View Carre’ GCE02C GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 19, 2012

View from "View Carre'"

View Carre’ (GCE02C) perches high atop a New Orleans landmark. The cache ranks as the most ‘favorited’ geocache in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It’s accumulated more than 550 Favorite Points. With a view that stretches from horizon to horizon, it’s easy to see why.

Bamboozle hid the cache, with the permission of the facility owner, in 2003.  He works at the building where the cache is located. He writes, “Many years ago I would notice tourist photographers in front of the building and occasionally offer to take them where they could get some really nice shots….the roof. They would be almost overwhelmed by the experience. When I started geocaching in 2003 I thought it would be a nice experience for geocachers as well.”

He was right. More than 1800 geocachers have claimed smileys on the geocache so far. The cache page offers details on finding the difficulty one, terrain one cache. A geocacher who found “View Carre'” over the past weekend logged, “Absolutely the coolest cache I’ve ever done. Alfred was great to us and gave us a wonderful tour. Simply the best cache I’ve ever done. Anyone who has not done this must add it to their short list. THANK YOU and all involved for making this happen. So much fun!”

The cache is close...

Bamboozle and his staff, like Alfred, often offer more than just finding the cache. He says, “My staff and I were all born and raised in the city and act as tour guides for the visiting geocachers. Over the years the View Carre’ has hosted events and has been the destination of school field trips and visits by geocachers from surely every state and many foreign countries.”

And geocachers didn’t forget Bamboozle when Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005.  “I received at least a dozen emails from cachers all over the country offering us a place to stay in their homes until we could return to ours. This added to the already high esteem that I held for geocachers having met so many nice folks at the cache.”

A geocacher serving in the U.S. Army after the hurricane even helped Bamboozle restore the cache. “Hurricane Katrina had blown down the roof elevator and collapsed a wall on top the cache container. Johann Panholtz, a cacher from Indiana serving in the U.S. Army which occupied New Orleans, came by to make the grab and we “unearthed” the cache together and it has been available ever since.”

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.

View Carre' 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.

 

 

 

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – March 14, 2012

4 Geocaching.com Tips for Improving your Swag

In geocaching, like in life, it’s all about the small things. That’s especially true when you crack open a geocache and discover all the small things inside. The little objects at the bottom of the geocache are trade items, also known as “swag.” You are welcome to take a trade item from a geocache, so long as you replace it with an item of equal or greater value.

A trade item might be a small toy, a signature item from a local geocacher, or a fun trinket. But sometimes the small things inside a cache can be a big disappointment. With more than 1.6 million geocaches around the world, the swag in some of those caches is less than desirable.

Here’s what you can do to change that. Check out these 4 quick tips:

• Choose trade items that you would enjoy finding in a cache
• Fun items to trade include small toys, patches, pins, or an item that symbolizes who you are (a signature item)
• Never put food or scented items in a geocache (animals are especially good geocachers when they smell food)
• If you wouldn’t want to carry an item in your pocket, don’t put it in a geocache

For ideas on good swag items, click here.

You may also find Trackables at the bottom of a cache. These are not swag, but items owned by other geocachers that are meant to travel from cache to cache. Trackables are etched with a unique code and generally include the text “trackable at www.geocaching.com.” When you take a Trackable from a cache, you are not required to leave anything in its place, but you should move it on to another geocache and log its movement. (Read about Trackable etiquette.)

Geocaching.com Caption Contest 32 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

WINNING CAPTION: “Got the cache, but I'm probably gonna have to slice open the tauntaun if I am going to survive the night.” -DrJay Geocacher

Enter a caption to win a ‘barely coveted prize’ in the 32nd installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. This picture was originally posted on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page.

Barely coveted prizes

As you can see, winter still has a hold on much of the geocaching world. That’s not stopping hearty geocachers from braving the snow, ice, and wind to log smileys.

What caption would you write for the picture at the top of this post? “If you find this cache please bring a hairdryer to defrost that last geocacher.”

Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your Geocaching.com username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.

You’re encouraged to try to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.

Click on the image to see the winning caption of this contest

The winner receives these, ‘barely coveted prizes’ you see above. They’re two pins from Geocaching.com.

More than two dozen Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 31st Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. It was also winter-themed. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the last Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

Explore all the past winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.

Queens Stair case GC2CXZQ GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 12, 2012

View from near the cache location

“Queens Stair Case” (GC2CXZQ) in the Bahamas leads geocachers to a marvel of the city. The Queen’s Staircase in Nassau descends into an Edan of Caribbean plants and local people.

The tropical atmosphere is filled with merchants, who’ve become geocaching advocates.

One geocacher who logged “Queens Stair case” writes, “Found [the cache] on Leap Day while visiting on a cruise. A vendor saw me looking for it and saw my GPS and asked if I was looking for the geocache. I said yes and she told me I was in the right location. Made a quick find and took a pic.”

The location of the cache, combined with the friendly people and the rich history makes the “Queens Stair case” the most “favorited” geocache in the Bahamas. The difficulty one, terrain 1.5 traditional cache has more than 60 Favorite Points.

View of the "Queen's Staircase"

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.

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – March 7, 2012

Groundspeak Lackeys Travel the World to Attend Mega-Events

Add one more item to your Mega-Event “to-do” list: meet a Groundspeak Lackey. “Lackey” is an affectionate term for Geocaching.com employees. Lackeys are traveling to nearly 20 Mega-Events around the world this year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories with our fellow geocachers.

Find a Lackey at Mega-Events in the United States, Canada, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, and the Czech Republic. We’d love to meet you and to hear your geocaching stories! Come find a Lackey at any one (or two, or three) of these Mega-Events:

Albury-Wodonga, Australia – Oz Mega
Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – Dosenfischer im Ruhrtal
Iowa, United States – MOGA 2012
Lisbon, Portugal – 12 Years Geocaching | Portugal
New York, United States – ASPGB VII
Indiana, United States – GeoWoodstock X
Leipzig, Germany – Project: GeoGames
British Columbia, Canada – Island Spirit 2012
Ontario, Canada – COG Spring Fling 8
West Midlands, United Kingdom – PirateMania V
Ohio, United States – Midwest Geobash 2012
Turku, Finland – MEGA Finland 2012
Lisbon, Portugal – Geocoinfest Europe 2012
Cumbria, United Kingdom – North West England 2012
Wisconsin, United States – West Bend $1000 Cache Ba$h 2012
Moravia, Czech Republic – MEGA Moravia 2012
Colorado, United States – Geocoinfest U.S. 2012
Dunedin, New Zealand – NZ MEGA 2012

See all Mega-Events this year!

 

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