26,217

Someone asked me how many geocaches I published during my time as a reviewer for Geocaching.com. I don't have a definitive answer because when I started, I used the I.D. "WGA2" for less than one year before switching to "IowaAdmin." However, as IowaAdmin I published 26,217 geocaches. Over ten years, that equates to an average of just over 50 per week.

This explains it pretty well

It's been fun. And so much more.

Today is my final day. I'm voluntarily stepping down after 11 years as a reviewer for Geocaching.com, with about 10 of those years as the reviewer for Iowa. It wasn't an easy decision but after considering things for the past few months, I came to the conclusion that it's time for someone else to step up and assume these duties for Iowa. I'm involved in several different volunteer opportunities as well as being busy with work, recreation and exercise. One of the volunteer activities I've been devoting more of my time to is Team River Runner, which helps heal disabled veterans by getting them into kayaking. I notified Groundspeak of my decision last week and they have made arrangements for other reviewers to begin handling the Iowa queue beginning tomorrow (Monday, Sept 9). To all the geocachers I have emailed, spoken to on the phone, or met in person over the past 11 years, I say thank you for the good times -- because they truly have been good. I very much enjoyed working and playing with each of you to get your caches published. I will always cherish the friendships I've made all across the state. Iowa geocachers are the best! I'll also cherish the friendships I've made with my fellow reviewers around the world. But this is not good-bye. Even though I'm no longer going to be a reviewer, I'll always be a geocacher. I hope to see you again at upcoming events. And maybe we'll run into each other on the way to a geocache somewhere. Meanwhile, I have to get back to the review queue one last time. It's been another busy weekend with lots of new caches submitted so I want to tidy up the place before I turn it over to the next person.

All the best,
Ken

A video look at Wisconsin's oldest geocache

Here's a fun video posted by the Geocaching Vlogger about his recent search to find Wisconsin's oldest geocache, "Pike Powder Hike" GC3B1. Check out who the cache owner is. :-)

Major promotions coming from Geocaching.com

Geocaching.com will be rolling out three major July/August promotions to encourage people to explore the world around them with friends and family through geocaching.

The public announcement of these promotions will begin shortly. Meanwhile, I have been granted permission to give you a sneak peak. Aren't you glad you checked my blog to see this? :-)  

July 13: Geocaching Get Outdoors Day
Saturday July 13 - It's time to warm up for 31 Days of Geocaching. Join us geocachers from around the world on Saturday July 13 to earn a worldwide souvenir. Log a "Found it" on any geocache type and earn a unique souvenir for Geocaching Get Outdoors Day for your Geocaching profile.

August 1 - 31: 31 Days of Geocaching
Geocaching HQ is challenging people to accomplish a geocaching streak throughout the entire month of August. It's 31 Days of Geocaching. Each day geocachers will have the opportunity to earn a unique calendar styled souvenir representing the date, by logging a Found it or Attended for a geocache.

August 17: International Geocaching Day - The crown jewel of geocaching souvenirs remains the annual International Geocaching Day Souvenir. Join hundreds of thousands of geocachers around the world on International Geocaching Day on August 17. Anyone logging a Found it or Attended on August 17, will earn the International Geocaching Day souvenir. The unique souvenirs will be styled in the theme of the 31 Days of Geocaching souvenirs. It'll also count at the 31 Days of Geocaching promotions souvenir for the 17th of August.

Watch the Geocaching HQ Weekly Newsletter for more details next week!

Adopting a cache

Every so often I get a question about how to go about adopting caches of inactive geocachers. There is a form for this on the Geocaching.com website but it only works if you can get the cooperation of the inactive geocacher, which is not always easy to do, especially if they are no longer monitoring their emails sent via Geocaching.com. But if you do manage to get their cooperation and permission, have them use the page I linked to above.

 

If you can’t get their permission, I’m afraid their caches can’t be adopted. In those cases, you could post a “Needs Archived” log on them, which flags them to our attention as well as to the attention of the cache owner. We will give the cache owner a reasonable amount of time to respond. If the cache owner does not respond, the cache will be archived and another geocacher is then able to submit a new geocache at that location. Heck, you can even give the new cache the same name if you want to. More often, new caches at the same location as an archived cache are usually designated with a name that lets geocachers know there's "fresh meat" out there for the finding. For example, "Under the Bridge - Redux" or "Under the Bridge Take 2" or something similar.

