It’s a question geocachers face almost everyday on the geocaching trail, is that a geocache or log? Check out the image below of three logs and a stick. Do you best geocaching detective work. Can you crack the case?
Logs or geocaches??
To reveal the answers…
Just.
Scroll.
Down.
…
You’re.
Almost.
There.
The answers revealed! Are you a geocaching cache detecting superstar?
Did you guess right?
For a look behind the scenes at more creative geocache containers and ideas, visit Shop Geocaching and check out the Creative Geocaches video below. What is the most camouflaged geocache container you’ve come across? Tell us about it in the comments.
It’s a button that makes geocaching out of the country or in the deep prehistoric world of “no cell phone service” as easy as a Terrain 1, Difficulty 1. Whether you’re using the Geocaching Pro App for iPhone or theGeocaching Android App, this miracle of engineering simplicity is called “Save to Offline List.”
Use a Wi-Fi hot spot to load up your Offline List with geocaches. Then, turn off your data roaming and look under “Saved” on iPhones or “Offline Lists” on Android and SHAZZAM! Your geocaches are available, your phone isn’t using costly roaming data, and you’re saving battery life. You can sort the list by distance, Favorite Points, title, GC code or geocache type.
Another option for Premium Members is using a Pocket Query. For example, if you’re headed to the last remaining APE Cache in the jungles of Brazil, here’s what to do: create a Pocket Query (Saved List) of all the geocaches in that area on Geocaching.com and then save it on your phone as an Offline List when you have cell service. Another tip, make sure your phone is fully charged for your adventure.
Now you’re off into the wild with plenty of geocaches loaded up and ready to go.
Many of us know it: geocaching can be addicting. It can even make you go a little cache-crazy. Once you have your first “OMG! I found it!” moment, you’re hooked. For those of us in the geocaching community, we know the feeling. For other people who haven’t been introduced to the fun, it might seem like we’re a little nuts. This week’s Geocache of the Week celebrates all of the geocaching nuts throughout the world, because, like the geocache owner says, “After all, is there anyone nuttier than a geocacher?”
Nuts (GC41D4C) might seem like another creative looks-like-part-of-the-tree container, but it’s so much more than that. The geocache doubles as a functioning squirrel feeder, so don’t be surprised if you make a furry friend on your geocaching adventure. Also, it’s placed with permission and not in a way that harms the tree. Once you open the first door to the geocache, the fun begins. Geocachers must solve a moving-square puzzle in order to access the geocache. The geocache creators, Tattletales, tells the story of how this geocache came to be, “It took a full week to design and draw up this nutty cache, and another week to construct it. It’s a challenge to make caches ‘cacher proof’, but strangely enough, this one has never had a mechanical failure!” And regarding keeping this geocache in tip-top shape, they say, “I do spend time adjusting and repairing my caches. That’s why I plant them close to home.”
The puzzle. If you can’t solve it, you can always just eat some of the nuts out of the squirrel feeder part. Photo by Tattletales
The more that 200 geocaching nuts who have solved the puzzle and earned their smiley have awarded this geocache over 150 favorite points so far. They’ve also left many positive logs, like geocacher doogelah, who said, “I really enjoy this sort of cache, where the hunt isn’t too difficult, but the construction is top notch, and you have to engage your brain to finish the task. The first of several favorite points I’m going to award this evening. Thank you for putting such effort in to make caches that are worth a little extra drive!”
Regarding all of the positive logs and favorite points, Tattletales says “[We] are delighted with the posts we receive on our caches. The posts make it all worthwhile. Reading the posts in the evening is great fun for both of us. And yes, receiving favorite points is fun too!” And they have a piece of advice for the geocaching community: “Every cache has a value. They can be in an interesting place, have a fun factor, or just be somewhere that gets you out of your chair to do a bit of exercise.”
A creative geocache like this is the perfect example of the type of geocache that can turn a day-to-day geocacher into a geocaching nut. What geocache solidified your geocaching passion? 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.
The puzzle in action. Animation from this video by geocacher blucheez.
