding and placing caches. They are major supporter of geocaching in southeast New Mexico and just recently sponsored an event to honor the 100th Anniversary of New Mexico Statehood.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured April Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and a certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for April’s award through Monday, May 28th.

Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a Featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com.

geocacherofthemonthGeocoinanniephone — Geocacher of the Month Geocoin

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 a description (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 the May Geocacher of the Month must be received by June 8th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the 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.

Official Blog

Year: 2012