The Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure will be coming to Athens for a weekend of exploration, networking and fun for hundreds of outdoor venturers from around the world.
Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which people can find small containers called “caches” by using a GPS device. Coordinates to the containers are online and caches contain a logbook where participants can write down the date they discovered the container and their caching nickname.
The competition will take place Saturday at Strouds Run, with a variety of other events at Baker University Center, Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, Sonic and Rocky Boots.
This is the 11th year of the Adventure and it’s considered a mega-caching event. At press time, there were more than 500 people registered, but organizers anticipate more than 700 attendees.
The possibility of hosting the event in Athens came out of a management class taught by Lenie Holbrook, a professor in the college of business and the director of the Athens event. The class had done a wide variety of projects related to geocaching, and the idea was suggested after creating several geo trails in the area.
There is an individual competition in the morning followed by two sets of team competitions in the afternoon. The goal of the competition is to find as many stations as possible in two and a half hours.
To make the competition easier to coordinate, there will be stations where competitors are able to receive a mark to validate they found the location, instead of using individual caches.
While many people do the competition just for fun, other teams take it to another level.
“In the four-person teams, we usually get some teams that are extremely competitive to the point that they find all the caches,” Holbrook said. “We designed a course this year that we think can keep them from doing that.”
Along with the competition, Holbrook has placed a large amount of caches around the area for others to find that won’t be racing the clock. Around 100 containers were purchased and placed as a permanent legacy from the competition, while Holbrook and others have placed hundreds more.
“We did a series called ‘Road to MOGA’ and placed some pretty easy caches around roads in Athens,” Holbrook said, hoping attendees will find the locations on their way into town.
Attendees will receive a pack of small coins specially designed for the event, which encourages cachers to mingle with new people in order to trade their coins and get a full set of five. These coins are a large part of the activity’s culture and are often found in caches.
Mike Straw, an application programmer for OU, hosts a monthly event, Cacher Coffee, for those in the area to connect, which takes place at 10 a.m. on the fourth Saturday of each month at Donkey Coffee & Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St.
Katie Hendrickson, a graduate student studying math education, is a regular at Cacher Coffee and has been caching since 2011.
“If I go to a new place, I like to find a cache there,” Hendrickson said. “It’s fun for traveling.”
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