October 20, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

New Challenge: Leave Your Keyboard at Lunch – Find a Geocache

Before lunchtime geocaching, and after lunchtime geocaching

Ready, set, lunch break geocaching

by: Bri Suffety

You should remember one thing, your keyboard won’t miss you if you leave for lunch. It never does. If you don’t share that dry sandwich, and unfulfilling old piece of fruit with your keyboard, it’s going to be alright. In fact, it probably needs a break and so do you, enter: Geocaching.

School is back in session, the weather is still begging you to get outside and geocache.

Much like the recess bell, lunchtime at the office is a much anticipated moment of our day. However, all too often it gets pushed aside for meetings, workouts or altogether forgotten with a just you, a sandwich and your desk. Ready for something that might make you gasp? Why not take your lunch break back?

There's a whole world to explore through geocaching — There’s a whole world to explore through geocaching

5 easy ways to shake up your midday break and earn a smiley along the way

Walk that Way. Pick a geocache within walking distance. Even if you come up empty you can still got to stretch your legs, get some fresh air and exercise a little DNF (Did Not Find) pride. Can you say win win situation?
Fun Run. Already grabbed all of the geocaches within walking distance? Need to squeeze in a workout in? Find a geocache you can run or bike to; you’ll have a reason to push yourself to go further or faster and you can’t forget the glorious reward of a new find. Look at you multitasking!
How far can you go? Want something a little more adventurous? See how far away from your office you can get. Jump on a bus and stare out the window as you travel into uncharted territory. Allot ⅔ of your break for travel time and ⅓ for finding the geocache and exploring. You might even discover a hidden park or your new favorite food cart.
Make a Date. Lunch can be a great time to catch up with friends or your significant other. Next time you’re looking to schedule a lunch date, pick a restaurant with a geocache nearby. You can grab it while you wait or use it as an excuse to walk off your lunch. Invite your date to help. Yes, even if they’re are a muggle; you never know who geocaches and who may be become your new caching partner.
Outsmart the weather. Weather isn’t cooperating? Use your time to savor your meal, create a space for yourself mentally and solve that puzzle cache that has been on your to-do list all summer.

Set aside your excuses; a busy schedule doesn’t have to be a roadblock. You can spare at least one lunch break this month to go out, stretch your legs and up your geocaching game. Are you up for the challenge?

Do you have a lunchtime geocaching adventure to tell? Share your stories in the comments.

October 8, 2014 / Alex /

2 Steps to Help Keep Your Travel Bug Traveling

2 Steps to Prep Your Travel Bug® for Its Journey

Everyone is doing the Travel Bug® 2-Step. Here’s how. It begins a bit like dropping your kid off at school for the first time. He may cry and stomp his feet, refuse to walk into the classroom, but in the end you know he’ll make it through just fine. Your Travel Bug is much the same. It might be difficult to part, but because you’ve taken the two key steps to ensuring his journey is successful you know you’ll see him again (online):

1. Seal the Travel Bug in a small plastic bag to prevent damage from moisture.

No matter how cute that little toy might once have been, if it’s icky now most people will take a pass. Nobody likes picking up a dirtied, smelly Travel Bug…queue the Ziploc. Some Travel Bugs are even sent off with provisions: sewing kits, an extra key chain, or superglue. You decide what goes in your Travel Bug’s luggage.

2. Include a note with a description of your Bug’s goal

Put yourself in the place of a first-time geocacher. You probably know slightly more about rocket science than about trackable etiquette. As a trackable owner, it’s difficult to fault a newbie for accidentally moving your Bug in the opposite direction it wants to go…but you can certainly prevent it! Make it clear that your Travel Bug wants to visit every country in Europe with a monarchy by writing this clearly on a note. Not only will this ensure that your TB isn’t accidentally brought to Fiji, it will also introduce new geocachers to the idea of Travel Bug goals, so they look out for them in the future.

Geocachers who do the Travel Bug Two-Step help create the beautiful global choreography that unfolds in this Travel Bug® Travels video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nJ_GHVY7aI]

Can’t get enough of Travel Bugs? Read more about how you can help keep others’ TBs on the road: 3 Travel Bug Travel Tips

October 7, 2014 / Andrea Hofer

Mia San Giga 2014

By Andrea Hofer

On August 16, 2014, the world’s first Geocaching Giga Event took place. Annie, Andrea, Raine and Annika traveled from Geocaching headquarters in Seattle to the Bavarian capital of Munich to witness this historic moment. Below is a trip report in the Lackey’s own words:

The first-ever Giga was a blast! In geocaching terms, Giga means 5,000+ participants, but Mia San Giga 2014 had well over 8,000 participants!

A Giga would not be complete with a whole weekend of mega entertainment. The night before the giga, we attended the “ochsenessen,” where a whole ox was roasted on a spit in true Bavarian style. This was a chance to sit down and chat about local ‘caching customs. We learned that German cachers refer to each other using “Du” instead of “Sie” (both meaning “You.”) Normally “Du” is reserved for family, extremely close friends and sports teammates. This is an example of the instant community geocaching creates.

Photo Credit: rejuch — Roasting Ox- Photo Credit: “rejuch”

Saturday was the big event! The doors opened at the Munich Olympic Stadium and hundreds of visitors to our shared lackey/volunteer booth started flowing in. We enjoyed the wide selection of options available from vendors, including geocaching socks, Geocoins, and T5 gear. The food stalls, beer garden, and stage also provided constant entertainment. Particularly fun were the bavarian-themed games for kids of all ages including a stein lifting contest, a “cow” milking contest, and a coaster toss (the target was a barrel.) All the while geocachers ziplined overhead across the stadium and toured the rooftops of this architectural marvel.

Event Grounds-Photo Credit: vossis 71 — Event Grounds- Photo Credit: “vossis 71”

On Sunday we rounded out the weekend with a great finale at the breakfast event in the festive hall of the famous Munich Hofbräuhaus. Together with hundreds of cachers we enjoyed a beer and white sausages for breakfast followed by a tour of the most interesting places in Munich thanks to 30 lab caches.

We would like to thank all the friendly geocachers from all over the world for the fun, the insights, and the opportunity to participate in the geocaching community. A special thank you goes to the giga organizers and all the volunteers for their hard work in creating such a smoothly running and memorable experience.

Want more? This video immerses you in the experience (and it’s only 3 minutes!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IvdlzMI9Y0

October 6, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. It says… (Part 2)

Part 2 or 2 [read part 1]

A message in a bottle captures the imagination…

…and apparently, the attention of media. Last week we published Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. Its says… (part 1). Jean-Francois Cianci (known in the Geocaching word as Monkeyturtle) detailed how he discovered a bottle while clearing garbage from a wetland at a Calgary, Alberta area CITO event.

The bottle contained a very clear note from 1970. It also contained a request, a mission even. And Jean-Francois took the mission seriously. The note read, “Anyone finding this bottle please contact: Darilyn Yates and Georgia Love… ”

The message in the bottle

Jean-Francois, who discovered geocaching in 2003 and now has more than 250 logged geocaches finds, is used to finding. As determined geocachers often say, he wouldn’t DNF this (Did Not Find). An online investigation began but success didn’t come easy, “(I) did a search online with the name and the city where they were from. I found the name of Darilyn Yates’ father and found he had moved to another city. From there I contacted a Darilyn from the same area but with a different surname and it was a match!” Darilyn says she dropped the bottle in the Bow River while on vacation in 1970. She was just 14 years old, and according to news reports, not sure exactly where along the river she tossed the bottle in.

Darilyn had moved hundreds of miles away to Vancouver Island. She fondly recalled the trip she took back in 1970 when she dropped the message in the bottle in a river. Jean-Francois says, “Darilyn has contacted Georgia’s cousin to let her know about the find.”

Since finding the message in the bottle, the story has spread across Canada.

calgary herald article — The story first appeared in the Calgary Herald (Click the image to read the story)

You can hear and see Darilyn and Jean-Francois. They’ve appeared on CBC radio together [click on Part Two in the link]. And even in this CTV television story.

The stories is not over yet though. Jean-Francois plans to hand deliver the bottle back Darilyn. He’ll drive to Vancouver, securing his first to find and reuniting Darilyn with a 44-years-old memory – that had patiently waited for her in a bottle.

Click to meet Darilyn and hear from Jean Francois — Click the image to see the news story featuring Darilyn and Jean-Francois

October 1, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Find a Message in a Bottle from 1970. It says… (Part 1)

(Part 1 of a 2 part story… read Part 2)

Sometimes history sneaks up on you… while you’re trying to preserve the future.

It happened to a group of geocachers clearing garbage from a roadside marshland just west of Calgary, Alberta. The geocaching event is called a CITO (Cache in Trash Out). The group cleans up geocaching friendly locations. They had already found and removed a room-sized carpet, a fractured row boat and a steel rope. The location they chose to help cleanup is a wild space frequented by migratory birds. Jean-Francois Cianci (known in the Geocaching word as Monkeyturtle) was headed back to the meeting area when his team decided to clean up one more patch of land.

Team Monkeyturtle1 — The Geocachers at the CITO (Kathy, Laika and Chomper the other members of Team Monkeyturtle pictured) removed this discarded rowboat

That’s when a patient message’s 44-year wait to be opened ended. Jean-Francois said, “The message in the bottle discovery came towards the end of the event. We were walking back to the gathering point, alongside the road, and decided to pick some of the garbage we had missed. The bottle was in plain view, near some bushes so I decided to pick it up. That’s when I noticed it had a piece of paper in it with a date. I was in bit shock to find a note with such an old date on it.”

He said the mystery began immediately, “The bottle looked old and we pulled strange enough things that day that we thought it was real from the beginning.” When he opened the bottle and removed the note, he also unlocked a nearly 50-year-old challenge by two girls from July 7, 1970. The note asked the finder to do some finding of their own. Thankfully geocachers are known to be especially good at finding. Jean-Francois had to contact the two girls, now women, who dropped the message in the bottle nearly a half century earlier.

The note read:

“Anyone finding this bottle please contact: Darilyn Yates and Georgia Love… ”

The message in the bottle sparked a small quest that would take weeks.

Read Part 2 of the story now.

message in a bottle cito 2 — Geocachers, Gumbydude, Mr. Caneohead and Pokey and Reese(the event organizer), were among those that helped cleanup 25 bags of trash. The group plans to make this CITO a twice-annual event.

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