All three nominees for the March Geocacher of the Month contribute to the global geocaching communityby creating quality geocaches and being an inspiration to geocachers.
Thank you to all those who supported the nominees. Those not chosen as the featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Geocaching HQ.
The choice was difficult. Ultimately, only one nominee can become the featured Geocacher of the Month based on a combination of community input, blog comments and voting. We all won seeing such examples of how the geocaching community works together.
After tallying the sentiment, WVTim is named the Featured Geocacher of the Month for March 2013.
WVTim is known for contributing one-on-one and through social media to improve geocaching for others. One geocacher who left a comment for WVTim wrote, “I see “paragraphs” of supporting statements about WVTim and the many things he has accomplished for geocaching. I am familiar with WVTim due to his YouTube videos. His gadgetcaches channel, in only 3 months, has nearly 11K views. He does instructional videos on how to build his gadget caches. So, he not only has amazing caches, he is giving ideas and instructions to cachers everywhere on how to build them. Cachers everywhere are benefiting from this guy whose caches have over 2K favorite votes. Plus, he just doesn’t do great caches. I’ve learned from this blog he has seminars, educational events, he teaches geocaching in schools, and to the Boy Scouts. He assists his state and local government in placing geocaching trails.”
WVTim will receive a collector’s edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging his contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:
Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.
Congratulations again to Uncle Louwtjie on being recognized at the Featured Geocacher of the Month for February.
Counting some of the Everglades’ natural residents. Photo by geocacher lilyfly.
Getting plenty of fresh air, enjoying beautiful scenery, exploring wondrous destinations—United States National Park Rangers have a job that many of us dream about. However, it’s not all fun and games. Park rangers work tirelessly to help preserve natural areas, protect endangered species and ensure visitors enjoy their experience. This week’s Geocache of the Week is the Park Employee for a Day Geocache series (beginning with GC42GX2), which put you in the well-worn boots of a Park Ranger in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA.
This geocache series is relatively new and ranges from 1.5–2.5 in difficulty and terrain. Most of the geocaches were placed in January 2013. However, just because these geocaches haven’t had a whole lot of time to rack up Favorite Points, we can tell that this series will be loved by the community. “So far, the caches have been wildly popular with visitors…we’re getting good qualitative feedback from visitors about the real-world issues we’re asking them to consider. Visitors are chiming in on how we should respond to climate change, protect imperiled species, and manage risks from wildlife. This sort of back-and-forth conversation is an exciting new departure from traditional ranger programs found at most national parks,” said Larry Perez, the U.S. Park Ranger in charge of the series.
A nice view of the Everglades. Photo by geocacher JunglePete.
The Park Ranger for a Day geocaches are some of the very few geocaches that are placed within a US National Park. Geocachers will be able to experience more than just another find—they’ll be able to see the park through the eyes of a ranger. The series begins with a simple park and grab geocache that contains information about the other geocaches, as well as their coordinates. Each geocache then presents a different, real-world scenario that Park Rangers could face. “The issues we ask our visitors to consider are ongoing, real-world challenges for our park personnel. The series helps expose visitors to the “behind-the-scenes” work–both past and present–that has been undertaken by many of our rangers. These include dealing with invasive exotics, managing large wildfires, and planning for the future in light of sea level rise,” said Larry Perez.
Geocachers share how they would handle the situation in their logs. So far, the geocachers that have made the trip to southern Florida have enjoyed the series. Geocache lilyfly had this to say, “Thanks to the NPS for being willing to take chance on us geocachers. These caches were all placed in excellent locations where minimal impact will be made. The challenges presented really helped give a glimpse to the different issues facing the NPS. We loved it! THANK YOU!”
A beautiful Everglades sunset. Photo by geocacher auyantepuy.
We’re excited about having a series of geocaches in a U.S. National Park. Which U.S. National Park would you like to see geocaches in next? Let us know in the comments.
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching 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@geocaching.com.
Kerb (middle) with geocachers BeaverC2407 (left) and BeaverC2605
Editor’s note: Geocaching HQ staff are joining geocachers at Mega-Events around the world to celebrate and share the adventure of geocaching. Kerb Lydick, aka KerbL , attended MOGA 2013 (GC3GN2E) in Shelbyville, Illinois, USA in April. Kerb has been a Volunteer Support Specialist and part of Groundspeak’s Volunteer Coordination and Support Team (VoCS) since 2011. This is Kerb’s account of her trip.
By Kerb Lydick –
When the theme of a Mega-Event is Cachelot-Quest for the Dragon’s Cache (see the official video). there are a wizard, knights and a sword in a stone involved, you know you’re going to have a good time. On April 5th Midwestern geocachers streamed into the small town of Lake Shelbyville. The population of just under 5,000 swell by more than 15% by our calculations. The bright orange lanyards round the necks of attendees could be spotted up and down main street, cross farm fields, and surrounding the 11,100 acres of Lake Shelbyville which this year celebrates it’s 50th anniversary.
Welcome to MOGA 2013
In it’s 10th year, MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure) was seamlessly organized Pam Rankin (Racer2814) and Tom Hankins (gossamer) and the team. I was thoroughly impressed with the level of attention their volunteer staff provided each and every geocacher from newbie to geocaching athletes and experts! From the satellite events surrounding the geocacher competition to the awards ceremony seemed to doubled as a MOGA family reunion and celebration of this legacy event, this team of organizers were simply amazing.
Friday night BYO…Bash Before the Big Bash #7 (GC43CH7) included a costume contest, live music by Patchwork, and magic by local magician Anthony W. Stockton (king0806)
Youth costume contest winner LegoExplorer and The Sword in the Stone.
During one particularly feisty day of geocaching with local celebrity and volunteer Reviewer Jones, and we came across two of these friendly and resourceful folks. I can still hear Reviewer Jones exclaiming ‘You’re the man Phil’ after we managed to safely replace The X Bridge (GC2P5F3) with the help of BeaverC2407 and BeaverC2605 (Phil) of Oswego. That’s me in the middle in the picture at the top of the post, smiling because we were unscathed.
Indeed Sir! The trials and tribulations of ActMoritz faced to pull the Sword in the Stone cache rivaled that of King Arthur.
The Sword in the Stone was a handmade wonder (created by sixrows). It was later auctioned off at the tune of $330, proceeds donated to the local school and host of MOGA Central. The craftsmanship and detail in this piece was inspiring to viewers who took eagerly jumped at the chance for a photo ops.
As I shared with all my fellow attendees during the event, it was perfection to spend a weekend with my two favorite groups of people, geocachers and Midwesterners. It doesn’t get any better than that, unless Merlin shows up…which he did.
Special thanks to the MOGA Board of Directors – Mike Griffin (Brawny Bear), Bridget Griffin (BWAT), Tim + Pam Ueltzen (Tim, Pam + Molly), John Elfrank (L Frank), Laurie Elfrank(denmother), Steve Bromley (javapgmr).
The geocaching competition yielded over 61 teams and 46 individual competitors participated in this year’s competition. Winners are listed at the MOGA 2013 (GC3GN2E). Congratulations to all those dedicated geocaching athletes who participated in this amazing adventure.
Geocachers search parks, trails and forests to earn a smiley, but during a Cache In Trash Out (CITO) event they’re not looking for geocaches. They’re clearing litter and trash from geocaching-friendly areas around the world. Thousands of geocachers will walk away from their CITO events with bags of trash and a sense of pride. They’re preserving the natural beauty of our world. It’s often more than litter clean up. Some CITO events remove of invasive species, plant trees or build trails.
You can be a part of the movement. CITO events are held all year long, but you’ll have more than 140 to choose from on April 20, 21 and 22. It’s the 11th annual International CITO Weekend coinciding with Earth Day.
This year, more than a thousand geocachers from at least 30 countries are combining in the annual worldwide environmental effort. The locations range from Croatia to Hong Kong and include more than 40 U.S. States.
Share this new CITO video and log your “Will Attend” for a CITO event near you. For a limited time, Shop Geocaching will include a free CITO trash bag in each order (U.S. orders, while supplies last).
Technically, a geocache can’t be buried—but that doesn’t mean it can’t be underground. The Below Above series, hidden by geocacher BareClawz, takes daring geocachers on a subterranean adventure through abandoned quarries in southwest England, United Kingdom. This week’s Geocache of the Week is Below Above – The Fallen Monarch (GC2GAMT). This difficulty 5, terrain 5 geocache isn’t for the faint of heart—or the claustrophobic.
The Saucepan Man negotiates a tight squeeze while searching for The Fallen Monarch. Photo by geocacher the merry moomins.Wear a helmet. Seriously. Photo by geocacher *geocass*.
