GeoWoodstock IX-Part 2-The Event

Brad, Derek, and I pulled into the parking lot for the world's biggest geocaching event of the year at about 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  Just as I walked through the gate, I recognized the faces of a couple of Maine geocachers and went to say hello.  They were both volunteering at the event and pointed me toward the log book for the event.  At every physical geocache, there is a log book to sign to serve as proof that you were there.  This event was no different, only the log was.  Folks were signing their geocaching names on a long wooden plank instead of a white-lined paper notebook. 

My next stop was the registration building where the line was long but moved quickly.  People all around me were chatting and talking about past GeoWoodstock events.  Geocachers are notoriously friendly and were happy to talk to me even though I was a stranger.  I met folks from Pennsylvania, New York, and Tennessee just while waiting in line for five minutes.  Inside the building, cachers picked up their name badges and whatever other swag they paid for.  My registration package came with a T-shirt, a GeoWoodstock coin, Pathtags, and a lunch voucher. 

There was so much to see and do that I barely knew where to start.  First, I browsed the vendors' booths to see where my money would be best spent.  For sale were beautiful coins, T-shirts, cache containers, and much more.  By the end of the day I had six coins, two cache containers, and a water bottle.  One of my coins was an achievement coin for my newly acquired 250 find mark.  Although that might seem like a lot, there were many people there with finds up into the thousands, and one with 9,000 finds. 

One of my favorite parts of geocaching is trackables.  Trackables include coins, path tags, and different types of travel bugs.  Each trackable has its own number on it which allows the finder to log it into the website and see where it has been.  Some trackables have traveled all over the world.  Some trackables have specific missions about which types of caches they want to visit or what their destination is.  There was an entire building dedicated to the trade of trackables.  There were several bins set up, each labeled with a region of the country or world and filled with bags of coins and bugs.  I brought a trackable from a cache I found in Orrington and got to trade it for one from the New England bucket.  The travel bug I picked up had a destination goal to see as many of the New England states as possible, a goal I was happy to help it achieve. 

Some trackables are very large or heavy.  Some trackables are very special and aren't made to trade but to "discover."  Here are some fun examples:

Mingled in the crowd were lots of junior geocachers.  There were special events and caches set up especially for their age group.  In one building was a treasure hunt where kiddos used different tools to dig into wood shavings to see what they could find.  Signal the frog, who is the mascot for geocaching, also made an appearance.  One might think that a giant talking frog would be there for the juniors but he had quite a horde of adult followers, myself included. 

Just before leaving, I got to meet P.J., a geocaching friend I had previously only talked to on the internet.  He has an excellent blog that talks about geocaching, among many other things.  Check him out here. 

I definitely have to thank Brad and Derek for making this birthday one that will be difficult to top.  Muggles that they are, they didn't complain once about the heat, the crowd, or the fourteen hour ride back to Maine.  Brad has already told me that we're going to next year's GeoWoodstock which will be in Indiana.  Am I lucky or what?