GeoLeap 2024

The primary organizer of GeoLeap 2024, the legendary (and, to some, infamous) TTO2, began wondering about the idea of holding a Mega-Event on Leap Day almost a year ago. Would anyone come? What kind of caching could be shoved into a leap day? He and his compatriots began planning in earnest. Being people who get things done, they found guests, placed caches, and did all the small procedural things involved in putting together something of this scale.

The morning began with an Event to gather us all together. I started chatting and shaking hands with familiar and unknown cachers from all over Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. A couple of Germans, a Finn, and a couple of Japanese Canadians provided an international flair. The morning also brought on a reunion of the TexaSix. We planned to roll together, finding caches as a team in a couple of cars: me, Razorbackgirl, and Kittydcota in one car; 4everlyn, Krissy4884, and Godot in another. We were joined by some Oklahomans and Floridians who brought more substantial tools than we possessed, notably Fiskars for an especially Texan type of hide.¹ Once our equipment was consolidated, we set off for La Grange.

A great many of us gathered for a sunrise CITO. This brought on another wave of joyful greetings as friends from other regions of the state said their hellos. We took to the grounds of the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center and the Fayette County Fairgrounds, taking up the beer cans and used condiment packets that lay strewn about (though that probably sounds more poetic and sizable than the detritus warranted). We also took some time to grab a couple of challenges nearby that most of us agreed we would likely never find. (Five EarthCaches in each of fifteen states? Nope)

When we were done with the CITO, we went across town to a freshly published EarthCache that required, along with answers about erosion and the meandering of the Texas Colorado River, a photo of the claiming cachers. Behold the TexaSix (plus caching friend, SparkyIV)!

Passing by a couple of my old friends, we made our way to Giddings to begin our major work for the day. Once we had all collected near our starting point, we set off for the back roads of Lee, Bastrop, Milam, and Williamson counties.

Oh, the caches we found! While there was a certain predictability based on similarities of the Terrain ratings, there was still so much variability. We used ladders, metal detectors, and poles of both the regular and Fiskars variety. We (and by “we,” I mean some of us, not me) climbed trees.

We braved thorny greenbriers, culverts, and the clever machinations of a hider who desired our success and our failure in equal measure. The best cache of all (in my humble opinion) involved a tunnel under a hill.

There were hooks or handholds along the ceiling of the road tunnel, and containers dangled from half a dozen of them. We had to use our longest poles to get them down and learn that all but one of them were decoys. I found that pretty impressive. With so many people participating, we had all the talent, expertise, and hardware needed to gain a victory on this one. Our entire assemblage took time to marvel at the cache, have a snack, and even take some impromptu photos.

Many went to the top of the tunnel to stand for a photo, but I found those below to be the far more impressive sight.

One cache, however, required special assistance. Few of us (and by “few,” I really mean none) were equipped to handle an actual scuba cache. Luckily, TXGA President BE Viking took the plunge for us! Donning scuba gear, he sank below the waters of Lake Pflugerville to bring up the log for the cache, giving us a chance to sign an actual scuba cache! I wonder if he’ll replicate the feat for the Texas Challenge on March 16 in Wichita Falls. Yes, that is an unsubtle and blatant plug. What of it?

The dive put us back in Round Rock just in time for the Mega! Of course, some people in attendance were not at the Mega, having instead chosen to wander the park, finding all the newly placed and older surviving caches. Others of us gathered to commune with one another. I was surprised to run into a cacher I had met a year and a half before at Geowoodstock in British Columbia. She owned one of the two trackables I had returned to their owners! It’s a small world, and it’s getting smaller every day! I missed a talk my friend Moosiegirl gave on snake behavior and identification, but I caught one by BounceBounce on gadget caches. The most important guest, of course, was the legend himself …

… the one and only Rock Chalk! I even got to talk with him for a while. He had recently finished the Texas County Challenge and had signed the log earlier in the day! He is now transmuted and uplifted, #345 (I believe) of our sacred band. He is now officially one of us! One of us! One of us! And I missed it! Darn it all!

But, as is the way of the world, all good things must end. The day dragged on into evening. I began feeling tiredness in my bones (after all, I had been up since 3:45 a.m.). I made it to the final post-Mega-Event for only one reason: the restaurant served poutine! I ordered some so I could eat and chat with some folks. What a lovely way to wind down from a heck of a day. There will be more Events and shenanigans going into the weekend, which I plan to attend. But whether or not I do, I’ve now got a weekday Leap Day Mega to my credit.

_{¹Fiskars refers to a pole with a branch cutter on the end, used to drop caches placed on high limbs that can’t be reached any other way. The cutter is used to cut the small branch that the cache is attached to, then replace the cache by holding open the cache clip to place it on another branch.}