Watch a Geocaching HQ’er Take On a 5/5 FTF Challenge
About 4 hours from Geocaching HQ in Seattle, sitting atop Liberty Bell Mountain is Tensegrity on Liberty (GC1G5BY), the oldest unfound geocache in Washington State. The reason it remains unfound? It’s a Difficulty 5, Terrain 5 geocache that requires a long hike, a scramble and 400 feet of fifth-class technical climbing.
In our new video, Geocaching HQ’er Derek, along with a muggle friend, attempts to be the FTF and earn the new Geocaching Road Trip ‘15 Let’s Get Extreme souvenir. You’ll probably recognize him from some of our other videos, but outside of (trying to) act and writing things for Geocaching.com, Derek is an avid rock climber. Watch the new video to see if they make it.
Geocoins—it’s hard to imagine Geocaching without them, Travel Bugs, or any other kind of trackable. But for an entire year and a half after geocaching was born (in May of the year 2000), that was how geocaching was done. Caching primarily involved using GPS technology to discover ammo cans hidden deep in the woods, then the seekers would write long entries into pre-placed log books.
The Father of the Geocoin: Mr. Jon Stanley, aka Moun10Bike
But geocaching’s path changed forever (and for the better) when Jon Stanley, aka Moun10Bike, created and placed the very first geocoin in a cache near Deception Pass in Washington State, USA.
Not only is Jon a legend of geocaching, he’s also a Charter Member and now works as a System Analyst/Lackey with Groundspeak. We caught up with Jon between bug fixes, forums posts, meetings to keep everyone in the loop, and geocaching on his lunch break, to find out more about how geocoins came to be.
What gave you the idea to place a geocoin?
Back in 2001, I was coming up on my 100th cache find. I wanted a signature item to launch in time for that milestone and had heard about military challenge coins from a fellow cacher. They sounded like the perfect geocaching item – compact, easy to carry, durable – so I designed and minted a set of personalized coins that I dubbed “geocoins.”
Here it is, folks: Moun10Bike Geocoin 001. Try not to hyperventilate.
When was the first Geocoin placed? The coin was placed September 30th of 2001. I placed it in a cache that still stands out today in my mind as one of the best (even though it has since been archived) – Light House Point. It involved a rickety aluminum ladder that you could only access during low tide. I climbed the ladder. I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it because I have a fear of heights. But knowing I wanted to place that coin in a special cache got me up the ladder.
So the first coin was placed in that cache?
I kept the first one for my personal collection. So it was number two… 002. That was the first one placed.
And then what happened?
I placed it in there and didn’t think that much about it. Well you know, it started off really slowly. It was about 6 months after I placed or minted my coins and placed them that anyone else started making coins that I know of. They became desired items. So rather than people seeing them and moving them on, the goal was to get to it first and keep it for their collection. It was almost like a Beanie Baby craze. There was the Geocoin craze.
How many Geocoins do you think you’ve placed out in the world at this point? I’ve sent out over 1200 of my Moun10Bike geocoins so far, and over 1500 coins if you count my coinaments (a Christmas tree ornament that is trackable and shaped like a coin)!
How many Geocoins do you own? I stopped counting in 2006. At that point, it was around 1000. I have at least five times that many now.
Jon, aka “Moun10Bike”, and his son Jameson, aka “Moun10Tyke”, on an adventure a few years ago.
What is something that most people would be surprised to learn about you? Hmmm, I’m pretty boring. Would it surprise people if I said that my wife and son can barely tolerate caching?
Getting abducted on the E.T. Highway
Any parting thoughts? From computers to the web, to gadgets, and then foremost the outdoors, I just couldn’t ask for a better hobby.
Sure is crazy to think that any experiences you’ve had with geocoins, Travel Bugs, or trackables lead back to Jon Stanley. Do you collect geocoins, or geocache with trackables? How have they changed the way you cache? Tell us your stories below!
Original geocachers Scott Martin (left) and Geocaching Co-Founder Jeremy Irish hiding the ill-fated Greed Devil Duck
It starts like this a couple of weeks ago. People at Geocaching HQ had been sharing stories about some of their personal highlights of celebrating 15 years of geocaching. Jeremy Irish, the CEO of Geocaching and one of the founders who launched Geocaching.com in 2000 said, “So, I have a mystery story to share…”
This mystery dates back to the beginning of geocaching. It was 2001. A new game piece called a Travel Bug® had recently been introduced into the geocaching. Although most players had not yet heard of Travel Bugs many players, including Jeremy were sending out the trackable tags attached to items.
Geocaching.com homepage circa early 2002
Jeremy says, “When we first started Travel Bugs, I released 7 Deadly Ducks in the wild.” Each of the new trackables were based on one of the deadly sins. Devil ducks with the names of Sloth, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Lust and Anger head out into the world to travel geocache to geocache. Did you catch that? Only six of the deadly sins were listed.
Jeremy says, “Well, I actually only released six, since the Greed Devil Duck, conveniently enough, was placed in a geocache that was never listed on Geocaching.com and may still be hidden in Virginia.”
Get your detective hats fitted.
Here’s The Search for the Lost Sin of Greed – A Trackable Tale.
Jeremy went on to say:
On December 16, 2001 I was visiting Scott Martin, a longtime friend who lived in Franklin County, Virginia and we decided to place a geocache there together. He had an old decoy duck and I put my Devil Duck in there along with some trade items and a logbook. We then headed over to either Waid Park or Franklin County Recreation Park – we’re not quite sure. I remember hiking on a short loop trail and going down a hill next to a small pond to place it. Sadly, the coordinates were lost before I was able to list it as a geocache. It may still be there today.
