A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

mega event

GeoWoodstock: A wrap!

What a weekend GeoWoodstock was!

This will be the final in my series about the event and the weekend full of geocaching. I’m going to do a wrap of sorts here to talk about some numbers and such. I’m still looking back and enjoying the weekend that we had down there and can’t wait for the Geocaching Block Party in Seattle in August.

The log at this year's GeoWoodstock!

The log at this year’s GeoWoodstock!

But, I wanted to do a tally of some things we did this weekend:

  • 5 states (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia)
  • 150 caches found
  • 11 events (including one mega)
  • 3 Earthcaches
  • 3 Mystery caches
  • 2 Virtuals
  • 2 Lab caches
  • 1 Letterbox
  • Of all those found caches, a combined 9,445 favorite points!

I also reached the 4,000 finds mark, and set a new record by finding 85 caches in one day!

In the end, it was one heck of a great time. Two of us are tentatively planning a weeklong road trip to GeoWoodstock XIV next year in Denver. It will include many states, lots of caching fun and a trip to remember.

It's always fun to meet up with old caching friends at big events!

It’s always fun to meet up with old caching friends at big events!

I haven’t done many road trips like the one I’ll eventually start to plan, but I’m hoping for an epic week full of fun and crazy geocaching, maybe a baseball game or three, and maybe even a disc golf round or two.

This GeoWoodstock was great in that I got to catch up with some people I met at my first GW, as well as others I’ve met through the years. Geocaching is a cool community full of people from different backgrounds and lives. It makes for a diverse and fun crowd. My hope is to make GeoWoodstock an annual trip to catch up with friends and utilize it as an event that becomes one I can’t miss.

This year was a fantastic event. Maybe the 2016 event can be find No. 5,000!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

GeoWoodstock: A stellar weekend all around

My first GeoWoodstock was in Warren, Pa., in 2011.

What an experience it was. I had known about GeoWoodstock since I started geocaching, but I had never been because it had been in places not too close to me.

So with it being in western Pennsylvania, I knew I had to go to it.

Several years passed and it was coming back closer to the Northeast in Boonsboro, Maryland. I made reservations early and waited. When pre-registration opened, I signed up and ordered the items I wanted. Then I waited some more.

This year's GeoWoodstock was an amazing event!

This year’s GeoWoodstock was an amazing event!

Memorial Day weekend was the culmination of that wait.

One thing I found out and realized with this one is how into it the whole community seemed to be. Businesses welcomed people with no issues. People seemed to know about and embrace the thousands of people coming into the area for this event.

That’s a positive thing.

More than that, the committee behind this GeoWoodstock was stellar.

From the early arrival event on Friday to the main event on Saturday, things ran smooth. There were so many solid vendors. The food offerings were really good. I didn’t see many seminars, but the ones I peeked in on seemed to be solid and well-done. There were also a bunch of people at each one.

The weather didn’t hurt, either.

With sunny skies, it was a fine weekend to be outside. People chatted and swapped stories. Pathtag trading was being done all over. For my little group, we spent some time at the event, went and cached some, then came back for the end of the event. We then cached more before coming back for the Midnight Madness event (more on that in a future post).

This truly was one of the best geocaching experiences I’ve ever had.

The whole weekend was awesome. There were many satellite events, loads of geocaches to be found, and friendly people everywhere you went.

I also loved the amount of vendors and, as noted earlier, they were all solid. There were different geocaching items for sale, which was nice to see.

This event also got me back into the geocaching mood. From December to about early April, I kind of wasn’t into it. Part of it was the weather, but another part was I was a little stale with things. I needed a small break. A weekend like this was perfect because I got to remember all the good things about geocaching.

It also made me realize I want to start making plans for the next one, which is during July 4 weekend next year just outside of Denver. I’ve never been to Colorado, so this seems like a good reason. The cool part is two of us got talking about it and are thinking about making it a road trip – driving out and back – to get a bunch of states and great caches. So we’ll see how it goes. It doesn’t hurt to plan. The worst-case scenario is I don’t go and have to cancel any reservations I make. In a perfect world, I’ll make this a yearly trip.

It was a fantastic time though and if you are a geocacher and have never been to GeoWoodstock, I’d highly encourage you to attend one at some point!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A return to ASP Geobash provides an excellent time

My first Mega geocaching event was the Allegany State Park Geobash . It was the fourth year of the event in 2009 and it was quest to get that Mega icon.

More than 500 people were at the event and 413 geocachers logged an online find. It was quite cool to see so many geocachers in one place. There were vendors and trading of pathtags/coins and everything else you could think of It was quite cool.

I attended the fifth and sixth years of the event as well, but then unemployment hit and heading out for those two years would have been hard to pull off. Instead, I stuck closer to home and hit the first two Berkshire Geobash Mega events, which were held in Massachusetts, but at the same time much closer.

