November 9, 2012 / Adela B /

November Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

The November Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees provide their geocaching communities with a little TLC (tender loving care). They maintain for their own hides, but they are always willing to lend a helping hand with geocaches that are not their own. These geocachers are dedicated to doing whatever they can for their geocaching community from donations, to homemade swag, to their time.

October Geocacher of the Month, TeamAstro

Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for November.

Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be crowned The Featured Geocacher of the Month.

Last month, John, a.k.a. TeamAstro was recognized for creating the Solar System series of caches in South Australia. This series of caches is the world’s largest scale model of the Solar System. John is famous for his creative hides and is the proud owner of the most ‘Favorited’ cache in South Australia. John is also an important part of the South Australian geocaching community, and is known for his friendliness and eagerness in helping out new cachers.

Here are your nominees for the October Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

cschooner

AZClaimjumper writes, “when you go a looking for a cschooner cache, you’re in for fun and adventure far beyond anyone’s imagination.” Al, a.k.a. cschooner “is relatively new to geocaching. However, the creativity of his caches is what makes geocaching such a fun and memorable outdoor adventure each and every time I go looking for one his caches. His hides are very creative and Al takes pride in providing timely cache maintenance, if a cache, or a part of a cache is logged by a fellow geocacher as missing. Take note of the number of ‘Favorites’ that Al’s caches have accumulated before you go looking for them. Almost 60% of all log entries haven given Al’s caches a ‘Favorite’ point. If you are visiting Phoenix, do a search for cschooner to see if one of his caches has been hidden nearby. Trust me, it will be a memorable adventure. A Travel Bug has just been put into circulation in honor of Al as my way of saying ‘thanks’ for all the fun-filled adventures his creative hides have given me.”

OF-Erad

Nominated by TheBergstromClan, Erik, a.k.a. OF-Erad “is an amazing individual and fun cacher. Erik is always up for a caching jaunt and will go out hiking, hit a power trail, or crawl through tunnels all in the name of finding another cache with friends. He recently ended his cache-a-day streak of over 500 days because he was caring for a friend who needed some support. He gave the friendship priority over getting one more day in his streak. OF-Erad also adopted one of the toughest tunnel caches and then completely revamped it, rescuing it from the clutches of raccoons and other muggles in the process. Erik is a selfless cacher. Even though he had a long caching streak going, he still managed to always put other cachers in the group before himself. As he told me on multiple occasions, ‘I only need one cache to keep my streak going. Let’s go get the caches you want to get.’ The puzzle caches I’ve placed in Aurora were placed using knowledge acquired with Erik’s help. He is mostly interested in making the great game of caching more interesting, more exciting, and more fun for kids of all ages.”

balkamper13

Cacheseekers! writes, “Not only is Ted [a.k.a., balkamper13] the Elvis of the caching world, he is just a darn good person. He has introduced and help countless novice cachers become caching addicts. He has lent out his GPS to new cachers, spent numerous hours teaching his secrets, and invited new cachers on caching adventures and to events. He donates quality, homemade swag, time, and money to caching events. Ted is the mastermind behind the Cache Scene Investigator cache series that has a huge following. This series has everything from underwater caches to pulley system caches hoisted up a tree. This series has the Utah caching world on pins and needles waiting for the Longitude and Latitude killer to strike again. Ted also carries around a cache repair kit and leaves every cache in better condition than he finds it in. Ted also shares his caching adventures and tips on his blog at Live Love Cache.com. The list of people he has influenced and befriended is countless.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured November 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, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon, and a certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for November’s award through Sunday, November 18th.

Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and include the following information:

Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
A picture of the nominee
Description (200 or more 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 December Geocacher of the Month must be received by Friday, December 7th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top 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.

November 8, 2012 / Adela B

Enigma #1 – GC448A – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 8, 2012

Enigma II — The “holy grail of geocaching” and the treasure chest

Mystery or puzzle caches are exactly that – a mystery. An enigma, if you will.

In Niedersachen, Enigma #1 (GC448A) ranks high among mystery caches in Germany. The cache is more than 10 years old, and despite all advances in technology, still remains a true difficulty 5, terrain 3 geocache. Even its final coordinates are a mystery.

The cache became so famous that a geocacher placed the “holy grail of geocaching” in the cache container to symbolize its status and influence on the geocaching community.

