Tag: Community Celebration Event

News & New Caches 163

We have no new caches or events to report since our last post, but plenty of other news.

December Solstice Souvenir

The December solstice marks the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere. Geocaching HQ crafted a special souvenir exclusively for geocachers to commemorate the December solstice. Earn this souvenir by finding any geocache, attending any Event, or completing an Adventure Lab® Location from 20th-22nd December, 2024.

2025, A Year of Celebrations

2025 is going to be a very busy year for the social geocacher with a wide range of events taking place. We all are aware that May 2nd 2025 is the 25th anniversary of geocaching with many celebratory events taking place worldwide, but did you know it is also 9 Usual Suspects 10th anniversary? Not only are there Giga, Mega, CITO’s and ordinary events taking place but also Block Parties and Community Celebration Events.

What is a Block Party? Basically it is a Mega Event. Geocaching HQ hosted the original Block Parties in Seattle from 2011 to 2015. Only 5,064 geocachers received the Block Party icon during those years. To enable more people to acquire this icon HQ are giving organisers of Mega or Giga Events the option to choose the Block Party icon for their event.
For an event to qualify as a Block Party the following criteria have to be met:

  • Take place between 1st January, 2025,- 31st December, 2025.
  • Qualify as a Mega-Event or Giga-Event.
  • Have at least 300 Will Attends.
  • Be at least 6 hours long.
  • Highlight celebrating 25 years of geocaching.

At the time of writing there is just one Block Party published for the UK:
GCAK7KC London Calling 2025 by London Calling D1/T1
When: Saturday 3rd May 2025
Where: Central Halls Westminster
Time: 10.30am – 5pm
Admission Charge: £7 in advance, £12 on the door, children under 15 free if accompanied by an adult

What is a Community Celebration Event? An event that all attendees receive a special icon to celebrate significant milestones in geocaching. To earn a Community Celebration Event 2025 credit, simply, host an event and publish a geocache in 2024. All geocachers who qualify will receive a CCE credit to be used from 1st January to 31st December 2025.

9US 10th Birthday Celebrations
We have received our Community Celebration Event credit and will be hosting an event to celebrate 9US’s 10th birthday on International Geocaching Day, Saturday 16th August 2025.

We are currently putting together our event program for 2025. In the past 10 years we have hosted over 170 events and CITO’s, do you have a favourite location or event that you would like to re-visit as part of our celebrations? Or any ideas/locations for an event? Please contact us through comments or message us through 9 Usual Suspects geocaching account.

Christmas Dinner, Event Review

GCAZ9WX Christmas Dinner – Nosh & Natter 73 by 9 Usual Suspects D1/T1

This is the 3rd year we have had our Christmas event at the Goat Inn, Glandwyfach, a perfect location for this event. By having the event on the Friday night we were the only party in the function room. There was a lot of general banter and geochat before the serious part of the evening, eating and drinking began. The food was again excellent, the secret Santa was fun and what can I say about the Welsh Bingo? A lovely evening and a great start to Christmas.
Here are a few pictures:

News & New Caches 147

A new earthcache and a traditional have been published since our last post:

GCAW8PE Bwa Gwyn & Bwa Du by ruhrPod Earthcache D2.5/T2

GCAWZAG REALLY SideTracked – Bontnewydd by 9 Usual Suspects Traditional D2.5/T1.5
This cache replaces the previous cache we had here. Half of the original cache has gone missing making the hide too easy for the D/T rating. It’ll be a very easy find for all who found the last one!

Event Reviews

GCAVXKP Beaver Badge Celebration by MonHunter
An event to celebrate the completion of MonHunters Beavers Personal Challenge which was to cache every day for a fortnight, either finding caches or maintaining others. It’s always nice to have an excuse to return to the Anglesey Column, as always, the refreshments lived up to expectations, the sun shone, there was plenty of geochat, in all a good time was had by all. Just one last thing to say, well done, MonHunter.

Attendees

GCAVXAQ Meet and Greet Holyhead Maritime by shavonrg
A beautiful day for geocaching and perfect for an event outside the Maritime Museum in Holyhead. The event was organised by a group of very friendly American & Canadian geocachers who were on a day visit from the huge cruise ship just visible in the corner of the photo. Lots of geochat and swapping of TB’s before our hosts had to head back to their ship. We would like to wish everyone a lovely stay in the UK and hope the good weather follows them!

CADW Open Doors

This September, more than 200 of Wales’ historic sites, landmarks and hidden gems will offer visitors free entry, events or guided tours. It’s all part of Open Doors — Wales’ annual contribution to the European Heritage Days initiative, which invites heritage organisations, private owners, local authorities and others to open their doors or offer activities to the public free of charge during September, several of which are usually closed to the public.

