Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
Geocaching is partnering with the Great Urban Race for another year. The Great Urban Race, inspired by the TV show, The Amazing Race, is a fast-paced puzzle where your city holds the clues. Teams solve puzzles, tackle challenges and race for cash prizes in this all-out test of smarts and speed. Sound like something you would succeed at? Absolutely.
“The explorative nature of Great Urban Race is a perfect match for Geocachers,” says Race Director Alyssa Breeden. “We are excited to continue our partnership in 2013!”
This year’s Tampa event incorporated a geocache as one of the clue locations on the course. Once the geocache, “Turn About is Fair Play,” was located using the provided latitude and longitude coordinates, participants (also known as “Masterminds”) had to figure out how to open the geocache. Opening the geocache is required to get the clue and complete the challenge.
A geocache from the Great Urban Race
“Participants truly enjoyed the added challenges of the geocache clue as many are already avid geocachers!” says Breeden. “Those who enjoy geocaching would definitely have a blast at Great Urban Race.”
The Great Urban Race staff has also released a large number of trackables complete with the logo through their travels across the country. Keep an eye out for one in your city!
The geocache description reads, “No need for screwdrivers, hammers or explosives to open this box,” but after taking a look at this puzzle box, we’re not so sure. Some geocaches show you amazing vistas, others take you on subterranean adventures, and some—like this difficulty 4, terrain 1.5 geocache—put your brain to work. Antron’s Puzzle Box #2 (GC40M7T) may be hidden in plain sight, but actually opening the geocache is where the challenge lies.
“I will not divulge what took longer. The drive from Vereeniging, the cracking of the combination lock code or opening of the Puzzle box, but it was a concerted effort between Mrvan & RumJack working as a tag team to crack this one,” said geocacher Avanclan in their log.
This geocache is guarded by a combination lock, several locking mechanisms, a secret code and a particular series of steps. When asked about creating these puzzle boxes, the geocache creator Antron said, “both Puzzle boxes in Parys (GC3R5ER and GC40M7T) took us about three months each to design and construct. It took about ten prototypes before the final product was ready for placement. Our ‘self-inflicted’ goal is to try and not place a cache if it is not as good or even better than our previous cache.”
This geocache has only been active for a few months, but has already garnered much praise and 11 Favorite Points (as of this writing). One look at the logbook and you can see just how much fun a well-made puzzlebox geocache can be. “Contender for the best cache we’ve done so far. Ever. Definitely the longest one. Took us around 45 minutes to fight a solution out of the thing. So frustrating, and yet such a feeling of achievement when we finally got to sign the logbook! Thanks so much for this cache, amazing experience,” wrote Geogamy & Sheldor, who has 1,341 finds. According to the geocache creator Antron, “the positive logs and e-mails we receive is all the reward that one can ask for.”
Des14, Span Marlin and The Grove Clan trying to figure out the puzzle. Photo by geocacher Span Marlin
Geocache containers come in all shapes, sizes and difficulty. We always enjoy seeing geocaches that have an incredible amount of craftsmanship put into them. What geocache containers have you seen that have blown your mind?
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
If you would 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@geocaching.com.
Skip the extreme climates of prospecting and find the gems hidden on weather.com for your chance to win $3,000! Starting March 20, visit The Prospectors Facebook Page to get your daily clue to find the hidden gem and enter in the Find the Gem Sweepstakes.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. U.S. Only. Ends 3/26/13. Official Rules.
The nominees for the March Featured Geocacher of the Month award are innovators, creators and co-conspirators with other geocachers. They’re all friendly and welcoming to geocachers from Germany, America, Spain and all over the world. Each is already a winner and will receive a prize package from Geocaching HQ.
louwtjievdw: Featured Geocacher of the Month for February
Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for March.
Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be awarded the featured Geocacher of the Month title.
In February, Uncle Louwtjie, aka louwtjievdw, was named the Featured Geocacher of the Month. He’s known in the South African geocaching community as a creative geocache hider. He’s built a reputation as a geocacher who’s as quick to maintain his geocache hides as he is to make friends with new geocachers. He’s also known for friendly advice, leaving great logs on geocaches he’s found and having a cup of coffee ready for geocachers at his home.
