The creator of a “school” for geocache hiders, an extreme geocacher with hides along mountain trails and the person who’s the glue that helps bind an entire state of geocachers together. We’re honoring each of these nominees for Geocacher of the Month for their contributions to the geocaching community. Each will receive worldwide recognition and a prize package from Geocaching HQ in Seattle, but which will be named Geocacher of the Month?
This is your opportunity to help decide who will take home the earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin (at left). Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive the exclusive special edition Geocoin, a hat and a profile icon. They’ll also receive a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.
In December, Siig was named Geocacher of the Month.
One geocacher who commented wrote, “Hands down winner this month must be siig! There is a reason why they are by far the team in Denmark with most favourite votings (and not just 100 as hinted above….almost 2800 favourites received!). You always leave one of their hides with a silent smile or a big and noisy laugh, as they are most often very innovative and funny caches. Their caches are well kept and always an experience.”
Now it’s your turn to help us select the next Geocacher of the Month. Write a supportive comment at the bottom of this blog for the nominated geocacher that you feel should be awarded the title. A panel from Geocaching HQ will then use your comments to help guide the decision of which geocacher is awarded the Geocacher of the Month honor.
Here are your nominees for the January 2014 Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
Tim Werbrich writes, “MikeOtt is Delaware’s Geocaching Ambassador and the Presidential leader of the Delaware Geocachers. Mike has over 16,500 finds and owns over 300 caches! Mike took the lead in creating the Delaware Geocaching Trail in conjunction with Delaware Tourism. This trail of about 70 caches takes cachers over scenic trails and to unique attractions throughout Delaware. He also created the C & D Canal Power Trail, a trail of over 150 caches that border the scenic Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Mike also began the First State Challenge, an annual challenge series of caches in each of Delaware’s 3 counties. There are a lot more things he does for geocaching.
Mike is passionate about caching, but he also promotes caching throughout the state and region. Mike is at every event and CITO. He encourages others to give back to caching as well. I think he is the glue that keeps caching alive in Delaware. Mike is the perfect example of a ambassador to geocaching. Having cached with him in Alaska and the Northwest US, I know first hand his passion for caching. It is my honor to nominate him as Geocacher of the Month!”
He is an active part of our local geocaching community. Martin owns a mixed variety of geocaches, such as night caches, really difficult mystery caches and a nice range of clever traditional hides.
What makes him a good candidate as a geocacher of the month is the fact, that he developed a “Geocaching Owner School” which he offers as part of event caches in our local region.
Goal of these school events is to make new and old cachers aware of our guidelines, do’s and don’ts, rules, and all other aspects. Attendees of his “Owner school” will learn how to do it right.
His efforts to train and make people understand the basics of our hobby makes Martin a very good candidate for the geocacher of the month.
He owns one of the best Night caches in our local area. “The Hunt @ Night”
Natalie Gray (Coralteach) writes, “I would like to nominate Cass Kalinski, otherwise known as CKayaks, for Geocacher of the Month. He not only finds all sorts of high terrain caches, etc…himself, he also places a lot of caches for others to enjoy, including an entire challenging trail in one of our largest parks. Even more than that though, is what he gives back to the geocaching community. Besides placing caches, he holds GREAT events. For two years in a row he has hosted a big event in Los Banos, CA.
He puts out 50 caches and cachers come from miles around to go out and have fun for the day. This year they were all puzzles, which was really great, and a lot of additional work for him! He had really great coins made up for both last year and this year, and it is becoming an annual event, and could even develop into a Mega Event! In addition, he hosts CITO events, and has one coming up on Jan. 18th. His caches are clever and fun, his stats are incredible, but the time and effort he goes through to host events, is incredible. His events draw cachers from all over the Bay Area, down to the Central Coast, and turns us into a community. I don’t think you’ll find a more well rounded cacher, or anyone more deserving of the award for Geocacher of the Month. He is a legend around here, and truly merits this award.”
- 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 the next Geocacher of the Month should be received by March 3. Once Geocaching HQ has received 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 that we might learn from each other.
Geocachers like a challenge! The Yanamarca Valley floor is at 11,300 feet above sea level, and the surrounding hills go up to 13,000 feet. You’ll explore all of that. We recommend spending the first day walking or biking around the valley floor if you need to acclimatize to the altitude. It’s a lovely area to explore. Over 90% of the buildings are traditional adobe with red tile roofs. Farming is the center of the economy. You’ll see grandmothers in their colorful mantas watching their sheep, pass fields of quinoa, and complete a challenge that will take you to 10 brightly-painted neighborhood chapels. This area is bursting with genuine Peruvian folkways, and as a geocacher, you’ll see it all up close. Above the valley floor, you’ll hike into the hills to find archeological sites, interesting rock formations, and lovely views of the distant Huaytapallana glacier. This is a great location for geocaching because here are so many little delights to be discovered, that you would definitely not come across without geocaching.
When people think of Peru, they think of Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire. Over the span of the history of the Andes, that was just the blink of an eye, less than 100 years. Before that, there were hundreds of cultures spread like a patchwork quilt across the Andes. In our valley and the surrounding hills, it was the Xauxa culture. I’m from the American Southwest, and the Xauxa culture is very similar to the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture. Lots of little stone buildings remain to tell the tale of a vanished civilization. In this tour you’ll build up a picture of these people as you visit the remains of their towns, roads, aqueducts and graves. You can even hire a local shaman to do a traditional ceremony with you to thank the ancient spirits for letting you explore these sites.
We hope that people from around the world will visit us. Many people here take their home for granted. Seeing it through the eyes of visitors will help build local pride. This valley is in the lowest 25% of communities in Peru, economically. If you visit us and spend a little money in the valley, that truly matters for us. Young people are migrating out of this rural area. A little bit of tourism income might entice a few of them to stay. We’d like to see a small but steady stream of visitors. We don’t want to become Machu Picchu—a GeoTour is a perfect way to generate some light tourism without destroying the traditional way of life of the valley. We’d like to have some friends from around the world stop by to share the gentle beauties of our home.
