Geocaching Australia

Hi,
I am looking at setting some geocaches locally for the Scouts in my troop and wonder if there are any hints from those that have been there before me. We generally have 2 hours to find things in the lcoal area or can do it as part of a camp both during the day and night in a local campsite during other activities.
Any assistance greatly accepted.

FredInver

How are your scouts going to get around?
Remember when placing a cache on GC there is a distance between cache requirement. I think its 116m. GCA is different.
Also flooding a local area with caches, just for an activity that is going to last 2 hours? Most caches are placed because there is some interesting feature or viewpoint for others to see.
For a 2 hour activity why not set up a temporary time trial with different waypoints and a final GZ. The fastest to complete it wins a prize. The scouts could team up and head out in groups.
Doing this means you don't have to publish the caches, they are only used for your activity and then removed. Unless of course, the final GZ really is worth visiting.
My 2c.

HI
Just set up some containers in your camp area, record all the locations and then set up some multi cache or puzzle caches. At the end of the day take all the containers and go home. Or leave one of them in a nice spot and get it published to remember your time there.

Andrew

tronador wrote:How are your scouts going to get around?
Remember when placing a cache on GC there is a distance between cache requirement. I think its 116m. GCA is different.
Also flooding a local area with caches, just for an activity that is going to last 2 hours? Most caches are placed because there is some interesting feature or viewpoint for others to see.
For a 2 hour activity why not set up a temporary time trial with different waypoints and a final GZ. The fastest to complete it wins a prize. The scouts could team up and head out in groups.
Doing this means you don't have to publish the caches, they are only used for your activity and then removed. Unless of course, the final GZ really is worth visiting.
My 2c.

Agrree with Tronador here, apart from the distance, it is 160mts (1/10 of a mile).

Where's Bronze when you need him? May I suggest you try to get in contact with Bronze, he may be able to give you some ideas, as he has the some knowledge in the matters you asked about.

Thanks for all the replies. The distance between I had not realised so that is of great help. The idea of leaving one as active is a good one as well. We will have a great wide game with a lasting memory.

Thanks. Fred

We have just spent last weekend setting up a geocaching "interest day" for an organisation that I am involved with.

We have used a couple of existing caches and placed a bunch of temporary hides (in the style of real ones). One hide is in such a good location, that it is now listed.

We also have placed a couple of training caches near to the start point to demonstrate the sorts of things to look for, and to ensure competency of the users prior to setting them free (so to speak).

As a result of the last interest day we did, there are 4-5 people who have taken up caching as a pursuit.

This one has been set up as a day for adults, and covers some "interesting" terrain, but for scouts, and younger folks, just find a location that works. I am yet to go to a scout camp arrea that does not have a cache nearby (and generally on top of a hill *mutter mutter grumble*)

I put out two caches in parks near the scout hall for my cub back, in early 2005. I was lucky that there were reasonable hiding spots already, and no existing caches in the area.
The caches were as basic and simple as possible (given these were cub scouts - you could be a little trickier with scouts). Although they were designed to be permanent caches I never assumed they'd last a long time, especially after 20 local kids knew exactly where they were and possibly would show their friends etc. But both have lasted, one was muggled recently but has been replaced, and both have more than 90 finds.

The main thing I reckon you need to consider is that if you put out caches, they'll need to be straight forward - no multis or really tricky hides, especially if you've only got 2 hours. Also, locations that require stealth are right out. A large group of cub scouts (or scouts for that matter) do not make for discrete finders!

If you organising caching at a camp, then multis become ideal. Especially if there is a physical container at each point. A four point multi is just like finding four separate caches as far as the kids are concerned. Temporary or permanent, would depend on the area and whether there are existing caches.

Chuck a PM to Cowboymacca, he is a scout leader who has done some caches with his scouts. You will find him as the owner of a cache called Thunderbolts Rock, in Rockhampton, postcode 4701.

Cheers
Bundy

Hey there.
Part of my job as an activity officer is doing the geocaching hunts. The plan thats worked best is based on time which has been said.
So here's an overview.
Caches are placed as per usual but poker chips or coloured discs are placed in the caches.A team finds the cache takes a disc and moves on there may be ftf prize but something that can be shared.Take a 2 hour limit and the team back with most amount of chips in the time frame is the winner. If there are 15 scouts, then a show case of 15 prizes are displayed. The team that has won ,picks from the showcase first and then the next team. After which everybody will start swapping.
Why this way? Everything becomes simple . No dissappointment with empty caches just take the chip and move on. After many back to the drawing boards.....this has been the blitz......hope it helps!

I like the chip idea and the fact there is no losers. Thanks for all the help. I will but into action next term.