The GeoWhimventure 2026
GeoWoodstock XXII and other stuff
As many people who know me would say (and I have said) I get passionate over things even evangelical for a time. Geocaching has been one of those things and last week Sue and I attended GeoWoodstock XXII in Hutchison, Kansas.
Woodstock moves from place to place each year put on by local volunteers. Each year is different and in many cases tries to improve upon the previous year’s effort. The location is usually not in a major metropolis, the highlights are local but also for many it’s a chance to cache in a completely new locale.
As I have said before geocaching used to be a numbers game. You pretty much could tell the caliber of the cacher you were talking to by the number of finds they had. This was back in days when you needed a GPS unit and getting 100 finds in a day was a massive awe inspiring accomplishment. Now? Not so much, and it shows. Adventure Labs offer hundred of finds by just sitting in your car guessing at multiple choice questions. No longer do people cache to discover unique places, they just want to be higher on the mythical leaderboard. There is a leaderboard… I just haven’t paid attention to it in years. Cecil is somewhere around 8,781st in the U.S. of course the validity may be off since it says he’s from West Virginia, not Indiana (ranking as of May 22, 2026).
Like many things when they first appeared they were unique, now they’re perverted into something else. GeoArt (arranging caches into letters or a design on the map) was an endeavor to produce and took time and effort… now it’s a race. Adventure Labs for a short time were fun ways to learn about a town and walk around seeing the sites. Now it’s a multiple guess test that just determines how fast you can tap your phone. 🙄 ugh - Without guardrails or gatekeepers these have become the AI slop of geocaching- which for many (like AI Slop), it seems is OK because they are not that challenging except for having to go and sign the log.
GeoWoodstock
Monkey Brad (not his real name) could go into the history of the event better than I ever could. This was the 22nd GeoWoodstock the event is put together by local geocachers who submit an application to the committee of past hosts. They decide where it will be each year and announce it at the closing ceremony. Very early on in geocaching Joe GPS (not his real name) decided to hold a gathering so people could put faces with their made up names. When I first started caching you only knew someone by their caching name. The idea was if we got to know each other in real life it might make things better all around. Bring a chair, we’ll sit around and talk about this thing we like to do. Yes, there were internet trolls even back then. Over the years each host tried new things, sometimes they stuck… or became an expectation.
Now you can pretty much expect:
Giant letters spelling out “GEOWOODSTOCK” used as the event log
Multiple paid levels of registration which includes special trackables only at certain levels and lunch
Multiple pre-events to pick up your registration
GeoArt and Adventure Lab art
Caches and Adventure Labs posted the day of the event
An “Ask the Reviewers Panel” in which cachers can ask the folks who approve caches questions and learn a bit of the sausage making process which does differ from state to state
New this year - a drone show which people are already looking forward to next year’s show and how awesome it is going to be 🙄 I pity the folks running GeoWoodstock XXIII
Usually at events this size there will be vendors selling all sorts of geocaching items. Trackable coins, tags, and pins are common. The advent of 3D printing lots and lots of 3D printed stuff. One trend has also been organizations with geo-tours or trails are there trying to get you to visit. Remember how I said the next location is a secret? If you are clever you might notice that an area’s visitor’s bureau is in attendance. This is becoming a pretty easy clue as to where the next event will be. You ask yourself why would the tourism folks from Kansas show up in West Virginia? This year it was Louisiana and… Yes, GeoWoodstock 2027 will be in Baton Rouge.
It’s Not About the Numbers (for me)
While many people were trying to boost their find count, I decided to just go with the flow. Sue is into coloring the map. With 49 of the 50 states colored in its time to get more detailed- yes, find a cache in every county. This can be tedious, fortunately, for me, this trip was quality over quantity. While we did get a few caches that were just there we also saw some really cool places and some cool caches. GeoWoodstock provides us with events to attend and pop up caches and Adventure Labs. We try to avoid those as they are crowd caching. Basically opportunities to wait in a queue to sign a log.
My numbers if you care-
52 caches 6 different cache types including the elusive Webcam cache
A few of Cecil's finds on the road including an elusive Webcam cache 6 events 3 different event types (Event, Mega Event and GPS Adventure Maze)
Cecil's social time including craft beer, a salt mines chalk art, the GPS Adventure Maze, and GeoWoodstock! 45 Adventure Labs stages - including 20 multiple guess GeoArt stages because I was bored waiting to get into the Salt Mine. The GPS Adventure Maze Adventure Lab because getting a unique icon isn’t enough I really needed 10 finds on top of that. 🙄
103 total smileys, if I did the Math right.
The Future of Geocaching
Someone asked in this year’s Reviewers Panel about geocaching’s future. Sue and I discussed this also looking around at the crowd at the event. I even decided to buy a shirt that says “It’s weird being the same age as old people” sadly that’s reality. We started geocaching around the same time we bought our first MINI, so over 20 years ago. Generational differences cause things to go out of favor unless they can evolve. The expectation of my forgotten generation isn’t the same as younger people. As more and more people leave the sport/hobby who is there to replace them? Unfortunately, many die hard cachers who have children have made that generation hate caching because after the initial excitement it became something that their parents were more committed to than them. So many kids have moved on. What can the geocaching community do to bring them back and add more? A lot of groups are confronting this dilemma, I wish there was an easy answer. Geocaching is trying to gamify things souvenirs, and treasures virtual achievements. Adventure Labs were created to avoid actually having to touch or dig through things, but should they just be multiple choice questions in a rest area? Are they dumbing down the hobby? What do future cachers want? What are the needs of OG cachers? Can they work together? GeoWoodstock demonstrated to me that the hobby is at a crossroads, like many things. To survive it needs to evolve.
As For the Rest of the Trip…
Smudge is closing in on 8,000 miles. Gas in Illinois is expensive- It’s expensive everywhere (remember though we are “winning”) but outlandish in Illinois. We found some great places, met some nice people. Took some detours that were and weren’t planned.
Yes, I’m still reading Dungeon Crawler Carl…
I love that you guys went back to see the Wichita Troll! If it weren't for Geocaching, I'd have never known it existed!!