October 6, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. It says… (Part 2)

Part 2 or 2 [read part 1]

A message in a bottle captures the imagination…

…and apparently, the attention of media. Last week we published Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. Its says… (part 1). Jean-Francois Cianci (known in the Geocaching word as Monkeyturtle) detailed how he discovered a bottle while clearing garbage from a wetland at a Calgary, Alberta area CITO event.

The bottle contained a very clear note from 1970. It also contained a request, a mission even. And Jean-Francois took the mission seriously. The note read, “Anyone finding this bottle please contact: Darilyn Yates and Georgia Love… ”

The message in the bottle

Jean-Francois, who discovered geocaching in 2003 and now has more than 250 logged geocaches finds, is used to finding. As determined geocachers often say, he wouldn’t DNF this (Did Not Find). An online investigation began but success didn’t come easy, “(I) did a search online with the name and the city where they were from. I found the name of Darilyn Yates’ father and found he had moved to another city. From there I contacted a Darilyn from the same area but with a different surname and it was a match!” Darilyn says she dropped the bottle in the Bow River while on vacation in 1970. She was just 14 years old, and according to news reports, not sure exactly where along the river she tossed the bottle in.

Darilyn had moved hundreds of miles away to Vancouver Island. She fondly recalled the trip she took back in 1970 when she dropped the message in the bottle in a river. Jean-Francois says, “Darilyn has contacted Georgia’s cousin to let her know about the find.”

Since finding the message in the bottle, the story has spread across Canada.

calgary herald article — The story first appeared in the Calgary Herald (Click the image to read the story)

You can hear and see Darilyn and Jean-Francois. They’ve appeared on CBC radio together [click on Part Two in the link]. And even in this CTV television story.

The stories is not over yet though. Jean-Francois plans to hand deliver the bottle back Darilyn. He’ll drive to Vancouver, securing his first to find and reuniting Darilyn with a 44-years-old memory – that had patiently waited for her in a bottle.

Click to meet Darilyn and hear from Jean Francois — Click the image to see the news story featuring Darilyn and Jean-Francois

October 5, 2014 / Paige Edmiston /

Deine neuen Kontoeinstellungen: Häufig gestellte Fragen.

Wie finde ich meine Kontoeinstellungen?

Siehst Du das Zahnrad oben rechts in der Ecke? Wenn Du darauf klickst, kommst Du schnell und einfach zu den neuen Kontoeinstellungen.

Was ist mit meinem Avatar/Profilfoto passiert?

Um alles ein bisschen einfacher zu gestalten, haben wir die zwei verschiedenen Geocaching-Bilder (Avatar- und Profilfoto) auf ein Foto reduziert. Das jetzige Avatarfoto ist von nun an das einzige Profilfoto, das allgemein auf Deinem Geocaching.com-Konto benutzt wird. In Zukunft werden zuvor hochgeladene Fotos nicht mehr gespeichert. Das heißt, wenn Du ein neues Foto als Profilfoto speicherst, wird das alte Foto nicht gespeichert.

Wo sind meine zuvor gespeicherten Avatar/Profilfotos jetzt?

Avatar/Profilfotos, die vor der Neugestaltung gespeichert wurden, kann man jetzt über den Link unter dem aktuellen Profilfoto finden. Wir raten Dir, dass du diese Avatar/Profilfotos von Geocaching.com herunterlädst, da wir sie in Zukunft möglicherweise nicht mehr speichern werden.

Wie kann ich größere Fotos auf meinem Benutzerkonto zeigen, wenn das Profilbild nur kleine Fotos akzeptiert?

Du kannst größere Fotos in Deine Profil-Beschreibung einfügen. Deine Profil-Beschreibung findest du unter dem Profilinformation-Reiter. Verwende hier zum Einfügen der Fotos folgende HTML <img> Tags benutzen müssen, zum Beispiel: <img src=”[Bild URL einfügen]”>!

Wo sind Profildaten wie Name, Addresse, und Beruf gelistet, wenn nicht in den neuen Kontoeinstellungen?

Wir haben die neuen Kontoeinstellungen einfacher gestaltet und diese Profildaten sind nicht mehr enthalten. Wer mag, kann die Daten aber weiterhin in der Profil-Beschreibung angeben.

Wo kann ich meine Sprache oder meinen Heimatort auf Geocaching.com einstellen?