Here are your nominees for the March featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
moenk – nominee for Featured Geocacher of the Month
@mic nominated moenk who’s been geocaching since 2003. @mic says, “He (moenk) is the inventor of the very popular “Dönerstag“, an event which is celebrated in more than hundred locations worldwide on the same day. Furthermore, he created the biggest geocaching forum in Germany, Geoclub.de. And last but not least, he was producing a very famous podcast about geocaching called, “Cachetalk.” Another nominee wrote, “Moenk fosters the community towards a healthy growth, a responsible handling of nature and preserving the meaning and fun of geocaching. The Geocacher of the Month is a worthy reward for the energy, the
impetus and the style with which he supports the geocaching community.”
WVTim – nominee for Featured Geocacher of the Month
wallmeister22601 writes, “Tim is an outstanding geocacher who has inspired many a person with his unique and unusual geocaches. His caches are what inspired me to start hiding caches of my own and to continue geocaching. His caches draw people from other states that come to his home state of West Virginia specifically to search for the wonderful and creative WVTim caches. He has the number one favorite physical traditional cache in the state of Virginia as well.
Tim is one of the most responsible geocache owners that I know. If any of his caches are in need of attention he will make it a point to repair them or replace them as quickly as he can. In short Tim in my opinion is a pillar of the geocaching community that inspires, encourages, educates and gives back so much.”
Christmaxx – nominated as Featured Geocacher of the Month
MallorcaClaudia writes, “They have placed a lot of geocaches in Majorca [including one featured as the Geocache of the Week with more than 350 favorite Points] and all of them are fantastic ones with special places, great views and nice trips. When I met them one year ago on a geocaching event I found out that they are also very friendly and nice people. They have given me a lot of advice on how to place geocaches and how to do the maintenance. For me they have become very good friends and for me the chrismaxx team is an idol.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the February featured Geocacher of the Month. A panel of folks from Geocaching HQ 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, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon and a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching. We will be accepting comments for March’s award through Sunday, April 7.
If your nominee wasn’t recognized here, please submit your nominations again next month. We’re always looking for the next featured Geocacher of the Month. To nominate someone, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and 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 Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award.
Nominations for the next Geocacher of the Month should be received by Monday, April 8.
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.
In the forest near Baden- Wϋrttemberg, Germany lies a doorway that supposedly leads to vast hidden treasures. But to get the find for this treasure, you’re going to have to put in some work. Das Vergessene Portal (The Forgotten Portal) (GC3HWBE) will test your puzzle-solving skills as well as your patience.
Das Vergessene Portal
The geocache owner die wilden crossies had this to say about creating this difficulty 2.5 terrain 3 geocache, “You start with a not-too-difficult puzzle, have an idea for a good history, some craft talent and some mechanic operations for the ‘wow-effect.’”
He then drew inspiration from exciting, treasure-hunting movies like “The Goonies” and “Indiana Jones” to create an entire history for this geocache. The description tells the story of a castle that once existed near the portal. During a ferocious battle, residents of the castle secured a large treasure within the portal and locked it with two locks. Now, the treasure can only be recovered by deciphering the code and using the correct keys to open the portal.
Frau Potter, from Geocaching HQ, had the opportunity to find this geocache during a trip to Germany. In her log, she writes, “This geocache is very inventive and exciting. We had some trouble, but thankfully some local experts were there to help us along.” Another geocacher to log find the geocache was dieroes, who wrote in their log (translated from German), “From the first log it was clear, this was something special. We had high expectations on the way and were not disappointed…Many, many thanks to the owner for this great work!”
Geocaching staffer Tiffany and one of our amazing volunteer reviewers, Don Rocbeer, try to find the correct keys.
While geocachers may not find gold and gems hidden by ancient castle-dwellers, the real treasure is the satisfaction of solving the puzzle and adding another smiley to your Geocaching profile. “I wanted to give pleasure to all the geocachers who will discover the forgotten portal,”die wilden crossies said. With a creative backstory, an inventive geocache container and an intriguing puzzle—we think he succeeded. Have you come across a geocache with an amazing story? Tell us about it in the comments.
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
If you would 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@geocaching.com.
Geocaching is partnering with the Great Urban Race for another year. The Great Urban Race, inspired by the TV show, The Amazing Race, is a fast-paced puzzle where your city holds the clues. Teams solve puzzles, tackle challenges and race for cash prizes in this all-out test of smarts and speed. Sound like something you would succeed at? Absolutely.
