A WILD AND WONDERFUL TIME!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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Where were you over the long Memorial Day weekend? "Almost Heaven!" would be the answer for nearly 30 SLAGA members who attended the Wild and Wonderful GeoWoodstock XXI GIGA Event in Morgantown, West Virginia.
This beautiful Appalachian 'Mountain State' and surrounding area provided absolutely stunning views and diverse and unique outdoor fun via car, foot, ATV, kayak, bike or scooter. GeoWoodstock XXI showcased geocaching at its finest and Mylan Park venue was spectacular! There were numerous vendors, a variety of cache types including gadgets, trackables, Adventure Labs, the GPS maze chronicling the hobby's history, a lunch buffet, speakers on numerous interesting topics, and simply an electric energy of geocachers galore sharing their passion for the game! The main GIGA event, and the nine side events and several geo-activities, were all top-notch, super organized and planned to near perfection to entertain the over 5700 participants from all 50 US states and 23 countries! (Just imagine the number of cars!) Sound overwhelming? It was to many cachers, which is why the GW team suggested to pick and choose when and what to do and not expect to do everything, as that would take a month.
When the GeoWoodstock went GIGA in March 2025, many more cachers decided to attend than originally had registered. From SLAGA alone, attendees included:
Cootie_man, vorlon40, Geokid12, stevendede, nan-d1955, MrsSpongy, Turtleladi1020nhubbs, Brantole, TerriBikes+, Hobbit Taz, Cribbagewitch, LFrank, Denmother, PaulGracie, TheDriver2, AF BEE, GeoWench, BnD Moritz, Team BMZ, Loonwoman, Aunt Dot, Bluedaisy, OohLookItsARabbit, Su&SCo, Utapao72, Gusterroids, and maybe others of whom this journalist is unaware.
SLAGA members crossed paths off and on and sometimes in the strangest places. They all had different plans for their visit and different adventures, so there are lots of stories. After interviewing many of the SLAGA attendees, these are some of the highlights, favorites, or memorable sights and activities different groups shared.
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Let's start with one GIGA newbie and his caching buddies. Geokid12 shared that he had, "never been to a GIGA before, so it was amazing to see so many cachers in one place." His geopals cootie-man and vorlon40 agreed with the awe-inspiring sight of thousands of people, including seeing so many SLAGA folks there. Cootie-man enjoyed grabbing some counties in southern Pennsylvania, while vorlon40 was pleased to pick up two new states and complete two state counties, as well as collecting two more lackey tags and 26 pathtags. Geokid12 also can't forget the late night, sleep deprived, black light bowling with some crazy caching geogals. When stevendede arrived in town, the trio's fun turned into four men traversing a 3-state region to obtain 14 icons in a day, except for Steve who magnificently scored 15! He had started the day in Warren, PA with an elusive webcam before meeting up for a great afternoon with the guys. Stevendede accomplished 61 new counties (including completing PA counties). He also logged two Cache Across America and five Cache Odyssey finds.
Nan-d1955 and MrsSpongy had fun traveling to and through 9 states on their GeoWoodstock trip. Five of those were new states for MrsSpongy, while Nan added one. The dynamic duo did a Webcam in Baltimore and completed the Delaware counties before making it to Morgantown. They both were able to obtain 12 icons on GIGA day and completed several Adventure Labs while in town, as well as over 100 other caches during travels. Although mentioning that the GeoWoodstock weekend was a bit overwhelming, MrsSpongy did enjoy a bit of a slower pace listening to some music at the Mountain Music Event as she and Nan finished picking up trash for the CITO on their hike back from the waterfall EC at Mason-Dixon Park. Nan-d1955 had a really FUN time trading pathtags during the Midnight Madness Event. Over three days, she traded about 90 pathtags.
