Imagine a world built around all things geocaching. In this world traveling from “here” to “there” includes a customized list of your ideal geocaches. You choose which geocaches are on the list, including the cache types, sizes, and terrain and difficulty ratings. You even choose how far these caches are hidden from the road. If you’re a Premium Member, you’re in luck; this world exists today.
The Premium Member feature we’re talking about is called “Caches Along a Route.” It’s a custom search that pinpoints only the geocaches you’d like to find between Point A and Point B. A new route is easy to create and send to your GPS device. Premium Members also enjoy the benefits of Google Maps and can award and sort search results by Favorite Points. A Premium Membership costs as little as $2.50 a month, and it could turn your next road trip into an epic geocaching adventure. Explore Premium Membership now!
May’s featured nominees have climbed mountains and crossed borders to bring awareness to their favorite hobby. These brave, enthusiastic, and adventurous explorers may reside in different parts of the world, but they all share a love of geocaching.
Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as May’s Featured “Geocacher of the Month.”
Milosheart - April 2012 Featured Geocacher of the Month
Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these three geocachers you feel should be crowned.
Last month, Milosheart was chosen as the April Featured Geocacher of the Month. Milosheart was recognized for their ability to organize numerous geocaching gatherings, their hospitality, and for the success of geocaching in their community.
Here are your nominees for the May Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.
According to Team Monkeyboy, “when it comes to bravery and a sense of adventure, one husband and wife team definitely fit the bill; the iphone.cachers from Galena, Ohio.” Michael and Angela “will drive hundreds of miles for the sole purpose of grabbing a single leg of a Multi-State geocache, or defy a blazing lava flow from Mount Kilauea. These cachers are always up for the challenge because they love this hobby. Life has thrown iphone.cachers more than their share of surprises. In September of 2011, Mr. iphone.cacher was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and has since been fighting a brave battle. This amazing pair and their family are an absolute inspiration. They have managed to seize every adventure and are not slowing down, despite life’s obstacles.”
Nominated by cornishcay, One-Y Lee, a.k.a. kinglee, “is someone who never stops contributing to the geocaching community to keep the spirit and passion alive, especially in Asia, where we do not have a very large community of geocachers. One-Y started geocaching in Singapore many years ago, and even after moving to Hong Kong, his commitment to introducing this wonderful hobby to many new friends and keeping it alive for existing geocachers is absolutely amazing. He has organized geocaching activities in different parts of Hong Kong almost every weekend. Now, most local geocachers need not worry what to do during their weekend. One-Y hasn’t stopped there. He also organized trips to nearby countries like Thailand, China, and Macau for geocachers who are so keen to add additional countries to their statistical map. He raised so much awareness about this hobby that he was even featured in the local newspaper.”
Nominated by luisyopr, Lourdes, a.k.a. lulusoy, “is one of the most active geocachers from the island of Puerto Rico. ‘Lulu’ has managed to organize our very first official CITO event that was held in Puerto Real, Cabo Rojo. Lulu runs a podcast, called Cache D Island every two weeks. She loves to talk about anything and everything geocaching-related. Beginner geocachers can learn so much from her. She will guide them through everything until they have fallen in love with the hobby. Lulu also loves to explore new places and do new things. She and her crew organize different geotrips to various places across Puerto Rico. She is a great representation of an enthusiastic geocacher.”
Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured May Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and a certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for May’s award through Monday, June 18th.
Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher and would like to nominate him or her to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com.
Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin
Every nomination must meet the following requirements:
Please include your name, the name of your nominee, their username, at least one picture of the nominee and a description (500 or fewer words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month. Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award. Nominations for the June Geocacher of the Month must be received by Monday, June 25th.
Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top three 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 we might learn from each other.
Whoever said that good things are hard to come by, hasn’t searched for the Sounds of the Bay (GC30CB) geocache on a jetty in the San Francisco Bay.
Listen closely, because this difficulty 2.5, terrain 1 traditional cache is surrounded by a wave-activated acoustic sculpture, called the Wave Organ, and it’s calling out to geocachers.
The small size cache container found somewhere on the jetty was placed by Surfcal in January of 2002. Over the last ten years, more than 1950 geocachers have logged this cache and helped make it one of geocaching’s most visited sites.
Wave Organ Pipes
The jetty itself was constructed with used building materials. There are 25 organ pipes made of PVC and concrete located at various elevations within the jetty, which stretches into the water. The rise and fall of the tide creates a wave-powered symphony as water moves in and out of the pipes.
With more than 180 Favorite Points, this cache is just as easy on the eyes as it is on the ears. With views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Exploratorium – an arts and science center, and Alcatraz – a notorious prison island, it’s easy to see why geocachers are in for a treat.
