Geo-Art in Virginia

This page was updated May 11 2016 - this information is current!!!

So, you are thinking of coming to the 14th Annual GCHR Picnic.

Good, we welcome everyone - the more the merrier!

You want to know some of the best caches in the area to find while you are here.

Great!   Over the next several weeks I will be publishing blogs with exactly that information.  ou can get to all of this information by clicking on the "14th ANNUAL GCHR PICNIC" page on the right hand side of this blog near the top of the page

Today's we will cover the Geo-Art that is in our area as well as those in the state of Virginia.

Closest to the picnic is:

Star Trek Geo-Art, (GC5DK78) created and maintained by Kemallor.  This geo-art contains 61 individual caches.  This series can easily be accomplished in one day once you have all your answers and have mapped out the best route to take.  Most of the caches are micro pre-forms and should be simple park n grabs.  Please read the rules on each cache page but most of all - Have FUN!

Note from SNAP!!! - a really fun series that can easily be done in 4 hours depending on traffic

Just south of Star Trek is:

VTCC Geo-Art, (GC52E1Z) created and maintained by Kemallor.  This geo-art contains 21 individual caches.  This series can easily be accomplished in just a couple of hours once you have all your answers and have mapped out the best route to take.  Most of the caches in this series are small home-made bison tubes.  Have FUN!

Note from SNAP!!! - another nice series, plan your route, very fast series on the weekend

For more of a challenge

Head east from the picnic and cross the Coleman Bridge in Gloucester:

Just north of Gloucester is the Beaver Trail Geo-art surrounding Beaver Dam Lake, (GC50FDG) was created and maintained by the Rivahcntrygeocachers.  This geo-art contains 50 individual caches a few of which are water caches.  This series will take most if not all of one day to accomplish.  Make sure you have all your answers and proper coordinates mapped out.  It is suggested that you take two cars, park one at the rear entrance and then go back to the main entrance, park the other vehicle there and start your hike.  There is a great variety of sizes and containers in this series.  Have FUN!

Note from SNAP!!! - use the 2 car method and bring plenty of water.  Beautiful hike.

Head an hour south-west from the picnic and head towards Suffolk:

 SNAP!!!-land Geo-graffiti, (GC503GY) created and maintained by me - a.k.a. - - - SNAP!!!  This geo-art contains 100 individual caches and is currently the largest Geo-art in Virginia.  Once you have your answers and all the corrected coordinates, just do the series in numerical order and everything should work out fine.  I have seen this series done in 4-5 hours but plan on 5-7.  Please read the rules on each page.  Most of the caches in this series are pre-forms.  Have FUN!

Note from SNAP!!! - kinda biased here as this is our series but can be done in 6 hours.

That is all the Geo-art in the area but Virginia also has:

 Tobacco Heritage Trail, (GC568W2) created and maintained by ththider.  This geo-art contains 60 individual caches.  This series is about 2.5 hours west of Hampton Roads or just East of I-85 in Brunswick county.  There is a good variety of caches in this series and they are located along a very nice Rails-to-Trails hiking/biking trail.  Along with the 60 caches in the series there are other caches along the way in addition to 5 bonus caches to go along with the series.

Note from SNAP!!! - a 2 car method would work great here also.  Lovely hike.  Very nice variety of hides.

Another hour or so west:

Virginia Star, (GC5A6VA) created and maintained by Nocona 1.  This geo-art contains 50 individual caches.  This series is about 3.5 - 4 hours west of Hampton Roads or just East of Danville, VA.  This series is in rural Pittsylvania County on the Ringgold Rail Trail where the old Richmond & Danville Railway ran. You'll pass through wooded areas, through wetlands and over a five arch stone bridge, all on a 5.6 mile long, finely graveled walking/biking path.  I can't really give you an estimate on how long it takes as this art is next on our to-do list!

Note from SNAP!!! - As stated above, this is the only geo-art we have not done in Virginia but we here it is a great series and a very nice hike.

 I look forward to seeing all of you at the picnic.  Please stop by my booth which will feature local geocaching information as well as handouts for GSAK.  GSAK is a very nice program that lets you have numerous databases all in one program and has plenty of add-ons for all sorts of geocaching information.

Till then....

Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

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

Weekend Recap Oct 13 & 14 (Part 2)

As I stated in Part 1, we had finished the Miles of Smiles series except for one cache.  As also stated, we had to travel southwestward almost 20 miles to find a place to stay because of all the activities in Waynesboro over the weekend.  We got on the road about 7:30 and headed back to Waynesboro and made our way to the last stop of the Miles of Smiles.  Now that we had the corrected coordinates from where the CO had moved the cache it was a quick and easy find.  This gave us a big smilie face on our geocaching map of the area.

Now to start messing up that smilie face.  There were just over 30 caches on the list and even more loaded into the GPS units.

We managed to go from cache to cache with few if any problems but did end up the day with 2 DNFs on the day.

One of the few pieces of trash we found!

After spending the day geocaching around the Waynesboro area we all came up with the same thought.  There was hardly any trash in the town.  We don't know if they held a city-wide cleanup prior to the weekend as they were having 3 major events in town.  But we had to look hard to find trash, even behind the stores.  What a real clean town.  Our second thought was - everyone is really nice here in this town.  Even the local LEO was really really nice when he pulled up to check out what we were doing.

There is quite a bit of history in Waynesboro and between the picturesque views and the really nice people - this is a definite place to come for a weekend geocaching trip!!!

Among our favorite caches on Sunday were:
OCAC-2: "Tinkling Springs" - (GC1JQ9C) - very nice location and winner of a favorite point
Sign of Life (aka Watch our for Falling Mustard) - (GC38W1K) - amusing location
Mount Olympus - (GC3JRGZ) - a nice puzzle and an amusing location
Chit....Chat....Cache - (GC3E4ZQ) - an amusing cache

Winner of the "Coveted" Nana & Papa Cache of the day Award was:
Rebel Line - (GC2AG3N) - a place with history and a very beautiful house

Overall - we would rate this very high on our Geocaching Trip List - Nana says it is her 2nd best Geocaching Trip ever - the scenery, the history, the very clean town and the very friendly people make this a town we will go back and visit.

We ended the weekend with 59 caches on Saturday and 31 on Sunday.  We climbed one mountain, one really big and steep hill, finished an entire geocaching series (Miles of Smiles) and by the time we got home - we were very very sore - but it was all worth it!!!

Nana's rocks - quite a haul!!!

As Always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa