I had another opportunity to be a guest on the GeoGearHeads Podcast for a show about podcasting. I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting my own podcast and I was able to ask a lot of questions about how to get started. Thank you to LANMonkey, Dabaere and The Bad Cop for all the great advice!
I often get asked by friends and family “What’s so great about geocaching?” or “Why do you like geocaching so much?” The first few times that I was asked, I didn’t have a chance to think about it and I would say that it gets me outside more. While this is still true, there are so many other reasons to love geocaching.
One of the best parts of geocaching is the interesting places where you can find a cache. I’ve had the opportunity to see mountains with lake views, waterfalls, towering pine trees, stunning gorges and more. Earthcaches tend to be my favorite cache type for this exact reason. Since earthcaches are about geological features of the earth, you’re bound to find something interesting. I’ve been to a lot of stunning places because there was an earthcache there. One of my favorite places I’ve been because of geocaching is the Eternal Flame (“Eternal Flame Falls Earthcache” GC10VMY) located in Chestnut Ridge Park near Buffalo, New York. A small waterfall cascades over the shale creek bed, but that’s not even the best park. Underneath the waterfall, in a small grotto is a natural gas emission. When lit with a lighter the flame burns continuously. It is one of the most amazing natural phenomena I’ve ever seen.
I wouldn’t consider myself in the best shape; I’m not a runner, swimmer or anything like that. Since I’ve started geocaching I’ve done many things I otherwise wouldn’t have done. I climbed two mountains in the Adirondacks because there were geocaches at the summit. I’ve gone kayaking to find geocaches, which is something I probably wouldn’t be interested in if I wasn’t going to get a smiley out of it. Last summer for the Geocaching Road Trip, I did something I never would have done before geocaching. I needed a cache for the 5-star terrain or difficulty souvenir. The cache I decided to do required a hike down into a gorge, a quarter mile hike along the rocky shore of the raging Genesee River toward a huge waterfall and into the back of a large, dark cave (“Over the Falls” GC2127R). There is a new cache that was placed in that cave, so I get to make the trek again, and I’m actually excited about it!
Normally, I tend to be a pretty shy person. I don’t normally find myself talking to people I’ve never met before. Geocaching has really changed that about me. I almost immediately latched onto geocaching events. I really enjoy getting together with other geocachers and having conversations about our great hobby. Talking with other cachers came so naturally to me; probably because it is something I am so passionate and excited about. I look forward to every geocaching event and make a large majority of my caching plans centered around events. Attending events has allowed me to meet so many great people that I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to get to know. I’ve made great friends through geocaching.
To me geocaching is much more than just finding containers in the woods. It has pushed me to my limits, physically and mentally, it has allowed me to meet so many great people and it has brought me to so many amazing places. And that is what I love about geocaching.
Today was an exciting day. Today I walked away from my mailbox with quite a few packages in hand.
The first was a prize package I won from the GeoSnippits Reboot Podcast. It included a UV marker and UV flashlight, a log stamper, a GxProxy trackable and an Alaska geocoin.
The other package was much more exciting!! It was one of the highly sought after Dragon “geocoins” from CoinsandPins.com. It is a golden dragon that is just about 4 inches long. He has blue gems for eyes and is holding a bit orb in his front paws. His wings even flap! It is probably the most beautiful trackable item that I own!
On Thursday, March 17th I was a guest on the GeoGearHeads podcast. We talked about the new markdown used in logs, answered some listener questions about logging geocaches and some features we’d like to see related to logging cache finds. A big thank you to Darryl (DarrylW4) and Chris (The Bad Cop) for having me on the show. Check out the GeoGearHeads website or look for them on YouTube.
When I first started caching, I found the idea of trackables very intriguing. Your item can travel the world to places you may not be able to go and you can virtually watch the adventures. I also enjoy helping other cachers trackables and moving them along. I try to move them to a new cache within a few days, but I admit that sometimes I hold onto them too long. It has become hard to find a cache that is large enough and secure enough for trackables.
I have recently begun collecting geocoins and other trackables to keep. I like purchasing geocoins from Mega events that I attend to remember the event. I also like to do geotrails that give you a reward, often a geocoin, for finding a certain number of caches. I also have quite a few other geocoins that I just find interesting. Many of these are displayed in cases at my house but sadly hardly anyone gets to see or discover them. With this in mind, I have hidden tracking codes for some of my trackables on my Geocaching profile page and on my blog. If you find tracking codes on either of these places, please feel free to discover it.
To find out more information about trackables, check out this FAQ page from Geocaching.com.
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A local cacher in my area puts out a cache every year that contains geocaching themed ornaments that he makes himself. This year McDoogins and I were able to get there in time to get some for ourselves. They are now proudly displayed on our Christmas tree!
Watch my new video “2015 Rochester Geocaching Holiday Party” on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/RBywy8259h0
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The past few weeks have come with a few announcements from Geocaching.com.
On February 2, 2016 geocaching.com will be switching from HTML and UBB to Markdown for geocache logs. It is said that the advantage of this is that Markdown looks the same regardless of what device you use. There will be a window to preview your logs and an editor tool similar to word processor programs or email. If you have any logs that utilize HTML, they will no longer display correctly after February 2nd. If you really care you’ll have to go back in and edit these logs to make them display properly. It seems that moving to Markdown will make enhancing your logs a bit easier.
For more information, you can read the full article here. You can also use this practice site.
Last Thursday geocaching.com announced to Premium Members, and today to everyone, that there will be two souvenirs for this year’s Leap Day. The first souvenir can be earned by finding any geocache between February 27-29. The second souvenir can only be earned by attending an event on Leap Day itself, February 29th. Geocaching.com dropped a hint saying “you’ll want to earn both of these…” I have already published an event (GC69B3Z) for Leap Day and plan to put out some fun, surprising new caches for the event.
Read the Geocaching Blog article here.
