NoVAGO’s 2022 Spring Picnic

The 2022 spring picnic was held this last weekend on May Day (May 1st) at Mason District Park in Annandale. In addition to the event being a Community Celebration Event (extended due to the pandemic) it also gave attendees the Blue Switch Day souvenir.

  • DePhogration and hzoi getting the charcoal hot.

There was lots of excitement leading up to the day of the event. Some of the reasons our members were looking forward to the picnic:

  • It’s close to home!
  • Can’t wait to catch up with my caching buddies.
  • Finally an event that’s NOT on a Saturday.
  • To see if the weather might be even more incredible than the 2021 spring picnic (thankfully, it wasn’t.)
  • Lot’s of food to eat (including tacos!)
  • Feeling less anxious about COVID compared to last year. 
  • First event with NoVAGO. (We had a couple new members join us. Welcome!)
  • Did I win an award? (We announced awards for NoVAGO’s 2021 Best Caches)

DePhogration was our Pit Master once again. Hzoi stepped up for an emergency shopping trip to replace the weird, flame resistant charcoal that wouldn’t light. Once that was done, DePhogration soon had burgers and hot dogs sizzling on the three hot grills. The team effort continued when Effstop showed us his skills with a spatula and kept those burgers from burning. Thanks for the getting the main attractions on the table, guys!

As usual, the crowd rolled in and out during the event. Over 50 geocachers logged the event. Most of the group signed the log book and dutifully picked up their icebreaker challenge sheet. An hour or so went by as folks tried to figure out who’d had a ‘stick in the eye’ or ‘cached with a crying child.’ Eventually, someone cracked the code and the party migrated into the park to get the coveted group FTF. Eventually, they came back for another round of food. The 50/50 raffle bucket came around. The pot was $176 thank to our generous members. This helps offset expenses like burgers and buns, but also things like website fees. MrPsyduck was the winner and he graciously gave his half back to the organization. Thanks MrPsyduck! Award winners were announced and a few general announcement were spoken. We had a moment of silence for our caching friend, tmustang1, who  passed away a few months ago.

The weather wasn’t looking great, but the rain held off just long enough for the event to conclude. For most of us, the usual post-event caching in the park would have to wait for another day. A few intrepid souls braved the downpour and went for those geocaches anyway.

NoVAGO Spring 2022 Picnic Group Photo

2021 Cache Award Winners

NoVAGO members gathered together at Mason District Park in Annandale for the NoVAGO Spring Picnic and Awards event. Thank you to everyone who helped to organize and make the day run smoothly.

Here are the 2021 NoVAGO Cache Award Winners…

CACHE OF THE YEAR

(GC9C9C4) cschooner aka the Duckmeister: A tribute by kiisikwa

GEOCACHER OF THE YEAR

Thompsonkickers

Best Theme or Series

Name that Tune by MJBinski

Best Kids Cache

(GC8HV17) Hidden Woodland Critters Tree Sculpture by TheUnstealthy Monkey

Most Outstanding Location or Scenery

Tie: (GC95NT5) Water versus Rock: The Grudge Match by kiisikwa 

and (GC9D8ZG) Ogling Eagles by Serrabou

Most Creative Cache

(GC9JPWK) Nightmare Before Cachemas: Sally by rlobecker

Most Physically Challenging to Find

(GC9F7BG) Nightmare Before Cachemas: Zero by Alice & the Rooster (ZippyFinn)

Best Historical or Educational

(GC99D4K) Бонус из кеша советской прото-геокешинговой лабора by Nothereeither

Best Camouflage

(GC9CBRG) Turning Point Suffragist Memorial by supertodd88

Best Multi-stage Cache


(GC9C9C4) cschooner aka the Duckmeister: A tribute by kiisikwa

Best Mystery/Puzzle Cache

(GC8HV17) Hidden Woodland Critters Tree Sculpture by TheUnstealthy Monkey

Best Traditional

(GC9JPWK) Nightmare Before Cachemas: Sally by rlobecker

 

Best Letterbox or Wherigo

Tie: (GC9E5W9) Name That Tune #1 {WHERIGO} by MJBinski 

and (GC9F7BG) Nightmare Before Cachemas: Zero {LETTERBOX} by Alice & the Rooster (ZippyFinn)

