Geocaching.com's New Advanced Search

Geocaching premium members, check your email mailboxs. Yesterday you should have received an email telling you how you as premium members get a sneak peak at the new advanced search that Groundspeak is rolling out. I personally think that it is great except for one thing, and that is filtering caches based on minimum favorite points.

I find that to be rather offensive because it takes away from the element of just getting out and caching. Let's take the video game Little Big Planet 1, 2, and 3 for example.

The credo of this game is "Play, Create, Share", which is not that different than geocaching's credo.

The players of this game can play the main story levels, collect bits and bobs, and then create levels for other players to play that are published to the Little Big Planet servers.

But the players of this game only seek out levels made by the community that have 500+ hearts (favorite points) on them to play. This gets those levels more plays and  more hearts, and in turn buries the levels of other less experienced community creators into obscurity. 

A new creator of levels can put in just as much time and effort into learning the in and out of level creation as a master builder, but will not get the same level of plays or hearts in return. And this can be very disappointing.

It is the same with geocaching,and even more so now. I feel for the new cachers, it's not right. Don't be a cache snob and only find caches with a minimum number of favorite points. The point of geocaching is to get out, have fun, and explore... Not to find perfect caches at the expense of not having an adventure.

As a side note, you as a premium member if you have found 1000 or more geocaches have more favorite points to give out than you can ever do in your caching lifetime. People look at the cache and think "Well it's just a lock & lock under some moss, not worthy of a favorite point.

But think for a moment, step back and look around.. Maybe the location is the reason why the cache is there, maybe it is the point of why the hider brought you to that spot. Maybe something close by is the reason too. Look at the big picture, not just the cache itself when determining the worth of the cache!

Lumbo-Tires' Annual New Year "Strollin on"

I have to start this entry with an apology, I have been very busy as of late and writing has been the furthest thing from my mind.  With a major change in vocation things in my life have changed entirely!  But I think I am finally getting it together enough to start putting my efforts back into my other passions like geocaching and writing this blog.

Our first story comes from way back in January.  In fact it comes from January 10th when Lumbo-Tire hosted his annual new year "Strollin on" event.  This year entitled "Strollin on The Bipedal Celebration in Saanich - GC5HDD1"

As usual Lumbo held his event at the ever impressive Mess in the LT. General Ashton Armoury.  It is such a nice location, with tons of room and seating.  As well, he had the no host bar open for those wishing to imbibe in a drink or two.  This year he had the football game on the big screen TV for those who didn't want to miss the action.

A nice thing to happen is that my father Postie Bear came down this time, and along with his friend CurleyQ42 they had their very first Lumbo-Tire New Year event experience.

One of the things that stand out about this event is the games.  Lumbo-Tire puts on a few games to keep the night interesting.  He usually has his "Guess the Number" game where the attendees have to guess how many of an object is in the large jar.  A new addition was the "You know you're a geocacher when" game, where those who participated wrote on slips of paper a thing that happened or thing that stands out as a truth when you are a geocacher.  The winner of the "Number" game I can't remember, but the winner for the "You know" game was diraduck who wrote "You know you're a geocacher when you pee in the woods way more than you do at home"!!

The game that is played for the majority of the night is Lumbo's famous "Swag Bag" game.  In this game Lumbo looks for the most obscure, yet things you use or see everyday.  He then sews them into numbered pouches, and we have to feel them and blindly guess what they are.
It has been  a few years, but guess who won!?  That's right me!!  I actually dominated the scene this year just knowing what the items were with extra details.  My crowning yet embarrassing moment was knowing that one pouch contained a My Little Pony figure in it, but no not just that... I knew it was a Pegasus and that it was the character "Fluttershy"!  For this I got a bonus 5 points on the item.

As usual everyone had a great time talking and sharing stories and ideas for the new caching year.  The gift exchange went really well, and people walked away with some pretty cool stuff.  Personally we got a nicely stocked cache and a few other cool items that we will definitely use in our future hides!  Our usual photographer wasn't able to do the job, so Mrs. GO! Team got everyone together for a quick shot using her cellphone.  And slowly people trickled away into the night.

