3 Easy Tips to Get the Most of Geocaching Friend League

So Geocaching.com has been successful in launching the 2017 Summer challenges; the Mary Hyde Pirate-themed adventure, and leveraging that to move their game platform to an increased state of social media impact. 

That's where Friend League comes into play. By now I'll assume everyone has heard of Friend League, but perhaps we don't all know how to get the most from it. So let me provide you with 3 quick and easy tips to help you get the most out of it this summer.


Tip 1 - Get Rewarded Quickly 
It is apparent that the goals for achieving points in Friend League will likely change weekly, much like they have for past summer souvenir earning programs. 

But right now, the best strategy seems to be to build a team of at least 10 friends and monitor social media for early posts from Geocaching.com, Geocaching bloggers, or podcasters for early tips on what the following weeks' point strategy will be. 



 
It does seem that the points earning period will always include a weekend so that is also helpful to make sure you can earn the minimum points required. 



Tip 2 - Make Friends Responsibly
Since you really shouldn't need more than 10 active geocaching friends to gain your souvenirs there's no need to reach out to people you don't know with undefined friend requests. So what am I asking you to do here?

When you send your friend request, by default it will say "I'd like to become friends on Geocaching.com." 

Consider adding a bit of your own text here, ideally how do you know the person? When did you last meet? Why do you want to be Geocaching.com friends?

In a recent Twitter survey I conducted, about 70% of Geocachers asked said they would not accept a friend request from someone they don't know. So let's respect each other and take the extra two minutes when sending a friend request to make it meaningful.


Tip 3 - Everything is Awesome When You're Part of a Team 
Remember that officially the only thing you are working towards as a League is to earn the souvenirs. Unlike "Clans" in other geolocation gaming, you aren't competing against each other within the group or against other groups for redeemable prizes. 

One of the things I think Geocaching.com is trying to avoid is the aggressiveness that comes into play due to competitiveness to earn in-game credits. This is not the case in Friend Leagues; you are only collaborating within your league so that you all get the souvenir available that period. And that souvenir is available to each as long as you gain the minimum points required.


So tune in to the bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters for fast updates, focus on building a team of friends you know, and leverage teamwork, collaboration, and fun, rather than competing against each other to get the most out of this summer's Mary Hyde geocaching adventure.

But most importantly remember to cache safely, and cache often! 
The LANMonkeys.

Planning a "Mary Hyde" Geocaching Event

Happy Summer Geocachers!

As our first official blog post of the summer, we wanted to check in and see who all was onboard for pirate adventures this summer? 

We assume by now you've seen the Geocaching(r) blog post about "The Lost Treasure of Mary Hyde" so you'll have some context about what we're discussing here!

Our good friends at Geocaching HQ have devised another fun summer activity for us all to participate in. So of course, the question becomes "will there be an event near me so I can get this souvenir and/or earn whatever rewards come of this?"

I took a look and there were no events near us, so we decided to host one ourselves. If it's of some help in your planning, here's some insight to our event.

Through an almost unbelievable coincidence, mere days after a mysterious letter in a bottle showed up near Geocaching HQ, a letter in a disappointingly empty rum bottle showed up near LANMonkey Studios. 

Here's the letter we found after thoroughly checking the bottle for rum.

  
So with some mad Google skills we determined that "15 score years" would be 300 years. And would you believe, 300 years from the date the letter was written turns out to be the weekend for "The Lost Treasure of Mary Hyde" souvenir events?

Given that information, we had now figured out that it was imperative we create an event at the given coordinates, and make sure all local Geocachers have the opportunity to break the curse!

If you'd like to see more about our event, make sure you check out GC77NRK 

And for some more ideas, take a look at these:

Need a Pirate Hat?

Download this image and print it on 11x17 for a large size, and legal size for the tots. Thanks to Chris of the Northwest from our Caching in the Northwest podcast for the design!

 Look to the bottom of this article for the full-size version to download!



How About Aome Piratey Games?  

Consider getting your scurvy attendees to walk the plank for a prize? Blindfold them, and they have to keep their feet within the sidewalk chalk "plank" you sketch on the ground. 

Pirates are often found around water - if you have the time, tools, and supplies you could put together a "portable water cache" - you know, the ones with the PVC pipe with various holes drilled in the sides? Of course your event would need to be near a source of free water, but it's another idea.

What are your ideas?
Share them with us, we'd love to hear what you are planning or what you did once the date for the event passes.


But most of all, have fun out there and cache safely, and cache often!
The LANMonkeys

Full Size CNW Pirate Hat image below:

Teaser - New Puzzles Series

 Spoiler alert! New LANMonkey puzzle cache series is coming soon to Metro Vancouver. 

