Geocaching.com Caption Contest 24 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

WINNING CAPTION: "Photographic evidence of Rapture Caching!" – Snoogans Geocacher

Exercise your caption writing wit and wisdom in the 24th installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. You could earn a barely coveted prize! What caption would you write? “Cache contains: Travel Bug®, rubber ball, and anti-gravity!” You can do better!

Barely coveted prize

Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions that other geocachers have crafted.

You can influence the voting. “Like” the caption that you think should win.  If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers to “like” your caption. Lackeys and fans of the Geocaching.com Facebook Page vote to decide the winner of the contest.

Click on the image to discover the winner of the previous caption contest

The winner receives a barely coveted prize from Groundspeak Headquarters. This contest the barely coveted prize is a Cache In Trash Out pin.

27 Lackeys and more than 450 Geocaching.com Facebook users voted to award the winner of the 23rd Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the previous Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

Explore all the past winners by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests.

ASP GeoBash 6 – “They Made a Cacher Out of Me…”

By gonzogrrl aka Sara

Team Wii two with gonzogrrl (far right)

My mother always tells me my life should be a book. I have simultaneously some of the best and worst luck.

This past weekend at ASP GeoBash 6 was a perfect example.

Just before I arrived at Allegany State Park in Western New York, I’d landed myself in the emergency room for a tandem bicycling accident. Nothing was broken, but my left arm turned an awkward shade of yellow and purple. Somehow, though, the good always outweighs the bad.

ASP Geobash was my first Mega-Event outside of Groundspeak’s Lost & Found Celebration, and I had the time of my life. Arriving on late Thursday to a wet and drizzly park, I unpacked my sleeping back at my cabin and snuggled up to the delightful sounds of wilderness and silence.

The ASP Committee members welcomed me on Friday and dismissed my offers to help. They had it all under control, so instead I colored in the sign to the shop next door to make it more visible, signed the “log”, otherwise known as a sheet, and waited for someone to arrive to go geocaching.

Allegany State Park

Before I knew it, lady luck struck. One of PaRacers’ caches had just been published in the park. Wii Two had a jeep, their Geocaching.com iPhone app, and were ready to go. “Can I ride with you?” I asked.

The Jeep was crowded, but we were fortunate to have a local newspaper photographer nearby who wanted to get some shots of cachers in action. The pictures were going to be used to publicize the event in that Saturday’s paper. I hopped in with her, and we dashed off together to the beautiful bridal falls at I’m Falling for You, with no one else in sight.

I was tempted to stand and gawk at the falls, as the rain had made them even more awe-inspiring, but we had a job to do. With our smartphones in hand, we headed toward the coordinates. Looking around in the woods, I went to the first place I would have hidden a geocache—and there it was! A shiny, untouched lock and lock with a crisp logbook inside.

The day continued without a hitch. I met up with f0t0m0m (Jim, you’ll have to ask him the story behind the caching handle) for some caching after sharing a nice lunch conversation. Together we went on my first ever numbers run, dashing around Bradford, PA. We chased after the 101 Dalmatians series and other caches well into the night, when I found my first night cache, too. After following the little reflective dots back into the woods to find 101 Damations #74, I was impressed by the accuracy and ease of the cache. I had always assumed night caches were extremely complicated, but the cache owner  wants you to have fun and find this one—worth a Favorite Point from me.

Al aka Dreadnaught

Day two was the biggest day of the event. Most of the 1,000 plus attendees arrived to sunshine and summer heat after over a week straight of rain. I ran into a group of laid back Canadians and their geo-kids that were about to head out on an adventure. But this day was not to be a numbers grab. Dressed in shorts and my Chaco hiking sandals, the Canadians laughed at me as we hiked through tall grass in the woods for find after find after find. Checking my numbers, I realized I was coming up on 100, and davetecsgirl was coming up on 2,500. “We should do it together!” she said.

gonzogrrl's 100th find and davetecsgirl's 2,500th find

With bggy leading the way, the whole gang headed out to Thunder Rocks II for one of the most amazing EarthCaches I have ever seen. The big, ancient Paleozoic rocks at the EarthCache are native bedrock that was deposited 325 million years ago. We stayed and played around, having fun guessing what the rock formations looked like, marveling at the trees that managed to grow up in the tiniest cracks between the rocks and watching as DAVTEC climbed to the top of the tallest one. If the gnats had not been attacking us at warp speed, I imagine we could have spent hours there, basking in the magnificent natural wonder.

