The Winner For 2016 is...

The Winner of the "SUPER-COVETED"

 SNAP!!! Cache of the Year for 2016!

So last week we teased everyone with the FINAL 14!  

It is now slmost time to name the winner...

but first:

The idea of a Cache of the year came to us in 2011.  We took each of the winners of the Cache of the Day and laid them all out and eventually came down to 3 or 4 best of the year.

2011 Winner

GC59AF: Thousand Steps Cache

Nana & I at step 1000 - hint: there are still more steps after that one!

2012 Winner:

GC3PTB0: Smithfield's Porcine Parade

Note: The Smithfield Visitor's site (click here) actually lists Geocaching
(and this cache) as an activity to help bring in tourists!

Papa and one of the pigs!

2013 WINNER

GC44RDE - The Key is the Key

THIS CACHE IS NOW ARCHIVED

but there are plenty of replicas around

Another great WVTim Cache

2014 WINNER

GC4XD7M - The Hermitage Gardens: A Walking Tour

2015 WINNER

GCT397:  Train Trestle Falls

The cache is on the other side of this tunnel!

Now to 2016

In 5th place:

GC2GW5D: Benedict's Brother-In-Law

Sometimes you find surprises while geocaching.  Nana & I love caches with history.  This one qualifies both as historical and a surprise find.

In 4th place:

GC6C9HP: Dead or Alive

A really nice put together multi-cache located in Surry County.

The scenery is really nice here too.

In 3rd place:

GC6MYT6: Peace. Love and Gadget Caching!

A truely great gadget cache!!!

In 2nd place:

GC7C06: Witch's Leg

Most of you already know, we love historical caches.  Also, Nana loves caches in and around cemeteries.  So every once in a while we run across a truely great cache that is in a cemetery, has some great history and in this case: has a spooky story to go with it.  We were on our way to Canada, traveling up Rt 1 along the coast, when this cache appeared on our screens.

If you are ever up this way - make sure to put this cache on you "Must Do" List!!!

So, FINALLY:

The WINNER of the 

"SUPER-COVETED"

SNAP!!! Cache of the Year

for 2016 is:

GC190EK 

EVIL

hidden by: Frogmen83

proof:

but truth be told,

it was a group effort.

Thanks goes out to the entire crew:

C_Otter, Nana, chihuahuak94me,

micromagnet and shipwreck99

who provided moral support, suggestions,

hints, took pictures and movies, shouted encouragement, etc.

but most of all, Thanks to 

 my 2 good AACC buddies who got wet with me:

DiverVan & mbbaumann

Till next time...

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

On Twitter at: @SNAPgeocaching

On Instagram at: snap_geocaching

January 1 AACC Event - Who will win!

On January 1, 2016  the first AACC event of 2016 was held at the Southside Winter location (Moe's off of Eden Way.  Part of the fun the day was a contest trying to predict exactly how many caches you would find in 2016.  15 different cachers (not counting myself) wrote down their predictions.  Now, almost a year later, the contest is almost over.  Who will win???

The winner gets this unactivated geocoin!

So I assume some of you have a question or two.  

Did I enter?  Here is a list of everyone who made a prediction:

2112Rush

BonnieLee52

CindyLou1983

DiverVan

Episcodad

Gigiwoll

GrandpaGene

Lacey1961

Llatnek

MarViDa

netryder

PaLadi

Shipwreck99

Tarfu

Wheels

The only other entry was myself but I am declaring myself ineligible to receive the coin.

Do I have to attend the January 1, 2017 event to win?     No.

What are the rules?

The person closest to their prediction without going over, wins the coin.  If everyone exceeds their prediction, the closest to their prediction wins the coin.

  How many did I predict?

I have the original log sheets for the event.  If you do not remember, sorry, but I cannot tell you that as it may affect how many caches you try to get between now and the new year.

I will use the number of caches found in 2016 as listed on your stat page at geocaching.com to determine the winner.

Hope to see y'all at the event soon to be published.  It will be held on the 1st of January.  It will be held at Moe's off of Eden Way.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Here is a list of the upcoming events in Hampton Roads

 Mark your calendars – hope to see you at some of these events!

Thursday – December 8 – Hampton, VA

GC6XC3R – AACC - December 8, 2016

Moe’s

4 till 6 PM

Thursday – December 15 – Chesapeake, VA

GC6XC40 – AACC – December 15 2016

Moe’s

4 till 6 PM

Tuesday – December 20 – Hampton, VA

GC6XHBH – December Third Tuesday Burgers and Beer

The Green Turtle

6 till 9 PM

Saturday – December 31 – Chesapeake, VA

NOT PUBLISHED YET – Last AACC of 2016

Moe’s off of Eden Way

12 till 2 PM

Sunday – January 1, 2017 – Chesapeake, VA

NOT PUBLISHED YET – First AACC of 2017

Moe’s off of Eden Way

12 till 2 PM

Saturday – January 7 – Virginia Beach, VA

GC6HYJ2 – 10 Years! Milestones M-n-G and Hidey Awards!

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

5 till 9 PM

Saturday – September 2, 2017 – Chesapeake, VA

GC6WWBC – 15th Annual Geocaching Hampton Roads Picnic

Chesapeake City Park

9 AM till 5 PM

Till then PLEASE have a safe and Merry Christmas and holiday.

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

On Twitter at: @SNAPgeocaching

On Instagram at: snap_geocaching

12 Weeks to go....

That's right - - - Just 12 weeks until the 14th Annual GCHR picnic!!!