We promise variety, creative hides, and challenging puzzles. But to give you a leg up, here's some images that will be used in one of the puzzles.

 In the meantime, make sure that you get out and cache safely, and cache often!

 

 

 

New Geotour in the Northwest

City of Richmond Announces New Geotour!

Word is out - on the City of Richmond website, as well as the BCGA and MetroVan Geocacher's social media channels. The City of Richmond, in partnership with the Government of Canada, is launching a brand new Geotour on May 6, 2017.



The Canada 150 Geotour will feature 17 traditional caches, 2 multis, and 1 earthcache. The geocaches will have fun, creative hides at each of the 19 physical cache locations, many courtesy of local geocachers layzee_bones and GeoNavPros.  

If finding 20 great geocaches isn't reward enough, be one of the first 150 geocachers to collect all 20 clues  and you will be rewarded with a limited edition trackable geocoin!

For more information about the Canada150 Geotour, and getting started with geocaching in general, click here to listen to yours truly talking to Janice & Cory about it on Roundhouse Radio this past Monday.

 
The launch of this fantastic new geotour will take place during the 3rd Annual Richmond Geocaching Extravaganza. Make sure you sign up for this event by logging your "will attend" on the event page. 

If you've never attended a geocaching event, download the official Geocaching.com app for your phone, create your free account, and come out to the Richmond Nature Park between 11:00am and 3:00pm Saturday May 6 2017 to have some local experts help you learn all about it in a family friendly environment.

For more in-depth information about the Geotour and geocaching in the City of Richmond, check out the April 6th episode of the Caching in the Northwest podcast.


And remember to always cache safely, and cache often!
The LANMonkeys.

Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek - gslink

Thanks for your patience everyone!

And now LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventures proudly presents the next Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek - gslink!

gslink - also known to listeners of the Geocache Talk podcast as Gary Slinkard - has over 160 geocaches placed, and over 1,000 found. Most notably in the Texas Geocaching community, Gary annually hosts "The Great Hunt of Hunt County" geocaching event.

Most recently, Gary has joined the ranks of Geocaching authors with the publishing of his book "Hide & Seek: Life Lessons of a Geocacher." Follow the link to check out more about his book on Amazon; available in ebook and printed copy.

Gary has worked in IT for over 25 years and lives in Greenville, Texas which is just an hour east of Dallas. He grew up in San Antonio Texas and anyone who's heard him on the weekly Geocache Talk podcast Sunday evenings can attest to the fact he is indeed a Texan!

Gary loves to travel and will often be found on a #GeocacheRoadTrip with his wife of 28 years, "SlinkyMama."  Combined with his Geocaching activities, Gary has also been participating in Weight Watchers for the past two years and has lost 100 lbs!

However, even more importantly than their accomplishments in Geocaching, writing, and podcasting, gslink and SlinkyMama are the proud parents of three sons; Joshua and Caleb who are 27 and Nathan who is 21.


You can catch Gary every week on the Geocache Talk podcast and watch him live on YouTube Sunday evenings at 6:00pm. 

Do you know someone who deserves being recognized as a Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek? Let us know by commenting on this post or tweeting your nominee to @LANMonkeyGC #GeekoftheWeek

Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek - witzend

Welcome to our second edition of the Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek, this week featuring true Renaissance man - witzend.

witzend has been geocaching since 2004, where he found his first geocache while visiting his hometown for a high school reunion. While he enjoys the hobby and has passed on his enthusiasm to several others you may be surprised that his "find count" isn't among the top in his area. 

This is because he continually seeks out innovation, quality, and social aspects of geocaching over find counts. This is evidenced by having finds in 20 states and four countries, being a frequent familiar face at geocaching events, and being a proud owner of an A.P.E. icon.

Growing up in Southern California, witzend is a true Disneyland junkie but also considers the Northwest home as he's lived here his entire adult life. Living in the Northwest has allowed him access to people and places where he can enjoy some of his passions including camping, geocaching, photography/videography, amateur radio, and schuhplattler.  

Like we said - a true renaissance man who is a life-long learner and always making something new or improving on something in his garage which doubles as his podcasting studio. Of course, when not attending to family, work, or these hobbies, he's helping with the local amateur radio enthusiasts or working as a freelance videographer (including 20 years on the crew at the Puyallup Fair).

He is proudest however of his family - "My children have grown into amazing and wonderful adults in spite of my parenting and of course my wife of almost 29 years is a big reason for that."

You can catch witzend every week on the Caching in the Northwest podcast recorded live Thursday nights at 9:00pm Pacific on YouTube. 

Do you know someone who deserves being recognized as a Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek? Let us know by commenting on this post or tweeting your nominee to @LANMonkeyGC #GeekoftheWeek