Mega-Events, or any Geocaching Event, are a way to decode all the unanswered mystery surrounding geocaching. You’ll discover geocaching experts who love to share their love of geocaching. It might be as easy as asking, “What’s it mean when the clue says you should tie your shoe?” (It typically means to bend down and look under a bench). You might also connect with new friends to help power your geocaching exploration. And that’s just the beginning. Here are 28 reasons, in no particular order, about what you could experience at a Mega-Event:
Earn a smiley. Meet local volunteers. Discover new friendships. Geocache before and after. Sign the official log book. Meet vendors.Buy sweet swag. Trade trackables. Ask questions. Ask more questions.Eat good food. Try something new. Discover a new city. Rediscover an old city. Connect geocaching names with faces. Take a picture with Geocaching mascot Signal. Be in-the-know on the latest trends. Discover trackables. Rekindle friendships. Introduce your kids to a new adventure. Log a new geocache type. Pinpoint a destination for your next trip. Compare epic geocaching stories! Find love (it’s happened before). Talk with someone who works at Geocaching HQ. Get inspired for your next hide. Brush up on your GPS tech skills. Get tips to finally find unfound geocaches.
If you’re searching for a great Mega-Event, check out the Geocaching Block Party in Seattle onAugust 17. The worldwide community will be attending and celebrating geocaching right outside Geocaching HQ. Do you know of a few more reasons to attend a Mega-Event? Share them with the geocaching community on comments below, or on our Facebook page.
It’s a “Will Attend” that will fuel memories for years to come. We’re inviting the entire worldwide geocaching community to join us at the 2013 Geocaching Block Party on August 17 in Seattle. It’s a Mega-Event not to miss. This year’s Block Party weekend lasts longer, promises more geocaching fun and has plenty of events for everyone. You’ll even be able to grab a cozy spot in front of a giant outdoor movie screen for the first annual Geocaching International Film Festival (GIFF). GIFF will showcase the best videos from geocachers around the world. You and the rest of the audience will choose one lucky video to receive the “Audience Award.”
The Thursday and Friday before the Block Party, you can reserve your spot on a behind-the-scenes tour of Geocaching HQ. You’ll get to find the Geocaching HQ geocache, meet some of the folks at Geocaching HQ and see where all the geocaching magic happens.
Saturday from 11AM to 6PM, you can soak up the fun at the Geocaching Block Party. Activities include a new GeoTour near Geocaching HQ and meeting the Geocaching HQ staff and many of the volunteers that assist the worldwide geocaching community. Sound like a lot? Don’t worry. You’ll be able to refuel at the onsite food trucks. Log your “Will Attend” now, then share this new Block Party Invite video with your friends. We’ll see you there.
Still want more? Wrap up your weekend in Seattle on Sunday with the Going APE Mega-Event. The journey through a long mountain tunnel delivers geocachers to a majestic and legendary location.
It’s a small step for geocaching and even a smaller step for geocaches. Field tested and geocacher approved, a new geocache size has entered the adventure of geocaching. Just be sure to pack your magnifying glass, tweezers and a metric ton of patience. The new geocache size is named “T.I.N.Y.” It stands for Teentsy Infinitesimal Nucleic Yocto Geocache. Just how small are they? Take a look at this: . Right here: . Yeah. The T.I.N.Y. geocaches are smaller than that punctuation mark. Or this one: .
Interested? Curious? Don’t know what Yocto means? There’s one way to find out. Check out the latest Geocaching Presents video: t.i.n.y. geocaches. Interested in purchasing a 100 count of t.i.n.y. geocaches? They’ve been sold out recently, but for a limited time you might find one in your Shop Geocaching order.
Geocaching HQ has a history of releasing blockbusting geocaching ideas on April 1. Check out the Geocaching Workout Video you might need to practice before you search for your first t.i.n.y. geocache.
A little geocache frustration from geocacher The Wumpus, with Leaderdog and Tape Worm in the background, while on the search for A Real Challenge.
Editor’s Note: Updated in September 2013 with additional DNF numbers.
Another Editor’s note: Updated August 2014 to include the second find!