To find out what is open in your area click on this link CADW Open Doors

Harlech Castle

We are planning on taking advantage of the free entry by hosting an event at Harlech Castle on Sunday 29th September.

Community Celebration Events 2025

One of the ways the Geocaching community will celebrate geocaching’s 25th anniversary in 2025 is by hosting Community Celebration Events (CCEs). These events are specially designated community gatherings held during significant milestone years in geocaching. CCEs will start taking place in 2025, but if you want to host one, there are a couple things you must do in 2024!
To qualify for a CCE geocachers must:

  • Have at least one cache published between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. 
  • Host at least one Event (including CITOs) between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. 
  • Must have created a Geocaching account before the announcement date of February 20, 2024.

If you meet the criteria, you are guaranteed to receive a CCE before the end of 2025. From July 1, 2024, Geocaching HQ will distribute up to 2,025 CCEs each month, continuing until all qualifiers have received one.

So if you haven’t already, now is the time to start putting together that Event and planning your new cache hide!

9US Community Celebration Event
We have already received our Community Celebration Event. As 9 Usual Suspects is 10 years old in 2025 our plan is to hold a combined birthday party and International Geocaching Day event on Saturday 16th August 2025.

News & New Caches 49

Four new traditional caches, an event and a new Adventure Lab all published since our last post.

GC9Z6CC Tan Y Foel Cache by cadielsss, gingyjessica Traditional D1/T1.5
GC9Z877 Angelsy View (part 2 of RS trail) by CaraThom Traditional D1/T1.5
GC9ZC38 Best friend Beau RS trail by CaraThom Traditional D2/T1.5
GC9Z6XC G’s First by daisy4223 Traditional D1/T1

Adventure Lab

Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) – Llanberis Climb created by BardBandit
This 5 stage nonsequential Adventure Lab takes you from Llanberis to Snowdon summit. More than 600,000 visitors climb to the summit each year, with the most popular route being the Llanberis Path. This path is the most gradual route and the only one that follows the railway. The walk to the summit and back takes around 7 hours and will take you on a 14.5 kilometre hike with an ascent of 975 metres. Alternatively, you could take the train to the top and walk back down to collect the adventure lab stages.

Events

GC9ZCEG Nikoski and Bee on Holiday (Again) by Nikoski and Bee off Good Cheer
Where: Close to the Swing Bridge, Caernarfon.
When: Sunday 18th September 2022
Time: 11am-11.45am

Nikoski and Bee off Good Cheer are on holiday from Suffolk, they are hosting the above event while here and would love to meet local and non local geocachers.

Event Reminder

GC8Q963 Makers Community Celebration Event by Naturesbyte D1/T1.5
Where: Plas Gwernoer, Nantlle
When: 10th September, 2022
Time: 2.00pm-6pm (the bar will remain open until the last person leaves!)
BBQ: 5pm
Trackable Raffle Draw: 5.30pm

Haven’t heard of ‘Snag the Tag’? Well, neither had we until Jack contacted us, see previous post. During the afternoon Jack, Clueless_Goose, will explain the rules of this game, how to claim your prize if you are lucky enough to find a tag and of course try to answer any questions you might have.

Please log a ‘Will Attend’ or contact us so that we have some idea of numbers for catering etc.

News & New Caches

After several weeks with very little geocaching activity in our area I’m pleased to say this week we have an event, Adventure Lab series, a multi and 2 mystery caches all being published.

Adventure Lab Series & Bonus

This Adventure Lab consists of 4 Lab caches set on four peaks in the Carneddau with a physical bonus cache. I don’t think Ecobake will be doing a slight detour on his way home form work for this series!

Crown of the Carneddau by Clueless_Goose

GC9MHKC Crown of the Carneddau by Clueless_Goose Mystery D3.5/T4

Event

GC8MAT4 Community Celebration Event – Final Daily Grid by welshgirl11 & gmoseley88 D1/T1.5

Other Caches

GC9MKBP Y Coleg ar y Fenai by Clueless_Goose Multi D2/T1.5

GC9FKR2 Village Hall Series 1141 – Beddgelert by Flowerpot_man Mystery D2.5/T1.5

Is this the first Village Hall cache in our area?

Request your Free Kamp Koral badge trackable!

To celebrate the SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff, Geocaching has teamed up with Nickelodeon to release 7,000 limited-edition Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years character badge trackables across the globe.

Click on this link to apply Request your Free Kamp Koral badge trackable

If more requests are received than trackables available, Geocaching will randomly select people from the U.S. and other countries worldwide to receive them.

Guess the Cache 3

This one is proving a bit more difficult, so far no correct answers even though the cache does have 50 favourite points! Below is another picture clue.