Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
Anfang dieses Jahres folgte das Videoteam des Geocaching-Hauptquartiers einer Gruppe von mutigen Geocachern bei einem bisher einmaligen Unterfangen. Ihr ultimatives Ziel: den schwierigsten EarthCache der Welt zu finden. Das Video ihrer Reise ist jetzt fertig. Schau es Dir hier an.
EarthCaches sind aus einer Partnerschaft zwischen Geocaching.com und der Geologischen Gesellschaft der USA entstanden. Es gibt dabei keinen gegenständlichen Behälter. Dafür vermittelt der EarthCache Dir eine geowissenschaftliche Lektion. An den angegebenen Koordinaten müssen Fragen beantwortet werden, um einen Fund zu loggen.
Schau das Video an und folge diesen begeisterten Geocachern auf ihrer Reise zum Mittelpunkt des EarthCaches.
CITO-Wochenende verlängert
Du hast jetzt zwei weitere Tage Zeit, um das CITO-Souvenir für 2015 zu erhalten. Zwischen Freitag, 24. April, und Montag, 27. April, bekommst Du das Souvenir für die Teilnahme an einem CITO-Event.
Durch CITO (Cache In Trash Out) [Cache rein, Müll raus] erhalten Geocacher ihr Spielfeld, also die Erde, in einem großartigen Zustand. CITO-Events sind Treffen, bei denen Geocacher Müll und eingewanderte Arten entfernen, Wege bauen und Gebiete restaurieren.
The earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month Geocoin.
You know you’re a geocacher if…
When you get asked, “Cash or Card?” you hand the teller a lock-n-lock…
You wake up early to be first in line for ammo can sales…
You’ve been to a CITO event (Cache In, Trash Out), and…
You’ve been nominated for Geocacher of the Month!
This month, these three awesome people know for certain that they’re geocachers (in case they had any doubts before).
Here’s your opportunity to help decide who will take home the earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin (at left). Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive the exclusive special edition geocoin, a hat and profile icon. They’ll also receive a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.
Without further ado, here are the March 2015 nominees for Geocacher of the Month.
Schlurie Schlurie is famous in Rheinland-Pfalz for creating fun and inspiring geocache hides. His particular specialty is birdhouse caches, which have generated a lot of “WOW” moments for geocachers over the years. His nomination comes from Gruet: “Es sind alles selbst gebastelte Vogelhäuschen der Extraklasse. Raffinierte Tricks zum Öffnen, versteckte Mechanismen und integrierte Elektronik. Alles mit Erlaubnis der Gemeinde in einem wunderschönen Waldgebiet installiert. Über 40 Favoritenpunkte in nur einem Monat sind selbst erklärend!” All the caches [in the series] are homemade birdhouses of the highest order. You’ll find clever tricks required to open them, hidden mechanisms, and even integrated electronics. All placed with permission from the land manager of a beautiful area of forest. Over forty favorite points in just one month!
Fivebales Idaho geocaching team Fivebales are all about strengthening their location geocaching community. Their nomination comes from you+me_makes4, who says, “I’d like to nominate Fivebales as Geocacher of the Month because of the amount of work that they put in behind the scenes. One half of Fivebales has been the Event Manager for the Yuma Mega Event for the past two years. It’s a largely thankless job that requires countless hours of work for an amazing annual Mega Event. The second half (and, I’m sure in her words, better half) of Fivebales has served as Secretary for South West Arizona Geocachers (S*W*A*G), the group that organizes the annual Mega. She also organizes a monthly newsletter that is sent out to every member of S*W*A*G to keep up on local happenings and events. The Yuma, Arizona geocaching community would not be where it is without them, and this is our way of thanking of them for all the hard work.”
