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 /

View Carre’ GCE02C GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 19, 2012

View from "View Carre'"

View Carre’ (GCE02C) perches high atop a New Orleans landmark. The cache ranks as the most ‘favorited’ geocache in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It’s accumulated more than 550 Favorite Points. With a view that stretches from horizon to horizon, it’s easy to see why.

Bamboozle hid the cache, with the permission of the facility owner, in 2003.  He works at the building where the cache is located. He writes, “Many years ago I would notice tourist photographers in front of the building and occasionally offer to take them where they could get some really nice shots….the roof. They would be almost overwhelmed by the experience. When I started geocaching in 2003 I thought it would be a nice experience for geocachers as well.”

He was right. More than 1800 geocachers have claimed smileys on the geocache so far. The cache page offers details on finding the difficulty one, terrain one cache. A geocacher who found “View Carre'” over the past weekend logged, “Absolutely the coolest cache I’ve ever done. Alfred was great to us and gave us a wonderful tour. Simply the best cache I’ve ever done. Anyone who has not done this must add it to their short list. THANK YOU and all involved for making this happen. So much fun!”

The cache is close...

Bamboozle and his staff, like Alfred, often offer more than just finding the cache. He says, “My staff and I were all born and raised in the city and act as tour guides for the visiting geocachers. Over the years the View Carre’ has hosted events and has been the destination of school field trips and visits by geocachers from surely every state and many foreign countries.”

And geocachers didn’t forget Bamboozle when Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005.  “I received at least a dozen emails from cachers all over the country offering us a place to stay in their homes until we could return to ours. This added to the already high esteem that I held for geocachers having met so many nice folks at the cache.”

A geocacher serving in the U.S. Army after the hurricane even helped Bamboozle restore the cache. “Hurricane Katrina had blown down the roof elevator and collapsed a wall on top the cache container. Johann Panholtz, a cacher from Indiana serving in the U.S. Army which occupied New Orleans, came by to make the grab and we “unearthed” the cache together and it has been available ever since.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

View Carre' cache container

If you’ d 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.

 

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Caption Contest 32 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

WINNING CAPTION: “Got the cache, but I'm probably gonna have to slice open the tauntaun if I am going to survive the night.” -DrJay Geocacher

Enter a caption to win a ‘barely coveted prize’ in the 32nd installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. This picture was originally posted on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page.

Barely coveted prizes

As you can see, winter still has a hold on much of the geocaching world. That’s not stopping hearty geocachers from braving the snow, ice, and wind to log smileys.

What caption would you write for the picture at the top of this post? “If you find this cache please bring a hairdryer to defrost that last geocacher.”

Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your Geocaching.com username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.

You’re encouraged to try to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.

Click on the image to see the winning caption of this contest

The winner receives these, ‘barely coveted prizes’ you see above. They’re two pins from Geocaching.com.

More than two dozen Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 31st Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. It was also winter-themed. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the last Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

Explore all the past winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Queens Stair case GC2CXZQ GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 12, 2012

View from near the cache location

“Queens Stair Case” (GC2CXZQ) in the Bahamas leads geocachers to a marvel of the city. The Queen’s Staircase in Nassau descends into an Edan of Caribbean plants and local people.

The tropical atmosphere is filled with merchants, who’ve become geocaching advocates.

One geocacher who logged “Queens Stair case” writes, “Found [the cache] on Leap Day while visiting on a cruise. A vendor saw me looking for it and saw my GPS and asked if I was looking for the geocache. I said yes and she told me I was in the right location. Made a quick find and took a pic.”

The location of the cache, combined with the friendly people and the rich history makes the “Queens Stair case” the most “favorited” geocache in the Bahamas. The difficulty one, terrain 1.5 traditional cache has more than 60 Favorite Points.

View of the "Queen's Staircase"

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you’ d 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.

/ Eric Schudiske /

“In mezzo agli alberi morti” GC2308M – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 5, 2012

Explore one of Italy’s architectural  treasures through geocaching. The Geocache of the Week, “In mezzo agli alberi morti” (GC2308M) leads geocachers through the heart of Bologna. geomafioso created the difficulty 3, terrain 1 Multi-Cache in 2010.

The name of the cache translates into English as, “In the midst of dead trees.” The cache owner writes that the title of the geocache becomes obvious the closer a geocacher comes to finding the geocache’s final location.

Along the cache route for "In mezzo agli alberi morti"

geomafioso writes, “I think geocaching is mainly about seeing interesting places, but sometime the process of finding the cache, and the cache itself should give that “WOW” effect to the geocacher. This is why I love creative geocaches.”

geomafioso says his greatest inspiration comes from other geocaches and going shopping, “Groundspeak forums are a nice source for creative ideas but there’s nothing like hardware stores. Since I started hiding caches, whenever I enter an hardware store I try to figure out if something can be used or transformed into a geocache. This gives me ideas for new creations.” The rewards for creative caches, like “In mezzo agli alberi morti” are Favorite Points, and seeing the logs for those who found the cache. geomafioso says, “Reading the comments and logs of enthusiast geocachers is, in my opinion, the highest reward.”

Along the cache route for "Im mezzo agli alberi morti"

One geocacher writes, “What an amazing cache! After living in Bologna for a few months, I had a pretty good idea of where to find the first stage, but was really surprised when we found it in the end. One of my favorites that I have done so far. TFTC!”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you’ d 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.

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Leap Day – Leaps into the Record Books

It’s official! And there’s video to prove it. Geocachers didn’t just double the 2008 Leap Day totals – they combined to make Leap Day 2012 the biggest day in geocaching history. More geocachers logged caches on Leap Day 2012 than any other day in the 11-year history of the GPS-powered treasure hunting adventure. The previous all-time record was set on October 10, 2010 or 10-10-10. On that date 78,313 distinct accounts logged a cache.

As of 2:30pm PST on March 7, 2012 –

83,516 …geocaching accounts logged caches on Leap Day 2012. All told, geocachers logged nearly 300,000 finds and logs on Leap Day.

The old record of unique accounts logging geocaches has been beat by more than 5000.

Congratulations to all the geocachers around the world who united to log a geocache February 29. Thank you to the organizers of more than 900 geocaching events around the world.

Watch this Geocaching.com Presents: Leap 2012 video for a special look at caching around the globe on February 29.  Special thanks to the Geocaching Vlogger for help compiling videos of geocachers around the world on Leap Day.

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