MEtroGAthering
This weekend, I was in North Jersey for MEtroGAthering, my first Mega-Event cache. A Mega-Event is a geocaching event with more than 500 attendees. The main event was on Saturday but since there was another event, the "Pre-Metro Gathering Mega Meet and Greet" at the Brundage Park pavilion in Randolph, on Friday evening, I decided to go up on Friday and stay overnight. Then I added another overnight to make it a full weekend mini-vacation.
One new thing that came along with the MEtroGAthering was a set of 10 lab caches. I got 9 of those on Friday but waited until Saturday for the 10th because it was available only at the event. The lab caches involve navigating to the given coordinates and finding a piece of info to enter at the lab cache website to log it. In my mind though, these are the same as virtual caches, except with automated verification, so perhaps Groundspeak should just reverse their decision not to publish any more virtual caches.
The mega-event itself was rather interesting. There were over 600 attendees, including a lot of geocachers I knew from Delaware, Pennsylvania (as far away as Reading), Central and North Jersey, and the NYC area. Despite the large number of people, it didn't seem all that crowded because we were pretty dispersed in an open area and Warinanco Park had lots of room to spare. There was a vendor village with various vendors, activities, and games operating throughout the event. Signal the Frog, the geocaching mascot, was there too. Of course, the best part was roaming around Warinanco Park in groups to find the 19 geocaches that were placed in the park for the event. I hiked out from the main event area with jbadger and over the course of the day, we ran into other groups of cachers at pretty much every cache site.
Friday 2014-11-14:
Crawfish Cache (New Jersey)
New Jersey Borders Memorial #10: Watchung (New Jersey)
M.A.S.H. Character # 3 (New Jersey)
Deserted Village of Feltville (New Jersey)
Patriot John Willcocks ~ Light Horse Troop (New Jersey)
On My Honor (New Jersey)
Gateway to the Watchung Reservation (New Jersey)
Pack 83 was here! (New Jersey)
XL (New Jersey)
John Witherspoon (New Jersey)
James Monroe (New Jersey)
Springfield Revolutionary War Cemetery (New Jersey)
Island Cache 2 - Cruise Ship (New Jersey)
Island Cache 1 - Douanier (New Jersey)
Island Cache 3 - Convenience (New Jersey)
Island Cache 4- Fresh Air (New Jersey)
Island Cache 5 - GSM (New Jersey)
Island Cache 6 - Lobstah (New Jersey)
Island Cache 7 - Scenic Bus Tour (New Jersey)
Island Cache 8 - Tacos or Lo Mein? (New Jersey)
Island Cache 9 - Man Friday (New Jersey)
Island Cache 10 - Java (New Jersey)
Island Cache 11 - Le Fin (New Jersey)
Pre-Metro Gathering Mega Meet and Greet (New Jersey)
Big Red (New Jersey)
Did you see that dog? (New Jersey)
Saturday 2014-11-15:
Abraham Clark (New Jersey)
MEtroGAthering (New Jersey)
Rebecca Stillwell (New Jersey)
A World Record MEGA Cache! (New Jersey)
Benjamin Franklin (New Jersey)
George Washington (New Jersey)
Francis Hopkinson (New Jersey)
John Hart (New Jersey)
Molly Pitcher (New Jersey)
William Maxwell (New Jersey)
James Caldwell (New Jersey)
Elias Boudinot (New Jersey)
Jonathan Dayton (New Jersey)
William Livingston (New Jersey)
A Grave Situation (New Jersey)
Alexander Hamilton (New Jersey)
William Alexander (New Jersey)
Richard Stockton (New Jersey)
Philemon Dickinson (New Jersey)
Betty Frazee (New Jersey)
air pump fun (New Jersey)
Nelis The Menace (New Jersey)
Plea with Ariadne! (New Jersey)
Jenny Jenny (New Jersey)
Super Simple Puzzle (New Jersey)
Linny's Lounge (New Jersey)
Wait For It... (New Jersey)
America runs on Geocaching! (New Jersey)
Volco Brass (New Jersey)
The Lot Lizard (New Jersey)
Sunday 2014-11-16:
Why not use a pinecone? (New Jersey)
Rattle the chains! (New Jersey)
Tiny Often Empty Park (#1 Re-Done): N Brunswick NJ (New Jersey)
All Weather Cache: Buccleuch Park (New Jersey)
He Shoots....He Scores!! (New Jersey)
Carvel Trails (New Jersey)
Marconi Park & Grab (New Jersey)
Katriba's Cache (First Hide) (New Jersey)
Stray Cat Strut (New Jersey)
The Eye's Have It (New Jersey)
Frappuccino Frenzy (New Jersey)
Ditzy's Cache (New Jersey)
Hear That? (New Jersey)
What a Racquet (New Jersey)
No Parking fire zone (New Jersey)
Who's Nelson... (New Jersey)
Local Watering Hole (New Jersey)
3 Bridges (New Jersey)
Who's Sabatino... (New Jersey)
CCC Cache (New Jersey)
Deadhead: Hotel Storage Facility (New Jersey)
Strange Things Are Afoot at the Big K (New Jersey)
My Hood (New Jersey)
Woods Road Tavern (New Jersey)
4 out of 5... (New Jersey)
Happy Father's Day! (New Jersey)
Extra Butter Please (New Jersey)
Royce Brook (New Jersey)
Little G #3 (New Jersey)
Plain Sight (New Jersey)
Just Another Parking Lot Cache ??? (New Jersey)
One new thing that came along with the MEtroGAthering was a set of 10 lab caches. I got 9 of those on Friday but waited until Saturday for the 10th because it was available only at the event. The lab caches involve navigating to the given coordinates and finding a piece of info to enter at the lab cache website to log it. In my mind though, these are the same as virtual caches, except with automated verification, so perhaps Groundspeak should just reverse their decision not to publish any more virtual caches.
