Geocaching is delightful because of the people who play it — adventure-seekers, makers, parents, astronauts and (sometimes) celebrities. Read their stories.
SDFD fire patch bug travels from coast to coast in the US
This is your chance to share your favorite Trackable stories. Trackables have completed missions to travel the globe, find famous landmarks and compete in Travel Bug races.
An example of an powerful Trackable story was recently sent to Groundspeak.
buttaskotch emailed the story of SDFD fire patch bug. She wrote in the log, “I am very thankful and honored that I was able to complete this Travel Bug’s mission.”
In January of 2010 caduckhunter placed the Travel Bug in a California, USA cache. It’s mission was to travel to New York City to be hand delivered to a FDNY. It traveled more than 7000 miles before fulfilling it’s goal on Septmeber 8, 2011.
SDFD fire patch bug route
Post a comment below telling other geocachers about your favorite Trackable experience.
The story with the most likes will be highlighted at the end of the week of September 12th, 2011. The author of the comment will receive a special gift of Trackables. Please leave your Geocaching.com username.
Editor’s note: Both Binrat and vante will receive a set of Trackables for submitting their Trackable stories. Thank you to all those who submitted stories. Look for Trackable Week again on the Latitude 47 blog in coming months.
Believe me, I’m not trying to talk you out of attempting a five terrain, five difficulty geocache. I’m just trying to keep you from acquiring any scars or a metal plate in your neck. Geocaches are ranked from one to five based on difficulty and terrain. Five is the most imposing. Let’s be clear — preparation is key. You should known the geocache rating before attempting the cache. The ratings exist for your safety. But, say you’re part of the “Lost & Found” documentary video crew? And it’s your job to produce a video on completing a 5/5?
This is one (tall/uncoordinated) Lost & Found video producer’s perspective on one particular 5/5 named “* river and lakes” (GC6982). Completing this 5/5 only really requires three attributes. They are endurance, balance and agility.
Lost & Found videographer Reid
I sorely lacked two out of the three. I’m a teetering 6’4” with the balancing skills of an unmanned bicycle. My default while falling is to land on my forehead. It’s a precarious landscape for anyone who’s crowning athletic achievement sits atop his refrigerator even now. (It’s a bowling trophy from when I was 11.)
The cache owner and three geocachers were all bush-whacking to the cache ahead of us. Lost & Found videographer Reid was capturing the zigzagging footfalls of the geocachers. The terrain we faced for “* rivers and lakes” is a Paul Bunyan-scale crisscross carpet of fallen trees, inches thick ecosystems of green wiggling moss and glossy boulders with the traction of ice.
The cache sits inside a U-shaped canyon at the base of a waterfall. It’s a near vertical descent through thorns and an inviting thorn-ridden shrub aptly called “Devil’s Club.” After a half hour, I’ve already realized waterproof boots are waterproof… unless your foot slips three feet into a stream and then the boots become sloshing bags of water.
A banana slug named, "Signal"
It’s about this time that I think a thorn catches my ear. Suddenly my ear is wet and it’s cold. I think I’m simply in a wonderful form of shock and that I’m bleeding. I reach back to feel the blood. I think, “This can’t be worse.” It is worse.
My fingers curl around “something” attached to my ear. I pulled it forward and stared eye-to-antenna with a giant banana slug.
I named the slug “Signal.”
This Signal was placed gently back into his or her habitat. It’s a relationship I won’t forget though.
The geocachers and Reid reached the cache moments later (relatively) unscathed. Then we had to hike back out, the same way. Signal didn’t make a repeat performance. I was left with just a few scratches and memories of a wet and cold kiss from a banana slug.
Most geocachers have similar stories. And like the Lost & found documentary crew, they’ll do it again. Why? You tell me. What keeps geocachers going back to the trail?
Soon, you can watch the adventures of the hardy geocachers who attempted this 5/5. The Lost & Found video is scheduled to post on Tuesday, September 14th.
One of the joys of geocaching is what you discover on the way to the geocache.
Geocachers searching for One, If By Land (GC16C0) are challenged to hike along the rugged coast of Maine, U.S.A. They’re rewarded with the skeleton of weathered shipwreck and, according to the cache page, greeted by notorious Maine mosquitoes.
More than 150 geocachers have logged a smiley on this geocache. It was hidden more than nine years ago in August of 2001.
Hardy adventurers have to travel to Sawyer’s Island, Maine. The cache reads, “The mosquitoes hope our cache you’ll seek. Under oak, fir and birch, go take a peek. Near water’s edge you will want to be. Just follow trail in clockwise route, past an ancient wreck, you’ll see.”
The Maine coast on the way to GC16C0
Cache owner BRLT adopted “One, If By Land” in 2006 and tells us that coordinates may soon be readjusted to bring geocachers even closer to the difficulty two, terrain 1.5 cache.
It might be the ideal time of year to search for “One, If By Land.” The leaves in Maine are just beginning to change color as the fall season approaches.
Your exploration doesn’t have to stop here. There are now more than 6000 geocaches in Maine, and nearly 1.2 million geocaches around the world. You can explore all the Geocaches of the Week here.
Wat Prachumrat (GC2D5PM) is one of nearly 500 geocaches in Thailand. This urban Micro Cache takes treasure hunters outside of Bangkok to the district of Lam Kuk Ka. It was published just last month and has only been logged once so far.
Geocachers visiting the cache will discover a Buddhist temple nearby. The three story gold Buddha you see to your left sits inside.
The geocacher who hid this cache, JamieZel, is the owner of 33 geocaches.
He says, “I love how Geocaching helps people explore what is around them. The place you drive past hundreds of times but never take the time to stop and look. Wat Prachumrat is a great place to stop and see a part of Thailand that most just quickly drive by. Yes there are many temples and each one is beautiful but this one had an interesting twist. A huge statue of Buddha. The temple is very peaceful and one that I go past a lot while taking the daughters out to a wake board park.”
A sign you're getting close
He goes on to say, “I hope over the years to draw more locals and tourists out of the suburban jungle to see the beauties that Thailand has to offer and use Geocaching as a tool to do so.”
There are now more nearly 1.2 million geocaches around the world. You can explore all the Geocaches of the Week here.
Winning Caption: "I pledge allegiance to this cache and to the other caches hidden 'round hereand to this gray rock on which I stand,one drunk gnome, holding grog, intoxicated,with stealthiness from muggles and all. <burp></burp>" -Anewlesmiz
This is the twelfth installment of our Geocaching Caption Contest. You might have seen this picture posted to Geocaching.com’s Facebook page. It was too good not to share here on the Latitude 47 blog.
What caption would you write? “Mmmm… that geocache looks tasty.” You can do better.
The winner receives what’s a fairly coveted prize, celebrating the launch of Signal the Frog’s Facebook page. The winning caption receives the Signal antenna ball.
Click here to see the winning captionBarely coveted prize
Good luck! Please include your geocaching username in all entries.
The winner of the twelfth Geocaching Caption Contest will be chosen by an ad hoc committee of Lackeys.
15 Lackeys voted to award the winner of the eleventh Geocaching Caption Contest a barely coveted prize.
Click on the picture to the right to see who won a barely coveted prize.
