This topic contains 9 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by 
HamFam 6 years, 7 months ago.
-
Posts
-
I need assistance with planning & developing a geocaching scavenger hunt event in the Conover area for this summer (July 20th).
littorella
Hi Rollie, there are a few people out there that have done something similar, so getting you help shouldn’t be impossible although, I don’t know how many use the forums. Anyway, what exactly do you have planned? And what do u need help with?
By the way, personally I get really really excited about atypical caches and events. Nothing wrong with the tried and true. I still use that style myself. But I love it when people get creative and think outside the box.
Give us some questions and we’ll try to give you some answers.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
HamFam,
The event is the second Annual Don Gillum Bike/Hike to be held on the Conover – Phelps Biking/Hiking Trail. The first event, last summer, dedicated a bench to his memory and was a bike ride & hike (not a race). This years’ event is themed (scavenger hunt/geocaching) to attract families and those who are not familiar with geocaching. At this time there are no permanent geocaches located on the trail (there are 8.3 miles of completed trail). I will place a couple of geocaches along the trail early this summer and place them on geocaching.com. The type of help I need is advice on the best way to inform participants of the grid coordinates for the geocaches (6-8 of them). Since this is a 1-day event and the caches will not be permanent, I can’t use geocaching.com. I was thinking about handing out the grid coordinates when participants register and they can enter them into their GPA device/phone. Anther question is that I have tried communicating with woodcarverdan who had constructed some terrific geocaches but he has not responded. Can I copy his designs giving him credit for the design? Also, How can I get the word out to other geocachers in the area? Finally, participants will be either biking or hiking to the caches and I want to make it a fun day, what suggestion might you have to keep this simple, family friendly and fun? Thanks. littorella
I can’t speak for woodcarverdan, but he is a friend of mine. He became disillusioned with geocaching for a variety of reasons, and has removed himself from the game entirely, except for the caches that he had placed. Some of them have been adopted by other cachers. As far as copying his designs, I believe that Dan got most of his ideas from YouTube videos, especially WVTim’s videos. If you want to get in touch with Dan, try going through Facebook. He has a group called Knives Forged In Fire by Dan Haack his new passion.
As for your event, I have done something similar, though on a smaller scale. Our event was along a 2 mile hiking trail. We placed 8 temporary caches along the trail. We had a dozen GPS units from the local school district, that we loaded with the cache coordinates. Then we sent out groups, mostly families, with the GPS units. We had printed lists with the coordinates for those with their own GPS units. If you can’t get enough GPS units to loan out, you may want to consider a GPS-less method for locating the caches. For example, hang a piece of colored flagging along the trail and give the participants instructions like, “Go north 30 feet from the flag.”
Since you are placing temporary caches, keep it fun for the kids by including SWAG that will appeal to them. I placed temp caches with candy inside for a scouting event recently. If you list the event on GC.com it should get picked up and added to the event list on the WGA website and facebook page.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
I’ve always thought it, Big Jim is a wealth of knowledge. Great advice Jim.
Rollie, last years events sounds like it would’ve been a lot of fun for me. And this years sounds very promising.
Have you considered making the caches permanent? If you’ve got a 8 mile stretch, you could put out some permanent ones, this year, more next year and so on. Or you could skip a year or two, if you don’t want the event to be all about geocaching. Remember permanent caches only have to be 1/10th a mile apart, so you should have plenty of room for more caches in the future.
As far as getting the word out, like Big Jim said, create an event on geocaching.com (it’s not hard, but there’s plenty of people to help if needed). Which will hopefully link to the WGA event page, never looked into that, but other events show up…so it must work. And from the WGA page a lot of stuff links to the WGA FB page. Other than that, does your annual event have a FB page? That would be a good way to get the word out. I don’t use twitter or any other social media, so I cant speak for those.
Another option, assuming you can’t get GPS’s for a day. A lot of people cache with just their smartphones. Now that’s usually done via an app that accesses Geocaching.com, and since your caches may not be loaded on Geocaching.com, you may need an alternative. My thoughts would be to find an app that allows users to type in geographical coordinates and then directs them to the destination. I can’t speak off hand for any particular apps, as I really only use apps designed to access Geocaching.com’s api. But I’m sure there are some out there. If you go this route, I would have the app name on your printed out page of coordinates. You’d want to keep in mind that you may be drawing in people that have never used a compass, GPS coordinates, or even downloaded apps to their smartphones. So anything you can do to make that easier for would help things run more smoothly.
Another thing that pops into my mind, is cellular coverage. If people are showing up to download an app on their smartphone, but the event is in the middle of the woods, and there aren’t very many cell towers around. They may not be downloading anything. I know there are “hotspot devices” out there that can be useful in this situation, but I’m not very familiar with those either. Otherwise, is there a building that allows the public to access WIFI close by (thinking a ranger station at a state park situation)?
More random thoughts, in no particular order… if you are going to have people downloading a generic app, there will most likely be questions, during downloading, installing, but also using out on the bike hike. It would probably make sense that whatever app you use, you would want to play with it a lot ahead of time, to make sure you know the ins and outs of it. And maybe even have someone stationed at the first geocache, in case people have problems after they leave the starting area.
Hope this at least stimulates more questions/ideas. I’m guessing a lot of these ideas, you’ve already thought about, but just in case you haven’t here there are.
Cache on my friends.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
Adding on to what HamFam said, if you create an event, we promote Wisconsin events weekly on our WGA FB page. However, make certain to read the event guidelines that are set forth by HQ as some events will not be approved if they tie into other events in the surrounding area.
Another good idea would be to check with the chamber of commerce and see if they can help or donate some things for your scavenger hunt. They may also have GPSrs available to borrow. Some chambers have even placed their own geocaches. At one time, St. Germain Chamber had a couple of placed caches in the area.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
HamFam, BigJim, rawevel & hacker1od2,
Thank you for all your suggestions—they have been very helpful. My take-a-way from your suggestions are the following; 1) establish permanent caches on GC.com.( I have several out there now so this not a problem) 2)Establish for beginners mile marker clues or flags to find the caches. 3) Enter the event in the GC.com event section. And 4), I have obtained many great ideas for imaginative cache construction from YouTube (WVTim video).
Again, thank you all for your assistance and Happy Geocaching!! Join us on July 20th in Conover for the Don Gillum Memorial Bike/Hike Scavenger.Geocaching event.
littotella
HamFam, BigJim, rawevel & hacker1od2, Thank you for all your suggestions—they have been very helpful. My take-a-way from your suggestions are the following; 1) establish permanent caches on GC.com.( I have several out there now so this not a problem) 2)Establish for beginners mile marker clues or flags to find the caches. 3) Enter the event in the GC.com event section. And 4), I have obtained many great ideas for imaginative cache construction from YouTube (WVTim video). Again, thank you all for your assistance and Happy Geocaching!! Join us on July 20th in Conover for the Don Gillum Memorial Bike/Hike Scavenger.Geocaching event. littotella
Good luck! It sounds like a fabulous time!
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
That’s odd, my post disappeared.
Good luck and cache on. Sounds fun.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.