Geocaching with Woo

Oooo look, new treasures! We've got two new treasure collections coming down the pike, and they look interesting. The way I read it, the first requires Premium Membership. Kind of crazy, I know, but I decided years ago that although I hate having to pay for anything that could be free, I wanted to support Geocaching and all that they do to create this hobby that I enjoy so much. I can't even imagine all the work that goes into it, and to support millions of people - so yeah, I bit the bullet and started paying for a Premium Membership. Anyway, the River expedition puzzle collection is just that, a puzzle, and it's laid out like a difficulty/terrain grid, from 1 to 2.5 in either direction. So, sixteen treasures, one of each difficulty/terrain combination, all geocache types, except events and Adventure Lab locations. As an added bonus, you get a souvenir upon completion, pretty cool! More information about this collection can be found on the official blog post . I ...

This weekend, Tom and I started - and completed - the Heart of the Civil War US 250th GeoTour . This GeoTour was released on September 19, 2025, and it brings geocachers to the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area, three counties in Maryland where there is a lot of history from that time. We had completed the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area GeoTrail several years ago, and while we visited several of the same sites this time, the GeoTour focused more on the general history of some locations, rather than their relationship to the Civil War. This GeoTour consisted of 21 geocaches of all types that needed to be found or completed to earn the souvenir, but 15 physical caches had to be found, and the code words inside recorded, to be eligible for the geocoin. As a "bonus," for three of the mystery caches, Adventure Labs had to be completed in order to receive the coordinates. There were also two GeoTour-related events (Kick-Off and Coin Redemption events), as well as a...

September treasures have just been announced , as well as a new user interface having been introduced . The new user interface will apparently allow you to choose a priority for the treasures received on caches that you find, which will, in my case, decrease the need to plan out the order that caches are found in, maximizing any geocaching outing. I was trying to be very careful in planning which caches to attempt based on the criteria for each treasure, and trying to make sure that these wouldn't overlap, I believe that this will negate some of that. Prerequisites, except for the Geocaching Origins collection, have been done away with - I personally didn't mind those, as long as they weren't too difficult - and you can choose to have one to three collections active at any time. The number is based on your membership level - one for Basic, up to three for Premium. Read up on the changes on the official blog post and check out the new interface on your Treasures page ...

International EarthCache Day is celebrated on the second Saturday in October, and this year it falls on October 11. This year's souvenir can be earned by visiting and logging any EarthCache from October 10-12, 2025. Read more about it on the official blog post .

Adventure Day is on October 18, 2025 and you can celebrate it by earning a souvenir from October 17-19 by logging five Adventure Lab locations. Visit the official blog post to learn more.

The Geocaching International Film Festival 2025 will be held from November 6-16. A souvenir can be earned by attending a GIFF event, and if you'd rather host your own event, an official blog entry describing how you can host a GIFF event has been posted. I'm bummed because I'll be missing it this year - I'll be on a cruise, but luckily there's a website where I can watch the film reel after I get back. The shorts are always fun to watch, and sometimes there are even trackable codes to be discovered!

A new season is fast approaching, the September Equinox. Geocachers can celebrate the season by finding a cache, attending an event or completing an Adventure Lab location between September 19 and 22, 2025 and earning a souvenir. Read a little more about it on the official blog post .

Cache In, Trash Out, Season 2 2025 begins on September 1 and runs through November 30, 2025. Attend a CITO event in order to earn a souvenir - read about it here .

World Postcard Day 2025 is October 1, 2025 and you can earn a souvenir by attending an event between September 28 and October 4, 2025. Don't forget to log that you attended to get credit, and learn more on the official blog post .

A new round of Virtual Rewards has been announced ! On February 3, 2026, 4,000 virtual caches will be awarded, and to be eligible to be selected, the following criteria must be met: You must have three (3) non-event geocaches published in 2025 Your geocaching account must have been created prior to July 29, 2025 Anyone who received a Virtual Reward in the past is eligible and those who opted in for Virtual Rewards 2.0 and 3.0 and/or qualified for Virtual Rewards 4.0, and did not recieve one, will have a higher liklihood of receiving a 5.0 reward. Other than that, the selections will be random, but more heavily weighted in countries that have less virtual caches. I might actually be eligible this time around! I haven't had three geocaches published, yet, but I put one out in May and I plan to put one out this month. That just means one more! I wasn't eligible for Round 4, the geocache I published didn't get enough favorite points, but I'm pretty sure I was eligib...

The latest souvenir campaign has been announced on the Geocaching blog ! It makes use of the Leaderboard , which hasn't been used for a campaign in a while. It's also a global participation thing, like with the Cosmic Quest's Lift Off souvenir. So, here's how I understand it - between July 21 and August 17, all of the geocachers in the world have the opportunity to fill up Signal's 25th anniversary scrapbook - 25 million pages worth! Using the Leaderboard, we can keep track of how many pages of the scrapbook we fill, as well as how many pages have been filled up globally. Our individual actions will fill up pages like this: Log a Found it on any cache, except Webcams - 1 page Attend an event - 3 pages Receive a Favorite Point on an owned geocache - 3 pages Find an Adventure Lab location - 1 page Find a geocache with 5+ Favorite Points - 3 pages Collect a Making Memories treasure - 5 pages There will be three souvenirs available to earn: Crafty Cacher - earn t...

