Year: 2015

/ Paige Edmiston /

Through Twist of Geocaching Fate, #PSNoBoundaries Photo Contest Brings International Space Station Travel Bug to Geocaching Block Party

ncess winner

Earlier this year, the National Council for Exams of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) kicked off the Surveyor Trackable and #PSNoBoundaries Geocaching Contest. Geocachers were challenged to explore benchmarking by taking a selfie with a NCEES trackable at a NGS marker. The winning photographer would receive a trip for two to the 2015 Geocaching Block Party in Seattle.

As a twist of geocaching fate would have it, the winning photographer was Lieutenant Bob Cizaukas (Username: cizzors). Bob happens to be the geocacher who made Geocaching in Space possible. In 2013, 11 trackables hitched a ride to the International Space Station with Astronaut Rick Mastracchio. Bob convinced Mastracchio to take the trackables into space with him on Expedition 38. He also made this an interactive experience for elementary school students in Connecticut by giving each trackable to a school so that students could follow its adventure into space.

Thanks to NCEES, Bob will now be bringing one of the trackables that made the voyage to space to Geocaching Block Party for other geocachers to enjoy! We asked him to tell us about his experience with #PSNoBoundaries.

How long have you been geocaching?

I started geocaching with my wife, Jennifer, my daughter Karisa and my son Ethan (little cizzors) in November 2010.

Why did you start geocaching?

I geocache with my family and friends to exercise and be adventurous. My wife likes hiking, but I seemed to enjoy hiking more with the challenge of finding a cache. We also really enjoy the great places we have discovered and the friends we have made through geocaching.

I learned about geocaching through a chance conversation with a hot air balloon pilot about navigation. The pilot, while explaining how her GPS helps guide her hot air balloon, mentioned that she also uses the GPS for geocaching which intrigued me and so it began. I don’t recall her name and never saw her again after that 30 minute conversation in November 2010.

Tell us about the NCEES #PSNoBoundaries winning photo!

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Blooper photo #1!

My family had never found a benchmark before so we were excited about finding one and taking a picture. We noticed there was one on the Thomaston, CT Police Department, not far from our home. We activated our new trackable, attached a bicycle reflector (since we have seen surveyors use reflectors) and headed out. My daughter Karisa, age 7, my son Ethan, age 10 and our dog Pluto, age 7 months, headed out in our geomobile to search for the benchmark. We found it and intended on getting Pluto in the photo but he wouldn’t stay still and didn’t make it into the final submission. We took the photo and a couple months later we found out we won!

The picture was of NCEES surveyor TB (TB726TN) at Benchmark LX0604.

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Blooper photo #2! Pluto did not make the final cut.

What was the first thing you did when you learned you won tickets to Geocaching Block Party?

When I found out I won, I called my wife at work and told her the exciting news. I have always wanted to go to the Geocaching Block Party but have not had the opportunity.

What is the #1 thing you are excited for at Block Party?

I am most excited to be able to show everyone attending my Geocaching in Space bug (TB5JJN1) and the ISS geocache log.

What tip would you share with new players who want to start having fun with trackables?

My advice to new geocachers wanting to have fun with trackables is to do your best to log them and drop them into another cache as soon as possible. I also like to post a picture when possible. Attending geocaching events and asking questions to other cachers is how I found the best information about trackables.

We also asked Bob to take the What’s Your Geocaching Road Trip ‘15 Vehicle? quiz. His result was “Station Wagon.” (Although we’re guessing he’ll be taking an airplane to Block Party!)

The last Geocaching Block Party will be Saturday, August 15. Explore new geocaching adventures, celebrate 15 years of geocaching, and hang out with nearly 3000 of your new best friends. There will be plenty of fun events, food trucks, interactive exhibits and vendors. Plus, it’s a great way to earn the Meet Your Road Trip Crew souvenir. Mark your Will Attend here.

/ Paige Edmiston /

Inside HQ: Take a Tour of the New Message Center

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Connecting with Geocachers is Now Easier than Ever

After a few months of testing, getting feedback from the geocaching community and making changes, the brand new Message Center is no longer in beta. With this new feature, you can send and receive messages from Geocaching.com and the Geocaching Intro app.

Watch this short video, featuring two Geocaching HQ developers who worked on the project, to learn a little bit more about what went into the new Message Center.

Since first releasing Message Center beta, we’ve added a few things and tweaked a few others based on your feedback including:

  • Email notifications now display the content of the message that triggered the notification .
  • You can contact another player just by clicking the link on their profile or you can access their profile by clicking a player’s avatar image from the Message Center.
  • The envelope icon in the header now updates every 15 seconds to alert you that you have updated conversations.
  • You can contact a geocache owner directly from the geocache page. The GC code and name will be automatically inserted into the message.

