Sunday 21 August 2022

GEOWOODSTOCK XVIII

Abbotsford Geo Tour

The city of Abbotsford has a new Geo Tour for us cachers. It consists of 15 caches with a mix of Traditionals, Multi's, and a couple of Letterbox caches. 

From their website at: "Abbotsford Geocaching"
The Abbotsford GeoTour invites you to touch and taste agriculture as you explore a selection of parks, businesses and historical centres in our community. We are proud to share our rich food culture and easy access to agriculture-related events and experiences that showcase the best of what we have to offer.

Sansue and I headed out on Saturday, a week before the BIG Caching event called GeowoodstockXVIII as I assumed it would get lots of action during the event. If you find them all and send in the secret codes online, the City of Abbotsford will send you a geocoin. We wanted to make sure we got our Geotour Passport in before it got busy.
Before heading there, we attended an event in the morning over by a very old mill site.
After the event, we all headed over to a familiar place that several cachers have been but have not found the elusive cache that is there.
The cache at this spot is called "Sea Hag II" This cache is now just over 8 years old and has not yet been found. Cachers would love to find the elusive little cache and become the FTF!!! That day although about 15 of us were looking for about 2 1/2 hours, we did not come up with the find!!

NOTE: The following day some cachers from Oregon in town for the Big event found the Sea Hag!!!
I guess we just didn't look good enough???

Saskatoon Caching

Was pretty busy while in Saskatoon doing shows and didn't get much chance to grab caches. I did get one in between events. The first morning after arriving, I went to CTV studio to go on air and do some magic to promote the shows.








You can check out the TV spot "Here"




I had fun, showing some Magic to the host of the morning show at CTV.
I went from there over to the Ronald McDonald house with 2 other magicians (Norden and Gordon) to perform some Magic for the kids that could not make the shows later in the day.

Later we did 2 shows at a huge venue, and lots of people in attendance. 


NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become bigger!!!

GEOWOODSTOCK XVIII

It's Finally HERE!!!!!

Such an amazing time this whole weekend was...there was caching, events, GPS adventure maze, BC parks Mascot "Jerry the Moose", Geocaching mascot "Signal the Frog", Icon hunting, special talks, special guests, vendor booths, a magic show, extra activities, close up magic, awesome food, Adventure Labs, TB's everywhere, old friends, new friends, and of course the main reason to be there....The GeowoodstockXVIII Giga event!!!

Friday I got to perform some close up walkaround Magic for the thousands of people waiting in line for early registration and the GPS adventure maze. Saw some old friends and made some new ones. Such a fun time getting to do what I love.

The BIG Day!!


On Saturday Aug. 13, we got up early and on the way to GeowoodstockXVIII we grabbed a Wherigo, a Letterbox cache, a puzzle cache, a Multi cache, a traditional, a Virtual cache, and an Earthcache. When we got to the fairgrounds we were able to log a few more traditional's, and an Adventure lab(Actually 4 different ones that day). We then logged the GIGA event, and after my show we went and did the GPS Adventure Maze. We also logged a Locationless cache(Picture with Signal the Mascot) and to top it off we logged the Midnight Madness event(I was one of the MC's) Total of different icons for the day was 12, my past previous record of most icons in a day was 9 just a few weeks ago!!


Here are the caches we grabbed to complete our 12 Icon day. The Adventure labs we did are not on this list as they are on a different app.


 
Such a fun time from the planning and working on 12 different icon's to grab in one day!! We had no DNF's and found all caches with ease, including a few extra traditionals that were on the Exhibition grounds. So awesome when a plan comes together!!

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!












Susan and I at an Earthcache called "Fishtrap park Stormwater Retention Pond" and our 7th cache icon of the day by 9am!!










We got to meet "Jerry the Moose"
He is BC's Park Mascot

And of course "Signal" was there. He is the Geocaching mascot. For finding him, you could log a special Icon called a locationless cache.

The opening ceremony began with a talk from the organizer's and other special guests.
I got a pic with Bryan Roth. He is the Co-Founder of Geocaching. I have met him a couple times in the past at other events also.
The Logbook for the event was a large wooden Canada Flag. How awesome is that??


Signing the logbook in style!!!

Got a pic of our signing, before it got full.

At noon I got to perform on stage and had time for a quick photo with Signal again, while in my suit this time.

GeowoodstockXVIII has a lot of records, as it was Canada's First Giga Event, it was also the First Geowoodstock outside of the USA. It was Canada's First Geowoodstock, and also the Most Northern and Most Western Geowoodstock so far!!


This pic is from one of the stages to an Adventure Lab at the event. You did not even have to do any walking as all 5 stages opened up without leaving the event area. The questions were all about past Geowoodstock events. We also did another 5 stage AL that is about Abbotsford Exhibition Park, and was here before the event, a 10 stage AL created for the GIGA event, and a One stage night cache AL also.


The Awesome day coming to an end!!

A quick pic taken up the hill at the BMX track,  with GeowoodstockXVIII GIGA event in the background

Midnight Madness!!






One last event to end the awesome day. There was raffles, games, food, prizes, coin and pathtag trading, GIFF screening, and much more!!
(Geocaching International Film Festival)




The whole day was awesome from 6:30am when we headed out of the house, until Midnight when it was all over. A long day, but so fun!! Looking forward to the next Geocaching event!!

The next day I went thru all the stuff I got from the event.

This is the SWAG I got from the event. Lots of cool geocoins, pins, patch, lanyard, souvenir's, water bottle, and a dry pack



In September we are planning a trip to the "WSGA's Going Ape XI" event. We will also walk through the "Snoqualmie Tunnel" to go to the "Mission 9: Tunnel of Light" A.P.E. Cache. But more about this in next month's Blog!!



Well that's it for this month,
Keep on caching!!
Chris Yuill
Magicman65

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