A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

geocaching.com

Logging rules to change in geocaching

A subtle rule change is on the horizon for geocaching.

Geocaching.com, which is the top listing service for the caching world, has notified users of a change coming in early May. And, honestly, it’s shocking that this hadn’t been in place already.

Though geocaching doesn’t necessarily have “rules,” per say, it has guidelines. The change that will take effect on May 8 is a good one, too.

  • Cache owners will no longer be able to log a Find, DNF, Webcam Photo Taken, Needs Archived, or Needs Maintenance on their owned caches. However, event owners can log an Attended or Will Attend on their own events.
  • Players will no longer be able to log more than 1 (one) Find, Attended, Webcam Photo Taken, or Will Attend per cache. Players will still be able to change a Write Note to a Find if they have not already logged a Find on the cache.

This is fantastic news. Though I’m a firm believer in players being able to play the game their own way (it’s not a competition, so what somebody else does isn’t necessarily what another will do etc.), I’m also a believer that you have to have some structure.

Find it only once with the rule changes coming in May!

People often “pad” their stats in some interesting ways, which can hurt the game as a whole.

Let me give an example – when we first started our annual summer picnic event in our area, we had some people travel to attend. We had temporary caches places as part of a “poker” run. These were not permanent caches, however. Two or three of those in attendance logged the event for each of those temp caches they had found – so I think six or seven logs for the event. I wasn’t the one who published the event, so I couldn’t delete those finds.

With the new rules, they will no longer be allowed to do that. It is also good that these rule changes are not retroactive. Past logs are not affected. That could mess with people’s find totals and milestones, which would be a shame to many.

Let’s look at each of these rule changes.

The first is not being able to long your own cache hides. I have known several people who have done this and have always wondered why. I mean, if you hid it, why would you log a find? It is good, however, that people can still log their own events because, in the end, they do attend. It would be silly if that had been taken away.

One question I hope is answered, though, is what happens with an adopted cache. A cache is often done by somebody who has found it in the past. Does that find get deleted? Or does that fall under the “past logs?” This could be quite important, just because it might be the difference between an older cache being adopted, or it being archived.

The second is a good rule, too, as it make it so people can only log something once. Some owners will allow you to log a cache more than once if you do different things. Or an “event” will be something monthly, so the date is just changed and people log the same event several times. One thing wrong with that, is people may not always see the event if it’s only a date change. New events pop up, so it allows more eyes to see it.

These changes are a good step for the game. As the game continues to grow with technology advances, it also needs to maintain some law and order so as not to disturb the game or scare more “veteran” players away.

Kudos to Geocaching.com for recognizing the need for this, but at the same time giving people time to prepare for it and to not eliminate back logs.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Geocaching history and going back to where it all started

It started with a flick of a switch, figuratively speaking.

In early May 2000, selective availability for 24 satellites around the world became open to everyday people, thus making GPS receivers that much more accurate. The government removed the selective availability, giving people the chance to pinpoint their location.

Just one day later, Dave Ulmer went out and placed the first geocache, calling the idea the “Great American GPS Stash Hunt.” His idea was to hide something in the woods, note the coordinates and get people to come find it. The rules? “Take some stuff, leave some stuff.”

The original stash plaque.

The original stash plaque.

Within three days, two people found it and told about their experiences. People then started hiding “stashes” of their own.

The game of geocaching has since grown. There are more than 2.7 million active geocaches hidden around the world as well as more than 6 million people playing this game.

That’s growth.

Unfortunately, the original “geocache” is no longer with us. It was swept up in some cleaning. One of the original items – a can of beans – was recovered and it currently appears at some Mega events and such for people to see. The history of the game – in a can form.

On top of that, an historical marker was placed at the first site to show the beginning of geocaching. It’s also a geocache, allowing people to come from all over the world to see where it started. It’s not like the baseball Hall of Fame or anything, but in the short history (15 years) of the game, it’s still pretty cool. People flock to this spot to see this marker and to nab the cache.

This cache has 2,665 favorite points and more than 9,500 finds. That’s pretty impressive and makes it one of the most found caches in the world.

The cache that goes with the plaque.

The cache that goes with the plaque.

There’s some history to this cache, for sure, so it was neat to find and see. There were some others close by that were fun to do as well.

