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Metro Gathering 2019
Sep. 15th, 2019 01:02 amThe last few years, Metro Gathering was in October and had a Halloween theme. This year though, the geocaching mega event is in September and has a pirate theme. I guess it needed a bit of a change. I think October is preferable for this kind of event because the weather would be cooler and better for hiking. However, the weather in Northern New Jersey this weekend turned out to be pretty cool, in the mid 60s. So it worked well.
As usual, there was a Friday evening event, the Pre~Pirates of Port Royale Meet and Greet Event. It was a pot-luck dinner at the Mt. Allamuchy Scout Reservation. I talked to some geocaching friends and had food but didn't stay to the end.
Saturday was the big day. I went to Waterloo Village in the morning for 2019 Metro Gathering ~ Pirates of Port Royale and spent nearly 6 hours walking around finding geocaches and talking to people I knew from way back when. As the organizers seem to do every year, they archived the previous year's geocaches and published them again in the same hiding spots. I remembered most of the hiding spots so it was really easy for me. The twist this year is most of the geocaches had code words in them that you can log in the Adventure Lab app for an additional lab cache find. There were also a number of standalone lab caches around the village and along the hiking trail. Lab caches were also available at the mega event in previous years but you had to log them by entering the code words on the web when you got home after the event or in a web browser on your smartphone as you find them. I think the phone app is a bit more convenient for this activity.
After leaving Metro Gathering, I headed over to Riverside Park in Stanhope for the NJ - Small Town Stanhope 3 Munzee event. This is a smaller event for Munzee players who happened to be in the area for Metro Gathering, as well as a few others who came just for the Munzee event. There was Munzee-related chat and also some special munzees for the event. After the hiking workout at Metro Gathering, this smaller event was a good way to cool down and relax a bit before heading back to the hotel.
As usual, there was a Friday evening event, the Pre~Pirates of Port Royale Meet and Greet Event. It was a pot-luck dinner at the Mt. Allamuchy Scout Reservation. I talked to some geocaching friends and had food but didn't stay to the end.
Saturday was the big day. I went to Waterloo Village in the morning for 2019 Metro Gathering ~ Pirates of Port Royale and spent nearly 6 hours walking around finding geocaches and talking to people I knew from way back when. As the organizers seem to do every year, they archived the previous year's geocaches and published them again in the same hiding spots. I remembered most of the hiding spots so it was really easy for me. The twist this year is most of the geocaches had code words in them that you can log in the Adventure Lab app for an additional lab cache find. There were also a number of standalone lab caches around the village and along the hiking trail. Lab caches were also available at the mega event in previous years but you had to log them by entering the code words on the web when you got home after the event or in a web browser on your smartphone as you find them. I think the phone app is a bit more convenient for this activity.
After leaving Metro Gathering, I headed over to Riverside Park in Stanhope for the NJ - Small Town Stanhope 3 Munzee event. This is a smaller event for Munzee players who happened to be in the area for Metro Gathering, as well as a few others who came just for the Munzee event. There was Munzee-related chat and also some special munzees for the event. After the hiking workout at Metro Gathering, this smaller event was a good way to cool down and relax a bit before heading back to the hotel.
