How many times have you given a gift that can help the recipient become smarter, healthier and more creative, all while introducing them to a community so strong that they gain friends all over the world? That is what it means to introduce someone to geocaching. It also means that you are opening the door for them to have incredible experiences with friends and family, visit amazing locations that they may not have otherwise seen, and feel the thrill of finding a geocache.
The best way to introduce someone to geocaching is to take them out with you. If that’s not possible, we suggest sending our Tell a Friend email and directing them to our “What is Geocaching?” video, which provides a basic overview of geocaching in less than 2 minutes.
You can also give the timesaving gift of Premium Membership. A Groundspeak Gift Membership provides the recipient with 12 months of prepaid access to premium features on all Groundspeak sites. The gift can be used to upgrade a new or existing Basic Membership or to extend an existing Premium Membership by a year.
July 2, 2011 began similarly to any other day of geocaching for Mike (Radioman84) and his wife Iris (ikolor). Mike woke up, packed his geocaching gear, and hit the road. He drove three hours with his family to attend the SCGA’s 4th Annual Geo-versary in Merritt Island, Florida. But on July 3, 2011, as he and his wife prepared to cache along the drive home, their lives took an unexpected turn.
Radioman84 out geocaching
As they were preparing to head out geocaching, Mike suffered from a massive stroke. Medical care workers took no chances. He was flown by a medical helicopter to the hospital in Orlando.
Mike was treated at the Orlando hospital for weeks. During this time, his wife Iris remained right by his side. According to Iris, “Mike and I spent three weeks in Orlando while he was in the ICU and the neurological floor of the hospital.”
Mike and Iris have been avid geocachers since November of 2009. Mike, a communications technician from Sunrise, Florida is known for his committed participation in the geocaching community and for his series of famous “What is that doing there” caches. Mike has found over 1,700 geocaches and attended around 19 events.
Once news of Mike’s stroke reached the Southern Florida geocaching community, they rallied together in support. Because Iris and Mike were staying in Orlando, geocacher friends organized a fundraiser barbecue.
According to friend and fellow geocacher Marty, the barbecue was to “help defray the high costs of Iris having to stay in Orlando as Mike recovers and other expenses that they will experience at this difficult time.” The barbecue consisted of delicious food, a raffle, and donated items to be auctioned off. Iris requested for geocachers to donate money and supplies to the Hubbard House, a charity that provides services for families of seriously ill people seeking treatment in the Orlando area. At the end of the day, more than $2,000 was raised.
Radioman84 and his wife ikolor
Although they were three hours away from their hometown, Mike and Iris felt supported because according to Iris, “Cachers from all around Florida visited with me and Mike while we were in Orlando. I actually was able to steal away some time and go caching with some of them that came to visit. It felt so good to take a break and get to do something I love to do.”
As of today, Mike and Iris have returned to their home in Sunrise where Mike now frequently visits a rehabilitation center. The center is surrounded by specially hidden caches and is often visited by local geocachers.
Iris says, “a poster was made and signed by all the cachers that love him” and it now hangs in his recovery room. Mike is still on the road to full recovery. Marty, one of the lead organizers of the fundraiser barbecue, says, “[Mike] is in good spirits and even attended We are a little cheesy #3 event.”
Through this challenging circumstance Mike, Iris, and the rest of the geocaching world have experienced the beauty that can be found in community. In response to the event, Iris says “The amount of love is incredible.”
Geocachers who search for “Ghost Ship” (GC2HM40) unlock a haunting story of a rusting ship hull. The jagged metal skeleton rests in a shallow tributary to the Ohio River. Liyah hid the cache one year ago. The difficulty three, terrain four cache has already earned nearly two dozen Favorite Points.
The cache page regales adventurers with the mythical story of the S.S. Shadow. It details the voyage of a cargo ship in 1885 that came under attack by river pirates. A chase ended in location geocachers search today.
The creative and detailed cache description encourages other geocachers to post memorable logs rich with their own details. Some logs are hundreds of words long with multiple pictures.
Most geocachers who logged a smiley on Ghost Ship say they would have never found this site without geocaching. One log reads, “This was an awesome find and one my fellow cacher and I will not soon forget! Not only was getting on the boat a challenge, but at first the cache alluded us and we had to really search for it! TFTC and the terrific story to tell!”
'Ghost Ship"
Cachers are warned to be cautious as they hunt for the cache on-board this “Ghost Ship.” The real story of the ship is almost as spectacular as the cache page “Ghost Ship” description. To find both stories check out the geocache “Ghost Ship.”
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)
See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs through Sunday September 18 (U.S. costumers only).
Okay, a quick background. When I do a major trip or head to a big event I try to find a “plush” Travel Bug to act as the trip mascot and it logs all or most of the caches to track my mileage for the event.
[Binrat’s log reads] Now, with Summer 2009 approaching I retrieved “Beaglescout” (TB211TD) with his jaunty Scout hat and backpack and the fun began!
Binrat and Beaglescout
Trip #1 – 8359.9 kilometers or 5194.6 miles (16 June 09 – 25 June 09)
This was an epic train, plane and automobile trip from Brockville Ontario all the way British Columbia and down to Oregon visiting such famous caches as Groundspeak Headquarters, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light and the Original Stash Tribute Plaque before returning home for a rest.
Trip #2 – 2,175 kilometers or 1,351 miles (01 July 09 – 04 July 09)
A fantastic trip From Brockville to Perce Quebec in the Gaspe Region by train.
