GeoWoodstock XXIII Baton Rouge 2027

06/17/2026

Good morning fellow cachers! Part of the host team arrived in Baton Rouge yesterday. We will be meeting with the CVB the next two days seeing all they have to offer, working with hotels, and other venues to make next year's GeoWoodstock a memorable event.

Remember, most importantly, we want to meet you at the event tonight (Lets Chat about GeoWoodstock XXIII GCBPEA6), 5-6:30pm, at Rally Cap Brewing Company. Come tell us what makes Baton Rouge, well Baton Rouge!

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCBPEA6_lets-chat-about-geowoodstock-xxiii
GeoWoodstock 2027 community Visit Baton Rouge

An Event Cache is a gathering of local geocachers or geocaching organizations. Use a smartphone or GPS device to navigate to the provided coordinates on 6/17/2026 to attend the event.

06/16/2026

DISCLAIMER: The following information comes from the life experiences and research of a Texan who was born in Texas and hasn’t lived anywhere else, but has spent time in Louisiana and around people from Louisiana. Information provided is meant to be fun, educational, and may include safety advice. If you question what you read, do your own research. If the topic is food related, by all means do you own research, and if possible invite me to come with you!

MORE DISCLAIMER: Today’s topic, okra, is going to be emotionally hard for me. I was traumatically forced to eat boiled okra as a kid on many occasions. I hated the stuff. I finally drew the line and sat my ground for a few hours at the table because the nasty stuff went down the wrong pipe. I have never eaten boiled okra (by itself) again. I’ll eat fried to be polite, and I might eat it if you hide it in something, but all kinds of things would happen before I ever put boiled okra in mouth again. So that said…

Okra

Okra comes from a plant native to East Africa. Someone long ago decided we needed it here in the US. I don’t know why.

Taste – According to Google AI, “Okra has a mild, earthy, and slightly grassy flavor often compared to eggplant, asparagus, or green beans. Its taste is subtle, making it a "blank canvas" that takes on the flavors of spices and oils it is cooked with. It is known for a unique, sticky texture—or "slime"—when cut and boiled, which is why it is often fried or roasted to create a crispy texture.” According to me to it has no taste because it isn’t in your mouth long enough to taste it if you eat it boiled. If you get it fried, hopefully there is enough breading that you don’t taste any okra, or it gets burnt and you toss it and order pizza.

If you’re determined to eat it, at least eat it the only way I know tolerable and that’s in Gumbo. We’ll cover Gumbo next week. There’s enough other stuff in Gumbo to hide the okra. It’s used as a thickener in Gumbo. But if you remember last week and the week before, there are other thickener choices.

If I keep going on about okra I’m probably going to say something I shouldn’t. And I know there are okra lovers that are going to read this. They’ll tell you how wonderful it is (gag). But as I say in the first disclaimer, do your own research. And if that involves a taste test just remember I warned ya!

And yeah, this is late today because I'm in Louisiana and was out caching most of the day. The other part was being tourist. Southern Louisiana is awesome!

06/09/2026

Hey there! My name is Nina and my husband is Ray and we are the cachers known as OCrazyS. We started caching in 2004 with our 2 boys and have been hooked ever since. Our sons have since moved off but Ray and I love geocaching.

We are two of the 8 people hosting GeoWoodstock XXIII in Baton Rouge. We were also on the team for the GeoWoodstock XVI (2019) in Fort Worth, TX and are excited to be hosting in Baton Rouge next May.

To learn more about all Baton Rouge has to offer, we and others from the team are coming to visit next week. We are meeting with the CVB and will be having an event (Lets Chat about GeoWoodstock XXIII GCBPEA6) to meet as many Louisianans as we can! We are so excited that Ray and I left early from Texas and are caching our way to you. We traveled through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. We are currently in West Virginia having fun with WVTim’s gadget caches, but we will be in Louisiana next week (via Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi).

