Let’s set the scene. You’ve heard a few friends talk about this thing called “geocaching” and you fancy you might be pretty good at it. After all, you are fairly certain that your uncanny ability to locate lost car keys must mean that you have pirate’s blood coursing through your veins.
With your handy-dandy smart phone in hand, you set off to find the nearest geocache. According to your GPS you are right on top of it – but wait! Where’s the X marks the spot? You search high and low. You are on the verge of giving up when you spot a rock that doesn’t quite look like a rock….and yes, you’ve found it!
Finding a geocache feels kind of like this!
Now rewind the clock to a time long, long ago – a time without smartphones, Facebook, or (gasp!) geocaching. Thirteen years ago today Mike Teague became the first person to find the first geocache (at the time called a “stash”). It’s an adventure shrouded in lore. The word “geocaching” hadn’t even been invented yet. You can read much more about Mike Teague and the history of geocaching here. But the sense of wonder the first geocacher felt, is the same sense of wonder that now ripples through six million more geocachers. Are you one of them?
Share the story of your first geocaching find below in comments!
All three nominees for the March Geocacher of the Month contribute to the global geocaching communityby creating quality geocaches and being an inspiration to geocachers.
Thank you to all those who supported the nominees. Those not chosen as the featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Geocaching HQ.
The choice was difficult. Ultimately, only one nominee can become the featured Geocacher of the Month based on a combination of community input, blog comments and voting. We all won seeing such examples of how the geocaching community works together.
After tallying the sentiment, WVTim is named the Featured Geocacher of the Month for March 2013.
WVTim is known for contributing one-on-one and through social media to improve geocaching for others. One geocacher who left a comment for WVTim wrote, “I see “paragraphs” of supporting statements about WVTim and the many things he has accomplished for geocaching. I am familiar with WVTim due to his YouTube videos. His gadgetcaches channel, in only 3 months, has nearly 11K views. He does instructional videos on how to build his gadget caches. So, he not only has amazing caches, he is giving ideas and instructions to cachers everywhere on how to build them. Cachers everywhere are benefiting from this guy whose caches have over 2K favorite votes. Plus, he just doesn’t do great caches. I’ve learned from this blog he has seminars, educational events, he teaches geocaching in schools, and to the Boy Scouts. He assists his state and local government in placing geocaching trails.”
WVTim will receive a collector’s edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging his contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.
If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:
Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month
Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.
Congratulations again to Uncle Louwtjie on being recognized at the Featured Geocacher of the Month for February.
[Editor’s Note: Geocachers love to spread the word about the adventure of geocaching. Sonny and Sandy from the PodCachers have spent years sharing the joy of geocaching through their podcast the PodCacher podcast. Here’s a rare look behind the scenes of their podcast.]
Team PodCacher
By Sonny & Sandy,
Gorillas, a wild-west jail, a Halloween prop and Dave Ulmer – sound like the start of a bad joke? No, just another typical day at the PodCacher studios, putting together an podcast full of geocaching goodness for a listener community that spans the globe.
We are Sonny and Sandy (from sunny San Diego, California) and we have hosted the PodCacher podcast (the weekly audio show all about geocaching) for almost eight years. From the very first show, where we shared about some geocaches we found in Kazakhstan and Amsterdam, to the latest interview with Dave Ulmer, hider of the first geocache, our 400+ shows have circled the world to offer geocaching content to inform, inspire and entertain.
The rich connections with people we have never met, the truly kindred spirits we have stumbled upon, the numerous poignant emails that share how deeply we have touched someone in a time of stress or grief – these are the amazing gifts we have received from this podcast.
The shows often begin with the latest in geocaching and GPS news. This is where gorillas come into the conversation. A fascinating study about a concept called inattentional blindness which has prevented 83% of radiologists from seeing a gorilla photo-shopped into a lung scan, led to a discussion of caches that are hidden in plain sight, and how easy it is to miss a simple cache, when you have a preconceived notion of what it is supposed to look like. Has this ever happened to you?
