/ Adela B /

Announcing the June Featured Geocacher of the Month

June’s featured Geocacher of the Month is known for his kindness and ability to engage the geocaching community through his creative caches.

Congratulations to SniperChicken for pulling in an incredible 108 votes! We greatly appreciate your dedication to geocaching.

June Featured Geocacher of the Month, SniperChicken

SniperChicken is the Board President of the Mississippi Geocachers Association. He owns over 140 caches and is known to go above and beyond to research every hiding location to provide fellow geocachers with a unique cache and story.

According to one geocacher casting a vote, “SniperChicken is a great guy…you won’t find many more dedicated. He does whatever he can to help others, to make a cache different and exciting. He’s a real inspiration to newbies and seasoned cachers alike. All the candidates are great, but SniperChicken stands out above the rest.”

SniperChicken will receiver a collector’s 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 his contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.

Thank you to the fellow June nominees and all those who supported them. The nominees not chosen as featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Groundspeak. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.

Featured Geocacher of the Month Icon

The geocaching community is encouraged to re-nominate those who have yet to be honored as featured Geocacher of the Month.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. 

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 description (in 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 July featured Geocacher of the Month must be received by the end of the day on Monday, July 16th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the Latitude 47 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.

/ Adela B /

Stari Most GC28FXB – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – July 9, 2012

Geocaching at Stari Most

The Geocache of the Week takes us to a country where fewer than 100 geocaches exist.

Stari Most (GC28FXB), or Old Bridge sits in the heart of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is rated a difficulty 1 1/2, terrain 1 1/2 EarthCache.

The bridge spans the Neretva river and connects two parts of the city of Mostar. Built in 1567, it stood for 427 years before it was destroyed in November of 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak conflict.

Jumping off the bridge

Stari Most, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has become quite the tourist attraction since it was rebuilt in 2004. It stands 19 meters (62 feet) tall and spans 28.7 meters (94 feet ) in length.

Much of Stari Most’s charm lies in its tradition of bridge jumping each year in the month of July. Tens of thousands of spectators line adjacent to the bridge and watch the divers of the Mostar Diving Club jump off the highest point (the arch) of the bridge.

This EarthCache is no stranger to geocachers. It has accumulated nearly 250 logged visits, 23 Favorite Points and over 335 images since it was placed in 2010 by Team HeiMat.

One geocacher logged, “I finally made it. I’m so pleased to finally say I’ve stood on the Stari Most despite, or indeed, because of its history TFTC.”

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.

Crossing the bridge
/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Cleanup Awards for Cleaning Up

Award-winning group of geocachers

The environment wins big when geocachers attend Cache In Trash Out (CITO) events. But now a group of Texas, USA geocachers are winning for their cleanup efforts.

Travis Gilbert (SKnight579) organized the Permian Basin Cachers Association CITO Events. Travis says, “We are a smaller group of cachers (around about 30) in the middle of nowhere out in West Texas.”

“A smaller group” with a big agenda to pick up trash. They’ve adopted two sites and pledged to clear trash from those areas on a regular basis. One site is a stretch of four lane highway and another is a location in a nearby city.  The group has held CITO events at these locations over the past couple years. Travis says, “We are under contract to clean the road two times a year, we do it four times a year, and we also separate out recyclables as we go for a small bit of money for the group (covers the water basically).”

Permian Basin Geocachers Win State Award

Travis says the extra effort was noticed. His email inbox had a surprise waiting for him a couple weeks ago, “I received an email from the State of Texas that our little group would also be getting the “Group of the Year” award for the State! I’m really proud of our group.” Gilbert says they also won another award from the City of Midland, Texas for the Permian Basin Geocachers cleanup efforts there.

He says the group is inspiring other local geocachers to help make a difference. “I know of several other groups of cachers in Texas that have adopted roads and spots after seeing what our group has done and I could not be prouder of our group.”

Trackable state and local awards for Permian Geocachers

Bagging trash and picking up recyclables has an occasional reward.

Travis says, “The best find was our last cleanup in April when we found 20 proof sets of coins scattered over half of our adopted area. We called the police and no one had reported them missing and I spoke about it on the news that night and no one tried to contact me, so win win. There were 10 of us cleaning that trip so we raffled them and each took two sets home.”

Now they’re also taking home trophies. Travis did what any geocacher would do with the awards. He says “I’ve also made both awards Trackable.” Check out the Trackable pages here and here. Three geocachers, besides Travis, attended all the CITO events. They include grumpyoldtexan, DeKoning, and ZSandmann.

Since 2002, geocachers around the world have been dedicated to improving parks and other cache-friendly places. There are dozens of CITO events around the world each month. Check out the CITO Events Calendar to find at CITO near you.

Permian Basin Geocachers
/ Eric Schudiske

Geocaching.com Presents: Caches Along a Route

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Watch this video to explore the Premium Member Feature of Caches Along a Route. Traveling from A to B can include 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.

Caches Along a Route

The Premium Member feature of “Caches Along a Route” 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. Watch this screencast about Caches Along a Route to learn even more:

Check out Premium Membership options

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.

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – July 4, 2012

A Cache Type with a Science Lesson

Explore a cache type that teaches visitors about the playground all geocachers enjoy — the earth. Each EarthCache takes adventurers to a unique site showcasing geological features. EarthCaches may deliver geocachers to a rare rock formation carved by desert winds, or fissures in the earth’s surface created by underground water. There’s never a cache container at an EarthCache. Rather, geocachers must discover and report a geoscience lesson learned at the site.

You can learn more about EarthCaching this September in the U.S. The 1st International EarthCache Event is on September 2, in Maine. It’s expected to reach Mega-Event status. Join hundreds of EarthCaching faithful from around the world at the event.

Shop Geocaching

Gearing up for your next geocaching adventure only takes only one stop and a few clicks. Visit Shop Geocaching to track down essentials like Travel Bugs. You can turn yourself into a Trackable with a new a “Trackable Tech + Nature Tee.” Each shirt includes a Travel Bug® icon and a unique tracking code. You can also find ways to keep your geocaching pack lightweight and streamlined. The new “Packable 20oz Water Bottle” is a collapsible and reusable water bottle. Explore these and more than 350 other geocaching items at Shop Geocaching.

Outside the U.S.? Find an International Geocaching Retailer.