Turtleladi1020nhubbs were so excited to attend the GIGA! They cached in two new states and loved all the caches they found. They commented that they, "would need a few weeks there to make a decent dent" in all the caches around Morgantown. Their favorite event was the Midnight Madness. "Pathtags galore and meeting so many other cachers was awesome. We got over 150 new tags!" Turtleladi acquired a cute turtle shaped tag while Hubbs obtained a Coast Guard one. Turtleladi is commissioning Hubbs to make more magnetic boards to display all the new tags they brought home.
Geogals Brantole and TerriBIkes+ took off four days before the main event with a first goal of acquiring the state of Virginia for Brantole (She'd later get MD and PA also). Following that was TerriBikes+ bucket list adventure to take an ATV along some Appalchian trails to the oldest WV cache and a scenic Almost Heaven Swing in the mountains! "That's the wettest, muddiest, most awesome adventure ever!" said Terri, as mud dripped from her face and helmet. While both gals enjoyed a ton of the unique and fun GeoWoodstock activities like Country Roads Challenge LBs, Cryptid Wherigo Quests, West Virginia ALab geoart, Wharf event and puzzle, many of the Middle of Everywhere gadgets, and Midnight Madness bowling with GeoKid12, they agree one moment stood out above all others that had nothing to do with GW goals. As Brantole retells it, "The best take-away memory was when TerriBikes+ and I assisted a geocacher in need after returning to the car at the Botanical Garden to escape the steady rain. An older gentleman appeared ready to collapse and was supported by his companions. Terri jumped out to see what was wrong and quickly learned that he was exhausted, as he was recovering from a recent heart surgery. A member of their party was walking two miles back to their car, but we decided getting the three out of the cold rain and to their car faster was important. After quickly moving our gear from the backseat for three of us, we assisted in getting the gentleman in the front seat for the trip. On the drive, we learned that Geoge was a Vietnam veteran and was with his wife and son and his brother." Terri later discovered he'd forgotten his cane this trip, so gave him one of her walking sticks. Both geogals knew they'd keep in touch with gga team, but were lucky to meet up again at the GIGA picture. The family noticed the gals at the SLAGA banner and came over to thank them again and ask them to sign his 'new' stick. He looked and confirmed he felt a lot better. Brantole and TerriBikes+ were at the right place, at the right time, and this is a GeoWoodstock memory they won't forget!
Trackable Race Manager Hobbit Taz and The One The Only The Cribbagewitch were at the Packet pickup bright and early Friday morning. After dropping off SLAGA's racing TBs in the GIGA event and getting their VIP packets, their real adventures began. "To get away from the amoeba caching groups awhile and enjoy what a hide is taking us to see," said Hobbit Taz, the two drove over an hour, but only 7 miles, to pick up two 'out-of-the-way' geocaches. Traversing through a series of small, switch back, country roads and runs, one just wide enough for their tires, they made their way to McCurdysville Cemetery for one stop. "We really needed a jeep or other off-road vehicle," said Hobbit Taz. Before stopping at the Cemetery, Cribbagewitch saw a mouse run across the road not long after they'd passed a vulture on a nearby post. Was that an escapee? The two found a lonely cache in Maryland that afternoon, and also drove into Pennsylvania where they ran into SLAGA friends at a cache! Small world. Cribbagewitch summed up their GIGA highlights by saying they, "loved the views, the fun, the warmth of the West Virginians we encountered, and the introduction to Pepperoni Rolls."
Veteran cachers L Frank and Denmother could be found at the GeoWoodstock venue off-and-on for photo ops and nice chats. But on a rainy day, they decided to do a little county run and crossed into Pennsylvania to grab a cache in a county they needed. "As we pulled up to a cache on a lonely country road, there's HobbitTaz and CribbageWitch! We joined forces to find the cache in the rain," said Denmother. L Frank added that the cachers at this random cache "were friends of ours from St. Louis, 570 miles from home. We love this game!" Under sunnier skies, these two pulled out their E-scooters and rode along the river to acrue several more smilies on the ACT, American Challenge Trail, with some other WRG (Woodstock Reviewer Group) cachers. L Frank also got on stage with other reviewers and lackeys, to share some wisdom, at the GIGA venue for the closing speaker series.
