GPS-based contest could draw hundreds
Look once, twice •— geocachers will be everywhere.
That’s probably how people driving through Taylor will feel during the next five days.
The Texas Geocaching Association is hosting its 24th annual Texas Challenge & Geocaching Festival Wednesday through Sunday in Taylor and the surrounding area.
“Taylor is the perfect size. There’s not too much traffic and there are plenty of restaurants and hotels,” said Mollie Ward, event coordinator.
“We like to have it in smaller towns because it’s tougher to geocache in big cities because of traffic.”
Geocaching involves the use of GPS coordinates to find a geocache, which is usually a marker or a container. Within that object, there is a sheet of paper that geocachers must sign and put back into the marker or container for the next person to sign.
Ward expects 300500 people to participate in the event.
The small-town atmosphere seems to be a trend with the Texas Geocaching Association. Previous cities where the challenge took place included Bastrop, Cisco, Conroe, Floresville, Lubbock, Tyler and Wichita Falls.
There are six geocaching regions – central, east, north, south, southeast and west. The Central Texas region hosted the event in March 2020 in Bastrop.
“That was around the time when the COVID-19 pandemic happened,” Ward said. “We had our event that Saturday and the world shut down the next day.”
Taylor’s challenge is 6-7:30 p.m. March 11 at the Texan Café, 105 E. Third St., with the next gathering from 8-9:30 a.m. Thursday at Lamppost Coffee, 809 S. Main St., Georgetown.
The following geocaching contest is 1:303:30 p.m. Thursday at Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin.
The Thursday evening gathering is 6-8 p.m. at Plowman’s Kitchen, 305 W. Ninth St. in Taylor.
Friday’s events begin at 8 a.m. at the Williamson County Expo Center, 5300 Bill Pickett Trail in Taylor with registration and setup.
On Friday, the TXGA Hall of Fame Induction ceremony is 4-6 p.m., with dinner to follow at Louie Mueller Barbecue, 206 W. Second St. in Taylor, from 6-8 p.m.
Saturday’s festivities begin at 7 a.m. with the team competition and conclude at the Cotton Country Club Dance Hall, 212 E. Davila St., Granger.
Sunday’s event will be a community-service project at Fannie Robinson Park, 1009 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Taylor.
For more, visit texasgeocaching. com/
texas- challenge.
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“We like to have it in smaller towns.”
-- Mollie Ward, Texas Geocaching Association
