Do you know the difference between geocaching souvenirs, badges, and icons? They’re all virtual pieces of art for geocachers to earn, collect, and show off. However, each serves a different purpose in different parts of your Geocaching profile.
Let’s break it down.
Does travel to extreme locations, facing the unknown, and surviving harsh winter wilderness sound like you? Join the hunt to discover lost treasures from The Revenant.
This winter, in association with Geocaching HQ, Twentieth Century Fox Filmed Entertainment has hidden a series of twenty limited edition movie props — as Trackables! Launching in select cities across the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Australia, the movie props will travel from location to location as geocachers log their finds and place them in a new geocache to continue the artifact’s journey. Share your find via social media by posting a photo using #TheRevenant. Check out more details on the Fox Movies page (scroll to the middle).
About the movie: Inspired by true events, The Revenant is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption. The Revenant is directed and co-written by renowned filmmaker, Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel).
There are even several geocaches out there (predating this movie) about Hugh Glass, including “Legendary Hunters – Hugh Glass” in Pennsylvania and “Old West #9 Hugh Glass” in Utah.
The full Trackable list:
We can’t wait to see the adventures unfold as these Trackables travel to incredible places and continue to be discovered! Do you see your favorite movie prop trackable in this trailer?
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Earlier this year, the National Council for Exams of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) kicked off the Surveyor Trackable and #PSNoBoundaries Geocaching Contest. Geocachers were challenged to explore benchmarking by taking a selfie with a NCEES trackable at a NGS marker. The winning photographer would receive a trip for two to the 2015 Geocaching Block Party in Seattle.
As a twist of geocaching fate would have it, the winning photographer was Lieutenant Bob Cizaukas (Username: cizzors). Bob happens to be the geocacher who made Geocaching in Space possible. In 2013, 11 trackables hitched a ride to the International Space Station with Astronaut Rick Mastracchio. Bob convinced Mastracchio to take the trackables into space with him on Expedition 38. He also made this an interactive experience for elementary school students in Connecticut by giving each trackable to a school so that students could follow its adventure into space.
Thanks to NCEES, Bob will now be bringing one of the trackables that made the voyage to space to Geocaching Block Party for other geocachers to enjoy! We asked him to tell us about his experience with #PSNoBoundaries.
How long have you been geocaching?
I started geocaching with my wife, Jennifer, my daughter Karisa and my son Ethan (little cizzors) in November 2010.
Why did you start geocaching?
I geocache with my family and friends to exercise and be adventurous. My wife likes hiking, but I seemed to enjoy hiking more with the challenge of finding a cache. We also really enjoy the great places we have discovered and the friends we have made through geocaching.
I learned about geocaching through a chance conversation with a hot air balloon pilot about navigation. The pilot, while explaining how her GPS helps guide her hot air balloon, mentioned that she also uses the GPS for geocaching which intrigued me and so it began. I don’t recall her name and never saw her again after that 30 minute conversation in November 2010.
Tell us about the NCEES #PSNoBoundaries winning photo!
My family had never found a benchmark before so we were excited about finding one and taking a picture. We noticed there was one on the Thomaston, CT Police Department, not far from our home. We activated our new trackable, attached a bicycle reflector (since we have seen surveyors use reflectors) and headed out. My daughter Karisa, age 7, my son Ethan, age 10 and our dog Pluto, age 7 months, headed out in our geomobile to search for the benchmark. We found it and intended on getting Pluto in the photo but he wouldn’t stay still and didn’t make it into the final submission. We took the photo and a couple months later we found out we won!
The picture was of NCEES surveyor TB (TB726TN) at Benchmark LX0604.
What was the first thing you did when you learned you won tickets to Geocaching Block Party?
When I found out I won, I called my wife at work and told her the exciting news. I have always wanted to go to the Geocaching Block Party but have not had the opportunity.
What is the #1 thing you are excited for at Block Party?
I am most excited to be able to show everyone attending my Geocaching in Space bug (TB5JJN1) and the ISS geocache log.
What tip would you share with new players who want to start having fun with trackables?
