January 22, 2015 / Derek H /

Sunshine and Pancakes — Punakaiki Pancakes Earthcache (GCN98H) — Geocache of the Week

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A beautiful view of the unedible pancakes and the tropical locale. Photo by geocacher Kulturmensch

Geocache Name:

Difficulty/Terrain Rating:

2/1

Why this is the Geocache of the Week:

There’s no denying the fact that the best cure for the wintertime blues are summer and breakfast foods—more specifically, pancakes. Conveniently, the entire Southern Hemisphere is enjoying their summer right now and this EarthCache will bring you to some of Mother Nature’s own pancakes—just don’t try to eat them. When you earn a smiley for this EarthCache, you’ll not only get to take in some breathtaking views, you’ll also learn an Earth-science lesson.

Did you know that EarthCaches are a joint effort between the Geological Society of America, Geocaching.com and other partners? All EarthCaches are reviewed by the EarthCache team. Some geocachers have proposed geocache types similar to EarthCaches for history or some other subject. For that to be a reality, we encourage you to find credible, independent organizations and partners who would be willing to administer the program.

What geocachers are saying:

“It’s so incredible what the nature can do! We love it! As much as we love health blueberry pancakes! (And pancake cake with icecream)” – Janssson

“It was good to wander round this interesting area again. Having researched this type of phenomenon for the questions, have realised how rare it is. Thanks for the cache, I have learnt something!” – MadCat9

“For Christmas Day brunch – these are the world’s best Pancakes ever ! Obviously lots of people like ourselves roaming amongst the stacks of panacke rocks on Christmas day. Enjoyed the circuit stroll on a well engineered walkway through a world where imagination conjures up many possibilities. Deserves a Fav for a stunning location.” – La Vista

Photos:

Pano shot from geocacher Blackpearl_Oberberg

Close-up of the pancakes. Photo by geocacher helennbrian

A happy geocacher makes the find! Photo by CacheUsIfYouCan!

Which EarthCache you’ve found has had the most incredible views? Tell us and post 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!

January 21, 2015 / Eric Schudiske /

The Lackey Geocoin: An Unexpected 26,000-mile, 5-Year Journey

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By Holly Walker, Geocaching HQ Guest Experience Coordinator

There’s the “you” when you begin a journey, then if by magic, there’s a completely different “you” when you finish a journey. As geocachers, we’ve all experienced this phenomenon. You learn and you grow and you change, even if ever so slightly, into a new person. And so it’s the same as we vicariously travel through Geocaching game pieces known as Travel Bugs®. We’re able to track an object as it moves around the world to new places. And sometimes when we see that Travel Bug, years later, the whole world we know has changed. This is one of those stories.

On February 7, 2010, Arkfiremedic placed a 2009 Groundspeak Lackey Geocoin in a Travel Bug hotel in Arkansas. The mission? “Try to make it back to Groundspeak Headquarters [in Seattle, WA] from Arkansas.” Lackey Geocoins are limited edition items annually released by Geocaching Headquarters. Commemorating its employees, or Lackeys as they we occasionally (and lovingly) referred to by the community, these Geocoins feature each Lackey’s unique pixel icon, an artistic characterization of each person and a rite of passage when hired. (You can see that latest Geocaching HQ Logbook Geocoin or Lackey Geocoin here.)

What could have been a simple 2,000 mile trip from Arkansas to Geocaching HQ across the country became, in the end, much more. This 2009 Geocoin, featuring just under 30 Geocaching Lackeys, spent nearly five years traveling to eleven different US states, visiting three countries across three continents, and logging over 26,000 miles all in an effort to visit us. To the delight of the coin’s owner, this lackey geocoin reached its final destination a couple weeks ago. On January 5, 2015, the coin finally arrived at Geocaching Headquarters and met a staff of over 80 lackeys! My how things have changed here at headquarters in the last 5 years!

Shortly after arriving, the Geocoin was discovered and photographed by the Lackeys and quickly retrieved that afternoon by a kind geocacher visiting HQ. Wondering where the coin is headed next? “The coin would love to come back to sunny Arkansas to retire the rest of its days in its owner’s collections.” And off it went back into the world…

This is just one of the many awesome trackable stories we encounter each day at our office. You’re invited to join. Schedule a hosted visit with us the next time you find yourself in Seattle. Discover all the interesting trackables our geocache contains and pick up your own Lackey Geocoin. Or activate a trackable from home and send it our way to travel the world for you. Who knows what kinds of adventures it may have.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway

January 19, 2015 / Alex /

Du bist Teil dessen, was als nächstes bei Geocaching kommt

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Wie geht’s weiter bei Geocaching?

