Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
“Camels Prairie Stash” (GC25) in the Western U.S. state of Idaho has two major distinctions.
First, it’s the oldest cache in the state, placed by Mount10Bike on June 17, 2000.
Second, this traditional cache has also received the most Favorite Points in the state of Idaho.
Geocaching Favorites is a new feature on Geocaching.com providing a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most.
Nearly a hundred geocachers have logged a smiley on The Camels Prairie Stash geocache. The difficulty two, terrain three geocache is hidden above Priest Lake in Northern Idaho.
Near GC25
One geocacher wrote, “Wow………….what an adventure! Taking one wrong turn can sure get you way off course fast, ha! Priest Lake has always been one of [my] most favorite areas to be at, a bit of heaven on earth.”
Continue your exploration with some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
Here’s a little geocaching scenario for you. You’re about to embark on your next geocaching adventure. Your mind starts racing through the all-too-familiar checklist: GPS (check), pen (check), extra batteries (check)… wait, you’re forgetting something. What could it be? Extra batteries? Nope. You almost forgot to bring your stuffed-animal sheep. Whew, that was a close call.
That’s the actual geocaching checklist for Ontario’s Cheryl Shaw and her husband Dave Devine. They call themselves “Team Sheep.”
Cheryl and Dave (minus sheep)
Cheryl and Dave started geocaching just over a year ago. Almost all of their 401 finds share something in common— a picture of their stuffed animal sheep with the cache. Cheryl says, “I now own more pictures of that sheep than I do of my family.”
The whole practice of posing a stuffed animal by a cache began innocently enough.
Cheryl says, “It all started with some travel coin I picked up. They wanted a picture with the coin and me. But somehow I didn’t feel like being photographed that day. So I looked around my house for something cutesy to photograph with the coin and found ‘sheep’ sitting on my sewing table. ‘Good enough,’ I thought, and out the door I went to go caching. Since then, I have photographed the sheep at every cache we have found.”
Sheep proposes
The sheep, and his wardrobe, evolved. He now has several outfits, everything from a karate uniform, fatigues and a hockey jersey to seasonal outfits for Easter, Halloween and Christmas. He even has a tux.
Cheryl says that the sheep recently got serious about a relationship: “Last week he even proposed to a fellow cacher ring and all!”
The other cacher had just gotten engaged. Cheryl says the sheep has developed his own personality. The log that accompanies the proposal picture reads: “We told the geo sheep about how Lisa got engaged and he was a little heartbroken, ‘Tell her that if things don’t work out with that nano guy I’m available!’ he said.’Sure thing’ we said, ‘You were definitely her second choice.'”
“It certainly adds to the fun to geocache with an avatar,” Cheryl says. “Cache owners have appreciated the sheep pictures. When people contact me they act like sheep is real, such as ‘say hi to sheep for me, or sheep looked very handsome today or sorry I missed meeting the sheep.'” She has even received fan mail for sheep.
Even if you never see sheep on your geocaching rounds, Cheryl hopes the idea travels. “I would thoroughly recommend that other cachers use an avatar. It’s fun. It’s more than just signing a log and running away. We try very hard to pose the sheep and take several pictures, choosing the best one for the web page.”
She says that there are other benefits to using an avatar as well. “We tend to remember all our caches better, and best of all sheep always has some smart remark or stupid joke about the cache. (He can get away with saying things I can’t.)”
With more than 400 cache logs in one year, there’s no telling where sheep may show up next. If you’re in the Ottawa, Ontario area, you can now visit Cheryl’s first “sheep-themed” cache, “The Sheeps’ Revenge” (GC25CMF).
Would you ever consider using an avatar? What sort of avatar would you use?
WINNING CAPTION: “Muggles are coming! Quick! Act ‘natural!”‘ – apolloman25
Try your caption writing skills in the nineteenth installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. You could become the proud winner of a barely coveted prize! What caption would you write? “I think the muggles might be onto you.” You can do better!
Barely coveted prize
Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions that other geocachers crafted.
You can influence the voting. “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers to “like” your caption. Lackeys decide between the top captions to crown the winner of this Geocaching.com Caption Contest.
Click on the photo to see the winner of this caption contest
The winner receives a barely coveted prize from Groundspeak Headquarters — the temporary 10 Years! tattoos pictured at left.
14 Lackeys voted to award the winner of the eighteenth Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the previous Geocaching.com Caption Contest. Apparently Lackeys have a soft spot for Monty Python movie references.
Out of the 13,000 geocaches in Norway, “Preikestolen” (GCGGHB) has received the most Favorite Points.
The traditional geocache brings adventurers to one of the most popular natural attractions in Norway—”Preikestolen” or “Pulpit Rock.” Geocachers reach the site after a rugged two hour hike.
The jagged granite ledge is perched 1982 feet (604 meters) above the waterway below.
The geocache “Preikestolen” was hidden in 2003 by Andersen64. The difficulty 1.5, terrain four cache has been found by more than 500 geocachers so far.
A geocacher who recently logged “Preikestolen” wrote this: “A wonderful hike with brilliant views on a perfect Saturday while visiting friends in Norway. Well worth the effort.”
Preikestolen has received 40 Favorite Points to date. Geocaching Favorites is a new feature on Geocaching.com providing a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most. Learn more here.
Found!"Preikistolen" or "Pulpit Rock"
Continue your exploration with some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
The treasures of New York City’s Central Park reveal themselves as geocachers search for this micro-cache. More than 1250 geocachers have already logged a smiley on the cache, “Down the Rabbit Hole” (GCXQ5C).
The difficulty two, terrain two cache is located somewhere near a statue dedicated to the creative genius behind Alice in Wonderland.
The cache page warns, “USE STEALTH – muggles are everywhere! GPS signals are weak here but be patient the cache IS there and when in doubt read the clue!”
The cache was hidden back in 2006. The cache was originally placed by gracepap. Geocacher madm now maintains the cache and altered the cache hide from a ‘lamp post cache’ to a micro-cache.
Down the Rabbit Hole (GCXQ5C)
A hunt for this geocache offers adventurers a purposeful exploration of one of the crown jewels of New York City. One geocacher who logged this cache writes, “This is my first time in New York City ever! Central Park is an awesome sight to behold! I love this group of statues and the other monuments around the park. An easy find!”
Continue your exploration with some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
