Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
About 1,000 geocachers are expected to flock to the region next week for the sixth annual Lennox and Addington Mega Geocaching Event Aug. 17-18.
For those new to the game, geocaching involves participants tracking down hidden ‘caches’ using coordinates from their GPS. The hiding spots can be found all over the world with some very easy to find, others requiring a bit of skill and detective work. All told over 1,500 caches are hidden within the borders of L&A County, available to be found year round.
L&A County can lay claim to being home to one of the few ‘mega’ events in the country, meaning at least 500 people plan to attend. To date participants coast to coast across Canada as well as several U.S. states, Germany, the United Kingdom and New Zealand have all stated they intend to attend this year’s event.
The fun will begin Aug. 17 with the Water Cache Canoe Cruise from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. An assortment of canoes and kayaks will be available for rent, all courtesy the township of Stone Mills. The launch will take place from the King Street Park boat launch in Napanee.
Later that night the event will officially be kicked off with a free concert from South of 7 at the Conservation Park pavilion in Napanee starting at 6:30 p.m.
The event isn’t limited to geocachers, as members of the public are more than welcome to attend. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs.
The main event will get underway Saturday starting at 8 a.m., when the real hunt will begin. The grounds of the L&A County Museum and Archives will serve as this year’s home base, where a number of non-geocaching games will be held with prizes up for grabs.
For the geocachers, a number of new finds have been hidden for this year which includes lab caches, night caches, water caches and a brand new “Smiling at L&A” puzzle cache that takes participants on a tour of several locations through L&A County. Hitched Games will be set up with a number of fun activities for all ages. Geocaching vendors will also be on site that will have a large assortment of apparel and accessories specific to the game. Many prizes from several L&A County businesses will also be given away during the awards ceremony taking place at 4 p.m. At the conclusion of the event, pre-purchased dinners will be served to geocachers at the Macpherson House .
More information about this year’s event can be found at www.landageoaching.com.