The mega-event itself was rather interesting. There were over 600 attendees, including a lot of geocachers I knew from Delaware, Pennsylvania (as far away as Reading), Central and North Jersey, and the NYC area. Despite the large number of people, it didn't seem all that crowded because we were pretty dispersed in an open area and Warinanco Park had lots of room to spare. There was a vendor village with various vendors, activities, and games operating throughout the event. Signal the Frog, the geocaching mascot, was there too. Of course, the best part was roaming around Warinanco Park in groups to find the 19 geocaches that were placed in the park for the event. I hiked out from the main event area with jbadger and over the course of the day, we ran into other groups of cachers at pretty much every cache site.
Friday 2014-11-14:
Crawfish Cache (New Jersey)
New Jersey Borders Memorial #10: Watchung (New Jersey)
M.A.S.H. Character # 3 (New Jersey)
Deserted Village of Feltville (New Jersey)
Patriot John Willcocks ~ Light Horse Troop (New Jersey)
On My Honor (New Jersey)
Gateway to the Watchung Reservation (New Jersey)
Pack 83 was here! (New Jersey)
XL (New Jersey)
John Witherspoon (New Jersey)
James Monroe (New Jersey)
Springfield Revolutionary War Cemetery (New Jersey)
Island Cache 2 - Cruise Ship (New Jersey)
Island Cache 1 - Douanier (New Jersey)
Island Cache 3 - Convenience (New Jersey)
Island Cache 4- Fresh Air (New Jersey)
Island Cache 5 - GSM (New Jersey)
Island Cache 6 - Lobstah (New Jersey)
Island Cache 7 - Scenic Bus Tour (New Jersey)
Island Cache 8 - Tacos or Lo Mein? (New Jersey)
Island Cache 9 - Man Friday (New Jersey)
Island Cache 10 - Java (New Jersey)
Island Cache 11 - Le Fin (New Jersey)
Pre-Metro Gathering Mega Meet and Greet (New Jersey)
Big Red (New Jersey)
Did you see that dog? (New Jersey)
Saturday 2014-11-15:
Abraham Clark (New Jersey)
MEtroGAthering (New Jersey)
Rebecca Stillwell (New Jersey)
A World Record MEGA Cache! (New Jersey)
Benjamin Franklin (New Jersey)
George Washington (New Jersey)
Francis Hopkinson (New Jersey)
John Hart (New Jersey)
Molly Pitcher (New Jersey)
William Maxwell (New Jersey)
James Caldwell (New Jersey)
Elias Boudinot (New Jersey)
Jonathan Dayton (New Jersey)
William Livingston (New Jersey)
A Grave Situation (New Jersey)
Alexander Hamilton (New Jersey)
William Alexander (New Jersey)
Richard Stockton (New Jersey)
Philemon Dickinson (New Jersey)
Betty Frazee (New Jersey)
air pump fun (New Jersey)
Nelis The Menace (New Jersey)
Plea with Ariadne! (New Jersey)
Jenny Jenny (New Jersey)
Super Simple Puzzle (New Jersey)
Linny's Lounge (New Jersey)
Wait For It... (New Jersey)
America runs on Geocaching! (New Jersey)
Volco Brass (New Jersey)
The Lot Lizard (New Jersey)
Sunday 2014-11-16:
Why not use a pinecone? (New Jersey)
Rattle the chains! (New Jersey)
Tiny Often Empty Park (#1 Re-Done): N Brunswick NJ (New Jersey)
All Weather Cache: Buccleuch Park (New Jersey)
He Shoots....He Scores!! (New Jersey)
Carvel Trails (New Jersey)
Marconi Park & Grab (New Jersey)
Katriba's Cache (First Hide) (New Jersey)
Stray Cat Strut (New Jersey)
The Eye's Have It (New Jersey)
Frappuccino Frenzy (New Jersey)
Ditzy's Cache (New Jersey)
Hear That? (New Jersey)
What a Racquet (New Jersey)
No Parking fire zone (New Jersey)
Who's Nelson... (New Jersey)
Local Watering Hole (New Jersey)
3 Bridges (New Jersey)
Who's Sabatino... (New Jersey)
CCC Cache (New Jersey)
Deadhead: Hotel Storage Facility (New Jersey)
Strange Things Are Afoot at the Big K (New Jersey)
My Hood (New Jersey)
Woods Road Tavern (New Jersey)
4 out of 5... (New Jersey)
Happy Father's Day! (New Jersey)
Extra Butter Please (New Jersey)
Royce Brook (New Jersey)
Little G #3 (New Jersey)
Plain Sight (New Jersey)
Just Another Parking Lot Cache ??? (New Jersey)