View Carre’ GCE02C GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 19, 2012

View from "View Carre'"

View Carre’ (GCE02C) perches high atop a New Orleans landmark. The cache ranks as the most ‘favorited’ geocache in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It’s accumulated more than 550 Favorite Points. With a view that stretches from horizon to horizon, it’s easy to see why.

Bamboozle hid the cache, with the permission of the facility owner, in 2003.  He works at the building where the cache is located. He writes, “Many years ago I would notice tourist photographers in front of the building and occasionally offer to take them where they could get some really nice shots….the roof. They would be almost overwhelmed by the experience. When I started geocaching in 2003 I thought it would be a nice experience for geocachers as well.”

He was right. More than 1800 geocachers have claimed smileys on the geocache so far. The cache page offers details on finding the difficulty one, terrain one cache. A geocacher who found “View Carre'” over the past weekend logged, “Absolutely the coolest cache I’ve ever done. Alfred was great to us and gave us a wonderful tour. Simply the best cache I’ve ever done. Anyone who has not done this must add it to their short list. THANK YOU and all involved for making this happen. So much fun!”

The cache is close...

Bamboozle and his staff, like Alfred, often offer more than just finding the cache. He says, “My staff and I were all born and raised in the city and act as tour guides for the visiting geocachers. Over the years the View Carre’ has hosted events and has been the destination of school field trips and visits by geocachers from surely every state and many foreign countries.”

And geocachers didn’t forget Bamboozle when Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005.  “I received at least a dozen emails from cachers all over the country offering us a place to stay in their homes until we could return to ours. This added to the already high esteem that I held for geocachers having met so many nice folks at the cache.”

A geocacher serving in the U.S. Army after the hurricane even helped Bamboozle restore the cache. “Hurricane Katrina had blown down the roof elevator and collapsed a wall on top the cache container. Johann Panholtz, a cacher from Indiana serving in the U.S. Army which occupied New Orleans, came by to make the grab and we “unearthed” the cache together and it has been available ever since.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

View Carre' cache container

If you’ d like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

 

 

 

Shop Geocaching Newsletter – March 2012

T-Shirt and Sticker of the Month!

We like to keep our selection fresh at Shop Geocaching.  In order to do so, we’re implementing two exciting new programs.  First, if you’ve ordered in the last few weeks you may have noticed a little something extra with your order.  Each month, we’re going to release a new sticker that will be included free of charge with your order (while supplies last, of course).  Secondly, our creative team is working on some fun new designs for our new T-Shirt of the Month program.  Starting in March, we’ll be releasing a new design every month.  Like the stickers, these will only be available until supplies last.  If you think you have some brilliant ideas for shirt or sticker designs, please let us know!

What’s New!

This month, we’ve brought in several new items. Included are three versions of Maxpedition Packs – popular already with the caching community, these packs are perfect for carrying your caching essentials! Fun new shirts including our Challenges and Hamster Coffee Break designs have been added.  Also, check for the new versions of our Decon Cache Containers and the devious Fake Bolt Cache Container! See these items and more in our “What’s New” section!

   

 

For orders outside the United States, please visit our International Distributors list.  They feature many of the same listings in our shop as well as unique geocaching items of their own.

If you have any questions or suggestions on products for the website, please send us an email to shop@geocaching.com.

Happy Caching from Groundspeak!

Geocaching.com Leap Day – Leaps into the Record Books

It’s official! And there’s video to prove it. Geocachers didn’t just double the 2008 Leap Day totals – they combined to make Leap Day 2012 the biggest day in geocaching history. More geocachers logged caches on Leap Day 2012 than any other day in the 11-year history of the GPS-powered treasure hunting adventure. The previous all-time record was set on October 10, 2010 or 10-10-10. On that date 78,313 distinct accounts logged a cache.

As of 2:30pm PST on March 7, 2012 –

83,516 …geocaching accounts logged caches on Leap Day 2012. All told, geocachers logged nearly 300,000 finds and logs on Leap Day.

The old record of unique accounts logging geocaches has been beat by more than 5000.

Congratulations to all the geocachers around the world who united to log a geocache February 29. Thank you to the organizers of more than 900 geocaching events around the world.

Watch this Geocaching.com Presents: Leap 2012 video for a special look at caching around the globe on February 29.  Special thanks to the Geocaching Vlogger for help compiling videos of geocachers around the world on Leap Day.

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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.”

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

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

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

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.

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.

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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