Why You Should Consider Attending GeoWoodstock

GeoWoodstock is billed as the largest and oldest geocaching Mega event in North America.  It is also one of my favourite events, and I look forward to attending it every year since my first one in 2009.

If you are not familiar, a geocaching event is where geocachers get together and hang out in real life.  A Mega event is where 500 more more geocachers get together, all at the same time and place, and socialize.

GeoWoodstock attracts several thousand geocachers every year.   I have personally attended four of these events, and I am looking forward to making this years my fifth 'stock.

The following are just some of the reasons why I thing GeoWoodstock is a must-do event for any geocacher, and why its worth going back year after year.

-  It is a laid back event.  GeoWoodstock is designed to be low key  The whole idea is to have time to hang out and socialize with your geocaching friends, old and new.  Don't worry if you don't have many geocaching friends that will be going tho as you will make plenty of new ones at the event.  Also...

- There are a lot of activities for geoacachers of all ages to keep you occupied.  This year looks to be no exception.  Some of this years planned activities include seminars on benchmarks, creative cache construction, and GSAK, as well as a chance to meet some of the reviewers.  There will also be a Civil War Encampment to explore, a Colonia Village tour, a poker tournament, and special activities for the children.

You may think that there is a too much stuff to do, and you won't have time to go geocaching.  Don't worry! Unlike many Mega events, the event does not revolve around the activities.  They are all optional, which gives you lots of free time to explore the local area and go geocaching. Which is useful because...

- GeoWoodstock is in a different place every year so there is always some place new to explore.  Previous GeoWoodstocks have taken me to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida, and Missouri.  This year GeoWoodstock is going to be held in Boonsboro, Maryland, which means that within a few hours drive you can be deep in Amish country, in the heart of Washington DC, or exploring the mountains of West Virginia.  That is a huge amount of geocaching potential right there.

Not to mention that you are close to WVTim country.  WVTim is one of the premiere gadget cache hiders, and is responsible for many amazing geocaches.  He is not the only one in the area that is an avid cache hider tho, which makes me super excited about...

- Lab Caches.  These are a special type of cache that are only available at Mega events. Lab caches are intended to be a way for geocachers to explore new and interesting ways to create and hide geocaches that may not normally be allowed under the publishing guidelines.  Think of them as a geocache hiders playground.  Many Lab caches in the past have been excellent and unique experiences, and with the reputation of some cachers in the area, I have high hopes for the Lab caches at this years event.

Lab caches are often used to give tours of the local area, which in this case should prove interesting because...

- There is a lot of history in Maryland.  The event itself is hosted near the Antietam National Battlefield, which was the site of the bloodiest single day in US Military history.  The area is also rich in colonial history, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and everything up to the present day.  The possibilities are endless around that area.  It would definitely take more than one day to explore all the history that the area has to offer.  Luckily...

- There are many side events happening all weekend.  GeoWoodstock itself is held on the Saturday, but there are other events held that weekend, often starting as early as Wednesday.  So the party lasts for several days.

- Like all geocaching events, GeoWoodstock is free to attend.  There are registration packages that get you swag and souvenirs that cost money, but they are reasonable for the things you get. They also have a catered meal that you can get meal tickets for.  However if you just want to show up and enjoy the day you are more than welcome to do so. Parking is also free.

I am super excited about this years GeoWoodstock.  With all of the history, countryside, and geocaching to do, it promises to be one of the more interesting events I will have attended.  I also expect that with GeoWoodstock being so close to Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and a half days drive of New York City, this is going to be one of the highest attended GeoWoodstocks to date.

If you would like to learn a bit more about what previous GeoWoodstocks have been like, check out my blog posts from the past four years:
 - GeoWoodstock XI in Warren, Pennsylvania (posts)
 - GeoWoodstock X in  Sellersburg, Indiana (posts)
 - GeoWoodstock XI in Lakeland, Florida (posts)
 - GeoWoodstock XII in St. Charles, Missouri (posts) (I also made a week long trip out of this called Long Way Round)

Personally  I plan on bringing the family and making a week long road trip out of it.  I hope to see all of you folks there!

You can get more information at geowoodstock.com, and post your Will Attend log on the event page (GC54840).

Are you going?  Let me know in the comments below.

