Here’s a question you don’t often hear, “Did you find that geocache on the cake?” Well… look at the masterful geocaching cake by Susan Currence to your left. Can you find the geocache?
Could the geocache be hidden in the pretzel stick palm trees? Might it be in the frosting river? Keep reading to find out.
Susan and others uploaded pictures of geocaching themed cakes after a Geocaching.com Facebook post. The post read, “Geocaching is about community. Community is about events. And when you have an event: You. Bring. A. Themed. Cake. Share your best geocaching cake recipes and pics here…”
Almost any given week you can check out the Geocaching Event Calendar and find more than fifty events in a dozen countries around the world. Odds are you’ll find a cake at most of those events. Here’s some of the best of the best.
cooper troopers' geo-cake
UK geocacher cooper troopers spent eight hours crafting a geocaching themed cake. She writes you can feast on nearly everything you see on the cake to your left, but – “The only thing that you couldn’t eat were the film pot and the fern, everything else was edible. The cake was a chocolate sponge with chocolate butter-cream icing. Some of the items came from the local old fashioned sweet shop, sugar pebbles/stones and chocolate shavings (for dirt) and chocolate nibs (twigs).”
Geocaching cakes aren’t just for events. Some geocachers use them as prizes. Emma Harding (emma.27) writes, “My friend hid 20 something caches and made it a race to find all of the caches, my cake being the prize. The event itself was speed caking. Based on speed dating, cachers brought cake and swapped for more cake. Everyone had a fab time and got good feedback.” You can see the cache page from the event here.
Geo-Cake Spoiler pic
Check out some of the cakes below for ideas for your next geocaching event. So… back to the first question in this blog post; did you find the geocache in the cake above yet? (Here’s the spoiler picture.)
A race to find a newly published geocache uncovers a century-old piece of family history. Laura and Danny geocache under the name Cachn’Zoom. The experience helped the husband and wife team from North Carolina connect family ties back to earliest days of the United States of America.
Laura and Danny know geocaching introduces them to new sights, experiences and friends.
Laura says, “I have met some wonderful new adventurous friends since I started caching. I’ve been rappelling, rock climbing, hiked for miles and miles, gone on ‘geo-road trips’, and seen more waterfalls in the past year than I have in the past ten years!”
But nothing could prepared them for a recent cache run on a newly published historical series of geocaches. Laura says it all started with a competitive flair. Laura writes, “I am notified when new caches are published. I don’t always make a mad dash for the FTF (First to Find), however on this day Danny and I were able to head out to try and beat a few of the ‘FTF hounds’ in our area. Gotta keep them on their toes!”
She says they had already claimed a couple FTF’s when they arrived at a cache in the series called, “Adam Cooper – Long Ago But not Far Away – Fairview.” The team wouldn’t claim an FTF on that geocache.
According to Laura, “Upon our arrival, we noticed our good buddy RobinMohawk already there. He had just signed the log and re-hid the cache and enjoyed watching us finish the search. Just as I was replacing the cache, I heard ‘Mr Cachn’Zoom’ say ‘I don’t believe it.'”
Danny by headstone of his ancestor
The geocache is hidden with permission near the burial site of a pioneer settler, Adam Cooper. Danny was exploring other tombstones when Laura says, “Danny proceeded to inform us that he had found the grave of a distant ancestor, John Lanning – a pioneer.” Lanning had died more than 170 years ago. Danny also found the marker for Lanning’s wife, Sarah Whitaker.
Laura says, “When we returned home he verified the discovery with the genealogy report of his family. John Lanning is my husbands ‘great, great, great, great, great grandfather’ and Sarah Whitaker is his ‘great, great, great, great, great grandmother’, on his mother’s side of the family.”
Ruth, Dare2Geocache, placed that geocache. She says she discovered some local heritage as well, “I had a blast researching our local history to create both the Fairview and the Spring Mountain historical series. We have so many “local treasures,” as I’m sure most communities do. [They are] places that people pass by daily and never know exist, or they never know the details that make these places so interesting.”
The story of Danny and Laura’s family discovery spread fast. She says, “Most folks are amazed and are surprised to learn we located this while ‘geocaching’. We would have never located this without geocaching.”
The couple just returned from vacation and are already playing catchup with local geocaches. Laura says, “Thanks to all the geocachers who keep this adventure going and growing! There were at least ten new caches published in my area while I was away for a week!”
Laura and Danny do not expect the discoveries to stop any time soon. She says they’re looking forward to, “hours and hours of more fun and adventure!”
It’s the holiday season and some geocachers are pulling out all the stops to ask for geocaching gear. Check out this version of the “Signal Baby” song. Thanks to geocacher and volunteer reviewer, honeychile, for writing and singing the “Signal Baby” song and producing the video. Tell us, what’s on your geocaching wish list this year?
The nominees for the December featured “Geocacher of the Month” hail from three different countries. But they collectively represent the best of the geocaching community: being helpful, innovative, and creative. Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as December’s “Geocacher of the Month.”
Rokman4
Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you feel should be the “Geocacher of the Month.” Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.
Last month, Rokman4 was chosen as the November Featured Geocacher of the Month. Rokman4 is well known for helping to create the first ever geocaching training ground and for going out of his way to help geocachers in need. Congratulations again to Rokman4 and all those nominated in November.
Nominated by Cashub, “AbbeyAckbar have gathered people for such events as: WWFM VIII – Dublin, Ireland and a mega huge International Geocaching Day (IGD)01: CITO Burrow Beach, Dublin, Ireland and later that day another event: IGD01: Dublin, Ireland and recently 11.11.11 – It’s all about the numbers They are great planners, everything is always under control with them. It’s AbbeyAckbar who organizes the best events in Dublin, who are always willing to help any newbies, and who make things happen in Ireland. Their caches have the most amazing containers, and are very tricky, making another cache find an unbelievably fun experience!”
Nominated by geocite and PTBL, “He is always happy to lend a helping hand when you have a hard cache that you haven’t found. ElectroQTed takes his time to walk around the room to meet fellow cachers old and new and have a talk. He has been to a lot of events where he does speeches on geocaching. He is also at all of the CITOs that we have in the Waterloo Region of Canada and has helped plant many trees. Ted has helped organize numerous of the events that have occurred in southern Ontario. Ted has been caching well before a lot of people probably even knew what geocaching was. He has been caching since June 15, 2003 and has over 7400 finds. Ted is one of the first geocachers in the Waterloo Region and this past summer was in our local paper talking about the sport of geocaching. ElectroQTed is a good roll model for the geocaching community.”
Nominated by LoudmouthLee, “Jeremy is responsible for the vast majority of caches in the Queens borough of New York City. As well, he has taken time out of his busy schedule to help a lowly geo-newbie like me to get involved in the caching community, giving me great advice when I need it, and offering to help always. I know for sure that I’m not the only newbie who Jeremy has helped. I just know his kindness is peerless and he is a fantastic representation to what geocaching is all about.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured December “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 two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for December’s award through Monday the 26th.
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be the Featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com.
Every nomination must meet the following requirements:
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 January Geocacher of the Month must be received by January 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.
Pavel and Renka, "TwiceRaP" and Steve Christensen "Coach Steve"
A grassy field outside a Czech Republic village is sacred ground to geocacher Steve Christensen (“Coach Steve“). The field remains nearly unchanged since an American bomber, carrying a crew of young airmen, crashed here in 1945. Coach Steve’s father piloted the plane. The B-17 was shot from the sky during the final months of World War II. Lt. Donald Christensen was killed in action, along with all but one of his crew.
Coach Steve was born four months after the crash. He never met his father. His journey to discover his father’s story, visit the crash site and meet the local Czech people who call his father a hero took decades. It also took a little help from Czech geocachers.
Steve grew up knowing little about his dad. He says, “Our mother remarried when I was four and because of the hurt of losing her first husband in the war, and not wanting to inject the old memories into a new relationship, I was never told much. Only that he was a pilot and was killed in the war. He was declared missing in action on March 2, 1945. That’s my mother’s birthday, and I was born on June 12. I never knew my father, except by photos and what I have learned on my own and with some help from my brother.”
