Watch this video to experience the caching excitement of the Geocaching Block Party. The Mega-Event is held outside the Geocaching.com Headquarters each year on International Geocaching Day. Folks that love geocaching joined the “Lackeys” that run the Geocaching.com website. A crowd of more than 2,000 made the journey the log the Block Party on August 18, 2012.
Group shot of geocachers at the 2012 Geocaching Block Party (Click on image to watch video)
The event challenged adventurers with geocaching courses, delighted children with a pirate play area, and allowed geocachers from more than a dozen countries to meet and swap caching stories. Check out the cache page for even more details: http://coord.info/GC38J9N
We invite you to join us next year for the Geocaching Block Party in Seattle on August 17, 2013.
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Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Jen Smith aka J2B2, attended the Mega-Event Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) (GC349MK). The Mega-Event took place outside Westholme, British Columbia. Jen has served as a Lackey since 2006 and is Web Developer. Here’s Jen’s account of her adventure.
Lackey Jen Smith, aka J2D2
Written by: Jen Smith
On the weekend of July 7th, I was excited and honored to be one of two Lackeys representing Groundspeak at the Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2) Mega-Event. While my fellow Lackey Nicole Bliss (Louie Bliss) is a Mega-Event veteran, I had never been to a Mega-Event outside of Seattle, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I had been to Canada once before, but it was so long ago that the only thing I remember from that trip is watching The Empire Strikes Back in French on the hotel TV.
Ferry to Canada
On Friday afternoon, I packed up my car and drove to the ferry terminal in Anacortes, WA. The mega was on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the heart of the Cowichan Valley. Though it’s only about 100 miles from Seattle as the crow flies, they are separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands, so unless you’re really good at swimming, taking a ferry is a must. And on a weekend of incredible sunny weather, there are few nicer ways to travel. In fact, the infamous Pacific Northwest rain was nowhere to be found. I was even able to find my first EarthCache along the way!
Saturday was the big day. Nicole spent the morning helping out at the registration tables, while I wandered around checking out the event. There were all kinds of interesting presentations and vendors to see, Trackables to discover, and of course, lots of geocachers to meet! It was amazing to hear how far many cachers had traveled just to attend – I talked to several who had come from as far away as Ontario and Quebec.
Island Spirit MILESTONE Wall
A major centerpiece of the event was the emphasis on local history and culture. From the beautiful Island Spirit logo (featuring a spyhopping orca against a backdrop of rolling evergreen hills) to the awesome performance by the Quw’utsun’ First Nations Dancers at the end of the day, the natural heritage of the Cowichan Valley was constantly on display.
Even some of the event challenges followed the theme. Cachers who successfully learned to identify Douglas fir cones, differentiate between male and female Dungeness crabs, and draw sea creature GPS art could earn pieces of a special puzzle Trackable. I really got the sense that this wasn’t just a geocaching event — it was also a celebration of a very beautiful and unique little corner of the world. Best of all, the legacy caches placed for the event will keep people coming back and rediscovering this incredible area, hopefully for years to come.
Geocachers are also welcome
The day closed out with a delicious group dinner and a comedy magic performance by featured Geocacher of the Month winner Magicman65. All in all, the event was a total blast and I can’t wait to go back to Vancouver Island for a longer visit. Major kudos and thanks go out to all the organizers and volunteers who made the day such a great success.
Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Jonathan Zbikowski aka jzbikows, attended the Mega-Events PirateMania V (GC365FT) and Geolympix Mega:Oxford 2012 (GC22T2T). They took place in Ashbourne and Oxford in the United Kingdom. Jonathan has been a Lackey since 2008 and is an API Developer. Here’s Jonathan’s account of his adventure.
JZ holding an Olympic Torch
Written by: Jonathan Zbikowski
Having been lucky enough to work with Groundspeak for a little over three years now, I recently was given the opportunity to travel internationally to a Mega-Event. There were many events to choose from, but Piratemania V caught my eye – a Pirate-themed Mega-Event? Count me in! I was fortunate enough to attend along with co-founder and Mega-Event veteran Bryan Roth.
