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

4 Podcast Giveaway - WitzEnd's Favourite Freemont Spot

You've waited so patiently, it's time you were rewarded!

In order to be entered into the drawing for the 2015 Block Party "4 Podcast Giveaway" contest you'll need to listen to four different podcasts and hear the favourite Freemont spot from the four hosts who met up at The 2015 Block Party.

Well, here's the answer from Caching in the Northwest host, WitzEnd!



Now remember, to be entered into the contest, Listen to this week's episodes (starting Aug 30) of
PodCacher, GeoGearHeads, LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventures and Caching in the NorthWest

to find out which iconic Fremont, Washington landmark each host found to be the most interesting.

Yes, you must listen to all 4 shows!
Title an email "Fremont Landmarks" and in the body of the email, write all four landmarks and who chose it.
Address your email to feedback@cachingnw.com
Deadline: September 6th, 2015 at midnight (PST)
Winners to be chosen at random from all correct entries.

Hey Geocachers, it’s LANMonkey, I want to let you in on a little secret! Tomorrow we’ll be at the Geocaching Block Party along with the entire cast of Caching in the Northwest! If you’re going to be there, we really want you to come by and say "hi."

In addition, make sure to follow our upcoming episodes as we’re going to be spending the day getting exclusive interviews with Geoaching.com Lackeys and even a little tour of the changes to the offices at Geocaching.com. We’ll take you on some of the Geocaching Adventures available only at this event, and learn what the future holds for those much discussed “lab caches”, the GIFF event, and more.

If you're interested in what Geocaching Adventures (lab cache) caches will be at the Block Party this year, check this link.

So if you want to see more than just what happened, but get some inside scoop and meet the people behind this great hobby/sport of ours, keep your eyes on LANMonkey’s Geocaching Adventures, and your ears on Caching in the Northwest. 

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

Good evening geocachers and readers, we hope that you've had a wonderful holiday season, and that your New Years is filled with joy and peace.

We had a great time with family and geocaching on Vancouver Island and are looking forward to seeing some of you at the upcoming events on January 1st (The Early Cacher gets the Smilie (GC4THJK)) and January 10th (10 Years of EarthCaching - Learn & Celebrate (GC4V35V)). If you can't make it out, hopefully we'll get a chance to see you on the trails soon!


 In addition to family time & some caching, Mr. LANMonkey made another co-hosting appearance on Caching in the Northwest with The Bad Cop & WitzEnd. In Episode 24 we talked about caching plans and goals for 2014. What are your goals for 2014?


In our upcoming episodes, we'll share some feedback on questions we've been asked over the past couple of months, and share a video that covers a week full of geocaching highlights in December.

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

2,000 Reasons We Love Travel-Caching

In case you hadn't heard yet, the LANMonkeys have passed geocaching find #2,000 in October. We had a trip planned in late October and were starting to get close to 2,000 finds, so we decided that it would be fun to make our 2,000th a special one. We also thought we'd see how many states/provinces we could find a cache in on one day.

 It started very early in the morning with a quick grab in BC before we crossed the US border on our way to catch a flight out of the Bellingham Airport. That was find #1,998. Once we were across the border we grabbed a cache near to the airport, and then waited for our traveling companions - CatapultJeff & IronMaiden to join us for the flight to Las Vegas.

And then we were in Las Vegas! Our first stop was the virtual cache at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, GC729A.

We took our photo, and just as we were about to head off to our next destination, Mrs. LANMonkey dropped to one knee & we had an impromptu "renewing of our vows" as she replaced my wedding band that no longer fit my finger after 19 years of wedded bliss with a brand new one she had purchased a while ago and snuck down for just this moment.

What a special moment! After that, we were off for more travel caching adventures, including a visit to Hoover Dam, and geocache finds in California and Arizona, to give us geocache finds in five different states/provinces in one day! Later that day we reminisced about some of our favourite cache finds over that past year and half, our 2,000 reasons we love geocaching.

Travel-Caching
We sure do enjoy our travel-caching, and it's nice when we can do that together, and even nicer when we can travel-cache with friends. Often though, I do find myself travel-caching when on work trips, and it is a different approach than when caching at home or doing "destination" travel-caching trips.  On episode 96 of the Geo Gear Heads they talked about business trip travel-caching and it's well worth a listen. I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many of the tips and tricks, but even learned a few new ideas on how to make travel-caching light effective - most of what I learned was the advice with specifics around pocket queries.

Additionally, as you've probably already heard, DarrylW4 & TheBadCop are about to hit episode 100 of the Geo Gear Heads, so a big congrats to them both for that milestone.

Caching in the NorthWest
 Speaking of things you've probably heard, I've been making a big deal about my podcast debut on the podcast "Caching in the NorthWest" with TheBadCop and WitzEnd. We had an absolute blast recording the episode about travel caching,  and ended up chatting together for almost another 2 hours after we finished recording. If you're interested in catching their podcast about caches and cachers in the Pacific NorthWest, check them out on their website or via iTunes.

Thanks for stopping by and reading our little geocaching blog once more - we sure hope you enjoy following us and really encourage you to comment or email us with your ideas, input, and advice.

Until next time, remember to cache safely and cache often!
The LANMonkeys.

PRED Trail, Mojave Desert, & other news...

Welcome to another Geocaching Tuesday!  We missed you guys, but we've been pretty busy around LMGA HQ lately.

On the geocaching front, we've uploaded our latest episode, which features a bike-caching adventure where Mrs. LANMonkey & Manta Rayz joined me to complete the PRED series of 40 geocaches along the Pitt River north of Pitt Meadows BC. Check it out, and enjoy the scenery - let me know what you think about bike caching - is it your style?




For a complete change of scenery, we recently returned from a geocaching adventure in the Mojave desert with our caching buddies Catapult Jeff & Iron Maiden. We cached the "Heart of the Mojave Desert" series as well as the back-half of "Route 66" and a number of other caches preceding and ante-ceding those trails. Truly an amazing and fun time with great friends - watch for the next few episodes of LMGA where I'll feature different aspects of that trip.

While we were caching with them, Catapult Jeff & Iron Maiden made their 10,000th cache find - that's CRAZY! I'll be featuring that event in an episode coming very soon so watch for that too!

Right after we got back it was off to the "Caching in Space" event held in Burnaby, BC. A well hosted and fun event that the weather actually cooperated for. Our sincere thanks to our hosts for the evening, KNL Caching, goaliegirl38, and jeepgurl1970. You guys did an awesome job!

Last bit of caching news, is that this Thursday I'll be joining the Caching in the NorthWest podcast as a guest. I'm very excited and honoured to be joining The Bad Cop and WitzEnd for an episode of their podcast. Thanks gents, I'll try not to embarrass you!

So that's all our quick updates for now, but in the meantime we're working hard at LMGA HQ producing tons of new content from our recent travels, events, and fun so watch for it each and every Geocaching Tuesday, and maybe even a few surprise episodes in-between.

Until next time, "cache safely, and cache often!"
The LANMonkeys.