How do you manage to get away for some Geodashing? Here's Markwell's secret: "I Don't Care Where You Go, Just Take Them Out of the House!"
Game 16 of Geodashing was won by Team GPS, led by Lil Devil, Kevin, and Michael (with BOB!! finishing in fourth place on his own team!). Second place went to Chiri Totsu and third to Rabid Badgers.
Individual honors went to Dashing Dog Mac, one dashpoint visit ahead of Dashing Dog's Mum, who had to let one dashpoint go because "the fence was too high and the steers looked a little too frisky for my liking!!!". Jack Frickey and Lil Devil tied for third, one point ahead of Chiri Totsu's Dave Hinns.
Game 16 saw hunts in seven countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia, Hungary, Belgium, and France), including the game's first ever dashpoint hunt in Hungary and the first ever visits to the US states of Alabama and Montana.
A sampling of spots where Geodashing players found dashpoints:
in a gated community in Napa, California, lined with canals full of yachts
in a suburban area southeast of Budapest, Hungary, within sight and sound of the airport
among the eucalyptus and cypress trees, on the border of Mount Tamalpais State Park, past Muir Woods and beyond the Panoramic Highway, on the far side of the Golden Gate Bridge (remember, getting there is all the fun).
on the bank of of the drought-depleted Liberty Reservoir north of Baltimore, near an old family cemetery ("Harold and Elizabeth Scheid: Unselfish love of farm, friends, family, and each other")
through tidal mud flats and low marshy vegetation to the very edge of the water on Australia's Swan Bay Foreshore, a sanctuary for wading birds
across the highway from the Black River Brewing Company in Cavendish, VT (where Richard just had to try the ale; funny how often that happens when out Geodashing)
in a random spot in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, 250 square miles of dry lakebed (you know you might be Geodashing when you drive back and forth past faint tire tracks heading away from the main road, before you finally stop and ask yourself, "Could that be a road?")
at the very top of New Hampshire's Storrs Hill Ski Area's main ski run, at the base of a large star that they light at night up during the winter (the Geodashing gods work in mysterious ways)
at the end of a long, treacherous drive up California's Mt. Hamilton, home of the Lick Observatory. (In 1000 square miles of mountains with only one road, the Geodashing Llamas placed this dashpoint only 250 meters from the road. Another mystery.)
about 1.5 km offshore in Lake Ontario (so close and yet so far)
a spot in a North Carolina swamp guarded by a smallish black bear (a dashpoint passed up by Kevin, who, "city-boy though I am, I know that swamps of uncertain water depth are not healthy.")
in the middle of a field of grape vines south of Cognac, in Angeac Champagne (visited as part of Dave Hinn's Le Grand dash Francais)
in a Florida swamp, beyond the bumpy paved road, beyond the gravel road, past the last house on the two dirt tracks through the 12 foot high brush (not really a road, more like a "tunnel into the wilderness"), even beyond the very last "For Sale" sign ("if you haven't sold this land by now, you never will, I think.")
beside an airfield in Massachusetts, an airfield not on the maps, home to vintage aircraft, including a P-51 Mustang fighter that buzzed the field during the dashpoint hunt
in the middle of a UK Ministry Of Defence Rifle range ("The locals said not to worry about the red flags. The MOD rarely fired anything on them.")
and in Montana, near the biggest pile of tires ever seen, and probably near a feedlot, at least according to the nose (ah... the sights and smells of Geodashing reports make you feel like you are there).
Thanks to all the Geodashing players, whose many great reports are quoted here, not always with proper attribution. Complete, original reports are available on the Web site.
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About Geodashing: Geodashing is a game in which players use GPS receivers on a playing field that covers the entire planet. The waypoints, or dashpoints, to be reached are randomly selected. The win goes to who can get to the most dashpoints; that is, if you can get to them at all! Each game has a new set of dashpoints making each game different and unpredictable. For more information and to play, visit http://Geodashing.org .