GeoWoodstock XII: Group Photo

The GeoWoodstock XII group photo is out.  Can you spot us?  We're in the middle right, just in front of the lamp post, and next to the road.

Here is a closer view:

Did you guys go?  If you did, where are you in the photo?

Long Way Round: Introduction

GeoWoodstock, the premiere geocaching mega event, was held in St. Charles Missouri this year. It is a single days drive, and a relatively straight drive path through Tennessee, Kentucky, and northern Illinois.

Plan A is to make a long weekend out of it. That would be the simple and easiest choice, however we've already driven that route a few years ago, and wouldn't see anything new.

So I came up with a more interesting Plan B: turn our one day drive to GeoWoodstock into a week long road trip!  Along the way we would get to see some amazing sights, meet new friends, and see parts of America we have never seen before.

Plan B won.

This next series of posts will cover some of the more interesting things we got to see along the way.

Since we took a long northern circular route from our home state of North Carolina, through Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa to arrive in Missouri (see attached map), I decided to rename Plan B as the "Long Way Round".

The first day and a half was pure driving through country we've seen before, so we didn't do much exploring.  Just miles of interstate. (really just Plan A rearing its ugly head again).

So, as a result, our first significant stop (covered in the next post) will be in the Chicagoland area, and will be of special interest to any Doctor Who fans in the audience (also any librarians).

In case you are wondering, the point where this trip went from a straight 10.5 hour drive to Missouri to a week of fun happened when we didn't take this exit:

Stay tuned! This is going to be a fun ride.

---

| Little Free TARDIS ==>

GeoWoodstock XII: The Joker Of Woodstock

I won the bid in the GeoWoodstock 12 playing card auction, so my blog is now immortalized in a deck of cards!

 Also, I will now always be remembered as The Joker of GeoWoodstock. Seems appropriate somehow.

GeoWoodstock XII: Caching The Katy

One of the best things about attending a GeoWoodstock event is that it is not just one event.  There are many side events that one can attend as well - it is really a long weekend of fun and excitement.

The day after GeoWoodstock 12 was one such event: biking and caching along the Katy, which is a trail that runs 238 miles north/south along the Missouri River.  The event was held at a bike shop where I was able to rent a bike for the afternoon.

The trail - at least the section I rode - is all hard-packed limestone, which can get really sloppy when it gets soaked. It had rained pretty hard in the morning so many cachers made alternate plans to ride on a paved trail.  However by the time it came to ride the Katy had dried up, so I went on my own with Plan A and road 29.5 miles along the Katy:

Along the way I managed to snag 21 caches - all in 3 hours.  Not to shabby (if I do say so myself).  I also got plenty of views of the Missouri countryside:

Frequent readers of this blog may remember that 29.5 miles is over double what I normally ride in a given day (what do you mean you don't keep track?). So when I got back to the bike shop I was a tired, poor specimen of a bear, and I dragged myself to the Geovan of Destiny for a soak in the hotels hot tub.

Despite the pain in my joints I had a great time, and I would do it again... who's coming with me?

GeoWoodstock XII: Kids Of Discovery

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending GeoWoodstock XII in beautiful St. Charles Missouri.

GeoWoodstock is a great deal of fun for all ages, but it is an all day geocaching event, so it can test the patience of the youngest geocachers.

In our case this was the first time we were going to be spending an entire day at a GeoWoodstock without any scheduled nap times for our two toddlers.  Short attention spans can make for bored cranky kids, and long frustrating days for parents.

So, as you can imagine, we were thrilled to discover that the GeoWoodstock organizers had thought of the children, and placed 12 kid-appropriate geocaches around the park for the young ones to do.  So for two hours we managed to combine all of our goals (geocaching, kid distraction, exercise, family time etc.)

The caching was done mostly by Zeke and Yours Truly, but the first few caches we were accompanied by my wife, and Abigail (her short legs make a walk in the woods an epic adventure all unto itself).

The caches came in many shapes and sizes, but the majority were painted bright rainbow coloured 5 gallon buckets that could be viewed from a long distance off.

