OpenCaching North America Geocaching Blog: April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Geocaching taking a beating from Government Officials and the media as of late! (Part 2 of 3)

Here we see the Badlands of Central Oregon. They don't look so bad, do they? But they are now bad for Geocaching! They are on Bureau of Land Management (hereafter referred to as BLM) land, and more specifically, a designated wilderness area within BLM land. The local district manager is asking that 47 Geocaches be permanently removed, and another 37 closed seasonally (a total of 84 caches), in areas on BLM land deemed inappropriate for Geocaching. The caches are being removed from the Badlands, Spring Basin and Lower White River designated wilderness areas, as well as land on nearby Horse Ridge and other lands deemed inappropriate for caching. Along with designated wilderness areas, these BLM lands have titles such as “research natural areas” and “areas of critical environmental concern.” This story received widespread coverage in the media, one of the most covered Geocaching related news stories we've ever seen. Why is that? Read on!

The HikerJamz Geocaching Talk Show: April 26th, 2014

Current Podcasting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio

OCNA blog note: Please note that HikerJamz is having a contest! But you'll have to listen to see how to enter. You might want to brush up on your early Geocaching history though. This week, HikerJamz and co-host Ken spend quite a bit of time talking about the archival of over 4,000 caches in Arizona, that we blogged about last week. Ken is from Arizona, and did have one cache archived.

Hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show is a proud member of the Tech Podcasts Network. Today we will explain how to win a set of " 10" Travelfleas from Travelfreas.com...Listen to a new episode every Saturday at 3:00 pm. Eastern (New York) time here on Blog Talk Radio. We will discuss news, events, different types of caching tips and tricks and from time to time we will have a special guest visit our show. Hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show is sponsored by CacheFace.com which is a dedicated social network for geocachers to connect and share in their caching passion globally and in real time. All Geocachers are welcome to join for free. To learn more about Geocaching, go to geocaching.com/guide and find the Q&A's on what geocaching is all about. Thank you in advance for listening to our show. Host: Hikerjamz from Ohio and Co-Host: KandB from Arizona USA. Don't forget to like us on our show page !

Friday, April 25, 2014

Geocaching taking a beating from Government Officials and the media as of late! (Part 1 of 3)

File this post under current events in Geocaching. We highly recommend all Geocachers subscribe to a Google news alert for the word Geocaching. Or alternatively, you can come read this blog, and look at the RSS feed we have of the 5 latest Geocaching news stories on the internet in the sidebar. Two "negative" stories came out this week, one regarding the mass removal of caches on BLM land in Oregon, and another with a negative headline about Geocaching and North Carolina State Gamelands, although the article itself is quite balanced and generally favorable towards Geocaching. But there is a 3rd "negative story" this week, that didn't show up on a Google news alert (yet), and it's a big one. Here you see a parcel map of the State of Arizona. Everything shown in blue (light or dark) is State Trust Land. Although it's been said for years Geocaching is not an authorized recreational activity on these lands, State officials have apparently taken it to the next level. This week, Geocachng.com HQ archived over 4,400 caches on State Trust Land property. We do have an explanation from The Arizona Assistant Director of Natural Resources Division (via an email an Arizona Cacher received from them, and has given us permission to post and/or quote from). Originally intended to be one post touching on all three news stories, we've decided to cover all three of individually, beginning with the situation in Arizona.

(The GCDoc Videos) Homemade Puzzle Box GEOCACHE & GEOCACHING with Barney Fife

OCNA Blog note: We were just going to skip a weekly video posted by The Geocaching Doc while our Blogger was on vacation, but it turned out to be one of The Doc's highly popular videos where he shows viewers how to fabricate a unique and interesting container, so we are posting his Puzzle Box Geocache video, where he shows how he made the Cache which won first prize at a local to him Makers Madness event (was originally posted to YouTube April 15th, 2014), as well as his latest video, GEOCACHING with Barney Fife, published the same day as this post.

CONNECT WITH THE DOC!
http://plus.google.com/+TheGCDoc
http://facebook.com/thegcdoc
http://instagram.com/thegcdoc
http://twitter.com/thegcdoc
http://pinterest.com/drjbroke
thegcdoc@gmail.com
THE GEOCACHING NETWORK - http://www.youtube.com/geocachingnetwork

Music By
Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Monday, April 21, 2014

The HikerJamz Geocaching Talk Show: April 19th, 2014

More Podcasting Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio

The Hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show has a new episode every Saturday at 3:00 pm. Eastern (New York) time here on Blog Talk Radio. We will discuss news, events, different types of caching tips and tricks and from time to time we will have a special guest visit our show. Hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show is sponsored by CacheFace.com which is a dedicated social network for geocachers to connect and share in their caching passion globally and in real time. All Geocachers are welcome to join for free. To learn more about Geocaching, go to geocaching.com/guide and find the Q&A's on what geocaching is all about. Thank you in advance for listening to our show. Host: Hikerjamz from Ohio and Co-Host: KandB from Arizona USA. Don't forget to like us on our show page !

