Two retired Groundspeak hamsters found ‘forever homes.’ The toy hamsters were retired after playing a starring role in a Geocaching.com video. The segment aired in a continuous loop while the website received a major update in early May. The “Geocaching.com Hamster Power” video played on an old joke – that Geocaching.com is actually powered by hamsters. (It’s not.)

Thank you to the more than 100 geocachers who offered to care for the hamsters in their retirement years. Ultimately, a geocaching family from Germany and a geocaching couple from America will receive the hamsters.

CacheZwerge is a team made up of  10-year-old Kai-Luka and 12-year-old Catharina.

They wrote, “We would be so glad to offer little Hammy a forever home. He was a hard working hamster for geocaching and now deserves a real good place to enjoy the sunny side of geocaching. We will show him all fantastic places in the Black Forest. Take him out to exciting adventures, visiting caves and climbing. Go kayaking with him and we will always carry him if he does not want to walk. Or he can get a special ride with our husky.”

The other hamster up for adoption won’t be traveling as far. It’ll find a home in Indiana, USA. Miss.Betsy and her fiance Mr.Charles have been geocaching since their first date, “We’ve camped, hiked, canoed and swam and now
we’re looking for a special pet to share in our adventures!”

Miss.Betsy says no other pet would do, she’s allergic to animals. “His polyester-based fur wouldn’t require me to medicate myself, we could find some nice hiking gear for him (Or perhaps I could sew him some!) , He would have a forever home in Greenwood, Indiana. He could weekend with us wherever we decide to camp, and he could have a beautiful, two-story, to-scale townhome located in scenic my bedroom! There are many lock-in-locks in which he can nest, and if he feels the need for roomier digs, he can inhabit one of many ammo cans.”

Both CacheZwerge and Miss.Betsy will be receiving their Groundspeak pets soon, with care packages including Travel Bugs so that the hamsters will be trackable. You can watch the video below that made the hamsters famous. Stay tuned to the Latitude 47 blog. You never know when another hamster will come up for adoption!

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By: Kelly Ranck

Have you ever felt that you are  not athletic, outdoorsy, or tech-savvy enough to go geocaching? Perhaps you think that you are too old to hit the trail? We kindly request that you go ahead and let those excuses go. Here’s why.

According to the geocacher Ons Oma, “Geocaching is a sport for people of all ages. Young and old.” If anyone deserves the right to make this claim, it is Ons Oma (Dutch for “Our Grandmother”).

Recently, a group of Ons Oma’s closest family and friends came together to surprise her for her 90^th birthday. This was a celebration of her 90 years of life and for the adventure that’s been Ons Oma’s life since 2008. That’s when she started geocaching.

According to her grandson Paul, “She was very surprised” by the party. “She knew that something would happen, because home-care was early that day. In the morning people were invited to her [Ons Oma’s] house, in the afternoon, we picked her up to have a BBQ at her daughter’s house.”

Ons Oma is a perfect example of that fact that anyone can geocache. The geocaching community is diverse, ever-expanding, and a place for people of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

Although Ons Oma is a tad bit older than the average geocacher, her age does little to keep her from regularly going geocaching. She has been caching since she was 87 and has now logged more than 30 finds.

According to those who know her, before heading out on the hunt, she runs a Pocket Query to find caches that are wheelchair accessible. Ons Oma then picks her favorite of these caches. She tends to favor Multi-Caches that have a puzzle element. She prints out the cache descriptions in a larger font and hits the trail with family and friends.

Ons Oma’s geocaching group may have to assist her with her GPS device, but she is the first one to log her finds on Geocaching.com.

Not only has geocaching enabled Ons Oma to become more computer literate, it has also been a hobby that challenges her to remain active, spend time outdoors and solve puzzles. Her love and appreciation for geocaching is evident in the guests and gifts that were present at her 90^th birthday party – Ons Oma even received a gift from Groundspeak.

As articulated by Ons Oma, “It’s unbelievable that there are people in the world, who do things (hide geocaches) to make other people, who they don’t know, happy and expect nothing in return for that.”