Zeke thought this one was a little too visible, so he picked it up and scooted it further behind the trees.  He had a mischievous look on his face, so I am not sure if he had an unusual display of deviousness in trying to make it harder to find, or if he remembered that I had to ask him to re-hide a previous cache a little better after his attempts to re-hide it.  Either way the "hide the same or better" mantra has been well established in this young geocaching padawan.

Each of the 12 caches were full of swag - everything from plastic figures, to stickers, tattoos, balls, wristbands etc.  At each cache the kids could take one bit of swag, which they took full advantage of.

 To prove a find, each cache had a stamp. Zeke loved recording each find on his tracking sheet.

As per normal Zekey modus operandi, he was very meticulous to ensure he got the stamping done right, checking out each one before pressing it onto the page.

Once all 12 caches were found, the completed tracking sheets could be traded in for wooden geocoins. Both of the kids received one.

The kid caching feature of GeoWoodstock was a great experience.  It was geocaching at its purest form - not about the numbers (these are not official caches, so they don't get recorded as stats on geocaching.com) - but about the hunt, the experience, and the adventure... not to mention a little about the swag.

I want to sent a special thank you to +Dane Morgan, who I know did a lot of the work on placing these hides (Dane: please extend my thanks to anyone who helped you).  It made a special day even better for both kids and parents alike.

FYI, if you are wondering how the kids did all day - they did amazing.  Despite spending 11 hours in the park, plus an early wake up, they had a great time, and (for toddlers) were very well behaved all day.  The true testament is that after one of the longest, most active days they've experienced so far, and a day that completely exhausted us adults, they still didn't want to leave the park.  That, my friends, is a sign that today was a good day for everyone.

GeoWoodstock XII

Today, on the shores of the Missouri River in St. Charles MO was held one of the classic geocaching events: GeoWoodstock.

GeoWoodstock is a mega event, where thousands of geocachers come together for a day of fun, fellowship, and geocaching.

I have attended 4 GeoWoodstock events to date (IX, X, XI, and now XII).  Each GeoWoodstock has its own flavour, and this one was no exception.

The theme of this GeoWoodstock was Louis and Clark, the famous explorers that helped map the western side of the United States.  Their expedition, known as the Corps Of Discovery, left from St. Charles in 1804.    Very few things provide more inspiration to a geocacher than stories of explorers like Lewis and Clark.

I have written extensive  blogs on my previous GeoWoodstock experiences, so I'll concentrate on the things that make this event unique.

The first notable thing is that this GeoWoodstock was held in downtown St. Charles.  On one side of the park is a large river, on the other is a rustic and historic town.   Most events like this are held in out-of-the-way places where access to restaurants and other such things require a car - this one had food and fun literally across the street.

Another notable thing is that we did not have the park to ourselves.  On the northern end was an Irish music festival.

Yours Truly playing a trackable ukelele

To be honest the fact that the festival shared the park with us made me a little nervous - mainly due to the extra people would dilute from the fun and flavour of the event, and parking would be hard to come by.

As it turns out the Irish Festival fit into GeoWoodstock like a glove.  Parking did end up being a bit of an issue, but there were enough spaces for everyone if one was willing to walk a half mile or so.  However the upsides vastly outweighed the (trivially) bad.

The availability of fair food is the first perk.  Nothing seems to taste as good as food from a truck.  Second is that it made a great distraction for the kids.  This is the first GeoWoodstock where my wife and I had to manage two toddlers (the previous 'stock we had one as Abigail was only 4 weeks old and didn't move much).  Going in I was worried about keeping the kids entertained for the entire day.  The festival provided all sorts of kid distractions, including music and a midway.  It was truly a blessing in disguise for us poor parents of toddlers.

Hanging out at the log book.

Speaking of music, this is the first GeoWoodstock I have attended that had a DJ.  They played rock music during several parts of the day, which added a nice backdrop.  This may, or may not, have contributed to some dancing and air guitar playing as we walked across the park... unfortunately no photographic evidence exists.

Also, speaking of kid distractions, (back up a paragraph or two to catch this thread :) this GeoWoodstock also had many activities for kids.  The most noteable is a set of 12 caches specially decorated for kids that were loaded with swag.  We spent a good two hours hunting down these caches.  I'll cover these in a follow-up post, but it was awesome, and I hope future 'stocks do similar things for the kids.