It’s right on the side of the road, though. A small pull-off area was next to it, so people could park. When we were there, a few others were also there so it was nice to meet up with some people and such. The photos of the plaque are out there so I had seen if before, but it was still cool to check it out in person.

This is definitely something that should be on a geocacher’s list to do, even if just for the historical ramifications. Everything had to start somewhere, right? This is where geocaching began, so it’s nice to look back at the spot.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

It’s time to plan to attend a block party!

Every hobby or sport has a mecca, of sorts.

If you’re a baseball fan, for example, Cooperstown is the ultimate baseball destination with the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In golf, it’s Augusta and the Masters.

In board gaming (at least in my short time in the hobby), it’s either GenCon or Internationale Spieltage SPIEL — or as it’s affectionately known, Essen.

And in Geocaching — it’s Seattle (and a couple of spots you can get to from Seattle).

Groundspeak, the owners of geocaching.com and the biggest company in regard to the hobby, is located in Seattle. HQ, as it’s known, is a place people can visit, so it’s a rather large destination spot for geocachers.

I’ve been a geocacher since 2008, and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to go. If not just because it’s the “place” where geocaching happens, in regard to the game through geocaching.com.

That trip, though I’ve had talks with several people about doing it, has never happened. Summers are always busy, and then add in a span of 2 1/2 years where I was unemployed, and it just never worked out.

That’s going to change this summer.

Three of us have decided to make the trek for the final Block Party, an event that happens outside of HQ. It has looked like it’s a lot of fun and, earlier this year, Groundspeak announced it would be the final Block Party. Sure, something will replace it, but this is the final Block Party.

Now was the time.

After figuring everything out and pricing it out, we decided that this was a possible trip. Flights are better to order now, that’s for sure, and my plan is to order mine this week.

Hotels are already reserved.

Soon, I’ll start my work with Priceline to get a rental car for the time out there.

Then, of course, comes the work for the geocaching aspect of the trip. We’re going to hit some historic caches, and some fun ones as well. I’m sure there will be some great views. I’m looking forward to the events that are going on during this timeframe, including the Block Party, the International Geocaching Film Festival, the event near the old APE cache, and the meet-and-greet with some Groundspeak employees. Between now and then, it wouldn’t even shock me to see another one or two pop up.

I have a few more fun things planned this summer — from softball, to a few geocaching (mainly day) trips, and some baseball, too. Hopefully I’ll even get to play a few rounds of disc golf.

But this trip is really at the top.

Unfortunately, the Mariners are on the road during the time I’ll be out there, so no chance to see them. But on the final night of being there, I’m going to check out a minor league game.

I look forward to all the planning and discussion with the others to see what kind of caches and what we will be doing. Looking for places to eat and other little things will be a lot of fun, too.

And, of course, we know it will move fast. It’s a little more than 100 days away, so time will go by. Though I can’t wait, it can take it’s time coming as there will be some fun things between now and then … and it gives me more time to save some coin!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Going geocaching mega style at the Metro Gathering

A day of geocaching was definitely something needed.

This past Saturday two of us took the semi-short trip to New Jersey to attend a Mega event and have a day of geocaching. Turns out it was a pretty solid trip overall and it felt good to get out and geocache for a day — something I haven’t done in a while.

A monster geocoin.

A monster geocoin.

In fact, since I started caching in 2008, this year counts for the fewest amount of finds I’ve ever had. After this past weekend, which saw a 30-cache day, I’m at 202 for the year. The next closest for fewest finds in a year was the 432 I found last year.

Do the math on that one.

So, needless to say, a weekend like this is one I really needed. And it was a good time. Including the mega event and a lab cache, we found 10 different icons in one day, which is pretty sweet. On the state program I use, however, lab caches don’t count (and I can understand why), though they do count toward the total on your geocaching.com profile.

Anyway…

Found it!

Found it!

It was a nice and crisp fall day with temperatures in the 40s and a blue sky with a brilliant sun. The event staff did a nice job in putting some 20-plus caches out in this park, which was wonderful to walk. There were paved paths, the hides were clever and well done and, for most of the finds, there wasn’t an overflow of people. That is rare with mega events, but I think with the caches being published several days before the event, people got them before hand. Not only that, when we walked them, we did it in the afternoon.

