Bob…who has done it and how long does it take

[Lostby7]

Team Hemisphere and I are thinking about making a BOB run perhaps later in the year, and I was wondering who has done this series and how long does it take?

[Jeremy]

The entire BoB series is temporarily disabled right now… hopefully they are able to get the damaged caches repaired come spring.

Anyway, I did it with Piwko (Keith) and it took us 8 hours with 8 additional regular caches. Several of these other caches weren’t easy park and grabs (required significant hiking), so this probably added 2 hours. I think we also stopped for lunch. So 6 hours would be a conservative estimate, but I’ve talked to folks who claim to have done the series in less than 4 hours.

I have some other tips in my log for BoB 99:

Jeremy’s Log

[Lostby7]

Yep I saw it was disabled as well…What time of year is best to do this series?

6 hours huh….I have been meaning to hit IL one of these days….I have cached in 8 states and haven’t made my way to the one closest to me yet…wierd.

ALso forgot to mention…Great log you wrote 🙂

[Ray]

We had difficulty doing more than 15-20 of them at a time. We never did finish the series. We found that they take about 5-10 minutes each. There are some cachers that finished the series in one day (Lost Grunts, and others). We hope you enjoy the adventure.

[Team Hemisphere Dancer]

That is a good log. But had read on one of the BoB pages that they will delete logs that have a sticker on the cache log. So i’d think a short team name would be good.

I have clip boards and official looking orange vests to use as cover.

[marc_54140]

Did the BoB sries with Miata and GizFinder. Lots of planning! I downloaded all the waypoints into Streets & Trips, and printed out half a dozen or more pages to lay out and tape together. Then, plottted out the route to take to minimize the dirving back and forth.

Best to make a list of the caches in the order in which you will be doing to caches.

A navigational GPS is problably a necessity.

I was the driver. Did not get out of the car for probably more than 15 of them, since they went so fast.

[Team Deejay]

@Team Hemisphere Dancer wrote:

That is a good log. But had read on one of the BoB pages that they will delete logs that have a sticker on the cache log. So i’d think a short team name would be good.

Jim, what is says is that you have to sign or label the logsheet, rather than some other part of the cache (such as the outside of the container, apparently a common practice when people are trying to set speed caching records.) I’m sure you can use your normal label or stamp.

That said, while I haven’t done this series, I guess I don’t really understand the point. It sounds like just a bunch of drive ups in less than spectacular places, which happen to be located the minimum distance apart to maximize cache density (and finding speed). Am I missing something here? I’m sure some of them might be clever hides or nice spots, but that doesn’t seem to be the priority. For my time and gas money, I’d rather find a handful of caches which are scenic or puzzling or educational or physically challenging or even just tricky hides, rather than trudging through the suburbs looking for one film can after another in the same spots. If people like doing this type of series(and from the numbers, it looks like they do), I guess thats fine for them. I just don’t get the attraction.

[Lostby7]

I just don’t get the attraction.

For me it would just be doing something different. I’m not a big fan of driveups either but the series provides for me an excuse to go to IL and also gives me a quirky diversion from my normal caching routine. Also this series will allow me to practice my stealth technique; after this series I could earn my brown belt in steath caching.

[Ray]

@Lostby7 wrote:

I just don’t get the attraction.

…provides for me an excuse to go to IL…

You don’t need an excuse. Within 10 miles of Zion, IL (ZIP 60099) you will find over 100 caches offering almost anything you would want in a cache. Within 50 miles, there are almost 2500 caches. Check out the Batavia area (ZIP 60510) as well, there are over 200 caches within 10 miles. We mixed the BoB caches with others and found it tolerable, but it was the other caches that put some spark into the day. Illinois has a lot of great caches to visit. Don’t wait for the BoBs to be reactivated.

[Team Hemisphere Dancer]

Why does a Geocacher have to justify what caches they want to do?

[Lostby7]

@Trudy & the beast wrote:

@Lostby7 wrote:

I just don’t get the attraction.