And don’t worry – improvements to the Message Center won’t stop here. We’ll continue to improve the Message Center based on your feedback.

Check out the new Message Center now.

/ Alex /

Direkt aus dem Geocaching-Hauptquartier: Eine Führung durch das neue Nachrichten-Center

Es war noch nie so einfach, andere Geocacher zu kontaktieren.

Nach einer mehrmonatigen Testphase, vielen Rückmeldungen aus der Geocaching-Gemeinschaft und etlichen Änderungen, hat das neue Nachrichten-Center das Betatest-Stadium verlassen. Mit dieser neuen Funktion kannst Du Mitteilungen über Geocaching.com und die Geocaching-Intro-App verschicken und empfangen.

Schau Dir das kurze Video mit zwei Entwicklern aus dem Geocaching-Hauptquartier an, um mehr über den Hintergrund des neuen Nachrichten-Centers zu erfahren.

Probiere das neue Nachrichten-Center jetzt aus.

/ Derek H

Deep Blue Something (GC43K9C) — Geocache of the Week

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Dean's Blue Hole Photo by geocacher wiggerl der Bayer
Dean’s Blue Hole Photo by geocacher wiggerl der Bayer

Geocache Name:

Deep Blue Something (GC43K9C)

Difficulty/Terrain Rating:

2/4.5

Why this is the Geocache of the Week:

The Geocache of the Week isn’t always a geocache with tons of finds or Favorite Points—sometimes it’s a cache that’s designed to inspire your next adventure. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is here and visiting a tropical location sounds quite nice. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, you’re in the midst of winter and finding a geocache in a place like the Bahamas probably sounds pretty awesome right about now. At this geocache, you’ll not only see a beautiful location, you’ll also see something you can’t see anywhere else: Dean’s Blue Hole, the deepest salt-water blue hole in the world at 663 ft (200m).

What geocachers have to say:

“Wow! What an amazingly beautiful place. Before I found this cache, I jumped into Dean’s Blue Hole from on top! Surreal! TFTC! :)” – monkey_travels

“Gorgous view! That spot needs a cache! Perfect for snorkeling! Loved it!” – Bobby738

“Awesome place! First time here and won’t be the last! Thanks for the cache!” – rglenn13

What the geocache owner, rockthecachebx, has to say:

My parents live in a little house nearby and we walk down to the Blue Hole just about every day for a snorkel while visiting them. Initially we (husband Jeff and I) wanted to put a cache at the BOTTOM of the hole, 662 feet down, in hopes of it being the longest running undiscovered cache. But we were afraid of the very real possibility that someone might get hurt searching for it and we knew we’d never be able to maintain it at that depth! The name, Deep Blue Something, seemed appropriate and is a nod to a 90s band that was popular in our college days.
We’ve had some great times snorkeling and exploring around Dean’s Blue Hole. I’ve seen Hawksbill sea turtles, upside-down jellyfish and nudibranchs that I included in my obscure animal ABC, P is for Pangolin. There’s a tiny territorial damsel fish that will attack if you swim near his rock at the edge of the cove. Once my husband spotted an adorable baby octopus living in a glass bottle. Swimming across the Blue Hole is a bit eerie. Gazing down into the depths, it is easy to let your imagination run wild, creating fantastic sea monsters, sunken treasure and ghostly forms between shafts of sunlight in the deep blue. Sometimes we visit at night to scare ourselves silly, once we even tied dive lights to a rope and lowered it into the hole to see if we could attract any interesting creatures.
I was surprised that it took over a year for Deep Blue Something to be found! It has been so much fun to read everyone’s logs of adventures at the hole and I love seeing their photos. The location attracts an international crowd. It is a bit of a mecca for the world’s freediving community. The still water and incredible depth make it the perfect place to test human endurance and set world records. I’m a bit surprised that Deep Blue Something is still the only traditional cache on Long Island.
To the Geocaching Community: The place does have a history of tragedies, so swimmers should be cautious and inexperienced swimmers should stick to the shallow parts of the cove. Consider making your visit a CITO visit. Like most islands, Long Island is plagued by plastic rubbish that washes ashore. Locals can point you to the island’s dump which makes an interesting visit in its own right! A note to spearfishers, please target lionfish! This invasive species eats anything that fits in its mouth and is very detrimental to the local ecology. They’re delicious, just watch a YouTube video on safe handling.

 

Photos:

From above. Photo by geocacher Bobby738
From above. Photo by geocacher Bobby738
The blue hole from the beach. Photo by geocacher wiggerl der Bayer
The blue hole from the beach. Photo by geocacher wiggerl der Bayer
And then it just drops off... Photo by geocacher Bobby738
And then it just drops off… Photo by geocacher Bobby738

What’s the most beautiful place geocaching has ever taken you? Post your 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!