Geocaching.com and the Geocaching apps will be temporarily offline on April 8. We’re adding horsepower and beefing-up* Geocaching.com and our apps. They’ll both be much more stable after the upgrade. The site outage is expected to run about six hours starting at about 2pm PDT (convert to your local time here).
Yeah, you read that right. Apologies, six hours is a little bit of time right? So, during that time you have a two-part assignment, if you choose to accept it. Step 1: Load up your Pocket Queries and offline lists so you can still go geocaching. Step 2: Use that time to get inspired to “make” an amazing geocache. Check out this blog post with all you need to know.
Geocachers who attended one (or more!) of the 900+ events held around the world during Maker Madness, gained a glimpse into the inner-workings of the crazy-creative minds of geocache makers. They learned how to make clever hides, like camouflaging a container to look like a rock or tree or set up the ultimate Multi-Cache.
A few of these great geocaching minds agreed to share the secret sauce behind their coolest creations with us. So yeah, please DO try these at home.
foggis a geocacher from Schallstadt, Germany known for his ingenious hides. To make Geocache on the Rocks, Fogg utilized a little thing called “physical computing.” Take a look at what geocachers have to say about this geocache:
rabbitredux: TFTC! What a truly amazing cache. I have never seen anything like it before!
BiblioMo: I thought I’d seen it all in Geocaching until today. WP1 was extremely cool and ingenious.
WVTim is a geocacher from West Virginia who has racked up an impressive 5100 Favorite Points. He’s known for his gadget style hides, like a SHOCKING Cache. Here’s what geocachers are saying:
smitfam4: Another clever cache, my kids don’t understand how you come up with these ideas.
wants to fly: Very nicely done. Impressive workmanship.
benandjayme: What a fantastically fun idea for a cache! We had a great time retrieving the cache with our co-workers. There was dancing, singing, worm admiring, and log signing! Thanks for bringing us here and sharing your creativity!
This week we’re continuing our theme of games in geocaches with this amazing creation that resides in Hong Kong. While last week required you to play a game before you left home, this multi-cache integrates the game right into the middle of the find. In order to get the coordinates for the final stage, geocachers have to play a few rounds of the classic Snake game. The time, effort and technical ability that went into creating this geocache is a perfect example of what geocaches can be when a geocache maker puts their mind to it.
“My favourite part of Geocaching is to read the logs of people finding my contraptions…I have been trying to push the limits of cache making right from the start. I guess I was inspired by some really cool caches in Hong Kong and wanted to see how far I can go with some ideas (and believe me, I have so many more ideas – the only limit is time…)”
What geocachers are saying:
“Wish I could unload all my favorite points on a brilliant cache like this! This is truly a world-class grade cache! Thanks for making this one-of-a-kind cache! You really are the maker master. Therefore decided to find this cache on the Maker Madness event day in order to pay my respect to owner!”– samshlau
“Yay!!! This cache is def going to my fav list!!! Such an interesting journey leading to the final cache. Much impressed by the craftsmenship n system integration ability. The theme was carried out thru-out the whole hunt. We spent much time with the game but it’s all worth it for the final gz.” – monki322
“We screamed loud as we reached final GZ. It’s terrible but terrific!! Such an amazing cache with careful planning and meticulous preparation! Million thanks to cache owner for giving me such pleasure!…It’s definitely my favourite cache so far!!!” – chungtao
Get ready to play GeoSnake! Photo courtesy of geocacher CX15GeoSnake in its beta testing phase. Photo courtesy of geocacher CX15Think you can beat it? Only one way to find out… Photo by geocacher samshlau
What game would you like to see integrated into a geocache? Tell us 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, leave a comment below with the name of the geocache, the GC code, and why you think we should feature it.
Editor’s Note: Staff from Geocaching HQ in Seattle are visiting more than 30 Mega-Events around the globe this year to shake hands, share stories and hear what you think is next for geocaching.
Geocacher “Dark Star” and Katie meet a new friend at the Mega-Event (okay, it’s a squirrel)
By: Katie Barker
It was my first time traveling to Texas and it definitely lived up to my expectations! Known as the “friendship state”, Texans showed me that geocaching friendship we all know and love the moment I arrived at the Friday Night Meet & Greet in the small town of Bastrop. Geocachers from near and far traveled many miles to attend the weekend’s festivities and I was feeling lucky to spend my time with such a great group of people. Here’s a little re-cap about my weekend in Texas. If you’ve never attended a Mega-Event, here’s what you can expect.
I was up bright and early on Saturday on a mission to complete the Lab Caches. Jana Fite, (cybercat) a long time geocacher and event organizer, created a series of 7 Lab Cache locations from the historic district of Bastrop to Smithville highlighting the most interesting businesses in the area. Each location had a unique experience like exploring the largest bronze foundry in the state of Texas or sampling bottled Texas rainwater at Texas Rain. I couldn’t help but giggle when we ended up at Berdoll Pecan Farms where we found a giant squirrel! A big special thanks to TxDiva and Dark Star for showing me around.
Halfway through the Lab Caches I made a quick stop at the Bridge Spittin’ Ceremony! Who knew that spitting over a bridge was a long time tradition in Bastrop? I do now! The kayakers in the river below had to stay back a little ways as the 200+ geocachers leaned over to spit all at the same time. It was an experience I will never forget to say the least.
PPanther and grumpoldtexan at the CITO
I headed back to the 12th Annual Texas Challenge after lunch to watch the challengers come racing in with their completed score cards. The competition was fierce and I must congratulate North Texas on taking home the win! I also got to meet Jenny Mills, the host of the Birthplace of Texas GeoTour. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try any Blue Bell ice-cream, next time!) I was overwhelmed with joy from all the compliments and positive feedback geocachers gave about the GeoTour. Keep up the good work in Washington County.
The weekend was packed with fun activities, but it wouldn’t be complete without a quick Texas Challenge CITO on Sunday along the Colorado River before heading to the airport (with a stop at Buc-ee’s, of course). Thanks to all the organizers for hosting a great fun-filled geocaching experience.
My favorite part of the weekend was hearing everyone’s stories, from PPanther’s prank (check out her profile page, it’s quite impressive) to the 254 county challenge. Thanks for making me feel at home Texas geocachers!
If thisDNF Pride video you’re about to watch was located at a set of exact coordinates, and disguised in a geocache container, it’s unlikely the man being honored would ever discover it. This April 1, we honor a geocacher who sets a proud example for other adventurers to follow. It’s a simple, easy-to-follow, statement: DNF Pride. Chosen as a Geocacher of the Month, Dean F, logged more Did Not Finds than anyone in history. He further logged exactly zero finds. His partner, Eftie F, and their geocaching friends created a special event to honor Dean F’s accomplishment. Watch this new video to find out what happened next.
Geocaching.com and the Geocaching apps will be temporarily offline on April 8. We’re adding horsepower and beefing-up* Geocaching.com and our apps. They’ll both be much more stable after the upgrade. The site outage is expected to run about six hours starting at about 2pm PDT (convert to your local time here).
