Geowoodstock!

Today was the main event, the piéce de resistance, as it were, of the trip and of the geocaching year:
Geowoodstock VIII

I got to chat with so many cachers, and am really flattered that so many read and enjoy this blog! That makes it even more worth writing – thank you!

There were a lot of activities, from travel bug trading to a GPS accuracy contest to a live band to freshly grilled burgers and hot dogs to a vast number of booths featuring various product and services for geocachers:

After a full day of caching before and after the event with f0t0m0m. the Ventura Kids, & babj615, I headed back south, continuing my extended road trip. It usually takes a couple of days to relax in to vacation mode, but I seem to be in that. My last cache was at a southbound rest stop, hidden in a striking giant fallen tree stump:

Road Rage #1

Tomorrow: back through Oregon….

Day 99… and Day 1…

It’s my final week of the 100 day caching streak. Already. Wow. Will I break the habit now? Not immediately, as I’m on a road trip to Geowoodstock 8 in Seattle, and I’ll be finding caches each day for another week at least.

Here’s the last installment of my streak list:
6/25 – Tunaman’s Memorial
6/26 – Married to a Muggle
6/27 – Cache Cache Cache
6/28 – Get a cup of Joe, and then GO…Caching!
6/29 – Main Drain This is #99!

Today I drove from Northridge to Sacramento. The Main Drain cache that I picked up on the way was right across from this unique sign:

Favorite Geocaches of the GWVI Weekend

Well, I’m all out of photos for the weekend (see my previous post for those), but here are the standout caches of the 175:

2008 – A Year of FTFs
7 Days of First-to-Finds
Each of these provides multiple oppotunities for First To Finds. I like this idea, and may just hide a couple like this locally.

9-ball B – Snookered by the O.C.G.
A nicely crafted camo job.

Going Fishing
Wonderfully creative use of camo tape on the container!

The One That Got Away
A rubber chicken in near a KFC. (lol)

And finally, a pair of caches that only let us find ONE – NOT both!! This was hard…. but we obliged.
I Promise…
Self Control

OK, so this is a pretty short list out of so many, but speed comes with finding lots of easy, normal caches. They are all fun, and more fun when done fast with friends. Whee!

Geocaching Lessons with the Ventura Kids

It’s always exciting to find 100 caches in a day, and my two days with the Ventura Kids and Zombie Tribe over the weekend at Geowoodstock were no exception, finding 100 one day and 75 the next!

The Ventura Kids like to say that they are bringing me along to teach me to geocache. They ARE the inventors of the “7-minute Rule”, after all. Here’s what I learned this time:

Zombie Tribe, aka Robert, searches while Ventura Kid Steve supervises. This is a good use of resources:

Meanwhile, the other Ventura Kid, Sandy, finds the cache on the other side of the street. This is teamwork:

Sandy opens the log while everyone else has stickers at the ready. This is efficiency:

Note: if Sandy is not there on any given day, we all stand around and wonder who’s supposed to open the container. Hm.

This is some nice scenery near a cache, but there’s no time for that! As I took this photo, they were all in the jeep and pulling away. I had to run to catch up! It was just a 10th of a mile to the next cache anyway, so I made it. Whew!

We have to find 10 caches per hour or we don’t get lunch. Fortunately, we did this day, and enjoyed some great burgers at this local joint in Wheatland:

Uh oh… I think Steve’s DNFing this one… where is it??

OK, I’m pulling your leg with some of the above descriptions, but I’ll let you guess which. Above all, a day of caching with the Ventura Kids is a day of complete fun. It’s a day full of laughter, looniness, and signing lots of logbooks. It’s an experience I highly recommend!

(Just don’t believe anything Steve says!)

The Road to Geowoodstock VI

Wow… it’s taken me a long time to catch up on logging and photos, but here’s the first of my posts on my trip to Geowoodstock and beyond!

I drove up to Sacramento on Friday, intending to get to the evening Meet and Greet, but a gnarly accident blocking the 5 northbound pre-empted that. I did find 6 caches before diverting to the 99, and several of them were along Twisselman Road. One was at the ruins of some boiler rooms used once for heating crude oil.

Devil’s Den: Tales From The Boiler Room

The boilers:

Oil derricks in the fields:

The following day, I got to the main event, in between finding 100 caches with ZombieTribe and the Ventura Kids!

There were over 3000 geocachers in attendance, and the mega-event was run REALLY well. We all got fed dinner, listened to a country band, shopped for geocoins, T-shirts, and other assorted swag, and met up with as many other geocachers that we knew that we could find there. The weather was cool and overcast, which was fabulous. I even got to meet Jeremy for the first time, briefly. The next one will be back in Nashville, and I have it in my calendar already!