Ons Oma is not the only geocacher who is grateful for the sport and the way in which it brings families and communities together.

Check out this video to view other families who have bridged age gaps by geocaching.

If you want to see Ons Oma in action, click here and watch her geocaching music video debut.

 

 

 

 

 

Worldwide well wishes pour in for Japanese geocachers caught in the chain reaction tragedy: a 9.0 earthquake, followed by a tsunami and then a nuclear disaster.

A Japanese geocaching family, tmiya, is located near the flood ravaged epicenter of the deadly March 11th earthquake. Tmiya, a married couple with two daughters, live in Miyagi, Japan. The geocachers placed GC2173Z “Underbody of a jet plane” in 2009.

The traditional geocache was hidden in the port city of Sendai. Eleven geocachers logged a smiley on the difficulty 1.5, terrain 1 geocache before a wall of blackened water scoured the coastal landscape.

The cache page for GC2173Z now has more than 130 notes. Most are well wishes from the global geocaching community. The notes read: “May you and your family have much strength during these tough times for you” and “Our thoughts and prayers are with you in this terrible time. I have found a lot to admire about the Japanese people.”

They are posted from countries around the world such as Germany, the U.K., Canada, France, the United States of America, the Czech Republic and from inside Japan itself. One note from a French geocacher is simply signed, “Fraternité Geocaching” or the “Fraternity of Geocaching.”

This fraternity united in their compassion for a family most will never meet. Perhaps the most endearing post came just three days ago. Japanese geocacher strikeeagl wrote: “We were Tokyo geocaching community confirmed a cache owner tmiya and his family both alive in safe.” Another note posted more recently reads, “We could confirm that he is fine 5 days after the earthquake… I would appreciate you if you could encourage him.”

Join the geocaching fraternity and post your own note of encouragement to tmiya and the Japanese geocaching community on the cache page.

 

 

 

Editor’s Note: Martin Pedersen was the focus of a Geocaching.com video, “Geocaching Diet” in mid-2010. He succeeded in losing more than 30 pounds. But Martin will tell you losing 30 pounds still leaves him with a sense that he hasn’t fully succeeded. His weight loss goal was much loftier. The author of the blog FamilyNavigation.com hoped to lose 100 pounds. We still think his geocaching diet was a success. Martin leads a healthier and more active lifestyle today and he’s kept the weight off. Here is Martin’s story, in his own words.

Geocaching Diet

By: Martin Pedersen

Last year my New Year’s Resolution was to get into shape and lose weight.  On January 1^st I had no idea how I would do it.  A fad diet and a gym membership were not going to work for me and two weeks into January I still did not know how I was going to keep my resolution.  There had to be a way I could add enjoyable daily exercise into my busy routine.  I wanted to pick an activity that I would crave to do each day and was more enjoyable than the passive activities I had been wasting my time with.  Still confused I did what I normally do when I have important things to think about; I went for a hike.  The combination of nature, fresh air, and exercise always lifts my spirits and allows me to think clearly.

I quickly threw the essentials into my backpack which includes water, notebook, pen, and a GPS receiver.  The first three items had been part of my hiking pack for as long as I could remember but the GPSr was a new addition.  I had been introduced to geocaching a number of months prior and I was slowly getting obsessed.  Even though I was going on a hike to come up with ideas, there was no reason why I couldn’t find a few geocaches along the way.

My wife was introduced to geocaching from a friend and when she told me about it she knew that it would be something I would really get into.  I love to play outside, I am a true explorer at heart, I enjoy challenges, and I like activities I can quantify.  Imagine if I could build an exercise routine around hiking and geocaching.

On that most enjoyable geocaching hike I did imagine it and as soon as I got back I went to work to figure out if I could possibly fit regular geocaching into my schedule.  After an evening worth of research I explained the concept of a geocaching exercise challenge to my wife.  The plan was to find 1000 geocaches in one year while hiking 2500kms and trying to lose as much weight as possible, hopefully up to 100lbs.  She always amazes me with the enthusiasm she greets my crazy ideas.  Three days later I started the Geocache Diet.

