Category Archives: General

General Announcements

Save the date for Fun Fall Festivities!

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Mark your calendars and prep your GPSs! Want to earn your CITO souvenir? Come join NoVAGO for the Fall CITO on Saturday, September 17th at Chinquapin Park. Stay tuned, we are trying to get an additional souvenir earning opportunity the following weekend as well. On Sunday, October 23rd, come out for NoVAGO’s Fall Fundraising Event. If you would like to donate anything, you can contact the event lead, hooclass2002. As we get the donations together, we’ll be posting additional information on the forums and don’t forget to read up a bit on what NoVAGO does with the annual budget. See you there! … Continue reading →

How NoVAGO uses its budget – By Hooclass2002

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Have you ever wondered what we do with 50/50 proceeds? Or how the fall silent auction turns into caching goodness? Well, wonder no more – in an effort to be transparent the NoVAGO board wanted to share some highlights of how NoVAGO’s funds are used – both now and in the future. First – NoVAGO currently has about $2,000 in its coffers. Our account stays relatively stable – keeping about the same amount of funding – having expended roughly $200 more than we’ve taken in so far in 2016 (given that the fall is our big fundraiser, this is expected). Our quarterly events are some of our bigger outlays. Where possible we do in-kind services (e.g. do a CITO or put on a geocaching 101 class for use of a shelter). That doesn’t always work, and we’ll rent a shelter for our festivities. Most food and utensils are donated by … Continue reading →

Celebrate the Parks

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It seems like many organizations that help make geocaching great are celebrating big years right now. The Virginia State Parks are celebrating 80 years. You can help them celebrate in general by visiting 5 state parks and earn a free pass for next year (to support your geocaching habit of course) They’re also sponsoring a Geocaching Adventure where you can find official geocaches in 5, 10, 20 or all of the states parks and earn prizes. Our National Parks are celebrating an even bigger number, 100 years old! When could be a better time to get out and enjoy the parks. Happy Caching! … Continue reading →

Freezin’ for a Reason! Winter CITO

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Come on out to help us kickoff NoVAGO’s new Quarterly CITO initiative! We’ll be gathering at Mason Neck State Park to help them get a jump start on clearing out the trash that has washed up and gotten snagged along the shoreline from the many winter storms this year. We look forward to working with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Virginia State Parks. Who: All Geocachers* What: NoVAGO 2016 Winter CITO When: Saturday, February 27, 2016 (12:00-3:00 p.m.) Where: Mason Neck State Park (Lorton, VA) 7301 Highpoint Rd, Lorton, VA 22079 Parking is free for all CITO participants on the day of the event, just tell the ranger at the entrance. … Continue reading →

2015 Awards Nomination Open

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What were your favorite caches of 2015? This is your chance to nominate those cache that took you on amazing adventures to amazing places! Which were amazingly creative or which drove you mad with the challenge? Did you see something new and unique or one that was extremely well executed? Does one answer the question, which is your favorite cache? Help recognize the great caches and the people who placed them by nominating your favorites for the 2015 NoVAGO Cache Awards! Every year, the NoVAGO community nominates and selects the best caches hidden in the previous calendar year. It’s an opportunity for area cachers to help recognize those that make caching in Northern Virginia a great experience and also a terrific way to highlight caches worth making a detour for. You can find information on the award categories and eligible caches in this forum thread: NoVAGO’s 2015 Cache Awards Nominations. … Continue reading →

2015: A Year in Review

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We wanted to take the opportunity to recognize all the accomplishments of NoVAGO and its members from the past year, as well as all of the volunteers, without whose help this successful and fun caching year in NoVAGO would not have been the same. If anything is missing, please let us know. 2015 Cache Awards Headed South for the Winter (event) with workshops “NoVAGO’s Picnic & Paddling at Pohick Bay” Spring Event GeoWoodstock XIII “Summer at the Blue Ridge” Summer Event “Wait Until Dark (VA Edition)” Night Caching Event Blue Ridge Center CITO Appalachian Trail Conservancy 2015 Biennial Meeting “Hauntingly Familiar” Fall Picnic and Auction “HtGSC #0: Cachemas Eve” Cachemas Event “How the Grinch Stole Cachemas” NoVAGO Annual Series “The Great Outdoors” Expo with the Boy Scouts of America Geocaching Symposium 2015 (supporting the APL Cachers) Individuals who hosted CITOs and Invasive Plant Pulls and helped give back to the … Continue reading →

Cans, Caches and Coats – A NoVAGO Winter Event

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Come out and join NoVAGO at our Winter Event (GC69PHC) on Saturday, February 20th from 9:30am to 12:00pm at the Veteran’s Memorial Park Community Center, 14300 Veteran’s Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22191. In addition to providing some breakfast nibbles, we’re also doing a brunch potluck (please post what you plan to bring in your “will attend” log). We will have two short presentations, one by DePhogration on cache containers and one by NutmegBrownie on how easy it is to host a CITO! At this year’s NoVAGO Winter Event we are holding a canned food and coat drive to help support a local charity. This winter’s featured charity is The StreetLight, a nondenominational nonprofit organization who’s mission is to “build strong community by improving the quality of life for impoverished men, women, and children, including the ‘chronically homeless’ in Prince William County and surrounding areas of Northern Virginia.” Donations are purely voluntary and … Continue reading →

President’s Welcome

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Welcome to 2016! I hope everyone had a chance to earn the souvenir as a great welcome to the New Year. Thank you for all the support as we embark on a new adventure. I’m looking forward to an exciting year of caching with my fellow board members, Christina (NutmegBrownie), Mike (CacheClown76), Josh (Hooclass2002) and Chris (Awesnap). If you have the time, we’d love to see you at the Thanks! Event tomorrow evening (January 5) where we will be saying thanks to last year’s officers and volunteers. This is also a great opportunity to meet some of the new board members as several of them will be there as well. And mark your calendars for the morning of February 20 for the Winter Event, we’ll get the cache page published soon with more information. We look forward to introducing quarterly CITOs this year as well as some NoVAGO sponsored workshops. We … Continue reading →