Category: Community

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

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocoinfest Lisboa 2012

By: Lackey – Annie Love (Love)

Lackey Annie Love

What do the inventor of the Geocoin, one of the oldest cities in the world and a night time cycling tour have in common? They are all aspects of a unique Mega-Event known as Geocoinfest. Geocoinfest Lisboa 2012 (GC3N1YQ) takes place in just about three weeks in the capital of Portugal. It promises to be an exciting event and I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to attend.

This will be my fifth Geocoinfest Mega-Event I’ve attended and yet another opportunity to connect with the amazing community. I enjoy working with geocachers and Geocoins every day as part of my work at Groundspeak. I’m privileged to attend this event with my coworker Jon Stanley (Moun10bike), who plans to bring the very first Geocoin for all to discover.

Geocoins add a fascinating element to the game of geocaching for me and many others.  Beautiful designs, unique icons, and the stories and pictures they collect as they move from cache to cache, or as they’re discovered in private collections, provide a fun experience for enthusiasts everywhere.  I love walking around Geocoinfest events and seeing geocachers showing off the pride and joy of their personal collections to new friends and old.  It always reminds me that the task of generating tracking codes (the unique set of numbers and letters that identify each Geocoin) at Groundspeak HQ  has such a greater meaning than I realize on a day-to-day basis.

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A dedicated event committee of over 50 Portuguese geocachers came together to organize this amazing event for Geocoin fans and collectors in a short amount of time. The committee is divided into eleven groups that cover the individual pieces that make up the Mega-Event.  One of these organizers, António Casimiro (Acasim), explained that “A Geocoinfest event is a special Mega-Event, a themed event related to Geocoins. But in reality it is much more than that. It’s a gathering of people from many different countries, an opportunity to meet some Groundspeak Lackeys, famous Geocoin designers and producers, and many many Geocoin collectors and geocachers in general, who often carry their Geocoin collections to show around or to trade at the event.”

Along with viewing the latest and greatest Geocoin designs, I’m hoping to enjoy some of those other aspects involved with the event. Music, games, a flashmob, tasting local wines, attending an evening bicycle tour of Lisbon to discover the city, and of course finding geocaches! The organizers have done an amazing job putting the event together and I personally can’t wait to see their efforts in person.

Silva provides some great tips for those interested in attending the 2012 European Geocoinfest:

– Book travel and hotel as soon as possible, to get better prices (accommodation pointers are provided on the event website)

– Add your “will attend” log and register for the event, providing the requested information

– Look at the provided program and prepare your own schedule, to make the best possible use of time

– Periodically look at the event web site for news and updates

– Contact the organization in case you have any questions — everyone will do their best to help you!

Find more details for planning on the official event website.  If you can’t make it to the European Geocoinfest,  the annual US event (GC2XW58)  is in the U.S. state of Colorado this October. Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 offers a similar experience in North America. Check out the official Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 website and register here.

 

 

/ Adela B

Gold Country – The Painted Chasm GC1TTW8 – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 16, 2012

Colorful view from the Painted Chasm Canyon

The Geocache of the Week is not only rich in history and natural beauty, it is also a part of the Gold Country GeoTour.

Gold Country – The Painted Chasm (GC1TTW8) is rated a difficulty 1 1/2, terrain 2 traditional cache.

Placed in June of 2009, it is one of 72 Gold Country GeoTour geocaches. GeoTour caches are designed to showcase a destination with a tailored series of geocaches hidden at the destination’s points of interest. The Gold Country GeoTour directs adventurers to discover the region’s gold mining legacy.

Located in a remote area of southern British Columbia, Canada, the cache accumulated nearly 225 logged visits and 17 Favorite Points over the last three years. The cache sits along the 8km long painted chasm canyon, whose serene red, orange, pink, and purple colors have been forming for 16 million years.

Geocaching in Gold Country

The page provides detailed information about the history of the area, its natural beauty, and geological importance.

One adventurer logging the cache said, “This was one very special, very beautiful, very scenic, absolutely fantastic, most educational and truly memorable Geocaching trip. Yours to discover….Wish you were here.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the world. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 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@groundspeak.com.

Exploring Gold Country by horse
/ Adela B /

Announcing the June Featured Geocacher of the Month

June’s featured Geocacher of the Month is known for his kindness and ability to engage the geocaching community through his creative caches.

Congratulations to SniperChicken for pulling in an incredible 108 votes! We greatly appreciate your dedication to geocaching.