I know that the crew behind the scenes are working very very hard to get speakers line up, separate events scheduled, games lined up for the afternoon, menu items ordered, SWAG items ordered plus a ton of other stuff (including some super-secret stuff I don't even know about) lined up either for your or the your kids enjoyment.

Now, with all that going on here in Hampton Roads, we still need some help from you guys and gals.

We really want to know how many of you are going to come to our picnic!!!

All the great volunteers want to be ready for all of you, and they need to know exactly how big this crowd is going to be.  So we really need you to do a couple of things for us.  

1)  Go to the Geocaching.com site for the picnic (HERE) and log a "Will Attend".

and

2) Register for the picnic at the picnic registration page (HERE).  By registering it helps us not only with the food and the Swag (coins, t-shirts, etc), but it also helps us in other behind-the-scene ways.

Now, I'm sure the people behind the picnic would really appreciate each and every one of you purchasing one of the more expensive packages for the picnic.  But, what you may not know is: there are 7 different levels of registration available.  Yes, the White Oak Trail package comes with a special trackable coin that cannot be purchased anywhere else, but there are 6 others that you can be purchased.  The Swamp Fire Trail package is only $10 and contains a meal ticket, the customized name tag and lanyard.  But I will let you in on a secret - there is a registration package that is FREE.  The free package contains just a customized name tag but it still helps us with our count. 

Please help us out by registering!!!

I am looking forward to talking to each and every one of you.

Once you get to the picnic, look for a small tent, somewhere near the shelters.  I will be there most of the morning handing out general information not only on the park and picnic, but also on the General Hampton Roads area.  I'll even promise to give you hints on geocaches in the area that may be giving you problems!!!

OK - one last bit of info

Up at the top of the page on the right hand side is a list of pages for this blog.  The 2nd page listed is the 14th Annual GCHR Picnic Info page.  If you click there it will take you to a page where there are all sorts of links for different information such as... the best caches in each area around Hampton Roads based on favorite points.  I am currently working on updating each and every link on that page. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks for registering!!!  Hope to see you in 12 weeks!!!

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!  

1st half of April Recap!!!

It has been a very busy month since I retired on the 1st.  Not only have I been doing chores around the house but I have also managed to get some cache maintenance completed AND we even managed to grab a geocaching or two.

On the 4th of April, Nana & I manged to grab just a few (4) caches while out doing maintenance north of town.

On the 7th of April, I teamed up with alara and we managed to grab just a few (7) more caches around the Portsmouth and Chesapeake area and walked quite a bit of the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Of course I held the April 14th AACC event which was quite an experience as the local cachers here managed to grab up 25 trackables, most of which had came through the Wormhole Cache (GC4TTVJ) from Australia.  

On 15 April I made a quick run up to Chippokes State Park to grab the "first to find" rights on the new Virginia State Parks series there.  Then I also grabbed one more in Smithfield before heading home.

That only leaves Saturday 16 April.  Nana & I teamed up with jtmlam59 once again and visited both the western end and the center of the Virginia Capital Trail.  This time we managed to grab almost everything we had left on the trail.  I believe we have less than a dozen left on the entire trail, at least until they publish some more.  We managed to grab 80 caches on Saturday.

That brings y'all up-to-date with our caching and leaves us sitting at exactly 7989 found caches.  I figure the 3rd Tuesday event (4/19) and the CITO event on Saturday (4/23) will bring us to 7991 - which means that late Saturday or sometime on Sunday we - SNAP!!! - will finally pass the 8000 mark.

Now to figure out which cache will be #8000.  I was thinking EVIL but... I have stitches on left forearm and do not think it would be a good idea to put that in the water (at least not that water).  Will have to think on this one for a few days.  I will let y'all know when we pass the mark!!!

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!! 

Upcoming Events

So, for those that have not heard... I am officially retired.  On April 1, I retired, after 40 years of service to the federal government.  {Couldn't think of a better day to retire after 40 years than April Fool's Day!!!}  So I guess I am now a full-time geocacher.  Time to get this blog up and publishing all sorts of good geocaching information on a regular basis.

To start with, let's go over some of the local events that coming up.  

Thursday, Apr 14 - GC6EF1A – AACC event - 14 April 2016 - Held in Chesapeake from 4:15 – 5:45 PM

----------------------------------

Saturday, Apr 16 - GC6E3M5 – Calvary Cemetery CITO – Held in Norfolk from 9 – 10:30AM

Note: You will earn a souvenir for attending this event!

-----------------------------------

Tuesday, Apr 19 - GC6D3W3 – 3rd Tuesday Burger & Beer GCHR: April 2016 - Held

in Portsmouth from 6 – 9PM

Note: We will have a guest speaker from the City of Hampton Mosquito Lab

-----------------------------------

Saturday, Apr 23 – GC6E3N8 – Magnolia Cemetery CITO – Held in South Norfolk from 9 – 10:30AM

Note: You will earn a souvenir for attending this event!

-----------------------------------

Saturday, May 7 – GC6EQ2J – Geodetic Control – Held just North of Elizabeth City from 10 – Noon

------------------

-----------------

And of course, we cannot forget:
Sep 3 - 14th Annual GCHR Picnic. Held @ Newport News Park and is an ALL DAY EVENT!

-------------------------------

Now those are all of the events that are published already.  I have heard of some others that MAY occur sometime late spring or summer that you may be interested in.

I am hearing that the False Cape Bike Event may come back in May or June.

I have also heard that Jim may host another Kayak event this year.

---------------

----------------

Well now that I am a full time geocacher, lets see if I can keep this blog publishing on a regular basis.

Till next time!!!

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

Suffolk Nana & Papa - - - or just plain ol' - - - -  SNAP!!!