Best Earthcache

(GC95NT5) Water versus Rock: The Grudge Match by kiisikwa

Best Adventure Lab

National Museum of the United States Army (Part 1) and National Museum of the United States Army (Part 2) by MJBinski & tmustang1 (Fort Belvoir) — BONUS CACHE (Part 1)and — BONUS CACHE (Part 2)

 

Best Cache-In-Trash-Out Event

(GC9GK5B) Occoquan Elementary CITO 6 ver.2 by Awesnap

Best Event

(GC9H2J4) NOVAGO Series 2021: Nightmare Before Cachemas!! by freddiecrs

Best Cache Log

Minnestrone, Advice for a New Dad: Say “Yes”

Best Photo


Photo by Serrabou

Volunteer of the Year

Thompsonkickers

Rookie of the Year


KrucialMess

Congratulations to all the winners! Please feel free to add this html image to your cache or profile page:

<center><img src=https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/57adfedb-ea1f-4d31-8b82-2730a8f992a9.jpg></a></center>

 

Fairfax County Offers Geocaching Classes for Beginners

Fairfax County Park Authority is offering opportunities to discover geocaching around the county. Participants will be with a naturalist and will learn how to operate a GPS unit as well as some of the basics of geocaching. There will be actual geocaching taking place at these events.

Classes are on the following dates are require pre-registration and an attendance fee:

  • March 12, 2022 at Lake Fairfax Park
  • March 26, 2022 at Burke Lake Park
  • April 23, 2022 at Lewinsville Historic House
  • May 7, 2022 at Lake Accotink Park
  • May 21, 2022 at Colvin Run Mill

Click here for more information.

Adventure Labs Now Have Themes

Spooky or Science… Education or Exercise…

Adventure Labs® Now Have Themes

Geocaching HQ has updated Adventure Lab® to give creators/owners the ability to select “themes” for their labs. There are 31 themes and owners can select up to three. Owners of Adventure Labs® should have received an e-mail letting them know how they can add these to their labs. Those who are just creating their labs, will be required to select at least one theme when they are first setting up their lab.

These themes are meant to help adventurers find something to meet their mood. Want to avoid bad weather? Check for an ‘Indoor’ adventure. Want something that’s sure to be kid friendly? Check for one marked, ‘For kids.’

What do you think? Will these new themes influence which labs you chose to work on?

Status

SAVE THE DATE! NoVAGO Spring Picnic & Awards

Heather

Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization invites you to join our spring picnic. In addition to eating burgers, hot dogs, and potluck sides, there will lots of opportunities to meet nice folks and trade geocaching stories. The award winners for the 2021 Best of NoVAGO will be announced at the picnic as well. 


Where: Mason District Park – Pavilion A, 6621 Columbia Pike, Annandale, Virginia

When: Sunday, May 1, 2022, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

Please RSVP on the Event Page.

 

We’re having a Community Celebration! This year when you attend the NoVAGO spring picnic, you will earn a Community Celebration attribute as well as a Blue Switch Day souvenir. 

Nominees for NOVAGO’s 2021 Geocache Awards

Nominees for NOVAGO’s 2021 Geocache Awards

Thanks very much to those of you who took the time to send in nominations! We had a lot of nominations this year and have been working hard to compile a list of the most popular for our members to vote on. While not all nominations were able to make the final cut, we were impressed with every suggestion that was sent in to us, making the decisions even harder.

Below are final caches/cachers from all categories for you to look for and vote on.  Additionally, Best Photo IS on the final voting form. We invite all adventurous geocachers to go out and start finding as many of these wonderful caches as possible. For a geocaching.com friendly list, click here.

Voting is scheduled to be open for ALL categories April 1-20, 2022.  Winners will be announced at our NoVAGO 2022 Spring Picnic and Awards Event on May 1, 2022. Here is the link to vote:

VOTE HERE

*Link will activate when voting begins on April 1st, 2022.