GC45CZX Jail Geocache
Many PodCacher shows include a mention of super cool geocaches. You might hear about several unique or unusual geocaches in one show. One of the greatest resources we have is our diverse, experienced and creative (not to mention good-looking) listener community, and it is amazing what they share with us. On Show 409, for example, a Halloween prop from the dollar store was easily turned into a fun hide called, Lend Me a Hand. Another cacher created a miniature adobe brick-style jail for travel bugs including jail cells and “most wanted” posters for the cache Deputies, bring in those travel bugs.
You may have heard that the famous, yet somewhat reclusive, Dave Ulmer was recently interviewed on PodCacher. He unexpectedly showed up at the recent Mega-Event in Yuma, Arizona, at the invitation of Team 360.
Dave hid the very first geocache (called “stash hunt” at the time) back on May 3, 2000, and he spent some time reminiscing with us about that exciting time, and the amazing world-wide phenomenon that his “little” idea set into motion. He shared about staying up all night when selective availability was to be taken off, watching the accuracy on his GPS change from 300 feet to 30 feet, and realizing that “something magic has to happen from this!” That magic has now passed 2 million active caches on Geocaching.com. Listen to show 409 for more of this fascinating interview.
Where is the geocache?
We love to record from “out in the field”, at geocaching events or just along the trails, capturing that authentic audio that makes it feel like you’re right there with us, but most often we can be found recording in our “home studio”. This is actually a small corner of a home office, partitioned off with a bookcase and sound-dampening blankets hung on rope. To make it even cozier, Sonny built a wooden ceiling that sports more acoustic sound-proofing. We have a printed show outline to guide us, as well as any email, feedback or news items that we need to read, but our favorite times are the spontaneous moments of hilarity that often erupt out of nowhere. We’ve certainly gotten better at recording after all these years, but we still manage to create some great bloopers that often find their way into the end of the show.
We invite you to come and join the international geocaching community at podcacher.com!
It’s a small step for geocaching and even a smaller step for geocaches. Field tested and geocacher approved, a new geocache size has entered the adventure of geocaching. Just be sure to pack your magnifying glass, tweezers and a metric ton of patience. The new geocache size is named “T.I.N.Y.” It stands for Teentsy Infinitesimal Nucleic Yocto Geocache. Just how small are they? Take a look at this: . Right here: . Yeah. The T.I.N.Y. geocaches are smaller than that punctuation mark. Or this one: .
Interested? Curious? Don’t know what Yocto means? There’s one way to find out. Check out the latest Geocaching Presents video: t.i.n.y. geocaches. Interested in purchasing a 100 count of t.i.n.y. geocaches? They’ve been sold out recently, but for a limited time you might find one in your Shop Geocaching order.
Geocaching HQ has a history of releasing blockbusting geocaching ideas on April 1. Check out the Geocaching Workout Video you might need to practice before you search for your first t.i.n.y. geocache.
Geocaching is more than an adventure that takes you to new locations. It’s a growing record of specific locations. Currently geocachers can navigate to more than 2 million active geocaches around the globe. Every time you find a geocache it’s like making an entry into the diary of a specific location. You record the weather, the view, who joined the adventure, even what animals you encounter (hopefully safe, fluffy, friendly animals). Here’s a look at a recent Geocaching Forums post that asked a simple question… “Does anyone know of any other caches that have been in the same spot, same container over 10 years?”
New York State geocache hidden in 2002, still active with original container
Some geocaches like”da dog ‘yaks‘ were hidden in 2001. Geocachers have captured images of floating the Juniper Creek in Ocala National Forest for 12 years. They’ve even cataloged wildlife, flowers, and the water level. The geocache owner says the veteran geocache, “… is coming up on 12 years, survived the hurricane flooding, because the tree it was tucked up against fell on it.” Although the container on that geocache was changed after the flood, the original log book remains.
There are thousands of active geocaches that are more than ten years old, but there numbers are fading and their geocache containers are (often for good reason) replaced. Hiding and maintaining a geocache is a labor or love that has its rewards.
Racoon at “da dog ‘yaks” geocache.
One geocacher posting in the forum said it perfectly, “WOW, [geocache owners] thank you for doing everything you do for the sport of geocaching, and keeping these older caches active.”
For more details check out the Geocaching Forums. What’s the oldest geocache you’ve ever logged? Did it have its original container?
