Why do you travel to cache??

[Timberline Echoes]

Last night we attended the meeting about geocaching in our area put on by the chamber, two other geo teams were there too… 2stand and HohmsBoys. The people doing the event are very eager to learn and do whatever it takes to have people come up to the Northwoods, Rhinelander, St. Germain, Boulder Junction to cache. Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? To get many caches in one day? To get discounts on lodging and food? Special coin, or TB? If there were a party with food, dance and prizes? How important are temporaries/permanent caches to most cachers? Would WGA ever hold an event this far north?
Please share thouights and ideas so we can let them know what most cachers think about this.
Thanks,
Timberline Echoes

[Gusty Winds]

@Timberline Echoes wrote:

Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? To get many caches in one day? To get discounts on lodging and food? Special coin, or TB? If there were a party with food, dance and prizes?

Yes 🙂

[GrouseTales]

“Up North” is my second home. It wouldn’t take much to lure me to an event up there, but that’s just me.

For me, I could probably better answer the questions by applying them to a different part of the state. What would lure me to X part of the state for an event?

First off, I would be concerned that a Chamber of Commerce event would be commercial. I’d be worried the caches would be filled with area coupons, or temps hidden in storefronts.

Things to lure me to a Chamber hosted event:

• Discounted hotels
• Nice temp caches
• Quality door prizes or competition prizes
• Breakfast or Dinner banquet
• Nice gifts in caches if they are at commercial locations
• Scenic cache locations
• Nice weather
• No bugs 🙂
• Temps placed at historical locations would be great

Would the WGA ever hold an event that far north? I hope so. I think the North Woods would be a great place to hold an event. I think that Fall would be a great time to hold an event up there.

Fall is a great time of year in the north woods, however, there are many big events up there in fall. Many coloramas, beef-o-rama, cranberry fest, hunting, fall color tours, are already bringing visitors to the North. A Chamber may be more interested in luring visitors during the off-peak seasons, such as spring?

I think the north woods would be a great place for an event.

[Team Deejay]

For me, the main motivation would be to see the highlights of the area, be they historical, geological, or whatever. It would be nice if there were a decent number of caches to find (say more than 10) which took us to those spots, but we don’t need to go all the way to Eagle River to get big numbers. The key is that the locations and the caches themselves need to be great.

The other items listed would have limited appeal for people traveling any significant distance, although a multiday geocaching event/party might draw us in. It is kind of silly to drive 5 hours each way to get a geocoin (although some would do it), and I don’t think lodging/food discounts would make a lot of difference to anyone.

[greyhounder]

@GrouseTales wrote:

beef-o-rama

It’s just wrong that I know what this is, and have actually attended.

I too, love it “up north”. My hope is to live there someday. I love the history, geography and scenery. Caches are a nice added bonus, but by far not the reason I would visit. Travel bugs and geocoins wouldn’t lure me, but I would enjoy them. Discounts are a whole other bird — love the discounts!

I have a cabin in the general area (maybe an hour and a half from Boulder Junction) so I would very likely come to an event, as long as time allows for it. The bigger draw for me is coming to a place I already love and be able to share it with friends.

Bec

[Team Hemisphere Dancer]

I also don’t need much to lure me to the great “Up North.” But I would like to see themed cache runs during an event up there. For instance, having a historical tour using temps to take me to these places with a story linking them together so we could get a hands on education about some of our Wisconsin history. Or perhaps a tour of the parks/ Lakes or other places of interest. That way I can see what they have to offer for future fishing/camping trips.

[elfdoctors]

Geocaching has made me more interested in travelling everywhere. However, something special would be required for us to want to travel to a specific destination.

A special event, special kid-friendly caches (perhaps have arcade type tickets in caches redeemable for prizes for kids), hotel discounts (our family wouldn’t mind staying at The Waters in Minoqua again), or special travelbugs (which could be given to someone who found a certain number of caches in the area) would all be enticements. If the promotion were spread out over a longer period, it would make me more likely to travel as I can only clear my schedule on certain weekends.

We live on the other end of state (nearly 200 miles away on the same State Highway 70 which runs through your area) and wouldn’t mind exploring the area again. We have a saltwater fish tank and would love to see the new coral aquaculture facility just opened by Drs Foster and Smith.

Tourism is the number one industry for Burnett County so I am very curious how effectively this grant will be spent. Most of our tourists come from the Twin Cities so we would not be competing for the same market.