chuck80196 Missouri-based cacher chuck80196’s nomination comes from Stearman5: “This geocacher has found just about every geocache within the local area and is often traveling to other states to get his daily geocache. Chuck80196 has a current geocache find streak of over 1600 days with a find, and he is motivated to keep that steak going. After he passed 1,000 consecutive days with a find he was surprised at a local ice cream event with a golden ammo can; GC4F08J. He has over 880 first to finds and of late holds back to allow others the chance to get their first FTF; especially if he has already gotten his geocache for the day. He has over 4,900 finds and should pass 5,000 finds by April 5th of this year. He not only gives out favorite points but also receives them. Out of his 181 caches he has received 205 favorite points that is an average of 1.1 points per cache. And out of the caches he has found he has given out 460 of his 491 favorite points available that’s 94% given away. Chuck80196 is ALWAYS willing to help another geocacher out and if you know him he is probably the number one PAF [Phone A Friend] option on your list. And at events he is easily one of the most outgoing social persons at the event. Everyone loves to geocache with him and enjoys chatting it up when you cross paths with him.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the March 2015 Geocacher of the Month.
If your nominee wasn’t recognized here, please submit your nominations again next month. We’re always looking for the next Geocacher of the Month. To nominate a geocacher,
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, simply fill out this webform. You’ll need to include the following information:
Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Featured Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Once Geocaching HQ has received 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 that we might learn from each other.
Each month, geocachers around the world nominate members of their community for the prestigious title of Geocacher of the Month. The people who earn this title are not superheroes in the traditional sense: instead of the power of flight, they possess the power to transform a park bench into a treasure chest; instead of teaching the baddies how to be good, they teache newbies good geocaching etiquette; instead of stopping monsters from tearing down the city, they stop decaying geocaches from being archived.
There is no doubt in our minds that the folks nominated for February 2015 Geocacher of the Month are our geocaching heroes. Here are the three nominees.
TexasWriter This geocacher from — you guessed it — Texas, is always rushing out the door to be the FTF, but won’t hestitate to help out a fellow ‘cacher along the way. If you live within 50 miles of him, he’s probably at the top of your Phone-A-Friend list.
TexasWriter and CornDoll
Ramgab This geocacher has found just about 58% of the geocaches in his country. That’s quite a feat when the total number of geocaches in Hungary around is over 6000. Aside from placing stellar kayaking cache series, Ramgab has also helped organize multiple geocaching Mega events in Hungary. As a result, the Hungarian geocaching community has grown significantly over the last few years.
Ramgab on the hunt
TeamPommes
This German geocaching Team has amassed hundreds of favorite points for their creative gadget caches, tricky Mystery caches, and stunning cache locations like this one, which has been featured on the geocaching Instagram page. You’ll recognize a TeamPommes cache by their signature pommes frites (french fries) page background.
TeamPommes
All three nominees are outstanding members of their geocaching communities, and every comment that came in to us about them was full of praise. They will each receive a prize package from Geocaching HQ. But there can only be one winner.
A panel from Geocaching HQ has collected and reviewed your comments.
The February 2015 Geocacher of the Month is:
After we opened our blog post on the nominees for comments from the geocaching community, stories of TexasWriter’s generosity and leadership flowed in.
Mike tells of the second time he met TexasWriter: I was with a group of cachers and we were caching his (locally famous) “Warrior Series” of caches. TexasWriter called me to ask about a cache that we had DNF’ed. (He knew we were getting his caches because I was uploading finds from the field). I told him I couldn’t talk to him right now because my phone battery was about to die and suggested that he should call one of the others in the group I was with. He surprised us when a half hour later he showed up on the trail and handed out water bottles. He then handed me a battery that plugged into my phones charging port and extended my phones battery life.”
TXDinoTrax says: “He’s also one of the nicest cachers I’ve ever met. My kids love that he’s shared his pathtags and helped build their collections. He’s always available for a PAF (Phone-A-Friend), and he and his wife have graciously opened their home to host educational geocaching events. And if that weren’t enough, he has had some truly epic adventures (think night caching in a Louisiana bayou surrounded by hundreds of shiny gator eyes at kayak level).”
Kind words from OMA&OPAof5: “We vote for TexasWriter. If there were such a thing as an International Geocache Goodwill Ambassador, he would be the perfect choice to fill the position. He has a passion for geocaching that is contagious. He uses his love of geocaching to mentor newbies like us and is always willing to answer any questions we might have.”
