/ Eric Schudiske /

A Birthday Message from the Geocaching.com Founders – Geocaching.com Weekly Newsletter

Geocaching.com Turns 12-Years-Old

It’s been 12 years since Geocaching.com came to life on a home computer in the spare bedroom of a Seattle-area apartment on September 2, 2000. At that time, fewer than 100 geocaches had been hidden around the globe. Twelve years later, more than 1,000 geocaches are hidden by geocachers and published by volunteer reviewers each day.

The mission of Geocaching.com is, “To Inspire Outdoor Play through Location-Based Technology,” and for many people, Geocaching.com has grown from a website into a way of life.

The game of geocaching powers exploration and discovery, creating and enhancing the spirit of a community bound together through the love of outdoor adventure. It is simply amazing to consider the wide variety of adventures and experiences that have been created and shared on Geocaching.com by you, the geocaching community. Millions of lives all over the world have been changed in a positive way and this is just the beginning!

With your help as a global community of outdoor adventurers, we are determined to share the adventures of geocaching with the rest of the world. As a community, we’re growing up fast but staying young in our thinking. We’re striving to turn every location into an adventure and ‘wow’ our fellow geocachers with new ways to explore, share our adventures, and enhance the quality of our lives through geocaching.

At Geocaching.com, we’re honored to be part of the worldwide community of adventure-seekers known as geocachers. We invite you to join us on this journey for years to come. Now, get outside and play! It’s as easy as clicking here.

Happy Geocaching!

Jeremy, Elias, and Bryan
Founders of Geocaching.com

Explore the Trails and Win: The Superchips Ultimate Geocache Adventure!

You’re on a mission. Your goal is to help any of the 2,000 Superchips TrailDash Trackables reach the best outdoor and 4×4 related caches in the United States. Your mission could have an incredible reward that’s perfect for a serious 4×4 enthusiast. The Superchips Sweepstakes are giving away cool TrailDash Jeep® Programmers. Track the latest movements of these custom Trackables on the Geocaching.com Superchips page, and look for details on the Superchips Sweepstakes.

The Superchips “Explore the Trails and Win” sweepstakes is solely sponsored by Superchips and its parent PowerTeq Inc. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States (D.C.) 18 years and older. Void where prohibited. For beginning and end dates and other sweepstakes details, see Sweepstakes Official Rules on the Superchips website.

 

/ Eric Schudiske

A North of the Border Mega-Event Adventure

Lackey Nicole Bliss at Island Spirit 2012

Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Jen Smith aka J2B2, attended the Mega-Event Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) (GC349MK). The Mega-Event took place outside Westholme, British Columbia. Jen has served as a Lackey since 2006 and is Web Developer. Here’s Jen’s account of her adventure.

Lackey Jen Smith, aka J2D2

Written by: Jen Smith

On the weekend of July 7th, I was excited and honored to be one of two Lackeys representing Groundspeak at the Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) Mega-Event. While my fellow Lackey Nicole Bliss (Louie Bliss) is a Mega-Event veteran, I had never been to a Mega-Event outside of Seattle, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I had been to Canada once before, but it was so long ago that the only thing I remember from that trip is watching The Empire Strikes Back in French on the hotel TV.

Ferry to Canada

On Friday afternoon, I packed up my car and drove to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, WA. The mega was on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the heart of the Cowichan Valley. Though it’s only about 100 miles from Seattle as the crow flies, they are separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands, so unless you’re really good at swimming, taking a ferry is a must. And on a weekend of incredible sunny weather, there are few nicer ways to travel. In fact, the infamous Pacific Northwest rain was nowhere to be found. I was even able to find my first EarthCache along the way!

Saturday was the big day. Nicole spent the morning helping out at the registration tables, while I wandered around checking out the event. There were all kinds of interesting presentations and vendors to see, Trackables to discover, and of course, lots of geocachers to meet! It was amazing to hear how far many cachers had traveled just to attend – I talked to several who had come from as far away as Ontario and Quebec.

Island Spirit MILESTONE Wall

A major centerpiece of the event was the emphasis on local history and culture. From the beautiful Island Spirit logo (featuring a spyhopping orca against a backdrop of rolling evergreen hills) to the awesome performance by the Quw’utsun’ First Nations Dancers at the end of the day, the natural heritage of the Cowichan Valley was constantly on display.