As one logger put it, “Way cool! Music to my ears and then some, primitive yet spiritual in nature and soothing to the soul. Thanks for bring us here, we may never had known about it otherwise. This is what makes caching a great hobby.”
The cache at Sounds of the Bay
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’d 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.
WINNING CAPTION – I know the hint said the cache was in a ‘breathtaking spot’ but this isn’t quite what I was expecting. –catflowers
Ever had a geocaching day like this? Enter your most creative caption for this picture to win a ‘barely coveted prize’ in the 34th Geocaching.com Caption Contest. This picture was originally posted on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page. Special thanks to geocacher Arjan Voskamp for use of the picture.
Barely coveted prize
What caption would you write for the picture at the top of this post? Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your Geocaching.com username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.
You’re encouraged to try to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.
Click the image to find the winning caption to the previous contest
The winner receives this month’s vintage ‘barely coveted prize.” It’s all the collectable pieces of the 2011 Geocaching Block Party Challenges course. Join us this year for the 2012 Geocaching Block Party in Seattle, Washington.
More than a dozen Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 33rd Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image to your right to read the winning caption of that contest.
Explore all the winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.
Geocachers from Foundation Fitness competing in the Wild Canyon Games Geocaching Event. The circle highlights a helicopter
Four geocachers finally stood atop the rock covered peak of a desert vista. The geocachers could see the horizon stretch out before them for miles. Geocaching.com Lackeys Colin Williams (Colin) and Jenn Seva (MissJenn), accompanied by two other geocachers, climbed high enough to look down on the flight path of an observation helicopter.
Logging a geocache near the Wild Canyon Games venueLackey Troy Kaser running in the Triathlon
There were no homes to be seen. They squinted to even find a road. But hidden on the largest geocaching course in the world – 55 square miles – 450 geocaches waited in crevasses and cracks, bushes and trees, to be discovered. Colin and Jenn were part of one of two Geocaching.com teams competing in the Wild Canyon Games. The Wild Canyon Games is a team-based adventure race competition.
Colin and Jenn’s GPS coordinates told them a geocache was somewhere on that peak. They teamed up with other geocachers to find it. Geocaching is just one event in two days worth of adventure games.
In the geocaching event hundreds of competitors had four hours to accumulate the most points – by logging geocaches and recording the unique codes inside. Each geocache carried a point value based on its difficulty, terrain, and distance from the start.
Lackeys Annie Love and Nicole Bliss ready to download waypoints for the Geocaching Event
The course crawled with more than 600 geocachers. Teams plotted strategy to unlock the geocaching route they believe would deliver them the most points. They raced the clock.
Nearly 130 teams from the Pacific Northwest of the United States competed in the games.
Lackey Ernesto Ricks after riding the bike course
Colin says they had to take the long detour to try to find just one cache – to help even the playing field, “Sure, we climbed the highest mountain in the area. If we spent the whole time geocaching it would have been unfair to the rest of the field.”
Lackeys helped the rest of the field prepare for the event. The Lackey teams assisted competitors by downloading the waypoints on GPS devices and offering GPS device training before the geocaching event began. Groundspeak’s two teams of seven also competed in an Olympic length relay triathlon and a seven stage relay which included, among other obstacles, a 50 foot canyon swing, an elevated ropes course, and a zip-line.
Lackeys MissJenn and Colin pointing the mountain they climbed
Lackey Annie Love (Love) completed the zip line safely. But she says, her fate seemed a little unsure at the top of the tower, “As I was about to step off the Zip Line platform, I had a quick thought of ‘OMG, I am going to die!!’ and then I thought to myself ‘My team needs me.’ and I leaped off.”
The weekend wrapped up with a team relay race called Creek to Peak that features Cyclo-Cross, an obstacle course, a lake sprint swim, two mountain sprints, and much more.
But for Lackeys like Constance Baldwin, it was the geocaching that defined the weekend. She says, “Geocaching brought us together in sometimes adverse terrain and we cared for each other. It was extremely profound for me personally and made me love the game and Groundspeak and what we do even more.”
Wild Canyon Games 2013 is already being planned for next year. When asked by the emcee of the event, “Are you coming back next year?” Lackey Bethany Buer simply said, “Duh!” And we hope to see you there.
A special thanks to the Wild Canyon Games organizers and Paul Tannahill (Pablo Mac) and his team for preparing the geocaching course.
Geocaching.com Teams at the Wild Canyon Games (not pictured Lackey Volunteers Cathy Hornback and Tom Phillips )
Imagine a world built around all things geocaching. In this world traveling from “here” to “there” includes a customized list of your ideal geocaches. You choose which geocaches are on the list, including the cache types, sizes, and terrain and difficulty ratings. You even choose how far these caches are hidden from the road. If you’re a Premium Member, you’re in luck; this world exists today.
