Walk a Mile In My Geo-shoes — 15 Stories

11856783_1630921300518963_239904762_nBy Lizzie Burton

Picture yourself attending the fifth (and final) annual  Geocaching Block Party event in Seattle, WA, celebrating 15 years of this awesome game. Now, imagine the incredible culturally diverse community of people that have come from all over the world to join the party. With nearly 2.7  million geocaches worldwide, this year’s summer event is bound to be one for the books!

Now back to reality. The great thing about the vast geocaching community is not only the diverse cultures participating but also the styles, techniques, and stories while out geocaching. At Geocaching HQ, we meet thousands of people from all around the world who have traveled to Seattle with the sole purpose to visit the HQ. Geocaching would not be possible without the players, so it’s time to celebrate YOU!

Over the course of this summer’s 15 year anniversary celebration, we singled out fifteen Geocaching HQ visitors. They were asked to share their personal stories about what it’s like to walk in their geo-shoes. Here is what we found out:

 

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A big thank you to all those that participated and took part in the 15 years of geocaching celebrations. This is only a small snapshot of the geocaching community that visits the headquarters. With all these varying styles and great adventures, the game still continues to grow  and change.

Comment and share any lasting memories you’ve made in your geo-shoes!

 

Es gibt auch Stars, die Geocacher sind!

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Die D-/T-Sterne sind nicht die Einzigen, die Du beim Geocachen sehen wirst.

Es gibt Millionen Menschen, die sich mit Stolz Geocacher nennen. Einige wenige davon sind Weltstars. Es sind nicht nur berühmte Geocacher wie der bekannte “Moun10bike” (der Erfinder der Geocoins und Trackables), es sind auch Filmstars, Sportler und andere darunter:

  • Hugh Jackman – Wolverine in Person!
  • Jens Voigt – Weltberühmter deutscher Radfahrer
  • Ken Jennings – 74-facher Gewinner der Fernsehquiz-Show “Jeopardy!”

Und das sind nur einige Beispiele. Die komplette Liste, wer von Deinen Lieblingsstars auch Geocacher ist, findest Du im Geocaching-Blog. Veröffentliche Deine Bilder von berühmten Geocachern auf Twitter und Instagram. Verwende “@GoGeocaching” und benutze den Hashtag “#geocaching”.

 

A Cache In Plain Sight — Gdansk TB Hotel (GC2EC67) — Geocache of the Week

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Geocache Name:

Gdansk TB Hotel (GC2EC67) by Thathanka

Difficulty/Terrain Rating:

1/1.5

Why this is the Geocache of the Week:

It’s not often that a cache hidden in plain sight manages to surprise and delight its finders, but this one does. Tourists visiting Gdańsk, Poland who visit this cache find themselves standing in front of a secret that most locals don’t even know about. To the muggle (non-geocacher), the red metal cube next to the bicycle is merely functioning as a kickstand to a nice piece of “upcycled” art. The geocacher knows otherwise. It’s a lesson that not every geocache has to involve clever gadgets to blend in to its surroundings—this one just needed some red paint and the right setting.

What geocachers have to say:

“What an interesting cache-container in this beautiful old town. I think, we should come back to Gdansk for a longer time, because, today we had not so much time during our Cruising Stop. Thank you for the Cache and greetings from Germany.”  –Cache-Kühe

“So good! And so cheeky! Had some polish friends to cover me with some people and a pram… and so opened the container and signed the logbook. Seems impossible to do it alone…for the nice idea I leave a FAVpoint and a big THANK YOU, Wolffsteam from Germany.” –Wolffsteam

“Roadtrip through Europe: 18 days and 4924 kilometres. We visited 10 countries and our only goal was to find at least 1 geocache in each of them – which we also succeeded! Altogether we found about 25 geocaches. Very nice TB hotel! Worth a FP from us. Also we liked the souvenirs in the shop and bought a bagful of them 🙂 We took the French TB to travel to Finland with us. Thanks for the cache and greetings from Finland!” –Team Korppi

What the geocache owner, Thathanka, has to say:


How did you come up with the idea to hide the cache in plain sight?

“The cache has a history. First of all when I hid this cache back in 2010 geocaching.com wasn’t very popular in Poland and there was no safe and easy accessible place in Gdansk to swap trackables. When it was published it was placed in the shop and it was very well received by geocachers what you can read in logs but after about 2.5 years it was reported as violating the Guidelines and I had to think about future of the cache. I had to move it outside the shop or archive. The second option wasn’t a solution to anything because I could already see a demand for a cache of this type. I worked with landowners on the solution and they accepted my idea of another “gadget” in front of their shop and we came out with present form of the cache. It’s obvious for geocachers and nicely invisible for other tourists. As I’ve heard recently, it’s Muggle-proof and apparently the change we made was for good as the cache is now available 24/7.”

Do you think non-geocachers ever wonder what the red box is for?

“From the logs I know that in most cases tourists pay no attention to the cache thinking about it as part of shop decoration and moreover they do not even pay attention to geocachers at the cache. Although I’ve heard that tourists sometimes make a jokes about geocachers trying to steal the bicycle next to the cache.”

What’s been your reaction to all of the nice logs and Favorite Points?

“I love this type of caches myself and I’m trying to find them in the cities I’m visiting. I reward them with FP’s because it’s not easy to hide something bigger than micro in city environment. I’m sincerely surprised by popularity and nice comments which are clear proof that it’s worth to make an effort. Every single positive log and each FP make me smile and give me inspiration to make every next cache better than previous one. I treat FP’s as a blue fuel for me as a cache maker.”

Is there anything you’d like to say to the geocaching community?

“Example of Gdansk TB Hotel cache shows that if your initial idea of the cache does not meet guidelines and your Reviewer is asking you to make changes, you may feel disappointment (I was there!) but it’s worth to think about it as an opportunity for even better solution because results may very positively surprise you.”

Photos:

 

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Kids are fantastic camouflage!
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daim77 with the cache

 

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The logbook doubles as a good souvenir idea.

 

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Team Fuchsgewitz nonchalantly standing near the cache.

 

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This geocache was featured on Geocaching’s Instagram page.

 

What has been the best “hidden in plain sight” geocache you’ve ever found? Post your stories and photos in the comments.

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog. If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, just fill out this form. Thanks!

 

Earn a new souvenir for International EarthCache Day

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International EarthCache Day is October 11

On October 11, you can earn a new souvenir for celebrating the geocaching game board. What’s that, you ask? The whole entire Earth!* All you have to do is go out and find an EarthCache on International EarthCache Day.

EarthCaches don’t have physical containers, but instead bring you to a unique location and teach you an earth science lesson. To make the find, you’ll have to check the EarthCache’s description and answer questions based on where you are.

If you’re using the free Geocaching Intro App, finding and logging an EarthCache is easy. You can just send your answers to the cache owner via Message Center. Visit the search page to find an EarthCache near you.

Find an EarthCache Near You

*and one lonely space station