PaulGracie and TheDriver2 came to GeoWoodstock as a pair but left independently as Paul brought his bike and had post GIGA plans. But while in town and at the event, they had a great time meeting up with not just SLAGA friends but also other caching friends that Paul has met on his geo travels. For all that know Paul, he sets his sights high, and indeed this was true as he pursued and was thrilled to complete the West Virginia State STAR GeoArt, which had unbelievably high D/T ratings. He even met up with a caching acquaintance he met a year or so ago, and they used some teamwork to earn a few Star smilies together. Overall, Paul took 3 days to complete the 51 cache Star GeoArt. Paul also visited Camp Mountaineer Event and watched some zipliners. TheDriver2 commented that, "we had a great adventure and I am really glad I could come for the event with my son." When TheDriver2 drove west from Morgantown, ending his GIGA journey, PaulGracie pedaled northeast toward Maine to continue his adventures.
AF BEE and GeoWench made their appearance at GeoWoodstock also. When interviewed, GeoWench said, "I'd have to say my favorite part was being with thousands of other geocachers, then seeing someone from SLAGA across the room. Time for a quick hug, a quick catch-up chat, and off to more adventures. To me it's about the community of SLAGA." Some of those adventures included AF BEE's kayak F.L.O.A.T. geocaching adventure, also known as Fairmont's Land or Aquatic Trail. It took him and his floating mates from Quebec about two hours to complete the 35 play-anywhere wherigo geocaches that spanned both the mighty Monongahela River and the Mon River Trail between Fairmont and Prickett's Fort State Park. What a memorable experience. Besides his kayak adventure, AF BEE said, "a good memory was doing the Cheat River Challenge Trail (ACT) on E-scooter in the rain on Thursday." These cachers definitely used different transportion means to enjoy their GeoWoodstock experience.
Mayor Moritz was another SLAGA member who decided relatively late that he'd drive out and attend the GeoWoodstock GIGA event. He made the most of his trip east however, by truly enjoying his long visit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Then BnDMoritz made his way to West Virginia and more caching adventures. He met up with some SLAGA friends to grab a few Mylan Park caches then headed to Coopers Rock, which was a highlight stop for him. He was lucky to visit in much clearer skies than those that attended the Thursday morning Country Roads Event in the rain and fog. He also found the history at the PA cache 'The First Crematory in the US' quite interesting, and enjoyed 'meeting' Barney Fife/Don Knotts, who was from Morgantown. BnD ended up finding over 60 caches on his quick to and from trip!
Team BMZ surprised many SLAGA folks, when they showed up at the GIGA! They had been in Pennsylvania scouting out new residence options and decided to make the trip down for this momentous geo occasion. Team BMZ spotted nan-d1955s car in the parking lot when they arrived, and soon after saw several caching friends they had not seen in awhile. When asked what a favorite or highlight of their GeoWoodstock visit was, BMZ daddy replied, "my fondest memory is catching fish right by one of the challenge caches on Cheat Lake. I caught my first ever bullhead catfish!" And that's BMZ daddy for you, ha ha.
The trio of Loonwoman, Aunt Dot and Bluedaisy cached all the way out to Morgantown, completing the I-64 challenge en route. After they arrived in Morgantown, they picked up their packets at the GW venue. Bluedaisy had been to a few GeoWoodstocks but this was her first GIGA! Loonwoman recalls some initial fun at the venue saying, "Bluedaisy exchanged a couple dozen trackables to my one, and Aunt Dot did an adventure lab using Google to help with some answers. Then, since she had three left and I saw a lady with answers while waiting on the shuttle, I suggested Aunt Dot talk to her, so she could complete the adventure." The trio went through the maze then headed off to Historic Downtown for more caching fun, including the Don Knotts virtual and several more adventure labs. Aunt Dot commented, "I got my 10,000th cache find on this trip while doing the 120 ALs at the West Virginia rest stop." After caching around their hotel the next morning, they cached their way to Terre Haute and then finally home the following day.
