Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
quote:
Originally posted by TS:
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.
I think we need to wait a few years until OLED TV’s are in widespread use, as they will draw far less power than current LCD or plasma TV’s, considering the cost of coconuts. Remember, although the Professor from Gilligan’s Island used coconut power, it was just for their little AM radio, not a TV. It doesn’t take much current to receive AM radio signals.
Of course, the generator is still on the island, even though they don’t use it much. If we can’t use that can’t we just bring several tractor batteries and a power invertor?
If you want a Pink Floyd experience, (or U2 or Zepplin) you should check out the laser show at the Barlow Planetarium in Appleton.
http://www.fox.uwc.edu/barlow/quote:
Originally posted by GrouseTales:
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.
Are you referring to reserving individual sites? I was under the impression that reserving a group site for a single price (in our case, $80 a night) covered everybody staying there, so I am not sure I understand how you underpay or overpay for a group site.
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 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).]
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).]
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)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.
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 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.
Wow, we’re a “hot” folder!
quote:
Originally posted by TS:
Now that it seems like the event is going ahead, I have some thoughts on the event caches.The cache race was an entertaining group activity and I hope that DCexplorer sets up another. It might be nice to have a few more caches placed for hunting while hiking the island over the course of the weekend. Perhaps some cachers that have visited the island before could bring a cache or two for temporary placement and set them out soon after arrival. We could then compile a master list at the group site for entry into GPSrs. In this way, everyone would have a few new caches to seek and it would take some of the workload off of DCexplorer.
I would be happy to set up another “race,” although with some changes. Some people got stuck on one or more of the legs, and you only had the starting cache. This was frustrating to the participants and myself, who had to go “help” some stuck groups. I would probably give everybody ALL coordinates at once, and then if somebody got stuck, they could skip a cache (with a substantial penalty, of course) and move onto the next one.
I would also agree with the idea that experienced cachers place 1-2 temporary caches apiece, and then we can consolidate them all onto one sheet of paper. Although this event isn’t intended to be an opportunity to make giant leaps in your cache count, if five to ten groups place 2 caches apiece (which shouldn’t be that difficult or time consuming) that could add up to quite a few caches.
I think most people want to have fun relaxing and exploring, so I am not going to worry about having too many caches.
Alright, we will have a group site. I will email those people directly who want to “seed” the event.
The group sites are nice, and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. However, if you wish to reserve your own site anyway, that is fine, too.
SOME people may describe the campsites as rocky, so an air mattress may be a useful item to bring. Campsites in the pines can be pretty soft with the needles. There’s a wide variety of sites, including shore sites, bluff sites, wooded sites, and even backpack sites on the far side of the island. However, there’s not really any BAD sites, per se, unless weather makes them so. No gravel pads, if that’s what you’re used to.
I was on a shore site last year, and it was a little breezy Friday evening, but then it calmed down for the rest of the weekend. Of course, the inland sites are not as prone to wind as the shore sites. I would say the shore sites are more riskier in terms of weather exposure, but when Mother Nature is behaving herself, those are the best.
Last year, there were numerous open campsites, so you don’t have to decide right away. I would guess that you could show up without a prior reservation and get a site, something you wouldn’t want to try from July 4th-Labor day. This date was picked (in part) to avoid crowds.
The date is set, but we cannot create an “official” event until roughly three months prior to the event, which would be in late March.
Before I start collecting donations, does everybody think a group site is a good thing? It seems most of you are planning on getting your own sites anyway. Does this make sense to get a group site?
Thanks, Cathunter, I appreciate the offer. I’ll email you directly, and we can work out the details.
Next topic… Does somebody wish to volunteer with me to reserve the group site?
If I could at least partner with another person to defray the initial expense, it would be appreciated…
It would probably be easiest to set a flat fee of about $25 per person/group/family and use any potential profit for firewood or adult beverages.
-
AuthorPosts
