Back From Geo Jamboree Part 2

So at the picnic we got to see a lot of friends we knew and got to meet some new people as well.  Someone who was sitting nearby had brought with them their geocoin collection in a big book (I erased the tracking numbers 'cause of course it wouldn't be fair to "discover" them on the internet, heh).  DH took a picture of each page so he could "discover" them all.  Normally you would find and take a travel bug or geocoin from a geocache and log that you have it online, however, if you don't want to or can't take a travel bug or geocoin that you've seen, you can copy down the tracking number and "discover" it.  (Now I just want to point out that the gentleman who had this geocoin collection shown above purchased all these coins and they all belong to him.  Instead of "releasing" them in a geocache, he preferred to save them and have a collection.  He did not gain all these geocoins by finding them in geocaches and keeping them, which would be totally wrong.)
 
Here were some other travel bugs that were at Geo Jamboree that couldn't be taken, but could be discovered:
 

 

This one was on a car.  We actually "discovered" quite a few car travel bugs at this event - they are becoming quite popular.

   

Someone had this hat travel bug on.  There was even a baby wearing a t-shirt that had a travel bug with a tracking number on it - that I think is the most unique idea I've seen so far!  Here's the biggest geocoin I think I've seen so far:
 

 

  

After the picnic DH and our friend did some more geocaching and I took DD to swim in the lake.  The weather was very overcast and it did rain and drizzle on and off, but nothing too bad.  Until about 9:30 that night.  From about 9:30 that night until about 8:00 the following morning it rained cats and dogs.  Oy.  All I can say is thank goodness we've camped enough to know how to stay dry because it is no fun at all sleeping on wet sleeping bags and/or having all your stuff get wet.  We've already done that and learned those lessons, so fortunately, we were fine, but I know a lot of other fellow geocacher-campers were not so lucky.  The only thing that was really a pain was that instead of being able to put the tent and the tarps away when we got home, we had to set the up again in the backyard and lay the tarps out and let them dry.  Luckily it was nice and sunny that afternoon so DH actually took the hose first to everything and gave everything a good wash, which everything needed anyway, so it was sort of just as well.

  

Well since I last posted the "attended" logs for Geo Jamboree 7 are up to 124 so far and CT A-Team posted that plans are already being made for next year's Geo Jamboree 8, so if this sounds like fun and you live within traveling distance to Kettletown State Park in CT, keep your eyes out!

  

See you in the log books.... :-)

 

Back From Geo Jamboree 7 Part 1

 
Well, we are back from a very fun weekend of camping and geocaching at Kettletown State Park in CT for Geo Jamboree 7!  This is the biggest geocaching event we've ever been to.  Over 103 people have logged as "attended" so far - I'm sure there are more yet.  We actually made our campsite reservations back in January, and the entire campground ended up being almost all geocachers.  When we arrived, we "signed in" at CT-A-Team's site (they organized the whole shindig) and we were given a flyer with the schedule and a list of all the geocaches in the park.  There were night geocaches, water geocaches, and of course lots of regular geocaches.  We went back to our campsite and got set up - here's a shot of our gigantor tent (it's a really awesome tent though, btw):
 

 

  

It was great bringing the Tundra - we never even had to unload half our stuff:

  

 
We had extra room, so we invited a friend of ours who is also a geocacher to join us.  Our campsite had plenty of room for another tent or two even:
 

 

  

(Our friend claims he didn't mind the slantiness of where he pitched his tent.  I'm not sure I could have slept all slanty, but to each his own.)

  

That evening DH and his friend met up with another geocacher to do the night caches.  They only managed to find one of three, I believe, but apparently with all the rain we've had, the going was rather treacherous at times and slippery.  They had some funny stories to tell when they got back though.

  

Next morning DH had reserved a spot on a boat to do the water geocaches.  A water geocache is basically defined as a geocache that can only be found by boat.  Since a lot of people don't have boats, many who did kindy offered their services as tour boat operators and scheduled slots throughout the weekend to take geocachers out to find the water geocaches.  So DH snagged our very first water geocaches.

  

At noon there was a huge potluck picnic.  This shot really does not give a good idea of how many people were there - there were a lot more people than what you can see in this photo:

  

  

And would you believe they even had wireless internet set up for Saturday??  I read all the info about the solar powered wireless internet and it was really interesting and has many uses, including during times of disaster.  Very cool.
 

 
Part 2 of Geo Jamboree 7 coming soon!
 
See you in the log books...
 

Geo Jamboree 7

    
I've already talked about a type of geocache called an "Event Cache" (you can read about that here) and one of the events we went to last year called Tri State Treasures.  Well, this weekend we are attending the biggest event geocache we've ever been to yet - Geo Jamboree 7! Geocachers have literally taken over the campground at Kettletown State Park in CT and there are a ton of fun activities planned - everything from a huge picnic, to volunteer boat rides so non-boat owners can retrieve the water geocaches (I don't think we've ever even found a water geocache before! We have a boat spot reserved, though!), to free wi-fi set up for Saturday so you can log your finds, to night caches, contests and a great big campfire (and lots of geocaches to find too, of course)!  Even if you don't have a Geocaching.com account, you can see the geocache page here to see what a great "event cache" is like - Geo Jamboree 7.  We are really looking forward to it.
    
Geocachers in general seem to be really friendly and fun people and it will be great to put faces to the names we see in the geocaching logs all the time.  If you ever have a chance to attend an event geocache, whether big or small, whether you have 10 finds or 1,000, I highly recommend it!!
 
See you in the log books...! :-)