NoVAGO’s 2025 Spring Picnic & Cache Awards Ceremony

Franklin Park, Hillsboro Pavilion, 17501 Franklin Park Dr., Purcellville

May 10, 2025

11:00 am - 2:00 pm

Join us for the annual Spring Picnic, hosted by the Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization! It's the perfect chance to catch up with old pals, make some new friends, enjoy delicious food, go geocaching, and check out the area!

Schedule: 

11am-12:30pm - Visit the Welcome Table! Pick up your icebreaker sheet. NoVAGO pathtags purchases. Get your 50/50 raffle ticket. Socialize. Eat. Grab some caches in the park.

12:30-1:15pm - Cache Award ceremony followed by 50/50 drawing and group photo.

1:30pm - New Caches will publish in the park!

2:00pm - Event clean up. Please don’t leave anything that you don’t want taken or tossed. NoVAGO is not responsible for items left behind.

Lunch:  

NoVAGO will provide the hamburgers and hot dogs, while the rest of the food is potluck, provided by event attendees! Keep in mind that even if there are 100 people showing up, you do not need to bring enough to feed 100 people! If 100 people bring enough to feed 100 people, that's way too much food, even for us!  Please post your Will Attend log with what you plan to bring. If you don't know now, please post it as the event gets closer so we can keep track of who is bringing what and try to fill in holes. A list will be posted periodically for you to see what others are bringing. No dish, dessert or drink will get turned away! All food is welcome!

Alcoholic beverages are prohibited in the park. Please, just don’t bring any. 

There are a generous number of tables under the shelter, but if you prefer to bring your own chair or blanket to enjoy lawn seating, please feel free.

Activities:

The highlight of our spring picnic is our awards ceremony to acknowledge the best caches from the prior year. It is always an honor to win, as there are so many really good geocaches in Northern Virginia. Visit NOVAGO’s 2024 Geocache Awards for a list of nominees, categories, voting link and more information.

When you arrive, sign the guest book! 

Look around for trackables. Log them as ‘Discovered’ but only trade with permission. Also, King Kong prefers selfies with his trackable logs. Don’t make him sad.

11am-12:30pm

Pick up an icebreaker sheet near the event log.  Meet new people while completing the icebreaker sheet. When your sheet is completed, return it for coordinates to the icebreaker geocache hidden in the park. All sheets turned in before 12:30 will be entered to win an unregistered NoVACON coin from our 2024 caching series. Do your best! If you miss a few squares you will be forgiven. The winner will be selected at random AFTER the cache award ceremony.

11am-12:30pm AND 1:30-2pm

Visit our sales table for raffle tickets, path tag purchases, and to make a donation. Be generous with your support of NoVAO. 

50/50 raffle tickets will be for sale $1 each or $10 for 12 - cash only. The drawing will be held AFTER the cache award ceremony.

Our newest path tags will be for sale. 2 for $5 (limit 10) on a first-come-first-served basis. Credit card users will have a small fee added to their total. 

A little bird told us that NoVACON coins will be available as well for $12. There are only a few more left!

1:30 pm

Caches in the park publish! All new caches found today may claim a {FTF} so don’t hurry. 

2:30 pm 

CITO. After a clean up at the picnic shelter, grab a bag and your grabby tool from the car and join the NoVAGO Spring CITO crew to clean the park. This is a chance to gain your CITO season one souvenir. It is also a wonderful way to thank the park for letting us hide caches in the park. Around 3:30 there will be a group photo with our CITO banner. 

Notes:

If you would like to volunteer for NoVAGO before, during, and after the picnic, please sign up for a slot. We love our volunteers, so thanks in advance!

Yes! There are restrooms near the picnic shelter.

Unfortunately, the pavilion is not ADA compliant and vehicles are prohibited from driving up to the pavilion.  The area is relatively flat, with a slight incline from the parking area. There is Handicapped parking near the Franklin Park Arts Center about 500 feet away. Bathrooms are along this road about halfway, but you will have to cross a gravel road as you approach the pavilion. There is also a paved sidewalk with narrow bridge from the lower parking area to the pavilion (180 feet). If you require a reserved space near this sidewalk, please note it in your RSVP as early as possible and we may be able to accommodate this request.

We gladly welcome pets at our event, but must be kept on a leash at all times. And please clean up after your furry friend as needed.

This event is rain or shine. Only hazardous weather will keep us from hosting, in which case we will make every effort to give notification as early as possible.

You are welcome to bring your own camp chairs to set up around the outside of the pavilion to hopefully enjoy nice weather.

Please retrieve your belongings from in and around the shelter by 2:00 PM. We will be cleaning up the area at this time and cannot ensure these items will be left undisturbed afterwards.

Community Celebration Events - 2025

This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 25 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.