Found it!

This year, ASP was back on my schedule (along with Berkshire and the hopeful NYC/NJ area one in November). I am glad I had the chance to get back to ASP as I’ve always enjoyed the event. It’s in a nice area and it’s not a bad drive. In fact, for the second, time, I went down and back in one day, sandwiching some geocaching in between.

The weather this year wasn’t a lot of fun, though. It was chilly and rainy, but that’s what can happen in the middle of May in the Northeast.

Still, it was nice to head out there.

It’s always nice to meet a Groundspeak Lackey, and it was neat to do some of the lab caches, which are apparently only at Mega events. They actually count on your statistics, but are not permanent caches.

The only crappy thing is I was just at the end of a cold, so I wasn’t in the mood to do any longer hikes. It was still OK as we did some fun caches on the way down and on the way back from the event.

With everything, though, there are good and bad things. One on the negative side of this event is the lack of vendors. This year there were like five. And while they were all decent, it doesn’t give people a good choice of things to look at. Especially when you consider only one of the vendors was a true geocaching “store.” The other vendors had connections to geocaching, but not the type where you could get coins, or pathtags, or containers etc.

Talking to some in charge, then note they try to get more there. It doesn’t seem like it would be a cost issue, outside of getting to Allegany State Park. But these vendors travel to other places. Do they fear those at this event won’t buy enough to make it worthwhile? I have no answer. But it seems to me that if you have a spot with more than 500-750 people, and all in your niche, it would be smart to try and get there. I had gone down with the hopes of buying a few things, but didn’t find what I had been looking for. That is part of life, though.

I do enjoy the event and next year is the 10th anniversary of the ASP Geobash, so I plan on being there. My hope is to hit 3-4 Megas, including GeoWoodstock next year. I’ve been to one GeoWoodstock and have wanted to go again I plan on trying to find some hotels soon (it’s in Maryland) so I can start planning accordingly.

But no matter what, ASP Geobash will always be a special event for me and as long as they keep having it and as long as I can get there, I plan on going. Hopefully the event will continue to grow and vendors will realize there are geocachers there who would be looking to spend some money, so it would be worth the coming and setting up a mobile shop. I can hope, anyway.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

On the geocaching trail: Planning a fun weekend

I’m ready for a weekend of geocaching… and hopefully many finds occur!

Hey folks.

I know I’ve been pretty hit or miss for the past several weeks, but with work and softball and everything else, I’ve had no drive to blog. I’m so beat at night thanks to this crazy heat we’ve been having.

Blah.

Anyway, for the first time since starting the summer gig, I have a few extra days off. I put in for this weekend as it’s the Berkshire Geobash, a mega event in its second year. I went last year and wanted to hit it up again.

Of course it’s supposed to be hot this weekend, which kind of stinks. I was hoping for some partially sunny skies with a high of around 70. I would have been stoked.

But no…

Mother Nature doesn’t seem to want to cooperate, of course.

For Saturday (from the National Weather Service):

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 2pm. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. West wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

For Saturday night:

Saturday Night Showers and thunderstorms likely before 9pm, then a slight chance of showers between 9pm and 3am. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Seriously? I get a weekend off and I have to deal with this? Of course Sunday looks nice and Friday (when two of us are heading down) look decent. But Saturday…

Ugh. Hopefully that will change some.

Either way, I have a lot of caches planned. I haven’t sat down and planned a caching trip like this in a while, so it’s been pretty fun. I have the lists broken up into days and such, so hopefully we’ll be able to get most of them. There are more than 100 on the list for two days, so we’ll see.

Some of the highlights include:

  • Seeing nine covered bridges (four in New York, five in Vermont);
  • Two events (originally three or four, but we’ve opted to skip one or two for other items);
  • Several puzzle caches, which have already been solved;
  • Some challenging caches with different terrain/difficulty ratings;
  • A few cooler caches with more than 50 favorite points.

I’ve also continued the releasing of my coin collection (I’m creating proxy releases as the originals stay in the collection, but they are out moving and such) and will have more than 15 I am releasing this weekend. That’s one thing I’m truly excited about. I’ll drop them in different spots throughout the weekend.

In the end, I’m looking forward to getting away and doing some geocaching. It hasn’t been a great summer for caching for me as I had eight finds in June and I’ve had one in July.

One.

So I’m looking to make amends.

Last year, this event was quite fun. There were quite a lot of things to do and I look forward to the same this year. I hope there are good vendors to check out and, of course, great caches.

I’m also planning on taking a bunch of photos (I rented a lens) with my regular camera as well as with the iPhone, which I’ll be posting to Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter throughout the weekend. Feel free to follow me on any of those networks!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!