Well surprise! Look who logged the GIGA! OohLookItsARabbit attended log states, "Attending my 4th GeoWoodstock. Crazy busy here, and an amazing amount and variety of things to do. Having only one day, we opted to walk around downtown doing several physical and Adventure Lab caches. Enjoyed seeing the Wharf district and historic buildings."
Su&SCo also attended this Wild and Wonderful event and SLAGA folks got to see them briefly at the group picture on Saturday. Susan wrote in her attend log, "We had a great time. Lots of friends! What a wonderful group of cachers, our first GIGA!!" While other cachers returned home soon after the event, it seems, by their caching logs, that these two are still travelling the northeast United States on an extended caching trip.
Utapao72's name was seen on some local Morgantown caches too, so he and his travel mates also got to experience some West Virginia fun. One log states, "Found Don's statue and his tribute plaques. Great actor and loved the Andy Griffith show." Surely, he had a GIGA good time as other SLAGA attendees did.
The last GeoWoodstock participants that replied to the GIGA article 'shout out' was the Gusterroids. They spent just the main event Saturday in town. Gusterroid (J) said, "We actually were in Pittsburgh for the holiday weekend visiting a relative and managed to sneak away for the day. We started by stopping at the WV ALab GeoArt at the rest stop, which gave us our biggest find count in one day, a total of 707 finds! That was nearly 7X more finds than our previous best day," After that they focused on letterbox hybrid caches to up that count. Then because they decided to clear out the many Adventure Labs downtown, they had the benefit of seeing many of the city's highlights, during their short visit. Then it was back to Pittsburgh for the couple.
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The Wild and Wonderful GeoWoodstock XXI GIGA Event was much more than just 'an event,' as you can probably tell from the stories and pictures of the SLAGA folks that attended. No matter how many days these geocachers attended or where their caching took them, the GWXXI team, the beautiful Mountain State of West Virginia and the local Morgantown folks offered such world-class adventures, friendly culture, and unique experiences, that their GIGA experience will not soon be forgotten. This GeoWoodstock was definitely geocaching at it's finest.
During the closing ceremony, the announcement of GeoWoodstock XXII was made, and to the luck of SLAGA-land folks, it won't be too far of a drive. Over Memorial Day weekend 2026, the next GeoWoodstock, under the management of Semmels123 (Ryan) and his team, will be held in Hutchinson, Kansas (GCB7GWH)! They hope everyone will come, stay and explore Kansas!
TerriBikes+ and MrsSpongy Congratulate Semmels123
NOT A Very Taxing Challenge
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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The Adventure Awaits challenge for tax month was to find four geocaches whose titles began with the letters C-A-S -H plus one event cache. This was not a very taxing challenge for Alexis and Rich Wilson, better known in SLAGA-land as 2roadtrippers, who were the lucky qualifying and gift card winners for April 2025.
When asked why they chose to participate in the monthly challenge and what caches they chose, they commented:
"We chose to participate in the monthly adventure awaits after listening to SLAGA President Mike talk about it at the spring picnic, and knew we didn’t have much time to enter. This is our first time entering the monthly challenge, so we looked through our cache history. We chose:
C - Cliff Cave expansion (GC8VGHY) because this was the last one left to get in this park.
A - A Special Memory (GCQ596) which was a really great find on our first time to Las Vegas. It was at a drive-through wedding chapel and another slaga member had signed the log (stevendede)! It was also highly favorited with 1900+ points.
SPRING IN SLAGA-LAND 2025
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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SLAGA Spring Picnic - April 26th, 2025.
This year's Spring picnic was hosted by the Arnold City Mayor and Slaga's own BnD Moritz! Bill (and Deb) chose a large pavilion at Arnold City Park that had a beautiful view of the lake down the hill, and was conveniently positioned next to a fabulous playground. More than 40 members and four furry muggles joined in the fun, festivities and fabulous food.