HikerJamz Website: http://www.midwestohiogeocaching.webs.com
HikerJamz on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hikerjamztalkshow
HikerJamz on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hikerjamz

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Guest Post: Cachegeek.com interview by Benign Source

With the OCNA Blogger on vacation, we have a guest post this week, Mark AKA Benign Source, AKA Banana Source from the Oh Beep! Geocaching podcast interviewing Beth, the owner and creator of the excellent website Cachegeek.com. This email interview (there was no associated podcast interview) was originally posted to the Oh Beep! website as a blog post in January 2014. Be sure to check out both the Oh Beep! Geocaching podcast and cachegeek.com. Click "read more" to see the interview.

Webcam Caches; how they work, and a history

OCNA Webcam Cache at Towson University, Md.

The OCNA blogger is going on vacation next week (by the way, there will be a guest post!), and was planning to hit up a Webcam Cache listed on our site near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Collingswood Webcam Cache. So keeping with the recent tradition on this blog of featuring a Locationless and Moving Cache, along with talking about how these caches work and a history of them, we will do the same this week with Webcam Caches, and also describe the three different types of outdoor public web camera's that are used for Webcam Caches. As well as plug the fact that we still accept them on our website, as do fellow alternative Gecoaching websites Navicache.com, Terracaching.com and GPSgames.org. You can submit a Webcam cache on any of our sites right now! We list 33 active, 31 in the Untied States, and 2 in Canada, on the OpenCaching.us website. We have published over 40 of them. Approximately 95% of Geocaching.com accounts registered after they stopped accepting these caches in November, 2005, and therefore were never able to have a chance to create one. They are disappearing fast on that website, and very few are left. We have the numbers there, both in the USA, and worldwide, but you'll have to read on for that.

(The GCDoc Video) GEOCACHING Maker Madness!

Published on Apr 9, 2014

The Doc attends his local Maker Madness event and brings along two of his most recent GEOCACHE containers!

OTHER VIDEOS BY THE DOC! - http://www.youtube.com/thegcdoc

VIDEO LINKS FOR MOBILE VIEWERS
Previous Video - http://youtu.be/XylU46pODys
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME! (with the magic of YouTube)
1 Year - http://youtu.be/BV1Per0mGcY
2 Years - http://youtu.be/i3HhW_8F1CM

CONNECT WITH THE DOC!
http://plus.google.com/+TheGCDoc
http://facebook.com/thegcdoc
http://instagram.com/thegcdoc
http://twitter.com/thegcdoc
http://pinterest.com/drjbroke
thegcdoc@gmail.com

THE GEOCACHING NETWORK - http://www.youtube.com/geocachingnetwork

Music By
danosongs.com (http://www.danosongs.com/music/danoso...)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sunday, April 6, 2014

The HikerJamz Geocaching Talk Show: April 5th, 2014

Discover Podcasting Internet Radio with hikerjamz Geocaching Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio

HikerJamz Website: http://www.midwestohiogeocaching.webs.com
HikerJamz on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hikerjamztalkshow
HikerJamz on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hikerjamz

Saturday, April 5, 2014

(The GCDoc Video) Tree-Top GEOCACHE

Published on Apr 1, 2014

The Doc and his two oldest kiddos find a VERY WINTER-FRIENDLY GEOCACHE!

OTHER VIDEOS BY THE DOC! - http://www.youtube.com/thegcdoc

VIDEO LINKS FOR MOBILE VIEWERS
Previous Video - http://youtu.be/INTjtWfneyY
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME! (with the magic of YouTube)
1 Year - http://youtu.be/M3Ozldld8YY
2 Years - http://youtu.be/8R9mCp-0OPw

CONNECT WITH THE DOC!
http://plus.google.com/+TheGCDoc
http://facebook.com/thegcdoc
http://instagram.com/thegcdoc
http://twitter.com/thegcdoc
http://pinterest.com/drjbroke
thegcdoc@gmail.com

THE GEOCACHING NETWORK - http://www.youtube.com/geocachingnetwork

Music By
Lights On Records (https://soundcloud.com/lightsonrecord...)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

OCNA Pathtag winners announced!

We have the winners of our 2nd Pathtag contest, which was billed as "Win some OCNA Pathtags part Deux". All winners responded within about 3 hours of being notified via email on Monday morning, March 31st. It looks like we forgot to mention when announcing the winners of our last contest that beginning with that contest (The Travel Fleas Holiday Giveaway), we started using the website Random.org to choose the winner(s). We were inspired to do so by The Outdoor Blogger Network, which we are a member of, after noticing one of their very well done contests to win one of 5 pairs of hiking boots to review on your blog (obviously, we didn't win!). Rebecca from The OBN actually makes videos of her prize drawings, but we're not that advanced (yet). Watch the video, or above you see a screenshot of the website. You put in a Min. number (and our Google Docs entry forms start at 2), with a Max. of the number of the last entry on the form, and you simply hit "Generate".

Our Grand Prize winner, of five of our Pathtags was Mark AKA themulcher, a Geocacher from Charlotte, North Carolina.The 2nd prize winner, of three Pathtags, was Ed AKA bmzdaddy, a Geocacher from Chesterfield, Missouri. The 3rd prize winner, of two Pathtags was Andy, whose children (ages 7 and 10) cache as g00fballz. They are from Prince George, British Columbia. Hey, our first international winner! Congratulations to all three of them!! Thanks to all who entered the contest as well.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The HikerJamz Geocaching Talk Show: March 29th, 2014