Holiday Geocaching Gift Guide

Unwrap the Thrill of Geocaching

Let Shop Geocaching and our International Retailers guide you to the perfect holiday gifts for the geocachers in your life. Wrap them in must-have geocaching clothing and gear, or stuff their pockets with shiny new swag.

Here are some of the most exciting gift ideas from Shop Geocaching. You can bundle your loved ones in this new Geocaching Scarf for cold weather cache runs. They’ll impress other cachers with a clever geocache hide using one of nearly two dozen cool cache containers. Or does your geocacher already have enough gear, but nowhere to put it all? Send them out in the field with this Maxpedition JUMBO Versipack. It packs more than six roomy compartments and a Velcro Travel Bug ® patch.

Visit the International Retailers site for an extensive list of distributors outside of the United States.

For geocachers in the United States – Shop Geocaching is offering a free Travel Bug® for every $25 spent. Just use discount code: BLACKFRIDAY. The sale runs November 21st through November 26th.

 

Announcing the November Featured Geocacher of the Month

The November Geocacher of the Month is known as the Elvis of the geocaching world, and over 130 geocachers agree. Congratulations to Ted, a.k.a. balkamper13 for being named November’s Featured Geocacher of the Month!

November Featured Geocacher of the Month, balkamper13

Balkamper13 is recognized for introducing and helping countless novice geocachers become caching addicts. He has donated quality homemade swag, time, and money to geocaching events. Ted has spent numerous hours teaching his secrets, and always invites new geocachers on geocaching adventures and events. He also shares his geocaching adventures and tips on this blog, LiveLoveCache.com.

A geocacher who cast a vote says, “balkamper13 helped get us started. We love finding his caches and his swag.  The first CSI series cache find had us hooked. I have never seen such creativity! The events he hosts are first class. I have known balkamper13 for about a year and I have never met a fellow cacher who puts his time, money, heart, and soul into this great hobby to make his fellow cachers’ experiences the best.”

Balkamper13 will receive a collector’s edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat and certificate acknowledging his contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com.

Thank you to the fellow November nominees and all those who supported them. The nominees not chosen as Featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Groundspeak. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.

Featured Geocacher of the Month Icon

The geocaching community is encouraged to re-nominate those who have yet to be honored as featured Geocacher of the Month. If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.comEvery nomination must meet the following requirements:

  • Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
  • A picture of the nominee
  • Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month.
  • Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award

Nominations for the December Featured Geocacher of the Month must be received by the end of the day on Friday, December 7th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top three candidates and post them on the Latitude 47 blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.

Cova Tancada – GC1ZW11 – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 15, 2012

A cliff, a cave, and a cache

Picture this: Clear blue water, a dark cave, and a treasure. It’s a geocacher’s dream. Well, dream no more, because the geocache really exists and it’s called Cova Tancada (GC1ZW11).

The difficulty 3, terrain 4 traditional geocache is located on the largest island of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca. Mallorca is not only home to beautiful beaches and rich history, but a very popular cache. Nearly 260 geocachers have logged a smiley and awarded it 129 Favorite Points since it was published by chrismaxx in October of 2009.

Anyone who loves to go for a long, scenic hike when geocaching will appreciate the beauty and reward when logging this cache off the coast of Spain.

Inside the cave

According to the bilingual cache page (German and English), the cave “Sa Cova Tancada del Cap de Menorca” was once used by smugglers who built the entrance to the cave to hide their goods. Those smuggled goods were then transported to the neighboring island, Menorca.

The island of Menorca is just 33 kilometers (21 miles) from Mallorca. If the weather permits, geocachers can often catch a glimpse of the nearby island on their way to discover the treasure.

To embark on this adventure cachers generally set aside 1.5 hours to get to the cache from the parking location. But, once they reach the cache, time loses all meaning. Even though the cave can be intimidating at times, geocachers have reported that “the view from the end location will have you feeling peaceful and serene.”

One geocacher who logged this find writes, “You will sweat, you will be full of joy, and most of all, you will feel so calm when you get to this special place. We were surrounded by a great view and a wonderful group of people. The hike up and down the cliff side was somewhat strenuous, but so worth it. I’m so glad there’s a cache here. Thank you for showing us this great place.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

The path to the cave

November Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

The November Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees provide their geocaching communities with a little TLC (tender loving care). They maintain for their own hides, but they are always willing to lend a helping hand with geocaches that are not their own. These geocachers are dedicated to doing whatever they can for their geocaching community from donations, to homemade swag, to their time.

October Geocacher of the Month, TeamAstro

Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for November.

Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be crowned The Featured Geocacher of the Month.

Last month, John, a.k.a. TeamAstro was recognized for creating the Solar System series of caches in South Australia. This series of caches is the world’s largest scale model of the Solar System. John is famous for his creative hides and is the proud owner of the most ‘Favorited’ cache in South Australia. John is also an important part of the South Australian geocaching community, and is known for his friendliness and eagerness in helping out new cachers.

