I had the pleasure of attending the 2024 Discover L&A County Geocaching Event (GCADGT3) hosted at the grounds of the Museum of Lennox & Addington in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, on the weekend of August 18. I arrived ahead of the weekend on Thursday, just in time for a night sky stargazing Event (GCAQPCP).

Just north of Napanee is the L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area (DSVA), the most southerly point in Ontario, which offers a beautiful night sky experience. It’s not obstructed by light pollution and has a large concrete pad for stargazers to set up telescopes. At the Event, an onsite projector and computer showcased the photos that had been taken from that location. After it got dark enough (the moon was bright that night), we all enjoyed a laser-guided tour of the sky and got a chance to look through the very high-tech telescope, seeing the moon craters and mountain ridges. It was amazing!

On Friday morning, we drove up to the Salmon River Boat Launch to attend a meet and greet event by the water (GCAQPD6). After the event attendees could do the Water Cache Canoe Cruise. We spent the next couple of hours kayaking up and down the river finding, and signing the logbooks of, 18 newly hidden caches plus a couple of older ones placed in the same area near the river. It was a beautiful, sunny day to spend out on the water doing one of my favorite activities with a bunch of great people.

Friday evening was the official DLA Kick-Off Party (GCAQPDP). I was part of the Q&A session at the Event, along with host, Joe (coman123), and geocaching community reviewer, Roy (CacheShadow), where we answered questions from the community about what my job entails, what Geocaching HQ is working on, and reviewing. I made note of issues and other questions that attendees shared to take back to HQ for further digging. Afterward, I got to meet with folks and pass out my Lackey tags.

Saturday, August 17 was the official Discover L&A County Mega-Event at the Museum of Lennox & Addington. The morning of the Mega-Event, I got a kick out of looking out the window of where I was staying and seeing the parking lot at the museum fill up with all the geocars. I got lucky and found a place right next door to the Event location!

After walking over to the museum, we were welcomed and got straight to signing the logbook, checking out the vendors, and taking part in different outdoor games, like throwing the ammo can, finding all the chickens (there were a lot), and my personal favorite, Geocacher Bingo. We then ventured into the museum to complete the Adventures throughout the building. It was open for all geocachers with extended hours outside of the museum’s typical working hours.

We spent the rest of the Event exploring, geocaching, and chatting with other cachers. Even with all the engaging chats and caches there were for us to search for and find, we still made it back to the main space in plenty of time to catch the raffle winner announcements, the closing remarks, and of course, the group photo.

A big thank you to the Event organizers — Coman123 and LennoxAndAddington — for all their efforts in creating a fun geocache-filled weekend for the 10th year in a row, making this Canada’s longest running Mega-Event!

Geocaching HQ Lackeys attend dozens of Mega and Giga-Events around the world, shaking hands, sharing stories of adventure, and of course, geocaching! Jessica, a Senior Designer at HQ, recently traveled to Napanee, Ontario to attend the 2024 Discover L&A County Geocaching Event.