June Featured Geocacher of the Month, SniperChicken

SniperChicken is the Board President of the Mississippi Geocachers Association. He owns over 140 caches and is known to go above and beyond to research every hiding location to provide fellow geocachers with a unique cache and story.

According to one geocacher casting a vote, “SniperChicken is a great guy…you won’t find many more dedicated. He does whatever he can to help others, to make a cache different and exciting. He’s a real inspiration to newbies and seasoned cachers alike. All the candidates are great, but SniperChicken stands out above the rest.”

SniperChicken will receiver a collector’s 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 his contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.

Thank you to the fellow June nominees and all those who supported them. The nominees not chosen as featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Groundspeak. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.

Featured Geocacher of the Month Icon

The geocaching community is encouraged to re-nominate those who have yet to be honored as featured Geocacher of the Month.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. 

Every nomination must meet the following requirements: Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and description (in 500 or fewer 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 July featured Geocacher of the Month must be received by the end of the day on Monday, July 16th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the Latitude 47 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.

/ Adela B /

Stari Most GC28FXB – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 9, 2012

Geocaching at Stari Most

The Geocache of the Week takes us to a country where fewer than 100 geocaches exist.

Stari Most (GC28FXB), or Old Bridge sits in the heart of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is rated a difficulty 1 1/2, terrain 1 1/2 EarthCache.

The bridge spans the Neretva river and connects two parts of the city of Mostar. Built in 1567, it stood for 427 years before it was destroyed in November of 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak conflict.

Jumping off the bridge

Stari Most, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has become quite the tourist attraction since it was rebuilt in 2004. It stands 19 meters (62 feet) tall and spans 28.7 meters (94 feet ) in length.

Much of Stari Most’s charm lies in its tradition of bridge jumping each year in the month of July. Tens of thousands of spectators line adjacent to the bridge and watch the divers of the Mostar Diving Club jump off the highest point (the arch) of the bridge.

This EarthCache is no stranger to geocachers. It has accumulated nearly 250 logged visits, 23 Favorite Points and over 335 images since it was placed in 2010 by Team HeiMat.

One geocacher logged, “I finally made it. I’m so pleased to finally say I’ve stood on the Stari Most despite, or indeed, because of its history TFTC.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the world. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 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@groundspeak.com.

Crossing the bridge
/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Cleanup Awards for Cleaning Up

Award-winning group of geocachers

The environment wins big when geocachers attend Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events. But now a group of Texas, USA geocachers are winning for their cleanup efforts.

Travis Gilbert (SKnight579) organized the Permian Basin Cachers Association CITO Events. Travis says, “We are a smaller group of cachers (around about 30) in the middle of nowhere out in West Texas.”

“A smaller group” with a big agenda to pick up trash. They’ve adopted two sites and pledged to clear trash from those areas on a regular basis. One site is a stretch of four lane highway and another is a location in a nearby city.  The group has held CITO events at these locations over the past couple years. Travis says, “We are under contract to clean the road two times a year, we do it four times a year, and we also separate out recyclables as we go for a small bit of money for the group (covers the water basically).”

Permian Basin Geocachers Win State Award

Travis says the extra effort was noticed. His email inbox had a surprise waiting for him a couple weeks ago, “I received an email from the State of Texas that our little group would also be getting the “Group of the Year” award for the State! I’m really proud of our group.” Gilbert says they also won another award from the City of Midland, Texas for the Permian Basin Geocachers cleanup efforts there.

He says the group is inspiring other local geocachers to help make a difference. “I know of several other groups of cachers in Texas that have adopted roads and spots after seeing what our group has done and I could not be prouder of our group.”

Trackable state and local awards for Permian Geocachers

Bagging trash and picking up recyclables has an occasional reward.

Travis says, “The best find was our last cleanup in April when we found 20 proof sets of coins scattered over half of our adopted area. We called the police and no one had reported them missing and I spoke about it on the news that night and no one tried to contact me, so win win. There were 10 of us cleaning that trip so we raffled them and each took two sets home.”

Now they’re also taking home trophies. Travis did what any geocacher would do with the awards. He says “I’ve also made both awards Trackable.” Check out the Trackable pages here and here. Three geocachers, besides Travis, attended all the CITO events. They include grumpyoldtexan, DeKoning, and ZSandmann.

Since 2002, geocachers around the world have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly places. There are dozens of CITO events around the world each month. Check out the CITO Events Calendar to find at CITO near you.

Permian Basin Geocachers