2022 Fall Picnic
2022 SLAGA Christmas Party
Bellefontaine CITO November 2022
Cachemas 2022 Bonus Day
SLAGA at GeoWoodstock 2023
2024 SLAGA Spring Picnic
2025 New Year's Day Hike, Fort Bellefontaine
Cachetur 101 Class - March 2025
2025 Winter Potluck
2025 Spring Picnic
2025 Spring Picnic
2025 GigaStock in Morgantown WV
2025 GeoWoodstock, Morgantown, WV
SLAGA at Ted Drewes 2025
2025 Christmas Event
2026 NYD Hike
Crazy Beards!
2026 Winter Potluck
Howl with the Wolves
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- Written by Denmother
- Hits: 4692
One of our favorite things about geocaching is that it takes us to some wonderfully obscure locations. Another thing we love is that geocaching allows us to learn a lot about plants and animals along the way. Although our most recent adventure was not geocaching-related, it still had the elements of going somewhere the average person doesn’t get to see and learning something new that opened our eyes.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of the Tyson Research Center along Highway 44 at Antire Hill, I've always pictured two-headed Tyson chickens running around behind that high-security fence. What you may not know is that, nestled in the middle of the Tyson Research area, are 63 acres devoted to the Endangered Wolf Center (formerly known as the Wild Canid Survival and Research Center) founded by Marlin Perkins. (You know, the guy from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and former director of the St. Louis Zoo.)
For L Frank's birthday, I signed us up for one of the Wolf Center's monthly Wolf Howls. We were given a 15-minute window to be at the Tyson Research Center gate, where someone would let us in and give us instructions on where to go. Pulling up to the gate after dark, we were surprised by the number of cars waiting to go in. We took our place in line, and eventually the gates opened and the cars were allowed in one by one.
The woods were pitch-black on either side of us as we drove about a mile and a half, where we were directed to park along the side of the road. Then we got out of our cars and walked to a World War II-era munitions bunker where the event was to begin. The inside of the bunker was set up with a presentation screen, chairs, information on the animals at the Wolf Center, and even a little gift shop. We were served wine and cheese before taking a seat.
The event began with a Wolf Center employee giving a presentation on the wolves and other endangered species living there. The red wolf, we were told, used to roam Missouri but was almost completely exterminated in the 1800s and early 1900s. By the 1930s, only two packs remained in the wild.
The mission of the Wolf Center (www.endangeredwolfcenter.org) is to provide an “alternative to extinction” for hundreds of wolves and other endangered canids through education, behavioral and reproductive research and carefully managed breeding. The work done there has been responsible for successful reintroduction programs for the Mexican gray wolf and the red wolf.
After the presentation, our group was invited to walk down a gravel road with our flashlights and call to the wolves to see if they would answer. We had walked a few hundred feet when we all stopped in our tracks at the sound of the wolves starting to howl in the distance. We listened to the sound for a few minutes, trying to imagine the terror that early settlers in Missouri said they felt when they heard the wolves’ cry all around them. How could those early accounts be referring to the beautiful, soulful sound we were hearing?
The wolves quieted as suddenly as they had started. One of our guides stayed with us, and the other continued down the road. They were going to each try to howl as if they were lost wolves searching for the pack. First one, then the other guide gave their best rendition of a Mexican grey wolf. I guess the pack wasn’t fooled, because only one wolf felt sorry for us and answered. Then our whole group howled on cue, but the wolves must have been laughing at us at that point, since the only answer we got when we listened for a reply was a train whistle in the distance. We felt lucky to have heard them earlier, and left wanting to return for a daylight tour so we could actually get to see them in their habitats. All in all, a fun, educational experience in an area that I would have otherwise never been able to see. What more could a geocacher wish for? Maybe next time I’ll spot one of those two-headed chickens.
Group Caching as It Ought to Be
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- Written by twolpert
- Hits: 5203
Pictured: L Frank, Denmother, Mikeinmo, Crowesfeat30, Repmul, Strider, Quailman2 (both of them), twolpert, javapgmr
On Saturday, November 19, ten SLAGA members went on a group hunt. A power trail? Reliving the glory of MOGAs past? Not so much. Most of us drove 190 miles each way - and one of us came from Iowa - to find a single cache. And it was worth it!
Q1 2026 ‘Scrabble’ Challenge Winner
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 292
TerriBikes+ showed some “PIZZAZZ” in the 2026 first quarter adventure awaits 'scrabble' challenge. Having four Zs at 10 points each with the event Z doubled, added up to a whopping 55 point score to win her a $25 gift card to Paneras and this first quarter highlight.