[Team B Squared]

@Timberline Echoes wrote:

Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? To get many caches in one day? To get discounts on lodging and food? Special coin, or TB? If there were a party with food, dance and prizes? How important are temporaries/permanent caches to most cachers? Would WGA ever hold an event this far north?
Please share thouights and ideas so we can let them know what most cachers think about this.
Thanks,
Timberline Echoes

We would and have travelled decently far (within Michigan and Wisconsin) to see places of geographical and historic interest while caching and because there are caches to hunt. A cache at these types of places with a good description will get an area on our “to do” list of possible future destinations. However, if we are going to travel to an out of the way destination, there will probably have to be several caches to visit in that area if we are going to make it there (gas is expensive, and what can I say, I love to follow the little arrow around).

Being able to get discounts on lodging (through coupons purchased from radio stations here in the U.P.) have already caused us to take several caching trips to Green Bay/Appleton that we otherwise wouldn’t have taken, or would have went somewhere else. Being able to spend less than $40 on a quality hotel room is quite an incetive to get us to go there for a weekend. With this type of deal in place I know it would cause us to travel to a certain area more often, especially if we enjoy ourselves there on our first visit. For example, we took a day trip over to Eagle River while caching, and were just awestruck by the beauty of the area. Before leaving town, Lynn and I had both decided that we will make it back to this area again sometime in the future. Sometimes, one visit to an area like this is enough to get us to return repeatedly.

I have never hunted a temporary cache, but I don’t really see this as an appeal to me to get me to a new area. A decent number of caches within driving distance is important to us, because we typically travel to cache, not cache because we are travelling.

[LMcGisme]

@Timberline Echoes wrote:

Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? To get many caches in one day? To get discounts on lodging and food? Special coin, or TB? If there were a party with food, dance and prizes? How important are temporaries/permanent caches to most cachers?

While I don’t think we’d that far travel specifically to go caching, if we were planning on camping up north we may well choose one area over another based on the caches available there. In fact that’s why we picked Lake Wissota SP for camping last spring – so we could do the CVB caches.

That said, we’d prefer caches that were available for a few weeks instead of a single day event. Great geographical and historical places would be our favorite – things that show what makes your area unique. Many caches would be a definite plus – not for an easy numbers run, but so you don’t spend most of the day driving from spot to spot. Having door prizes, as someone else mentioned, is also a good idea. I liked the way CVB handled that – turn in your punch book and your name is entered for each cache punch found.

I look forward to hearing more about the event.

[I M WU]

Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? Yes. To get many caches in one day? No, I’m not into the numbers. To get discounts on lodging and food? Would be a good way to get people to the area. Special coin, or TB? No, that wouldn’t matter. If there were a party with food, dance and prizes? A campfire, on the beach of a lake, liquid refreshments and SMORES! How important are temporaries/permanent caches to most cachers? I enjoy both. Would WGA ever hold an event this far north? I would hope so. Please share thoughts and ideas so we can let them know what most cachers think about this. My family heads up to that area every year. Close to fall. We actually did the UP this year for the 1st time, so I would look forward to revisiting the history, nature and people in your area of the state.

[Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu]

Heck yeah.. I travel even if there is nothing offered!! I like to get out and see other parts of the state and visit other states too!! An incentive may or many not draw me.. all depends on what it is, where it is and how much time I have off to travel!!

As for temps.. their fine, but would rather go get other perms around the area and see the sites, especially if I can team up with some of my favorite cachers!!

[Ray]

My first take on the question was:

“Why do you travel? to cache?” and the answer is “Of course!” 😆

[notmuch]

@Timberline Echoes wrote:

Would people travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? To get discounts on lodging and food? If there were a party with food, dance and prizes? How important are temporaries/permanent caches to most cachers?

I basically “grew-up” in the north on weekends/summers, and since geocaching, I’ve discovered more geographical and historical places than I knew existed up there. What makes me travel??–destination and caches along the route. Discounts for lodging/food are irrelevant (parents live in the north 😆 ). An event planned, sure I’d try to come. Having an event around established festivals–beef-rama, colorama, cranberry fest, watermelon fest is a good idea, more diversity for the family. Coin or TB would be a bonus. A WGA event would be awesome, but attendance may be low due to dense population of cachers in the South.

[Coastiegirl04]

Would I Travel Up North to go Geocaching, uh H**L yea!!
Would I travel this far to see great geographical and historical places? Yes, anyone who knows me, Knows i love history and If you know my family, and our Family Trips, We would travel summer long trips when i was in school to many differnt parks (state, federal, county it didn’t matter) and camped to the whole time (and somepeople wonder why i love the outdoors)
Traveling long distance doesn’t scare me, actually i love, and discounts on lodgeing more of a bonus for me!

[Timberline Echoes]

Got a call from the Rhinelander Daily News today as the guy wanted info about the event and meeting coming up… directed him to the chamber but sure is funny how people are just hearing about geocaching and thinking what a great and new idea and then they are shocked to hear it has been around for a while now.
Timberline Echoes

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