Geowoowoodstock VI

Last week, I flew out to California for Geowoodstock VI. I spent most of my time on this week-long adventure between San Mateo and San Francisco to get use out of the free accommodation (my brother lives in the area). On Saturday, we headed out for Geowoodstock VI in Wheatland, just north of Sacramento.

It was amazingly fun. There were lots of geocaching-related vendors, selling geocoins, caches, GPS units, shirts, car accessories, anything that might be appealing to geocachers. I'm amazed I didn't go into debt just from looking around. Throughout the day, there were many classes being offered, such as using a GPS unit, using a map and compass, various software programs (such as GSAK), hiking, etc. There were also lots of games, ranging from panning for gold to hunting for geocoins using a metal dector (that was fun). Geobingo was a bit of a challenge. You had to find cachers who met certain criteria, such as having 5000 finds, being from out of state, caching since 2001, and so forth. I somehow managed to complete mine to get many raffle tickets. Music was playing throughout the day, and lots of interesting cachers were there waiting to be met (including one oddly green cacher).

One of the other interesting sites included the original can of beans, which was a trading item put into the first geocache. I'm not sure I'd want to eat any of those beans after this time, but it was at least interesting to see it,

Next year's Geowoodstock will be in Bell Buckle, TN, which is approximately an hour's drive from Nashville, according to Google Maps. It was certainly fun to attend with lots to do. I don't know if I'd set this as a high priority to attend another one, since I have a feeling the next one would be just like this. It's definitely worth going to once, though. I'm sure each one has it's own flavor and is equally fun, but once is enough to say I've been to Geowoodstock.