Four geocachers finally stood atop the rock covered peak of a desert vista. The geocachers could see the horizon stretch out before them for miles. Geocaching.com Lackeys Colin Williams (Colin) and Jenn Seva (MissJenn), accompanied by two other geocachers, climbed high enough to look down on the flight path of an observation helicopter.

There were no homes to be seen. They squinted to even find a road. But hidden on the largest geocaching course in the world – 55 square miles – 450 geocaches waited in crevasses and cracks, bushes and trees, to be discovered. Colin and Jenn were part of one of two Geocaching.com teams competing in the Wild Canyon Games. The Wild Canyon Games is a team-based adventure race competition.

Colin and Jenn’s GPS coordinates told them a geocache was somewhere on that peak. They teamed up with other geocachers to find it. Geocaching is just one event in two days worth of adventure games.

In the geocaching event hundreds of competitors had four hours to accumulate the most points – by logging geocaches and recording the unique codes inside. Each geocache carried a point value based on its difficulty, terrain, and distance from the start.

The course crawled with more than 600 geocachers. Teams plotted strategy to unlock the geocaching route they believe would deliver them the most points. They raced the clock.

Nearly 130 teams from the Pacific Northwest of the United States competed in the games.

Colin says they had to take the long detour to try to find just one cache – to help even the playing field, “Sure, we climbed the highest mountain in the area. If we spent the whole time geocaching it would have been unfair to the rest of the field.”

Lackeys helped the rest of the field prepare for the event. The Lackey teams assisted competitors by downloading the waypoints on GPS devices and offering GPS device training before the geocaching event began. Groundspeak’s two teams of seven also competed in an Olympic length relay triathlon and a seven stage relay which included, among other obstacles, a 50 foot canyon swing, an elevated ropes course, and a zip-line.

Lackey Annie Love (Love) completed the zip line safely. But she says, her fate seemed a little unsure at the top of the tower, “As I was about to step off the Zip Line platform, I had a quick thought of ‘OMG, I am going to die!!’ and then I thought to myself ‘My team needs me.’ and I leaped off.”

The weekend wrapped up with a team relay race called Creek to Peak that features Cyclo-Cross, an obstacle course, a lake sprint swim, two mountain sprints, and much more.

But for Lackeys like Constance Baldwin, it was the geocaching that defined the weekend. She says, “Geocaching brought us together in sometimes adverse terrain and we cared for each other. It was extremely profound for me personally and made me love the game and Groundspeak and what we do even more.”

Wild Canyon Games 2013 is already being planned for next year. When asked by the emcee of the event, “Are you coming back next year?” Lackey Bethany Buer simply said, “Duh!” And we hope to see you there.

A special thanks to the Wild Canyon Games organizers and Paul Tannahill (Pablo Mac) and his team for preparing the geocaching course.

 

Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. throughout the year to share smiles, shake hands, and make geocaching memories at nearly 20 Mega-Events worldwide. Cathy Hornback aka, Prying Pandora, attended the Mega-Event GeoWoodstock X (GC2X6ZV). It took place in Indiana, USA. Cathy has been a Lackey since 2009 and works in Customer Relations. Here’s Cathy’s account of her trip.

Written By: Cathy Hornback

On Memorial Day weekend 2012, I had the honor of representing Groundspeak with our CEO and co-founder Jeremy Irish at GeoWoodstock X in the small town of Sellersburg, IN. Sellersburg is about 10 miles north of the much larger city of Louisville, Kentucky.

GeoWoodstock is not just any event, and this was not just any GeoWoodstock.  The event is held annually at different locations in the US, and for its 10^th anniversary, GeoWoodstock returned to its roots in the Louisville area where the first GeoWoodstock took place.  The event has grown from 75 attendees at GeoWoodstock I, to 1500 attendees at GeoWoodstock X!

I was eager to begin my Mega-Event adventure so I booked the first flight out of Seattle on Thursday morning, which meant I needed to be at the airport at 4 AM.  I hoped to attend an event in Louisville on Thursday evening after I arrived, but my layover in Houston was extended due to a delayed flight so I did not get there in time.  One of the nice things about a big Mega-Event is that there are many opportunities to interact with the community spread out over the weekend, so I settled in my hotel for the night looking forward to Friday’s events.

Friday began with a delightful event, a cruise aboard the Belle of Louisville with 650 fellow geocachers.  The Belle of Louisville is the oldest river steamboat still in operation, and it’s a National Historic Landmark.  We boarded to the merry sound of the boat’s calliope and spent several hours cruising the Ohio River, socializing, and viewing the massive steam engine and boilers that power the boat’s paddle wheel.  An afternoon of geocaching with new friends followed along with a visit to Churchill Downs, the location of the Kentucky Derby.  Soon it was time for the evening event, the Miles of Smiles Meet & Greet.  Set up like a geocaching street fair, it was a chance to meet more of the community. The evening air was a relief from the powerful heat wave that had settled over the area for the weekend.

Saturday was the big day – GeoWoodstock X.  I met up with Jeremy for breakfast, who was back in town after spending that Friday attending the opening of the Geocaching Adventures Maze Exhibit in Dayton, Ohio.  When he and I arrived at the event, we were greeted by a crowd of geocachers and a traffic jam of more cachers arriving.

A big hot air balloon was being inflated on the hillside where a huge Hollywood-style event sign had been set up.  The temperature was even hotter than the day before – 93°F and humid – but cachers are an intrepid bunch and there was a smile on every face.  A full day of activities awaited all of the attendees – a group photo, silent auction, educational sessions, caches in the park to find, a vendor expo, catered lunch, a reviewer panel for Q&A, and more.  There was also something you rarely get to see – a geo-wedding!

Two cachers from Texas, Crossmage and Phoenix Lady, were married on the GeoWoodstock stage, with Signal giving away the bride!  I had a wonderful day meeting more new geocachers than I can count and putting faces to names I had only seen online.  I love our friendly, helpful, and clever community.  All too soon, it was time for the closing ceremony and announcement of GeoWoodstock XI’s location. It will all happen again next year in Lakeland, FL!