So last week we (Sue, Cecil and I) headed west to attend GeoWoodstock. This event marked the first anniversary of my retirement and made me come face to face with a few things.
GeoWoodstock is an amazing event when done right. I’ve attended a few and even took part helping with GWX. Each event is different since it is organized by a local group that submits a proposal. Each year they learn from the past. The whole idea is to get geocachers together. GWXX in Flagstaff had some great parts to give people things to do besides just finding geocaches. The actual event is only one day, but there were amazing events leading up to Saturday and events once everything was officially over. With Route 66 and the proximity to the Grand Canyon there were things for everyone to do.
The pre-events gave people multiple chances to pick up their badges, and reasons to meet other cachers from around the world. Our first event was “WTF” Welcome To Flagstaff and was held in the middle of downtown. Registration is free, but at various levels you get different SWAG and stuff. We went for the Gold level +1 which gave us lunch, VIP parking, shirts, and a bunch of geocoins. We got our packet and saw the other pieces that the event organizers put together as icebreakers for the around 3,000 people descending on the area. There was the typical bingo game where you go and get people to fill in a bingo board filled with caching accomplishments. Due to taking a hiatus from caching for a couple of years, I was pretty limited to the boxes “design a geocoin or pathtag” and “appeared in FTF Geocacher magazine.” There was also a selfie contest, a decoding map icebreaker, pathtag trading (anyone have yellow?) and rules for a poker run. Each badge had a sticker on it that had a variety of attributes for you to match. None of these were necessarily new, but putting them all together at Woodstock was and made it possible to meet even more people, and a nice way for cachers of all experience levels to get out and meet some new people. Did I Mention that JoGPS (the founder of this event) put it together in the very early days of Geocaching so people could meet face to face and talk instead of just seeing names on a log? Besides caches and events the organizers also put together a bunch of Adventure Labs throughout the area. Which lead to one thing no one had really anticipated- Cellular Network overload. When a town the size of Flagstaff suddenly has 3,000 people all trying to access the internet at the same time things slowdown to a crawl. I look at it like going to a conference and complaining about the temperature in the meeting rooms. There isn’t a darn thing the organizers can do about it, it’s out of their hands. Cachers are used to adapting to the situation, so that’s what we did.
The next day took us out of Flagstaff and over to Williams, AZ as cachers hopped on board the train heading to the Grand Canyon. Sue, Cecil, and I have control issues so we decided to drive, that way we had more control over our schedule. It was an amazing day. We had not been to the Grand Canyon in years and then it was more of a drive by. We stopped at a scenic overlook and went on our way. Thursday we took the entire day to explore the southern rim. Afterwards we headed back to Flagstaff to attend the evening event at a bowling alley it was crowded so after saying “Hi!” to some friends, and signing the log, we called it a day.
Friday we decided to “Take it Easy” after overdoing it on Wednesday (yes, we’re old). We ended up at the Lowell Observatory (Where the State Planet for Arizona – Pluto was discovered) in the afternoon. Then heading to the GPS Adventure Maze and a quick run to the evening event that I volunteered at (anyone have a yellow pathtag?). As it got dark we headed back to the observatory for stargazing (which was AWESOME).
Saturday brought everything to a head. The BIG EVENT. Now having done these before, the actual event is just a big celebration and a chance for cachers to talk to each other. A lot of time you can’t put a name you’ve seen over and over again on logs with a face. For the first few years of caching I only knew people by their caching name- and asking where “Foomanjoo” was seems OK at a geo event, but when someone says you need to talk to “Josh” you might get a little lost. GeoWoodstock gives cachers of all abilities and experience the chance to just talk and share adventures.. I spent part of the morning with FTFGuy (Keith) at the FTF Geocacher table drawing monkeys for people and handing out Cecil-EGCM buttons. When I ran out of buttons & paper I wandered the event grounds and the vendor tables. It was nice to talk to friends that due to circumstances I don’t see that often like Sonny & Sandy (Team Podcacher) who produce a great podcast and actually introduced me to Geocaching back in 2006.