2015 wird ein aufregendes Jahr für Geocaching. Obwohl Geocaching im Winter (jedenfalls in der nördlichen Hemisphäre) oftmals Winterschlaf hält, waren wir im Geocaching HQ hellwach. Wir haben die Zeit dazu genutzt, Elemente des Spiels zu erneuern, neu zu gestalten, zu experimentieren, und neue Ideen entwickeln. Dieser Fortschritt wurde von Euch und der globalen Geocaching-Community angetrieben. In der ersten Ausgabe von ‘Wie geht’s weiter bei Geocaching?’ werdet Ihr erfahren wie Geocaching HQ in Zusammenarbeit mit der Geocaching-Community neue Extras, Funktionalitäten und Upgrades entwickelt hat. Außerdem bekommt Ihr die Gelegenheit, Euch selbst zu beteiligen.

Innovation und Inspiration

Einer der Gründe, warum wir Geocaching so mögen, ist, dass die Kreativität und der Einfallsreichtum der Geocaching-Community das Spiel prägen. Um die Kreativität und den Einfallsreichtum der Geocacher anzuerkennen, stellen wir sicher, dass wir die Ideen der Geocaching-Community bei der Weiterentwicklung des Spiels an vorderste Stelle bringen. Der erste Schritt: Zuhören.

Wir stellen euch Jayme vor. Sie ist seit 2008 Geocacher und hat sich nahezu 9000 Smileys verdient. Heute ist sie als User-Insights-Analyst bei Geocaching HQ dafür verantwortlich, die Stimme der Geocaching-Community in die Produktentwicklung zu integrieren.

Jayme sagt, “Wir wollen Geocacher begeistern. Um das zu tun, wissen wir, dass wir nach den Bedürfnissen und Wünschen der Geocacher fragen müssen.”

Um Einblick in die Bedürfnisse der Community zu bekommen, organisiert Jayme Spieler-Umfragen, Forum-Diskussionen und Test-Spiele. Ja, ihr habt richtig gelesen, Spiele! Geocacher werden zu Aktivitäten eingeladen, die wir Innovation-Games nennen. Diese speziell entworfenen Aufgaben helfen herauszufinden, was sich Geocacher wünschen. Damit helfen diese Spiele, die Zukunft des Geocachings zu prägen.

Jayme: ”Es entsteht ein Gefühl der gemeinschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit, wenn eine Menschengruppe einer Herausforderung gegenübersteht und eine Lösung finden muss. Diese Spiele fördern unkonventionelles Denken, Zusammenwirken, und öffnen die Augen der Spieler für die Bedürfnisse anderer Spieler weltweit. Man bekommt ein Gefühl dafür, was für eine Herausforderung es sein kann, ein Produkt zu entwickeln, das Geocachern weltweit gerecht wird.”

Bislang hatten Geocacher die Chance, auf unserer Geocaching- Block-Party und bei Mega-Events in Deutschland und Spanien Innovation-Games zu spielen. Dieses Jahr wird Geocaching HQ weltweit noch mehr Innovation-Games bei Mega-Events spielen, um herauszufinden was Geocacher brauchen, damit wir optimale Funktionen für ein großartiges Geocaching-Erlebnis entwickeln können.

Macht mit!

Im Laufe diesen Jahres (2015) werden wir zahlreiche neue Funktionen vorstellen, die von Geocachern inspiriert wurden. Wir finden sie toll, und hoffen, dass sie Euch auch gefallen.

Als erstes bekommen Geocaching Premium-Mitglieder einen kurzen Einblick in die neuen erweiterten Suchfunktionen. Basierend auf der Rückmeldung, die wir von Geocachern bekommen haben, wurde die Suche komplett umgestaltet und ist viel effizienter geworden. Jetzt ist es einfacher, genau das Abenteuer zu finden, das Ihr Euch wünscht. Haltet nach einer E-Mail mit weiteren Informationen Ausschau, um die neuen Funktionen auszuprobieren.

Und es geht noch weiter. Das ganze Jahr über wird es mehr Gelegenheiten geben, uns Eure Wünsche mitzuteilen und die Geocaching-Zukunft zu beeinflussen. Es gibt mehrere Möglichkeiten teilzunehmen:

Macht von Euren Geocaching- Premium ‘Sneak Peeks’ Gebrauch und schickt uns Euer Feedback.
Meldet Euch an, um bei Innovation-Games bei der Geocaching Block-Party und anderen Mega-Events mitzumachen.*
Nutzt die Möglichkeit im User-Insights-Thread in den Geocaching-Foren, Euer Feedback zu geben.
Meldet Euch bei Tipps & Tricks an, um Umfragen über Geocaching-Ideen und Innovationen zu erhalten.

