Boy Scout Campore Event

[+lootsnoopers]

I have been asked to introduce Geocaching to the Boy Scouts in our district, at the spring camporee. There will be about 300 boys there.

The activities included are, Map and compass instruction. Later in the morning, patrols will be doing an orienteering course. The patrols waiting for their turn to start will come to our station and learn about geocaching. Those patrols that have a GPS will have the chance to geocache. We hope to get a few GPS loaned to us. And Troops are asked to bring them if they have them. So with any luck we can get all of the patrols geocaching.

We will place about 20 caches, each with log books and some with patches. The caches will have a point system, with the lower points going to the eaiser caches, and higher points going to the hard ones.

We have large, medium, small, and mini Caches. They will have a good range of difficulty, from real easy to super hard. The scouts must sign the logbook with troop number and patrol name to get credit for that cache. They will be required to replace the cache exatly as the found it or they will not get credit for it.

They will have the rest of the day to try and find all of them, after they finish the orienteering course.

I hope to get enough funding or donations to award the winning patrol a new GPS.

We have already found and marked the areas where the caches will be placed, so it should not take long to put them out.

Am I missing anything?

[+Frettchen_2006]

Perhaps stress CITO and a note that 'geotrails' should be avoided due to potential damage to the environment? If this is at a Boy Scout facility, I'm sure trash isn't much of a problem but it's still good to let them know of the concept.

 

Will there be enough time to explain geocaching and how to use the GPSr if there isn't anyone in the troop/patrol who knows how?

[+DiamondDuste]

I have been asked to introduce Geocaching to the Boy Scouts in our district, at the spring camporee. There will be about 300 boys there.

The activities included are, Map and compass instruction. Later in the morning, patrols will be doing an orienteering course. The patrols waiting for their turn to start will come to our station and learn about geocaching. Those patrols that have a GPS will have the chance to geocache. We hope to get a few GPS loaned to us. And Troops are asked to bring them if they have them. So with any luck we can get all of the patrols geocaching.

We will place about 20 caches, each with log books and some with patches. The caches will have a point system, with the lower points going to the eaiser caches, and higher points going to the hard ones.

We have large, medium, small, and mini Caches. They will have a good range of difficulty, from real easy to super hard. The scouts must sign the logbook with troop number and patrol name to get credit for that cache. They will be required to replace the cache exatly as the found it or they will not get credit for it.

They will have the rest of the day to try and find all of them, after they finish the orienteering course.

I hope to get enough funding or donations to award the winning patrol a new GPS.

We have already found and marked the areas where the caches will be placed, so it should not take long to put them out.

Am I missing anything?

 

That sounds like what we're doing at our summer camp (Black Warrior Council - Tuscaloosa, AL). We're going to start it on a Monday, have an instructional/orientation period, and then let the troops have the whole week to find as many caches(all different types) as possible. I like your idea of the point system. We're also making them sign the logs, and then we're going back to check and verify them.

[+terri and billy]

Checking your profile, it looks like you're close to home. Do you have enough help or do you need some? Depending on the timing, we may be able to help. Also, send an email if you find you may need another GPS or two. The whole family caches and we all have GPS. We may be able to lend you one or two depending on what is planned.

 

terri

[+lootsnoopers]

Perhaps stress CITO and a note that 'geotrails' should be avoided due to potential damage to the environment? If this is at a Boy Scout facility, I'm sure trash isn't much of a problem but it's still good to let them know of the concept.

 

Will there be enough time to explain geocaching and how to use the GPSr if there isn't anyone in the troop/patrol who knows how?

 

This will be at a local park and Scouts are required to leave it in better shape than they found it. Not that they always do. I will stress CITO. I wll have enough help and time to go over the basics of using and inputing information on a GPS.

[+lootsnoopers]

Checking your profile, it looks like you're close to home. Do you have enough help or do you need some? Depending on the timing, we may be able to help. Also, send an email if you find you may need another GPS or two. The whole family caches and we all have GPS. We may be able to lend you one or two depending on what is planned.

 

terri

 

We have pre selected and marked most of the cache sites already, and I will be marking the rest tomorrow. I have 16 total for now, and I may be placing a few mini's to bring the total to 20. Kings Landing is almost in my back yard, so that makes it kind of easy for me. I would love to have your help if you are availible during the Camporee on Saturday, April 29, and we will most likely need more GPS units. As of now Geocaches are not allowed in the park, except for this event. I plan to introduce some of the better placed and least intrusive caches to the ranger. My hope is to get them to rethink their GeoCach ban.

[+terri and billy]

I'll get back to you on the date. I'm going to have to start working on some Sat. This is a bummer. Also, we're starting out late doing CAM. I got sick and I know I have to work next weekend and the following weekend is Easter and a grandson's b'day which leaves me two weekends. I will mention it to the oldest son as he's out doing CAM today and already has his plans for next weekend.

 

Good luck changing King's Landing's minds. We had a great MGS meeting there with caches which we thought were going to get to stay. After a short while we found out we were wrong and had to go collect them. It's a great park though.

 

Terri

[+lootsnoopers]

Good luck changing King's Landing's minds. We had a great MGS meeting there with caches which we thought were going to get to stay. After a short while we found out we were wrong and had to go collect them. It's a great park though.

 

I talked to one of the rangers today, and she was telling me about a Geocache event that was there not to long ago. She was real impressed with it. She is not in charge there, but she feels that geocaching could be a good way to introduce people to the park. Maybe one day they will allow it to happen.

[+DiamondDuste]

We just ran one in the Black Warrior Council (Tuscaloosa, AL) at a Spring Camporee. We placed 12 ammo boxes all around our camp, and we had the kids go out and try to find them. To log the find, they had to bring back a colored stone that was in each box. The kids had a blast and everyone found all the caches. As a result, we're confident that the extended program we're running at our Summer Camp in June will be a hit.

[+icefall5]

I am a Boy Scout and I think it's a great idea. My camp (Gerber Scout Camp, Gerald R. Ford Council, MI) just has 2 caches on property and there's no program. They just say bring a GPS and we'll give you the coords. I really like your idea.

[+terri and billy]

Told you I'd get back to you about helping out. Sorry it's so last minute but I had to wait until the schedule went up! And of course, I'm scheduled to work. Sorry I can't help. Let us know how it went.

 

Terri

[+Lasagna]

I would suggest checking to see if there is a local Geocaching group in your area (for example, GOTCHA in the area where I'm from near Harrisburg, PA). Many of these have discussion groups and forums (and websites) on places like Yahoo, etc.

 

It's a quick way to reach all the cachers in your area.

 

I recently did a geocaching event for a troop on one of their camping trips (put out 15 caches in the camp durng the morning and had them hunt them in the afternoon -- put a different word -- from the Scout Law, Motto, etc. -- in each cache and to claim credit they had to record what word they found in which cache).

 

I sent out a note to the local cachers in the area and they responded loaning me no fewer than 5 GPSr's 10 ammo cans, 4 decons, and a variety of "odd" containers which I then used to demonstrate just how creative some containers can be. I even had one cacher volunteer his time to help me place the caches and take the coordinate readings.