When: Saturday, June 24, 2023, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Where: History Park, San Jose, CA 95112
Who: All geocachers – young, old, veterans, first-timers, families, locals, out-of-towners, and international cachers!
The Geocachers of the Bay Area welcomes you to Silicon Valley!
A lot has happened since our Cachin’ the Bay Mega-Event in 2016! We are excited to invite geocachers from around the world to join us for a day of geocaching fun at our new location, the beautiful History Park, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
About the venue: History Park is located at the south end of Kelley Park at the corner of Senter Road and Phelan Avenue. Through 32 original and reproduction homes, businesses, and landmarks, History Park reveals Santa Clara Valley’s past. Complete with paved streets, running trolleys, and an old-fashioned ice cream shop, this 14-acre site offers the charm and ambiance of times gone by.
In addition to logging your Will Attend, be sure to Register. You can register for free.
This will help us plan with our planning.
Visit the Cachin' the Bay event page or click here to register.
You may still register at the Startup (free) level to get a name sticker and raffle ticket.
Registering for the event is free and does not require any payment or collection of personal information beyond your name, email address, and the username you would like printed on your name badge. If you would like to purchase any event merchandise, all transactions are handed off to PayPal for secure payment processing. The GBA does not collect or have access to any of your payment information.
Parking
Cachin’ the Bay Parking
History Park is a great location for an event, and we think you’re really going to love it! But parking can be a bit of a challenge. There are several parking options depending on how early you arrive and how far you’re willing to walk.
Free street parking – There is free street parking on many of the side streets surrounding the park. The farther you get from Sharks Ice and the Excite Ballpark, the more street parking is available.
There are also some Santa Clara County parking lots along Senter just south of the park at Senter and Needles Drive. The buildings are staffed M-F but the parking lots should be available on the weekends if there is no street parking available.
SJSU Garage (S. 10th and Alma) – This is a large blue and grey public parking garage that charges $1/hour or $4 for the entire day. Their machines accept credit cards or cash (exact change only) or you can use the ParkMobile app. (SJSU Zone #9033)
History Park parking lots – These are the closest options, but they charge either $6/day (for the smaller north lot) or $10/day (for the large lot on Phelan.) Disabled parking is available in both lots.
Dropoff – The closest place to drop someone off is at the south park entrance on Phelan.
3 Raffles
We have so many exciting raffle prizes to give away. Everyone who registers for the event will receive at least one raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased at the Mega.
We will hold 3 raffles throughout the day. For the first two raffles, you don’t need to be present to win – just show up before 1:30 to collect your prizes. Don’t be late though, any unclaimed prizes will be added to the 1:30 raffle. For this last one, you DO need to be present to win.
We are Raffling:
* 6 Ammo Cans stuffed with goodies
* 21 Lock’nLocks chock full of treasures
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5 Bird Houses
* 10 Geocaching Premium Memberships
* 10+ gift cards to the Geocaching shop, REI, Space Coast and more
* More than a dozen medium-size repurposed containers with log, pencils and swag
* 22 Lots of Trackable Coins
* And lots more!
Trackable Coins
Additionally, some of our GBA members have very generously donated over 100 Geocaching Coins from their collections. We will raffle several lots of Coins. Each lot is valued at over $20.00 in Trackable Coins.
Be sure to come by the Hub to see all the raffle items, including these fantastic coins.
Schedule
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Time
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Activity
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9:00am
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· Pick up your registration bags and name badges (all day)
· Grab your program and Geo-County-Bingo sheet
· All caches and gadget ALs go live at 9:00!
· Submit questions for the reviewers by 9:45
· Drop off your raffle tickets by 10:30 (pink table) or 12:15 (green table)
· Create your own creative cache at the Make-a-cache station (until 12:00)
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9:15 – 10:00
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Leveling Up Your Adventure Lab with gsmX2 (Empire Fire House)
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10:00 – 10:30
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Reviewer Panel with TOTTcho
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10:30am
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First raffle drawing at the Hub (pink table)
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10:45 – 11:30
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Puzzle Solving 101 with fizzymagic (Empire Fire House)
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11:00 – 12:00
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Live music with Cache-a-phonia
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11:00am
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Lunch arrives for lunch box pre-orders
El Buen Taco also available all day and Kona Ice until 1:30
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12:00pm
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Group photo by the Empire Fire House
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12:00pm
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Deadline to enter the Geo-County-Bingo BLACKOUT drawing for a chance to win an ammo can full of great swag!
