The local geocaching community in Fredericton is very active with events and such so this past weekend there were 5 events being held over the course of Saturday and Sunday. As a show of support, I decided to make the trip up and stay at a local hotel and enjoy the area caching for a day or so. Turns out, it was a lot of fun.
Drove up early Saturday morning and did a bit of caching on the way but eventually made it to the first event which was starting at 10am. This event was a CITO event which stands for Cache In Trash Out. Basically you get a pile of cachers together and we do a clean up of a specific area. So, with gloves and garbage bags in hand, a whole lot of people set out to clean up part of the area. I’ll admit, the idea of picking up garbage is not one that I’m a huge fan of (flashbacks to my days of working with my step-father) but I did my part and cleaned up some junk and then proceeded to go find some caches.
I had a few hours to kill before the next event so I hit up some easy ones along the main road I was on and then made my way to a trail. I didn’t do the whole trail but did do two caches on either side of the main road. What I thought was kind of funny was the next day I would learn that my friend Shana actually lives right there. Very weird.
Headed downtown to the next event which was a flash mob. That’s basically where a whole group of people just suddenly appear from out of nowhere and then disappear almost as quickly. It was a pretty big group and very well organized.
I left downtown and cached some more but then decided to check into my hotel. I laid down on the bed for a moment and before I knew it, it was time for me to get going to the next event. They had a big “bash” event which was basically a potluck party at the O’dell Park Lodge. A huge turnout and they gave a pile of prizes and awards away to cachers. It was really nice to see that so many people are interested in the sport. But on top of that, I was blown away by the fact that so many people from the Fredericton area come out to events. Moncton does events all the time but we never see the kind of turnout that the bash had in Fredericton. I’ve had a lot of people come to my race event but still. Wow.
The bash was followed by a nightcap event which was basically 3 caches that are designed to be done at night. This was really neat as I have done so few night caches that it was nice to get the lowdown on how they are supposed to work. Had a blast wandering the woods in the middle of the night with flashlights.
The next day I went to the brunch event which was great. Huge buffet and a good crowd. Finished the morning with a quick visit to my friend Shana’s place and then I headed home.
Snagged 41 caches and 5 events over the weekend which was not a bad haul. I do however need to try and find some time to get caching because I would really like to try and make GeoWoodstock my 2000th find and right now I am 441 caches short of that. That basically means I have the rest of April, May, and June to snag over 400 caches. I’m not syaing it won’t happen but it will require some work.
Regardless, the trip was fun. I got home and when Dylan saw that I had returned, he only asked me for one thing. His postcard. See, whenever I travel, I always get postcards for the kids and send them to them so they have something in the mail. When I told Dylan I was going on a trip, but that I would be back the next day, he asked me to bring him a postcard so he could put it on his wall with the rest of his cards. Seemed a bit silly to get a card from Fredericton but it made his day when he got it 🙂