Another very successful new year event Lumbo-Tire!  You always do such a great job!!!

Thanks to everyone that came and brought all the amazing potluck foods, gifts, and enthusiasm.  It was really nice seeing old familiar faces, and a few new ones too!

See you all again soon and thanks for reading!

New Years Day Caching at Piper's Lagoon Park

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you all had a great evening New Years Eve, even if you only just tucked in bed or sitting on a couch by the fire watching a favorite movie.  In our case we were in Nanaimo at our regular haunt, having a great time.  The home we were at was old friends of Mrs. GO! Team, and the very people that introduced geocaching to us who go by the caching name sahara_jeepers.  We enjoy the comradery of their parties, and they never complain about a New Years Day walk involving geocaching.

So there we were at their home standing around the fire pit in their back yard, imbibing in our favorite drinks awaiting the arrival of 2015!

Midnight arrived in due time, and we all shook off 2014 to Taylor Swifts "Shake it off".  Sadly the party didn't last much longer than that, as we all turned in fairly early.  That was a first for us, is it because we are getting older??  Let's hope not!!


The next day I awoke and headed to the living room to check out Facebook on my phone, and Mrs. sahara_jeepers came and joined me.  I mentioned that I had a couple of Letterbox Hybrids that I was interested in doing, and she was very interested in doing those since they would be their first of that cache type.  She also suggested a brunch at the Nanaimo Ricky's and a walk at Piper's Lagoon Park, as there were a few caches there that they had not gotten before.  I was happy to say yes to that, so I used her computer to load up 5 more caches for us to do that day.
And once her family and my wife were up and ready, we all headed out the door to go for brunch and our caching fun!

 Of course I won't bore you all with the details of our breakfast, but it sure was yummy.
When all of us were done eating, we headed out and met at the first of the Letterbox caches that we 
planned.  This one was "claret97's Birthday Cache" by Boris the Spider 7.
Thankfully Mrs. sahara_jeepers was a little better equipped to find this one, as she was the only person to have worn waterproof footwear.  So she crossed the marshy area and made a nice quick find, and signed the log for us all.  For us that didn't we had to contend with several dog bombs (poop), and we all avoided it well except Mrs. sahara_jeepers!  So I guess she will have good luck while geocaching for the rest of the year.

The second one was "North Nanaimo Trail Mix" by Boris the Spider 7 & claret97.  And this time Mr.
sahara_jeepers joined us while the Mrs stayed with the kids in the car.  This cache was a little more of an adventure that took us down a little trail to a side trail.  Up this we walked a hill until we found a rocky plateau.  Once up here we

decided not to use the extra coordinates provided by the cache owner in the hint, and after a small search of the surrounding area Mr. sahara_jeepers made the find!

With the letterbox Hybrids out of the way, it was time to go on to Piper's Lagoon Park.
Here there were 5 caches for us  to find here.  A couple of them sahara_jeepers had found before, so they left it to us to find those.  We had a great time walking around together finding the caches, looking at the sights, and joking around.  It is always fun to go caching with people that have little ones in their family, sure the day goes slow but even the smallest of adventures become the biggest when they are around.  When we got around to our last cache of the day we started down from the hill it was on, and almost immediately I stepped into a big heaping pile of dog doodoo!  Of course this caused me to grumble a bit, but in the end I just wiped it away and considered it a sign that I will have good luck caching for the rest of 2015.

Thanks again for stopping by and reading our blog!  We wish for you a safe and fun year in 2015, and may all your geocaching adventures be full of great finds!!

Happy New Year

Oh my, how could we have forgotten to post a Happy New Year here at the blog.  We did it on Twitter and Facebook, but neglected the place that started it all.  But sometimes it is better late than never right!?

Happy New Year to all our readers.  May 2015 bring happiness and joy, and many geocaching adventures to you all!

This post was back dated to January 1st to keep in context.