Bryan and I awoke on the day of the event bright and early – excited for the day. We surely looked a little foolish walking through a nearby bus station on our way to the car – Bryan dressed in full pirate regalia (“Fancy Dress” to the locals), me with a sword, sash and bandana. However, for the hundreds of attendees at the event 30 minutes down the road, at a beautiful campsite surrounded by farms and wilderness, we fit right in.
We arrived to find many people still waking up and having breakfast at their campsites, where a multitude of makeshift flagpoles had been erected. The flagpoles were flying a motley collection of pirate-themed flags and banners to represent the different groups assembled throughout the campsite. All present were already in the pirate spirit, even the kids! ‘Arrrrrr!’ was the preferred greeting by many attendees.
Bryan Roth, co-founder of Geocaching, part-time pirate
After talking a quick walk around the campsite and signing the log sheet, we caught up with the organizers Mark (PopUpPirate) and Liane The Cache Hoppers and were promptly asked to choose allegiances. Bryan, ever the neutral arbitrator, chose to support both the Red and Blue team. I however (unintentionally) only supported Blue. We were then given a map with the location of 24 caches specifically placed for the event, spread out over eight miles of English countryside. After finding a few older caches in the area while following some random groups of cachers, as well as some wrong turns and dead ends, we caught up with two fast moving cachers, Karl(Doyboyz ) and Colin(Flamedodger).
They were hot on the trail of the newly placed caches. We ended up hiking, slogging through muddy public footpaths, and enjoying their company for the next 18 of the 24 caches. After making it back to the campsite very parched, we enjoyed a few drinks at the “Outside In” bar onsite. We encountered a couple who were staying at the campsite but were unaware of geocaching. By the time we finally left they were hooked and excited about getting out and finding their first cache.
Luckily, another Mega-Event Geolympix Mega: Oxford 2012 was being held much closer than we had previously thought. The opportunity to attend two Mega-Events in short proximity was too much to miss out on. So after saying goodbye Saturday night, we woke up early Sunday morning and set out for Geolympix which was held two hours south in Oxford. We signed in and happened to see a few others who also made it to two Megas in a weekend.
Flags at Piratemania V
We stopped by our new friends Karl and Colin’s booth for their upcoming Mega (Halloween Hides and Creepy Caches Event). We also had a chance to meet Wendy (Dorsetgal & GeoDog) who had the opportunity to carry the Olympic Torch while it traveled through the United Kingdom before the 2012 Summer Games. She was kind enough to let both Bryan and myself hold the torch! After talking to a few different groups of people, we ended up joining a group venturing out to find a Wherigo cache. We were lucky enough to walk around with creator of the cartridge, James (metal-bijou), who had worked on the cartridge during a Geolympix talk about Wherigo. Our band of cachers also found a few other caches including a Letterbox cache, helping me to get both a Letterbox and a Wherigo icon on the same day. After parting ways with the group, we found one more cache as we headed back to our car for the ride home.
I was exhausted after two full days experiencing two unique Megas, and am still in awe of the fact that we are lucky enough to support the community that helped make all of this possible. I have the best job!
“mommy, what can we trade for the furry kitty?” — kthoms0319
Ever find a geocache to only stumble on a bigger surprise? Formulate your most creative caption for this picture. You could win a ‘barely coveted prize’ in the 35th Geocaching.com Caption Contest. This picture was originally posted on the official Geocaching.com Facebook page. Special thanks to geocacher Beverly Six for use of the picture.
What caption would you write for the picture at the top of this post? Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your Geocaching.com username in all entries. Then, explore the captions other geocachers have posted.
Barely Coveted Prize
Try to ‘influence’ the voting process (*nudge*nudge*). “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers, your friends, and family to “like” your caption. Lackeys vote from the top finalists to decide the winner of the contest.