Unter Einstellungen kannst Du Deine bevorzugte Sprache, Zeitzone, und Einheiten wählen. Wir haben weitere Zeitzonen und Datumsformate hinzugefügt, damit Du Dein Geocaching-Erlebnis überall auf der Welt anpassen kannst.

Wie kann ich meine öffentlich angezeigte Statistik bearbeiten?

Die Statistik kann direkt vom öffentlichen Profil aus unter http://www.geocaching.com/my/statistics.aspx bearbeitet werden.

Was ist mit “Neuste in [Land] anzeigen” passiert?

Diese Feature gibt es nicht mehr auf der Kontoeinstellungen Seite. Wir sind dabei andere Funktionalitäten auf dieser Webseite zu entwickeln, damit wir diese Information einfacher anbieten können. Bis dahin kannst Du die “Erweiterte Suche” verwenden. Wähle den Geocache-Typ, “Staat/Land” und dann das Land und Staat/Bundesland/Kanton/Provinz, die Dich interessieren. Du kannst diese Suche als Lesezeichen speichern, um das nächste mal schneller an die Resultate zu gelangen. Link zur Erweiterten Suche: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx

Wieso ist “Mein GPS-Gerät” nicht mehr gelistet?

Wir haben die GPS-Information seit längerer Zeit nicht mehr aktualisiert. Besprechungen für GPS-Geräte oder Smartphones kannst Du auf vielen anderen Webseiten finden.

Wie kann ich Freunde auf Geocaching.com hinzufügen?

Unter “Deine Freundliste anzeigen” auf http://www.geocaching.com/my/default.aspx und “Deine Freundliste” unter Überblick kannst du Freunde hinzufügen, entfernen oder anschauen.

Kann ich meine Kontoeinstellungen von einem Mobilgerät aus aktualisieren?

Gute Frage! Die neuen Kontoeinstellungen wurden so entwickelt, dass sie auch in mobilen Browsern gut funktionieren.

Ich möchte die Profilfotos von anderen Geocachern nicht in den Logs sehen. Wie kann ich diese Funktion abstellen?

Unter Einstellungen kannst Du die Funktion “Show other geocachers’ profile images in logs”, deaktivieren.

Andere nennenswerte Änderungen:

Basis-Mitglieder können jetzt ihren Forum-Titel bearbeiten.
“Online Presence” und “Instant Messenger” wurden entfernt.
“Forum Signature” und “Profile Previews” wurden entfernt.
Man kann “Recently Viewed Caches” nicht mehr ausschalten.

View in English.

October 2, 2014 / Derek H /

Step inside my geocache. — Tschröuwe-Galari (GC3V52D) — Geocache of the Week

Quite possibly the first time these people ever went inside a geocache. Photo by geocacher xentiscarbon

Geocache Name:

Tschröuwe-Galari (GC3V52D)

Difficulty/Terrain Rating:

1/3

Why this is the Geocache of the Week:

Giant ammo cans, buckets, even whole cars—there are plenty of large-sized geocaches out there. However, few are large enough for you and a few of your friends to comfortably fit inside. In fact, you could even stretch out and take a mid-day geocaching nap inside this geocache. This geocache was once an unused farm house in the Austrian countryside. The geocache owner decided to breathe new life into this once ‘useless’ structure and turn it into something that brings to joy to geocachers across the world. The real question is, once you’re inside the geocache, do you become a piece of SWAG?

What geocachers are saying:

“…I’m at the cache and I see a very nice place! Hard to miss. I’m taking a little break here and I’m surprised about this location, never been ‘in’ a geocache… A favoritie point is well deserved for this beautiful location! ” – Coyote0510

“While completing the series of PT Hochalpele, we took a deviation to find this cache without having seeing the pictures. When we arrived we were atonished! This is the biggest cache we have ever found! Fantastic!” – Zascandiles

[translated from German] “Super cool idea, we were excited! That was the largest I’ve done so far. We dried off, ate, drank and logged! The break was perfect for us to wait for better weather. I left a favorite here!” – Red-Habanero

Photos:

The geocache. No not behind the house, it IS the house. Photo by geocacher MCDenifl

Inside the geocache. Photo by geocacher DL3BZZ

Signing the logbook while still inside the geocache. Photo by geocacher moses_was_here

What’s the largest geocache you’ve ever found? Tell us and post photos 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.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, just fill out this form. Thanks!

