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How about a James Bond theme next year?
As in 007.
I have some ideas for Bond caches.Todd thank you for your input. Just take a peek at the cash page which LB7 eluded to be very long that’s due to the fact that there’s many social events going on. The event was very much focused on the social portion. We had games and meet and greets and many other events in addition to the cash bash. It was definitely not just about 66 caches. As a matter fact one of the funnest games that the cashers play is Geo bingo where they meet other cashers to try fill their card by meeting other cachers.
Relating to your concerns about The ecological input, many cashers I spoke to said that they didn’t even run into other cashers on the trails. The cash placements were spread out for a reason. Our committee strives and takes pride in placing caches where the territory can handle that magnitude of people. It’s kind of a Catch-22 because if people in our community hide park n grabs where no environment is damaged, they get hung up to dry. However when cashers put hides out in forests or areas meant for hiking, there is still a negative implied. You can’t have it both ways there has to be some place to put them right?
Caches are archived each year to make room for the new heights, but we also have very creative hiders on board who will utilize and show the people in our event new places and new parks in the area.
I’m not aware of any flowerbeds having been trampled. We learned a lesson on that one on the very first year. The grass that’s been trampled will grow back, I Know it grows too fast at least in my yard. 😉 Next year will be our seventh year and I haven’t seen any severe ecological impacts from six years of cashing prior. As a matter fact I haven’t found many of Prior years caches due to being on the committee, I do go to visit them now, they’re hard to find because the area is back to its natural state. I myself am more concerned about geocaches Placed on high mountaintops in eco-sensitive areas than I would be on a few grassy areas and bouquets of poison ivy here in Wisconsin. Not trying to downplay what you’re saying because I get it, but in reality this is going on all over the world With mega events being held every week. I have a feeling, it is my personal feeling, that we will be looking at a super mega cash icon coming soon.
Hope you come out next year and get to see what it’s really like. I think you will be happily surprised. 🙂
By the way I do know how to spell cache and cachers, but my AutoCorrect does not lol!!
Ranger boy that is awesome! Never even thought of that. I will definitely bring that to the committee’s attention and seriously consider that!!! thank you very much For the positive input!!!!
Good point on the proxcimity issue Ldove…
LDove, I like your Lucky Seven idea. Or how about a “Magnificent Seven” Western theme? You could have a lot of fun with the cowboy/bandits theme.
I did do a few of the2012 WBCB caches on Thursday and I can attest to how nature covered over the trampled trail in just one year.
There was no path and the grass was 5-6 ft high most of the way.
Following the signals from space.
I would agree that While many people love the fact that there are so many caches in a small area, simply adding more to the point of saturation is not the best option. Anyone with a garden knows that you have to thin things out once in awhile in order for quality to grow. If there are too many caches in one area, without some turnover, the challenge goes away. West Bend is turning into one big power trail where you hardly need a GPSr to figure out where to look. Don’t get me wrong, there are numerous challenging caches in West Bend but trends indicate quantity reigns higher than quality. There are many hiders who have fantastic imagination and ingenuity contributing to the Bash hides and those are the ones that get remembered. I would hope that the chamber would encourage that aspect versus touting the number of caches in the area.
thank you to all those that contributed to the success of the bash through their hiding of caches.
(and those who went out seeking them)Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
@thepharmgirl wrote:
LDove, I like your Lucky Seven idea. Or how about a “Magnificent Seven” Western theme? You could have a lot of fun with the cowboy/bandits theme.
. Great!!! I like that too! If I can get Craig to go with the theme for next year and convince him, would you be able to help me with setting up the cache page? I’d like to be able to have it looking kind of different and theme related. Some cachers on the other boards are wanting to see an Indiana Jones theme – which I think would also be really fun. “Raiders of the lost cache” ????
This was our first year and had fun. The caches were fun and not 100 P&G like some events I have attended. I understand the chamber wants people to go to the local establishments but not support another cachers event. If I am not wrong I’d guess a lot of the food and beverages at the event were most likely bought at the local stores. Instead of not helping help in any way you can. I also feel that a lot of the local caches were wet and not well maintained. I feel if a event of this magnitude as the bash is a mega some maint. should be done to all caches and not worry about the new ones which were really fun.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
@ldove wrote:
Hope you come out next year and get to see what it’s really like. I think you will be happily surprised. 🙂
Thanks for the offer, but large events are not my thing. I prefer small Meet & Greet type events as well as geocaching classes events (GSAK, learning first aid in the field, etc)
Good luck next year.
I love themes. A pirate theme or a James Bond theme would be fabulous! I thought the caches this year, for the most part, were well done. I, like everyone else, love the groupings. It is great to be able to park the geomobile and spend an hour and sometimes more, hiking an area and doing the caches there.
The one complaint I do have is on one of the Goonie caches. First of all, I think it was listed as a traditional and it was not a traditional. It was an offset. While I certainly like and appreciate the variety, this particular offset had you going so many paces in the direction of the arrow. That is all fine and well if the arrow is permanently pointed in the right direction. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived (about 4:20 p.m.), the arrow was not pointed in the correct direction so it was very frustrating trying to figure out which direction was correct. A cache like that needs to be categorized correctly and also the directional arrow needs to be permanently pointing in the correct direction.
Other than that – Dr. Doolittle hides were by far my favorite, followed closely by Goldie Diggers and then probably the Goonies. The bike path was nice also. Well done everyone. Loved socializing. I did the Bingo card for the first time this year and had fun with that as I would ask Cachers I met on the trail.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
wasn’t the arrow one you hold up and line up a couple things to get you lined up in the right direction? so it should of not been a fixes arrow
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
So here’s one thing that I love about the Bash. On Friday night we were sitting around the tables at Regner chatting because we were tired from caching. I know all kinds of geocachers but my husband isn’t quite as obsessed as I am and mostly knows just our local regulars. Anyway, he started talking to some guys from Delaware who wanted to know where they could get a good Wisconsin brat. Well we were planning on grilling some Usinger brats that night and so we invited them to join us. They went to the local grocery store and purchased a few things and we had dinner together. We had a great time talking with them. They were working on a challenge where they were trying to find caches with lots of favorite points and so we filled them in on all of the best local caches. We also ended up meeting people from Texas, Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina, etc. I also got to meet up with people whose caches I’d found around the state but never gotten to put a face to a name.
AND I got to meet The Geocaching Vlogger, now that was cool! I was like a silly fan girl. 🙂
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
I was able to attend this year’s event, as well as the previous five. I appreciate the efforts made to improve it each year. Specific problems that I had were addressed as they occurred and were not related to committee preparation or event staff. (for example, hotel issues) One thing, as mentioned as another cacher’s concern, I was also confused about the multis/offsets, and therefore had to depend on the kindness of strangers to point out what wasn’t made clear in the booklet description. I did like the groupings of caches and was especially grateful for the parking coordinates. While I didn’t use a bike provided on the trail, I considered it, and thought it was a very good idea. I am not opposed to a Lucky 7/gambling theme. Maybe the event theme could be “7”, and there could be many caches with different themes of variations on seven. Also, you probably already do this in some fashion, but ask the local businesses how you can improve things from their perspective. Not just how to increase revenue, but how the event can be more respectful of their customers or property, or maybe more would like to be included as venues.
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