Wir können es kaum erwarten Euch mehr über ‘Wie Geht’s Weiter bei Geocaching’ zu verraten, also bleibt dran!

*Weitere Informationen über Innovation-Games bei Mega-Events folgt in Kürze.

January 19, 2015 / Paige Edmiston /

Be a Part of What’s Next for Geocaching

What’s Next for Geocaching

2015 is set to be a big year for geocaching. While winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) is typically our slowest time of year, this year the gears have been turning and new ideas have been assembled. We’ve been busy innovating, creating, and experimenting—and it’s all been fueled by you, the geocaching community. In the first edition of What’s Next for Geocaching, you’ll learn how Geocaching HQ and the 9-million-strong geocaching community have come together to forge new tools, features and upgrades. Plus, you’ll have a chance to be involved, too.

Innovation and Inspiration, Fueled by You

At Geocaching HQ, one of the many reasons we love geocaching is the creativity and inventiveness of the community that molds and shapes the game. To honor that creativity and inventiveness, we’re making a concerted effort to put the geocaching community at the forefront of inspiration for what we’re working on. The first step: listening.

Meet Jayme. She has been a geocacher since 2008 and has earned nearly 9000 smileys. Now, she serves as the User Insights Analyst at Geocaching HQ. Jayme is responsible for bringing the voice of the geocaching community into the product development process.

She says, “We want to delight geocachers. To do so, we know we need to listen to the community’s needs, wants, and desires.”

To get a read on the community’s needs, Jayme organizes player surveys, forum discussions, geocacher play-testers and games. You read that right, games! Geocachers are invited to participate in activities called innovation games. These specially designed exercises help us better understand what geocachers want and even help guide the future of geocaching.

Jayme says, “There is a feeling of collaboration when a certain group of people are given a challenge and have to come up with a solution together. The games encourage thinking outside-of-the-box, working with other people, and they open up players’ eyes to how others geocache in other parts of the world and how challenging it can be to build a product that serves all geocachers, everywhere.”

So far, geocachers have played innovation games at the Geocaching Block Party and at Mega-Events in Germany and Spain. This year, Geocaching HQ’ers will be hosting games at even more Mega-Events around the world to learn what geocachers need to create the ultimate toolset for their geocaching experience.

Get Involved

Throughout 2015, we’ll be releasing a series of geocacher-inspired features. We think they are pretty awesome and we hope you will too.

To start, Geocaching Premium members will get a sneak peek at the new Advanced Search tool. It’s been completely retooled, revamped and streamlined based on geocaching community feedback. Now you’ll be able to find the exact adventure you want, easier. Keep an eye out for an email with more details.

It doesn’t stop there. Throughout the year, there will be more opportunities to have your voice heard and influence the future of geocaching. There are a few ways to take part:

Take advantage of your Geocaching Premium sneak peeks and send us your feedback.
Sign up to participate in innovation games at the Geocaching Block Party and other Mega-Events.*
Watch the User Insights thread in the Geocaching Forums for opportunities to give feedback.
Sign up for Tips & Tricks to receive surveys about geocaching ideas and innovations.

We can’t wait to show you more of What’s Next for Geocaching, so stay tuned!

*More information about innovation games coming soon.

January 15, 2015 / Derek H

Epic Winter Adventure Awaits! – Georgia on my mind (GCV3AH) – Geocache of the Week

Get to the choppa! Err..I mean the cache!

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Geocache Name:

Georgia on my mind (GCV3AH)

Difficulty/Terrain Rating:

2.5/3.5

Why this is the Geocache of the Week:

All across the Northern Hemisphere, geocachers are braving colder temps in order to earn smileys, keep streaks alive and get outdoors. It’s difficult to stay stoked on geocaching while the weather isn’t ideal, so this week’s Geocache of the Week is a little bit of winter inspiration. Not only is it the first geocache in Georgia (the country), it’s nestled high-up on a mountain, ready for skiers and snowboarders to find it. The team that hid this geocache made their trip even more epic by working it into their heli-skiing adventure.

What geocachers are saying:

“Quite a quick find after some walk on a sunny day. The mountains here are wonderful! Hopefully I will be able to come back here in winter to snowboard a bit. Thanks a lot for the cache! Greetings from Latvia!” – Inez Rodriguez

“Great Cache! the view was amazing! First time in Georgia, but not the last one. Sun, skiing, and Geocaching. TFTC!” – KlizmaHH

“This is until now the most beautiful site of a georgian cache! And i’m happy to found it. It’s good to breath fresh air after much time in Tbilisi and Batumi. The cache is in perfect condition and don’t need any kind of maintenance!” – Gumpf