GPS Maze Europe

When I was in Mainz Germany for the Mainz Gutenberg 2015 Giga event, I also got to take in another unique geocaching experience: the GPS Maze Europe exhibit.

The GPS Maze Exhibit is just that: an exhibit about GPS technology, geocaching specifically, in a winding series of displays.

I have attended the Canadian version of this Maze in Toronto back in January 2012.  This Maze is an updated version of that one, but intended to tour Europe.

The Maze was a very popular activity during the weekend.  I never saw more than ~100 people waiting in line to get in.

The fact that the Maze has its own icon in the geocaching.com statistics page, and that it featured 10 lab caches around the maze, and the Maze being located in the same building as the Giga event, made it an absolutely 'must-do' for all 5000+ geocachers who attended the Giga.

As you can see, the line-up was out the door - and I arrived 30 minutes before it opened.

Most of the displays were in Germany (which, given it was in Germany, makes sense).  However I do not speak or read german, so I missed a lot of the content.  However there was enough in english that I managed to get more out of the experience than I expected.

One of the cooler displays was a time-lapse map of all of the geocaches placed in Germany, starting with the first one in 2000, up to the present day count of 630,000+.  The display below shows the count in Berlin (left, red) and the entire country (right, blue).

The Maze was really well done.  Lots of interactive displays, and a ton of information, made this maze a pretty cool thing to explore.  There was a lot more content than I remember from the Canadian/US versions.

If you are European, or visiting Europe, you may want to track down and check out the Maze.  It is well worth the time.

GC50FTF: Mainz Gutenberg Giga Event

I was saddened to learn that a work trip was going to interfere with my plans to attend GeoWoodstock this year. However as a consolation prize, and a happy coincidence, I found I was going to be in the general neighbourhood of a Giga event.

Giga events are rare.  This is only the second one in the history of the world, and both happened in Germany.  So my chances of attending one any time soon in North America were remote at best.  So I jumped at the chance.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the latest Giga event the Mainz Gutenberg 2015 event in Mainz Germany.

If you are not aware, Giga events are geocaching events where more than 5000 geocachers attend - all in one day.  To put that in perspective, the largest US mega event I am aware of had about 2500 cachers.  A Giga is a *lot* of geocachers in one place.

The event was held in Rheingoldhalle, which is a large civic center type place, right on the Rhine.  I was a little worried about the location as a civic center in the middle of a town is not exactly the normal place for a large geocaching event. As you can see its all glass and stone in the middle of a rather modern portion of a large city.

It does have a really large stone courtyard tho, which actually worked out well as many of the activities, and a lot of the food, happened in this courtyard.

Despite my reservations, I had to admit that it did make for a fantastic location to host 5000+ geocachers.  There was (mostly) enough room (there were some choke points, but things soon thinned out to sane levels of human density).  Also the combination of the Rhine on one side, and the amazingly picturesque city view on the other, one couldn't help but be impressed.

I mean, how many Mega events have you been too where you get this as a background?

In the courtyard they had some pretty cool activities.  The first was a high ropes course.  Actually, given that there were several vendors selling climbing gear, I suspect this sort of thing happens a lot in Germany.

Some of the other events included a Segway course, and a European version of the GPS Maze exhibit (more on the maze in a follow-up post).

Of course, Signal was there as well.

Many of the vendors were in the large hall space. They had some top names there like Garmin, Lens Laser, and Leatherman, as well as the usual assortment of geocaching specific vendors (tho generally the European versions)

The log book was a large block with log sheets on all four sides, topped with a crackin' mannequin version of the events mascot.

Although most of the attendees were European, as one may expect, the event certainly did have an international flare.  The map where folks placed pins in the locations where they are from shows visitors from literally all corners of the globe. I highlighted the foreign pins in green so they are easy to see in the map:

Suspiciously vacant of pins is the portion of the world known as Canada.  I placed my pin in North Carolina, as that is where I came from, however I remain a proud citizen of the Great White North. I kinda like the idea that I may have been the sole visitor from my homeland there (although the likelihood of other expats having visited from elsewhere can't be discounted.

The event was not devoid of other entertainments either.  The event was headlined by a rather rockin' rock band known as Gear Down.  They played a lot of the classic Rock tunes.  At the time this photo was taken, they were hip deep into Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.

