The world is invited to Groundspeak HQ in Seattle, Washington USA to celebrate the global phenomenon of geocaching. Check out the cache page, and log your “Will Attend” to meet geocachers from around the world and talk with the Lackeys and Volunteer Reviewers who help power the Geocaching.com experience.
Each year, Geocaching.com celebrates International Geocaching Day on the third Saturday in August by hosting the Geocaching Block Party. The Geocaching Block Party on August 18 runs from 11am to 3pm at Fremont’s Solstice Plaza by the JP Patches statue. Geocachers can challenge themselves with beginner, intermediate, and advanced geocaching courses. They can also explore the Fremont neighborhood where Groundspeak is based and win prizes with “Fremont Funventures”—all while swapping geocaching stories. The public is invited to explore the family-friendly adventure of geocaching and meet geocachers from around the world. More than 2000 people from a dozen countries attended last year’s Block Party.
Around the world, there will be nearly 200 events in more than a dozen counties. Anyone who logs a cache or an “Attended” for an Event Cache on August 18 this year earns the 2012 International Geocaching Day souvenir for their Geocaching.com profile.
Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
Geocachers from Foundation Fitness competing in the Wild Canyon Games Geocaching Event. The circle highlights a helicopter
Four geocachers finally stood atop the rock covered peak of a desert vista. The geocachers could see the horizon stretch out before them for miles. Geocaching.com Lackeys Colin Williams (Colin) and Jenn Seva (MissJenn), accompanied by two other geocachers, climbed high enough to look down on the flight path of an observation helicopter.
Logging a geocache near the Wild Canyon Games venueLackey Troy Kaser running in the Triathlon
There were no homes to be seen. They squinted to even find a road. But hidden on the largest geocaching course in the world – 55 square miles – 450 geocaches waited in crevasses and cracks, bushes and trees, to be discovered. Colin and Jenn were part of one of two Geocaching.com teams competing in the Wild Canyon Games. The Wild Canyon Games is a team-based adventure race competition.
Colin and Jenn’s GPS coordinates told them a geocache was somewhere on that peak. They teamed up with other geocachers to find it. Geocaching is just one event in two days worth of adventure games.
In the geocaching event hundreds of competitors had four hours to accumulate the most points – by logging geocaches and recording the unique codes inside. Each geocache carried a point value based on its difficulty, terrain, and distance from the start.
Lackeys Annie Love and Nicole Bliss ready to download waypoints for the Geocaching Event
The course crawled with more than 600 geocachers. Teams plotted strategy to unlock the geocaching route they believe would deliver them the most points. They raced the clock.
Nearly 130 teams from the Pacific Northwest of the United States competed in the games.
Lackey Ernesto Ricks after riding the bike course
Colin says they had to take the long detour to try to find just one cache – to help even the playing field, “Sure, we climbed the highest mountain in the area. If we spent the whole time geocaching it would have been unfair to the rest of the field.”
Lackeys helped the rest of the field prepare for the event. The Lackey teams assisted competitors by downloading the waypoints on GPS devices and offering GPS device training before the geocaching event began. Groundspeak’s two teams of seven also competed in an Olympic length relay triathlon and a seven stage relay which included, among other obstacles, a 50 foot canyon swing, an elevated ropes course, and a zip-line.
Lackeys MissJenn and Colin pointing the mountain they climbed
Lackey Annie Love (Love) completed the zip line safely. But she says, her fate seemed a little unsure at the top of the tower, “As I was about to step off the Zip Line platform, I had a quick thought of ‘OMG, I am going to die!!’ and then I thought to myself ‘My team needs me.’ and I leaped off.”
The weekend wrapped up with a team relay race called Creek to Peak that features Cyclo-Cross, an obstacle course, a lake sprint swim, two mountain sprints, and much more.
But for Lackeys like Constance Baldwin, it was the geocaching that defined the weekend. She says, “Geocaching brought us together in sometimes adverse terrain and we cared for each other. It was extremely profound for me personally and made me love the game and Groundspeak and what we do even more.”
Wild Canyon Games 2013 is already being planned for next year. When asked by the emcee of the event, “Are you coming back next year?” Lackey Bethany Buer simply said, “Duh!” And we hope to see you there.
A special thanks to the Wild Canyon Games organizers and Paul Tannahill (Pablo Mac) and his team for preparing the geocaching course.
Geocaching.com Teams at the Wild Canyon Games (not pictured Lackey Volunteers Cathy Hornback and Tom Phillips )
Editor’s note: 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. Cathy Hornback aka, Prying Pandora, attended the Mega-Event GeoWoodstock X (GC2X6ZV). It took place in Indiana, USA. Cathy has been a Lackey since 2009 and works in Customer Relations. Here’s Cathy’s account of her trip.
Cathy aka Prying Pandora
Written By: Cathy Hornback
On Memorial Day weekend 2012, I had the honor of representing Groundspeak with our CEO and co-founder Jeremy Irish at GeoWoodstock X in the small town of Sellersburg, IN. Sellersburg is about 10 miles north of the much larger city of Louisville, Kentucky.
