Category: Community

Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.

From inside one of the passenger cars
/ Janelle /

Ring of Fire — Geocache of the Week

Traditional
GCJYHZ
by ironman114
Difficulty:
3.5
Terrain:
5
Location:
Washington State, USA
N 47° 19.785 W 123° 38.595

MINUTE by MINUTE… MILE by MILE… The RING OF FIRE closed… on INNOCENT and GUILTY alike!

Ring of Fire movie poster
Ring of Fire movie poster

That’s the tagline for the 1961 Hollywood film titled Ring of Fire. The movie follows a small-town sheriff in Oregon who arrests a trio of robbers (two men and one woman). The tables turn, the robbers take the sheriff hostage, a forest fire rages out of control, and calamity ensues.

In the final scene, a burning railroad trestle collapses during an attempted crossing (forward to 14:00 for the “good part”). Although most of the movie takes place and was filmed in Oregon, this key scene was filmed along the Wynoochee River, in Washington State. The bridge and trestle were blown up, sending two passenger cars and a 60-ton steam engine to crash and burn in the river below.

The gorge was deemed too deep and the train too heavy to remove, so the passenger cars were cut in two and moved to the river’s edge. Almost 60 years later the wreckage remains, making this already beautiful hike even more epic. The movie may be a trainwreck, but this epic T5 geocache is definitely worth the effort! 

Continue reading →

/ Andrew Baldwin /

Congratulations PodCacher on 600 episodes!

Since 2004 Sonny and Sandy have been geocaching together and traveling the world. What began as a first date became a hobby they would love and share together. A year and a half later the PodCacher podcast was born. Their charming personalities, engaging content, and consistency make the show entertaining for geocachers of all ages and levels of experience.

The podcast has grown to be the largest and most internationally-recognized geocaching audio show in the world. Earning nominations for “Best Produced Podcast” by the Podcast Awards and has been a featured podcast in Apple iTunes for many years.

As part of celebrating PodCacher’s milestone of 600 episodes, I interviewed Sonny and Sandy to learn more about how they got started and who they are outside of geocaching.

Continue reading →

/ Chris /

Introducing Virtual Rewards!

Based on feedback we have received about Virtual Rewards, Geocaching HQ has decided to update the blog post with a new statement, found at the end of the post.

Geocaching HQ is thrilled to announce the release of Virtual Rewards, a project to reward some of geocaching’s great contributors, while also introducing a limited number of new Virtual Caches for the enjoyment of the entire geocaching community.

Starting today, approximately 4,000 geocachers in 63 countries around the world will receive emails with information about their Virtual Reward. This group is made up largely of top quality cache hiders from countries with at least 100 hiders. We created an algorithm to identify these people based on overall cache quality and cache health. Active community volunteers are also receiving a Virtual Reward as a thank you for giving their time and talent to support the geocaching community.

Continue reading →