I walked away from ASP GeoBash 6 with new friends, new finds, and some great experiences geocaching. If that isn’t lucky, I don’t know what is.

gonzogrrl with Canadian geocachers

 

 

 

Refer a Friend – Help Kids Learn about GPS

Karla

This is Karla. She is a student at a low income elementary school in Texas and a member of the after-school technology club, Tech-Click.

In 2009, Groundspeak was able to provide three GPS devices to Karla’s club through DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that connects teachers with donors to fulfill classroom needs.

These three GPS devices allowed Karla and others in her club to learn about latitude, longitude, spatial concepts and more. Karla sent us this letter to thank us for the donation:

Now, you can help others like Karla learn about GPS technology simply by telling people about geocaching. From June 1- 30, 2011, for each new member that you refer to Geocaching.com, we’ll donate $1 to DonorsChoose.org.

How it works:

  1. You introduce someone new to geocaching. You can take them out on the trail with you, send them our new “tell a friend” email, write a blog or simply shout about it from the rooftops.
  2. The person that you introduced to geocaching signs up for an account (Basic or Premium) between June 1 and June 30 and fills out the “referred by” field on the account creation page. (Make sure to give them your Geocaching.com username so that they can fill out this field.)
  3. He or she logs at least one geocache between June 1 and June 30.
  4. We give US $1 to GPS-related projects on DonorsChoose.org.

 

The more people you refer, the more money we can donate to classrooms in need, up to a total of $10,000 USD!

Teach your friends about geocaching and help provide students like Karla with the tools they need to have engaging learning experiences.

We will be providing regular updates on the number of referrals here on Latitude 47 and on Facebook. Thank you for helping!

We also wish our brother was as nice as you.

Cheers,

The Groundspeak Lackeys

 

 

Explore Canada’s Beautiful Parks by Geocaching during Canadian Environment Week

For the first time, Canadian Environment Week uses the GPS enabled treasure-hunt of geocaching to share the beauty of Canadian Parks.

The Canadian Environment Week geocaching contest runs from April 30 to June 11, 2011. During this time, geocaches containing a password can be found in National Parks, at National Historic Sites and on National Wildlife Areas throughout Canada. It’s an opportunity for geocachers to explore these areas and even have a chance to win prizes. Adventurers wishing to participate in the contest must collect a password from the selected geocaches and submit it on the Canadian Environment Week website. Contest participation and the password are not required in order to simply log your finds on any of these great caches.

Click here to view the bookmark list of the Canadian Environment Week geocaches that are listed on Geocaching.com, thanks to the Atlantic Canada Geocaching Association. A few others can be found through Environment Canada directly.

Even without prizes, geocaching during Canadian Environment Week is a great opportunity to explore Canada’s natural beauty. Canadian National Parks, National Historic Sites and National Wildlife Areas are located on the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts, across the interior mountains and plains and Great Lakes, reaching as far north and south as Canada goes!

Geocachers will enjoy the breathtaking scenery and inspiring natural surroundings of Canada. National Parks provide the perfect setting for tuning into nature, learning about it, appreciating it, respecting it and pledging to protect it. Celebrate Canadian Environment Week by doing just that, and don’t forget to CITO to help preserve the environment.

 

“Glaciar Perito Moreno – Patagonia” GC1JPHG GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – May 23, 2011

View of "Glaciar Perito Moreno - Patagonia

The search for the EarthCache “Glaciar Perito Moreno – Patagonia” (GC1JPHG) brings geocachers to a natural wonder of South America. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field represents the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water. To claim a smiley on this EarthCache adventurers must email the answers to two questions and a picture to the cache owner. Geocachers will only be able to find the answer to the questions if they’ve arrived at the coordinates on the cache page.

Glaciar Perito Moreno - Patagonia

Dutzig created the difficulty 2.5, terrain 2.5 cache in 2008. So far, nearly 80 geocachers have logged a “Found it.”

The cache page details the powerful potential of the “Perito Moreno Glacier.” Dutzig writes: “The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped “Lago Argentino” (“Argentine Lake”) forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by this mass of waters finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event.” The last rupture of the glacier was documented in July of 2008.

View inside the glacier

Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.