Ray and I are really looking forward to meeting everyone in Louisiana. Come join us https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCBPEA6_lets-chat-about-geowoodstock-xxiii

GeoWoodstock 2027 community

06/08/2026

DISCLAIMER: The following information comes from the life experiences and research of a Texan who was born in Texas and hasn’t lived anywhere else, but has spent time in Louisiana and around people from Louisiana. Information provided is meant to be fun, educational, and may include safety advice. If you question what you read, do your own research. If the topic is food related, by all means do you own research, and if possible invite me to come with you!

Filé

Filé is a seasoning made from the leaves of Sassafras trees. Used as a thickener as well as the flavor, it is used in many Cajun and Creole dishes, with two of the most popular being Gumbo and Jambalaya. The Choctaw Indians used it before the Cajuns and Creole. It might be said that Cajun and Creole dishes using filé are a fusion with the Choctaw culture. It will be said that are delicious.

The flavor added is described as earthy, woody, tangy, and may give a hint of root beer. Root beer used to be made from the roots of the Sassafras tree. The roots and bark of the tree contain safrole. If you drank a few gallons of root beer a day you might have increased your chances of getting cancer. Because the FDA thought someone might actually drink gallons of root beer a day, day after day, making root beer from Sassafras was banned. Filé comes from the leaves of the tree which do not contain safrole, so eat all you want.

Filé is added at the end of cooking. If you add while the dish is cooking or still really hot, you could end up with a lumpy, stringy mess. And a little bit goes a long ways.

06/02/2026

We keep getting inquires about the ambassador program…. All of the slots filled up at GeoWoodstock …. But we have something cooking for those that still want to help spread the word! But we will not be adding anymore ambassador spots…. We will always stay true to our word and keep it at 100!

06/01/2026

On Mondays you'll see at least one post on this page covering something that might make you trip to GeoWoodstock in Baton Rouge a little more enjoyable. Today we're going to start with the basis of a lot of Louisana dishes. But first a disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER: The following information comes from the life experiences and research of a Texan who was born in Texas and hasn’t lived anywhere else, but has spent time in Louisiana and around people from Louisiana. Information provided is meant to be fun, educational, and may include safety advice. If you question what you read, do your own research. If the topic is food related, by all means do you own research, and if possible invite me to come with you!

Roux

A roux is the beginning of many dishes in Louisiana. My own mac and cheese starts with a roux. A roux is made by cooking equal parts of fat and flour. It should be cooked long enough to get rid of the flour taste (more on that later). It is used as a thickener for all sorts of stuff.

As a roux cooks, the color goes from a white to a dark brown. How long you let it cook determines what it is used for. The longer it cooks the more favor it gives, but it becomes less of a thickener.

My mac and cheese uses a white roux, cooking for less than 3 minutes. A blonde roux cooks for 3-5 minutes and is used in chowders and pot pies. 6-15 minutes of cooing makes it brown and is good for gravies. And dark brown comes at 20-45+ minutes and is used for Cajun and Creole dishes like gumbo and étouffée.

To make the roux you melt the fat and then whisk in flour. Even after all the flour is whisked in the mixture needs to be stirred constantly. Making a roux can be work!

Some roux rules:
Pour cool liquid into a hot roux, or hot liquid into a cool roux. If you try to break this rule you’ll get a lumpy roux.
If your roux has black specks or smells like burnt popcorn, toss it out and start over. What you had would be very bitter.

And finally, what fats can go into a roux? Whatever fats you have available. This list is only the beginning: butter, ghee, bacon fat, pancetta drippings, duck fat (would be my favorite of the stuff I know), lard, pork, chicken, or turkey. Remember that for the people living here not all that long ago, the grocery store wasn’t around the corner. People used what they had.

05/29/2026

We’re live!!! Log your will attends!!!

There are millions of geocaches worldwide, just waiting for you to find them. There are probably even some within walking distance of where you are right now. Visit Geocaching.com to see just how many geocaches are nearby and to learn how to start finding them.

05/24/2026

Welcome to official page for GeoWoodstock XXIII… we will post information here as it comes available… or look for one of the ambassadors who will also have all the up to date information