This event also had some of the classic things I've come to expect from a GeoWoodstock, including:

-  Lots of vendors

- Hanging out with the Geocaching mascot, Signal The Frog (tho we've discovered that, while she loves the toy Signal we have at home, Abigail is freaked out by the full sized version - kids be crazy).

- Geocaching Bingo

- The group photo

- Many seminars, including my favourite,  Meet The Reviewers, where us mortal geocachers can ask the reviewers (the people responsible for publishing caches, including the hard work of ensuring they meet the guidelines), pretty much anything.  This years panel was especially interesting.

Of course, at the end of the day, when all the fun is winding down, the tradition of announcing the next GeoWoodstock location continues.  I was very happy to find out that next years GeoWoodstock will be in Maryland, since it is within a days drive of my home.

One of the most notable things this time was all of the people I got to meet, mostly for the first time, that I previously only knew from Google Plus, or podcasts.

I spent a lot of time geocaching with +Darryl Wattenberg and +Chris Umphenour of the +GeoGearHeads podcast.  They are a great group of guys, and they are just as crazy in real life as they do on the show.  We ended up doing the 10 lab caches, and a multi cache. They also hosted a meet and greet breakfast event, pictured here:

I actually spent a lot of time walking up to people I've never set eyes on, but talked to online, and getting instantly recognized. Being recognized sight-unseen is odd for me, but its a good feeling - makes the Geocaching world feel like a large family.  

Some of these people include +Jen Cole +Dane Morgan, Lookout Lisa from +Cache Advance, Josh and Liz from +Peanuts or Pretzels, and the craziest (in a good way) geocacher I've ever known, +The Geocaching Vlogger:

I also met some fans of the blog, and recognized me from when I co-hosted the Geosnippits Reboot podcast.  One person stopped me to personally thank me for my Mega Event Survival Guide.  

This is all to say that this GeoWoodstock ended up feeling like an extended family reunion, and for someone introverted like me, thats an unusual and special thing.

I am already scheming about next years event in Maryland.  I've already checked with my wife, and she has given me permission to post my Will Attend log, which I will do as soon as the cache listing is posted.

So, if you are a geocacher, I hope to meet you at the next GeoWoodstock in Maryland.

You are going to be there... right?  RIGHT?!?

GeoWoodstock XI: Group Photo

I present to you the official GeoWoodstock XI group photo.  If you are looking for Yours Truly I am the one that is dressed like a geocacher.

Actually, I am about 3 rows of cachers back (behind the middle white banner), in line with the second 'o' in 'wood'.  I am wearing a red shirt with a brown hat.

GeoWoodstock XI: Friends and Colleagues

One of the best things about GeoWoodstock XI this year was meeting for the first time many people I have talked to online over the course of the last few years.  Also getting re-acquainted with geocaching friends I have met at previous events.

To give a little taste, one of the people I met was BigAl437, who is a regular contributer to cachecrazy.com, a fun blog about geocaching that covers a wide range of subjects and stories.  I have contributed original posts, and had some of my stuff syndicated there, so it was nice to put a face to a name of one of the folks I've been writing with all this time.

I also met Sonny and Sandy from the Podcacher Podcast, a weekly podcast about our favourite subject.  I have been listening to them for a couple years, and "called in" a few times.  They recognized me before I could introduce myself, which was kind of cool.  They are awesome folks, and if you meet em at an event,  be sure to say hi.

I met up with several cachers from the G+ community +Geocachers Unlimited.  These are cachers that enjoy all aspects of caching, regardless of whether its listed on geocaching.com or somewhere else (there is more to caching that just Groundspeak).  It was great to put some faces to those names as well.

I signed my first autograph at GeoWoodstock XI. Thanks to SpotlightBK for letting me scratch my name on his Geosnippits Reboot t-shirt.  It was good to meet you in person!

I also met some other fans of the show, and even got recognized at a noisy event by the sound of my voice - kinda cool.

I also ran into some old friends of mine.  First off is leftyfb and deviousdragen, who are a married caching couple from Boston MA(ish) (and makers of some of the best beef jerky ever - and I've had Google Chef jerky).  I have been chatting with them on IRC for years now, and met them at previous GeoWoodstocks.  We got together after the event to do our first Chirp cache, and to get some other caching in.  They were there with jwubrownie and her friend and father.