Geocaching is heading towards the International Space Station (ISS). All of geocaching? No, not all of it, but a very special little Travel Bug® named TB5JJN1 is tagging along with Nasa astronaut Rick Mastracchio on his mission to the ISS. Mastracchio will be using the Travel Bug as an educational tool to help teach students around the world about geography and geocaching. Mastraccio will Rocket into Space on November 7, 2013 (GMT). Every geocacher who attends a Geocaching Event on November 6 or 7, 2013 will be awarded a “Geocaching in Space” souvenir. In additional, Geocaching in Space Mission Patches will be sold, and proceeds will to the educational charity DonorsChoose.org.
Lindsey (flossinmatoof), Larry (apawinmyface), and Ciaran (Goldencircle)
This story begins with some high expectations. A chance meeting would lead to the statement, “Visiting HQ is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a long time, and as it turns out, the experience was crazier than I could have ever imagined.”
It all started on a typical Friday in the Seattle lobby of Geocaching HQ. We see the world come together in 500 square feet of solid, wall to wall, Geocaching . There’s a treasure chest, logbook and usually hundreds of Trackables coming and going. It’s Geocaching HQ after all. You hear languages like German and Portuguese spoken along side English and Spanish. People around the world find themselves visiting for an hour or so and meeting new friends. Rarely, extremely rarely- and let me not under sell this – maybe once or twice a decade, geocachers randomly stumble upon an old friend from another part of the world in our lobby.
Ireland Event Cache ‘Toof & Paw’s Jetlag Beater”
And it just happened again. As most stories like this do, this one begins with a Puzzle Cache in Ireland. Larry, username APawInMyFace, and Lindsey, username Flossinmatoof visited Ireland in August. Larry contacted Ciaran, username GoldCircle, for help on a Puzzle Cache. Well, you know, so many email flew across the Atlantic between the America and Ireland that an Event Cache was planned.
More than a dozen people welcomed the out-of-town guests from America. Ciaran and the American couple went their separate ways. Most stories end there. They might never have seen each other again, except for an intervening photo booth in the Geocaching HQ lobby.
Larry and Lindsay were visiting Geocaching HQ from Miami. Larry and Lindsay were visiting friends in Seattle that Larry hasn’t seen in three years. They’d just finish taking pictures in the Geocaching HQ photo booth. Larry placed the strip of photos in our scrapbook. He noticed a familiar face. That guy looked like Cairan, aka GoldCircle. It was GoldCirle. But he wasn’t at HQ.
Carly at the Geocaching HQ front desk, told Larry Cairan would be back in a few minutes. If that one connection would be missed, if a page would have been flipped in our scrapebook, if Larry visited from Miami one week later…. well, you get the idea. It. Was. Close. It was also significant. Cairan just happened to be in Seattle for business.
Photobooth pics reveal a startling discovery!
Geocaching HQ was Cairan’s 1000th find. Can you guess what Larry gave Cairan as a thank you gift for hosting the Event Cache in Ireland? Yeah – a 1000th Find Geocoin.
Larry says they could have never planned this meeting if they tried. Wow right?
That word, “wow” gets said a lot in the Geocaching HQ lobby. People meeting friends they’ve connected with a world away. Some reacquainted themselves with long lost Travel Bugs that ended up in the Geocaching HQ Treasure chest.
Larry wrote in the Geocaching HQ log, ” The ways in which the geocaching community can make our enormous world feel so small are indescribable, yet somehow, rarely surprising. Thank you for the truly unforgettable day and for the wonderful memories that we formed both in and around HQ.” Lindsey wrote in her log, “The world is an incredible place.” She’s right.
Geocaching HQ Lobby (the photo booth is in the corner)
That’s the thing about geocaching… you’re always welcome. Whether that’s at a geocache, at an Event Cache or at Geocaching HQ, you never know who you might bump into.
The question now might be where in the world will Larry, Lindsey and Ciaran connect again? We have a guess. The might randomly bump into each other while claiming the First to Find at this geocache.
What’s the strangest coincidence you’ve encountered geocaching? Tell us about it in comments below.
