Winter Potluck & Cabin Fever - 2024
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1343
On Saturday, January 27th, more than 75 SLAGA members attended the Winter Potluck & Cabin Fever- 2024 Event (GCAG153) at the historic Jefferson Barracks Park along the Mississippi River in St. Louis County. The event was held in the main gymnasium and front room inside the large and comfortable Pavilion at Lemay facility, which was cost-free for SLAGA thanks to the generosity of the St. Louis County Parks. Event hosts, LFrank and Denmother, did a fantastic job, but they couldn't do it alone. They received a lot of volunteer assistance from start to finish.
To kick it off, the set-up crew consisting of spiritwolf922, vorlon40, and SWAseeker with the help of Cootieman, organized the event space nicely. Since this fun event was a potluck, there was plently of great food available which was provided by each attendee's family. The food line was set up by volunteers MrsSpongy, jray131, and StormRider22, and included tasty entries such as chillis, BBQ and other meat dishes, various 'sliders,' fruit and veggie trays, a wide variety of salads and yummy deserts. The lunch spread as always was a feast for the eyes and tummies.
Besides all the eating, attendees played Geo Bingo, which was run smoothly by your registrars 3nina and 6dancer, and many also entered the 50/50 drawing, because who could resist Ibew ret's selling prowess. Over $150 was collected this year. As always, there was a raffle table with some great items, which was successfully run by Uga_Mom, and a trackable exchange table too attended well by Kevinusmarshall.
2023 SLAGA Travel Bug Race Results
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- Written by Robert Klemme
- Hits: 1374
Here are the final standings of the SLAGA Travel Bug Race! Congrats to Hobit Taz, bluedaisy, & MrsSpongy! Thank you to all who participated!
HO HO HOoray to the December 2023 Winner!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1499
Santa Cachemas got a Christmas gift too! SLAGA's very own VP, Geokid12 (Robert Klemme), is the winner of the December 2023 Adventure Awaits challenge! The officers had to laugh, during their monthly meeting, when the random number generator happened to draw Robert's number. Obviously the task of qualifying was easy enough for him given his 12 Days of Cachemas duties, since nine of the caches were hidden by elves, so he was able to find them along with other geocachers this past month.
As a SLAGA officer, Robert feels that it's good to set an example by participating in the monthly challenge, and as one of the brains behind Adventure Awaits, he also believes it's a great way to drive community engagement within SLAGA. Besides Cachemas caches, Robert chose the SLAGA Christmas party event as an entry because he felt it thematically tied into the December qualifications. His entries were:
GCADHZ6 Day 6 - 2023 Cachemas in STL
GCAE56C Day 7 - 2023 Cachemas in STL
GCAEBQV Day 8 - 2023 Cachemas in STL
*GCAFWP9 SLAGA-land Christmas Bash. Event*
If you've ever wondered how a geocacher chooses their caching name, here's Geokid12's back story. In 2007, when Robert was just 12 years old, he was introduced to geocaching on a Boy Scout troop outing at Whitecliff Park. He was enthralled by entering coordinates into a Garmen eTrex Legend, then being able to hunt and find a cache container at ground zero. So he bought his own eTrex, decided he'd register with GC.com and chose the username Geokid12, since he was a 12 year old kid who was now a 'Geo'cacher too.
Young Robert didn't start off as an avid cacher though, due to his schooling, scouting, non-driving lifestyle, followed by intense college studies. But once he graduated all that changed. His 575-day caching hiatus (Aug 2014 - Feb 2016) and only 400 total finds would soon be a thing of the past.
Starting in 2017, as a driving, employed young man, Robert got back into geocaching and became involved socially in SLAGA, which was a huge geocaching motivator. Since then he hasn't stopped. To date, he has over 10,800 finds and is working on conquering that 575 no-find streak of his with an even greater find streak. Adventure definitely awaits Robert on his geocaching quest!
Best of SLAGA 2023
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- Written by John Layman
- Hits: 1848
Best of SLAGA, Favorite Caches Placed in 2023
Of the 390 new caches published in the 100 mile radius SLAGA territory in 2023, these are the top caches, as determined by % of favorite points awarded.
By cache type
Traditional | The Dial of Destiny - MtO Gadget #2 | knowles5150 | GCACMQB |
Multicache | Floating the Meramec with a Park Ranger | StormRider22 & jray131 | GCA9HWH |
Letterbox Hybrid | Letters to Signal | Forest-Ghost | GCAE5PR |
Puzzle | The extreme puzzle hike | paulgracie | GCA4JE3 |
AL Bonus | Exploration Garden Adventure Lab Bonus Cache | NEgirl55 | GC9W6J5 |
Earthcache | Daily Dose of Happiness US # 14 Chert in Missouri | Iamgrateful | GCAAPX1 |
Wherigo | Reverse Wherigo - High Ridge | Mike Fitz | GCA4A52 |
By overall % of favorite points awarded
92 | The Dial of Destiny - MtO Gadget #2 | knowles5150 | GCACMQB | Traditional |
75 | Mount Olive Fire Station 1 - MtO Gadget #4 | knowles5150 | GCADM3D | Traditional |
70 | Floating the Meramec with a Park Ranger | StormRider22 & jray131 | GCA9HWH | Multicache |
68 | Appletree/Bridgeway Park | cootie_man | GCA7Q0C | Traditional |
67 | Gadget Golf | L Frank and Denmother | GCA8018 | Traditional |
67 | BYOL? | JoeBum | GCAGG20 | Traditional |
64 | Letters to Signal | Forest-Ghost | GCAE5PR | Letterbox Hybrid |
62 | Woodie | tiname55 | GCABJR3 | Traditional |
60 | Stars & Stripes at 314 | nan-d1955 | GCAG5FB | Traditional |
60 | The Pullet Surprise Returns! | stevendede | GCAF8DG | Traditional |
Congrats and thanks to the Cache Owners and everyone else who continues to create and support quality caches in the St. Louis area!
SLAGA Cachers Represented in FTF Geocachers Magazine
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1377
The bi-monthly publication of the FTF Geocachers Magazine is enjoyed by thousands of geocahers as it is a forum to share their stories, photos, advice, milestones, and more. Our SLAGA VP, vorlon40 (John Layman), was surprised when he received his copy, which was a special 'Golden Seal' trackable edition! John was honored because he was one of the few drawing winners of the past edition's "Were You Puzzled?" contest called, 'Catsup or Mustard." "It was cool that it was close to home and one I had visited," said John.
In addition to John's accolade, both PaulGracie (Paul Williams) and TerriBikes+ (Terri Nealon), the SLAGA reporter/article writer, were also thrilled to see their names in print. Terri's August 11,2023 article, which has been viewed nearly 800 times, entitled, "Bike 'Across America' - PaulGracie's Adventure," was chosen as a Feature Story in the same FTF Geocachers Magazine as vorlon40's win! "It's exciting to see that Paul's adventure could now reach geocachers worldwide, and I'm psyched to be a 'published' feature story writer in the magazine," commented Terri. When Paul was asked how he feels about his article in the FTF Geocachers Magazine, he exclaimed, "It's cool...I'm famous now!"
If you subscribe to the magazine, you'll notice your local cachers being honored in the edition. Kudos to all three SLAGA members!
November Adventure Awaits Winner
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1131
GCA1FPG. Rapunzel Traditional
GC6FXDF Lewis and Clark Expedition. Letterbox
GC7KT9P 1150 AD. - Tour Through Time. Wherigo
GCACYW6 Pop-A-Squat Port-A-Pot Challenge. Mystery
*GCAEF3M Geocaching International Film Festival SLAGA Style. Event *
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