Author: Eric Schudiske

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching Caption Contest 7 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

Winning Caption: “Thank you, Great cache, took Geocoin, left old man in the woods unable to walk” – slicksps

This is the seventh installment of our Geocaching Caption Contest. Here’s a little background to help mold your hilarious captions.  According to the geocacher pictured, dova dov, this photo was taken at the Washington State Project APE Cache Mission 9: Tunnel of Light GC1169. He attached a Travel Bug to the cane.

What caption would you write for this photo?  “I didn’t know the cane was electrified.”

You can do better.  The winner receives these barely coveted Trail Cards I found in my desk. Please include your geocaching username in all entries.

Barely Coveted Prize

The winner will be chosen by an ad hoc committee of Lackeys.

18 Lackeys voted to crown the winner of the sixth Geocaching Caption Contest.  Take a look at the post to see who won.  Explore the wit and wisdom of geocachers by checking out all the Geocaching Caption Contests.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching: The Best Work Out for Your Hippocampus or is it?

Haven’t you always dreamed of a bulging hippocampus? Another question at this point, might be: what’s a hippocampus?

The hippocampus is the portion of the brain believed to store maps of our surroundings.  It allows us to navigate around this crazy mixed-up world.  It’s your inner GPS.  If you’re going to the grocery store, your parents’ house or the place by that Thai restaurant your friend told you about? Yeah, your hippocampus gets you there.

A famous study into the inner wiring of London taxi drivers’ brains discovered something, well, unexpected.  The late 1990’s  research found the drivers hippocampi were much larger than normal, non-taxi-driver, hippocampi.

Taxi drivers navigating with their hippocampus.

The more the taxi drivers navigated the complex web of London streets, blind alleys and winding lanes, the larger their hippocampi grew.

The oyster-sized and colored portion of our mind also plays a role in long-term memory.  And I believe geocaching flexes your hippocampus.

Now there’s no study for what’s next (yet), but geocaching must be an amazing work out for your hippocampus.  You’re continuously navigating and building maps of your surroundings.  You’re challenging your ability to move from A to B. Finding a geocache pumps up your awareness of your location.  The concept sounds fairly simple.

But some fear we rely on our GPS devices and mapping sites far too much.

Last year a Los Angeles woman, Lauren Rosenberg, was struck by a car while crossing a highway in Utah.  In May, she filed a lawsuit against Google. According to The Washington Post, Rosenberg’s lawyer claims Google Maps provided walking directions that sent Rosenberg into harm’s way.  She ended up on a busy road with no sidewalks. She followed the directions sent to her Blackberry – which Rosenberg claims did not come with a warning about missing sidewalks.

She got hit by a car. She accumulated massive medical bills.  She sued.  There was clearly a loss of “situational awareness.”

So, which is it? Do we rely on maps and GPS devices too much? Or does the act of geocaching and navigating help grow the awareness of our surroundings?

VOTE in the Geocaching.com Poll in the sidebar to your right.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Guard Nature as Citizen Scientists – Geocaching.com’s Lost & Found Video

Your next geocaching adventure can help save the environment from a multi-billion dollar scourge, invasive species.  Scientists at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado created a website called, CitSci.org.  They’re calling all geocachers to help track the spread of species which damage the natural environment. It’s a global project, that begins just outside your front door.

You can find more information on Citizen Science by clicking the image below.

Citsci.org

There are many more geocaching adventures. Take a look at all the Lost & Found videos here.

/ Eric Schudiske /

“As North As It Gets” GC5803 GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – June 25th, 2010

A local resident near GC5803

Just in time for the beginning of the best weather to travel north, is our Geocache of the Week GC5803.  The geocache titled, “As North As It Gets!” takes you up to N. 82 degrees.

Besides the wolf above, cachers who’ve logged GC5803 say you’ll also be walking among foxes, lemmings and even polar bears.  The cache is just outside what’s reported to be the northernmost permanently inhabited place on earth: Alert, Canada. The Canadian Air Force staffs a station there. Temperatures in Alert average about -30 degrees Celsius most of the year.

Geocacher finding GC5803. At last report, the cache thankfully contained gloves and hand warmers.

Now is the perfect opportunity to plan your northern caching adventure.  July is typically the warmest month.  The snow melts to reveal a rocky terrain of jagged shale.  Temperatures average a scorching six degrees Celsius (42 Fahrenheit).  You could be among the nearly two dozen geocachers to earn a smiley for logging this cache and take away memories of a rarely visited northern landscape.

View from near the GC5803

What to explore more geocaching adventures? Take a look at all the Geocaches of the Week here.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching Caption Contest 6 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

Your Caption HereWinning Caption Entry – “Congratulations! You have found stage 2 of a 4 part multi cache!” – roro

This is the sixth installment of our Geocaching Caption Contest. Here’s a little background to help mold your hilarious captions.  According to the geocacher pictured, kiwiwings, this photo was taken at a former Russian residential home in Latvia.  The home was left empty after the USSR dissolved. If you’re in the neighborhood hang out at GCVBHE for a bit.

What caption would you write for this photo?  “Wait… I can see my house from here and I live in Wisconsin.”  You can do better.  The winner receives these (recycled*) barely coveted Cache In Trash Out stickers. Please include your geocaching username in all entries.

The winner will be chosen by an ad hoc committee of Lackeys.

21 Lackeys voted to crown the winner of the fifth Geocaching Caption Contest.  Take a look at the post to see who won.  Explore the wit and wisdom of geocachers by checking out all the Geocaching Caption Contests.

Good luck!

Barely Coveted Prize

*The Cache In Trash Out stickers went unclaimed in the 4th Geocaching Caption Contest