February 2, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Groundhog Day? Try GroundFrog Day – Geocaching Mascot Signal Attends

Signal and Slew 3 — Signal with Snohomish Slew

By: Annie Love, Groundspeak Lackey

Why wait until February to get a weather prediction from Punxsutawney Phil when you can get one from Snohomish Slew in January? Snohomish Slew is a real frog billed as “the Meteorologist Frognosticator extraordinaire and mighty small hero to all the weather weary.” Last Saturday, he forecast what type of weather the Northwest United States might expect in the next six weeks: more winter or an early spring.

Every year the quaint little town of Snohomish, Washington (located about 30 miles northeast of Seattle) welcomes Slew for a frog-filled celebration to predict the end of winter. It’s known as GroundFrog Day.

We here at Groundspeak think that you can trust frogs over groundhogs any day, so we took our beloved mascot Signal to witness Slew’s prediction. Signal is a life-sized frog, with GPS capabilities (of course). Fellow Lackey Nicole (Louie Bliss) and I had the pleasure of escorting Signal to the event. Lots of high-fives and hugs were to be had with the kids in attendance. Kids weren’t the only one who stopped to get their picture taken with Signal – in most cases it was the parent who really wanted the photo with our own geocaching legend.

Signal and Slew — Signal watching Slew predict the forecast

The event included lots of dancing to frog remix versions of songs, hula-hooping, the GroundFrog royalty arriving via fire truck, and various booths to visit. After Slew took the stage to make his prediction, Signal was fortunate enough to shake webbed toes with the weather-casting celebrity.

What was Slew’s final prediction, you may be wondering? The final answer, as posted on the official website, was a bit vague: a Spring/Winter mix of weather is ahead.

Signal and Slew 2 — Signal and Lackey Annie Love

“’Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather, Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not’ interpretation – neither 6 weeks of winter or spring, spring will come and sunny days, there’ll be a few, but still some cold days ahead, too.”

Either way, the current extended forecast for Seattle shows a lot of sunshine in our near future. We think Signal may have had a little help with that.

January 31, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

Motorcycle Geocaching – Two Wheels, One Mission to Explore

Motorcyle caching 3 — Jeff geocaching along the Atlantic ocean in Africa

The purr of his motorcycle engine, the crunch of a long-neglected gravel road, his GPS device flickering a reading ever closer to a remote geocache; geocacher Jeff Hower, ADVTraveler, lives for these moments. He’s combined his love for adventure motorcycling with the GPS-powered treasure hunt of geocaching.

Jeff says his motorcycling journeys preceded the creation of geocaching by about three decades, “I started riding dirt bikes back in the 1970s. Trips into the mountains in Colorado, deserts in the west and Baja, and in 1988 a trip deep into the Copper Canyon region of Mexico pretty much set my urge to travel to other regions. Back then there was no GPS or geocaching. It was all travel using maps and compass.”

His little brother introduced Jeff to geocaching in 2005, but it wasn’t until Jeff retired four years later that the hunt for geocaches kicked into high gear. He says, “For me, geocaching and motorcycling are a natural pair. Riding the bike is fun in itself, but geocaching gives you a destination and purpose. The motorcycle allows you to quickly pull up and get to areas that sometimes are not accessible by other means. Geocaching also is an incentive to get off the beaten path and explore areas that you would never experience.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Geocaching by motorcycle in North America

Jeff has taken his love of exploration to different continents. He’s traveled from his home in Missouri, USA to the southern tips of South America and Africa. He geocached along the way, finding new vistas and unimaginable new locations. But Jeff hasn’t geocached without DNF (did not find) regrets for caches that eluded him – especially one particular geocache in Africa.

Motorcyle caching 5 — Jeff geocaching in Africa

He says, “One of my disappointing DNFs was in Swaziland. The cache was hidden somewhere on the bank of a small river with the notes cautioning to watch out for crocodiles. I never did find a cache in that country.”

If you’re tempted to climb on a motorcycle and start a geocaching adventure, Jeff has some advice. “My advice to someone caching via motorcycle is “Be Careful.” Don’t focus on the GPS. Get a good idea about where you are going and how to get there while you are stopped. Beyond that it’s just an awesome reason to go riding and exploring.” He adds, “I’m still in awe at the creative methods people come up with to hide caches.”