The adventure begins with your smartphone or computer—geocachers must figure out clues to find the correct entrance and the correct path to the geocache. From there, it’s time to build up your courage, don your hardhat, check the batteries in your headlamp, pack your geocaching toolkit, and venture into the abandoned (by all except cavers and geocachers, that is) quarries.
As much time and dedication as it takes from geocachers to find these geocaches, creating them is even more difficult. “I have been exploring the quarries for many years and have got to know them quite well, surveys (maps) are also available and using my knowledge combined with the maps I work out a route that I think novice explorers could follow without getting lost, injured or hurting themselves. I then check the route by walking it myself, altering and editing it and then walking it again. When I am finally happy with the route I get a friend, usually a geocacher, to walk the route just following the route I’ve written out. I accompany them and if necessary rewrite parts as needed. Finally it gets fully written up and submitted for publication. This process can take up to two months per cache! I have to consider that people of various levels of underground skills follow these routes to find the caches at the end,” said BareClawz, the geocache creator.
Notes left by miners. Photo by geocacher *geocass*.
During the underground journey, geocachers come across all sorts of artifacts from when the quarries were active. One look at the geocache’s photo logs and you can see everything from boots to old tools to comments written on the walls from the miners that once worked in the caves. And sometimes you come across things you wouldn’t expect, when asked about his best stories while exploring the quarries, BareClawz recalls, “One classic is being in a quarry one evening and finding two lost cavers and guiding them out and to safety. In another quarry I thought I’d found the body of a caver, it turned out to be an old boiler suit on a dummy left years ago by previous cavers as a joke.”
A brave explorer with subterranean artifacts. Photo by geocacher tarmacjohn.
Geocaching takes us on adventures to places we never knew existed. In this case, it’s abandoned quarries. What’s the greatest adventure that geocaching has ever taken you on?
This geocache was submitted by geocacher *geocass*. If you’d like to read more about the whole Below Above series (and see more photos), check out her blog. Also, the Below Above series is extremely popular and highly regarded by the geocachers that have found it. So much so that it has its own Facebook Group.
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching 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@geocaching.com.
“The Cathedral” This is located in another one of the Below Above series: Multi 2 (GC2K97V). Photo by *geocass*.
Congratulations on making it down this far! Your prize is a few more Q&As with BareClawz, the creator of the Below Above series:
What inspired you to place these geocaches?
I created the way to set the Below Aboves as a way of combining my two favourite hobbies,geocaching and exploring the old quarries locally with fellow geocachers who some had no idea that these places existed or that there was a way of seeing them. There were a couple of early attempts that led the way to the standard that the current have reached. These were aimed at local cachers and I had no idea that their fame would spread so far and to so many people.
How did you navigate the quarries for the first time?
Initially I got some caving friends to show me the quarries but that was before the first of the Below Aboves and several years ago. I always follow the safety guidelines and tell somebody where I am and how long I intend to be. Then set off with my experience and a map. Initially I did get lost a few times but I can soon work out where I am and don’t panic.
Most of the geocaches in the Below Above series are D5/T5, do you typically like to find similarly difficult geocaches?
I enjoy riddles, puzzles etc and have solved quite a few to find caches but so far no 5/5 caches but I do plan to remedy that soon and find some as soon as I get the chance.
What’s the most interesting artifact you’ve come across while down in the quarries?
There are so many artefacts underground that it’s hard to pick one. Each quarry is different and unique. BA – Mind The Trains I like the railway tracks, but also the water troughs, these appear in Fallen Monarch too, Multi 2 Cathedral is such an awesome sight but the things I like most and spot new ones of in almost every trip are the graffiti comments left by the old workers, some of these date back to the early 19th century. Names of the workers, comic drawings, comments and that sort.
Do you have any crazy stories from when you were placing the caches?
Yes, lots. One classic is being in a quarry one evening and finding two lost cavers and guiding them out and to safety. In another quarry I thought I’d found the body of a caver, it turned out to be an old boiler suit on a dummy left years ago by previous cavers as a joke.
The best memories though are guiding a team of geocachers one year on the day of my birthday and one of the team was a cacher called Ambrel and just after he signed the logbook he presented me with two coins and explained these were what is recognised as Ambrel Top Cache Awards. I now hold 5 of these, one for each of the Below Aboves. Soon I hope that will be 6 as a new Below Above has just been submitted and more are planned over the next few months.
My greatest reward though is the thanks I get mailed by geocachers and reading the logs finders write of their adventures. They say a lot more that TFTC TNLN lol.