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12:15pm
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Second raffle drawing at the Hub (green table)
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12:30 – 2:00
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Puzzle Solving breakouts. Bring your unsolved puzzles and meet at the picnic tables.
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1:00pm
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Deadline for silent auction bids
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1:30pm
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Pick up your raffle and silent auction prizes by 1:30. Unclaimed prizes will be raffled in this 1:30 drawing.
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2:00pm
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Cachin’ the Bay is over!
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Travel Bug Guidelines
Please follow Travel Bug Guidelines here.
Activities
- Geocaching seminars on topics for new and experienced geocachers
- New caches publishing the day of the Mega
- New Adventure Labs
- 20+ gadget caches to solve
- Exclusive event swag, games and prizes
- Create-a-cache activity
- Trackable trading
- Raffle with great prizes
- Silent Auction
- Lunch
- Preordered lunch box or grab lunch from a food truck onsite!
- Live music with our saxophone quintet "Cache-a-phonia"
- Meet & Greet Area
- The opportunity to explore History Park, Kelley Park and Happy Hollow Zoo and the Japanese Friendship Garden
- Free rides on the 1934 Antique Trolley Car
- Fun opportunities to socialize with other geocachers before, during, and after the main event
Lunch
Two lunch options are available at Cachin' the Bay:
- Pre-order your Panera lunch box. (Pre-orders are now closed.)
- Get lunch from the El Buen Taco truck onsite.
The Kona Shaved Ice truck will also be onsite. Perfect for a hot day!
Other Caching Opportunities:
If you are looking for something to do before Cachin' the Bay 2023 mega tomorrow, gsmx2 has released an educational 10-stage Adventure Lab as of Friday morning - "Leveling Up Your AL - not 10 quick finds". The starting point is just outside the History San Jose Park where the mega will be tomorrow. It can be played in the vicinity of the starting area and you can find seating inside the park (8am - 4pm) where you can work on it. It is a virtual Adventure meaning that other than the starting location, there is nothing physical you need to find.
Also, Our own Rragan has put together a list of some exceptional caches that you might want to explore.
Side Events:
We are excited to share our side events. If you want to help prepare for the Mega or socialize with other geocachers before or after the Mega, there’s an event for you! Check back for new additions.
- Sunday, June 4, 2:00-4:00pm. 🍕 Pizza and Cachin’ the Bay Prep – Let’s Get Ready!! – GCA6D15 – This is a work/play event. We’ll be stuffing bags and other various prep work.
- Thursday June 15, 10:30-11:45am 🔨 Last Minute Pre-Mega Work Party
- Sunday, June 18, 9:00-10:30am 🚮 Come CITO before Cachin’ the Bay! GCA6D3G – CITO the trail around the disc golf course.
- Friday, June 23, 8:30-10:30am ☕️ Morning Visit and pre-MEGA Registration Pick-up GC8WMA Avoid the rush and get your registration packet early
- Friday, June 23, 11:00-11:30pm 🍩 Donut miss this Cachin' the Bay 2023 Pre-Event! GCA7GZK – Come celebrate donuts and geocaching the night before the Mega!
- Saturday, June 24, 6:00-8:00pm 🎈The AfterParty GCA6G4D – Let’s rehash the day at DishNDash Restaurant.
Volunteers:
A big thank you to all of you who offered early to volunteer to help with the Mega. We have refined our Volunteer Signup page and are asking you to sign up now for the specific job and timeslot that works for you. We have a lot of slots to fill. Take a look and see if you can help.
Visit our Volunteer Signup page for information.
The GBA looks forward to seeing you at Cachin’ the Bay 2023!
Miscellaneous info:
Where to Stay
Dogs are allowed in History Park as long as they're on a leash, so feel free to bring your geo-pups to Cachin' the Bay! Leashed dogs are also allowed in the rest of Kelly Park, except for the Japanese Friendship Garden and Happy Hollow Zoo.
Media consent
By entering and by your presence at Cachin’ the Bay 2023 or on the event grounds (History Park), you consent to be photographed, filmed and/or otherwise recorded. All photos, videos and other recordings, and all associated copyrights, are the sole property of Geocachers of the Bay Area. Your entry constitutes your consent to such photography, filming and/or recording and to any use, in any and all media throughout the universe in perpetuity, of your appearance, voice and name for any purpose whatsoever. You understand that all photography, filming and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent given by you by entering this venue. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not enter the venue.