Note to other mega event organizers:  Your event should also have a rock band - just sayin'.

So this Giga certainly was an experience.  It was incredibly well run, and aside from feeling a tad claustrophobic at the choke points due to the sea of humanity, and being a tad oblivious to a lot of what was happening due to the language barrier I had a good time.

There were 30 lab caches, 10 for the Maze, and 20 strewn throughout the downtown part of the city.  Most of the lab caches were the typical "go to location, find word on sign, use word to log cache", but they were in some incredible places - they made a great tour guide for the town.  More on the exploration of Mainz in follow up posts.

The best part was really seeing all of the geocachers while out exploring the city.  Mainz has a population of 200,000 people but everywhere I looked I spotted geocachers.  I mean everywhere - in restaurants, on the bus, at historic sites, in the hotel lobby.  You couldn't get away from them :)  It was kinda awesome actually.

I Am A (Trivia) Champion!

On Saturday night I became a champion.

No foolin'!  I have proof:

What am I champion of?  Geocaching Trivia, of course. (My sister always accused me of being a smart ass - its finally paid off!)

The event was the first anniversary of the fantastic series of events called "It's All Just Trivia", the brain child and labour of love for a pair of Carolina geocachers hoosiersunshine and Failed Apparatus.

As a special treat, frequent winners of past events, Team La Villa, hosted the event, and let hoosier and failed-app enjoy playing the trivia game they spend so much time planning and hosting.

After much begging and bribery, they finally let me join their team, along with Rock Kat, Maingray, and Ninja Chipmunk.

Our team name was the obvious and accurate "I Got 99 Problems But Hosting Trivia Ain't One."  We also won "Best Team Name" for that one.

We started off poorly, as the first two categories of trivia were on South Carolina caches, which none of us were experts on (most of us being from North Carolina, and the one sole South Carolina resident is actually a hoosier - I'll leave which one that is as an exercise for the reader).  However by the third round we found our stride, and lead the charge to a strong but close finish (we beat the next closest team by only a few points.)

They already have many more trivia events planned for the next year (bookmark list, Facebook), and likely even more to come, so if you find yourself in the South, you should keep an eye out for what is always an awesomely fun time at an It's All Just Trivial event.

Life With Pi

3-14-15 9:26:53 AM

It is not just a random time and date, its also the first 10 digits of the mathematical constant of pi.

Today is the only day in a century where the dateand time matches the ratio of a diameter to its circumference.

In proper geek fashion Groundspeak is offering two souvenirs to celebrate this momentous occasion.
The first souvenir is for solving and finding a mystery cache.  The second is to attend an event.

So this morning I piled the kids into the Geovan of Destiny and headed over to Hickory to attend a Pi Day Flashmob, hosted by Ninja Chipmunk.

This is the group photo: 

Afterwards we headed over to find the closest mystery cache.  When we were all done, I had claimed my two souvenirs.

3-14-15 9:26:53 happens once more today, so if you haven't claimed yours, its not to late!

NC Civil War Geotrail

is coming...

March 7th, 2015 

It's All Just Trivial: Durham Edition

I love me some trivia.  I also love me some geocaching.  I really love me some events that combine the two.

Luckily I live near a pair of geocachers who have been hosting a series of geocaching trivia events - roughly once a month-ish over the past year. I have been to four of these events so far, and each time I have a blast.

The events are called It's All Just Trivial.  They are hosted by my good geocaching buddies FailedApparatus and HoosierSunshine.

The most recent event that I had the pleasure of attending was held in Durham North Carolina on Saturday.

The trivia works like this: Cachers are formed into teams of two to six cachers.  During each of the first 6 rounds, a series of 5 questions are asked, and each team writes their answers on an answer sheet, which is then graded by FailedApparatus.  Each round is a different category.  Points are awarded for each right answer, and the winner of each round is determined by the team with the best score for that round.  Each round is worth 15 points.

The seventh and final round is a single question with 10 answers.  Each answer is worth 10 points each.   The ultimate winner is the team with the most points at the end.

This is our answer sheet from Saturdays event.

The team I was on, which we named The Funkmasters Of Cachetopia (against my objections, even tho I cane up with the name), did pretty well.  We were ahead on points after the first six rounds. However the last round we tanked a bit (OK, we tanked a lot. In my defense the category was The United States Of Caching, and I am Canadian, so we were severely handicapped. - we'll ignore the fact I chose the round, and spent most of my caching career in the US. It is still a good excuse, right? Right?!?).