I also ran into some local cachers, NavyChief89, and HoosierSunshine, both of which I've cached and been to events with in and around North Carolina.

Finally I ran into Robert Lipe, a fellow Googler, and software geek.  He has been to every single GeoWoodstock, and has helped out with registrations and IT stuff for many of them.  It was good to get re-acquainted with him, and talk shop for a while.

It just goes to show that, even for an anti-social curmudgeon like me, GeoWoodstocks can be a very social experience.

GeoWoodstock XI: Florida Wildlife

Last weekend while I was in Florida for +GeoWoodstock, I arrived at the event early so I could hike the trails before the crowds arrived.

I did this for two reasons: to find some caches on my own, and to get some shots of some of the wildlife.

Gators seem to be old-hat to the native Floridians, but I have never seen a gator outside of a zoo, so I was anxious to get a wild one in the viewfinder of my camera. I was not disappointed.

What did disapoint me was that  I only have a simple point-and-shoot camera with 5x zoom, so this is the best of many shots I took.  Most animals were too far away to get decent shots.  This does remind me that I need to talk my wife into letting me get a better camera with bigger glass - oh sweetie!... :)

For now, this is the best shots of the Florida wildlife that I saw around Lake Parker Park, and Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland FL.

 

 

 

GeoWoodstock XI: Lakeland FL

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending one of the classic geocaching events out there: GeoWoodstock.

GeoWoodstock is an annual event that brings thousands of geocachers from around the world to one location for some peace, love, and geocaching.  This is the 11th GeoWoodstock, and the third one I have attended.

The location for this years event could not have been more perfect.  It was held at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida.  The reserve has a wide range of interesting terrain (swamps, oak hammocks, marsh), plants and wildlife, including lots of birds and alligators.

I arrived extra early for the event so I could hike the trails before the event started so I could be sure to see some gators, and find some caches before the crowds arrived (at events like this there are so many cachers that there is almost always someone already at GZ when you arrive, so caching becomes the much easier, but much less fun, "pass the cache" instead of having to hunt for it yourself).  I was not dissapointed, but I will share the details of the wildlife I saw in another post, as this one is about the event itself.

The event was held under the oak hammocks (the large oak trees with the hanging mossy bits), which provided a lot of shade for all concerned (tho I was disappointed to discover that the word "hammock" in the name seems to be more honorary as I didn't see a single decent place to take a nap on those trees).  The bugs were light, the weather warm but not melty, and the breeze welcome.  It was a perfect day for hanging out with a group (herd? bunch? conspiracy?) of geocachers.

GeoWoodstocks are chock full of activities, and one should never find themselves bored if they are paying attention to the schedule.  If all else fails one could fill the day by finding the large number of caches hidden on the reserve. There were too many things for me to check out, but I filled my day with geocaching and getting re-aquainted with friends.

Since this is my 3rd geowoodstock, and I have done some extensive travelling, and various other things with geocaching (blogging, podcasting etc.) I knew a surprisingly large number of people at the event. Some were cachers I've met at events in the Carolinas, some were friends I've met before at previous Woodstocks, some were fans, some were fellow bloggers and podcasters, and some were folks I've only chatted with online.  This is the (brotherly) love part of geocaching.

There was a side event held this year for the +Geocachers Unlimited group on Google Plus.  These are folks that enjoy caching on alternate listing services, including +OpenCaching North America.  It was great to put faces to these folks as I had previously only known them online.  It was nice to be able to log an event inside an event (an event sandwich, if you will).

Another aspect of GeoWoodstock is collecting trackables and travel bugs.  It still amazes me how many things have trackable numbers on them.  Geocachers love to track things (cars, t-shirts, toys, insane clowns... you name it, it can be made to be trackable). I logged over one hundred trackable objects, and I wasn't even trying that hard. Some trackables, like this jester, are very large.  Others are small and portable.

One of the traditions of GeoWoodstock is the group photo.  It is one of the few places at the event where you get a real sense of how many people are in attendance.  It was taking a bit longer than expected to gather everyone around for the photo, so I took a shot of my own.

This years event was spread out under the trees (which was done on purpose to allow folks to enjoy "more of Florida" - true statement from an organizer :) .  In a way this was a tad annoying as it took extra time to travel from location to location.

