Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
The warning is clear: “Never go alone!” This difficulty five, terrain five geocache challenges adventurers as they descend below the surface of the island of Mallorca.
The cache page for “DSOM – Minero las piedras” (GC273NE) weaves a ghostly story of phantom voices and those who did not obey warnings turning to stone. ‘DSOM’ stands for ‘Dark Side of Mallorca.’
Pullermann & Tossiman hid the small size cache in 2010. Some 35 geocachers have logged smileys on the geocache and it has received 23 Favorite Points so far.
The cache page tells the story of Pedro, the ghost of the stones. The cache owners tempt geocachers to hunt for the cache: “Do you want to unveil Pedro’s secret? His ghost may live in an old can which is hidden very well somewhere in the quarry. To locate it, you have to follow Pedro’s traces. But be careful, never walk alone…”
Dark Side of Mallorca
To find the final location of this Multi-Cache, geocachers must use clues collected at several waypoints. When they finally reach the location of Pedro’s ghost they discover artifacts which lead them to the final cache container. Geocachers must also use specialized climbing equipment and are advised to take extreme caution.
One geocacher reports completing this geocache took his group seven hours. He also said “DSOM” was one of his favorite caches. Other logs on the cache page read, “Wow wow wow!” Followed by a string of smileys.
Dark Side of Mallorca
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the globe. Explore 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.
Some people find much more than just cache containers when they’re introduced to geocaching. Geocachers may discover parks they never knew existed, the hidden history of their community or even the sting of stepping in poison ivy. But some geocachers wander into something else. They’re lucky enough to find the person they’ll marry.
It happens. It happened to one of the founders of Geocaching.com. Bryan Roth attended a geocaching event ten years ago today. Fellow founder Jeremy Irish encouraged Bryan to attend.
Bryan says, “This was the first of 41 total geocaching events that I’ve attended so far. Jeremy had suggested that I attend and I figured it’d be a great opportunity to meet some members of the local geocaching community. I really didn’t know what to expect but, of course, that day has changed my life forever.”
Event in 2001 where Bryan and Hydee met (Hydee far left of picture)
Bryan’s “will attend” log read, “I will be there (with chocolates).” Bryan says he wasn’t fishing for love with those chocolates, “Not at all. At the time, I don’t think I was even looking for a date. I was only thinking about meeting geocachers and getting more involved with the local community.”
But Bryan says he soon met a geocacher named Hydee and her son Dylan. He remembers his first thought, “Yeah [my first thought was] – she looks like trouble. I was right, of course. ;)”
She later told Bryan the chocolates helped cement her intuitions that he was the right person for her. She loves chocolate.
Jon Stanley, Moun10Bike, hosted the event where Hydee and Bryan first met. Jon says, “That event is actually where I first met Bryan. I didn’t know that the spark had been lit at that time, but I soon found out. Hydee and her friend CameraThyme kept referring to “AFM,” which stood for “Action Figure Man.” After a while I discovered that this was their code name for Bryan. Then all became clear!”
The Roth's 10 Year Anniversary geocoin
Hydee’s friend CameraThyme also played a key role. Bryan says, “Thanks to CameraThyme for letting me know that Heidi was single.”
Bryan and Hydee would marry. Today they’re co -hosting a “10 Years Since They Met!” event in the Seattle area with Moun10Bike and Avroair. Nearly a hundred people are expected to attend.
Bryan says, “I feel so fortunate to have met Hydee and adopted Dylan. Our youngest son Nicholas is almost six and I can’t believe what a wonderful ten years it has been for all of us. A really cool aspect of it is that many of the people at the event ten years ago will be there today, so it’s really an anniversary for all of us. We’ve built some wonderful friendships along the way and we have geocaching to thank for it.”
Jon says Bryan and Hydee are lucky, geo-love can be a rare commodity, “I attend a fair amount of events, though, and while I’ve heard of people meeting through them, Bryan and Hydee are the only ones I personally can name who linked up as the result of an event, let alone stayed together happily for ten years!”
Still want more love? Watch this video about others who met through geocaching.
Some people pack a GPS device or smartphone, a pen and some gear to hit the geocaching trail. Mr. and Mrs. Mysterious who geocache under the team name TheVillains also pack mustaches, sunglasses, and comic books. Their geocaching alter ego is all about spreading the joy of evil geocaching. Their logs and cache pages are populated with quotes like this, “Horrible Hunting…. Muhahahahahahaha!!!!”
When asked by Geocaching.com “How evil is your evil geocaching?” Mr. and Mrs. Mysterious simply replied, “Very.”
TheVillains humble beginnings
TheVillains beginnings are humble enough. They started geocaching in February of this year. Mr. and Mrs. Mysterious write, “Well it all started with comic books. We wanted to leave a trademark item and we decided that comic books were awesome and so were the villains in them. So we decided to become villains ourselves with awesome disguises and take over the world of geocaching.”
Like all great comic book villains, the geocaching team has a simple, yet universal villain goal. They say, “Our goal is to dominate the world of geocaching by finding every single geocache in the world!!!! So one day your own geocache will be dominated by TheVillains!!!!! BEWARE!!!!! We also leave every geocache with our calling card and a villainous comic book (if it fits).”
They’ve definitely left a mustachioed mark on their geocaching community. They write, “We get a few emails from other geocachers after finding their ‘difficult’ geocaches, challenging us to find others. We also have quite a fan base, and get photos of people who have found our own geocaches… or not… posing as if they had a cool mustache like our own.”
TheVillains cache page log photos
With their alter egos TheVillains injected some… well… theatrical, villainous flare into the Southern California geocaching scene. They even square off against arch enemies.