I have gone hiking almost every day for 11 months and in that time I have found nearly 900 geocaches while walking the equivalent distance to get from Canada to Mexico (taking the scenic route of course).  I have hiked through beautiful forests, past waterfalls, alpine lakes and beaches.  I have walked back-country roads, urban streets, bicycle paths, plus a fair bit of bushwhacking.

Many of the caches I have found had parking right next to them but instead of simply driving from location to location I would always link a few together on a circle walk through town.  My family likes caching and they joined me on as many outings as we could manage but a lot of the time I was alone.  I have found caches in all types of weather including pouring rain, wind storms, and in the snow.  I have not lost as much weight as I would have liked but I have been rewarded with the benefits of regular exercise.  This challenge has succeeded in getting me outside to work up a sweat daily where other attempts have failed.  The main reason that this challenge worked was that it was just too much fun.  Geocaching is such an enjoyable, inexpensive, accessible, and inclusive activity which everyone can do and that makes it a perfect complement to regular exercise.

The hardest part of doing any exercise challenge is making the time commitment.  Before starting this challenge I looked at my schedule and wrote down everything I needed to do each week (like work, family time, and sleep).

I found that, even though I am a busy person, by cutting out activities like watching TV I had enough time to complete this challenge.  I did not cut out anything that I enjoyed doing more than hiking and geocaching and I definitely have not cut into family time.  My year is almost up but I still have so many trails to hike, so many caches to find, and so many places to discover.  I will just have to continue to include geocaching into a healthy lifestyle and to reach my ideal weight and fitness level.

The Accidental Geocaching Community

An accident inspires a Thank You from a Mom to the geocaching community

July of this year rates as the most memorable geocaching month yet for Chrissie and her kids. But it might not be for the reasons you think. Chrissie and her kids geocache under the name silvertipskids.  The Washington State, USA family prepared for GeoWoodstock and Groundspeak’s Lost & Found Celebration.  The Mega-Events were not just in the same weekend, but within driving distance of one another in Chrissie’s home state.  She expected to make wonderful memories but she never expected a single, terrifying moment would endear her family to the geocaching community forever.

It all started late in the day at GeoWoodstock. Chrissie says they family was pulling their car over to explore a giant geocaching ammo can.

She says,”Ryan was very excited and unbuckled and said he was going to see what was in it.  Both his sister and I told him he needed to wait, but he took off running without waiting for [his sister] Kelci.”  Chrissie then watched the next moments in shock and disbelief.

She says, “Within seconds we saw a car hit Ryan and he flew into the grass on the side of the road.”

Geocachers who were witnesses quickly jumped into action.  Chrissie says, “By the time I got my car in park and ran across the street four people had jumped out of their cars and ran to check on Ryan.”

She says the geocachers not only called for help but gave first responders the precise latitude and longitude of the accident scene. Chrissie says, “I know many people called 911 and were able to give coordinates.  Thank goodness for these people and the fact that each one had a GPS unit, as I didn’t know where we were.”

Chrissie says the geocaching community then united to transform the confusion after the accident into order.  “A couple of nice ladies directed traffic around the commotion and my son was brought a blanket to put his head on. The very nice man who hit my son parked, and also stayed with Ryan the whole time.  I don’t know any of these people, and I didn’t at the time think to get their names, but they all stopped to help out, offered kind words, and kept the chaos down to a minimum while waiting for the medics to arrive.”

Ryan escaped the accident with little more than a bruise and a scrape on his ankle.  Chrissie says she and her family are left with something else though — a heart-felt appreciation for their fellow geocachers. “I am grateful for each person that called 911 and told them the location using latitude and longitude.  I am thankful for all who stopped to help Ryan that day.”

She says that the next day Ryan was well enough to go to Groundspeak’s Lost & Found Celebration.  Chrissie says, “Ryan stayed a little closer to me that day and was more aware of his surroundings. Even if something had happened at the event on Sunday as well, I know that we belong to a community that cares.”

Explore the good works of other geocachers. Read other “Geocachers Care” blog posts.