We all know the online log is where the meat of your geocaching story goes after a successful find.
There’s one constant with your traditional geocaching experience. You find the geocache and you sign the log book. Usually the geocache logbook get nothing more than a signature and a quick smiley-face. But some geocache owners have taken their maker madness to the next level, crafting such elegant and clever logbooks you’ll wish you had more to say.
As with this Tolkien-inspired logbook by Mr Derek M, some geocache owners decide to fit the logbook to the theme of the geocache. Lord of the Rings fans may find themselves scrambling for good Gandalf quotes after they’ve made this find. Might we suggest, “Not all who wander are lost…”?
There are logbooks that take things literally. And when we say literally, we really mean literally.
Just because it’s a nano, doesn’t mean it can’t have a cool logbook!
The Geocaching HQ Geocache logbook is one example of a non-traditional logbook. Visitors to Geocaching HQ take their silly photos in a photo-booth, and paste one of the resulting photo-strips in the photo-logbook.
In a similar vein, this Hong Kong geocache has finders take selfies with a Polaroid, which they can place in the log on the spot.
Amidst all this creativity, practicality has a role to play as well. As a geocache owner, you may simply not want to have to replace the logbook very frequently. The solution? Giant logbook.
Of course, it’s really at Event-Caches where you can take your logbook creativity to the next level.
2014 Geocaching Block Party Logbook
2014 Geocaching International Film Festival Logbook
2015 Pi Day Event Logbook.
2015 CITO Weekend Event Logbook
Mainz Gutenberg 2015 Giga Event
So tell us: which logbooks have made you laugh out loud?
Geocaching partnered with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney to create a fun set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul trackable tags to celebrate the book’s release last year. What you may not know is that the Wimpy Kid trackables came about because Jeff Kinney is a geocacher. He enjoys taking his kids out on geocaching adventures. We are thrilled that he wanted to share one of his geocaching experiences with us.
If you are following his series, you will be excited to learn that the next book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School, will be released on November 3, 2015. This book is particularly exciting because it will go on sale on the same day in 90 countries around the world, which has never been done by any book before!
Kinney shared one of his geocaching experiences with us, in his own words.
Geocacher and author, Jeff Kinney poses with Greg Heffley from his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
By Jeff Kinney
When I first learned about geocaching a few years back, I was thoroughly confused. People have stored little treasures in hiding places all around me? It seemed like an odd pastime to me. But mysterious and exciting at the same time.
I was looking for something fun (and cheap) to do with my two sons. And so I downloaded the Geocaching app. I was ready to head off into the wilderness some miles away, armed with a walking stick and an iPhone, braving ticks and scrambling over felled trees. But as a swarm of blue dots filled the map on my screen, I was surprised (alarmed?) to find that there was a hidden treasure not 200 yards from the back of my house.
Now this was exciting. I made sure my kids had adequate footwear and we headed out, stepping from the verdant grass of our backyard into actual raw nature. There was some scrambling and some hopping over creeks formed by snow melt runoff. There was some negotiating of brambles. There may have even been some burs. I’ll admit, I’m not exactly the outdoor type, so the thrill of forging my way through the wild… with two of my progeny in tow… had the feeling of real danger.
Eventually, we reached a clearing where power lines cut through the woods (OK, so maybe it wasn’t raw nature). By now, we were getting close. The pulsing blue dot was nearby, but where could the hiding spot be? These were early days of GPS pinpointing, and the dot hopped madly around the screen. It seemed that our quarry was on the move, taunting us.
I was waiting for the dot to stop. Then we’d creep up on it, look down, and find the treasure at our feet.
My kids must’ve detected the confusion on my face. This was a strange ordeal for them to begin with, so the sight of me spinning in place and shaking my iPhone violently didn’t give them a feeling of confidence.
But then I realized I needed to start thinking like the first person who had decided that this was the place to hide a cache. I gave up on the teleporting dot on my phone and started using my eyes.
My eyes fell to a fallen tree. It was all starting to come together. But where was the cache? Under the tree? Oh no! Did someone place a cache in this spot and a tree fell on it? This was going to be very hard to explain to my sons.
By then, my eldest son had climbed over the tree to investigate it from a different angle. And that’s when he found it. A plastic box, hidden in a hole in the log.
A real eureka moment. Inside the box was a giant pencil. A decent treasure for the effort put in. We added our names to the log, proud members of a long list of explorers who had come to the same spot, but from different starting places.
Neither of my kids saw me palm a baseball I had brought from home and slip it into the box before putting it back in the fallen tree. I didn’t need the tears.
A good bite-sized adventure and one I’ve repeated in locales further from home.
Get your cameras rolling—the Geocaching International Film Festival is back for its third and final year. Over the past two years, geocachers have sent in films telling stories of adventure, love, FTFs, DNFs and things we can’t even begin to describe. So what’s next? That’s up to you. Help us send off GIFF with a bang by submitting the most creative video ever.
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!
Over the next few months, we’ll all be going on a geocaching journey to celebrate 15 years of geocaching. You’ll have the opportunity to complete five geocaching quests, each of which will earn you a special souvenir for your geocaching profile. Complete all five and you’ll earn a sixth, extra special souvenir.
After each quest begins, you’ll be able to complete it and earn your souvenir until September 2, 2015. So pack your bag, load up on snacks and set your road trip playlist, because here are your quests and their start dates:
June 19 – Sept 2: Find a geocache with 10 or more Favorite Points
July 3 – Sept 2: Attend an Event, Mega-Event or Giga-Event
July 17 – Sept 2: Find a T5 or D5 geocache
July 31 – Sept 2: Find an EarthCache or attend a CITO
August 14 – Sept 2: Find a Mystery Cache
Before you begin…
No road trip is complete without a trusty co-pilot. Sign up below and we’ll remind you when each new quest is launched. We’ll also send you helpful hints and tips for this fantastic voyage.
Every road tripper needs a trusty co-pilot.
Sign up for your Geocaching Road Trip ’15 co-pilot!
We all know the online log is where the meat of your geocaching story goes after a successful find. 
2014 Geocaching Block Party Logbook