Without further ado, here are the nominees:

Best Theme/Series (three or more caches in a series or that share a common theme)

Best Kids Cache

Most Outstanding Location/Scenery

Most Creative Cache

Most Physically Challenging to Find

Best Historical/Educational Cache

Best Camouflage

Best Multi-Stage Cache

Best Mystery/Puzzle Cache

Best Traditional

Best Other (Wherigo, Letterbox)

Best Earthcache

Best Adventure Lab

Cache of the Year

Best CITO (Cache In, Trash Out)

Best Event (other than CITO)

Best Log

Best Photo – TBA

Rookie of the Year – KrucialMess

Best Volunteerhrothroc, HyperactiveGirl, pwesleynd93, rufnredy, TheColdedge, ThompsonKickers

Cacher of the Yearzgrav, ThompsonKickers, The_Creeds, rlobecker, supertodd88, pwesleynd93, minnestrone, kiisikwa, hrothroc, HyperactiveGirl

 

Congratulations to all of the nominees! Cache owners of nominated caches, as well as nominated cachers and log-writers, can add this cool logo to their cache pages and/or profiles as they see fit:

2021 NOVAGO Award Nominee Badge
<center><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/be453753-e4d9-47ef-93f2-2f234b876a8f_l.png" width="250" height="200" /></center>

 

Proposed bylaws change – membership vote needed

[Update: 2/9/2022: The motion has been passed. 0-votes for no. 23-votes for yes. The NoVAGO bylaws have been updated to reflect the change and can be found here: https://www.novago.org/wp/bylaws]

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A motion has been made to make a change in the current NOVAGO club bylaws. A vote must be put before the membership to approve.

The 2022 NOVAGO Officers have been blessed with more volunteers than our current bylaws allow to serve on the Board of Directors. The current wording of the bylaws allows a maximum of five (5) appointed directors. The 2022 NOVAGO officers would like to be able to appoint no more than six (6) directors.

The new wording of Article X, Section 1 shall be changed to read.

The board shall consist of Current Officers and a maximum of six (6) “Director(s)”of this Organization appointed by the Elected Officers. One Director position shall be automatically filled by the outgoing President. The Current Officers may select any active members at large to fill the remaining positions. Should the past president be re-elected or elected to another office, the position may be filled by any active member. Only Current Officers of this Organization shall retain the powers granted to the board in Article IX.

All members of this page (logged in) may vote for this change January 30-February 5, 2022 at the following link:

Join us for our NoVAGO Spring CITO on March 5

JPWAVE and Team_Palazzo hit the garbage jackpot at last years NoVAGO CITO

NoVAGO is again proud to partner with Prince William Soil & Water Conservation District in our ongoing partnership to keep VA parks clean. Join us March 5, 2022 for our Winter CITO and help us clean up the Neabsco Creek area near Eagles Park.

Cleanup Supplies will be provided. Dress well for the weather and put on boots. For you Souvenir hounds out there this fits right in for you to earn your CITO Season 1 souvenir. CITO Season one starts Monday, March 1 and goes through Tuesday, August 31, 2021.

Prince William County parks has come to value NoVAGO and our community spirit. Come out and make our parks cleaner and community better for our efforts.

NoVAGO Spring CITO – Going Neabsco (GC9K6HE)

Saturday,March 5, 2022

9:00 a.m.

Neabsco Eagles Park

15801 Neabsco Rd

Woodbridge, VA 22193

A Time to Give Thanks!

NoVAGO turns 15 this year and to celebrate we will be kicking off the year with our traditional Thanks Event!   This year we are back at Santini’s New York Style Deli in Chantilly.

Please join us to thank all of the amazing volunteers, cache placers, and event holders who helped make geocaching in Northern Virginia more fun in 2021 and to welcome in the 2022 volunteers.

INCOMING 2022 NoVAGO Officers:

PRESIDENT: Nothereeither

VICE PRESIDENT: ThompsonKickers

TREASURER: Freddiecrs

SECRETARY: Pfenix

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Hrothroc

The two outgoing 2021 NoVAGO Officers are Effstop (Vice President) and Awesnap (PR).

Thanks for 2021 (GC page)

January 23rd, 2022

3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Santini’s New York Style Deli

3980 Corsair Ct
Chantilly, VA 20151

NEW ANNUAL SERIES: NoVAGO’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Santa needs help… save him before it is too late and “Cachemas” is ruined…

WHAT IS THIS? NoVAGO is pleased to announce that a new series began in December.  It will consist of 8 new caches, one bonus, and an Adventure Lab and released on each Saturday until the series conclusion. A kickoff event was held in Woodbridge on October 30th.

HURRY! FIND THEM ALL AND SAVE SANTA BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!

The series so far: