July 23, 2013 / Derek H /

13 Years Lisboa — Bryan Roth’s Trip to a Portugal Mega-Event

Geocaching HQ staff are joining geocachers at Mega-Events around the world to celebrate and share the adventure of geocaching. One of the founders of Geocaching.com, Bryan Roth, a.k.a. Bryan, traveled from Seattle, WA to Lisbon, Portugal last June for the 13 Years Lisboa Mega-Event (GC42FFG). He says he was inspired to go by the exciting and growing Portuguese geocaching community and by other Geocaching HQ staffers who attended a Portuguese Mega-Event and raved about their experiences.

After arriving in Portugal, Bryan did what any geocacher would do—look for a geocache near the hotel. There was only one problem: the geocache description was in Portuguese. However, this didn’t stop him from searching. Luckily, Boonieh& Cllydeh, some super-friendly members of the Portuguese geocaching community showed up. They helped Bryan find his first geocache in Portugal and decided to attend the Mega-Event as well. With a geocache found, it was back to the hotel before meeting the Geocacherzone Portugal team for dinner and then a good night’s rest before the Mega-Event.

Fraldinhas, the Mega-Event's host. — Fraldinhas, the Mega-Event’s host.

The next few days brought tons of activities for geocachers from Portugal and many other countries around the world. In fact, the event gained so much popularity, there were a few stories on the local news channels about it. The Mega-Event host, Fraldinhas, with help from his parents, Xana and Nuno, and many volunteers, created an exceptional four-day event that included night caching, a Lisbon bus tour, a much-needed CITO Event (GC4BNP8), an awards ceremony, a traditional Portuguese singing group with a rendition of “Geocaching Portugal”, a number of meet-and-greets, “Bruning” with the local Geocaching Volunteer Reviewers, and (of course) plenty of geocaching. The awards, known as the “Seeker Awards”, were given out to geocachers in multiple categories, including Best Maintenance, Best Log, Best Cache and more. Bryan ended his trip with another Mega-Event Cache hosted by Fraldinhas, the Hike @ Belém, that featured a walking tour of a number of geocaches at historical places within Lisbon.

Bryan says, “It was truly an honor for me to attend this International Mega Event, spend time with so many exceptional geocachers and experience Lisbon, Portugal in such a unique way. I would thank all of the organizers for all the work they did to plan multiple days of fun geocaching activities for everyone that showed up. I also want to thank all of the geocachers who took the time to speak with me and make me feel so welcome in Portugal.” He would also like to give a special shout-out to Fraldinhas, Xana and Nuno for all of their guidance and support during his trip.

Check out some more photos from Bryan’s trip:

"Bruning" in Lisbon. It's kind of like planking, but on your back. — “Bruning” in Lisbon. It’s kind of like planking, but on your back.

The 13 Years Lisboa pinboard. Can you find Bryan's pin? — The 13 Years Lisboa pinboard. Can you find Bryan’s pin?

July 23, 2013 / Annika /

Geocaching Caption Contest 39 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

birdcaption — If I can get the bird a little closer I can read the coordinates for the final on his leg…

The best friendships are made on the journey to go geocaching. Who says friends have to be the same species? Tell us your funniest caption for this picture of a possibly exceptional friendship, like “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” You could even win a ‘barely coveted prize’ (emphasis on the ‘barely’) in the 39th Geocaching Caption Contest. This picture was discovered on the Recent Geocaching Log Images page. You can discover the 1000 most recent images from recent logs.

Submit your best caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your Geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore captions other geocachers have posted.

“Like” the caption that you believe should take home the barely coveted prize. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Geocaching HQ staff will vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.

Continue reading →

July 17, 2013 / Derek H

Meet the German Robin Hood. — Schinderhannes (GC23VXF) — Geocache of the Week

A geo-dog with Schinderhannes. Photo by geocacher Glaubensbruder

Throughout the world, many people have heard the tale of Robin Hood. In case you haven’t, here’s a quick recap: an expert archer and his gang of merry men live in the forest, steal from the rich and give to the poor. There have been many movies made and even more books written about him. However, for this week’s Geocache of the Week, we’re going to get to know a man who is sometimes known as the “German Robin Hood”, Schinderhannes. In fact, you’ll even come face-to-face with this German literary hero when you earn your smiley for (the aptly named) Schinderhannes (GC23VXF).

To find this difficulty 1, terrain 2.5 geocache, you’ll have to travel deep into the Hunsrück mountains in the Rhineland. This is the area that Schinderhannes and his gang were known to hide out. While he is now known as a literary hero, this wasn’t always the case. Before his death, he was merely known as a criminal. It wasn’t until afterwards that incredible tales of his life emerged and he became known as a gentleman thief and helper of the poor. These tales became more widely known with the 1927 premier of Carl Zuckermayer’s play Schinderhannes.

A close-up of Schinderhannes. Photo by geocacher jtdd.

While the story is interesting, the actual craftsmanship that went into the container is where this geocache shines. One look at one of the more than 2,200 logs and you’ll see why this geocache have over 1,200 Favorite Points. Geocacher BenTien says, “what a cache !!! Really amazing – never seen something like this. It must have been a lot of work to create this one, and get it here to this beautiful location. Definitely one of my top favorite caches, so another well deserved FP.” “Extremely good cache. I will gladly share a FP on this one. One of the best caches on the whole week,” said geocacher camdan.

You can tell from the photos of the installation, this geocache is the product of several geocachers coming together to create something amazing. If you’re looking to collaborate with other geocachers—on hides or finds—be sure to check out the Geocaching event calendar and our new “Events and Groups” tab on the Geocaching Facebook page. Have you ever worked together with your local geocaching community to create a geocache, solve a tough puzzle ‘cache or host an event? Tell us about it 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 or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would 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@geocaching.com.

July 17, 2013 / Eric Schudiske /

Announcing the June 2013 Geocacher of the Month

fredrikhast - Geocacher of the Month for June 2013 — fredrikhast – Geocacher of the Month for June 2013

Geocachers from around the world congratulated their nominees and shared the wonders they offer the greater geocaching community. This time, all three nominees joined in on the discussion. They thanked the other nominees and talked about how amazing the geocaching community is—we agree.

Geocachers proved that the most important lessons can be learned from each other, even if we’re divided by international borders, language, or culture.

The three nominees for the June Featured Geocacher of the Month make geocaching a more welcoming adventure by vlogging about geocaching, creating geocaching events, crafting coveted geocache hides, and more.

The Featured Geocacher of the Month is named by Geocaching HQ after reviewing community input and blog comments. After tallying the sentiment, fredrikhast is officially named the Featured Geocacher of the Month for June 2013.

One comment shows fredrikhast’s commitment to geocache quality, “His caches always got that little extra! Great places, amazing stories and a lot of work and love put into his caches makes you feel fantastic when you have logged a “fredrikhast-cache”! I also like to say that I really enjoyed the events Fredrik and his teammates arranged!”

Fredrik has also created a popular geocaching YouTube vlog.

Fredrik will receive the earned, never for sale, collector’s edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Featured Geocacher of the Month hat and a certificate acknowledging his contribution, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. See a list of all the Featured Geocachers of the Month here.

The earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin (sun flare optional)

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@geocaching.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:

Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Featured Geocacher of the Month

Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.

Congratulations again to fredrikhast for being recognized as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for June.

Meet some of previous Featured Geocachers of the Month

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cGOns2eBMQ]

July 16, 2013 / Eric Schudiske /

Results from Geocaching Get Outdoors Day

The official Geocaching Get Outdoors Day souvenir.

Congrats! Nearly 88,000 adventurers from around the world gave the couch a rest, and earned this Geocaching Get Outdoors Souvenir on Saturday July 13, 2013.

Keep the couch lonely – will you join the global geocaching community for 31 Days of Geocaching starting on August 1?

Geocaching HQ is along for the journey for a geocaching streak stretching 31 straight days. Staff from Geocaching HQ will be lining up to find geocaches for each day in August and sharing the adventure here on the blog. And there’s now a way you can share your journey.

Be part of 31 Days of Geocaching 1 second at a time. We’re creating the video 31 Days of Geocaching in 31 Seconds. Follow us on Instagram and tag us in your geocaching videos. We’ll chose one second from your Instagram videos each day for August to showcase all of 31 Days of Geocaching.

Psst… The final video will look something like this: http://vimeo.com/56599373 (but only 31 seconds, and with geocaching) And don’t forget to log your “Will Attend” to 31 Days of Geocaching on Facebook.