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Much of Rock Island is State Natural Area which is closed to caching, so there isn’t a lot of room for temporaries. I wasn’t suggesting that we try to pepper the remaining area with temps, but rather that a few quality caches be set out. I wouldn’t want the Getaway to metamorphose into another frenzied event with everyone bustling about trying to find forty to sixty caches. My personal opinion would be five temps maximum, even that might be too many.
On the other hand, this is a caching event, so we should have some caches. Otherwise we may be told that our event should be listed on beertown.org rather than geocaching.com!
I don’t log a find for every cache at an event either. My thoughts regarding a list of island highlights with coordinates weren’t intended to ring up a bunch of cache find’s in the logs, but instead to serve as a guidebook to newcomers.
Finally, 2006 is the perfect year to accomplish the secret goal.
TS
quote:
Originally posted by Cathunter:
DCexplorer- I emailed you a couple of days ago and never heard back…. did you not receive?No, I did not… I even checked my junk mail folder, but it’s not there.
Please email me again. Here’s two addresses that work.
[email protected]
[email protected]thanks.
Many thanks to “Really, I’m Not Lost” for contributing to the reservation fund. I will make the reservation in a week or so when some other seed money arrives.
quote:
Originally posted by TS:
Much of Rock Island is State Natural Area which is closed to caching, so there isn’t a lot of room for temporaries. I wasn’t suggesting that we try to pepper the remaining area with temps, but rather that a few quality caches be set out. I wouldn’t want the Getaway to metamorphose into another frenzied event with everyone bustling about trying to find forty to sixty caches. My personal opinion would be five temps maximum, even that might be too many.On the other hand, this is a caching event, so we should have some caches. Otherwise we may be told that our event should be listed on beertown.org rather than geocaching.com!
Finally, 2006 is the perfect year to accomplish the secret goal.
TS
I agree. With the official listing, I will include a map of the SNA so all people will know what’s off limits.
I think we all agree that it’s more important to see the island’s sites and take in some of those fascinating history lessons offered by the park staff rather than run around caching all day. I, myself, (as reluctant founder of this event) will provide at least five temps as part of the (minimally) organized events. It would be nice to have a few more.
I think most people last year agreed that the temps were as challenging as perms, while I liked the night cache set up by Team GeoPink, although I was too pooped to pursue.
It would be really nifty if we could get the park rangers involved in temporary hides. I bet they know some great secret spots on the island…..
Bec
As we make our plans for this years Getaway, it might be wise to review the logs of the ill-fatedKeepers Cache GC7A8D
TS
DC being the reluctant founder, are you collecting funds yet? Is there anything I can do from the West coast of the State.
One Idea maybe to have an orientering type cache where people go to the various locations, note there position and compare notes at the base camp?
There are many archeological sites on the island to be explored. The light house, cemetaries, the great hall(Boat house), water tower are just a few examples there were a number of things I didnt know about the island until I spent the afternoon with TS, Lorie, Patriot1, and Geopoo: who are a great group of people(and dog) helping me find my first cache!!!
Just an Idea for things to do, that way there are no CPV’s (CACHE PLACEMENT VIOLATIONS)commited, we can learn more about the area, and there is still the challange of finding everything on the island.quote:
Originally posted by Geo-Raider:
One Idea maybe to have an orientering type cache where people go to the various locations, note there position and compare notes at the base camp?
There are many archeological sites on the island to be explored. The light house, cemetaries, the great hall(Boat house), water tower are just a few examples there were a number of things I didnt know about the island until I spent the afternoon with TS, Lorie, Patriot1, and Geopoo: who are a great group of people(and dog) helping me find my first cache!!!
Just an Idea for things to do, that way there are no CPV’s (CACHE PLACEMENT VIOLATIONS)commited, we can learn more about the area, and there is still the challange of finding everything on the island.I like that Idea
Regarding cache placement violations: Here is a link to the WDNR’s description of the
Rock Island Woods State Natural Area and a pdf map showing the boundaries.If you’re not following the discussion in the Geo-Camping folder, we’re getting some good publicity.
I will make the reservation this weekend, but it will take a few weeks for my credit card statement to arrive, so I believe that with passing the hat, I can have it covered by myself and by you guys so that I won’t have to carry a CC balance until June.
I thought that asking parties for $25 a group to pay for camping for two nights is a fair price. Those of you who are helping with seeding money will be reimbursed that weekend. If you reserve your own campsite, a smaller donation will be asked for, preferably in brown 12 oz. bottles.
If we have lots of attendees, and the collected money far exceeds the cost of the campsite and firewood, we will take a vote to either
a.) refund money
b.) donate to “Friends of Rock Island”
c.) donate to another charity
d.) buy DCexplorer a Garmin E-trex Legend Color GPS (my preference)As far as orienteering and such activities goes, remember that matter23 and phloodpants searched (unsuccessfully) for a long-lost benchmark supposedly located on the island. Metal detectors, anyone?
This would be quite a coup for Geocaching if this was actually located.
http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=QL0615[This message has been edited by DCexplorer (edited 01-20-2006).]
quote:
Originally posted by Cathunter:
The group site will make for the ultimate spot for the nightly gathering around the campfire and discussion of beer and Johnny Cash. Now all we need is a guitar player.We DID have J.C. playing last summer off of the iPod, but I think you were out on the water, chasing swans. I will bring him back again, though. What can be more satisfying than sitting around the campfire next to the shore with new and old friends, drinking Leinie’s and listening to J.C.?
[This message has been edited by DCexplorer (edited 01-20-2006).]
The reservation is now made. I took the GS II site, which holds 40 people, rather than the GS I site, which holds 60 people, due to the price difference. The smaller site was $170, and the larger site was $250.
quote:
Originally posted by DCexplorer:
What can be more satisfying than sitting around the campfire next to the shore with new and old friends, drinking Leinie’s and listening to J.C.?
Sitting around the campfire next to the shore with new and old friends, drinking Blatz, watching a Pink Floyd concert on a wide-screen TV in surround sound, with everyone stirring coconuts to supply the power, then capping the evening off with a slice of coconut cream pie.
A little tidbit about group sites, one thing the WGA learned about booking groups sites is, reserve the site at the minimum booking. If you don’t have an exact head count, you can book the site for say 15 or 20 people.
When you get to the park and have a final head count, you give the park employees the final number and pay the extra you owe. This makes it more financially viable to have a single person reserve the sites ahead of time. You can then collect money from people and pay the rest later.
In our early days, we paid for the amount of people that RSVP’d and ended overpaying. At our 1st campout, about 50% of those registering didn’t show up. We paid for them in advance our of our personal pockets. Luckily the park refunded the money we overpaid. That is when we learned we could underpay to reserve, and catch up later.
This info might come in handy for anyone planning an event.
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