The world is invited to Groundspeak HQ in Seattle, Washington USA to celebrate the global phenomenon of geocaching. Check out the cache page, and log your “Will Attend” to meet geocachers from around the world and talk with the Lackeys and Volunteer Reviewers who help power the Geocaching.com experience.
Each year, Geocaching.com celebrates International Geocaching Day on the third Saturday in August by hosting the Geocaching Block Party. The Geocaching Block Party on August 18 runs from 11am to 3pm at Fremont’s Solstice Plaza by the JP Patches statue. Geocachers can challenge themselves with beginner, intermediate, and advanced geocaching courses. They can also explore the Fremont neighborhood where Groundspeak is based and win prizes with “Fremont Funventures”—all while swapping geocaching stories. The public is invited to explore the family-friendly adventure of geocaching and meet geocachers from around the world. More than 2000 people from a dozen countries attended last year’s Block Party.
Around the world, there will be nearly 200 events in more than a dozen counties. Anyone who logs a cache or an “Attended” for an Event Cache on August 18 this year earns the 2012 International Geocaching Day souvenir for their Geocaching.com profile.
Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
The world’s attention turns to London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games and geocaching will be there. Geocaches within one mile of the Olympic venues have been temporarily disabled out of an abundance of caution. However, geocaching will still help guide tourists and locals to reveal the rich history of the Olympics in London. New geocaches have been hidden at five key locations, outside the current Olympic venue zones. The locations are related to the 1908, 1948, and 2012 Olympic Games.
Geocachers headed to London for the Olympics can also select great caches from this bookmark list, which features 40 geocaches located at heritage sites around the UK.
You Refer a Friend, Groundspeak Donates $1 to Charity
July is the perfect month to introduce a friend to geocaching. You can open a world of adventure to a new geocacher and help raise money for two worthy causes. Through July 30, 2012, for each new member that you refer to Geocaching.com, we’ll donate $1 to charity. Take your friends out on the trail with you, send them the “tell a friend” email, share geocaching on your social network or shout about it from rooftops. The more people you refer, the more those in need receive, up to a total of $10,000 USD!
Please note that your friend needs to create an account (Basic or Premium), fill in the “referred by” field on the Geocaching.com account creation page, and log at least one cache between July 1 and July 30 to count as a referral! Check out our blog for more details. So far this month, you’ve raised more than $3,500. This year, the money will be split evenly between DonorsChoose.org and the Special Olympics.
Wendy Morrell’s life is marked by achievement. The active geocacher, Dorsetgal & GeoDog, just logged her 2000th find. The milestone marked another major life event. Wendy’s 2000th smiley came at a Flash Mob Event Cache. The event was organized to cheer Wendy on as she carried the Olympic Torch with her service dog Udo.
She wrote a note on the event page that helped explain a bystander who rushed through security to hug her, “Honestly, no matter how much I write I cannot explain how I felt today, it was truly emotional. So pleased that Udo took it in his stride, and seeing so many friends and family was amazing… The lady who managed to breech the security bubble and give me a hug was my 79-year-old Mum!”
Wendy’s journey to carry the torch for the 2012 Olympic Games in London began with a friend’s recommendation. The recommendation read, “An inspirational person who’s turned full circle, overcoming disability to become a math teacher, lecturer, pilot and a national standard archer, held two national records and was training to represent GB when a training accident caused a severe brain injury, when struck with a discus… She’s internationally known as an advisor on assistance dog matters. Wendy plummeted [into] the depths of despair following her brain injury, but now is the woman about town, tirelessly representing the needs of others.”
Wendy was chosen as an Olympic Torchbearer during the 55th day of the torch relay route. Wendy and her service dog, Udo carried the flame part way through the southern England city of Upton.
Wendy with her Olympic Torch and a little geocacher
Wendy says incorporating geocaching as part of her journey as a Torchbearer seemed natural, since geocaching has been such a significant part of her life, “As a brain injury survivor, I sometimes struggle with motivation and organisation, geocaching has helped me cope at times when life has been pretty hairy, and I’ve met some really fantastic people, and made lots of great friends. I may not be the fastest, or be any good at climbing mountains but I enjoy the diversity geocaching has to offer, I’ve found geocaches in 19 countries, including Russia and China and at the moment am joint first in the UK for US states visited.”
Wendy held a Geocaching event the day after she carried the torch. Geocaching friends from the US state of Minnesota traveled to the UK to be with Wendy on that day. She says the event was organized to, “give them (the US geocachers) the opportunity to meet some local geocachers and for folks to get to see the Olympic Torch up close!”
This is Wendy’s second opportunity to carry the Olympic Torch, admitting sometimes lightning strikes twice. She says, “My first experience of carrying the Olympic Torch was for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, I carried the Olympic Flame across London Bridge. I’d been nominated then as an ‘everyday hero’ in a contest run by a national newspaper, for campaigning for equality for disabled people. ”
Wendy carrying the 2008 Olympic Torch
You can watch a BBC story on Wendy’s journey to be honored as an Olympic Torchbearer twice. While lightning may not strike a third time, this cacher isn’t done with accomplishing geocaching feats.
Wendy helped organize the Geolympix Mega-Event in Oxford, England. You can visit with her at the event this weekend. She says, “I’ll be giving a presentation on accessible geocaching and holding one of the side events for GeoDogs!”
There’s more achievement ahead for Wendy. She says, “I’m due to complete my 366 day grid on July 24th and my 7th cachiversary is on August 15th!”
Leave a message here for Wendy, and if you’re at the Geolympix Mega-Event say hi!
What do the inventor of the Geocoin, one of the oldest cities in the world and a night time cycling tour have in common? They are all aspects of a unique Mega-Event known as Geocoinfest. Geocoinfest Lisboa 2012 (GC3N1YQ) takes place in just about three weeks in the capital of Portugal. It promises to be an exciting event and I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to attend.
This will be my fifth Geocoinfest Mega-Event I’ve attended and yet another opportunity to connect with the amazing community. I enjoy working with geocachers and Geocoins every day as part of my work at Groundspeak. I’m privileged to attend this event with my coworker Jon Stanley (Moun10bike), who plans to bring the very first Geocoin for all to discover.
Geocoins add a fascinating element to the game of geocaching for me and many others. Beautiful designs, unique icons, and the stories and pictures they collect as they move from cache to cache, or as they’re discovered in private collections, provide a fun experience for enthusiasts everywhere. I love walking around Geocoinfest events and seeing geocachers showing off the pride and joy of their personal collections to new friends and old. It always reminds me that the task of generating tracking codes (the unique set of numbers and letters that identify each Geocoin) at Groundspeak HQ has such a greater meaning than I realize on a day-to-day basis.
A dedicated event committee of over 50 Portuguese geocachers came together to organize this amazing event for Geocoin fans and collectors in a short amount of time. The committee is divided into eleven groups that cover the individual pieces that make up the Mega-Event. One of these organizers, António Casimiro (Acasim), explained that “A Geocoinfest event is a special Mega-Event, a themed event related to Geocoins. But in reality it is much more than that. It’s a gathering of people from many different countries, an opportunity to meet some Groundspeak Lackeys, famous Geocoin designers and producers, and many many Geocoin collectors and geocachers in general, who often carry their Geocoin collections to show around or to trade at the event.”
Along with viewing the latest and greatest Geocoin designs, I’m hoping to enjoy some of those other aspects involved with the event. Music, games, a flashmob, tasting local wines, attending an evening bicycle tour of Lisbon to discover the city, and of course finding geocaches! The organizers have done an amazing job putting the event together and I personally can’t wait to see their efforts in person.
Silva provides some great tips for those interested in attending the 2012 European Geocoinfest:
– Book travel and hotel as soon as possible, to get better prices (accommodation pointers are provided on the event website)
– Add your “will attend” log and register for the event, providing the requested information
– Look at the provided program and prepare your own schedule, to make the best possible use of time
– Periodically look at the event web site for news and updates
– Contact the organization in case you have any questions — everyone will do their best to help you!
Find more details for planning on the official event website. If you can’t make it to the European Geocoinfest, the annual US event (GC2XW58) is in the U.S. state of Colorado this October. Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 offers a similar experience in North America. Check out the official Geocoinfest U.S. 2012 website and register here.
The Geocache of the Week is not only rich in history and natural beauty, it is also a part of the Gold Country GeoTour.
Gold Country – The Painted Chasm (GC1TTW8) is rated a difficulty 1 1/2, terrain 2 traditional cache.
Placed in June of 2009, it is one of 72 Gold Country GeoTour geocaches. GeoTour caches are designed to showcase a destination with a tailored series of geocaches hidden at the destination’s points of interest. The Gold Country GeoTour directs adventurers to discover the region’s gold mining legacy.
Located in a remote area of southern British Columbia, Canada, the cache accumulated nearly 225 logged visits and 17 Favorite Points over the last three years. The cache sits along the 8km long painted chasm canyon, whose serene red, orange, pink, and purple colors have been forming for 16 million years.
Geocaching in Gold Country
The page provides detailed information about the history of the area, its natural beauty, and geological importance.
One adventurer logging the cache said, “This was one very special, very beautiful, very scenic, absolutely fantastic, most educational and truly memorable Geocaching trip. Yours to discover….Wish you were here.”
Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the world. 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.