The cool part about the day, though, was the cool caches. We hit a few virtual geocaches, one of which took us to a cemetery where there was a Mercedes headstone. Yeah, really wild. We nabbed a webcam cache, which are hard to find anymore.

There was an on-site puzzle, as well as meeting some cachers and having the chance to do a Whereigo with them.

Fall was still hanging around in Jersey.

Fall was still hanging around in Jersey.

As for the event, it was pretty solid. Considering it was started with somebody saying “We should be able to do this,” and getting the Mega status rather quickly, it went well. There were some good vendors there. There was pretty decent Pathtag trading, too. I walked out with many new tags for the collection!

It was also nice running into some old caching friends and making a few more. It also showed me how much I’ve missed geocaching with as little as I’ve done it this year.

Life sometimes gets in the way of hobbies like this. But the other side is a hobby like this allows you to disappear some … and the come back like nothing has changed. I don’t know how many big days I’ll have left this year, but this weekend makes me want to get out again to cache and to place them.

On a side note, by getting all of the caches in the park that day, it helped me get to more than 17,000 steps that day, and in the end, that’s what I always loved about caching — a fun hobby that allows you to exercise at the same time!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Fourteen bags of garbage later … a successful CITO event

The geocachers who got together locally to clean up a park for a CITO event.

Today is Earth Day.

And though I’m not somebody who goes crazy every year for Earth Day, I do think it’s a good thing. After all, if we don’t take care of it, who knows where it will be hundreds of years from now?

With that in mind, Groundspeak — the company behind geocaching.com — has been holding its annual CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) Weekend the past few days (and into today).

I blogged about it a few days ago, but basically there are many events around the globe where geocachers get together and clean a park or an area. I had the chance to host one this weekend in my town and it was way more successful than I ever could have imagined.

We’re lucky in our area because the “city” that is the main area of our local geocaching group has some pretty clean parks. So when looking to host this CITO, I took it to another area. Our group covers a couple of counties, so it’s nice to get out of the main area. The problem there is, there are many people who don’t always go to the other areas. Add to that knowing that CITO events haven’t been successful around here before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised.

We had nine geocachers show up, as well as another person and her kids. We did this on the property of a local high school and she is a teacher there, so it was nice to see her come and give some time.

The park isn’t huge by any means. I figured we’d go through, do some small cleaning and all would be good.

Boy was I wrong.

We carted out 14 bags of garbage!

We ended up with 14 bags of garbage and a few other things that needed to be sent packing.

Not all the bags were filled to the brim, by any means, but they had a lot of garbage in them. There were a lot of different items pulled, too. Everything from the normal bottles and everyday trash, to things like a spray paint can (which still worked, for the record) picked from the pond, to a comforter and pillow cases, to papers and anything else. We pulled some old and crappy lumber floating in the pond and found rusty metal objects.

I was quite stoked at how well things went.

The local high school helped us out in giving heavy duty bags, gloves and water. I know several people went through more than one set of gloves as they were the latex ones and could rip some. So it was nice to have extras.

In the end, the best part was being able to help clean up an area park. I definitely plan on hosting one of these again as I think it shows how in tune to nature and giving back many geocachers can be. This wasn’t just a social event for the cachers who came to this event, it was a way to do something good and know you’ve helped make something look nicer.

And that’s pretty cool.

I’d personally like to thank those in our area who came out and helped clean up this park. As a small group of people, we really did a solid job, picked up a lot of trash and helped make this park that much nicer. I had no idea this much trash was there, but we did a good job in making it look even better.

Geocaching is a great hobby and game. It’s fun to go out and find things hidden in the wild. But, not everybody “gets” this game. This is a good way to show we, as geocachers, actually care about the environment and the places where we cache. I’m happy to have taken part in this event and look forward to being able to do it again.

Kudos to Groundspeak for holding this “international” event every year, where geocachers can get together throughout a weekend and give back to all of these areas we happily visit throughout the year. And kudos for all you geocachers who came out to events throughout the world, pitched in, cleaned up and gave back. Well done!

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — a minimum of $5– you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted lap quilt or pillow. Click here for all the information!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!