July 25, 2014 / Paige Edmiston /

7 Tips for Achieving All 7 Souvenirs of August

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This August, your mission is to explore more of the geocaching universe and, ultimately, to become one of the super-cachers who earn the highly coveted Achiever souvenir. To unlock this special geocaching achievement, you’ll need to find 6 specific geocache types in the month of August.

Here are 7 tips to help you achieve, well, Achiever status:

1. Be Prepared

This motto is not just for the Boy Scouts. Finding 6 different geocache types requires planning ahead, especially if you live in Traditional-heavy area. Check to see what souvenirs might require leaving your neighborhood, and see if you can tie them into a weekend road trip or business travel. And, of course, always carry your tools of the trade (TOTT) in case opportunity strikes. (Never, never get caught without a pen!)

2. Start Early

With only 6 geocache finds needed to earn the Achiever souvenir, it can be tempting to put them off until the last weekend. Warning: This is not college. Cramming is no longer a safe bet. Start knocking off the souvenirs early in the month to allow room for error.

3. Partner with Friends

Feeling intimidated by finding a new geocache type? That’s what friends are for! As we learned with the Geocaching Personality Quiz, it takes all kinds to make up the geocaching community. Find someone who has a different personality type than you so that you can each specialize in finding specific geocache types. Friends can even help you sprinkle extra awesome on the 7 Souvenirs of August.

4. Throw a Party

To earn the Socializer souvenir, you need to log an Attended at an Event Cache, Mega-Event, or Giga-Event. Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter to learn about upcoming events in your area, or host one yourself! Remember, hosts can log an Attended for their own Event Caches.

5. Host a CITO

Don’t have an Earth Cache near you? No problem! Every neighborhood could use a CITO event. You’ll earn the Nature Lover souvenir and Mother Earth will thank you.

6. Double Check Your Neighborhood

Partner with friends — Sometimes earning a souvenir will take two… or four!

We’ve all done it. You’ve cleared out all the Traditional geocaches in your area, and you feel like there’s nothing left to find. (Okay, you Puzzlers and Collectors. Some of us have done this. Okay, fine. I can only say with certainty that I’ve done this. Happy?) This is your chance to take off your Traditional geocache blinders and see the Multi-Caches, Mystery Caches, and Letterbox Hybrids for what they are: geocaches waiting for your autograph.

7. Put it in Perspective

Yes, earning the Achiever souvenir can be daunting. But let’s put the challenge in perspective: Traditionals are easy to come by, you can attend or host an event, and if there’s not an Earth Cache in your area, you can host a CITO event. Knock those three out and you’re already halfway there! That just leaves three more geocaches to find: one Mystery Cache, one Multi-Cache, and either a Virtual, Whereigo, Letterbox Hybrid, or WebCam Cache. Take a deep breath… and go get ‘em. (But wait for August 1st of course.)

Tell Us Your Tips

Are you an expert in finding a specific type of geocache? If so, leave your tips for finding that geocache type in the comments below. This is going to take teamwork, friends!

July 22, 2014 / Eric Schudiske /

Airstream Find & Go – A Geocaching Trackable Giveaway

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by Christy:

Do you enjoy summer adventures and a good geocaching road trip? We have just the treat for you! Geocaching has teamed up with Airstream for a trackable tag designed for those with a penchant to roam, a heart for exploration and a willingness to Find and Go.

The Airstream Silver Bullet Trackable Tag will make its debut at select Geocaching events in the United States in August. 2,000 tags will be released among the events. If you can’t make it to the events, keep an eye out for Airstream Silver Bullet Trackable Tags in the wild as they make their way from geocache to geocache and travel across the country. Find one and take it some place incredible, whether it’s a big city or the great outdoors, it’s all about having an experience and sharing it with others.

Submit photos of where the Airstream Silver Bullet Trackable takes you for chances to win prizes from Airstream. Photos of the trackable can be submitted to the Airstream Facebook Page. A winning photo will be selected each month starting in August, for Airstream prizes including a t-shirt, a journal, a flashlight, and more! See contest rules for details.

Geocaching Premium Member, FluteFace, is planning to attend the Airstream event in Redmond, WA. “As both a geocacher, and an Airstream (1984 Sovereign) owner, I’ll be there! What a great combination!!” She adds, “We have enjoyed caching with our Airstream and, since we’ve recently equipped it with a solar panel, we intend to find more caches in cool places, off the beaten path.”

To make things even sweeter, geocachers can earn the Socializer Souvenir for attending an event in August as part of the 7 Souvenirs of August program.

airstream 3 — A photo of FluteFace’s Airstream on a caching/camping trip with other geocachers in Washington State’s Deception Pass State Park, about a month after she purchased the Airstream

July 21, 2014 / Eric Schudiske

Dirty Your Hands with a Geocaching Good Deed

Summer Time is the Right Time for CITO

The geocaching community is about giving back by getting a little dirty and clearing a lot of trash. Cache In Trash Out, or CITO, helps preserve the natural beauty of the geocaching world by cleaning up litter, removing invasive species, planting trees and building trails.CITO events are held all year long, especially during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. Check out the CITO calendar for events and join one near you. And who says good deeds go unrewarded? Earn The Nature Lover souvenir during the 7 Souvenirs of August by attending a CITO event in, you guessed it, the month of August.

Interested in bringing friends along on your CITO adventure? Share geocachers in action at CITO events with this CITO video in English or this CITO video in Czech and German.

