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 )
Explore geocaching at new heights! Watch “This is My Hobby – Rock Climbing and Geocaching.” Rock climbing offers a vertical dimension to an extreme geocaching adventure. Geocaches which require specialized equipment, like ropes and harnesses, are rated a difficulty five. It’s the highest difficulty rating. Rock climbing takes geocaching to the physical extremes. Have you ever logged a smiley on geocache which required rock climbing? Share your story in a comment below.
This is My Hobby - Geocaching and Rock Climbing
Premium Members of Geocaching.com can sort geocaches by difficulty and locate rocking climbing caches with ease. Explore membership options here.
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 60 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
Geocaching.com celebrates International Geocaching Day on August 18 by inviting the world to our backyard in Seattle, Washington. We’re hosting the 2012 Geocaching Block Party. It’s our annual Mega-Event that offers Groundspeak Lackeys and Volunteer Reviewers a chance to mingle with you and trade geocaching stories. Last year, more than 2000 members of the international geocaching family traveled from around the globe to attend the Block Party. Join us this year!
You’ll also experience geocaching hospitality. Challenge yourself with beginner, intermediate, and advanced geocaching courses. Entertain the kids with “pin the antenna on Signal” and design your own pirate hat. Explore the Seattle neighborhood where Geocaching.com is based and win prizes with “Fremont Funventures.” There will also be a few surprises!
Geocachers who attend the Geocaching Block Party can log HQ and receive the Block Party icon – all while swapping geocaching adventures. The Block Party might be just part of your visit. Local geocachers and organizations are also planning several geocaching events before and around the Geocaching Block Party, like the “Going APE…” Mega-Event.
Log your Geocaching Block Party “Will Attend” now for August 18 from 11am to 3pm in Seattle. We’ll see you then!
