MulderNScully – April 2013 Geocacher of the Month

The April Featured Geocacher of the Month nominees contribute to their local geocaching communities and inspire geocachers around the world. They not only hide quality geocaches, but make sure those searching can contact them to make the find, if necessary.

Thank you to all those who supported the nominees. Those not chosen as the Featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Geocaching HQ.

The Featured Geocacher of the Month is named by Geocaching HQ after reviewing community input and blog comments. We all won seeing such great examples of how the geocaching community works together. After tallying the sentiment, MulderNScully have been named the Featured Geocachers of the Month for April 2013.

MulderNScully have been geocaching since 2008. They’re known for challenging geocachers with inventive Puzzle Geocaches. They support their local geocaching community by organizing events. One geocacher who commented about MulderNScully wrote, “My vote is for Mulder and Scully. They have been mentors to many new cachers and are always willing to give a helping hand to a fellow cacher and some of my most memorable caching adventures are because of them. They aren’t about the numbers, they are about the places geocaching takes us to.”

MulderNScully will receive collector’s edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoins, along with Featured Geocacher of the Month hats and a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. See a list of all the Featured Geocachers of the Month here.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@geocaching.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:

• 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 Featured Geocacher of the Month

Please inform your nominee that you have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.

Congratulations again to MulderNScully for being recognized as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for April.

After retiring, Karen and Mike found themselves with a few bad habits: eating more and being less active than in previous years. That is, until a local outing for retired and active police officers. This is where it all began to change for Mike and Karen. “…Officer Sean Sullivan was present at this one. At the end of our dinner, he showed me a key ring of “path-tags”. They, of course, looked cool and he told me he has collected them “Geocaching”. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He explained the whole process to me that evening, and I was intrigued,” said Mike.

Mike and Alex on the hunt.

Later, Mike dug out his older GPS device he had used for boating. Admittedly, he hadn’t learned to use it properly, but spent a few days reading the manual and getting the basics down. From there, Mike and Karen created a Geocaching account as NHBucket and set out for their very first geocache. “We ventured out and found my first cache (Rhoades Cemetary Pt 2, Alexandria, NH)….in thigh-high deep snow. I was hooked, right then and there,” Mike wrote.

Since they earned their first smiley, Karen says, “We have gone geocaching in New Hampshire in Andover, Franklin, Tilton, Laconia, Lochmere, and Belmont. We took a vacation last week in Maine and spent every day geocaching.” During that vacation in Maine, the couple found 47 geocaches. And they’ve begun to see the benefits, too. “Mike and I are both benefiting from geocaching because it makes exercising fun. Before we know it, we have walked 6 – 10 miles a day. Mike is also seeing his diabetes come under control with his numbers dropping,” said Karen. Mike added, “In the couple months since, I’ve lost 20 pounds, I eat less, have reduced my [blood pressure] & [blood sugar] levels overall, and just plain feel better about myself.”

Mike and Karen have shared the geocaching love with others, as well. “I’ve taken my wife, my 16-year-old son, and my 8-year-old grandson out geocaching. I’ve also introduced my brother Chris, and his wife, Carla to geocaching…Now, she (Car-Crazy) is hooked with the GC Bug worse than me. AND, she “hooked” her father (Yogi1940),” said Mike.

Thanks Mike and Karen for sharing your story with your fellow geocachers. If you have any inspirational stories about how geocaching has changed yours or someone you know’s life for the better, share it in comments below. Happy geocaching!

Sometimes a find leads to this

Let’s set the scene. You’ve heard a few friends talk about this thing called “geocaching” and you fancy you might be pretty good at it. After all, you are fairly certain that your uncanny ability to locate lost car keys must mean that you have pirate’s blood coursing through your veins.

With your handy-dandy smart phone in hand, you set off to find the nearest geocache. According to your GPS you are right on top of it – but wait! Where’s the X marks the spot? You search high and low. You are on the verge of giving up when you spot a rock that doesn’t quite look like a rock….and yes, you’ve found it!

Finding a geocache feels kind of like this!

Now rewind the clock to a time long, long ago – a time without smartphones, Facebook, or (gasp!) geocaching. Thirteen years ago today Mike Teague became the first person to find the first geocache (at the time called a “stash”). It’s an adventure shrouded in lore. The word “geocaching” hadn’t even been invented yet. You can read much more about Mike Teague and the history of geocaching here. But the sense of wonder the first geocacher felt, is the same sense of wonder that now ripples through six million more geocachers. Are you one of them?

Share the story of your first geocaching find below in comments!

The nominees for the April Featured Geocacher of the Month award hail from three different nations, but contribute to one global game.  Each offers a welcoming hand to those new to geocaching and creative hides for all geocachers.  The nominees come from the United States, New Zealand and Denmark.

Now it’s your turn to help us select the next Featured Geocacher of the Month. Write a supportive comment at the bottom of this blog for the geocacher you feel should be awarded the title.  Each geocacher is already a winner and will receive a prize package from Geocaching HQ. A panel of folks from Geocaching HQ will then use your comments to help guide the decision of which geocacher is awarded the honor.

Each Featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition Featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, hat and profile icon. They’ll also get a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.

WVTim – Featured Geocacher of the Month

In March, WVTim was named the Featured Geocacher of the Month. He’s known as an inspiration to geocachers for his unique geocaches, excellent maintenance habits and his geocaching YouTube channel. He’s accumulated more than 2,000 Favorite Points on his geocaches and he teaches geocaching in schools and to the Boy Scouts.

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

Olefant

Olefant – Nominee for the Geocacher of the Month

Michael Schwartz “schwartz-hansen” writes, “Our nominee is Olefant (the name is a combination of his first name Ole and his logo a biking elephant – elefant in danish).

He is a retired music teacher from Copenhagen who by now has released nearly 250 caches in Denmark and other countries. He started geocaching in 2009, and has been very active from 2011 until now. He has made a lot of cartoon caches and his FTF-certificates are often laminated pictures of the cartoon figures. At his last event on the 16 of March, he released more than 30 caches, with cartoon series and an Astrology series called the Zoodiak – because the theme of the event was animals.

With his events and his caches, we think that Olefant is a big inspiration for the other geocachers in Denmark, … besides that he is always taking his time to talk to all the persons he meets at events and when he is in the field geocaching.”

 MulderNScully

MulderNScully – Nominees for the Geocacher of the Month

Cristina Florez, “Mamabear Crew” writes, “My nomination for MulderNScully isn’t just because they’re “nice”… it’s because they take geocaching as a true sport. And their caches… ooooh their caches……. just like their username suggests, they are out of this world! Inventive, thought out, truly educational, and some of them hard as hell. They have been an inspiration to us and we will be trying to follow their lead in making this sport a true adventure!”

Jerry Lynn DellAmic writes, “They have helped me when I got stuck on puzzle caches, but they never gave me the solution.  They made me talk out loud. …MulderNScully take pride in their geocaches.  For them, it’s not about the numbers.  It’s about enjoying life.  Taking the opportunity to walk among nature.  Go to places that you may not ever get the chance to see. If it hadn’t been for this great hobby, I would never have had the opportunity to meet these life long friends.”

Onslow Fisherman

Onslow Fisherman – Nominee for Geocacher of the Month

Natalie Gray writes, “I would like to nominate Jim Greene, also known as Onslow Fisherman, as Geocacher of the Month. I met Jim by mail, when he very nicely answered some question I had about a puzzle cache he had. He invited me to meet him and his wife in NZ and I jumped at the chance. We became friends and he has helped me with computer questions,etc…We’ve even done an “International Cache” together, GC44F7A and GC42HKJ respectively. Jim is well respected in his native geocaching community, always giving back. He ran a GSAK seminar at NZ Mega in October, and also arranged a 4X4 event last year. His caches are great, and he’ll even lend you his GPS to find them. (GC2QAHK and GC2MF3T). He is helpful to newbies and experienced cachers alike, gets tons of favorite points on his caches, and makes our sport better every day. He also has over 1000 caches to his credit, which is hard to do in a relatively small island country. Jim Greene/Onslow Fisherman, epitomizes the best in geocaching and definitely deserves to be a Geocacher of the Month.”

Each “Needs Maintenance” request has two acts. One act delivers a red wrench, the other act takes that red wrench away. A red wrench attribute on a geocache page means the geocache most likely needs maintenance. The geocache container could be cracked, the log book could be full or the geocache contents might be soaked with water. Or a giant plant may have eaten it (see image).