On the other hand it was rather awesome as the place did not feel crowded, despite having a couple thousand(ish) cachers in the park, and I got to see more of the place than I otherwise would have.  So mission accomplished.  Also goes to show its the little things that make an event rock or not.

People from literally all around the world attend this event. I found one cache with a lovely couple from Dusseldorf Germany, and traded pathtags with a gentleman (TickleBrick) from the UK. A map board is provided so everyone can mark where they come from using a straight pin.

I was so busy this year I almost forgot to sign the log.  It was one of the last things I did before leaving for the day.  Every year they use something different for the log sheet (one year it was an actual log).  This year it was a giant canvas.  I grabbed a shot of MissJenn, a Groundspeak Lackey, singing her name on the log (which seems to show I wasn't the only one who was late in this important task).

I had an awesome time at this event, and I am already scheming and plotting ways to convince my wife to get me to go to next years event, which will be held in St. Charles Missouri.

I highly recommend you consider attending one of these events.  If the next one is anything like this one, it will be one of the highlights of anyones geocaching career.  Until next time...

Peace. Love. Geocaching.

A Geowoodstock Weekend

Zeke and I at the Geowoodstock sign.

This weekend we found ourselves at one of the largest gatherings of Geocachers in the world:  Geowoodstock X in Sellersburg Indiana (right across the river from Louisville KY)

Thousands of geocachers from around the world travel to Geowoodstock every year to swap stories, share tricks, and have a great deal of fun.

This is the second Geowoodstock, and aside from a few logistical issues, it was essentially the same as last year.  So in effort to not be repetitive, I will refer you to last years post to get a feel for what a Geowoodstock event is like.

Obviously an event like this has its social elements, but what was memorable this year for me was how social the weekend outside of the event ended up being.  Most folks tend to geocaching alone, or in the same group of people, and one can go weeks or months without seeing other geocachers out on the trail.  Last weekend was the exact opposite of this as there was a rare moment when I didn't run into other cachers.

Abigail getting her hippie on.

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, let me recount some of the more memorable events of the weekend:

On Friday we went for a hike in the woods.  As we left the first cache, we ran into a cacher coming over the ridge.  A few moments later I was on the banks of the Ohio river doing an earth cache, and I ran into a couple who was also attempting that cache.

After lunch I was attempting a cache at the Louisville water tower.  I ran into two other cachers also making the attempt.  The cache ended up being damaged and hard to locate, but between us we managed to hunt down the clues of the missing cache, make some repairs and place it back.  That cache has since been found over 30 more times.

That evening we attended Miles of Smiles, a pre-Geowoodstock registration event.  A steady stream of cachers came and went over the course of several hours.  It was there that we got re-acquainted with some cacher friends from Massachusetts that I hang out with online, and met last year, and some of my Band Of Cachers friends.

After the event I went to find the closest cache, and ended up hanging out with about 20 cachers waiting to sign the log.

The family with Signal, the Groundspeak mascot.

On Saturday we had breakfast with several cachers that I hang out with online, many of who I met for the first time in person.

We then headed to Geowoodstock, and hung out for the day. After the event we went caching and every cache we did we ended up meeting new and different groups of cachers.

On Sunday we headed down to the banks of the Ohio River to attend a flash mob event.  The event was to take a group photo at the site of the original Geowoodstock 10 years ago.   While waiting for the event I ran into a cacher duo from Sweden, and another duo from Massachusetts. We ended up finding a couple caches together.

During the flash mob photo we hung out on a park lawn with several hundred cachers.

As you can imagine this weekend was the most social geocaching weekend I've ever had.  If you ever feel like hanging out with a large group of really fun people with a penchant for locating tupperware in the woods, might I suggest you make plans to attend Geowoodstock XI in Lakeland Florida next Memorial Day weekend.

I will leave you with several group photos from the events we attended.

The group photo at Geowoodstock X. We are at the very back under the W.

The group photo from the Flash Mob event on Sunday. We are to the left of the tree in the middle.

The group of cachers I chat with on a regular basis. From left to right: ShadowDC, DeviousDragen, leftyfb, jwubrownie, Clayjar, Tonka Tyke, yours truly, faurenlink, verygeeky.