International Geocaching Day 2025 is on August 16, 2025, and in order to celebrate 25 years of Geocaching, there will be TWO souvenirs available this year! The International Geocaching Day 2025 Finder souvenir can be earned by finding a geocache or attending an event from August 15-17 and the International Geocaching Day 2025 Hider souvenir can be earned by having a geocache published between July 15 and August 25! So much to do, so little time! My plans to create a new multiple cache in my area, which have been brewing for some time, are finally going to have to be finalized! Read more about our latest souvenir opportunity on the official blog post .

The next month's worth of treasures has been revealed, and they are: Tools of the trade - these six treasures will be available starting on July 8, but only if you've already completed the Egg hunt collection. Log Traditional, Mystery, Multiple or Letterbox caches that have the Special Tool Required attribute and have a difficulty rating of 3 or higher. Making memories - start earning these seven treasures on July 21 by first completing the Geocaching origins collection, then logging events or finding caches sized micro, small or regular with a difficulty rating of 1.5 through 4. Completing this collection will earn you the Memory Maker souvenir. The official blog post has all of the information you need to learn more.

The Geocaching website and app went live on May 29 with teasers about the newest collections of Treasures, to be released on June 10, but the official announcement was made today: Event mementos - after completing the Classic trackables collection, you can these earn 5 treasures Planets - unlock this collection of eight by completing the Mystery books collection I have completed the Classic trackables collection, so I'll find out the criteria for the Event mementos on June 10, but I have yet to complete the Navigational tools collection, the prerequisite for the Mystery books collection, so it might take a little bit before I learn what is needed to earn the Planets collection. You can read the latest announcement on the official blog post . UPDATE 06/10/25: These are the criteria for the five treasures in the Event memento collection: Type: Traditional, Multiple, Letterbox, Mystery, Webcam, Wherigo Size: Micro, Small, Other Favorites Points: minimum of 3 OR any event Whew! ...

June Solstice is coming and we're celebrating with another souvenir! From June 20-22, log a found it on any geocache, attend an event or complete an Adventure Lab location to earn it. The official announcement can be found on the official blog post .

The Middle of Everywhere GeoTour kicked off on May 3, 2025, and was on my list of tings to do while in West Virginia for GeoWoodstock XXI . A couple of years ago (around 2022), I heard about the Marion County Murals Geocaching Trail, and had hoped to travel there to complete it. Marion County had sponsored GeoTrails in the past, but that was the first one I had heard of. The Middle of Everywhere GeoTour (MOE-GT) incorporated some of the same locations, and added more, maybe from previous GeoTrails. The caches were divided into four different categories, each being a specific cache type, and at least four caches out of each category had to be found in order to be eligible for the geocoin. Finding all twenty would give you the souvenir. After attending GeoWoodstock through lunch, we left Mylan Park and headed south, hoping to find the required 16 out of 20 caches needed to earn the geocoin. We heard from multiple sources that it would take eight to ten hours, so we were on a time...

The Country Roads Challenge was released on May 22, 2025, as a side event for GeoWoodstock XXI . It included ten locations, with an approximate drive time of 1.5 hours, from beginning to end. These locations were intended to bring geocachers to venues that were off the beaten path, but still worth a visit. An Adventure Lab was also co-located with eight of the ten stops, with an additional two along way. These caches were well placed for us. While travelling to West Virginia for GeoWoodstock via I-68, the caches fell in line with our travel plans and the whole challenge took us about 3½ hours to complete. Our final destination, before retiring for the evening, was Woodstock on the Wharf , and the last cache left us close to that location. The caches were easy to find, and the code words for the Adventure Labs well placed, especially for venues that happened to be closed. Retrieval of the trackable geocoin was easy, too. Just bring the completed passport to the Visit Mo...

The folks at GeoGuessr have teamed up with Geocaching once again to celebrate 25 Years of Geocaching. Similar to the first GeoGuessr Challenge , this game puts us somewhere on the Earth in Google StreetView, and we have about 2 ½ minutes to guess where in the world you are. When you've guessed 25 locations, you'll be rewarded with a trackable code that, once logged as discovered, will earn you a souvenir. This is a limited time challenge, it runs from April 29 - May 9, so get moving! Learn more on the official blog post .

April is in full swing, how are we doing with collecting Treasures? I am the proverbial tortoise and have not quite finished with the collections released in March. It's a good thing that there isn't a time limit! With that being said, the next two collections, releasing on May 6, have been announced on the official blog post : Classic trackables - start earning these 5 treasures upon completing the "Celebrating 25 years" collection Mystery books - complete the "Navigational tools" collection to start earning these four treasures The criteria haven't been announced, yet, but you can learn what they are on the Treasures page, and clicking on a blank circle with a question mark on that particular collection's shelf, or the information icon. UPDATE 05/07/25: The Classic trackables collection can be earned by finding and logging a traditional, event, Cache In Trash Out event, Mega-event, Community Celebration event, Geocaching Headquarters Block P...