Act 1) The Geocacher. If you come across a geocache that needs some repair, post a “Needs Maintenance” log on the geocache page. This will notify the geocache owner and add a “Needs Maintenance” icon (red wrench) to the geocache page. This lets other geocachers know that the geocache may not be in the best shape before they start their hunt.

Act 2) The Geocache Owner. Once you have made repairs, post an “Owner Maintenance” log on the geocache page. This log will remove the “Needs Maintenance” icon. Don’t let your geocache be filtered out in searches by forgetting to post your “Owner Maintenance” log.

There’s a way to help stop “Needs Maintenance” logs: preventive care. If your geocache will not be accessible due to seasonal weather conditions, note this on the geocache page.  Also, be sure to check in on your geocache and make sure:

Good time to perform geocache maintenance – unless ants are also geocachers… 

• The geocache container is still watertight
• Contents are free of debris
• There’s plenty of space in the logbook for more entries

Maintaining your geocache doesn’t have to be a pain. Think about working it into a monthly routine or you can even see if some of your geo-buddies will check in on it for you. Think of it this way: owning a geocache is kind of like owning a roller coaster: take care of it and it will keep making people happy for years!

Adela (left) and Texas Geocaching Association President, De

Editor’s note: Geocaching HQ staff are joining geocachers at Mega-Events around the world to celebrate and share the adventure of geocaching. Adela Bahtijaragic, a.k.a. DellaBell, attended Texas Challenge XI (GCW8GT) in Port Aransas, Texas, USA in April. Adela has been on Geocaching HQ’s marketing team since 2012. This is Adela’s account of her trip.

By Adela Bahtijaragic, a.k.a. DellaBell

They say that half the geocaching journey is getting there. This much was true when I traveled to Port Aransas, Texas – home to Texas Challenge XI. Located deep in the heart of Texas, “Port A” was the place to be during the weekend of April 5. Geocachers in the great state of Texas, and beyond, gathered to celebrate what they love – geocaching.

Over the course of 11 years, the challenge has grown into a fun-filled weekend comprised of activities for people who wish to compete in the contest or those simply looking to socialize and geocache around town. With plenty to see and do, I was lucky enough to have had my very own tour guide for the day. I got to hang out with the 2011 – 2013 Texas Geocaching Association (TXGA) President, De (of Team-DnD), who went above and beyond to make this an unforgettable day for me.

Human log book

De and I spent the day exploring the city, the beach, and local geocaches. She introduced me to members of the TXGA, seasoned and new geocachers, and a number of geocachers who attended from places as far away as Australia (firesafe). Of course, I took part in some of the creative Mega-Event challenges, including a joust with a knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.

Adela and knight square off

A bonfire gathering at the beach (GC454VH), which included a jalapeno eating contest, potluck, and limbo was the perfect way to end a busy day. We quickly figured out that the lack of a logbook was no problem. Thanks to Travis (SKnight579) and his Hawaiian shirt, turned geocaching “logbook,” we had a conversation piece and possibly even a new tradition for future after-challenge-events.

I felt welcome and a part of a community I had never celebrated with before. The weekend of April 5 was only my very first trip to Texas, but also my very first Mega-Event. I could not have asked for a better group of people to embrace geocaching with. Their hospitality and love for geocaching goes beyond everything I expected.

Texas Challenge XI Group Photo

WVTim – Featured Geocacher of the Month

All three nominees for the March Geocacher of the Month contribute to the global geocaching communityby creating quality geocaches and being an inspiration to geocachers.

Thank you to all those who supported the nominees. Those not chosen as the featured Geocacher of the Month will receive a gift of appreciation from Geocaching HQ.

The choice was difficult. Ultimately, only one nominee can become the featured Geocacher of the Month based on a combination of community input, blog comments and voting. We all won seeing such examples of how the geocaching community works together.

After tallying the sentiment, WVTim is named the Featured Geocacher of the Month for March 2013.

WVTim is known for contributing one-on-one and through social media to improve geocaching for others. One geocacher who left a comment for WVTim wrote, “I  see “paragraphs” of supporting statements about WVTim and the many things he has accomplished for geocaching. I am familiar with WVTim due to his YouTube videos. His gadgetcaches channel, in only 3 months, has nearly 11K views. He does instructional videos on how to build his gadget caches. So, he not only has amazing caches, he is giving ideas and instructions to cachers everywhere on how to build them. Cachers everywhere are benefiting from this guy whose caches have over 2K favorite votes. Plus, he just doesn’t do great caches. I’ve learned from this blog he has seminars, educational events, he teaches geocaching in schools, and to the Boy Scouts. He assists his state and local government in placing geocaching trails.”

WVTim 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. See a list of all the featured Geocachers of the Month here.

If you know an outstanding geocacher who should be considered for the honor, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com. Every nomination must follow these requirements. Please include:

• 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 have submitted them for the award. Nominations for Featured Geocacher of the Month are accepted at any time.

Congratulations again to Uncle Louwtjie on being recognized at the Featured Geocacher of the Month for February.

Team PodCacher

By Sonny & Sandy,

Gorillas, a wild-west jail, a Halloween prop and Dave Ulmer – sound like the start of a bad joke? No, just another typical day at the PodCacher studios, putting together an podcast full of geocaching goodness for a listener community that spans the globe.

We are Sonny and Sandy (from sunny San Diego, California) and we have hosted the PodCacher podcast (the weekly audio show all about geocaching) for almost eight years. From the very first show, where we shared about some geocaches we found in Kazakhstan and Amsterdam, to the latest interview with Dave Ulmer, hider of the first geocache, our 400+ shows have circled the world to offer geocaching content to inform, inspire and entertain.

The rich connections with people we have never met, the truly kindred spirits we have stumbled upon, the numerous poignant emails that share how deeply we have touched someone in a time of stress or grief – these are the amazing gifts we have received from this podcast.

The shows often begin with the latest in geocaching and GPS news. This is where gorillas come into the conversation. A fascinating study about a concept called inattentional blindness which has prevented 83% of radiologists from seeing a gorilla photo-shopped into a lung scan, led to a discussion of caches that are hidden in plain sight, and how easy it is to miss a simple cache, when you have a preconceived notion of what it is supposed to look like. Has this ever happened to you?

GC45CZX Jail Geocache

Many PodCacher shows include a mention of super cool geocaches. You might hear about several unique or unusual geocaches in one show. One of the greatest resources we have is our diverse, experienced and creative (not to mention good-looking) listener community, and it is amazing what they share with us. On Show 409, for example, a Halloween prop from the dollar store was easily turned into a fun hide called, Lend Me a Hand. Another cacher created a miniature adobe brick-style jail for travel bugs including jail cells and “most wanted” posters for the cache Deputies, bring in those travel bugs.

You may have heard that the famous, yet somewhat reclusive, Dave Ulmer was recently interviewed on PodCacher. He unexpectedly showed up at the recent Mega-Event in Yuma, Arizona, at the invitation of Team 360.

Dave hid the very first geocache (called “stash hunt” at the time) back on May 3, 2000, and he spent some time reminiscing with us about that exciting time, and the amazing world-wide phenomenon that his “little” idea set into motion. He shared about staying up all night when selective availability was to be taken off, watching the accuracy on his GPS change from 300 feet to 30 feet, and realizing that “something magic has to happen from this!” That magic has now passed 2 million active caches on Geocaching.com. Listen to show 409 for more of this fascinating interview.

Where is the geocache?

We love to record from “out in the field”, at geocaching events or just along the trails, capturing that authentic audio that makes it feel like you’re right there with us, but most often we can be found recording in our “home studio”. This is actually a small corner of a home office, partitioned off with a bookcase and sound-dampening blankets hung on rope. To make it even cozier, Sonny built a wooden ceiling that sports more acoustic sound-proofing. We have a printed show outline to guide us, as well as any email, feedback or news items that we need to read, but our favorite times are the spontaneous moments of hilarity that often erupt out of nowhere. We’ve certainly gotten better at recording after all these years, but we still manage to create some great bloopers that often find their way into the end of the show.

We invite you to come and join the international geocaching community at podcacher.com!

PodCacher Team with Dave Ulmer

Located in Louisiana, USA. Still active in 2013

Geocaching is more than an adventure that takes you to new locations. It’s a growing record of specific locations. Currently geocachers can navigate to more than 2 million active geocaches around the globe. Every time you find a geocache it’s like making an entry into the diary of a specific location. You record the weather, the view, who joined the adventure, even what animals you encounter (hopefully safe, fluffy, friendly animals). Here’s a look at a recent Geocaching Forums post that asked a simple question… “Does anyone know of any other caches that have been in the same spot, same container over 10 years?”