In the end the team next to us, the Triviots, took the championship.  Congrats!

We didn't end up winning the final prize, but we got lots of other prizes for winning several of the rounds (really, the event is swag central, with prizes for each round winner, and random prizes between each round).

The winner also gets their team name engraved onto the trophy, dubbed the Golden GeoPile:

There does not seem to be an end in sight for It's All Just Trivial, with events already planned thru to  the summer, in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  So if you are in the south, odds are an event is coming to an area near you.

It is literally some of the best fun I've had an an event (which is saying something).  Check out geocachingtrivia.com to keep up to date with the trivia events, and you too can enjoy the fun and excitement that is geocaching trivia.

The 4K Cake

Last night I went to a geocaching event in town.  When I arrived I discovered that the local cachers had made a cake to help me celebrate my 4000th find milestone!

 That is pretty awesome, and a nice surprise.  You know you have a good bunch of geocaching friends when they bust out cake.

Here is the group shot.

Thanks guys!

Going Caching: Tempus Fugit Flash Mob

Going Caching, while technically a one-day Mega event held in Rome Georgia, is really 4.5 days packed with back-to-back events, with some great geocaching in between.

In total there were 10 events, including a coffee social, picnics, murder mystery night, comedy shows, tales from ancient Rome, a geocaching film festival, and a farewell breakfast.

One of the most memorable events, and one of the first, was the flash mob held on Thursday morning at Clock Tower Hill in the middle of town.

Since the theme of the Mega was ancient Rome, several of the events, including the flash mob, asked members to dress in togas, and various other roman themed costumes.

Music was played by select members of the Rome Symphony.  We all sang Thats Amore.  Seemed an odd choice at first.

We all milled around the base of the clock tower for a few minutes, checking out the various costumes, and singing a tune.

At one point one of the volunteers made a proclamation, then he made his way down the tower for a "surprise."

He then walked over to another cacher (Groundspeaks September Geocacher Of The Month, no less), and proposed to her.  Thats Amore makes a lot more sense now!

After the flash mob, the Rome-Floyd Visitors Center opened up the tower so we could all go up and check out the views.  Apparently the tower is only open to the public for an hour once a month, so going up the tower was quite an honour.  The views from up there were spectacular.

As it turned out, the city ended up doing a lot for the cachers over the weekend.  Over and over we were given special treatment, and waived parking fees for events.  I think we made a good impression on the town.

This was only the second of 10 events, and I had a whole lot of geocaching left to do.  However those stories will have to wait for future posts.

Stat tuned!

NCGO Fall Fling 2014

Today the family and I piled into the Geovan of Destiny and drove over to Hagan-Stone park in Greensboro NC to attend the NCGO Fall Fling.

The North Carolina Geocaching Organization has put on this event for the past 8 years, making this year the 9th annual event.  They bill it as a family reunion of North Carolina (and the surrounding states) geocachers.

They have a lot of events for kids. Both Zeke and Abigail loved painting ammo cans, and participating in the micro-cache toss.

There was, of course, lots of geocaching.  The following are some pictures of the day, starting with HeadHardHat walking thru the tree line on his way to the first cache of the day.

The event was held in a corner of the park known as Camp Joy.

I ended up caching with some geocachers I had not met previously.  Here is one of them signing a logsheet.

A walk in the woods is not complete until one walks on an elevated wooden walkway. Fact.

When I arrived back at base camp, Zeke tried to hide from me, with mixed results.  I think Abigail was on to him right away.

The "fun" log, in the shape of the number 9.

After a rather delicious meal, cooked by volunteers from the NCGO, Ranger TJ called out the winners of the silent auctions.

He also encouraged the signing of the "official log".

It was a fun day at Hagan-Stone park.  The kids loved it, as did I.  Here is one last view of one of then lakes in the park.

I can't wait until next years Fall Fling is announced.  It will be the 10th, so I am expecting something extra special.  Stay tuned for details!