The winner receives this month’s ‘barely coveted prize.’ The prize is a selection of swag from this Geocaching.com swag.
Click on the image to discover the winner from this Geocaching.com Caption Contest
More than 20 Geocaching.com Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 34th Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image to your right to read the winning caption of that contest.
Explore all the winning captions by checking out all the Geocaching.com Caption Contests. If you have suggestions for Geocaching.com Caption Contest photos, send a message and the image to pr@groundspeak.com.
Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Ben Field aka, LackeyBenno, attended the Mega-Event PROJECT: GeoGames 2012 (GC32012). It took place in Leipzig, Germany. Ben has been a Lackey since 2008 and works in IT. Here’s Ben’s account of his adventure.
Written by: Ben Field
Lackey Ben “LackeyBenno”
As I read through the descriptions of the games being hosted at the Geogames Mega-Event in Leipzig, I had two questions running through my head: How many of these games should I actually attempt and what exactly IS a PETling??? The answer to the first question took a few hours to figure out, the second one was answered relatively quickly. A PETling is a small plastic preform for a 2-liter bottle. The clear water-tight containers are frequently used as geocaches in Germany. The PEtlings were the focus of three of the GeoGames I was about to attempt.
The day leading up to the event I managed to take the tram with Jeremy, the Co-Founder and CEO of Geocaching.com, to grab a few caches and explore downtown Leipzig. I’d already seen a small amount of the downtown area having come down the night before to watch Deutschland’s agonizing defeat in the Eurocup semi-finals, but wasn’t about to pass up more opportunities to explore.
PETling
There was an added layer of difficulty finding some of the caches with our limited knowledge of German. After looking for one cache in the wrong area for a lengthy period of time, some nearby geocachers helped us out by explaining that the name of the cache we were looking for translated to “old town hall”, which happened to be the building across the street from where we were searching. We had no trouble logging the find once we had what should have been an obvious giveaway.
Between caches, we also managed to explore the Bach museum, which held some fascinating pieces of history. The museum was positioned next to the site of the Thomasschule, where Bach taught students and composed during the latter part of his life.
After a great meal at Romanushof on Katharinenstraße, and a gracious ride back to the Messegelände from cachers Manuela and Peter (Schulze&Schultze) but better known by the name of their geocaching and dining blog “Schlemmercacher“, we prepared for the opening party. While Jeremy was busy preparing a speech, I represented the US in the opening parade with only Signal at my side. Thankfully, Caro (saxony) was gracious enough to hold the sign for us as we marched through the masses of people gathered for the event.
Dosenfischer in concert
Still feeling some effects of a cold, I wasn’t feeling overly adventurous the next day, but I was too excited for the event to let the cold hold me down. Enjoying the PETling toss first, my enthusiasm grew. By the time the 6:00pm cutoff arrived, I’d made it through all of the games. My new geocaching friend Jana (tkrholic) kept me moving, determined to complete all of the games and keep me company throughout the day.
The games weren’t the only activities at the event. There was ample time during the day to take photos of Jeremy descending the Trau Dich (zip line – see the photo at top) from the top of the 75M high tower. Later in the evening, it was time to take in the geocaching band Dosenfischer and mingle with the masses of geocachers as a thunderstorm passed by. All in all, it was a fantastic day.
We found time the next day to explore some areas of Leipzig with Andy (stash-lab) and Nils (Nilos). A trip to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal monument commemorating the German victory over the French at the Battle of the Nations was a worthwhile glimpse at the history of the location. After snagging the correspondingly named cache, we stumbled upon some other cachers, including ORaMo and Rennrodler. They graciously shared some personalized swag with us. Before heading out, there was still time to snag a few more caches including Connex and then Gleis 26 – Reloaded at the train station. It was a great day to end a great trip.
Ben (far left) at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal Monument with Jeremy (center) and geocachers
