Start plotting your crafty strategy, rally your friends and prepare for a month of geocaching like no other. August is being celebrated by geocachers around the world as the “31 Days of Geocaching.” Find a geocache, log a “Found it” (or an “Attended” for an Event Cache) and earn a unique calendar-style Geocaching souvenir for each day in August. That’s 31 souvenirs up for grabs.
Warming up for this month-long geocache fest will take more than planning. It’ll take practice. You can get ready for the 31 Days of Geocaching by earning the Geocaching Get Outdoors Day souvenir. You’ll only be able to earn it on this Saturday, July 13. The same rules apply. If you log a “Found it” or an “Attended” on July 13 you earn the souvenir seen in this newsletter for your Geocaching profile.
The official Geocaching Get Outdoors Day souvenir
To prepare for this epic challenge, you should tap into some expert advice. Check out the Top 8 Tips for Maintaining Your Geocaching Streak post on The Geocaching Blog about planning for your geocaching streak. Spread the word about the 31 Days of Geocaching to your friends by attending the event on the Geocaching Facebook page. And keep watching the Geocaching Weekly Newsletter for more details about the August adventure, 31 Days of Geocaching.
The month of August has a new name: the 31 Days of Geocaching. You’ll have the opportunity to earn a calendar-style souvenir for every day you find a geocache—that’s 31 new souvenirs just waiting for you. Plus, find a geocache on July 13 and you’ll get the special Geocaching Get Outdoors Day souvenir as well.
Here’s your challenge: complete a full, month-long geocaching streak during August and earn all 31 souvenirs. It might sound easy, but maintaining a geocaching streak takes hard work, dedication and—above all else—motivation. Here are a few tips from geocaching experts to make your 31 Days of Geocaching streak a success:
1. Plan ahead
This tip is #1 for a reason. Having a geocaching plan makes keeping a streak alive much easier. Spend a few days before you begin your streak to draw up your plan. Try to think about if there will be any days where snagging a ‘cache will be more difficult than others. Having a plan will help eliminate surprises and keeps you on top of your streak.
2. Work Geocaching into Your Day
Going to work, picking up groceries, walking the dog—these are all great times to earn a smiley. If there are places you visit on a semi-regular basis, varying the route may open up possibilities for quick finds. Simple geocaches can take a little as 10–15 minutes to find, so taking a short detour during your day won’t take up too much time and will knock out one more find.
An easy lampost geocache, perfect for geocaching streaks.
3. Learn to Love the Easy Stuff
D1/T1 geocaches aren’t always crowd favorites, but when you’re working on a streak, the simple geocaches are your best friends. Save the multis and epic puzzles for non-streaking days, unless you just like the extra challenge.
4. The 11:30pm, 12:00am trick
This one is simple: find a geocache at 11:30pm, wait a half hour, then find another geocache. Boom. That’s two days down in less than an hour. Warning: Before you use this method, double check the recent activity to make sure your 11:30 geocache is there. If it’s missing or you can’t find it, you could accidentally end your streak.
5. Save the Easy Finds for Last
Your first impulse might be to find all the easy, nearby geocaches first. But wait! Saving the easy, nearby geocaches allows you to have alternatives just in case something comes up or you don’t have a lot of time to travel.
6. Skip the FTFs
If you receive notifications for new geocaches, you’re going to have to fight the urge to nab the FTF, especially if it’s nearby. Just like in tip #5, leaving several easy, nearby geocaches unfound gives you some backup options.
Geocachers benandjayme on the final find of their 500-day geocaching streak at the summit of Mailbox Peak, WA.
7. Find a Partner
Just like geocaching any other day, it’s always more fun with a friend. With geocaching streaks, having someone to go with will help maintain motivation and give you both some accountability.
8. Plan Your Final Geocache
Make the final geocache of your streak something awesome. It will give you something to look forward to and give your geocaching streak an epic send-off.
Tell Us Your Tips
Have you ever done a geocaching streak? If so, leave your tips for maintaining a streak in the comments below. Happy geocaching!
Watch The Geocaching Blog for more details on Geocaching Get Outdoors Day on July 13 and the 31 Days of Geocaching in August. To earn a souvenir in both promotions you must log a “Found it” or an “Attended” on specific days, July 13 and each day in August.
Posing with the four men in the mountain. Photo by geocacher FrogJoeyDuring the construction of Mount Rushmore.
On this day in 1776, the United States of America formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which declared independence from Great Britain. While this holiday is most often celebrated with barbecues, fireworks and get-togethers, we think finding this week’s Geocache of the Week would make a great addition to any Independence Day celebration. Granite Rushmore (GC33JW4) is an Earthcache placed by geocacher csr212 located at Mount Rushmore, where the faces of four United States Presidents have been carved into the side of a granite mountain.
The four presidents included in the Mount Rushmore sculpture are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are two of the four Founding Fathers of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt is noted for his progressive ideologies, conservation efforts and unique personality. Abraham Lincoln was President during the American Civil War and is credited with abolishing slavery.
Earning your smiley for this difficulty 1.5, terrain 1.5 geocache isn’t as simple as just visiting this national monument. Those wanting to find this geocache will have the option to post a photo of yourself at the location and are required to answer a few questions about the history of the sculpture, as well as the rock it’s carved into. So far, this Earthcache has earned numerous Favorite Points and plenty of positive logs. Geocacher DevoeAM4 wrote, “On our way to Alaska from DC and this was an obvious stop. First time here and we went for both the lighting ceremony during the night and during the next day and we’ll be back for sure. Pictures just don’t do it justice. Thanks for the great cache!”
Maybe the next addition to the monument? Probably not, but a GPS enthusiast can dream. Photo by geocacher goodguys101
Another positive log comes from geocacher elvira_crew, who says, “On our way from the Badlands to Yellowstone we had to make a little detour to visit this famous monument. We had seen it in films and in pictures, but in reality it is much more impressive. It was interesting to read some facts about its history in the visitor center. Thank you for this interesting earth cache.”
Historical places and monuments make for incredible and interesting geocaches. What’s your favorite geocache that’s placed near a monument in your country? 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.
The earned, never for sale, Geocacher of the Month geocoin (sun flare optional)
From vlogging about geocaching, to geocaching events, to coveted geocache hides, the nominees for Featured Geocacher of the Month offer a custom-made welcome mat to new geocachers. They help craft unforgettable experiences. This is your opportunity to help name the Featured Geocacher of the Month.
Each Featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, hat and profile icon. They’ll also receive a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.
In May, OHMIC was named the Featured Geocacher of the Month. OHMIC has been geocaching since 2008. One geocacher who commented about OHMIC wrote, “He has hosted many training sessions for new cachers and he has also organized numerous caching events. OHMIC’s annual Cache the Marsh event is a favourite of new and seasoned cachers alike, and is renowned around Manitoba.”
OHMIC – Geocacher of the Month May 2013
Now it’s your turn to help us select the next Featured Geocacher of the Month. Write a supportive comment at the bottom of this blog for the geocacher you feel should be awarded the title.
Each geocacher named below is already a winner. They will receive a prize package from Geocaching HQ. A panel of folks from Geocaching HQ will then use your comments to help guide the decision of which geocacher is awarded the Geocacher of the Month honor.
Here are your nominees for the June Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
Cache Cracker Jacks – Nominees for May Geocacher of the Month
Logan Childress, aka altosaxplayer, writes, “I would like to nominate Cache Cracker Jacks from Kingsport, TN… In the 14 months since they started caching, Tom and Dori have found over 1200 caches and placed 83 for others to find, a good portion of which are custom created containers…as well as an area favorite “Excalibur” which has so far received a favorite point from each cacher who has logged it.
They have introduced several individuals to the sport, chiefly through their weekly volunteer work at geocache friendly Bays Mountain Park, the largest city-owned park in the state of Tennessee, and their new monthly event initiative. So far in 2013, they have held an event each month except February, with the events for the rest of the year already planned and soon to be listed on the website. They work with local restaurants for hosting the events to bring cachers to places they perhaps haven’t been before and to support our local businesses.
They are doing this in hopes of fostering a feeling of family in our geocaching community as well as attracting non-cachers to the sport.”
Jenny Nordqvist, aka jempas.se, writes, “I’d like to nominate the Swedish geocacher fredrikhast for Geocacher of the month! … Not only does he hold the record for most favourite points in his town, he also holds the 1st place in the entire state.
Numbers aside, Fredrik and his geocaching buddies in Team Cache Us If You Can frequently organizes events with elaborate themes, jam packed with fun stuff and breathtaking hides.
Fredrik often uses multimedia to enhance the experience for geocachers visiting his geocaches, whether it’s a trailer promoting the cache itself or building websites that expand the universe for the cache. It’s stuff like that that makes you want to log a cache twice! 🙂
As a father of a child with mental disabilities, I know he tries to put out hides to satisfy all types of geocachers, including the ones in a wheelchair.
Another thing Fredrik does for the geocaching community is vlogging about his geocaching adventures (Swedens only, in fact). I bet his videos are a big inspiration for beginners who just found out about this sport and go searching for info on Youtube!”
RAVILLOIS nominates French geocachers Bitzlav for Featured Geocacher(s) of the Month. The couple has been geocaching since 2009. RAVILLOIS writes in French, “Bitzlav est connu en France, Lorraine, pour l’ingéniosité de ses caches. Au delà du nombre important de caches qu’il possède il rend le géocaching encore plus attrayant car il imagine sans cesse de nouvelles boites. Faire des caches de Bitzlav est devenu un sport national chez nous. Malgré tout, il a su rester modeste.
ENGLISH: “Bitzlav is known in France, Lorraine, for the ingenuity of their geocaches. Beyond the large number of geocaches, they have made geocaching even more attractive because they are constantly imagining new geocache containers. Finding geocaches by Bitzlav has become a national sport here in France. Nevertheless, they still remain modest.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the June Featured Geocacher of the Month. We will be accepting comments through July, 17.
If your nominee wasn’t recognized here, please submit your nominations again next month. We’re always looking for the next Geocacher of the Month. To nominate a geocacher, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@geocaching.com and include the following information:
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 the next Featured Geocacher of the Month should be received by July 15.Once Geocaching HQ has received the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so that we might learn from each other.
GeoTours are specifically designed to turn your next vacation, day trip or geocaching expedition into an extraordinary adventure. Locals in each destination pick out the best places to hide new geocaches, including historic sites, parks, cities and more. Some GeoTours showcase special themes, like the Taking Flight GeoTour, which reveals the wild spaces and bird life of Florida, or the Cateran Trail GeoTour, which takes you along the trail of ancient cattle thieves in the Highlands of Scotland.
There are more than two dozen GeoTours online right now and more will deliver geocaching adventures near you soon, including new GeoTours launching in Bermuda and the Mediterranean. Visit the GeoTours page and start planning your next trip today.