The picnic was full of activities. Cachers could play Geo-Bingo and the Closest-to-the-Pin games. There was also a premium member drawing, silent raffle with nice prizes, a 50/50 raffle, and a trackable table for dropping or retrieving travel bugs. SLAGA board members and volunteers were kept busy at this picnic. Secretary Treasure Isle worked the combination registration/lunch fee/game table up front, while VP GeoKid12 sold SLAGA shirts and travel bugs, as well as announced the current milestone winners. Volunteer Hobbit Taz collected and logged trackables for the upcoming SLAGA Travel Bug Race, and President cootie-man made announcements and called out the winners of various activites. Many thanks to the other volunteers, including those that helped with set-up, clean-up, raffles and games, as well as to all who provided delicious potluck dishes to share. A special kudos to turleladi1020nhubbs for their grilling efforts, and to Strider for running the Closest-to-the-Pin game.
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SLAGA milestone awardees this Spring include:
March Unfurls a New Adventure Awaits Winner
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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GCAT0V7 - Port Cargo - Hidden : 06/15/2024 Logged: 03-2025
GCAVHX0 - Big Creek Cache - Hidden : 07/22/2024 Logged: 03-2025
GCAXDEB - The Musical Fruit - Hidden : 09/01/2024 Logged: 03-2025
GCAZ4AQ - Booger Hook - Hidden : 10/12/2024 Logged: 03-2025
GCB2R89 - Pie on Pi Day? Sure Thing! - Event Date: 03/14/2025
Aside from geocaching, Bill discovered a new hobby back in 2022. Apiculture or backyard beekeeping had always fascinated him, but he thought a large plot of farm or country land was necessary. But when he discovered beekeeping could be down in town, in any backyard, he was hooked. Thirteen beehives later, Bill happily manages his colonies year round, then strains, bottles, and sells the honey. In the photo below, Bill is grafting queens, which involves transferring young, developing worker larvae from their normal cells into special queen cell cups to encourage them to be raised as queens.
The bees, though still in slumber deep, begin a stirring, secrets keep.
TB RACE 2025!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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The starting line is in sight for the 2025 SLAGA Travel Bug Race, held between late May 2025 and Jan. 10, 2026! Now is the time to get those travel bug/trackables ready to drop off at the upcoming SLAGA Spring Picnic this April.
A travel bug or trackable is a geocaching game piece, owned by a geocacher, that has a unique digital tracking code etched into it. This code allows geocachers to track its movement on GC.com as it is retrieved from one cache and moved and placed in another by cachers who choose to participate in this add-on to the game of geocaching.
There are various types of trackables, the most common being the dog tag type 'travel bug' (TB) usually accompanied by a small personal token. But there are also geocoins and other customized ones as well.
To enter a travel bug in this year's SLAGA TB Race, you will need to purchase your unactivated travel bug/trackable, personalize it with a token if you choose (highly suggested), activate your trackable, and create an informative TB page with a name, its purpose of RACING, a goal to visit certain places, and a photo so others can clearly identify it. Your racing TB may not visit any geocache nor accumulate any mileage prior to bringing it to the SLAGA Spring Picnic where it is handed off to a board member or fellow geocacher/volunteer race monitor, Mark Derr. (Tags will be available to purchase at the Spring Picnic event, but you will need to bring along your token to attach.)
SLAGA will then take all the racing travel bugs to GeoWoodstock XXI (GCANXX1) in West Virginia on 5/24/2025. This will be the official starting line as they will all be 'dropped' together into the event.
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Race Monitor Mark has summarized some helpful rules and suggestions for your TB and page that may increase its race chances. He suggests including:
- “2025 SLAGA RACING TRAVELBUG” (or at least the word RACE) in your TB Name,
- A picture of your travel bug on the page,
- Race information including the end date of the race (Jan 10th, 2026),
- An item or token attached to the travel bug dog tags, as tags alone tend to be ignored. (GeoCoins are not recommended as they tend to disappear more easily, but it's your choice of trackable.),
- Some goals/mission added to your travel bug page for use during and after the race (example, visit Castles, cemetery caches, travel to all 50 states, etc.).
