2022 Fall Picnic
2022 SLAGA Christmas Party
Bellefontaine CITO November 2022
Cachemas 2022 Bonus Day
SLAGA at GeoWoodstock 2023
2024 SLAGA Spring Picnic
2025 New Year's Day Hike, Fort Bellefontaine
Cachetur 101 Class - March 2025
2025 Winter Potluck
2025 Spring Picnic
2025 Spring Picnic
2025 GigaStock in Morgantown WV
2025 GeoWoodstock, Morgantown, WV
2025 SLAGA Summer Picnic at Klondike Park
SLAGA at Ted Drewes 2025
2025 Christmas Event
2026 NYD Hike
Crazy Beards!
2026 Winter Potluck
Celebrating in FALLing Leaves and Rain
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 478
As the Autumn leaves fell to the ground, so did the raindrops on the cool October 18th SLAGA Fall Picnic day. However, COs StormRider22 and jray131 along with more than 50 SLAGA members braved the dampness to join together at this Community Celebration Event to enjoy each others' company, some good conversation and caching stories, and delicious food. Turtleladi1020nhubbs, the SLAGA grill masters for the picnic, had their work cut out for them trying to get the charcoal lit in the downpour at the beginning of the picnic, but thankfully the pop-up canopies and a reprieve from heavy rain made it possible for the brats, burgers, and dogs to be grilled to perfection. The other members rounded out the menu with shared salads, dishes, and more than enough desserts.
After lunch, it was time for some SLAGA business. Announcements were made including introducing the newest 'voted-in' board members, President Michael Smith/cootie_man, Vice President Robert Klemme/Geokid12, Secretary Susan Adams/Treasure Isle, Treasurer John Layman/vorlon40, and Vice President of Training Lee Rouse/Rouseabouts. While members saw mostly familiar faces, Lee was new, and John had switched duties on the board. Sadly the one face we will miss is our outgoing treasurer Nan Dabler/nan-d1955. Farewell Nan, and many thanks for your terrific service to SLAGA.
With the new board now in place, it was time to acknowledge those SLAGA premium members that have achieved significant milestones to date. At this picnic, every milestone from 100 finds to 25,000 finds had at least one member who received their commemorative coin.
100 Finds
theWifeof & Jramsay
500 Finds
GISToddT and DriverMom
1000 Finds
SugrSkulz
5000 Finds
3nina
10,000 Finds
BlueBeadMan
Aunt Dot
25,000Finds
GeoWench
Congratulations to the awesome cachers and their well-earned milestones awards! Whether it takes months or many years to reach any particular milestone, they are all grand achievements in this wonderful game of geocaching. For fun at this picnic, any attendee who had achieved 10,000 finds and earned their chair were invited to bring it for a group photo op. And wow did it turn out to be a fun memorable picture.
And mentioning this great game of geocaching, the cool rainy weather during the Fall Picnic didn't deter some picnic-going cachers from enjoying a walk along wet slippery trails in this nice park to earn a smiley or a few. Thanks to everyone for attending, especially on the cold wet picnic day, but geocachers (above all SLAGA cachers) are resilient, fun, and interesting folks who don't let a little rain spoil their chance to get together for an event and a smiley 😃 !
Congratulations September ‘25 Winner
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 397
Congratulations to SLAGA's September Adventure Awaits Challenge Winner Eunice Glover, aka Loonwoman! Eunice has participated in the monthly challenge for the past five months and qualified for her September win with these four mystery caches and one event cache:
Cache 1: GCB91DZ Music for Your Ears
Cache 2: GCB3FF2 Welcome to Neon Park
Cache 3: GCB7GNW Tombstone Tourist ALab Bonus
Cache 4: GCB80TB One in the Hole… at Black Forest County Park
Event: GCBC4ZZ SW StL Happy Hour Nearly Octoberfest Edition
Eunice actually started finding geocaches nearly 20 years ago when her friend and then coworker Blue Daisy told her there was a fun outdoor game she should try. And indeed she enjoyed looking for caches, but did not like sitting at the computer and logging them. After the two friends' work shifts changed, Eunice no longer had time off with her friend and only cached during their MOGA trips. Then fast forward to 2024, and Eunice retired and decided she wanted to get more exercise as well as spend time with friends, so she finally joined SLAGA and jump started her renewed geocaching hobby.
These days, Eunice gets out regularly with her caching friends Blue Daisy, Geo Conformity and Major134, and since she's joined SLAGA and is now logging her caches, her find count is rising rapidly. Eunice has found over 2400 geocache in 21 US states in every container size, and is expanding her geocache type finds now.
When interviewed, Eunice shared a scary caching memory of, "being on an edge of a drop-off and holding a sapling while grabbing a cache when (she) first started and was more fearless." She also shared a couple police encounters including one when she and her friend were, "at an event down at Cliff Cave Park and the Pacific Railroad police stopped us, Blue Daisy and I, and issued us a warning for being on railroad property."
Eunice enjoys going to MOGAs and GeoWoodstock, as well as geo-road trips with friends. She says she, "likes to discover new places, meet new folks, and see how people hide their caches that are different than those seen around here. It also allows (her) to pick up Earthcaches as well as more virtuals."
Eunice is a certainly a true geocacher now, going out caching weekly and finally logging her finds 20 years after being introduced to the game. She is an active member and wonderful addition to the SLAGA community and now the September Challenge winner too!
SLAGA On The Air!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 427
On September 25, 2025, SLAGA representatives John Layman and Nan Dabler were interviewed live on 'St. Louis on the Air' public radio station 90.7 KWMU. SLAGA member, Sara Christy had mentioned geocaching to a friend of hers who interns at the station, and he thought a piece on geocaching would be perfect for the show. He was right! John and Nan made SLAGA proud by describing the organization, explaining the game of geocaching, offering personal insight and experiences, and promoting CITOs as a way to "keep the game board clean." The infamous D5/T5 Mystery cache 'The Architect' (GC4CQ9V), by Forest-Ghost and Curlycue 109, was highlighted during the interview also.
The 20 min interview is definitely worth a listen, so use the link below and enjoy. Thanks to Sara for making this possible and to John and Nan for representing SLAGA so well.
2025 SLAGA Travel Bug Race September Update
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- Written by Robert Klemme
- Hits: 418
It's that time again! Let's check in to see how our race participants are going!
Silver Anniversary for FTF
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 517
In geo-language, cachers know that FTF stands for First-To-Find, however in SLAGA-land it is also known for Food Truck Friday events hosted by Robert Klemme, aka Geokid12. This past Friday was the Silver Anniversary, or 25th FTF event, held at 9 Mile Garden in Affton, MO
The 9 Mile Garden is "Affton's only outdoor event center and Missouri's first Food Truck Garden" (credit '9milegarden.com' website). It's a fun place for family and friends to gather and enjoy local food and drink, and sometimes live music or performances. Outdoor movies and other community events are also held there and notices posted on the Garden's Facebook page of upcoming events. Basically this was an ideal spot for a fun gathering and a geo-event, as Robert discovered a few years ago.
In April 2021, Geokid12 hosted the SLAGA Spring Picnic and chose the 9 Mile Garden as the location. There were 47 attendees at that picnic. And while this was a bit different venue then the typical park shelters where the picnics were usually held, it turned out to be wise decision. It wasn't an official FTF event, but it was the precurser to those fun events. With Robert living just a couple miles from the Garden, and enjoying the atmosphere and food truck availabilities, as well as opportunities to meet up with geocachers, this venue was an easy choice for launching his now infamous events. In April 2022 the very first FTF: Food Truck Friday (GC9QC4N) event was held, but being a cold damp day, the 13 attendees met inside the Garden's 'Canteen' center instead of outside, which is a plus for this outdoor venue.
It only took a couple of months for the word to spread of this unique event and venue. Robert reported that, "the highest attended FTF event was #3 (GC9TZ05), which was held on June 17th 2022, with 34 in attendance."
