Geocaching Premium members are the rockstars of geocaching. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. So right now, you can help fuel the future of geocaching. One of the upcoming features is something that has been asked for by the geocaching community: a new and improved Advanced Search. It’s been completely retooled, revamped and streamlined based on geocaching community feedback. Now you’ll be able to find the exact adventure you want, easier.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the Geocaching Tips and Tricks emails to receive your invite to test this new tool. If you’re not sure, visit your Email Preferences and make sure the box next to “Tips and Tricks” is checked. The Geocaching Premium member sneak peek invite email is scheduled to be sent to you on or before this Thursday, January 29.
CITO weekend will be here before you know it. In case you haven’t heard, CITO stands for Cache In Trash Out. It’s the geocacher’s approach to keeping our game board (i.e. the entire planet) in great shape. On the weekend of April 24 – April 27, geocachers around the globe will gather together, pick up trash, remove invasive species, repair trails and more—plus earn a pretty sweet new souvenir.
Pick up a CITO Event Kit from Shop Geocaching and start planning your CITO weekend event now. All events must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the event date—but earlier is always better. Check out the CITO FAQ to learn more. You can also see a list of CITO events already happening around you.
Head over to the Geocaching Facebook page and let us know what your CITO 2015 plans are. Happy Geocaching!
By Holly Walker, Geocaching HQ Guest Experience Coordinator
There’s the “you” when you begin a journey, then if by magic, there’s a completely different “you” when you finish a journey. As geocachers, we’ve all experienced this phenomenon. You learn and you grow and you change, even if ever so slightly, into a new person. And so it’s the same as we vicariously travel through Geocaching game pieces known as Travel Bugs®. We’re able to track an object as it moves around the world to new places. And sometimes when we see that Travel Bug, years later, the whole world we know has changed. This is one of those stories.
On February 7, 2010, Arkfiremedic placed a 2009 Groundspeak Lackey Geocoin in a Travel Bug hotel in Arkansas. The mission? “Try to make it back to Groundspeak Headquarters [in Seattle, WA] from Arkansas.” Lackey Geocoins are limited edition items annually released by Geocaching Headquarters. Commemorating its employees, or Lackeys as they we occasionally (and lovingly) referred to by the community, these Geocoins feature each Lackey’s unique pixel icon, an artistic characterization of each person and a rite of passage when hired. (You can see that latest Geocaching HQ Logbook Geocoin or Lackey Geocoin here.)
What could have been a simple 2,000 mile trip from Arkansas to Geocaching HQ across the country became, in the end, much more. This 2009 Geocoin, featuring just under 30 Geocaching Lackeys, spent nearly five years traveling to eleven different US states, visiting three countries across three continents, and logging over 26,000 miles all in an effort to visit us. To the delight of the coin’s owner, this lackey geocoin reached its final destination a couple weeks ago. On January 5, 2015, the coin finally arrived at Geocaching Headquarters and met a staff of over 80 lackeys! My how things have changed here at headquarters in the last 5 years!
Shortly after arriving, the Geocoin was discovered and photographed by the Lackeys and quickly retrieved that afternoon by a kind geocacher visiting HQ. Wondering where the coin is headed next? “The coin would love to come back to sunny Arkansas to retire the rest of its days in its owner’s collections.” And off it went back into the world…
This is just one of the many awesome trackable stories we encounter each day at our office. You’re invited to join. Schedule a hosted visit with us the next time you find yourself in Seattle. Discover all the interesting trackables our geocache contains and pick up your own Lackey Geocoin. Or activate a trackable from home and send it our way to travel the world for you. Who knows what kinds of adventures it may have.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway
Amy (left) with a geocacher at the Berlin Mega-Event
Berlin in November is cold. Very cold. However, my trip last month to Germany for Mega-Berlin was more heart warming than I could have ever imagined.
The weekend full of events began Friday night with a Meet & Greet (GC4YYYX). The venue for the weekend’s activities was a lost place named Motowerk, a former factory of breakthrough electrical engines and elevators that opened in 1914. During world War II, the British government became aware of the factory and, in a raid on Berlin, dropped 24 bombs on the company grounds. Miraculously, the production hall and all of the company’s employees were unharmed.
After the war, the building was turned over to the Russians and used as a publicly owned business manufacturing condensers in the GDR. After the German reunification the factory became a location for events and, ultimately, the setting for Berlin’s largest Mega-Event to date, Mega-Berlin.
The Meet & Greet event had 1500 geocachers in attendance who enjoyed exchanging geocaching stories in between sets from the Polkaholix, a German, polk/punk band.
After a fun filled night, I returned to Motowerk bright and early the following day for the big event (GC4YYYY). The event hall was busy with geocachers, vendors, and activities around every corner. After checking out all of the vendors and walking through the children paradise and seeing all of the creative and fun activities there were for the kids, I headed out to find some of the nearby geocaches with a few geocachers I had just met.
If I didn’t mention this before, it was cold (really cold) but that wasn’t going to stop us—there was a variety of geocaches in the area to be found.
Returning to the event, I stopped by the event map and realized that there were geocachers from all over the world in attendance. This was truly a global event.
The best part of the event for me was hearing the stories from geocachers and seeing how the Berlin geocaching community came together to produce this event.
The next morning I returned again to the event hall for the Secret Santa Breakfast (GC4YYYZ). I sat down for breakfast with a few Swedes that I met at the event, Team-Prince and Palmarna. We had a great breakfast discussing geocaching events and experiences. The organizers of the event had arranged a gift exchange for the event. You drop off a gift, get a ticket, and return later to pick up your gift. My gift was a stocking full of all kinds of geocaching goodies and some candy!
Overall, I had a great time in Berlin and met some fabulous people while I was at the event. I cannot thank the geocachers I came across and the Orga Team for all of the hospitality they showed me during my visit.
There’s more to a geocache than just a location and a container. Every time it’s found—or not found—there’s a story. Those stories are the logs geocachers leave on the geocache’s page. The reasons to leave quality logs on the geocaches you attempt are numerous, but here are just a few to get you started:
– Geocache owners love reading new logs. It also helps them keep tabs on how their geocache is doing. – Other geocachers may check previous logs for hints or information. – DNF logs help let others know that the geocache may be more difficult than expected or may need maintenance.
Let’s show the geocaching community what it means to write a great log: head over to the Geocaching Facebook page and share the best log you’ve ever read (or written).