Steve and his brother began to research their father over the internet in 2004. Steve says, “We found the 398th bomb group memorial site and found the mission he was on when he died and some very short eyewitness reports from other pilots… The first picture that came up was a picture of the crash with some German soldiers standing by it. We could see a power line in the background and made note of that location in case we ever got there. The next picture that came up was of the memorial [to his father’s B-17 crew] in a little town called Slany. We were floored. We knew nothing about it.”
Christensen crash site - notice the power line
Both Steve and his brother traveled to Slany months after the discovery. But last year Steve was tempted to return to the Czech Republic. He would discover more than ever before, including remnants from the crash site. He says, “This last year was a big celebration at the memorial and an air show.”
Steve, who started geocaching in 2003, searched for geocaches around Slany. He discovered a geocache called, “Pad americke letajici pevnosti B-17/Crash of B-17 (GC1M2ZX).”
Lt. Ron Christensen
The puzzle cache was hidden in 2009 by geocachers Pavel and Renka. Their geocaching username is TwiceRaP. Pavel is a retired Czech military officer. He says he created the cache to pay tribute to the sacrifices of military personnel and their families. The site of the crash is not far from his home.
Pavel writes, “The whole family knows how hard the military life is and what it can bring along. Therefore we were very touched by the story of the American bomber crew that had happened close to our home. Even then it was very strong for us and close to our hearts.”
Soon after creating the geocache, Pavel received an email from Coach Steve. Steve asked about the location and the geocache dedicated to the downed B-17. An email exchange started between the two men, who never met, didn’t share the same native language but did share geocaching. Pavel and Steve exchanged several more emails.
Not long after, Steve arrived for the memorial service in the Czech Republic. To his surprise, a retired Czech military officer in full-dress uniform and his wife stood waiting for him. It was Pavel and Renko.
Steve says, “That is were I met TwiceRap, two very nice people who had put a cache at the memorial. He was there in uniform and she is just a stunningly beautiful woman. They were very kind to me, and helped me find the cache. I doubt I could have found it on my own because it was a mystery cache written in Czech. We had emailed back and forth, but I had no idea they were going to be there in person.”
Recent picture of the crash site over looking Slany
The coordinates from TwiceRap’s cache brought Coach Steve nearly on top of the crash site. More than 60 years after the B-17 went down, Steve found a tangible connection to his father. He says, “One of our Czech friends took us out in the field where we thought the crash site was (the power line that showed up in the original photo is still there) and we started to cast around with the metal detector. Then I remembered the coords from TwiceRap’s cache and it took us to where we started to find small parts of the wreckage after 65 years. We got a whole bag full of pieces. Pretty exciting.”
Steve taking VIP flight during the airshow
Pavel says he never expected their geocache would help connect a son to his fallen father. Pavel writes, “A thread leading through all this began on the fatal day of March 2, 1945, continued with the team TwiceRaP and ended up with the living geocacher Coach Steve, living in U.S.A., who found our cache about his own father.”
Pavel wrote a blog post in his native Czech language about placing the cache and meeting Steve titled, “Not All Who Wander are Lost…” The post, translated in English, begins, “If it was not for geocaching, I would have never been able to tell you this story.”
Steve had brought his nephew along to witness the occasion. Pavel met them both. He says, “Meeting with Steve has multiplied everything even more. Me and my wife were very proud that we had created this cache, that Steve contacted us from the U.S.A., that he came and that we could participate together in the ceremony, where we honored the fallen bomber crew in the presence of the son and grandson of the pilot. It is hard to describe these moments, but geocaching contributed to this meeting that has remained engraved in our hearts. Steve became the most important guest of both the memorial and the following air show.”
Steve and his nephew at the memorial site
Steve’s been back in the United States awhile now. But the memory of the trip hasn’t faded, “I tell the story to any of my family who will listen. Some of my kids and grand kids show some interest, but I think it will mean more later.”
Now after a lifetime without his father, when asked if he’s ever met him Steve says, “Only in my head and in my dreams. Since all the research we have done, I feel like I know him.”
