Category: Groundspeak’s Weekly Newsletter

/ Eric Schudiske /

Your Next Souvenir Reveals Mysteries of the Earth

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Earn a Souvenir on International EarthCache Day

Is your calendar handy? Circle October 12, put a smiley on it, and write, “We’re finding an EarthCache.” It’s International EarthCache Day, the first Sunday of Earth Science Week and it’s your chance to join the global geocaching community in discovering a unique geocaching experience. Each person who logs a “Found it” for an EarthCache on Sunday, October 12, receives a new digital souvenir for their Geocaching profile. The souvenir will only be available on October 12, so start planning now.

EarthCaches take geocachers to a special geological location. You might discover a giant boulder left by a glacier thousands of years ago or stumble upon seams in the earth carved by the Earth’s tectonic plates. There’s no physical container to find with an EarthCache. Questions about the geological site are posed on the EarthCache’s page. You discover the answers, email the owner of the geocache with those answers, log a Found it, write a fun log of your experience and and you’re off to your next EarthCache!

Share your International EarthCache Day experiences on the Geocaching Facebook page, and if you’re in the neighborhood, explore the 3rd Annual International EarthCache Event on Vancouver Island, Canada.

“The Giant’s Causeway Earthcache” GCPCPX 

“The Pinnacles” EarthCache in Malaysia (GC19A54)
Earn this souvenir by logging an EarthCache on October 12
Earn this souvenir by logging an EarthCache on October 12

 

/ Carly /

Geocaching.com Turns 14 – Rare Fun Facts Revealed

Happy Birthday Geocaching.com

Remember the year 2000? In the United States a pound of bacon only cost $3 and a gallon of gas set people back $1.26. The iPhone was still 7 years away from being introduced. But on September 2, 2000 some hearty adventurers, tired of being tied to an office cubicle day after day, launched Geocaching.com. The adventure to inspire outdoor play through GPS technology began.

Just like any story-worthy journey Geocaching.com’s beginning was filled with uncertainty. Before geocache joined the ranks of approved Scrabble words or a Geocaching game piece rocketed to the International Space Station, Geocaching.com launched with only 75 geocaches.  Today, the site lists the locations and descriptions for nearly 2.5 million geocaches hidden around the world. Adventure is truly waiting to be discovered all around you, as long as you’re in the 180+ countries where geocaches are waiting to be discovered [hint: you are].

Here are some more little known facts about the game you love:

  • The activity of geocaching was originally known as the GPS Stash Hunt.

  • What we now know as the 1st geocache was hidden on May 3, 2000.

  • Running Geocaching.com was originally funded by the sale of  144 donated t shirts.

  • More than 9 million people have created Geocaching profiles.

  • Hugh Jackman geocaches (and other celebrities like cyclist Jens Voigt).

  • The word ‘geocache’ means ‘hidden location on Earth’, as ‘geo’ means Earth, and ‘cache’ is French for a hidden location or place.

Share your Geocaching birthday wishes and your geocaching adventures in comments.

There's a geocache out here some where...
There’s a geocache out here somewhere…

 

/ Derek H

Celebrate Some of the World’s Best Geocaches

Click the video to watch 4 Geocaching HQ'ers find a Geocache of the Week.
Click the video to watch 4 Geocaching HQ’ers find a Geocache of the Week.

 

Some geocaches stand out above the rest. It could be the container, the location, or something else that makes earning these smileys memorable. These geocaches deserve recognition—which is why every Thursday, you can see the Geocache of the Week right here on the Geocaching Blog. This week, you can even tag along with 4 Geocaching HQ staffers as they find a Geocache of the Week in this new video.

Now it’s your turn. Have you found a geocache that totally blew your mind? A geocache that took you on a journey of epic proportions? Nominate it as a Geocache of the Week here.

/ Eric Schudiske

Go from 0 to Geocaching Hero

 

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What’s Your Geocaching Friend-o-meter Read?

Check out your fancy Geocaching Refer-a-Friend page.  It’s your tool to introduce friends to the adventure of geocaching. The custom link is yours, and yours alone to share however you’d like: paste it, post it, email it, whatever. When friends click on the link, you’ll deliver them to this friendly welcome page. They’ll see a nearby map, a “What is Geocaching?” video, and a link to a create a free Geocaching account. You’ll see that string of zeros on your Refer-a-Friend page start to climb.Each tick up from zero is another person you’ve brought into a world of adventure, a friend to join your geocaching outings, and someone who finally understands you when you say you “Got an FTF* on a D5** and filled out your Fizzy Grid”. Invite your friends now and go geocaching.

*First to Find
** Difficulty 5

/ Eric Schudiske

Add a Little Geocaching Mega & Giga to Your August

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The Month of Mega-Events + 1st Giga-Event

Imagine walking through a crowd of passionate adventurers and hearing “Travel Bug,” “First to Find” and even a proud, “I love geocaching, a lot, I mean, a lot.” That place exists and August is high time to explore your Mega-Event destiny. A Mega-Event is one of the ultimate gatherings for geocachers. Mega-Events bring together 500 or more geocachers in one location to celebrate our desire for exploration and discovery.

Hey, look at this bookmark list. That’s a list of Mega-Events around the world. Take your pick. You’ll even notice a world’s first. Project MUNICH2014 is the world’s first Giga-Event, an event with more than 5,000 geocachers.

If you’re stateside in August, visit Geocaching HQ in Seattle for the Geocaching Block Party. You’ll meet the team behind Geocaching. From the designers on the website, to the community team to our app developers, we’ll all be at the Geocaching Block Party hoping to meet you.

Events like the Geocaching Block Party and Project MUNICH2014 take place on August 16 for a reason: it’s International Geocaching Day. Whether you’re attending one of the many events that day or just out geocaching on August 16, you will earn a special souvenir for your geocaching profile. And you can remember joining the global geocaching community in a day of caching with this new International Geocaching Day Geocoin. Now, stop reading, and starting planning your Mega-Event adventure!