How to make the most of Planetary Pursuit

It’s Planetary Pursuit liftoff! Geocachers around the world will be leaving Earth on a majestic journey to every planet in the Solar System, geocaching and earning souvenirs now through April 15, 2018.

As we kick off this geocaching journey, we talked with four Geocaching HQ employees (and super cachers) to see how they plan to make the most of Planetary Pursuit. Read on to learn geocaching tips from the pros*.

*Psst, it involves something new!

Annie
Username: Love

“As Mystery caches are worth more in Planetary Pursuit, I decided to co-host a hiking outing for Lackeys [Geocaching HQ employees] that would involve some of the Dr. Who geo-art Mystery caches. It’s a series of caches that are in the shape of a Tardis from the popular Dr. Who TV series. I’ve found some of the geocaches from the series already and have wanted to find more. I’m terrible at puzzle caches so I figured co-hosting an outing to find them meant a group of us could collaborate on solving the puzzles.”

Tips from Love:
– Work with friends on puzzle caches
– Host or attend a local event
– Go “power caching” and try to beat your record for the number of caches you’ve found in a day

Jeff
Username: gearguru

“I have become hooked on puzzle caches and have about 200+ solved puzzles in my backlog. I have been working with a couple of caching friends to solve some more puzzles and am making plans to team up with them to find as many puzzles as we can, since they have a higher point value. After all, geocaching is more fun with a group of friends!

Cindy
Username: Frau Potter

“Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to make lists, especially to do lists. So my first plan of action for Planetary Pursuit was to make a List. Of course! Fortunately, we have just made important upgrades to the List hub – to easily create a new List, copy an existing List, and map a List. Since Lists sync automatically with the Geocaching® app, I can make changes on the fly either on the website or my phone. And I can see them visually on a map – to plan my daily cache outing.

So, for Planetary Pursuit I created a new List and added caches with more than 10 favorite points, challenge caches I qualify for but haven’t yet found, Multi-Caches, Events, and of course my CITO event planned at the end of the promotion. This will be the 15th CITO that I’ve hosted. I always enjoy working alongside geocachers to give back to the neighborhoods.”

Jenn
Username: MissJenn

“A geocaching friend created a really interesting List so I used the copy list feature to copy it to my own. I had found some of the caches already so I culled those away and voila: a perfect list for me to use!

Also, since I still have time to submit an event during the promotion, I may do that so I have an opportunity to wear this “flight suit” again. Plus, attending events are 15 points on the Friend League! One fun idea is to host a “space-y” costume party event to get into the spirit.”

From caching with friends, to attending events, and making use of the new create a new List, copy an existing List, and map a List functionality, we’re gearing up for an out of this world adventure!

How are you planning to become an Official Space Explorer?