Mr. and Mrs. Mysterious write, “We published our most well know geocache Mrs. Mysterious’s Mustaches (GC316RZ) where there is a series of false geocaches that when you find them, they have similar logos to our own, but the wrong mustache! We got a message from a fellow geocacher saying that she recently published a cache nearby and it was just found by our arch nemesis’s BBsquared and Spoons1 and that they are probably on their way to ours to be the FTF right now!”
It’s at this point where the evil geocaching duo sprang into action. They say, “So we put on our disguises and jumped in the car and drove over. Sure enough, there they were crawling under bushes and looking in trees trying to find our cache. We rolled down the window, they recognized us obviously, and we gave them a few foreboding hints leading them in the wrong direction and drove off with a Muhahahahahaha!!! It took them over an hour to find it.”
TheVillains, the next generation
BBsquared logged the cache and wrote, “We hopped like bunnies, searched in trees, TheVillains stopped by and laughed at me. We searched and looked and laughed, our clothes are pretty dirty but Spoons1 and I weren’t leaving until we logged a smiley. T4T [thanks for the] very devious and horrible $ – Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha.” He finished by saying, “Happy – errrr I mean Horrible hunting.”
TheVillains are still in their first year of geocaching, they’re gaining notoriety and a following. The photo to the left was fresh crops of villains was recently uploaded on their Facebook page.
Even TheVillains mustaches are open to change. “We have been through a plethora of mustaches we recently grew these new handle bar ones, what do think? But we are always looking for new styles. But as far as costume changes go, we are sticking with the glasses and ‘stashes as our trademark logo shows.”
TheVillains at a night-cache
If you’re thinking about a career in evil geocaching, or creating an alter ego in your geocaching community, TheVillians have advice. “We can always use more henchmen…. But really, just be creative. No one likes finding lame geocaches, try to make everything you do interesting and create a theme, maybe one day you can be as cool as us….. not…..”
Then they signed their email with their trademark sign off, “Horrible Hunting,- TheVillains”
Try to resist a geocache called, “Taiwan’s Secret Abandoned Theme Park” (GC2GKP2).
The difficulty three, terrain four Multi-Cache was hidden by wynando. It entices adventurers with this description: “Destroyed by the 1999 earthquake and left abandoned, this Dutch-themed amusement park is a must visit. Be prepared to feel like Indiana Jones as you venture deeper into the park, walking through thick vegetation and broken remains of the park to try and find the caches. You will be amazed by what you will see here and will wonder what this place used to look like before the earthquake!”
Eleven geocachers logged smileys on the geocache since it was hidden just over a year ago. Cachers are advised to wear long pants and bring mosquito spray. For those who complete the cache, the journey into a forgotten world is the reward.
Taiwan's Secret Abandoned Theme Park
One cacher logged, “This is an unbelievable and incredible cache among the caches I visited. It’s is very unique and classical for all our local geocachers to visit. When we approached the final stage, we intruded into giants’ realm. Visit yourself to experience the wonderful kingdom.”
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the globe. Explore 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.
October Featured Geocacher of the Month, coast2coast2coast
Every month the geocaching community nominates people to be the Geocacher of the Month – a geocacher who positively contributes to the community and stands out for his or her outstanding involvement in the activity. Groundspeak Lackeys choose three of the nominees and tell their stories here on Latitude 47. The community selects which of the three should be designated “Geocacher of the Month.”
Last month, geocachers awarded the honor to coast2coast2coast. More than 50 geocachers wrote in support of the winner. Coast2coast2coast has hosted multiple events, helped direct the Mid Island Geocaching organization, and is known for his dedication to the geocaching community. Congratulations to all those who were nominated in October.
Now it’s your turn to help select the featured November “Geocacher of the Month.” The nomination period is closed and we have whittled it down to the three geocachers featured below.
Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin
Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you feel should be November’s “Geocacher of the Month.” Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.
“_JohnnyCache has volunteered countless hours of his time as the president of the Maryland Geocaching Society for the past two years. In that position Tom has worked tirelessly to promote geocaching in our state. He also provides links for helpful information, and detailed instructions on how to use various GPSr’s, software, etc., in our organization forums. He has created a Maryland Geocaching Society fanpage on facebook, and a smartphone app for our forums. _JohnnyCache is not only an enthusiastic geocacher in his own right, who has hidden some of the most devious cache hides in the state, he gives back to our community of cachers. His efforts as president of our society have enhanced geocaching in Maryland enormously.”
“Rod spends a lot of time helping new cachers learn everything from the basics of geocaching to more intricate hides. When I first met Rod, he was giving a talk at a small town library. Rod is enthusiastic and thinks nothing of going over to a person’s home to help them with a computer problem or to take them out to find their first cache. Rod was instrumental in setting up the first ever geocaching training ground, on a city owned recreational island, that will stay a training ground even now that the training event happened (close to 100 people attended). Rod spent a lot of time working to make a contact with the city, showing them what he planned for the island and getting the city’s support to hold the event and keep the island as the training ground. Rod is a terrific role model for those of us that are new the the game. ”
“Nicole is a geography teacher who uses geocaching to teach her students about latitude and longitude. She just wrote a grant for new GPS devices for her students and was awarded $500. Those who awarded the grant thought that her grant was the most unique and they featured Nichole in their monthly newsletter. I believe that she should be up for a nomination because, due to her excitement for geocaching, all of her students love going on field trips geocaching in our area. There is so much more about NicGeo which makes her the cacher of the month.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured November “Geocacher of the Month.” A panel of Lackeys 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 and a certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by 2 of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for November’s award through Monday the 24th.
Every nomination must meet the following requirements:
Geocacher of the Month Geocoin
Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and a description (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 the December Geocacher of the Month must be received by December 3rd.
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.
