They’re the geocachers who deliver “wow.” They hide caches—good caches. Their caches give you more than a just digital smiley—they put a smile on your face. Everyone’s recipe for making a great cache is slightly different, but there are some basic ingredients. Start with a powerful location, add a gripping story and well-constructed cache page, and end with a good cache container.
Whether it’s creative, crafty, or camouflaged, you can find your cache container at Shop Geocaching. There are dozens of containers and supplies to spark your imagination, from Pine Cone containers to Magnetic Bolt Geocaches. Pick the perfect container for your new geocache location, get the other ingredients together, and soon enough, you’ll be responsible for the “wow” caches in your area.
Watch this video to show you what to do when you encounter Geocaching.com Trackables in a geocache. Learn the two options you can choose from to help make the most of a Trackable’s journey. Trackables add an exciting dimension of world exploration to the hobby. Each Trackable has a unique code that allows its movements to be tracked on Geocaching.com. The Trackable’s owner can drop it in a cache and then watch as geocachers help the Trackable wander the globe by moving it from cache to cache. Most Trackables are assigned goals that direct them to specific areas.
Click the image to see what to do after you find a Trackable
Interested in a Trackable of your own? Check out the Trackables collection of more than 100 items at Shop Geocaching.
Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
Geocachers unite on August 18 to celebrate International Geocaching Day. It’s a day devoted enjoying what you love – geocaching. There’s even a digital prize. Geocachers who log an “Attended” at an Event Cache or a “Found it” for another cache type on International Geocaching Day earn a souvenir for their Geocaching.com profile page. International Geocaching Day is the perfect occasion to hike with family and friends, enjoy the outdoors, and log one, two, or a dozen smileys.
Thousands of adventurers will attend one of more than 100 International Geocaching Day events around the globe. The events range from Event Caches to CITO Events and include Mega-Events in Germany, Hungary, and the United States.
The Mega-Event in the U.S. is the 2012 Geocaching Block Party hosted at Groundspeak HQ in Seattle, Washington. Watch this video to see your invitation from some of Geocaching.com’s most famous (furry) employees.
Check out the Geocaching.com Event Calendar to find an International Geocaching Day event near you. If there’s not an event in your area, there’s still time to plan an Event Cache of your own. Don’t forget to share pictures and stories from your International Geocaching Day event on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page.
Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Ben Field aka, LackeyBenno, attended the Mega-Event PROJECT: GeoGames 2012 (GC32012). It took place in Leipzig, Germany. Ben has been a Lackey since 2008 and works in IT. Here’s Ben’s account of his adventure.
Written by: Ben Field
Lackey Ben “LackeyBenno”
As I read through the descriptions of the games being hosted at the Geogames Mega-Event in Leipzig, I had two questions running through my head: How many of these games should I actually attempt and what exactly IS a PETling??? The answer to the first question took a few hours to figure out, the second one was answered relatively quickly. A PETling is a small plastic preform for a 2-liter bottle. The clear water-tight containers are frequently used as geocaches in Germany. The PEtlings were the focus of three of the GeoGames I was about to attempt.
The day leading up to the event I managed to take the tram with Jeremy, the Co-Founder and CEO of Geocaching.com, to grab a few caches and explore downtown Leipzig. I’d already seen a small amount of the downtown area having come down the night before to watch Deutschland’s agonizing defeat in the Eurocup semi-finals, but wasn’t about to pass up more opportunities to explore.
PETling
There was an added layer of difficulty finding some of the caches with our limited knowledge of German. After looking for one cache in the wrong area for a lengthy period of time, some nearby geocachers helped us out by explaining that the name of the cache we were looking for translated to “old town hall”, which happened to be the building across the street from where we were searching. We had no trouble logging the find once we had what should have been an obvious giveaway.
Between caches, we also managed to explore the Bach museum, which held some fascinating pieces of history. The museum was positioned next to the site of the Thomasschule, where Bach taught students and composed during the latter part of his life.