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July 20, 2014 / Paige Edmiston /

7 Tips to Sprinkle Extra Awesome on the 7 Souvenirs of August

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Geocaching HQ staffers love August. The Seattle weather is perfect. We get to meet geocachers from all over the world who come to log the Geocaching HQ geocache or attend Geocaching Block Party. And each year, we find a new way to challenge each other to geocaching greatness.

This year, we have a collective goal: 100% of the 70+ HQ’ers will earn all 7 Souvenirs of August. This is something we’ll do together, and we would love to see you use the same teamwork-based strategy in your local geocaching community.We’ll carpool to geocaches, help each other solve Mystery Caches, and cheer each other on.

At the same time, we couldn’t resist throwing a healthy dose of competition into the mix.

To add in an extra sprinkle of challenge and fun to keep us geocaching all month long, we’ve formed seven teams that, in addition to supporting each other in achieving the 7 Souvenirs of August, will compete against each other to be the best in the following categories:

First team to have every member complete all 7 Souvenirs of August
Most geocache finds in August
Greatest distance traveled
Greatest number of Travel Bugs moved
Average difficulty rating
Average terrain rating
Best geocaching-themed Instagram video with the hashtag #7SofA

This summer, you and your family, friends, coworkers, and geocaching organization can take the 7 Souvenirs of August to the next level too.

Here are Geocaching HQ’s 7 steps to attaining geocaching greatness this August:

1. Break into teams. Here at HQ, we decided to randomly assign teams to allow staffers to spend time with coworkers they don’t usually get to work with. Dividing by skill level or geocaching interest (i.e. the perfect blend of geocaching personality types) is also a great way to ensure the competition will be close.

coolderek1 — Last year was all about orange headbands; this year, we’re rockin’ green sunglasses.

2. Give your team an identity. Team names are a must. Without one, what will you chant when you are victorious? Our teams are (surprise, surprise) named after the 7 Souvenirs of August: The Nature Lovers, The Explorers, The Puzzlers, The Collectors, The Socializers, and The Sightseers. (We’re all going to be Achievers, after all.) Bonus points for jerseys, headbands, sunglasses, and 7 Souvenirs of August SWAG.

3. Set up a leaderboard. Share a spreadsheet to track individual and team stats, or if you’re technically inclined, work some GPX magic.

4. Strategize. Get together with your team to talk shop. Will someone host a midnight Event Cache so the team can earn all 7 Souvenirs first? Or will you focus on find count or terrain rating? Is your team made up of people who are great at solving puzzles, climbing trees, or road-tripping? (Hint: Eating pizza while strategizing helps the brain think. It’s science.)

5. Make a calendar of geocaching outings. Once you have your strategy, plan when you’ll make it happen. Geocaching together is a great way to keep inspired and avoid the dreaded DNF.

6. Create a shared online space. Setting up a Facebook group or email chain is a great way to share updates, make sure you’re on track to achieving your goals (and winning!), and keep the team engaged and inspired.

7. Capture your favorite geocaching moments. So maybe your team won’t find the most geocaches or travel the furthest distance, but you can show off that you had the most fun. Create a geocaching highlight reel and be sure to share it on your favorite social media platforms. Don’t forget to use the #7SofA hashtag.

Ready to start plotting your August strategy? Share this video and invite your friends to join in the fun:

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Now Tell Us Your Tips

How will you and your geocaching organization sprinkle a little extra awesome on the 7 Souvenirs of August?

July 13, 2014 / Derek H /

The Secret Double Lives of Geocaching Containers

Not all of these containers we specifically developed as geocaches.

Even though some geocache containers seem like they were handcrafted specifically for geocaching, most of them have been repurposed from something else. With things like Ammo cans, it’s pretty obvious what they used to be. For others, it requires a little bit of a deeper look into history:

Those Small, Clear Geocache Tubes aka Preform PET Tubes

These small, waterproof, durable containers are perfect for micro-sized geocaches. They can be attached to different camouflage and will last a long time. Plus, the larger tubes can hold both a logbook and a pencil. But their story isn’t just geocaching. In fact, you’ve probably used these hundreds of times and not even know it. Hint: There’s a key word in the heading to this section, “preform”. These small tubes are manufactured to be heated and expanded to form plastic bottles. Check out this video to see an animation of the process:

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Nano Caches

Oft-maligned in the geocaching community, these smaller-than-small, magnetic geocaches are popular for high-muggle areas and urban geocaches. With so little room inside, it’s hard to believe that these geocaches were actually created for a reason other than geocaching. Mark Yvanovich, one of the early makers of these containers told us a little bit about the history, “These containers were originally LED blinking jewelry. The space where the log sheet is stored was where the button cell batteries went. They came with a separate rare earth magnet that could be used to attach it to clothing, etc…” Once these lights obtained new lives as geocaches, Mark and his wife made thousands of these, hand rolling all of the logbooks!

Bison Tubes

What did the buffalo say when he dropped his kid off at school? Bison. #dadjokes

It’s no secret that these tubes look nothing like real bison. Not even close. So what’s the reason behind the name? These containers were originally created by a company named Bison Designs. The company originally made aluminum carabiners in multiple shapes, including dog bones, mouse ears and more. Seeking out new things to create out of aluminum, the need for a small, waterproof container to carry medicine in arose—and thus, the Bison Tube was born.

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Tag: Souvenirs