My advice to new geocachers wanting to have fun with trackables is to do your best to log them and drop them into another cache as soon as possible. I also like to post a picture when possible. Attending geocaching events and asking questions to other cachers is how I found the best information about trackables.
We also asked Bob to take the What’s Your Geocaching Road Trip ‘15 Vehicle? quiz. His result was “Station Wagon.” (Although we’re guessing he’ll be taking an airplane to Block Party!)
The last Geocaching Block Party will be Saturday, August 15. Explore new geocaching adventures, celebrate 15 years of geocaching, and hang out with nearly 3000 of your new best friends. There will be plenty of fun events, food trucks, interactive exhibits and vendors. Plus, it’s a great way to earn the Meet Your Road Trip Crew souvenir. Mark your Will Attend here.
One simple question spin up into a first in the world of Scrabble. It all started when long time geocacher Roy Alexander, RCA777 was playing a game of Scrabble with a friend. He asked whether they would accept the word “geocache” in the game if it were played. They said, no. But Roy wasn’t about to take no for an answer.
At the time the word geocache was considered unplayable because it was not yet an official word in the Scrabble Dictionary. Roy jumped at the opportunity when he saw Hasbro announce the #ScrabbleWordShowDown contest on the Hasbro Game Night Facebook page. On March 12th, 2014, RCA77 suggested the word geocache to Hasbro.
“I posted a screenshot of my suggestion in geocaching groups on Facebook – and the response was remarkable. Geocachers spread the word and supported the cause; things snowballed very quickly. Hasbro announced that GEOCACHE had made it to list of the final 16 words.” said RCA777.
“Geocache” quickly beat out the competition and moved up the charts to the final round knocking out the word “zen”. It was officially announced as the winner on April 10th, 2014, landing it’s appearance in the Official Scrabble Dictionary later that year.
Due to the interest from the fanatic geocaching community, Geocaching HQ reached out to Scrabble to create a partnership. Hasbro had 800 trackable tags made and distributed at the 2014 Geocaching Block Party in Seattle. Copies of the new dictionary were also given away as prizes to lucky geocachers. The tags were hot items and geocachers couldn’t wait to get their hands on them!
“I was very happy when GEOCACHE beat the word BITCOIN; I was thrilled when GEOCACHE trounced COSPLAY… I cannot put into words (!) how ecstatic I was when ZEN took second place and GEOCACHE won the prize.
Everywhere I went, there was a Scrabble and GEOCACHE story – CNN, Good Morning America, CBC here in Canada… everywhere!” RCA777
The Scrabble success story isn’t the only example of a geocacher who combined their favorite hobbies. That’s what happened when Geocaching HQ heard about the popularity of Airstream RV’s with the Geocachers who love to explore and camp along the way.
Geocachers have been known to travel long distances in their RV’s for the perfect story worthy geocaching moment. Airstream and Geocaching were a perfect fit.
When we asked longtime Geocacher and Airstream enthusiast, FluteFace, about her favorite hobbies she said, “When we’re on a trip in the Airstream, geocaching is almost always involved. Most geocachers cache when they travel – what better way to travel than in an Airstream.”
During the Summer of 2014 Airstream and Geocaching HQ worked together to create 2,000 Trackables tags to be passed out at Geocaching events across the United States. Geocachers swarmed the events closest to their home location in the hopes of receiving an Airstream tag.
Nancy aka “yukionna” hosted the event Silver Bullet Launch Party in New Hampshire where her newly renovated 1964 Airstream Bambi II trailer made an appearance.
“My husband, Brian, and I have owned Airstream trailers since 2002 and we started geocaching in 2008. One of our favorite things to do is to travel in our Airstream while geocaching along the way. Each summer we plan a couple of camping adventures to different destinations which include finding interesting caches during our trip. When I saw the promotion last year between Airstream and Groundspeak, it was a dream come true for me and I wanted to become involved.” – yukionna
With ten geocacher appreciation events and over 750 attendees geocachers were literally happy campers. What hobbies do you think would be a geocaching match made in heaven?
