Geocaching with Woo

The Caching the Rain GeoTrail launched in June 2014 with six geocaches in Montgomery County, Maryland . If you found all six geocaches and answered a survey and the questions found on the passport , you would earn a geocoin. The caches had informative "booklets" inside, promoting storm water awareness. Tom and I decided to go out today and give this GeoTrail a try. The caches were relatively easy to find and there was a nice variety of hides. At this point in time, two of the caches are no longer the original containers, so the informational "booklets" from those caches are no longer available, which was disappointing. Luckily, there are still plenty of educational signs along the GeoTrail, and we were still able to learn a lot. There was also difficulty with one of the passport questions - the signage appears to have changed since 2014. I got the answer with a little trial and error, but if you're reading this, B=7. My favorite cache that we found...

A new announcement came out today on the Geocaching blog regarding Locationless Caches . While celebrating the future of Geocaching, they wanted to give a nod to the past by offering one Locationless Cache , which will only be available to find in 2020. To claim a find, post a picture of yourself, or a personal item, with the Signal the Frog mascot or the official 2020 Signal the Frog banner. The cache will become available to log as soon as the Signal the Frog mascot and/or official Signal the Frog banner make their first appearance in 2020 and will be archived on January 1, 2021. This is a new cache type/icon that I am anxious to add to my profile, and the best chance of doing that will be to attend a Mega or Giga event {wheels in head turning...}.

The Smokey Bear 75th Anniversary GeoTour (SBGT) launched in July 2019. In honor of Smokey Bear’s 75 years protecting America’s forests and wildlands, the Mid-Atlantic Forest Fire Protection Compact has established a Geocaching GeoTour. There are 75 caches located across the seven states that comprise the Mid-Atlantic Compact: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The GeoTour launched with only 73 geocaches, and one has since been archived. The four prizes that were available at launch, for finding the geocache and recording the codeword, were: 75 First-to-find tokens Smokey 75th Trackable Coins for finding 6 caches in any one state Limited Edition Diamond Geocoins for finding 25 caches along the GeoTour A special gift from Smokey Bear for finding all 75 GeoTour geocaches Tom and I went to Delaware today with the express purpose of finding the last five geocaches that we needed to earn the Smokey 75th Trackable Coin. Before beginning ...

The Maryland Chocolate Trail launched in April 2019 and started out with 15 geocaches. The prize for finding all 15 caches, recording the codewords found in each cache and submitting the passport is a Pathtag. The traditional caches along the trail are located near, or at, chocolate shops throughout Maryland, and the mystery caches start at chocolate shops where information that leads to the final locations is gathered. The majority of the geocaches were birdhouses secured with locks, with the combinations provided on the cache pages. Today, Tom and I found the last cache that we needed to complete the Maryland Chocolate Trail. Even though I didn't take advantage of the chocolate-buying opportunities, it was still enjoyable. I found this trail to be quite straightforward and had very little difficulty finding the caches. I think my favorite cache along the trail was MDCT - Michelle Ferrero - the final location was great! I will be submitting my codewords tomorrow, and w...