Even some of the event challenges followed the theme. Cachers who successfully learned to identify Douglas fir cones, differentiate between male and female Dungeness crabs, and draw sea creature GPS art could earn pieces of a special puzzle Trackable. I really got the sense that this wasn’t just a geocaching event — it was also a celebration of a very beautiful and unique little corner of the world. Best of all, the legacy caches placed for the event will keep people coming back and rediscovering this incredible area, hopefully for years to come.

Geocachers are also welcome

The day closed out with a delicious group dinner and a comedy magic performance by featured Geocacher of the Month winner Magicman65. All in all, the event was a total blast and I can’t wait to go back to Vancouver Island for a longer visit. Major kudos and thanks go out to all the organizers and volunteers who made the day such a great success.

/ Adela B /

The Moeraki Boulders (North Otago) – GC124MY – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – August 27, 2012

The Moeraki Boulders

The Geocache of the Week takes us to a striking location. The New Zealand beach looks like a scene from a science fiction movie.

The Moeraki Boulders (North Otago) (GC124MY) is a difficulty one, terrain two EarthCache located just south of Oamaru, New Zealand.

Local Maori legend has it that the boulders are the remains of eel baskets, kumara (sweet potato), and calabashes (a long, squash-like melon grown on a vine) that washed ashore from the wreck of a large sailing canoe hundreds of years ago.

Scientists explain that the boulders were formed over the course of millions of years by a layering process similar to the formation of oyster pearls. The seabed was lifted to form coastal cliffs that have eroded over time causing the boulders to tumble onto the beach.

boulder with septaria cracks
The boulders are impossible to miss. Some are up to four meters (13 feet) in circumference and egg shaped.

Since the creation of the cache by tomsqrd in 2007, nearly 200 geocachers have logged a visit to this magnificent attraction, awarded it 30 Favorite Points, and shared an incredible 436 images.

One geocacher logging a visit writes, “What a great location to come to and explore! Really enjoyed the walk on the beach. It is quite amazing how spherical the concretions are. Thanks for an added reason to stop on my drive south!”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 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@groundspeak.com

From one boulder to another
/ Eric Schudiske

Geocaching.com Presents: How to Log a Geocache on Geocaching.com

(Click the ‘CC’ button to watch the video with subtitles in: English and German)

[vsw id=”FEQCBv56FiI” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Click on the image to watch the video

Watch this Geocaching.com video for easy tips on how to use logs to share the joy of geocaching and help increase the quality of caches. There are five different log types and a comments section for each. Your Geocaching.com logs are your chance to tell other cachers about a specific cache find, about an event you plan to attend, or even notify a Volunteer Reviewer that a geocache may need archiving.

Subscribe to the Official Geocaching.com YouTube channel for the latest tips and tricks in geocaching. Watch the more than 100 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Why You Should Log Your DNF’s – Geocaching.com Weekly Mailer

To DNF or Not To DNF?

Geocaching is full of codes and clues to decipher. You can offer other geocachers a clue about a cache before they even begin their search. When you log a DNF (Did Not Find), you’re telling geocachers that the cache may be more difficult to find than anticipated or may even be missing. You’re also letting the cache owner know that they may need to check if their cache container is still at the posted coordinates.

If you’re a geocacher who logged any of the 8,530,163 DNF’s posted to Geocaching.com so far, thanks from the geocaching community. It’s a small way to help ensure the quality of geocaching. So maybe DNF means more than “Did Not Find” — maybe it also means “Doing (the) Next (cacher a) Favor.”

Go to the official Geocaching.com Facebook page to discuss your thoughts on logging DNF’s.

International Geocaching Day Success

You did it! You made International Geocaching Day the biggest day in Geocaching.com history. More than 94,000 geocachers from around the world charged into the wilderness or perhaps walked casually down the sidewalk to find a geocache on August 18. A souvenir for the day could be earned by logging a “Found it” for a physical geocache or an “Attended” on an Event Cache. Thank you to all those cachers who organized the more than 250 events, including 3 Mega-Events, on International Geocaching Day this year.

International Geocaching Day is the third Saturday of August each year. Next year it will be commemorated on August 17, 2013