After a great meal at Romanushof on Katharinenstraße, and a gracious ride back to the Messegelände from cachers Manuela and Peter (Schulze&Schultze) but better known by the name of their geocaching and dining blog “Schlemmercacher“, we prepared for the opening party. While Jeremy was busy preparing a speech, I represented the US in the opening parade with only Signal at my side. Thankfully, Caro (saxony) was gracious enough to hold the sign for us as we marched through the masses of people gathered for the event.
Dosenfischer in concert
Still feeling some effects of a cold, I wasn’t feeling overly adventurous the next day, but I was too excited for the event to let the cold hold me down. Enjoying the PETling toss first, my enthusiasm grew. By the time the 6:00pm cutoff arrived, I’d made it through all of the games. My new geocaching friend Jana (tkrholic) kept me moving, determined to complete all of the games and keep me company throughout the day.
The games weren’t the only activities at the event. There was ample time during the day to take photos of Jeremy descending the Trau Dich (zip line – see the photo at top) from the top of the 75M high tower. Later in the evening, it was time to take in the geocaching band Dosenfischer and mingle with the masses of geocachers as a thunderstorm passed by. All in all, it was a fantastic day.
We found time the next day to explore some areas of Leipzig with Andy (stash-lab) and Nils (Nilos). A trip to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal monument commemorating the German victory over the French at the Battle of the Nations was a worthwhile glimpse at the history of the location. After snagging the correspondingly named cache, we stumbled upon some other cachers, including ORaMo and Rennrodler. They graciously shared some personalized swag with us. Before heading out, there was still time to snag a few more caches including Connex and then Gleis 26 – Reloaded at the train station. It was a great day to end a great trip.
Ben (far left) at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal Monument with Jeremy (center) and geocachers
Belterra, Brazil seeps back into the rainforest. It’s a small town on the wrong side of progress. It’s getting smaller. A few thousand people now call the community home. The population has fallen from more than 10,000 when Belterra was at its peak as a rubber production hub.
At the beginning of 2012, a cache placed in Belterra in 2002, “Belterra” (GC3DF7), had never been found. The FTF (First to Find) on the cache remained unclaimed. The cache was without a log, without a DNF. No one logged even an attempt to find the cache for a decade… until this year.
German geocacher Frank Dornberger FradoMedia made his intentions clear to find the cache at the end of 2011. He wrote a note on the cache page. “I will try to get to the cache in January, when I am in the area. I am really keen to find out if it is still there…” The jungle had crowded around the cache since it was placed. Frank still thought the cache was worth an attempt while traveling through the Amazon on vacation.
He wrote, “I found out that I was going to pass by close enough to try to get to this place. Some research about the area and even more proper preparation of the equipment was necessary to make sure that I could really get to this 1,5 star rated cache. Almost 13 hours on the plane and two days on the river Amazon, plus another hour in the car and a 15 minutes walk later, I was finally there.”
Frank at the geocache location in 2012 (courtesy FradoMedia)Geocache location in 2002
But the “there” Frank saw in person was much different than the “there” he saw on the cache page from ten years ago. He wrote, “I was completely astonished what the place looked like. But after the first shock I thought, what could I have expected after 10 years of that temperature and humidity.” The open air building where the cache had been placed had completely collapsed. His only clue was that the cache was hidden inside a drawer.
His log reads, “… the building was almost completely rotten. So I went closer and into the rest of what was formerly an old house. I had my concerns that some of the wood would fall down and crash on my head, but I couldn’t resist. I had to look for the drawer… after about 45 minutes of searching and dragging I found a box that probably once was the cache.”
Frank new location of replacement cache (courtesy FradoMedia)
Frank says, “As I figured out that the drawer was still in one piece and I saw the old glass bottles and then this black box I got pretty excited, of course. What was inside was a lump that looked more of coal than a logbook. So I cannot be 100% sure. But the location and everything makes it very probable that I had a find.”
Frank logged a smiley and decided to keep the adventure alive for someone else to potentially be the STF (Second to Find) for this cache, “The hut is almost gone completely, but archiving the cache would be a pity. So I decided to place a new [cache] box nearby.”
FTF’s for Frank will now have to occur closer to home. He’s currently geocaching on the German island of Rügen but says the trip to be FTF revealed a new piece of world, “Belterra is far away, that is true. But it is a little nice town nowadays, which is definitely worth a visit.”