Jeff says one the best part of motorcycle geocaching is when you step of the bike, “…whenever you stop, people will stop and talk to you. There is always someone interested in where you’re from and where you’re going.” And with geocaching you’ll always have stories.

January 30, 2012 / Eric Schudiske

Who’s Watching You!!! GC15KNG GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – January 30, 2012

Who's Watching You2 — Binocular's used in finding "Who's Watching You!!!"

Binoculars and a half gallon of water. Those are the unusual tools you might need to successfully unravel a famous New Jersey, USA Multi-Cache.

Who’s Watching You!!! (GC15KNG) has racked up more than 40 Favorite Points. TheSurfcaster created three stage Multi-Cache in 2007. The difficulty 2, terrain 1.5 geocache takes adventurers through the woodlands of “The Garden State.”

The cache tells geocachers what they should bring along on their journey, “You will need to use BINOCULARS for the first stage if the lighting conditions are not right” and “If you are doing this cache in the middle of winter when everything is frozen solid you need to bring a half gallon of water.”

Who's Watching You 1 — "Who's Watching You!!!"

Adventurers travel only a short distance to find this cache, but each stage of the geocache leaves a lasting impression. One cacher who earned a smiley on “Who’s Watching You!!!” writes, “Stage 1 – amazed at it’s location. Stage 2 – like the craftsmanship. Stage 3 – was like a science project.”

Another geocacher saved the geocache to celebrate a milestone. They write, “WOW! Wanted to make this cache my 2000th find because of its popularity with favorite points and am glad I did. A lot of work was put into this multi, and I appreciate the creativity and ingenuity used to create these caches.”

Who's Watching you3 — Near the cache location of "Who's Watching You!!!"

Sorry – there are no spoilers about the specifics of this geocache in this blog post. What unique tools have you used to help complete a geocache?

Continue to explore of some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Explore 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.

January 27, 2012 / Eric Schudiske /

January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

January’s featured nominees are fabulous examples of uniquely talented geocachers. Though many other qualified candidates were nominated, Groundspeak Lackeys selected these three helpful, innovative, and creative nominees. Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as January’s featured “Geocacher of the Month.”

Write a comment on this blog post about which of these three geocachers you feel should be the featured “Geocacher of the Month.” Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month.

Last month, AbbeyAckbar was chosen as the December Featured Geocacher of the Month. AbbeyAckbar, a geocaching couple, was recognized for organizing some of the most creative and popular events in Dublin, Ireland. They were also acknowledged for their consistent willingness to assist geocachers in need. Congratulations again to AbbeyAckbar and all other December nominees.

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

Bloodhounded

Nominated by BigAI437, “Kevin has not only started the geocaching blog, Cachecrazy.com, that reaches international geocachers, but he is constantly getting involved with the local community. Recently he set up a geocaching day for a group of local Girl Scouts. He took them out to find some caches after teaching them all about geocaching. Kevin made sure that these young girls had lots of fun and learned about a new sport that is not only fun, but takes you to places that you might have never visited. I am totally inspired by his commitment to geocaching, the geocaching community, and to his local community.”

SerenityNow

Nominated by TeamDotOne, “SerenityNow is responsible for the largest annual events in Ohio known affectionately as the Grand Caching Events (GCE). An example of one of these events is CSI: Cleveland. Not only do to they go way out of their way to host the best events ever but they always seem to come up with something new each and every year to make people want to keep coming back. We have spent countless hours enjoying their company, enjoying their events, enjoying their caches and most importantly, enjoying their friendship.”

Memomls

Nominated by Horseshoechamp, “Memomls has put on many 101 events and always embraces new cachers with her friendly charm. She is the back bone of North Florida and is known far and wide for her giving- not only her knowledge but her wisdom of caching to all she comes in contact with. Memomls is part owner in a starting Geo-Business here in North Florida called The Cache Station which supplies all sorts of items for both new and old cachers alike. She looks out for many geocachers and willingly hosts events for different people’s accomplishments, even when they are new to geocaching.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured January “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 January’s award through Monday February 6th.

geocacherofthemonthGeocoin(anniephone) — Geocacher of the Month Geocoin

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.

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 February Geocacher of the Month must be received by February 17th.

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.

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