On the way to 2 million active geocaches

According to Geocaching.com, cache hide number 2,000,000 should be published some time during the third week of February. Officially, GC.com will begin celebrating the big 2,000,000 on February 19, with announcements in that week’s newsletter, as well as through its Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. 

Information about Groundspeak's planned activities have been shared with It's Not About the Numbers. 

Surviving with a broken phone... or GPSR

Have you ever broken your smartphone and lived to tell about it? Believe it or not, it is possible despite what your middle school children may lead you to believe. But what if you're in the wilderness when your smartphone goes down? That's different, right? Before you eye up your geocaching companions to decide which one looks the tastiest, consider these tips for using your broken phone parts as survival tools. Some of these tips would probably also work with parts from a handheld GPS receiver. Let's hope it never comes to that.

Vote for The Weasel

Here's an opportunity to show your love for a fellow Iowa geocacher. Tim -- aka The Weasel -- is in the running for Geocacher of the Month. Have you voted yet? You can do so here.

Geocaching year in review videos

I just viewed the new Geocaching Year in Review video from Geocaching.com, which is nicely done. You can view it here: http://youtu.be/8RZf4zUjzck 

Also nicely done and closer to home is this video from Cache Continuum. Many of you will recognize Iowa geocachers Team Gamsci in these shots.

List of land management policies for Iowa geocaching

Did you know there's a handy list of links to geocaching policies posted by state, county and municipal land managers in Iowa? You can find it in the Geocaching.com Wiki at this link. If you know of additional policies posted by land managers, please let me know and I'll post the information in the Wiki site.

What Google’s new game “Ingress” is really about

Have you heard about Ingress? Wondering what it's all about? Here's one blogger's inside information about this new augmented reality game from Google. Looks like it will have great appeal to geocachers. Personally I'd be a little concerned about having my movements tracked by Google.

Signal Gothic

I was looking at my American Gothic virtual cache page just now and doing some cleanup of logs posted without the required photo, when I came across this photo that I hadn't previously noticed. Thanks, bumanfam, for the great photo! And thanks, Signal, for stopping by after MOGA.

Iowa DNR's geocaching rules

In past blog posts I have linked to the geocaching page on Iowa's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website. But because they change their website every once in awhile, now is a good time to update everyone. As you may know, the DNR requires permits for geocaches placed on DNR-managed properties. If you have submitted a geocache to Geocaching.com in the past you have probably received this reviewer note from me:

The Iowa DNR has requested that all geocaches placed on DNR-managed land first be approved by the local DNR manager. See: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Recreation/CampingFacilityRentals/RulesRegulations/Geocaching.aspx  Once you have been granted a permit, please edit your cache page to state that you have the required permit and then re-enable the cache listing so it reappears in my review queue. If you choose not to seek the permit, please archive this listing and remove the container. Thanks.

Are you receiving your emails from Geocaching.com?

When I review newly submitted geocaches (which is an every day occurrence), I sometimes have to temporarily disable the cache page so I can gather more information or request a change from the cache owner. For example, the cache may be too close (less than 528 feet) from an existing geocache or it may be on property where a geocaching permit is required (such as land managed by the DNR). In those cases I post a reviewer note on the cache page before I disable it. This automatically sends an email to the cache owner. At least it's supposed to. It seems like more and more cache owners -- especially relatively new geocachers -- are either not receiving these emails or they are ignoring them. Over the past few months I have repeatedly posted notes to several different cache owners and then temporarily disabled their cache pages, only to have them reactivate the cache page without responding to my request or questions and without making any change to the coordinates. I'm not sure what the reason is for this. Could it be that more people have tighter spam filters and they don't realize that their cache owner emails from Geocaching.com are being blocked or sent to a junk mail folder? My advice: Check the settings in your email program and make sure you are accepting emails from the domain name geocaching.com.