Blue Switch Day is on May 2, 2025 and it marks 25 years of having GPS technology more accurate for everyone. This year, two souvenirs will be available to celebrate the ocassion. The typical Blue Switch Day souvenir will be available for anyone who finds and logs a find from May 2 - 4. An additional Blue Switch souvenir will be available to anyone who gets a non-event geocache published from May 1 - 31. So a Blue Switch Finder and a Blue Switch Hider! I had planned to hide a geocache some time soon (between March 26 and June 5), to coincide with the Geocache hiding theme of " Back to Nature ," now I'm doubly (is that a word) inspired to do it, I just have a more narrow deadline. Or perhaps I should hide two... Well, you can learn a little bit more about both of these souvenirs on the official blog post . UPDATE 04/30/25: I finally saw the new blog post about the Hider souvenir, read about it here .

Today is the official date to start collecting Treasures! The lastest official blog post shows us what they will look like, and even mentions that if you complete the "Celebrating 25 years collection," you'll earn a souvenir! There is also a teaser about the next two collections, to be released on April 1: Navigational tools - 5 treasures earned by finding and logging traditional geocaches with a difficulty of 2 or higher and a terrain of 1.5 or lower Egg hunt - 7 treasures highlighting 7 different cache types, with varying criteria Egg 1 - find and log a traditional geocache with a difficulty of 2 or higher Egg 2 - find and log a mystery geocache with a difficulty of 2 or higher Egg 3 - find and log a multi geocache with a difficulty of 2 or higher Egg 4 - find and log a letterbox geocache with a difficulty of 2 or higher Egg 5 - attend a regular event Egg 6 - find and log a EarthCache Egg 7 - find and log a vir...

A change in seasons means there's another souvenir opportunity! Celebrate the March Equinox by logging an Adventure Lab, geocache find or attended event between March 20 and 23, 2025. Visit this blog post for the official announcement.

The latest Geocaching celebration day premiers April 16, 2025 - it's Geocaching in Your Pajamas Day! Put on your cozy flannel and bunny slippers, and go out and log a find on a geocache or Adventure Lab, or attend an event, to earn a new souvenir. Read more on the official blog post .

Pi Day is March 14, 2025, and you can celebrate it by earning the Pi Day Geocaching souvenir by finding and logging any mystery cache from March 14-16. Learn a little more by reading the official blog post .

Treasures are a new feature, recently introduced by Geocaching. Similar to the little digital items that were hidden in caches for the Mystery in the Museum and Wonders of the World campaigns, these will be hidden in caches, and as you can collect them, they'll be displayed on your profile . They will have specific criteria that need to be met to acquire them, and they'll belong to collections. Unlike a souvenir campaign, there won't be a deadline, and new collections will be released regularly. So, beginning on March 17, the first two collections will be: Geocaching origins - 4 treasures that can be earned by finding and logging traditional caches Celebrating 25 years - this collection will be unlocked upon completing the Geocaching origins collection, and it's 5 treasures that can be earned by finding and logging any type of cache with a difficulty of 1.5 or lower Read more about this new feature on the official blog post .

Cache In, Trash Out Season 1 begins March 1 and continues through May 31, 2025. By attending a CITO event during this time period (or in Season 2 which begins on September 1 and ends on November 30), we can help give back to our community. Read more about what geocachers have accomplished throughout the years on the official blog post, here .

As part of Geocaching's 25th year celebration, they've released a new Locationless Cache - Where's 25? It will be available to log from January 25 - December 31, 2025 and all you need to do is find an existing 25 - numerical, spelled out, whatever - and post a photo of it with you or a signature item in you log. Sound easy? The hardest part for me will be remebering this cache and noticing a 25! Read more about the latest opportunity to find this rare type of geocache on the official blog post .

A souvenir that was confirmed by this blog post was the 2025 Community Celebration Event souvenir. Attending any Community Celebration Event in 2025 will qualify you for the souvenir, so be on the lookout for these events to be held at a location near you!

Well, my geocaching year was pretty uneventful. I ended up finding less than 200 geocaches - to include Adventure Labs - but I was able to earn every souvenir available this year. I think my best (and proudest) achievements were finding a few geocaches in Asia, when I went on a short trip to Vietnam to visit family. I found some Adventure Labs at the airport in Tokyo, and was unable to locate one, so I tried to guess where the bonus cache would be. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it, and came close to missing my connecting flight. The Adventure Labs didn't earn me a souvenir for Japan, so I created my own, and if I'm ever passing though the airport in Tokyo again, I know exactly where to go to earn the actual souvenir. I found both Adventure Labs and physical caches in Vietnam, as well as attended an event, so I earned a souvenir there. The airport in Korea didn't have anything easy to grab, so I missed out on that country. My next best achievement was being ask...