Sometimes, you end up places where you never expected to be. Maybe you ran into friends headed to the beach and decided to hop in the car, or perhaps your flight was diverted and you’re stuck somewhere overnight.
Had you known in advance that you were going to this unexpected location, you might have downloaded a Pocket Query (if you’re a Premium Member) or printed out a few cache pages (if you’re a Basic Member). But because you didn’t know, you weren’t prepared to go geocaching.
Groundspeak’s Geocaching application for smart phones solves this problem. The application provides direct access to the Geocaching.com database, so you can search for, find and log geocaches in the field. You can even filter search results by cache type, cache size, and difficulty and terrain ratings. Many people use a smartphone loaded with the application as their primary GPS device, while others prefer to plug the coordinates into their handheld GPS and use the application to access cache information, view photo galleries, move Trackables and log their finds.
However you choose to use the app, you’ll find that it allows you more flexibility when planning for your geocaching adventures. Groundspeak’s Geocaching application is available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. Application cost is US $9.99.
There are also several third-party applications that use our public API, with more coming soon. Check them out here.
WINNING CAPTION: Seeing the rapidly approaching muggles, they assumed a d'FENCEive pose. – MedicP1
Share your genius for witty captions in the 28th installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. You could earn a barely coveted prize. What caption would you write for this picture posted on Geocaching.com? “The cachers’ spirits remained high, knowing their GPS devices could lead them from this trap.” You can do better!
Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.
Barely coveted prize
You can even influence the voting process. “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 discover the winning caption for this contest
The winner receives this, ‘barely coveted prize.’ The prize isn’t just one, but twoCache In Trash Out pins. If you’re looking for a CITO event to attend check the calendar to find one near you.
More than a dozen Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 27th Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image on the right to discover the winning caption from that Geocaching.com Caption Contest.
Near the top of the world the islands of Svalbard rest inside the Arctic Circle. The archipelago is home to a couple thousand hearty Norwegians. It’s also home to more than two dozen geocaches.
The traditional cache, “This is Mine 2” (GC14EEQ), collected the most Favorite Points among them. The difficulty two, terrain four geocache was hidden in 2007 by TVE & Martin L.
The hunt for this geocache leads adventurers back into the island’s coal mining past. Construction on the mine started in the early 1900’s – and is marred by deadly coal explosions and bombardment by World War Two battleships. The mine is now vacant and sealed for safety.
The cache page encourages cachers to be courteous, “Remember that all these old buildings and artefacts are important parts of the cultural heritage of Svalbard and treat them with respect!” More than fifty geocachers have already logged smileys on the small-size cache.
This is Mine 2 - geocache
One geocacher who logged “This is Mine 2” wrote on the cache page, “What a place! Thanks for placing the cache up here, otherwise we probably would have missed this interesting place, even though it was visible from our room window. The climb up and back down was not that easy but surely rewarding. Took a lot of pictures and did some investigation.”
This is Mine 2 - cache page photo
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the globe. Explore 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.
September's Featured Geocacher of the Month, SuperGoober
Last month the geocaching community voted SuperGoober as the September Featured Geocacher of the Month. According to those who nominated him, “he is a model geocacher which all of us in the area and beyond can be proud of. He is always willing to lend advice/help to any cacher that approaches him or contacts him.”
The featured Geocacher of the Month recognition celebrates geocachers for their contributions to the activity. A panel of Lackeys had the difficult task of selecting three of the most outstanding nominees. Now it’s your turn to help name one of these nominees the featured October “Geocacher of the Month.”
Geocacher of the Month Geocoin
Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you’d like to see as the featured “Geocacher of the Month.” Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. Read the testimonials below and leave a comment with your suggestion. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
“seping is a very active geocacher, he lives in Catalonia / Spain, in his native [country] many geocachers know him! He has found more than 18,000 caches all over the world and has over 240 caches hidden!
seping also already has organized two Mega-Events, including the recent Mega Catlunya 2011, and brought together geocachers from around the world. I met seping. He’s a very friendly and helpful man, and I think that’s he’s seen similarly by many other people.”
“They have hosted multiple events, hidden excellent caches, all at various levels of difficulty, and are always aiding fellow cachers when in need. Tom currently serves in the Canadian armed forces so not only is he promoting geocaching here in BC, Canada, but he is also contributing world wide. They head up a local organization, Mid Island Geocaching that just recently had a summer end event “The Geo-Poker Rally” which was held in conjunction with Our local BCGA year end Blitz. Even though he is currently overseas on a mission supporting world peace, he is still staying in contact and helping people back home who geocache. They are both very dedicated and very well respected in the community.”
“Around Chester County PA, caches by bpp_picnic are notorious for their unique locations and even more interesting camouflage. bpp_picnic hosts a great event at the Brandywine Picnic Park (his family’s place) every September, and though his park, Big Red (his truck), and the event were flooded out this year by all the rain in SE Pennsylvania, bpp_picnic was still gracious enough to feed those of us who showed up with his amazing bbq pork and brisket.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured October “Geocacher of the Month.” A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured “Geocacher of the Month” will receive an exclusive special edition featured ”Geocacher of the Month” Geocoin along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by 2 of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments through Monday October 24th.
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be the Geocacher of the Month, send an email to
Every nomination must meet the following requirements:
Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and description (in 500 or fewer words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month. Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award. Nominations for the November Geocacher of the Month must be received by November 3rd.
Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.
Each October, the Groundspeak Lackeys commence planning for the following year. We want you to help us make sure we’re on the right track.
In the next couple of weeks, you may receive a link via email to a survey titled “Groundspeak Member Survey.” The sender is survey@groundspeak.com and the email will be sent via SurveyMonkey.com.
We hope that those of you who receive the survey will take 5-20 minutes to complete it. The time depends on the level of detail you wish to provide in the open-ended questions.
It’s been about a year and a half since our last major survey. In that time, 500,000 new geocaches have been hidden and the number of logs posted in a 30-day period has grown by more than 30%. In an activity growing so quickly, with thousands of people introduced to geocaching each day, a year and a half can mean a lot of major changes!
Thanks in advance for responding to the survey. And happy geocaching!
Geocaching Live