There are educational sessions throughout the day (This was my job with GWX) these are nice little presentations or panels on various subjects. I missed the morning ones, but was able to hear a talk about the Adventure Labs along Route 66 with props given the folks who did it on the Lincoln Highway. Then there was the Reviewer Panel which is always a fun part of GeoWoodstock. These are the volunteers and Lackeys from Groundspeak getting hit with questions from the audience. The only rule is not to ask about a specific cache. Like any hobby there are questions that always get brought up or people who try to monopolize the discussion. In the land of LEGO the question of “Will they ever bring back the monorail?” is the one that tends to always get asked. In Geocaching it has to do with Virtual Caches and taking over a cache when the owner vanishes from the face of the Earth- I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens. 👽
The day concludes with thanks to the organizers, honoring of the five people who haven’t missed any GeoWoodstocks, and the unveiling of next year’s location. So GeoWoodstock XXI will be in Morgantown, WV over Memorial Day weekend. Hope to see you there.
That evening the local theatre was taken over for the geocoin/pathtag trading event (Midnight Madness) and the showing of a rough cut of a documentary about the history of GeoWoodstock. <SPOILER> GWX was really hot. 🥵
Do we all then say goodbye and head off? No, there are Sunday Events – a CITO and then an event around lunch. There’s breakfast Monday and even another event about a week after GWXX!
If you want the official word about the event and geocaching here’s the article from the local paper that explains things much better than I ever could. Cache Mountain: GeoWoodstock attracts 3,000 to Flagstaff | Local News | azdailysun.com
The Adventure Labs I completed (there are still a bunch I didn’t 🙄)
What I Learned (more about myself than the event):
- Communication is key- know what the objective for the day is, but be flexible. Friday we figured we’d get all the Adventure Lab stages but due to connectivity issues and being old and tired we decided a nap was a better option. The event folks were great about posting updates as needed.
- Creating a cache list only works if everyone involved is on the same page. For me, not caching that much makes it more difficult- using different caching apps doesn’t make it any easier. Interestingly enough, there were two events called almost the exact same things happening on the same day at different locations at different times… We went to the wrong location at the wrong time. I had it correct in my list and on the calendar (which we never used), but got confused and decided that “logically” the one location made sense, without checking the cache page until was too late. FYI: The original corner to stand on is in Flagstaff, not Winslow. 🙄 We at least got a good breakfast out of the deal. 😁
- Some places don’t have good cellphone coverage (no matter what your provider’s map shows). So read the directions on an Adventure Lab before leaving an area with decent coverage… Some of old Route 66 were difficult/impossible to log the Adventure Lab stages if you hadn’t downloaded the lab, BEFORE arriving in the area- which was what the starting page stated very clearly.
- “They’re more like guidelines than actual rules.” Everyone plays the game (Geocaching) differently. When I am doing an Adventure Lab I like to actually walk to the place (whenever possible), other people are fine with driving by and activating the stage then either doing Internet research to find the answer or just guessing until they get the question right. I’m not about numbers, I’m about the experience… That and trying not to hit something (or someone) is a lot easier when you aren’t trying to activate a stage while whizzing by it.
- Remember Leonard Snart’s philosophy on planning: “There are only four rules you need to remember: make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan…”
- We rented a MINI convertible for this trip and were really excited to not have to adjust to a completely different car. If you own a MINI Roadster (R59) a newer MINI Convertible (F57) is not the same car. 🤬 To those who love the convertible MINI… I’m happy for you, I just don’t get it. Having to put the backseat down to be able to fit two carry-on suitcases and two daypacks?!? I know if it were my car, I’d have to get used to a lot of things, but not being able to put the top down when the boot is full? 😳 Sue has an electric top on her Roadster and she was still trying to figure out why it would throw an error code saying the top wasn’t locked! Having a speed warning pop up every time you try to keep up with interstate traffic?!? I know, some of these things I can fix in the car settings, but for a week, it wasn’t worth it. Someone commented that the early Mini was designed to be simple and all the tech they’ve added just complicated it. As an R59 owner I kind of have to agree.
- I’m getting too old for red eye flights. Or I need a first class overseas seat to fly at night since I really can’t sleep sitting up. After being in airports or on airplanes for about 18 hours I crashed once I got home.
- I really do miss my cats when I’m away.