He added that, "Another notable FTF event was the one that wasn’t even held at 9 Mile Garden, FTF #8 on March 31st 2023, the first one of that year. It was moved to St Louis Bread Co at Grasso Plaza due to weather that was so bad that they actually closed 9 Mile Garden. Usually even if there is rain the Canteen is still open, but this was above and beyond. The 9 attendees who braved the weather were treated to a rainbow at the end of the event." While there are, on the average, 14 to 15 attendees at Robert's FTF events, the smallest group was 5 cachers who showed up on a cool day in April 2024 for FTF XVII.
FTF V: Food Truck Friday 5 FTF XXV: Silver Anniversary
As the months went by, Robert continued to host FTF events as the weather permitted, and this past Friday's event was the 25th, FTF XXV: Silver Anniversary (GCBC5J9). It also happened to be Oktoberfest celebration at the 9 Mile Garden, so FTF attendees not only enjoyed live music and food truck items, but there was beer tasting and craft tables to purchase unique items, like the Halloween earrings this reporter purchased. Twelve cachers attended this very lively event. This is a consistently enjoyable geocaching event and venue, and one worth attending at a future FTF. Because when asked if he would continue to host his FTF events, Robert said, "As long as the few faithful continue to show up, I'll continue hosting them. This is a fun location and being an Affton resident, it's great that I can help support by patronizing this local establishment, which is quickly becoming an Affton icon."
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Some Group Photos From FTF Events
SLAGA's Triple A Winner!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 559
August in SLAGA-Land brought us sunshine and heat with days as long as 14 hours, temperatures over 90*F for 11 days, and 0% precipitation recorded. But it also brought us our August Adventure Awaits Winner, Denise Muskopf, better known as 6dancer.
Denise has been caching exactly 16 years to the day that she was notified of her August challenge win! She started geocaching when her sister, Deborah, returned home from a Colorado visit and the two of them went on a picnic in Valmeyer, IL. Deborah had been caching for about 5 years by then, and as they were picnicking, she told Denise that there was a geocache under their table! Denise was amazed! The following day she found a cemetery cache and after that was hooked. She has since found 6850 geocaches to date, has cached as far north as Alaska and as far south as Argentina. She has cached across the Pacific ocean west in Hawaii and across the Atlantic ocean east in Germany. She's missing only one day to fill her calendar grid, so everyone wish her a Merry Christmas on December 25th with a reminder to go out and grab a cache that day! (HoHoHo)
But back to the summer heat and her August accomplishment. Denise endured the heat to complete her task of finding five different geocaching types with one event in the mix. These are her qualifying geocaches.
Cache 1: GC6QGW4 Wherigo - aLieNs
Cache 2: GC4MT9J Multi - Red Corvette
Cache 3: GCB9W73 Event - The Gateway to Finland
Cache 4: GCB7972 Traditional - LesMar's Little Library on Lansdowne
Cache 5: GCBATRM Mystery - DDH US # 35 - 100 Field Puzzles Challenge
When interviewed about why she chose to participate in this month's SLAGA's Adventure Awaits challenge, Denise said, "I chose to participate in this one because they were my recent finds, so the challenge was easy since I had the ones I needed to qualify. I'd previously sent in qualifying caches for maybe eight months."
A worst geocaching experience that Denise shared in the interview, was when she " got lost in the woods trying to find Misi-ziibi (GC8KRWQ) a D3/T4 in Cliff Cave Park. [She] was lost wandering for a good hour and finally prayed for help. About 5 minutes later, a young man stepped in the path. [She] asked if he knew the way out and he said sure. He was an Angel." That was brave (or maybe a little risky) of Denise to attempt a T4 with needed TOTT solo. Happily she made it out of the woods, but sadly she never got that smiley. Another geo-fear she shared is that she is a bit scared about going down steep hills, because falling is always on her mind.
Nevertheless, geocaching is Denise's favorite hobby! She goes out with her friends 3Nina and NEgirl every week. Her favorite geocache is one she owns and is in her yard, GC89GP7 "GNOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS." She also enjoys reading and playing games.
CONGRATULATIONS 6DANCER ON YOUR AUGUST CHALLENGE WIN!
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