For this year's race, the following categories will determine the three winners (different from last year).
- Number of Total Logs of any type (not including owner or Slaga Officers)
- Number of Different Geocachers logging the TB (not including owner or Slaga Officers)
- Number of Photos Added to the gallery (not including ones added by the owner)
As a tie breaker, for any category, the total miles shown on the TBs' home pages (minus any starting corrections) will be used to determine the winner.
Please note that each travel bug owner can only have ONE travel bug in the race. Also each owner may win only one category. If an owner wins in multiple categories, the 2nd place TB in the additional category becomes that winner.
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So it's time to get those travel bugs/trackables ready to enter the SLAGA TB RACE this year. Monitor Mark posts race updates often so you can keep track of your TB's progress and ranking in the various categories compared to your fellow SLAGA members trackables.
On your mark ... get set ...
February’s Repeat Adventure Awaits Winner
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- Written by Terri Nealon
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The last full month of winter challenged Adventure Awaits participants to find 5 non-traditional geocaches with one being an event. No one did that better than the repeat winner stevendede (Steve Jacobs).
Steve won in November 2023 during the inaugural year of SLAGA's monthly challenge, so we know a little about this high geo-achiever. But during the past 15 months since his first win, Steve has increased his caching finds from 16,056 caches to 18,301, and hidden 8 additional caches. He also recently completed a personal challenge of 1355 consecutive days with finds. In 2024 alone, Steve found more than 1900 caches, his most productive year since he started caching in 2011. He has over 300 cache finds this year so far, with five of them being his qualifying caches for the February 2025 Adventure Awaits win.
GCAEZWA - CASC 2024- Tatooine - Letterbox
GC96B2F - Dr. Alien's Wickedly Wonderful Wherigo #131
GCGJ53 - Original McDonalds - McToy Museum - Virtual
GC4E3JV - Holtville Hot Springs - Earthcache
GCAKZ9Y - Yuma Block Party: Thanks GCHQ for 25 Amazing
When asked why he chose these caches and some favorite caching experiences since he won last, he combined it all into his story of an awesome week-long caching trip he took with his buddy Vorlon40 to the Yuma, Arizona Block Party.
"We flew to Phoenix and spent 2 days caching around Phoenix and Mesa, highlighted by a desert hike to Arizona's oldest cache (GC57) and dinner with frequent SLAGA visitors Jim & Marline (eagles_landing). Next we headed towards San Diego, logging California's oldest cache (GC5B) along the way. But that was all in January, so they didn't count for the February Adventure Awaits.
On February 1st, we cached our way from Santa Monica back to Yuma. Along the way we stopped for a Star Wars themed letterbox hybrid CASC 2024- Tatooine (GCAEZWA), a couple reverse-Wherigo hides in the series of Dr. Alien's Wickedly Wonderful Wherigos (GC96B2F), and a quick visit to the Original McDonalds - McToy Museum for a virtual cache (GCGJ53). After an overnight south of Desert Springs, we stopped at in Holtville, CA to smell the sulfur at the Holtville Hot Springs Earthcache (GC4E3JV) before finally arriving at our target, the Yuma Block Party: "Thanks GCHQ for 25 Amazing Years" to earn the rare GCHQ Block Party icon. Now I've logged every one of the 20 geocache types created by Groundspeak.
The block party was a blast, with lots of fun caching around Yuma plus the opportunity to cross the border into Los Algodones, Mexico for a CITO, a lunch event, and several caches. That evening we cached our way back to Phoenix for our flight home."
As Steve has always claimed, his favorite caching experiences involve travel, and that is certainly the case with his February winning caches and geo-trip. It appears he doesn't actually 'await' adventures, but travels and finds them himself by geocaching state and worldwide!
Congratulations and Cache On Steve!
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