More than 45 St. Louis area geocachers attended the SLAGA Summer Picnic this past weekend. As is typical for the weather in SLAGAland, the morning started overcast but already 84*F, then a 15 min downpour briefly cooled the air slightly. After the rain, that miserable Missouri humidity hit and the sun heated the air making the afternoon feel like a sauna, with bugs! Although many picnickers were sweaty and sticky in the latter part of the day, the portable fans set up in the shelter made lunch and gathering a bit more tolerable.  The SLAGA Summer Picnic 2025 and Community Celebration Event was hosted by SWAseeker and was held on July 19th at the beautiful Klondike Park in the shelter adjacent to the lake.  

With over 4 miles of walking trails, a few shelters, a playground and a campground onsite, Klondike park is a must-see place near St. Louis. The lake with its rocky shores and white sandy beach areas was once a silica sand quarry and is popular for catch and release fishing, sunbathing on the shore, and even some non-motor water sports at times, but no swimming or wading is allowed.  The park also offers a visitors and meeting facility and a boat ramp to acces the river.  The park bluff Overlook, above the visitors center, offers views of the Missouri River.  The Katy Trail can be accessed from the park and runs along the river shore down below the Klondike park bluffs. 

The SLAGA "bring your own lunch," meet and greet type summer picnic delivered a fun social atmosphere and beautiful scenery, but also a new 'customizable' milestone/FIND # sign introduced by the SLAGA board.  As simple as it was, this was an enjoyable new addition for geocaching fun.  Speaking of geocaching, five recently published geocaches, by RecklessYeti, had most attendees traversing the park gathering these new smileys too. While the Yeti was not spotted, some think it was in disguise at the picnic.

For all those that came out, including stregazahra and husband who attended their first SLAGA event, the picnic host and SLAGA board extend their many thanks for the time to meet, chat, cache, and picnic with you all.  The next big SLAGA event will be the Fall Picnic usually held in October, so keep a look out for information on that event and plan to attend.  As for now, stay hydrated and as cool as possible in the St. Louis summer sauna, until we meet again.