Geocaching with Woo

The Country Roads Challenge was released on May 22, 2025, as a side event for GeoWoodstock XXI . It included ten locations, with an approximate drive time of 1.5 hours, from beginning to end. These locations were intended to bring geocachers to venues that were off the beaten path, but still worth a visit. An Adventure Lab was also co-located with eight of the ten stops, with an additional two along way. These caches were well placed for us. While travelling to West Virginia for GeoWoodstock via I-68, the caches fell in line with our travel plans and the whole challenge took us about 3½ hours to complete. Our final destination, before retiring for the evening, was Woodstock on the Wharf , and the last cache left us close to that location. The caches were easy to find, and the code words for the Adventure Labs well placed, especially for venues that happened to be closed. Retrieval of the trackable geocoin was easy, too. Just bring the completed passport to the Visit Mo...

Yesterday, Tom and I returned from New Jersey and a brutal six days working on the American Revolution GeoTrail . I first learned about it last year, while looking up information for 2020's Metro Gathering , which was being held in conjunction with the kick-off of the GeoTrail. Well, the event didn't happen, due to COVID, but the GeoTrail launch did. 77 caches were placed throughout the northern half of New Jersey, at locations significant to the American Revolution. The first 100 geocachers to find a minimum of 50 of these caches - 27 of which are required - will be awarded a geocoin. Unfortunately, one of the required caches is inside the Ford Mansion (Washington's Headquarters), which has been closed to the public ever since the COVID epidemic. We'll have to go back when it re-opens in order to earn our geocoin. For the most part, we really enjoyed our time visiting the historic locations and learning the stories about the people that helped form our nation. ...

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...

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...

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a white envelope from one, Xavier! After a couple of months of back-and-forth e-mails between myself and the Small Parks Specialist in charge of the Eight Wards of Washington, DC GeoTrail , I received an awesome geocoin in the mail. My parents, DragonSoldier45 and DragonLadyHue, Tom and I completed all but one of the caches on the Eight Wards of Washington, DC GeoTrail back in March. Since then, I've been watching the DNF'ed cache, to see if someone else finds it, so I could swoop down and find it, too. Unfortunately, the cache was archived in August. I continued to keep an eye on it, just in case it was unarchived, and some time in September, I decided to reach out and learn more about the status of the cache. Xavier, the Small Parks Specialist, said that he still had coins left and that even though we hadn't found the one cache, he was willing to award us the geocoin. My first passport must have got lost in the ...

While Tom and I were in Berkeley County, West Virginia to work on the Berkeley Gadgets GeoTour , we ended up finding all but two of the Smart Caches of Berkeley County (SCBC). In order to earn the SCBC geocoin, we had to find eleven of the fourteen remaining SCBC caches, which gave us the ability to pick and choose which ones to find. The hard part in choosing was that three of them are not on the Berkeley Gadgets GeoTour, so do we go with GeoTour caches exclusively, or do we find the ones that are near other caches? We ended up finding the three non-GeoTour caches, and leaving two GeoTour caches for a future trip. These caches were varied and fun to complete. My favorite was "SCBC 7 Bike Trail," where I had to travel about 400 feet down a corrugated pipe to end up in the middle of an expressway. The most difficult one for me was "SCBC 12 Illuminating," but only because the flashlight that I was using wasn't strong enough to trigger the sensors. "SC...

Launched in 2016, this GeoTrail started out with 24 caches hidden in and around Hanover, Pennsylvania. Eighteen of those caches had to be found and the codes on those caches recorded on the passport , to qualify for the commemorative coin. Through a quick e-mail where I learned that there were still coins left, and some follow up phone calls from Tom, it was agreed that since the office was closed on weekends, we could send a self-addressed stamped envelope in order to receive our coin. With all that framework put in place, we headed to Hanover. Overall, the GeoTrail was enjoyable. We were able to find all 18 of the active caches is a day, and the caches brought us to interesting and historic locations as well as places that, if we'd had more time, I would have liked to have stayed and patronized. The caches themselves were varied: some were cleverly hidden, some were typical hides, a couple had hosts that had fallen into disrepair and one was just down right disappointing. ...

