March 1, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

February Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

February’s Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees show such creativity, innovation, and helpfulness that their fellow geocachers sit back and say, “wow.” Groundspeak Lackey’s selected these three nominees because of their ability to give selflessly to the geocaching community. Now you get the chance to comment on who you believe should be February’s “Featured Geocacher of the Month.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — January Featured Geocachers of the Month, SerenityNow

Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you feel should be the featured Geocacher of the Month. Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.

Here are your nominees for the February Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

Magicman65

Nominated by RayandLynn, “Magicman65 is Vice President of the BC Geocaching Association. He is a member of the Mid Island Geocaching Association and a member of the Vancouver Island Geocaching Association. He teaches geocaching, creates and attends events. Magicman65 encourages geocachers to be respectful of the environment, caches, each other and of course (be respectful of) Muggles. When he comes across a cache that needs maintenance, he will fix it right there on the spot.”

Rattrak

Nominated by HotBarbecuered, “My first encounter with this AMAZING cacher was when I moved to the Windsor Ontario Canada area for my university studies. I later went to my very first caching event in Michigan and found out that Rattrak was behind organizing many of the events in the Metro-Detroit area. Each year, Rattrak is one of the organizers of the Annual Detroit/Belle Isle Event. Rattrak also hosts an semi-annual CITO event and potluck on the island each spring and fall.”

Steve ‘n’ Nancy

Nominated by rvjn, “Steve ‘n’ Nancy has given their all to promoting caching in the North Bend/Coos Bay area. Caching was very limited when they began so they started getting the local cachers together, inviting visitors to dinner, meeting with all, and putting on events on a regular basis. Ask anyone in Oregon and they’ll tell you that the best caches are to be found in Coos Bay/North Bend area. Steve ‘n’ Nancy make every cacher who comes to the area feel special!”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured February 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 February’s award through Monday March 12th.

geocacherofthemonthGeocoin(anniephone) — Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin

If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a 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 March Geocacher of the Month must be received by March 27th.

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.

February 28, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Leap Day Updates

More than 70,000 geocachers from around the world celebrated Leap Day by stepping outside for a GPS-powered treasure hunt. Their motivation was an opportunity that comes once every four years — going geocaching on February 29. They joined friends and family to explore the world around them, exercise, and earn a digital reward. The Leap Day goal was ambitious. Geocachers rallied to double the number of accounts – 36,696 – that logged geocaches last Leap Day in 2008.

Here are the latest numbers:

Current Accounts w/Logged Caches: 83,516!

GOAL: 73,392

Updated: 2:30 pm PST – March 7, 2012

Share Your Leap Day

Share your geocaching Leap Day pictures and video on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page. The best video and pictures may be chosen to appear in a Geocaching.com video. Subscribe to the Geocaching.com YouTube to be one of the first to see the video when it’s released later this week.

See a Leap Day geocaching adventure – watch the new video below

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February 23, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

This is My Hobby – Creative Geocaching

Have you seen a geocache this creative?

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Check out the latest Geocaching.com video above. Share it with your friends to show how geocaching is more than finding plastic containers in the woods, it’s unlocking adventure — and it’s exercise and learning and exploration and, and, and… (your answer in comments)

[This video was shot with express permission from cache owner. The cache name is “The Outlet Mall.” It’s GC1RKTP, located in Washington State, USA]

February 16, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

5 Geocaches in 30 Seconds – Geocaching.com Presents

Check out five creative geocaches in just 30 seconds. Click on the video below. See what your next geocache find might look like. Learn new ideas when hiding your next geocache. Share the video when your friends ask, “What am I looking for when I geocache?”

[vsw id=”OW9bi5_b-Wc” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

creative cache container — Creative cache container

Most of the cache containers in the video are available through Shop Geocaching. Which number geocache did you like best?

The geocaches in the video were placed either for demonstrative purposes or used with cache owner permission. Interested in seeing more creative geocaches? Check out this Geocaching.com Presents video.

January 27, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

January’s featured nominees are fabulous examples of uniquely talented geocachers. Though many other qualified candidates were nominated, Groundspeak Lackeys selected these three helpful, innovative, and creative nominees. Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as January’s featured “Geocacher of the Month.”

Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you feel should be the featured “Geocacher of the Month.” Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.

Last month, AbbeyAckbar was chosen as the December Featured Geocacher of the Month. AbbeyAckbar, a geocaching couple, was recognized for organizing some of the most creative and popular events in Dublin, Ireland. They were also acknowledged for their consistent willingness to assist geocachers in need. Congratulations again to AbbeyAckbar and all other December nominees.

Here are your nominees for the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

Bloodhounded

Nominated by BigAI437, “Kevin has not only started the geocaching blog, Cachecrazy.com, that reaches international geocachers, but he is constantly getting involved with the local community. Recently he set up a geocaching day for a group of local Girl Scouts. He took them out to find some caches after teaching them all about geocaching. Kevin made sure that these young girls had lots of fun and learned about a new sport that is not only fun, but takes you to places that you might have never visited. I am totally inspired by his commitment to geocaching, the geocaching community, and to his local community.”

SerenityNow

Nominated by TeamDotOne, “SerenityNow is responsible for the largest annual events in Ohio known affectionately as the Grand Caching Events (GCE). An example of one of these events is CSI: Cleveland. Not only do to they go way out of their way to host the best events ever but they always seem to come up with something new each and every year to make people want to keep coming back. We have spent countless hours enjoying their company, enjoying their events, enjoying their caches and most importantly, enjoying their friendship.”

Memomls

Nominated by Horseshoechamp, “Memomls has put on many 101 events and always embraces new cachers with her friendly charm. She is the back bone of North Florida and is known far and wide for her giving- not only her knowledge but her wisdom of caching to all she comes in contact with. Memomls is part owner in a starting Geo-Business here in North Florida called The Cache Station which supplies all sorts of items for both new and old cachers alike. She looks out for many geocachers and willingly hosts events for different people’s accomplishments, even when they are new to geocaching.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured January “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 January’s award through Monday February 6th.