/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocachers Care – Worldwide Well Wishes for Japanese Geocachers

Sendai Airport before and after (courtesy: "Smell the Roses")

Worldwide well wishes pour in for Japanese geocachers caught in the chain reaction tragedy: a 9.0 earthquake, followed by a tsunami and then a nuclear disaster.

A Japanese geocaching family, tmiya, is located near the flood ravaged epicenter of the deadly March 11th earthquake. Tmiya, a married couple with two daughters, live in Miyagi, Japan. The geocachers placed GC2173Z “Underbody of a jet plane” in 2009.

The traditional geocache was hidden in the port city of Sendai. Eleven geocachers logged a smiley on the difficulty 1.5, terrain 1 geocache before a wall of blackened water scoured the coastal landscape.

Location of GC2173Z

The cache page for GC2173Z now has more than 130 notes. Most are well wishes from the global geocaching community. The notes read: “May you and your family have much strength during these tough times for you” and “Our thoughts and prayers are with you in this terrible time. I have found a lot to admire about the Japanese people.”

They are posted from countries around the world such as Germany, the U.K., Canada, France, the United States of America, the Czech Republic and from inside Japan itself. One note from a French geocacher is simply signed, “Fraternité Geocaching” or the “Fraternity of Geocaching.”

This fraternity united in their compassion for a family most will never meet. Perhaps the most endearing post came just three days ago. Japanese geocacher strikeeagl wrote: “We were Tokyo geocaching community confirmed a cache owner tmiya and his family both alive in safe.” Another note posted more recently reads, “We could confirm that he is fine 5 days after the earthquake… I would appreciate you if you could encourage him.”

Join the geocaching fraternity and post your own note of encouragement to tmiya and the Japanese geocaching community on the cache page.

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – March 17, 2011

Fun, After the Find!

While the thrill of finding a geocache can make your caching journey a huge success, the geocaching experience does not end once you’ve found the cache. After the find is when the fun of interacting with the global geocaching community begins! You can flip through the logbook, read others’ logs and look for usernames you’ve seen in other logbooks. When you add your own log, it is fun to let people know something about yourself – perhaps where you are from or something interesting that happened to you while searching for the geocache.

Similarly, you can often learn something about geocachers who previously visited the cache based on what they left behind. By sorting through the SWAG (Stuff We All Get) in the cache, you can get an idea of who has been there before. Keep in mind that you are welcome to take an item from the cache as long as you replace it with something of equal or greater value. If you find a Trackable in the cache, you may take it without placing anything in the cache, but you must be willing to keep the fun going by moving the Trackable to another cache within two weeks’ time.

When you are ready to head back down the trail, please take the time to re-hide the cache where it was before you arrived and preserve the experience designed by the cache owner. Searching for a cache hidden as it was originally intended to be hidden is a much better experience than searching for a cache that has been moved or accidentally left out in the open.

Finally, have fun by logging your find on Geocaching.com and uploading photos from your adventure. Be sure to mark any images that might give away the cache location as “spoilers.” Logs that provide a thoughtful description of your experience finding the cache are a great way to thank the cache owner for hiding and maintaining a quality geocache – and a great way to continue the fun after the find!

/ Eric Schudiske /

“Zero Emission” GC234PG Geocache of the Week – March 14, 2011

Near the geocache "Zero Emission"

The icy, austere beauty of Antarctica is home to one of the most remote geocaches on the globe. “Zero Emission” (GC234PG) challenges adventurers to brave a journey to the bottom of the world to find the traditional cache. Leovinci81 placed the small geocache in January of 2010 outside a Belgian research station.

Leovinci81 explains the story on the cache page for Zero Emission: “I created this geocache for people to find in one of the greatest places I ever visited. During the first quarter of 2010 I visited the Belgian research station on Antarctica.

“After the first explorers Adrienne de Gerlache & A. Cook, 110 years later, Belgium returned to the South Pole with the team of Alain Hubert.   It’s the first zero emission research station on South Pole, running on solar and wind power.”

Belgium research station

The difficulty three, terrain five cache waits patiently in its extreme environment for the next geocacher. Could it be you?

Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Geocaching.com Caption Contest 22 – Win a Barely Coveted Prize

WINNING CAPTION: "This is knot what I wood have expected.” - 1Delta10Tango.

Try your caption writing skills in the twenty-second installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest.   You could become the proud winner of a barely coveted prize! What caption would you write? “You’ve barked up the right tree.” You can do better!

Caption contest prize

Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions that other geocachers have crafted.

You can influence the voting. “Like” the caption that you think should win.  If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers to “like” your caption. Lackeys decide between the top captions to crown the winner of this Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

The winner receives a barely coveted prize from Groundspeak Headquarters. This time it’s a much coveted prize, a Jeremy Irish Trackable Gnome.

Click on the image to discover the winning caption from this contest

19 Lackeys voted to award the winner of the twentieth Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the previous Geocaching.com Caption Contest.

Explore the wit and wisdom of geocachers by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests.

/ Eric Schudiske /

Groundspeak Weekly Newsletter – March 10, 2011

Spreading the Word about Geocaching is Easy!

Nearly every geocacher has at some point attempted to explain geocaching to a muggle – be that a family member, a friend, a co-worker or someone on the trail. And, anyone who has tried knows that geocaching can be quite difficult to explain. Obviously, the best way for someone new to learn about the activity is to get outside and try it, but to make it even easier, we’ve created several tools to help you teach them about the activity. We now present to you:

1. The Introduction to Geocaching Presentation, a downloadable PowerPoint presentation that starts at the very beginning and covers everything from what a geocache looks like, to cache types, to Trackables. You are welcome to use this presentation to teach others about geocaching. There is even space for you to co-brand it, if you so desire!

2. The new Geocaching.com videos page features fun and educational videos that cover more than 30 topics and can be shared with others. Pick a video that encompasses what you love about geocaching – or something you know your friends and family will love about it – and share it through Facebook, Twitter or its YouTube URL. We will be adding new videos to this page on a regular basis, so keep checking back for more great content!

Start sharing and spread the fun! Happy Geocaching!

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