December 1, 2010 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Site Upgrade Tuesday – Site and Mobile Apps Down

Geocaching.com is upgrading the infrastructure of the website to provide geocachers with increased site performance, security and room to expand. All Groundspeak sites and services including Geocaching.com, the Groundspeak Forums, Pocket Queries, Geocaching Mobile Applications for the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Android devices along with other 3rd party applications that utilize our API will be inaccessible during the upgrade process. The outage is schedule to begin Tuesday, December 14th at 8:00pm PST (GMT -8). The site is expected to be down for approximately six hours.

We’ll be working hard to minimize the duration of the downtime. The upgrades include a new network design as well as new hardware. This is the most comprehensive infrastructure upgrade in five years.

The downtime related to the infrastructure upgrade is scheduled during a time of year and on a day when historically fewer geocachers are accessing Geocaching.com and the Geocaching.com mobile apps. During the upgrade, we’ll be posting progress updates to our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

November 30, 2010 / Eric Schudiske /

“Geocaching for the Blind” A Geocaching.com Lost & Found Video

Mike May develops GPS devices for blind and visually impaired users. To help users learn the devices’ cutting-edge technology and explore the world around them, he champions a form of geocaching. Watch this video and go along as Mike May and friends develop a treasure hunting course using adaptive GPS technology.

For information on GPS devices for the blind and visually impaired explore http://accessibleGPS.com

You can explore more videos that capture the adventure of geocaching. Check out the Geocaching.com Lost & Found video gallery. Explore 4×4 geocaching, watch a Travel Bug® go around the world and visit the highest and lowest geocaches in existence.

November 29, 2010 / Eric Schudiske

“Fireboat” GC1EJ4W GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 29, 2010

Geocaching can be a voyage to uncover forgotten history. “Fireboat” (GC1EJ4W) brings geocachers to an example of Hong Kong’s shipbuilding prowess in the 1950s—the fireboat Alexander Grantham.

Sir Alexander Grantham was a British administrator who governed Hong Kong and Fiji in the 40’s and 50’s.

AirQ placed the cache back in 2008. More than 30 geocachers have logged a smiley on the micro cache.

Geocacher Iain Morris even posted this video on the Geocaching.com Facebook page about his journey to find “Fireboat.” Watch Iain’s adventure in the video player below.

There are no spoilers in the video, but there are spoilers for frustrated geocachers on the cache page. This difficulty 1.5, terrain one cache is only available when the boat is open for public tours.

hong kong fire boat 2 — On deck the "Alexander Grantham"

Continue your exploration with some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

November 28, 2010 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Souvenirs

Souvenirs such as the Bayern, Germany souvenir pictured on the left, are virtual pieces of art that you can discover and display on your profile page, as well as on the Geocaching iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 apps.

Souvenirs are most often awarded for finding a geocache in a specific geographical location. Geocaching artists have produced more than 100 souvenirs: including one for every German and U.S. state along with each Canadian province.

Below is a list of all of the released souvenirs. Images of each souvenir can be found at the end of the post. The souvenirs are a powerful way to remember your geocaching adventure, like postcards that never get lost. Geocaching has released all the souvenirs we’ve created. At this time no additional souvenirs are being designed.