Here are your nominees for the October Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

cschooner

cschooner

AZClaimjumper writes, “when you go a looking for a cschooner cache, you’re in for fun and adventure far beyond anyone’s imagination.” Al, a.k.a. cschooner “is relatively new to geocaching. However, the creativity of his caches is what makes geocaching such a fun and memorable outdoor adventure each and every time I go looking for one his caches. His hides are very creative and Al takes pride in providing timely cache maintenance, if a cache, or a part of a cache is logged by a fellow geocacher as missing. Take note of the number of ‘Favorites’ that Al’s caches have accumulated before you go looking for them. Almost 60% of all log entries haven given Al’s caches a ‘Favorite’ point. If you are visiting Phoenix, do a search for cschooner to see if one of his caches has been hidden nearby. Trust me, it will be a memorable adventure. A Travel Bug  has just been put into circulation in honor of Al as my way of saying ‘thanks’ for all the fun-filled adventures his creative hides have given me.”

 

 

 

OF-Erad

OF-Erad

Nominated by TheBergstromClan, Erik, a.k.a. OF-Erad “is an amazing individual and fun cacher. Erik is always up for a caching jaunt and will go out hiking, hit a power trail, or crawl through tunnels all in the name of finding another cache with friends.  He recently ended his cache-a-day streak of over 500 days because he was caring for a friend who needed some support. He gave the friendship priority over getting one more day in his streak. OF-Erad also adopted one of the toughest tunnel caches and then completely revamped it, rescuing it from the clutches of raccoons and other muggles in the process. Erik is a selfless cacher. Even though he had a long caching streak going, he still managed to always put other cachers in the group before himself.  As he told me on multiple occasions, ‘I only need one cache to keep my streak going. Let’s go get the caches you want to get.’ The puzzle caches I’ve placed in Aurora were placed using knowledge acquired with Erik’s help. He is mostly interested in making the great game of caching more interesting, more exciting, and more fun for kids of all ages.”

 

 

 

balkamper13

balkamper13

Cacheseekers! writes, “Not only is Ted [a.k.a., balkamper13] the Elvis of the caching world, he is just a darn good person. He has introduced and help countless novice cachers become caching addicts. He has lent out his GPS to new cachers, spent numerous hours teaching his secrets, and invited new cachers on caching adventures and to events. He donates quality, homemade swag, time, and money to caching events. Ted is the mastermind behind the Cache Scene Investigator cache series that has a huge following. This series has everything from underwater caches to pulley system caches hoisted up a tree. This series has the Utah caching world on pins and needles waiting for the Longitude and Latitude killer to strike again. Ted also carries around a cache repair kit and leaves every cache in better condition than he finds it in. Ted also shares his caching adventures and tips on his blog at Live Love Cache.com. The list of people he has influenced and befriended is countless.”

 

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the featured November Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon, and a certificate acknowledging their contributions signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for November’s award through Sunday, November 18th.

Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and include the following information:

  • Your name, the name of your nominee, their username
  • A picture of the nominee
  • Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month.
  • Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award.

Nominations for the December Geocacher of the Month must be received by Friday, December 7th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.

Enigma #1 – GC448A – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 8, 2012

The “holy grail of geocaching” and the treasure chest

Mystery or puzzle caches are exactly that – a mystery. An enigma, if you will.

In Niedersachen, Enigma #1 (GC448A) ranks high among mystery caches in Germany. The cache is more than 10 years old, and despite all advances in technology, still remains a true difficulty 5, terrain 3 geocache. Even its final coordinates are a mystery.

The cache became so famous that a geocacher placed the “holy grail of geocaching” in the cache container to symbolize its status and influence on the geocaching community.

The cache page includes a link to a list of 10 difficult questions (in German). The answers are essential to understanding and deciphering three detailed maps. The treasure-seeking adventure is filled with hikes, some are steep at times. It is comprised of outdoor and indoor paths as well as detours as you interpret the maps and navigate with GPS.

Impressed with the mystery cache, Chris, a.k.a. famerlor_dragon nominated this recent find. He says, “Every German geocacher wants to go here at one time. It was truly a rewarding experience doing the cache myself.”

logbook

Chris continues to explain, “As you draw closer to the cache, hoping that your last coordinates are good, sweat dripping from your forehead and then finally you see the waymark from your last treasure map and you know you are right and the cache is within reach. Opening the big box (it has recently been replaced – I am sure new pictures will be there within a very few weeks) and holding the grail is a very rewarding experience. One of a kind.”

Over 1,500 geocachers who logged a smiley agree with Chris. The mystery cache has earned 763 Favorite Points, and geocachers are not holding back on their extensive logs describing their exhilarating experiences.

Another geocacher logged this find saying, “We spent a lot of time preparing. A lot. It took a few months before we felt confident enough to tackle this four-stage mystery cache. Today it was time. I read two days ago that the box is gone and that the owner had already placed a new box on the ground. The experience is exhilarating. We found ourselves getting mad and we found ourselves laughing. Most of all, we found the beauty in this game through this cache. Thanks Vinnie & nici for an extraordinary experience!”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.

 

Could this be a clue?