Currently Franklin County Virginia offers fewer than than 100 active geocaches to try to find. Geocaches are also located in both Waid Park and Franklin County Recreation Park, locations where Jeremy believes he may have hid the lost devil duck. So maybe the most difficult geocache find in Franklin county is a geocache that’s never been active. If you lived near Franklin County Virginia, would you search for The Lost Sin of Greed?
We recently had the pleasure of receiving the following letter from Bannack of Cave Creek, Arizona. Here’s an excerpt:
Hello, my name is Bannack and I am a geocacher from Cave Creek, Arizona. I would like to say thank you for everything about Groundspeak and the geocaching because if it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t be seeing amazing places, going on treasure hunts, and meeting great people. You have made my life change in a good way. I would like to ask some questions about geocaching to help me with my geocaching career.
A few of us here at Groundspeak/Geocaching HQ answered with some of our thoughts:
Hi Bannack,
My name is Andrea and I have worked at Geocaching HQ for 2 years. Through geocaching, I have met many wonderful people, yourself included! I’ll do my best to answer your questions with the help of a few friends at Geocaching HQ…
If I had to pick only one geocache to go to in the U.S. where do you think I should go?
From Andrea:
I personally am excited for my upcoming trip to find the very first geocache. It’s near Portland, and it’s called GCGV0P Original Stash Tribute Plaque. One day I’d like to hike the Zion Narrows in Utah to find Earthcache GCZ5YD Zion Narrows.
GCGV0P – Original Stash Tribute PlaqueGCZ5YD Zion Narrows
From Cathy:
There are too many amazing geocaches in amazing places to pick just one, so I’d say go to visit GCK25B, Geocaching HQ. It is a unique experience to visit HQ and there are many, many excellent geocaches nearby to experience as well. The cache I am looking forward to finding one day is GC2B034 Necropolis of Britannia Manor III in Texas. I will get there someday!
GCK25B Geocaching HeadquartersGC2B034 Necropolis of Britannia Manor III
From Derek:
My favorites are EarthCaches, but it’s hard for me to pick just one. I’m looking forward to finding GC1F7W3 A Dynamic Earth, on the summit of Mt. St. Helens, this summer!
GC1F7W3 A Dynamic Earth
Which mega geocaching events have the best trackables and geocoins to trade and keep?
From Annie:
At just about any event I’ve attended, I’ve found at least one geocacher showing off their personal trackable collections or offering up their personal trackables for trade. However, if trackables are your passion, you won’t find a better place to embrace that passion than at a Geocoinfest event. These events typically happen twice a year – once in the United States and once in Europe and they draw diehard trackable enthusiasts from all over the world. You’ll have the opportunity to browse the latest and greatest in Geocoin designs from vendors or find new friends willing to trade. Just make sure you set a budget before leaving the house when attending Geocoinfest – all the beautiful new coins or rare collector coins may be hard to resist.
Geocoins!
From Cathy:
Geocoinfest – there are lots of trackables traded at every event, but nothing comes close to this.
From Derek:
Every Mega I’ve been to has had tons of trackable trading. Although, I bet the Giga events in Germany have even more since so many people attend.
Should I go to the Geocaching Block Party this year?
From Andrea:
Absolutely. The 2015 Block Party on Saturday, August 15, will be our 6th and last, to give us more opportunities to focus on other ideas and projects. You’ll get to see the HQ cache and get/trade some great trackables. I also recommend signing up for one of the HQ tours. Then on Sunday, don’t miss the Going APE Mega-Event up north.
I’m posting this to our blog to give the geocaching community a chance to share their answers to your questions, too. These will be included in my letter back to you. Happy caching!
Best, Andrea
Now it’s your turn, geocachers! Who, what, where, when, how, and why do you geocache? What would answers would you suggest to Bannack?
Anfang dieses Jahres folgte das Videoteam des Geocaching-Hauptquartiers einer Gruppe von mutigen Geocachern bei einem bisher einmaligen Unterfangen. Ihr ultimatives Ziel: den schwierigsten EarthCache der Welt zu finden. Das Video ihrer Reise ist jetzt fertig. Schau es Dir hier an.
EarthCaches sind aus einer Partnerschaft zwischen Geocaching.com und der Geologischen Gesellschaft der USA entstanden. Es gibt dabei keinen gegenständlichen Behälter. Dafür vermittelt der EarthCache Dir eine geowissenschaftliche Lektion. An den angegebenen Koordinaten müssen Fragen beantwortet werden, um einen Fund zu loggen.
Schau das Video an und folge diesen begeisterten Geocachern auf ihrer Reise zum Mittelpunkt des EarthCaches.
CITO-Wochenende verlängert
Du hast jetzt zwei weitere Tage Zeit, um das CITO-Souvenir für 2015 zu erhalten. Zwischen Freitag, 24. April, und Montag, 27. April, bekommst Du das Souvenir für die Teilnahme an einem CITO-Event.
Durch CITO (Cache In Trash Out) [Cache rein, Müll raus] erhalten Geocacher ihr Spielfeld, also die Erde, in einem großartigen Zustand. CITO-Events sind Treffen, bei denen Geocacher Müll und eingewanderte Arten entfernen, Wege bauen und Gebiete restaurieren.