Today, Tom and I traveled to Martinsburg, West Virginia in order to do the Mystery Caches of Berkeley County (MCBC). I had recently started a list of trips that Tom and I could take to use up my vacation time at work, and the GeoTrails in Berkeley County were on the list. In researching them, I learned that the MCBC cache pages had been updated in January 2019 to state that there were only 60 geocoins left and that only 11 of the remaining 14 caches were needed to qualify for them, instead of the initial 13 out of 15. Then, we saw in the latest issue of FTF Magazine that a new GeoTour would be launching in Berkeley County at the beginning of June, and I figured that with the possibility of people pouring in for the new, official GeoTour, that the remaining geocoins would be snatched up in no time. Tom made a phone call and learned that there were only "about 20" geocoins left. He also learned that the MCBC would be deactivated before the newest GeoTour published - we had...

After completing the Cache Carnival, and not having to stress about points on finds, my parents, Tom and I headed back to Washington, D.C. to start working on the Eight Wards of Washington, D.C. GeoTrail . The GeoTrail consists of nine caches: eight letterboxes and one eight-stage multiple. The prize for completing the GeoTrail is a geocoin (while supplies last), and can be earned by stamping your passport with the stamp found in each of the nine caches. While we weren't entirely successful in completing the GeoTrail in one day (we couldn't find one of the caches), it was definitely achievable. Various puzzles were used for the coordinates for the letterboxes, and I was able to solve them prior to the trip. The route we took to make the best use of our time was Multi stage 1, Letterbox #1, Multi stage 2, Letterbox #2, etc. The areas we drove through were unexpected (Georgetown, really?), and I thought that some of the parks (like the Chuck Brown Memorial Park) were hidd...

The 16th annual Cache Across Maryland (CAM) kicked off on March 16, 2019. Ten CAM caches were hidden all over Maryland, and the coordinates were posted on the Maryland Geocaching Society's Forums at 8:00 a.m. Four kick-off events were held in different sections of Maryland where the event hosts uploaded the CAM caches, as well as Bonus caches, onto attendees' GPSr's. If a participant finds all ten CAM caches and records the symbol in each cache, they can find out what the coordinates to the CAM Picnic, being held on May 4, where they will be awarded a certificate of completion and a trackable geocoin. Participants have six weeks to find all ten caches, and still be eligible to attend the picnic; the caches will be published on Geocaching.com the day of the picnic. Tom and I decided to try it this year, and we invited my parents, DragonSoldier45 and DragonLadyHue, to join us. After attending the Kick-Off event, the four of us joined three other cachers, formulated a...

The City Park GeoTrail in Hagerstown, MD was published in 2015. Five mystery caches were placed throughout the Hagerstown City Park, featuring five points of interest: the Railroad Museum, the Mansion House Art Center, the Peter Buys Band Shell, the Hager House and the Washington County Fine Arts Museum. I did a good amount of Internet research prior to arriving in Hagerstown, and aside from one sign that I wasn't able to find, all of my hard work made for quick finds. I thought that the caches were well camouflaged for each of their locations. My parents and I thought that the park was really nice, and my favorite part was the pond area on the eastern side of the park. Redemption of our passports was easy, too. The Hagerstown Welcome Center was only a short drive away, and the staff knew exactly what we were talking about when we came in. For completing the GeoTrail, we each received a Pathtag, and were able to purchase a trackable geocoin. Getting rewarded for geocaching...

Tom and I decided to take the few good weather days this past weekend and head across Maryland to work on the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area GeoTrail . The GeoTrail consists of 16 caches, and everyone who finds and records thirteen of the code words found in each cache will receive a free prize, a geocoin is also available for purchase. We were able to find thirteen the first day, so first thing this morning we went to the Frederick Visitor Center to pick up our free prize (a Pathtag) and purchase the geocoin. Overall, I felt like the GeoTrail was well done. There were a nice variety of cache types (one multiple, five mysteries and ten traditionals), and aside from a few wet logbooks and one illegible code word (which I was fortunate enough to figure out from the cache description), they were pretty well maintained. The coordinates for the multiple and mystery caches were easy to solve - I was even able to figure them out before we left on the trip, partly thanks to a web...