Cache Bash 2009 – suggestions?

[jerrys dad]

@thepharmgirl wrote:

Thoughts…

“You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

@marc_54140 wrote:

…Have more activities to do at the park. A second bingo card with Team Names, perhaps a 3rd with faces. Selected cachers have an item to turn over if someone introduces themselves. A Team bingo card – which team has completed the most objectives. Etc ….
Weigh the socializing with the caching – give lots of tickets for that as well.

Would anyone OPPOSE giving out more tickets for the socializing aspect?
Does anyone have additional ideas for park activities throughout the day?

Any other comments, concerns, suggestions?? The event itself.. the caches…anything. Things you liked? Keep all comments coming. Not everyone will agree on everything, but the comments are all very useful, and the committee is keeping a close eye on this thread!!

For me, the socializing is while we are actually doing the caching, not while in the park. We came up for a geocaching event, socializing at a geocac, for me geocaching at a geocaching event should count more than socializing at a geocaching event. We defiantly would not be involved in any extra socializing events to gain more raffle tickets, Jerry would not have the patience and isn’t that what the pre and post bash events were for. As a matter of fact I might come but not concern myself with the new ones, and the raffle, other than to get numbers. To make socializing as important as actually finding caches would lessen the experience for us. I hope I am not offending anyone but that is my opinion.

[baileyhk]

Firstly a huge thanks for a great event.. I had a fab time!!

In terms of suggestions for the future –
I didn’t have a cache goal in mind for the event but in the future if I don’t have my kids with me I would probably like to have a go at getting all the caches on offer. This year I did some of the longer hike ones and enjoyed these just as much as the quick ones.

I wrote this on my survey and this has already been mentioned, but as one with small kids, the more kid activities the better – this has to be a great way for them to enjoy the event and want to cache more in the future. If certain caches were designated as kid-friendly i.e. easier terrain, ammo cans with kid stuff in, or other points of interest that children in particular would enjoy that would be great. This could even mean temporary caches such as the one at the Friday event. Also, perhaps a key to those caches which are NOT kid friendly (ie lots of bushwhacking etc) so we know which ones to avoid. BTW – loved the roller skate cache!

Geocoins – I would have bought one if there had been some on sale. I heard many others say the same.

The goodie bag was great – got me 50% of my hotel room for the second night which was a treat, plus I liked the pathtag and other local info/ offers. I was more than happy to bring business to local vendors.. keeps everyone happy.

As far as prizes go – sure the idea that you have a chance at winning something is nice but certainly not the driving force behind the event. I think more things like geocoins, T-shirts, groundspeak stuff would be great.. although I know some stuff was handed out as prizes. In fact, it would be great to have them their as vendors – I am sure they’d sell a ton of stuff.

Anyway – that’s my input. Like I said – it was a great event and thanks for all that you did. I am looking forward to next year.

[thepharmgirl]

@jerrys dad wrote:

For me, the socializing is while we are actually doing the caching, not while in the park.

It is not offensive… just your opinion. 😀

Unfortunately, the definition of a “geocaching event” MUST include more than just an organized cache hunt. It would not get published without the socializing aspect in the park, and we almost didn’t get published last year until we added more “stuff” like the social hour, treasure box, geocaching class, etc.

Directly from Groundspeak:

“Event caches are gatherings that are open to all geocachers and which are organized by geocachers…. An event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together cachers for an organized hunt of another cache or caches….”

[amita17]

[greyhounder]

Just a thought I had — this was a Cache Ba$h. The point was to find a lot of caches for the possibility of winning prizes (more importantly, money). The name to me implies the caching and prize aspect of the event, not the socializing. People come to find caches and get raffle tickets.

(Myself, I enjoyed seeing people at the bash and having a good time. I found a few caches, but wasn’t there with any intention of finding them all or being able to win prizes — I’m just not that lucky.)

I actually saw the pre, post and pancake breakfast as more of the social opportunities. In my mind anyway, the Cache Ba$h was about the contest.

This was a very well organized and run event. I had a great time and am really looking forward to next year.

Bec

[kansas64]

Great Event

The one thing our group had a complaint with was the fact the map had the 900 numbers you used for the caches on it, bu the cache download did not have those numbers in the download. It kept us searching thru a booklet that had both items together. Can we please get the GC# or the GSAK Smart Names on the map instead

Thanks

[Jeremy]

@kansas64 wrote:

The one thing our group had a complaint with was the fact the map had the 900 numbers you used for the caches on it, bu the cache download did not have those numbers in the download. It kept us searching thru a booklet that had both items together. Can we please get the GC# or the GSAK Smart Names on the map instead

How did you download the caches? And what type of GPS units were you using?

If you got the caches downloaded at the event, then you should have seen the 09xx numbers in your GPS. Similarly the GPX file available in advance from the westbendgeocaching.com site also used the 09xx numbers for the waypoint code. If you created your own Pocket Query and got the information from geocaching.com then you could have had trouble getting the 09xx codes… but that was never the recommended way to go.

We do realize that we have some work to do to make the GPX files we create more “friendly” for the Oregon/Colorado folks… there was a bit of confusion created by the way the caches showed up in these units.

