/ Eric Schudiske /

Announcing the February Featured Geocacher of the Month

Many people know February’s Featured Geocacher of the Month for his ability to entertain as a Comedy Magician. To Vancouver geocachers, as well as many other geocachers, magicman65 is recognized for his ability to engage the geocaching community with creativity, commitment, involvement, stewardship, and encouragement.

Congratulations to magicman65 for pulling in a magical 65 votes to be nominated as the February Featured Geocacher of the Month. We greatly appreciate your positive contribution to the geocaching community.

February Featured Geocacher of the Month, magicman65

Magicman65 is the Vice President of the BC Geocaching Association as well as an active member of the Mid Island Geocaching Association and the Vancouver Island Geocaching Association. In addition, Magicman65 teaches geocaching and hides many creative caches.

According to one geocacher, “magicman65 sets an example to other cachers- he carries a knapsack with him filled with logbooks, plastic baggies, and swag.  When he comes across a cache that needs maintenance, he will fix it right there on the spot and then he will send a private message to the cache owner informing him/her that the cache is fixed, saving others a trip.”

Magicman65 will receive a collector’s edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging his contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. Those nominees not chosen as the featured Geocacher of the Month receive a gift of appreciation from Groundspeak. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here. The geocaching community is encouraged to renominate those who have yet to be honored as featured Geocacher of the Month.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for 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 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 the March featured Geocacher of the Month must be received by April 1oth.

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.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Afkule Monastery GC1RM77 GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – March 26, 2012

A view of "Afkule"

A remote geocache perches along the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It’s hidden on the coast of Turkey.

But finding “Afkule Monastery” (GC1RM77) does more than reward cachers with a smiley; it transports  treasure-hunting adventurers a thousand years in the past.

The cache is located among the isolated ruins of a monastery. The buildings, including structures carved into the rock face, date back to the 11th century.

The difficulty 2, terrain 3 traditional cache was hidden by barmbek in 2009.

Cache and log from "Afkule Monastery"

Geocacher Schlauchen logged the cache last year. She emailed Geocaching.com to suggest “Afkule Monastery” as the Geocache of the Week. She says the cache rates as her favorite find in 2011. She writes, “You climb down a very steep hill and all of a sudden you’re out of the forest and have a breathtaking view of the old monastery and the sea, which is really as blue as it’s shown in the cache listing.” She says another element adds to the allure of this cache, “Of course there’s also the famous ‘usual muggle tourists don’t come here’ feeling.”

View near cache location
View near the cache location

Just over 50 people have logged smileys on the cache, averaging about two finds a month. It’s received 12 Favorites Points.

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.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – March 22, 2012

Sort by Favorite Points

 

There’s a one-click solution to discovering some of the most interesting geocaches anywhere in the world. Premium Members can click the blue ribbon on their search results page and presto magic, the search results are sorted by Favorite Points! This is an easy way to instantly see which geocaches leave your fellow geocachers in awe. The one thing you can say for certain is that the quality of the caching experience is likely to be far above average.

Geocaches might earn a Favorite Point if the location is really interesting or the container and hiding place impress cachers with their originality. Some geocaches have racked up hundreds of Favorite Points (some have even earned more than a thousand). Searching by Favorite Points also offers a big time-saving advantage, since you won’t have to sort through page after page of search results to find the best caches in an area.

Premium Members earn one Favorite Point for every ten geocaches that are found. They can reward their points to any cache they have logged as found. Basic Members who upgrade to Premium Membership receive Favorite Points accordingly to their past finds.

To start earning, rewarding, and sorting by Favorite Points, upgrade to Premium Membership for as little as $2.50 per month!

See how to use Favorite Points here: Geocaching.com Presents: “Favorites”

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching with Zorro – A Literary Challenge

Zorro makes an appearance at a geocaching event

Sometimes geocaching offers much more than a treasure hunting adventure at the intersection of a certain of latitude and longitude. The Long Beach Public Library Foundation in California, USA is tapping into the power of geocaching to encourage kids and adults to crack open the pages of a library book.

Geocaching is now part of an annual event called, “Long Beach Reads One Book.” The book selected this year is Zorro by Isabel Allende.  Di LaPlume with the foundation says, “For the first time ever, we are adding geocaching to the lineup [of activities for the event]. For March, we’ve hidden a series of six Zorro-related caches in Long Beach. They are what I would describe as “mini” Multi-Caches. Each cache has its own theme that is related to the story of Zorro.” All the geocache descriptions are in English and Spanish. One of the Zorro-themed geocaches even leads geocachers into a library.

Zorro cache container
Zorro library cache

LaPlume says the Library Foundation hopes the Zorro-themed geocaches promote literacy,  encourage people to get outside, learn more about the book, and have fun.

Geocachers are given some incentive to find more than just one of the caches. LaPlume says, “During the month of March, anybody who finds all six caches can enter to win a special Zorro prize.”

So far the caches have been logged dozens of times. Geocachers in the Long Beach, California area still have until the end of March to discover all the caches and earn an additional prize. But the real prize might be that snapping open a geocache leads to more people opening books.

 

/ Adela B /

Geocaching for a Cause: From Germany to London

German geocachers travel to the UK for 12 hours of caching with locals

A group of German geocachers packed more than their GPS devices on a recent geocaching adventure to the UK.  They also packed good intentions. Their epic international caching trip doubled as a fundraiser.

At the end of January, 80 geocachers made ​​their way from Düsseldorf and Aachen, Germany to London, UK to spend an entire weekend treasure hunting with geocachers from several different countries.

The event, “London 2012” (GC38HZA),  took place at the Joy of Life Fountain. The German cachers met an international group of geocachers at the event. Adventurers from Norway, France, U.S., and of course the UK joined to embark on a 12-hour treasure hunt. The teams found 64 caches. The favorite cache for many was “London – Beatles Abbey Road” (GC6F12). Geocachers got to transform into a “Beatle” for the cache. Others visited platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies.

The trip there and back across the English channel was about more than the event; it was also a chance to help others.

German geocachers make their way from from Düsseldorf to London

Janina Hering aka Döskopp says, “We thought about how to best utilize our time on the bus.” So, with some planning and the help of German geocaching shops and other businesses, Janina and her team collected prizes for a raffle that would take place on the bus drive back  to Germany. The raffle money went to an organization for sexually abused children.

“We knew we wanted to support this organization. Their work is absolutely admirable,” she explained.

Janina was in charge of the collection of prizes, such as Geocoins and gummy bears. The team was busily selling raffle tickets and ended up raising more than 500 Euros for the association.

Board Member Monika Schiffer (left) and Geocacher Janina Hering (right)

“Such private, dedicated fundraisers are unfortunately rare,” says an excited Board Operator, Monika Schiffer. “The great thing about this initiative is that their hobby connected them to such a great gesture.”

Congrats to Janina and her fellow geocachers on a successful, well planned event. To find a geocaching event near you check out the Geocaching.com Events Calendar.