GeoWoodstock is not just any event, and this was not just any GeoWoodstock. The event is held annually at different locations in the US, and for its 10th anniversary, GeoWoodstock returned to its roots in the Louisville area where the first GeoWoodstock took place. The event has grown from 75 attendees at GeoWoodstock I, to 1500 attendees at GeoWoodstock X!
I was eager to begin my Mega-Event adventure so I booked the first flight out of Seattle on Thursday morning, which meant I needed to be at the airport at 4 AM. I hoped to attend an event in Louisville on Thursday evening after I arrived, but my layover in Houston was extended due to a delayed flight so I did not get there in time. One of the nice things about a big Mega-Event is that there are many opportunities to interact with the community spread out over the weekend, so I settled in my hotel for the night looking forward to Friday’s events.
Belle of Louisville
Friday began with a delightful event, a cruise aboard the Belle of Louisville with 650 fellow geocachers. The Belle of Louisville is the oldest river steamboat still in operation, and it’s a National Historic Landmark. We boarded to the merry sound of the boat’s calliope and spent several hours cruising the Ohio River, socializing, and viewing the massive steam engine and boilers that power the boat’s paddle wheel. An afternoon of geocaching with new friends followed along with a visit to Churchill Downs, the location of the Kentucky Derby. Soon it was time for the evening event, the Miles of Smiles Meet & Greet. Set up like a geocaching street fair, it was a chance to meet more of the community. The evening air was a relief from the powerful heat wave that had settled over the area for the weekend.
Saturday was the big day – GeoWoodstock X. I met up with Jeremy for breakfast, who was back in town after spending that Friday attending the opening of the Geocaching Adventures Maze Exhibit in Dayton, Ohio. When he and I arrived at the event, we were greeted by a crowd of geocachers and a traffic jam of more cachers arriving.
GeoWoodstock Wedding - Signal gives away the bride
A big hot air balloon was being inflated on the hillside where a huge Hollywood-style event sign had been set up. The temperature was even hotter than the day before – 93°F and humid – but cachers are an intrepid bunch and there was a smile on every face. A full day of activities awaited all of the attendees – a group photo, silent auction, educational sessions, caches in the park to find, a vendor expo, catered lunch, a reviewer panel for Q&A, and more. There was also something you rarely get to see – a geo-wedding!
Two cachers from Texas, Crossmage and Phoenix Lady, were married on the GeoWoodstock stage, with Signal giving away the bride! I had a wonderful day meeting more new geocachers than I can count and putting faces to names I had only seen online. I love our friendly, helpful, and clever community. All too soon, it was time for the closing ceremony and announcement of GeoWoodstock XI’s location. It will all happen again next year in Lakeland, FL!
Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly twenty Mega-Events worldwide. Arne Moen, aka, RandolphAgarn, attended the Lisbon, Portugal Mega-Event 12 years Geocaching – Portugal (GC35GH8). Arne has been a Lackey since 2009 and is a Software Developer. Here’s Arne’s account of his trip.
Written By: Arne Moen
Arne (on right) with local geocacher and Olympian João Costa
I was in Lisbon, Portugal to celebrate 12 Years Geocaching Portugal with local geocachers.
I was delighted to meet all these geocachers from Portugal. Of course, I knew that there are geocachers all over the world. But to talk to them in person about FTF’s (First to Finds), Multi-Caches, and Trackables in person made it all more real.
Everyone was very kind to me and I was excited to give away some Geocaching.com merchandise like Trackable tags. I strongly suspect I would have felt equally welcome without the swag. I met many interesting individuals and some really sweet dogs. I met a geologist who was born in Mozambique, an underwater archeologist, an Olympic athlete, a C-130 pilot, a cartographer, and many more individuals whose backgrounds we didn’t discuss. Each one of them was a treat to talk to.
Geocacher by a cork tree
While chatting with a geocacher, I recalled that a significant amount of the world’s cork – as in a bottle or on a bulletin board – comes from Portugal. I had heard that it was the bark of a tree. Though I had seen a lot of bark in my lifetime and I couldn’t imagine how the thing in the wine bottle was attached to the outside of a tree.
I mentioned this to my new geocacher friend. He told me cork trees can be found all over Portugal and immediately set off trying to find one in the park. A few minutes later he returned to bring me to a cork tree. The bark was thick, and firm yet spongy. And suddenly I could see where cork comes from.
Night caching in Portugal
I found a couple of geocaches at the Mega-Event. But my first evening in Portugal I went out and found some geocaches with some new friends.
We began our evening with a traditional Portuguese meal: cod, ham, and fried potatoes, covered with a kind of hollandaise sauce. We also enjoyed “vinho verde,” which means green wine in Portuguese. The greenness in this case is in reference to the newness of the wine. The grapes had been picked, squeezed and fermented in the last year.
After our meal the four of use set out into the streets of Lisbon looking for geocaches. This was in an old neighborhood, between the eleventh century castle perched on the hill, and the Rio Tejo, the river from which some of the great explorers like Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco da Gama began their voyages of discovery.
