Who doesn’t love a good party with great geocaching friends? Answer: No one.
Geocaching Events are a great way to meet the local geocaching community where everyone is oddly enough, just like you. Geocachers will designate a time and location to meet and discuss their favorite hobby. Geocaching events are fun, so always expect a good time!
Anyone can plan and host an event. Here are 12 tips and tricks to get you started on planning the best geo-bash around.
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 spend the rest of their lives with.
It happens. It happened to one of the founders of Geocaching.com. Bryan Roth attended a geocaching event fourteen years ago. Fellow founder Jeremy Irish encouraged Bryan to attend.
Bryan says, “This was the first of [88] 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.”
What happened next may have been one of the very first cases of geo-love. The event’s name was innocent enough. It was called Washington Geocaching Potluck & Quilting Bee.
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!”
Hydee’s friend CameraThyme also played a key role. Bryan says, “Thanks to CameraThyme for letting me know that Hydee was single.”
Bryan and Hydee were eventually married. They’ll be celebrating their 15th anniversary of meeting in November 2016.
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!”
But you never know. Attend a geocaching event before September 2nd this year, and you might come away with more than just your Meet Your Road Trip Crew souvenir—you could meet your own Geo-Love.
Can’t get enough geocaching love? Check out these sweet videos from the 2014 Geocaching International Film Festival.
[vsw id=”i14YiphCkfI” source=”youtube” width=”555″ height=”450″ autoplay=”no”]
[vsw id=”z-ImnJ-2le0″ source=”youtube” width=”555″ height=”450″ autoplay=”no”]
Get your cameras rolling! The last day to send in your film for the Geocaching International Film Festival (GIFF) is almost here. The deadline for all film submissions is July 1. Need inspiration? Watch this collection of clips from the films that have been submitted so far.
Before you send in your film, be sure to read all of the rules and guidelines. For tips on making a great film, check out this blog post. When you’re ready, send in your film here.
If your film is selected as a finalist, it will be screened at the GIFF Event (GC5K6WQ) on August 14, the day before Block Party, near Geocaching HQ in Seattle, WA. Speaking of Block Party—don’t forget to book your tickets and register for the last Block Party ever. Come visit Seattle and meet folks from Geocaching HQ as well as other geocachers from around the world. We’ll see you there!
[vsw id=”SmGMn7sPtE0″ source=”youtube” width=”620″ height=”445″ autoplay=”no”]
Attention geocaching filmmakers! The deadline for submissions to the 2015 Geocaching International Film Festival is fast approaching (July 1, 2015). As you write, shoot, an edit your films, keep these 5 tips in mind. They’re straight from mouth of a GIFF judge.
Geocaching is an international game, and so is every GIFF audience. Try to show an element of the geocaching experience that people in different corners of the world can feel connected to. That can range from a tangible moment in the game—FTF hunt, anyone?—to something a little more abstract—like that feeling you get when you find the geocache after hours of searching…in the first spot you looked.
There’s nothing wrong with your film being about a geocaching love story or a race to the FTF, but it’s exactly because these are such universal geocaching themes that you’ll need to work to make your film stand out from others. We have it on good authority that you are a unique person, so…make it personal! Show the GIFF audiences why this crazy/nerdy/wonderful hobby is your wacky/nerdy/wonderful hobby. Odds are, the things that matter the most about geocaching to you are some of the same things that matter the most to others. The perspective you use to show those things will be the catalyst for surprising and delighting your audience. This finalist from GIFF 2014 is an awesome example of this:
[vsw id=”yvrBlIbXDW0″ source=”youtube” width=”620″ height=”545″ autoplay=”no”]
Seriously. Don’t make “Thriller” your main theme song unless you have permission from the King of Pop himself. Though a particular song might suit your geocaching love story perfectly, the GIFF judges will regrettably but firmly have to chuck it back to you. And remember—any geocache featured in your film should follow all basic requirements for hiding a geocache. (Hint: no buried caches, folks!) Review the GIFF 2015 submission guidelines and contact giff@geocaching.com if you have any niggling questions. And check out these free music websites if you’re struggling to find appropriate tunes to use:
Show, don’t tell! Film is visual medium—while you might love the sound of your voice, you’ll have your audience hanging on tenterhooks if you keep the voiceover and dialogue to a well-planned minimum. That being said, dialogue can still make or break a film, so be thoughtful about what you do include. This GIFF 2014 finalist film was able to do a lot with no dialogue at all.