In this week’s Geocaching Weekly Mailer, we talked about logging DNFs (did not find). While no one yearns to log a DNF, they’re a necessary part of the game. DNFs can mean all sorts of things: the geocache has been moved, needs maintenance, or in the case of A Real Challenge (GC1764C), it could mean that it’s incredibly hard to find.
With 247 DNFs and only one find, A Real Challenge lives up to its name. In fact, it took nearly four years for the FTF. This geocache was hidden near Peoria, Illinois, USA by geocacher Fuzzy B, who set out with the goal of creating something he’s never seen before, which, with nearly 46,000 finds, is hard to do. “I have felt a little guilty that so many people have spent so much time searching for it,” he said when asked how it felt to be the owner of such a difficult geocache.
In the geocache description, Fuzzy B writes, “Please, to hold down the level of frustration, anger, etc., just put this on your ignore list, it’s not very findable.” But he goes on to reassure us, “Yes, its there. It’s a shelter Cache, a log in a container. Cache is not in, on, or touching any part of the electrical equipment. It’s not on the roof, or under the shingles, nor the drip edge. Cache is exposed to light and air. Cache is within the footprint of the roof. There is NO reason to damage or destroy Park property.”
BransonAdventure after their find.It’s there somewhere…
A Real Challenge has only one find so far by geocacher BransonAdventure. “We found at 8:07pm, but waited to log so we could confirm with owner it wasn’t a decoy or mistake. All the way from Nebraska on vacation we extended the Eastward travel just for this cache,” they said in their log, “I will say we spent just a little under 2 hours looking when my husband found it and then to unroll the log, being so excited and shaking felt like it took about as long. The husband and kids did a little jig.” After the find, Fuzzy B came to meet the lucky geocachers.
Even if it’s a little discouraging, DNFs are an important part of the game. Just think, if all the people that had searched for A Real Challenge hadn’t logged their DNFs, the FTF wouldn’t have been as special.
There’s only one way to find out where this geocache is located, but in the meantime, we can speculate. Where do you think it’s hidden?
UPDATE, August 2014:
On August 11, 2014, a second intrepid geocacher made this nearly impossible find. This makes only two finds after nearly 7 years and 327 DNFs. Congratulations to wcs24fan for being only the second geocacher to conquer the odds and sign their name on the logbook. In their log, wcs24fan writes, “As the sun was retreating behind the clouds and beginning to paint them hues of various pinks, we were still searching for this well hidden treasure. Hope has a way of making one think they can achieve the unachievable. On this evening, for us, the unachievable was struck down as we made the find! Upon opening the container and seeing the log of the BransonAdventure team in the FTF spot, it was confirmed that we had found what we had hoped for. Excitement and elation bathed us for several minutes as we signed the log and pondered what we had just accomplished. The first to find in 3 years and only the second to find overall! Those feelings would travel with us for hours to come as we made our way through the winding back roads to the interstate and our way home. Thanks Fuzzy for giving us the hope that we could pull this off and the great adventure!”
Geocache owner Fuzzy B meets the only geocacher to find A Real Challenge, BransonAdventure.
The pictures have been sorted, assessed and judged. The winner in the Hunt for the Gold! Find THE RACKETEER’s stash has been announced. Geocachers in the U.S. gobbled up 5,000 free Grisham Geocoins which read, “John Grisham THE RACKETEER 999.9 Pure Suspense.” No more Geocoins are available, except one (more on that later).
Geocachers released the Geocoins into geocaches around the country, allowing others to enter a photo contest with the Geocoin. Hundreds of photos were submitted. The winner took home a one-ounce bar of pure gold!
Check out the winners below. Interested in winning the last John Grisham Geocoin? Use your wit and humor in the Geocaching Caption Contest. The winner will receive the John Grisham Geocoin and a barely coveted prize.
You can still discover and keep the John Grisham Geocoin moving. They’ve now spread around the world. Check out the interactive map on the Geocaching.com John Grisham page for their latest locations.
Mega-Events, or any Geocaching Event, are a way to decode all the unanswered mystery surrounding geocaching. You’ll discover geocaching experts who love to share their love of geocaching. It might be as easy as asking, “What’s it mean when the clue says you should tie your shoe?” (It typically means to bend down and look under a bench). You might also connect with new friends to help power your geocaching exploration. And that’s just the beginning. Here are 28 reasons, in no particular order, about what you could experience at a Mega-Event:
