Kevin Berg, kberg31974, will tell you he’s not the best person to gauge the accessibility of geocaches. Kevin says he often takes his wheelchair where it was never designed to go. The computer consultant has spent most of his life confined to a wheelchair due to the neurological condition Cerebral Palsy. The disorder doesn’t define Kevin. He’s a father, college graduate, entrepreneur and geocacher.
Geocacher Kevin Berg (kberg31974)
Watch “Accessible Geocaching,” a Geocaching.com Lost & Found video, to experience the joy of inclusive geocaching. Kevin, his wife and other mobility impaired geocachers search for geocaches with a terrain rating of one on a five-star scale.
Hear why those who place the one star difficulty caches believe that these geocaches serve the whole geocaching community.
You can explore more videos on the adventure of geocaching. Check out the Geocaching.com Lost & Found video gallery. Explore new Geocaching.com souvenirs, meet a family who says geocaching helps their autistic son and visit the highest and lowest geocaches in existence.
WINNING CAPTION: In other news, a couple found a way to travel around the world for free. – reinshadow
Try your caption writing skills in the sixteenth installment of our Geocaching Caption Contest. You could win a barely coveted prize. These geocaching Halloween costumes come from a post on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page.
What caption would you write? “Muggle-proof Geocoins.” You can do better!
Barely coveted prize
Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below and explore the captions that other geocachers entered. Please include your geocaching username in all entries.
You can also help sway the vote. “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince friends and strangers to vote for it. Lackeys will then decide between the top captions to crown the winner of this Geocaching Caption Contest.
The winner typically receives a barely coveted prize from Groundspeak Headquarters. But this contest you could actually win a coveted prize: Geocaching Trail Cards.
Click image to see the last caption contest winner
Click on the image to the right to discover the winning caption from the previous Geocaching Caption Contest.
25 Lackeys voted to award the winner of the fifteenth Geocaching Caption Contest a barely coveted prize.
Underneath lamp posts skirts simmers a geocaching controversy. Lamp post caches (LPCs) polarize opinions. A LPC is typically a small nondescript container placed under the metal skirt of a lamp post. Some geocachers believe that LPCs are unimaginative hides and all too easy finds.
Other geocachers see LPCs as part of the spectrum of geocaches that provides accessibility for all players. The ease of finding LPCs also offers geocachers the ability to string together dozens or hundreds of finds a day.
Julie Husting "IWillFindIt!!"
Geocachers like Julie Husting, IWillFindIt!!, see the base of lamp posts as a canvas for adding more creativity to geocaching. She believes that lifting the metal skirt on a lamp post should be more like lifting a curtain on stage. Julie creates scenes to surprise and entertain cachers looking for a quick LPC grab.
She adapted the idea from an LPC she discovered. Julie says, “I went to Fotomat GC17R5G by FishfulThinking which had a bunch of film canisters under it. I thought that was really fun. I got some cool tins at Disneyland. One had the little green men from Toy Story on it. I had a bunch of swag that had action figure toys so I put them on boards and put them in the Toys R Us parking lot and wrote a little story about them. That was my first one — The Search for the Little Green Men GC1D5FW. ”
Julie now has nearly twenty themed LPCs in the Southern California area. She says her craft has evolved: “I started with the Disney tins (Nemo, pirates, princesses, Mickey Mouse, Toy Story), then I moved on to holidays. Now it is whatever we find that we like. My boyfriend, Bob, does the majority of the work on them now. He has gotten much more elaborate with them than when we first started.”
A LPC by IWillFindIt!!
Their motivation comes from reading the logs as more and more geoachers seek out caches by IWillFindIt!! Julie says, “Most people appreciate the effort that goes into them and they write really nice logs. One person even brought a girl scout troop to Find Nemo to teach them about caching.”
More geocachers will have a chance to discover LPCs like these. Julie says, “My cousin, Sue aka $$tracker, also has some themed LPCs in the Santa Barbara area. I will be sending one to be published in Texas pretty soon!”
What do you think? Do you know other geocachers who are reinventing LPCs?
There are just five words in the name of this geocache. It’s the fourth word you should pay attention to most. It’s the word “extreme.” The geocache is rated a terrain five, for a heart-pounding, jaw-dropping reason.
“Cavers Plunge (an extreme cache)” (GCRVXB) challenges experienced and prepared vertical cavers to geocache in the deep recesses of a nearly forgotten Kentucky cave.
Cache owner Moonsovrbend warns this cache is only for the most competent vertical cavers, accomplished at repelling and then ascending a free-hanging rope.
The cache was published in January of 2006. More then twenty extreme geocachers logged a smiley on the cache and enjoyed the thrill of underground exploration. One geocacher described the cache as “a beautiful experience.” This cache, and many of the most extreme caches, require extensive planning and organization. Cache owners, like Moonsovrbend, are often more than happy to assist in preparation for the cache.
At the bottom of "Cavers Plunge (an extreme geocache)"
Geocaches range from easy to extreme. The rating system for “difficulty” and “terrain” ranges from one star (most accessible) through five stars (most difficult). Be aware of the terrain and difficulty ratings before you attempt a geocache.
Continue your exploration with 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.
Watch this Lost & Found video to learn more about Geocaching.com souvenirs — the new way to expand your geocaching experience. Capture the “eureka” moment as you discover and collect a rapidly expanding gallery of virtual art.
You can discover the postcard-like “souvenirs” by logging a cache within a specific zone, such as a particular state or province (coming soon) or by using a Geocaching Application on your mobile device and searching for a geocache within the souvenir zone.
Some souvenirs will only be available for a specific time. For instance, those that you will discover when attending a Mega Event. Other souvenirs will reward geocaching achievements. The souvenirs are displayed on your Geocaching.com profile page.
More souvenirs will be released soon.
You can explore more videos on the adventure of geocaching. Check out the Geocaching.com Lost & Found video gallery. Explore a Geocaching.com DeLorme Challenge, meet a family who says geocaching helps their autistic son and experience a haunted cache in Texas.