…provides for me an excuse to go to IL…

You don’t need an excuse. Within 10 miles of Zion, IL (ZIP 60099) you will find over 100 caches offering almost anything you would want in a cache. Within 50 miles, there are almost 2500 caches. Check out the Batavia area (ZIP 60510) as well, there are over 200 caches within 10 miles. We mixed the BoB caches with others and found it tolerable, but it was the other caches that put some spark into the day. Illinois has a lot of great caches to visit. Don’t wait for the BoBs to be reactivated.

-Thanks I guess I never really considered just heading to IL to cache as there are thousands directly between me and IL that I still haven’t gotten; I guess that is why I stated that I needed an excuse to head to IL. Passing a few thousand caches without stopping just seems wrong somehow (or is that just my OCD showing it’s ugly head).

[marc_54140]

The BoB series is a specific attraction. Brings you to areas where there would not normally be caches, or at least I think so. And the series serves as a challenge – how many can you do, and can you do them in one day?

As Hemi says, Who needs to justify anything? Go out and cache!

[Cheesehead Dave]

@Lostby7 wrote:

I just don’t get the attraction.

For me it would just be doing something different. I’m not a big fan of driveups either but the series provides for me an excuse to go to IL and also gives me a quirky diversion from my normal caching routine. Also this series will allow me to practice my stealth technique; after this series I could earn my brown belt in steath caching.

I think that was the attraction for me… something quirky and different, but a good excuse to spend a day caching with a group of friends.

To answer the question, with careful planning and preparation, we discovered that it’s possible to do all 99 in less than 3:45 which leaves plenty of time for lunch and finding several other excellent area caches.

[Team Bear Bear]

The BoB series is not difficult at all. It’s just something you need to do. Do 1 or do all 99. The series is so talked about and so close you just have to see what it’s all about. The caches are not simply every .1 mile apart, some are close to that, but we took a tour of the north side of Chicago that led us to some beautiful suburbs. One house we passed had a lawn that was cut like a putting green!

Robin & I did them in about 5 hours – just two of us. We also used DeLorme to navigate. Did the series just after a heavy rain/wind storm. Kept a clipboard handy to take notes of the BoB’s that needed maintenance, something Hutt & Loci appreciated. There was only one that we really had to look for. Typically we would guess (correctly) where each one was as we drove up to ground zero.

Signing is probably the most time consuming aspect of the series. Dated stickers are a must (or some other way to sign the logs). Avery 5667 return address labels worked great and can be trimmed to minimize the size. We got 4 stickers out of each label. The log “sheets” are rigid enough that a stamp could also be used quickly and easily.

It’s not about the numbers??? Sometimes it is. If your goal is to boost your stats, this series will do it. If you want to set a personal best for the number of caches you do in a day, this series will do it. If you want to find over 100 caches in a day, this series will (help) do it.

Have fun with it, I don’t care why you do it, it’s just fun. If you go let us know, we might just tag along for part of the trip then go off to get some other caches on our own.

Team Bear Bear (Chris)

[Team Honeybunnies]

Two bunnies, Zuma and WI_Robin did this one together in sub-four not counting the others we did that day. Preplanning and having a plotted paper route are a must. Zuma drove, I navigated and the missus and Robin were our legs. There are some nice lakeshore caches along the way and One Of Seven (or One Of Only Seven, something like that) is a must-do cache. It’s on our favorites list. Go inside if you can.

The caches aren’t a challenge, nor are they scenic, but they stick out because as a whole they’re easily remembered and it’s something tangible to grasp (“Hey! Let’s go do the BoBs!”). This was a four hour drive from Central Wisconsin, so the only reason I ended up down there was because it captured my imagination. Southern Wisconsin has a lot of fine caching between here and there. Having a goal like the BoBs was what got us down there. But, to be honest, if geocaching was only BoBs I wouldn’t have stuck with it very long.

Genius Loci has created a nice magnet that definitely tugged at me. It also was a good excuse for a road trip and to spend a weekend with friends. We have only done a few border caches in Illinois since, and that probably speaks volumes about the lure of the BoBs. Make a weekend of it. There’s some great diversity and some HUGE tree parks that I wouldn’t have expected.

Have fun! It was a memorable day.

[Author]

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