Ultra Violet Night Cache Clue
We started in front of an old cathedral across the street from our restaurant. There was a geocache, Catedral (GCZWBV), just down the street. As the guest, I was allowed to make the first attempt. I was nervous with three experienced geocachers watching me. I was still suffering the affects of from jet lag. I skipped over the geocache at first, then found it a few seconds later.
The next geocache, Portas do Sol (GC1F9NG), was in a little square that overlooked the river. We took several seconds to enjoy the view before looking for the geocache. We found the geocache in one spot and a second log book in another. This was my 100th find and my furthest find east of my home coordinates. It was a fantastic spot to hit a milestone.
Then we went down the hill towards the plaza at the site of the former royal palace. This area of town was relatively new. An earthquake and tsunami wiped out this neighborhood in 1755 so it had to be rebuilt. We knew exactly where the next geocache, No Paço do Terreiro [Lisboa] (GC13Z3E), was hidden from a spoiler photo. Before we were finished signing the log, a police offer walked up to ask us what kind of tomfoolery we were engaged in.
Travel Bug haircut at the Mega-Events
I felt like I was back in high school, getting caught by an authority figure. Here we were, four adult men, each with full lives running around downtown in the middle of the night. Isn’t there something more we should doing with our lives? No, it turns out. We were having an adventure. What could be better than that? We explained we were geocaching. He told us he knew what that was and let us replace the cache and let us go about our evening.
All of the caches we found that night were traditional urban micros. They were good geocaches. But the food, the company, the hunt, the adventure that evening, and the Mega-Event experience, made my trip magical.
Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly twenty Mega-Events worldwide. Nicole Bliss, aka Louie Bliss, attended the Iowa, USA Mega-Event MOGA 2012 (GCQM9C). Nicole has been a Lackey since 2010 and works in Customer Relations. This is Nicole’s account of her trip.
Written By: Nicole (Louie Bliss)
Nicole (Louis Bliss) with local geocachers
Location: Rathbun Lake outside Moravia, Iowa, 60 miles south of nearest large city of Des Moine.
Time: 1pm, April 28, 2012
Who: 200 cachers competing (more than 1000 in attendance), including kids, elderly and one stroller
The Goal: Find as many caches as possible in 2.5 hours
Terrain: Bushwhacking through prairie, sand dunes, climbing trees
Weather: Luckily dry, mostly cloudy and a mild 60°F
The scene: Everyone lines up at the starting lines. Teams plan out their strategies. The 40 caches are all downloaded. Most people have already found 1 to 200 caches in the last few days on the way to MOGA and they are hungry for more. Director Bumanfam makes a motivating speech and blows a whistle. The competition is on!
Crowd of geocachers at MOGA
Most people go to the closest cache and then quickly disperse. To make the process faster, each cache is a decon container with a nail punch inside. Each team has a punch card. They punch this card when they find the cache, and then run on to the next. It’s a race against time and other cachers.
MOGA is different from many other Mega-Events. It is mostly based around this competition, although there are plenty of other activities and side events. There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd place medals for three different age groups and three categories – male and female individual, two-person and four-person teams. This gives ample opportunity for people to get an award.
I’m proud that I participated with my new caching buddy, ScorpioRed48, and we found 13 caches with minutes to spare. Three other teams found all 40 caches within 2.5 hours. The overall winning team found all 40 within 1 hour and 41 minutes, and one of the participants even swam across the lake to race ahead. Very impressive!
This year’s theme was a 1950’s sock hop. People dressed in poodle skirts and danced to Elvis all weekend. The traditional night-before-MOGA event even had a live band to keep people dancing in the brisk night air.
Geocachers dressed in sock hop apparel
This was my 6th Mega-Event including the Groundspeak Lost & Found Celebration and Geocaching Block Party, so I thought had a good idea of what to expect going into it. I had no idea the competition would be so much fun. Most people joined for the social aspect, but of course there were the die-hard athletes.
At the event, I spent some quality time with past and present the MOGA organizers. It was really eye-opening to see the detailed planning that goes into an event like this. Given all the possibilities of what could go wrong, I was amazed at how smoothly it ran and any minor hiccups were quickly resolved and attendees had no idea.
I think this is because the directors of past MOGAs stay on as advisers and support organizers each year. This way, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch, especially with the Mega-Event being in a different location every time.
This is the 9th annual MOGA event and fourth one that’s achieved a Mega-Event status. Well over 1,000 people pre-registered and plenty more showed up that day to join the festivities. For a very rural area that was suddenly bombarded by 1,000 cachers, I’m sure the local farmers were wondering why there was so much traffic and people were pulling over to the side of the road every .1 mile. Nothing to see here folks, just a Tupperware container at a road sign…
MOGA 2012 (GC3GN2E) will be in Shelbyville, Illinois. Next year’s theme: Cachelot – Quest for the Dragon’s Cache. If their YouTube video is any indicator, it’s going to be epic.