Terri commented: "I trekked, biked, and even hobbled in a foot boot, the last few weeks, for many miles and many smiles this first quarter to achieve my personal goal of gathering all 26 letters. I wanted the chance to make any high scoring word I could. But after hundreds of finds, with multiples of most letters, I realized I actually had four Zs! It was an obvious choice then to pick the word I did, and soon realized I only used four of the 26 letters! 😁 It was luck really that I happened to already have planned trips to visit family and for other purposes where a Z cache awaited me. Many thanks to the SLAGA board for coming up with such a fun and unique quarterly challenge. I'm looking forward to the next."
Not only did Terri achieve the adventure awaits win this first quarter, but also ended up finding her 10,000th geocache in March as well!
Congratulations on this win, Terri, and keep caching your way to 25K as many more Adventures Await!
Mark Twain Lake Hosts Earth Day Activities
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The event featured several different activities, ranging from building a bird house to planting trees. It was held at the M.W. Boudreaux Memorial Visitors Center and the Frank Russell Reaction Area.
Earth Day has been celebrated at Mark Twain Lake for more than 20 years. The groups that work with the Park on the event include the St. Louis Area Geocachers Association, the Lakes of Missouri Volunteer Program, and several others.
Toni Lake and her family enjoyed all of activities at the event, ranging from geocaching to building bird houses.
"They enjoyed it a lot because they got to play with gadgets like GPS and they enjoyed getting bird houses made because that was kind of hands-on and they got to participate in that," Lake said of her sons.
She found Earth Day to be the perfect opportunity to teach her sons to appreciate the outdoors.
"You have to teach them, they're not going to learn without a good example. It's a lot easier just to sit inside and watch TV and play video games," said Lake.
Ranger Ben Sapp that the goal of the event was to get people back in touch with nature.
"Unfortunately, we're losing touch with some of the basic things that a lot of us did when we were growing up. We're trying to find ways to infuse that," Sapp said.
Gene Havens, a geocacher who volunteered to run a presentation about his hobby at the event, said there was another lesson to be learned from the event.
"Everyone should be familiar with their surroundings and need to help preserve them, because our kids will need an earth and their kids will need an earth," Havens said.
For Lake and her family, enjoying nature and taking care of it go hand in hand.
"We're teaching them about having fun outside, which is a good reason to protect it."
More than 50 people attended the event, which began at 9 a.m. and lasted into the early afternoon.
December 2025 Champ
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 394
Congratulations to Trailliart, Jesse McCarty, SLAGA's December 2025 Adventure Awaits Challenge Winner! He has participated in Adventure Awaits since August and won this past month, with these qualifying Cachemas caches and an event.
GCBEWXT Day 6 - 2025 Cachemas in STL
GCBEQKG Day 11 - 2025 Cachemas in STL
GCBDYTJ Day 9 - 2025 Cachemas in STL [FTF]
GCB1XZB 2025 Community Celebration Event-Last Chance
Amazingly, Jesse has only been geocaching for one year, even though he'd heard about it 15 years ago. In Jesse's short caching history, he's found nearly 750 caches, but is currently 'streak' caching with 333 consecutive days as of this article posting. He also only has 15 D/T spots left to complete a Fizzy grid, but already has six 5/5s. He also only has 18 upcoming days left to complete the 366 calendar day grid.
An achievement that amazes this geocaching journalist is that Jesse solved and completed 'The Architect' mega-multi just 6 months into caching! When asked about a favorite caching memory, Jesse stated that his, "most favorite moment geocaching was completing The Architect (GC4CQ9V). When I first learned of that cache, it was early on I my caching days and I didn't know where to begin. Eventually, I not only learned how to get started, but I did it entirely on my own in just under a month." Now that's impressive!
And what's even more impressive and makes Jesse a champ of another kind is a personal accomplishment he shared.
"I use to weigh north of 260 lbs, but got down to about 157 lbs by late October 2024. Following that, I wanted to take part in physical activities, such as walking a number of miles per day to stay fit. In the first half of January 2025, I remembered about geocaching and figured that might be an interesting way to stay active. I don't regret any bit of that decision at all."
Jesse has been an outdoorsy person since a child. He says he "likes to explore the woods and go on long hikes. Forest-Ghost caches have made it especially fun for me to go in the woods, because I didn't know you could find so many unusual things such as abandoned structures and decades old cars."
Geocaching certainly seems like the perfect fit for Jesse. Extending congratulations again to him on his December win, but also for his caching prowess and personal achievements and success!
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