The cache page includes a link to a list of 10 difficult questions (in German). The answers are essential to understanding and deciphering three detailed maps. The treasure-seeking adventure is filled with hikes, some are steep at times. It is comprised of outdoor and indoor paths as well as detours as you interpret the maps and navigate with GPS.

Impressed with the mystery cache, Chris, a.k.a. famerlor_dragon nominated this recent find. He says, “Every German geocacher wants to go here at one time. It was truly a rewarding experience doing the cache myself.”

Chris continues to explain, “As you draw closer to the cache, hoping that your last coordinates are good, sweat dripping from your forehead and then finally you see the waymark from your last treasure map and you know you are right and the cache is within reach. Opening the big box (it has recently been replaced – I am sure new pictures will be there within a very few weeks) and holding the grail is a very rewarding experience. One of a kind.”

Over 1,500 geocachers who logged a smiley agree with Chris. The mystery cache has earned 763 Favorite Points, and geocachers are not holding back on their extensive logs describing their exhilarating experiences.

Another geocacher logged this find saying, “We spent a lot of time preparing. A lot. It took a few months before we felt confident enough to tackle this four-stage mystery cache. Today it was time. I read two days ago that the box is gone and that the owner had already placed a new box on the ground. The experience is exhilarating. We found ourselves getting mad and we found ourselves laughing. Most of all, we found the beauty in this game through this cache. Thanks Vinnie & nici for an extraordinary experience!”

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.

November 5, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

This is My Hobby – Geocaching at Night (Night Caching)

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Geocaching doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. Watch this video to see a geocache that could not be found by the light of day. Geocachers use clever clues to navigator through this Multi-Cache in the dark. If they’re skilled and a little lucky, they discover a local difficult 2, terrain 2 favorite called Wait Until DARK!! All the buildings used as stages are non-residential and gave permission to be part of this geocache. Check out other hides by the cache owner – goblindust. He has more than 1000 Favorite Points for his geocaches.

There are thousands of night caches around the world. Explore a night cache tonight!

Subscribe to the Official Geocaching.com YouTube channel for the latest tips and tricks in geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

November 1, 2012 / Adela B /

Awaken the Leviathan – GC2QK8W – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 1, 2012

Brace yourself! Because to log this Geocache of the Week, we’re going to come face-to-face with an ancient monster of the sea.

Awaken the Leviathan (GC2QK8W) is a difficulty 2.5, terrain 5 Multi-Cache located on the most southern tip of Cape Town, South Africa.

This cache is only accessible given the right sea and tide conditions and is best attempted during a spring low tide. Even under the best conditions, the journey to this cache is fraught with peril and past adventurers advise taking the utmost caution.

By attempting to log this cache, geocachers agree to undertake a mission of extreme importance: to determine once and for all whether or not the myth of the great Leviathan is true. The local lighthouse keeper has allegedly spotted a foul and rank-smelling beast slithering on the rocks far below the cliff top. Is this monster real?

To find out, geocachers must brave the sea, traverse slippery rocks, edge their way along a cliff, and finally enter a cave that is home to the beast itself. Less than 30 geocachers have actually dared to embark on this epic journey since the creation of the cache in March of 2011. One of those brave geocachers is Chris, a.k.a. SawaSawa. Chris was so impressed with this cache that he decided to nominate it.

Awaken the Leviathan III — View from inside the cave

He says, “It is a terrain 5 rating and thus potentially mentally and physically challenging due to the extreme location and the elements of danger involved – in the form of narrow cliff ledges and dangerous incoming tides. In fact, I had a sleepless night before doing the cache as my mind ran through the route we would have to follow to reach GZ. On the route back I had a few heart-stopping moments negotiating the cliff ledge.”

He goes on to explain that paddawan, the cache owner, is “renowned in South Africa by those who have found his caches as one of the most ingenious and prolific hiders of caches, which garner numerous favorite points. He therefore well deserves further recognition for his wonderful efforts of which this cache is one of the finest examples.”

Chris isn’t the only awe-struck geocacher. As one geocacher logging the find put it, “Exhilarating! We feel very proud of the courage caching has given us. The beast was rumbling and grumbling. But on hands and knees by the light of our lantern, we found what we were looking for, completed formalities and escaped before he could turn nasty. Thank you for an awesome experience!”

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.

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