Trip #3 – 1,591 kilometers or 988 miles (22 July 09 – 26 July 09)
A fun trip from Brockville to Windsor and on down to Midwest GeoBash in Ohio. My first time down to “The Bash” and together we met some amazing cachers and some very cool Travel Bugs.
Trip #4 – 1,873 kilometers or 1,164 miles (31 July 09 – 05 Aug 09)
Beaglescout and Bears
This was a major league epic trip that saw all of us drive from Brockville to North Bay Ontario then continue on to Cochrane to board the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee Ontario just for an Event. Beaglescout even took a trip down the Moose River to James Bay.
So, after four major trips, what has Beaglescout accomplished?
14,000 kilometers or 8.699 miles and visited Ontario, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Quebec, New York and Nunavut.
The Travel Bug tasted salt water on three different coasts(Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic), met many great cachers and had one fantastic summer of excitement.
P.S. Sadly, shortly after I handed him off he was picked up by a newbie/muggle and vanished never to be seen again, but I still remember all the fun including meeting [Lackey] Miss Jenn.
My dad (who caches as The Frito Bandito) and I (caching as vante) are in the middle of a good ole fashioned horse race. As my dad started becoming more and more interested in geocaching, I used to explain the different aspects of the game to him. When we got on the subject of Trackables, I told him how people held Travel Bug races and competitions. He liked the idea so we found a couple of plastic horses and hitched them up to a couple of Travel Bug tags.
He named his horse The Dark Horse (TBPTYQ), a race horse that is not known to gamblers and thus is difficult to place betting
odds on. I named my horse Lucky (TBQ93P), and claimed he can shoot lightning bolts out of his eyes.
My dad and I hid a cache as a finish line near a racetrack here in Michigan and called it the Winner’s Circle (GC276PV). It
was my dad’s first cache hiding experience and he has gone on to hide several caches of his own. My dad then took the horses to Texas with him and dropped them in a cache on April 28, 2010.
Dark Horse track as of September 16, 2011
We’ve had a lot of fun watching our horses race across the country. Each move prompts a phone call and race analysis. There have been a few stretches of time without any action, but it seems that just when one of us really start to worry that the race is lost, a fellow cacher will move our horse along with an encouraging word. Lucky has lived up to his name, once being pulled out of the back roads of Utah before winter hit and most recently being retrieved from a cache that was destroyed by Hurricane Irene four days later. So far he has traveled 3862.9 miles and was last in New York.
The Dark Horse appears to be on a more direct course. He has only traveled 1332.4 miles, but as I write this he’s stabled in a cache in Michigan less than 60 miles away from my home coordinates (dark horse, indeed!). My dad told me that it’s taking everything in his power not to drive down there and get it himself. Me? I’m hoping for just a little bit more luck.
Geocaching has been a blast for my dad and me. It’s a great excuse to spend time and to explore the world together.
Travel bugs and horse racing is just part of the fun!
Editor’s note: Both Binrat and vante will receive a set of Trackables for submitting their Trackable stories. Thank you to all those who submitted stories. Look for Trackable Week again on the Latitude 47 blog in coming months.
ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:
Click on the image for 30% off Travel Bugs (US customers only)
Go on a mission to take the first geocoin in the world to another country and back
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)
See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs this week only (US costumers only).
Here’s Thursday installment for Trackable Week:
The Center of the Trackable Universe
Groundspeak Headquarters cache
Groundspeak Headquarters, known as the Lily Pad, can be found in an eclectic Seattle, Washington neighborhood known as Fremont. The Fremont neighborhood is the self-described, “Center of the Universe.” While astrologically speaking, this is up for debate, Fremont may be the Center of the Universe for Trackables.
Green Travel Bug
Those that walk into the new Headquarters (and we invite all geocachers to visit) see a large treasure chest. The treasure chest could just be the epicenter of the Travel Bug world. Currently, the cache is holding 192 Trackables. You can see the whole list here.
Some have traveled just a few hundred miles and passed through the hands of two or three geocachers.
There’s one Travel Bug that’s put on enough miles to circle the globe and then some. Green Traveling Bug was released in 2005. The goal for the Travel Bug was simple, “Place in big enough caches that are the closest to any VW dealership across the nation.” Soon though the Travel Bug did what Travel Bugs do. It traveled cache to cache, and then traveled some more. It currently has more than 33,000 miles on its four little tires.
Green Travel Bug travels
The Headquarters cache is so extensive there’s even large Tupperware containers, inside the cache. One is where Travel Bugs with mission inside the United States rest between stops. There’s another Tupperware container Travel Bugs with international missions, and yet a third container for geocoins.
Groundspeak Headquarters cache
In the course of a year, thousands of Travel Bugs move in and out of the Groundspeak HQ cache. Here’s a quick list of what Lackeys have seen as Trackables: a giant bear poster, multiple bowling balls, a hand crocheted Signal doll, a hand crocheted hat and beard, a cinder block, a cane and an iron. They’re all Trackable. Each tells a story. Each person who touches and moves that Travel Bug adds to that story. Thank you for helping Trackables move and continue sharing their story.
What story does your Travel Bug tell? Have you ever had a Travel Bug pass through Headquarters?
ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:
Go on a mission to take the first geocoin in the world to another country and back
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
How many times have you given a gift that can help the recipient become smarter, healthier and more creative, all while introducing them to a community so strong that they gain friends all over the world? That is what it means to introduce someone to geocaching. It also means that you are opening the door for them to have incredible experiences with friends and family, visit amazing locations that they may not have otherwise seen, and feel the thrill of finding a geocache.
