Author: Eric Schudiske

/ Eric Schudiske /

Chimney Top Cache GCVTH7 GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – April 23, 2012

View from near the cache location

A four hour hike through the rugged West Virginia mountains reveals a 360 degree view of untamed wilderness and one of the most popular geocaches in the state. Chimney Top Cache (GCVTH7) is rated a difficulty 4, terrain 4.5. SenecaRocks hid the traditional cache at the scenic location in 2006. More than 70 geocachers have logged smileys on the cache – including groups of celebrating major milestones.

A group of geocachers joined jbgrug for Chimney Top cache that pushed him to another milestone. He logged, “5,000th cache find for me. This cache is one I will never forget. I was invited to go for this one as a milestone by some of the best cachers and friends a person could have…I want to thank the cache owner for putting this great cache in an area with such a great view.”

Celebrating find 5000 at Chimney Top Cache

The cache owner writes the reason why he chose this location to place a geocache, “This cache is along the North Fork Mountain Trail, which has been considered the most scenic trail in West Virginia by OUTSIDE magazine and others. If this trail is the best for scenery in the state (I think it is), then Chimney Top would be the golden crown upon this king of trails.” Other geocachers agree. Nearly 80% of the Premium Members who logged this geocache rewarded it with a Favorite Point.

"Chimney Top" rock

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

This is My Hobby: Geocaching & Hiking

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Check out and share the latest Geocaching.com Presents video. This is My Hobby: Geocaching & Hiking takes you along on a geocaching adventure hiking up a picturesque mountain trail, accompanied by a four-legged geo-companion. Show your friends how geocaching adds adventure to a hike in the hills, or a mountain trail climb with the family dog.

Click on the image to view and share the video

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.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – April 18, 2012

Celebrate the 10th Annual CITO Weekend

Thousands of geocachers walk into parks, onto trails, and visit other geocaching-friendly areas around the world to clean up the environment each year. They walk out with bags of trash and a sense of pride. They’re taking part in Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events and helping to preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources through litter clean up, removal of invasive species, planting trees, and trail building.

CITO events are held all year long, but you’ll have more than 140 to choose from on April 21 and 22 — the 10th annual International CITO weekend.

This year, more than a thousand geocachers from at least 15 countries are combining in the annual worldwide environmental effort. The locations range from Budapest to Hong Kong, and include 32 U.S. States. Odds are one of the CITO events is near you.

Still not convinced you should join? Check out geocachers in action at a couple of CITO events. Watch this Geocaching.com Presents CITO video in English or this CITO video in Czech and German.

Benefits of Adding Home Coordinates

Please enter your home coordinates so we can provide information on new geocaches and geocaching events near you.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching Games Find Growing Popularity

Notice the "Geocache Hunt" on this poster?

The treasure-hunting adventure of geocaching is finding its way into more community events, adventure games, and even school competitions.

Malibu Creek State Park in California, USA is combining geocaching with mountain biking, trail running, and rock climbing for its first ever “Malibu Adventure Games.” The event is a community effort to raise the funds needed to help keep Malibu Creek State Park protected and open for the public.

Daniel Weissauer with Malibu Adventure Games says geocaching is a perfect fit to showcase all the park has to offer, “We were interested in creating an exciting scavenger hunt for the Malibu Adventure Games using a format anybody could participate in, something combining technology and nature.  Racking our heads together, we’d all heard of geocaching from word-of-mouth experiences and knew it’d be perfect”

He adds, “The Geocache Hunt is designed to highlight the beauty of the park.”

Others events, like the Wild Canyon Games in Oregon, USA use a geocaching course to challenge athletes. Geocachers are timed. Teams have five hours to hike, run, and scramble over rocks to accumulate geocaches worth the most points. 350 geocaches are hidden across 169 square miles of wilderness. The geocaches further from the start are worth more points.

Some schools are seeing the academic potential of geocaching. High School science students in Illinois are judged on their geocaching skills. The JV Science Team from New Trier Township High School outside of Chicago just placed first in the state in a geocaching competition.

Geocaching at the 2011 Wild Canyon Games

Geocaching is trial event in the Illinois Science Olympiad. Teams are given a GPS device and allowed 30 minutes to follow a sequence of waypoints to a location. At each way point the students must answer a question related to geocaching or earth science. A couple sample questions are, “What does hitchhiker mean in [geocaching] slang?” or “Who is considered the “Father of Geology?”

Weissauer with the Malibu Adventure Games says awareness of geocaching is gaining ground. He says it was an easy decision to make geocaching part of the Malibu Creek State Park event, “We included geocaching because
of its huge popularity, the unique location and history of the park, and the amount of families coming out. We believe the Geocaching Hunt will grow over the next few years as word gets out.”

If you find yourself in Malibu, California this weekend, space is still available to register for the event.

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

“The Enchanted Forest” GC2P52E GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – April 16, 2012

Cache page photo montage

This cache page reads, “You Must Believe in Magic” and then casts a spell on geocachers. The Multi-Cache “The Enchanted Forest” (GC2P52E) weaves an elaborate fairy tale for geocachers to unravel on Terceira island. The island is located 1500 kilometers (950 miles) off the coast of Portugal. Victor from  Team Recanto hid the geocache in 2010, after his 6-year-old daughter sparked his imagination.

He says, “The idea came to mind while visiting the park [where the cache is now placed] with my wife and my daughter. At the time my daughter… was talking about fairies and unicorns, and [said] that one of the larger trees reminded her of a magical tree. That tree is now the final stage for The Enchanted Forest.”

While the idea may have been instant, building the caching experience took weeks. “[Creating the cache]… took 45 days, and 12 site visits. My daughter asked if I could make things move on the cache page, that is why we have the animated dragons.”

Victor's daughter with the handmade cache container located at the final coordinates

Beyond animated dragons on the cache page and photo montages with fairies and dragons, Victor also wrote the cache description in Portuguese and in English. The four stage Multi-Cache challenges geocachers to solve puzzles to discover a handmade cache container.

On the cache hunt

A recent log reads, “WOW!!! totally worth the hike! Congratulations to Team Recanto for another magnificent cache. The amount of work that went in to this truly shows. Thank you for taking us on a grand adventure!”

Victor has advice for geocachers hoping to create an engaging caching experience. He says, “Take your time, visit the Groundspeak forums, do several site visits, make sure the story and containers combine well with the location, attention to detail is very important.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

Detail of cache container

If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.