[jerrys dad]

@Jeremy wrote:

@kansas64 wrote:

The one thing our group had a complaint with was the fact the map had the 900 numbers you used for the caches on it, bu the cache download did not have those numbers in the download. It kept us searching thru a booklet that had both items together. Can we please get the GC# or the GSAK Smart Names on the map instead

How did you download the caches? And what type of GPS units were you using?

If you got the caches downloaded at the event, then you should have seen the 09xx numbers in your GPS. Similarly the GPX file available in advance from the westbendgeocaching.com site also used the 09xx numbers for the waypoint code. If you created your own Pocket Query and got the information from geocaching.com then you could have had trouble getting the 09xx codes… but that was never the recommended way to go.

We do realize that we have some work to do to make the GPX files we create more “friendly” for the Oregon/Colorado folks… there was a bit of confusion created by the way the caches showed up in these units.

I have a garmin legend and did not get any of the 900 numbers either. this made it hard to find which cache I was going for. Lucky for me I had Elfdoctors caching with me and he could look those things up. I don’t think his had it either. On the other hand my GPX file from geocaching.com did have them on my nuvi. I actually cached with my nuvi as a hand held zoomed way in most of the day.

[Lostby7]

@Jeremy wrote:

We do realize that we have some work to do to make the GPX files we create more “friendly” for the Oregon/Colorado folks… there was a bit of confusion created by the way the caches showed up in these units.

Ya I’m not sure what was up with the DL I got on my Oregon (at the court house). Some of the wps were shown on my unit with large icons some were small…and I think they all showed up as waypoints not as geocaches in the unit….and no page descriptions. It took me a bit to figure out how to find the listings…but then I just searched for them by the numbers I saw on the map…..no big deal, I still managed to work it out and get on with my day.

Not sure what is the best way…had I had wifi I would have tried to dl them from another source….but I was very out of the loop as to where the information would be made available aside from at the courthouse.

….maybe I missed an anouncement of some sort though?

[elfdoctors]

I had done a pocket query before I left town and then got the event caches downloaded during the Friday event (and BTW, would have preferred to have done it in my hotel room rather than waiting in line). My Oregon did receive the cache pages and descriptions but did not have the code names so I never knew what the event caches were. I also did not get a copy of the event map so I needed Jerry’s Dad and Northern Lightz to tell me this information. Fortunately our goal was numbers rather than event caches so it didn’t matter as much.

[JimandLinda]

Just out of curiousity…

If we would have had steady to heavy rain for the Cash Ba$h last Saturday, are there any other thoughts on that possibility?

I pm’d a committee member with the possibility of adding the amount of time it would take (approximately) in the program for each cache. If it would have been raining, we would have focused on the shorter walks, and done the remainder on a nice day in the future. We still would have gone to Regner to start and finish the day, but would probably have used our coupons that were in the gift bag to visit the businesses that supported the Mega-Event. So far, 2 years of good, hot weather.

What if?

[LDove]

@JimandLinda wrote:

Just out of curiousity…

If we would have had steady to heavy rain for the Cash Ba$h last Saturday, are there any other thoughts on that possibility?

I pm’d a committee member with the possibility of adding the amount of time it would take (approximately) in the program for each cache. If it would have been raining, we would have focused on the shorter walks, and done the remainder on a nice day in the future. We still would have gone to Regner to start and finish the day, but would probably have used our coupons that were in the gift bag to visit the businesses that supported the Mega-Event. So far, 2 years of good, hot weather.

What if?

Because geocaching is an outdoor sport, basically that would be up to each team to decide if they want to battle the rain or not. It is held rain or shine. I have seen cachers go out in some pretty awful weather so I know it would have affected some, but not all.

[Lostby7]

@LDove wrote:

Because geocaching is an outdoor sport, basically that would be up to each team to decide if they want to battle the rain or not. It is held rain or shine. I have seen cachers go out in some pretty awful weather so I know it would have affected some, but not all.

It would have provided me more incentive to get em all….better odds. I once went out in a full blizzard (at night) and walked on nearly inch thick ice on boardwalks to attempt a FTF…..turned out to be a DNF.

(BTW I have mellowed a bit now and unless the cache is placed in my yard…..which actually happened…..I usually don’t bother going for the FTF).

[Cachelovskys]

@elfdoctors wrote:

I had done a pocket query before I left town and then got the event caches downloaded during the Friday event (and BTW, would have preferred to have done it in my hotel room rather than waiting in line). My Oregon did receive the cache pages and descriptions but did not have the code names so I never knew what the event caches were. I also did not get a copy of the event map so I needed Jerry’s Dad and Northern Lightz to tell me this information. Fortunately our goal was numbers rather than event caches so it didn’t matter as much.

I also created a PQ before heading to West Bend. I went to the Meet and Greet, downloaded the file, didn’t like the format the caches were in, deleted the WGA file, and reloaded my original PQ. Also, I thought it would have been nice to get the “map” at the meet and greet.

Again, that is just picky stuff. It in NO WAY effected my overall thought of the weekend! Great job! Thanks for all of the hard work.

[Decrepit]

@Jeremy wrote:

How did you download the caches? And what type of GPS units were you using?

I’ve got a 60csx and the caches were downloaded the night before at the meet and greet event. Mine didn’t have the 09 codes either.

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