The submission guidelines say it all: “Film length must not exceed 4 minutes (including credits).” That may not seem like a lot of video to write, shoot, and edit, but creating four minutes of absolute video gold is the challenge. So be discerning about what your audience gets to see. Make those four minutes the best four minutes of their week. Month! Year!
When you go to find your next geocache it’s not uncommon that you’ll step on, over or near a benchmark. There are over 700,000 benchmarks in the United States alone. And you know what? You can log them on Geocaching.com.
Benchmarking, also known as benchmark hunting, is a hobby in which explorers find benchmarks aka survey markers or geodetic control points. Hunting for geodetic markers is a fun and challenging activity just like geocaching. If you haven’t tried benchmarking, now is your chance! The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) is hosting a contest encouraging geocachers in the United States to take a photo with the official NCEES Trackable at a benchmark and upload it to social media using the hashtag #PSnoboundaries. Photo submissions will be automatically entered to win a trip to the 2015 Geocaching Block Party in Seattle, Washington. Official contest rules can be found here.
Benchmarks can be found at the top of peaks or in a village square, and you’ve probably walked by at least one without even knowing it! The most common survey marks are cast metal disks with a stamped legend on their face, set in rock ledges, sunken into the tops of concrete pillars, or affixed on the tops of pipes that have been sunk into the ground.
Long time geocacher and new benchmark enthusiast Cammy aka “Cammy7” tells her story of hunting for one of her first benchmark finds, KW0802.
“I took the trackable to KW0802, Columbia E. Base located on the Wrightsville Bridge in Columbia, Pa. While photographing this benchmark, a man was walking across the bridge and asked what we were doing. I explained benchmarking and the contest to him. He then told me he had something I needed to see at his bookstore. The bookstore is located within walking distance just off the bridge on the Columbia side of the river. My mom and I followed him to his bookstore where he showed me a spot on the front step where a benchmark was located. He explained how he found the benchmark inside the store when he bought the old building. He called NGS and got information about the disk. It was reported missing in 1956. The bookstore was originally a general store.
KW0802 on the Wrightsville bridge is a triangulation station disk and a reference point is JV4845, Susquehannock. JV4845 is located at the top of the Turkey Hill Nature Preserve Trail along the Susquehannock river. Geocache GC1QAP3 “TAKE A HIKE!~Look-out Turkeys!” is located at the benchmark. The benchmark is a concrete marker with a brass cap used to attach survey equipment. The view of the Susquehanna river is beautiful with the Wrightsville bridge in view.” – Cammy7
Geocachers across the United States are embracing the challenge to hunt down a benchmark and upload a photo to win the ultimate prize, even if that means running away from bears in Alaska!
SCARLY <3Rellimer13 shared her story with us: “Finding benchmarks was new for me. If it weren’t for the contest I might not have even discovered that I could log benchmark finds on the website! Just like before I went geocaching for the first time, I did as much online research online the night before as my eyes could tolerate. The different types of markers/way points, how to look for them.. I was nervous to go out and look without coords, I didn’t want to come up empty handed before releasing the traveler again. Each benchmark on the geocaching website was spot on though, and I had a really successful 24 hours of hunting before handing over the tag to a fellow cacher! It’s cool how old some of those NGS descriptions are, and they are still relevant! Amazing. The first one I found at night because usually I prefer caching in the cover of darkness anyway! But I completely spaced out what time of year it was, and when I found the cache that was near the benchmark I was searching for, it had been chomped on by a very hungry bear that must have just come out of hibernation. I was very spooked (I had no form of protection! I didn’t think they were awake yet..) I got out of the woods ASAP! And continued my benchmark quest the next day, in broad day light 🙂” –SCARLY<3Rellimer13
Whether it’s in the woods, near a monument, or on the sidewalk near your home, there is a benchmark waiting to be found….and potentially a prize to be won!
