Mark Ingalls<p><a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/Geocaching" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Geocaching</span></a> announced another round of 4,000 virtual geocaches going to be released in February 2026.</p><p>Virtual geocaches highlight unique spaces, generally in areas where placing a physical <a href="https://mstdn.ca/tags/geocache" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>geocache</span></a> would be illegal or impractical.</p><p>Technically they are a legacy geocache type, but every year for the last few years Geocaching has allowed a couple thousand cache owners to place a new one. These have been determined by lottery, favouring players who contribute significantly to the game.</p><p>I got selected to place a virtual geocache in 2022 and I "placed" it at the plaza in downtown St. Helens, Oregon, with a focus on the Halloweentown movies that were filmed there (and the festival that happens annually since). Over 150 geocachers have logged a find on it since then.</p><p>I am eligible for the lottery this time around. It would be cool to get a second one, but I'm just excited to see a few more neat places to visit.</p><p><a href="https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2025/07/introducing-virtual-rewards-5-0/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">geocaching.com/blog/2025/07/in</span><span class="invisible">troducing-virtual-rewards-5-0/</span></a></p>