So says Swagglepuss: “My vote is for TexasWriter. His numbers are impressive enough to win based on those alone, but they don’t even begin to tell the story about the tremendous positive impact he has had on the geocaching community. I appreciate the time he puts into writing meaningful, thoughtful, helpful, encouraging, and at times, extremely entertaining logs on every cache he finds. I love the time, effort, thought, and craftsmanship he puts into placing and maintaining his numerous hides.”
The outpouring of praise we received for TexasWriter goes on. The impact he has made on the Texas geocaching community (and elsewhere!) is clearly significant. We’re happy to award him with the Geocacher of the Month geocoin.
The earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin.
You did it. You hid the coolest, most creative geocache and followed all the necessary guidelines… right? Well, the work is not over. As a geocache owner, you have a responsibility to maintain and manage your geocache after it is published. The hide itself is just the beginning of your ‘geocache owner’ journey.
Note: The cache was screwed into a tree for this photo, but this was not a permanent placement.
Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind as a new geocache owner…
1. It’s your job to perform maintenance on your geocache. That includes replacing full or wet logbooks, fixing the container as needed, cleaning up trash around the geocache, editing text on the listing page, etc.
2. If a trackable is listed online as being in your geocache but is not physically there, mark it missing.
3. If your coordinates are off or you need to move your geocache to a new location, update them.
4. The “Needs Maintenance” red wrench icon will show on your geocache listing if it has been reported by the community as needing maintenance. Geocachers see this icon as a sign that your geocache may not be in good condition and they may skip trying to find it. Once you have made repairs, post an “Owner Maintenance” log on your geocache page. This log removes the Needs Maintenance icon.
5. You can temporarily disable your geocache if needed. Do this if the geocache needs repairs, or if the area is closed for a period of time (construction, hunting, winter closures, etc.). This is meant to be temporary, which means a few weeks, or perhaps a couple of months.
6. Don’t log your own geocache. Save the smiley for use when you’ve truly discovered a hidden geocache.
7. Use your owner powers wisely. Logs that fail to meet stated requirements (such as ‘Found It’ logs by geocachers who have never found the geocache) or logs that conflict with our Terms of Use Agreement may be deleted. Read more about log deletion.
8. Sometimes life happens and you can no longer maintain your geocache. You will want to archive the geocache listing, which will permanently remove it from the geocaching.com website, or adopt the geocache out to someone else. Remember to also remove the physical geocache container if you archive.
9. Lastly (and most importantly), have fun! One of the greatest perks to being a geocache owner is reading all the wonderful logs by other geocachers discovering your geocache.
Unlock Your 2015 Geocaching Mission on May 2 and 3
This May 2nd and 3rd, celebrate the history of geocaching by unlocking your mission for 2015. May 2nd and 3rd signal the beginning of geocaching, some 15 years ago. On May 2, 2000, GPS signals were descrambled, increasing the accuracy of GPS devices worldwide by ten times. The following day, what would become known as the first geocache was hidden.
Celebrate 15 Years of Geocaching on May 2nd and 3rd by finding any geocache or attending any geocaching event. You’ll earn a new digital souvenir for your geocaching profile.
Unlock details of your 2015 geocaching mission by reading the souvenir’s description. Join the conversation with your fellow geocachers on social media by tagging #Geocaching15 in your posts.
On March 14, 2015, aka 3/14/15, geocachers around the world celebrated Pi Day by finding a Mystery Cache or attending a Pi Day event and earning two souvenirs. In case you missed it, there was another puzzle hidden within the souvenirs.
Take a look at the two Pi Day souvenirs. Notice the numbers and letters around the rim? Combine those to find the page for GC31415, which contains a very special message from one of the co-founders of Geocaching.com and a few delicious pi(e) recipes.
Schlurie
Mike tells of the second time he met TexasWriter: I was with a group of cachers and we were caching his (locally famous) “Warrior Series” of caches. TexasWriter called me to ask about a cache that we had DNF’ed. (He knew we were getting his caches because I was uploading finds from the field). I told him I couldn’t talk to him right now because my phone battery was about to die and suggested that he should call one of the others in the group I was with. He surprised us when a half hour later he showed up on the trail and handed out water bottles. He then handed me a battery that plugged into my phones charging port and extended my phones battery life.”