New York State geocache hidden in 2002, still active with original container

Some geocaches like”da dog ‘yaks‘ were hidden in 2001. Geocachers have captured images of floating the Juniper Creek in Ocala National Forest for 12 years. They’ve even cataloged wildlife, flowers, and the water level. The geocache owner says the veteran geocache, “… is coming up on 12 years, survived the hurricane flooding, because the tree it was tucked up against fell on it.” Although the container on that geocache was changed after the flood, the original log book remains.

There are thousands of active geocaches that are more than ten years old, but there numbers are fading and their geocache containers are (often for good reason) replaced. Hiding and maintaining a geocache is a labor or love that has its rewards.

Racoon at “da dog ‘yaks” geocache.

One geocacher posting in the forum said it perfectly, “WOW, [geocache owners] thank you for doing everything you do for the sport of geocaching, and keeping these older caches active.”

For more details check out the Geocaching Forums. What’s the oldest geocache you’ve ever logged? Did it have its original container?

Brian and Peggy on a geocache run

The post on the Geocaching Facebook page started with “My 28 yr old son (who has Down Syndrome) is my best geo-buddy!” The post from Peggy Caton, PeGC56, instantly struck the heart of geocaching buddies sharing an adventure. They search for ‘hidden-treasure’ only find the real treasure right next to them the whole way.

Peggy answers a few questions about geocaching, and about her best bud and son Brian who goes by the geocaching name CoolGuy84.

I discovered it when a couple of my Facebook friends posted about going geocaching last summer. I Googled it instead of asking! I originally didn’t even think to include Brian (CoolGuy84’s real name—and BTW he made up his own geo-name), my younger son and his gf had heard of it before and had been wanting to try it, so the 3 of us set out one evening and only found 2 of the 5 we looked for, but were hooked none the less.

What attracted you to geocaching as a mother and son activity?

We live in a small Missouri town (suburb of KC) and were surprised to find so many geocaches in Raytown—Brian eventually joined us for a few adventures as the others of us got the hang of caching. My other son and his girlfriend lost the fever somewhat between work and life, but Brian was hooked. Its kind of a long story, but in the previous year and a half my family had quite a few losses. We had evolved into sad depressed lumps. Once we discovered geocaching suddenly we were out almost everyday. We went hiking on the trails; we ran up and down hills; climbed rocks and got fresh air and sunshine! I know it sounds sappy but it was kind of a miracle in our lives.

What’s your advice about geocaching to others with family members who have Down Syndrome?

Brian searching for a geocache

The only advice I have is to not hesitate to include them! Depending on their age there are a variety of ways they can participate. Younger kids can just enjoy the family time and the exercise and fresh air (and eventually become experts). Kids with Down Syndrome tend to be very sedate in nature and would be happy sitting; but then tend to be overweight also. There’s all kinds of therapeutic benefits too—it’s a gross motor activity, fine motor activity (getting to the containers; opening containers; digging through the swag and picking out what you want), it’s a cognitive activity—putting the pieces of the puzzle together to locate the cache. And it also has all the same benefits for them as with typical kids—learning about nature (we saw 2 deer in the woods closeup last weekend and Brian was in awe); traveling, learning geography, history (we’ve done several mystery caches that have taught both of us some interesting history facts). With older kids/adults like Brian it gives them quite a sense of accomplishment, pride and self-confidence.  He is SO excited about all of them whether they are quick Park and Grab geocaches (P&Gs) (which he does love and doesn’t usually need my help at all) or if we’re hiking through the woods. Most of all its just plain fun for everyone and can help build a close family bond and hobby.

You describe “CoolGuy84″ as a freak for geocaching. What excites him so much about the activity? 

He just gets excited when he figures out where the caches are; he actually does better than me at actually finding the containers. I can read the maps/GPS like a champ and I can drive us there, but I find that he doesn’t have preconceived ideas about what a container should look like or where it should be hidden so he just looks everywhere! Even if I say “ehhh no its probably not there, I don’t know how they could hide one there” then BAM he has it found. He’s always so proud of himself and takes ALL the credit for finding it. Here is our caching chant: ME: “I drive the car, I read the map, you find the cache!! What do we call that?” BRIAN: “ TEAMWORK!!!”

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A special thanks to Peggy for sharing the story from all of us at Geocaching HQ. Leave a comment for Peggy and Brian below.