The COG Cache Theory Group Photo

The group photo from the COG Cache Theory mega event has been released:

We're in the back right.  If you can't spot us, this blow up will help (thanks to the COG folks releasing a hi-res version of the photo - its annoying how many events only release a low-res version, which doesn't allow for zooming - so one more feather in the COGs already full hat of awesome):

 And finally, this amusing Google AutoAwesome'd panorama shot I took of the folks gathering for the photo.  More proof that our upcoming robot overlords need some fine tuning before they conquer humanity.

COG Fling 10: The COG Cache Theory

Geocachers in central Ontario certainly know how to put on a great event.  Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending their annual Mega event: The COG Cache Theory.

Like all good Megas that I have attended the main event is on the Saturday, but it was really a full weekend of events, fun, merriment, and lots (and lots) of awesome geocaching.

The following is a breakdown of how the weekend unfolded.

The event was held in the Tottenham Conservation Area in Tottenham Ontario.

We (my wife and I - kids stayed with their grandparents) arrived at the conservation area at 2:30PM  on Friday and immediately set about then process of setting up camp.  This is the first time my wife had I have done tent camping in 5 years, since before my oldest kid was born.  We did manage to quickly set up the tent, and get the camp into a serviceable order.  I then headed out on my bike to grab the 23 caches that were placed as part of some geo-art (in the form of the geocaching logo).  The caches were placed along the neighbouring concession.  

2 hours, and 6.5 miles later I pedaled back to the campsite with 23 smileys under my belt (you may think 2 hours is a long time for 6.5 miles, but in my defense for a couple of those caches I was able to keep up with a gang of cachers in an SUV...)

After supper was the first event of the weekend, which was a series of party style games, leading to a grand champion).  Both my wife and I got eliminated from the competition on our first rounds, so we decided to try our hand at a nearby multi-cache.  It was here we learned just how many geocachers it takes to find a D2/T2 cache...

Answer: 25

It was at this event where I realized what sort of good time I was in for, and how awesomely crazy Canadian geocachers can be, as several cachers broke into an impromptu interpretive dance:

After the dance we decided to call it a night so we headed back to camp.  The next morning I started the day with a hearty outdoor breakfast.  Few things taste better than bacon cooked outside.

The theme of the event was the Big Bang Theory, so many of the caches were science themed, and of course, hanging out with the celebs.

The COG folks placed a lot of caches specifically for this event, and the ones I did were all great - some downright amazing.  I'll cover the caches in a follow-up post, but needless to say there were more awesome caches to be found than I could possibly have had time for. I gave out a virtual flood of favourite points.

Appropriately enough, the event log was a lab coat.

The event itself was quite simple: some opening remarks, a few meet-and-greet style games (geocacher bingo etc.), a "Meet the reviewer and lackey" panel, and a closing ceremony.  The rest of the time was free time so we could do some of the awesome geocaches in the area.  This worked out well as there were so many top notch caches, and some great scenery and trails to explore, that I really did want to spend most of the day caching.

Several of the caches were placed on a rails-to-trail trail that ran along the north side of the lake, opposite the conservation area.  As you can see, the scenery from there was beautiful.

This is a good place to mention the benefits of having bikes at the event.  I had brought bikes for my wife and I, and we used them a lot.  Over the course of the 3 days we were at the conservation area I biked almost 18 miles, and my wife did 6.  We rode to then majority of the caches that we did, which allowed us to enjoy the day a lot more than if we used the car, but still cover some miles, and not have tired feet at the end of the day.

Of course, like most Mega events, there were lots of impromptu cache parties at ground zero.  Unlike most Megas, however, I didn't play "pass the logbook" that often. This is likely due to the large number of caches for folks to find - spread out the crowd.   It is also nice knowing that the people you see walking down the trail behind you are not people you need to conceal the geocache from.

On the Sunday they held a CITO event, so I spent an hour picking up some trash to clean up the park - again using my bike to get out to the edges of the park quickly.  After the CITO I helped pack up the camp, then went caching for a few more hours.  We eventually headed back home at 2PM(ish).

This was a great Mega event.  A simple schedule, a great location, an awesome theme that was used very effectively, and a great deal of fun.  It was a perfect balance of socializing with fellow geocachers, and time to actually go out geocaching (which is, lets be honest, the whole point of the thing), all without feeling like I didn't miss out on any of the event activities.

All in all this weekend was, aggregately, the most enjoyable 48 hours of geocaching I have ever had. Many thanks to the organizers - they did a great job.

I am already looking forward to next year.