October 1, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. It says… (Part 1)

(Part 1 of a 2 part story… read Part 2)

Sometimes history sneaks up on you… while you’re trying to preserve the future.

It happened to a group of geocachers clearing garbage from a roadside marshland just west of Calgary, Alberta. The geocaching event is called a CITO (Cache in Trash Out). The group cleans up geocaching friendly locations. They had already found and removed a room-sized carpet, a fractured row boat and a steel rope. The location they chose to help cleanup is a wild space frequented by migratory birds. Jean-Francois Cianci (known in the Geocaching word as Monkeyturtle) was headed back to the meeting area when his team decided to clean up one more patch of land.

Team Monkeyturtle1 — The Geocachers at the CITO (Kathy, Laika and Chomper the other members of Team Monkeyturtle pictured) removed this discarded rowboat

That’s when a patient message’s 44-year wait to be opened ended. Jean-Francois said, “The message in the bottle discovery came towards the end of the event. We were walking back to the gathering point, alongside the road, and decided to pick some of the garbage we had missed. The bottle was in plain view, near some bushes so I decided to pick it up. That’s when I noticed it had a piece of paper in it with a date. I was in bit shock to find a note with such an old date on it.”

He said the mystery began immediately, “The bottle looked old and we pulled strange enough things that day that we thought it was real from the beginning.” When he opened the bottle and removed the note, he also unlocked a nearly 50-year-old challenge by two girls from July 7, 1970. The note asked the finder to do some finding of their own. Thankfully geocachers are known to be especially good at finding. Jean-Francois had to contact the two girls, now women, who dropped the message in the bottle nearly a half century earlier.

The note read:

“Anyone finding this bottle please contact: Darilyn Yates and Georgia Love… ”

The message in the bottle sparked a small quest that would take weeks.

Read Part 2 of the story now.

message in a bottle cito 2 — Geocachers, Gumbydude, Mr. Caneohead and Pokey and Reese(the event organizer), were among those that helped cleanup 25 bags of trash. The group plans to make this CITO a twice-annual event.

September 30, 2014 / Derek H /

3 Ideas for Creating a Deviously Clever Geocache

A decoy from Before You Can Torment, You Must Learn to Annoy (GCK2BA). Photo by geocacher calipidder

I recently attended a the Berkshire Geobash #3 Mega-Event in Massachusetts and came across one of the most devious hides I’ve ever seen. So devious, it inspired me to write a whole blog post dedicated to creating geocaches that some may consider “evil”. Not evil in the possessed by spirits evil, but evil in that when searching, frustration is inevitable. If you’re ever in western Massachusetts, near Pittsfield, finding My Wife Thinks I’m Nuts (GC1MW7), created by Gary, is an absolute must.

Step 1: Decoys

Geocachers with a few finds under their belts will have developed a keen geo-sense, i.e. they know common places to look for geocaches. Some of these folks have seen it all, so getting past them can be hard. This is where decoys come in. Some geocaches have containers in all of the obvious spots, but instead of a logbook, it’s a note that let’s them know they’ve only found a decoy. Placing multiple decoys can create a fog of frustration that may cloud geocacher’s judgement when looking for the real container. (See image above.)

Step 2: Really Clever Camouflage

Don’t get me wrong—I love camo duct tape. It’s an easy way to add a little bit of cloaking to your geocache. However, when it comes to being truly devious, the right camouflage can make or break your hide. The real challenge is to make your geocache look like everything that’s around it—like it belongs there. Think fake logs, fake rocks, fake gum (ew) or even the always maligned fake dog poo.

Step 3: Hide in Plain Sight

You read that right. Hide in plain sight. This might mean skipping the traditional geocache container for something a little more creative. Just think: if your geocache looks like it’s just part of the surrounding decor, geocachers may not be apt to look there. This step is crucial for clever urban hides.

This just looks like it's supposed to be there. Surprise! Geocache! Photo by geocacher Lady Nomad. — This just looks like it’s supposed to be there. Surprise! Geocache! Photo by geocacher Lady Nomad.

These are just a few ideas. How would you make your geocache truly devious? Tell us in the comments. You can also check out some devious geocache containers at Shop Geocaching.

Official Blog

Year: 2014