Geocaching with the cross country team

[+Enspyer]

Here's the story. If you click on my profile you'll see that while I started caching back in 03 I havent found a cache since this summer and my time in the activity has trailed off a bit. A lot of this is due to taking up the sport of running. I am now going to take my teammates and coach on a caching trip at a park where we run a lot. The coach is quite familiar with the terrain and so are some of the more observant athletes. I have convinced them this would be fun, since I can whip out my cool cool story of having my cache exploded 2 summers ago when the officials thought it was a bomb.

 

-I have found some of the caches there, but I want to find some of the new ones.

 

-I have one GPSr, and will probably have 15+ teenaged girls with me. (I could probably round up perhaps 3 more (receivers not girls) but it would take a bit of effort)

 

-We'll probably have about 2 hours of time.

 

I want us to have the most fun and have everyone get the best of impressions.

 

Should I take them to easy caches that I've already found?

Should we go on one good hike/run to a far out there cache?

or a combo of the two?

What if they don't want to bushwhack? Leave some behind or turn around? Personally I've always been a very plow-ahead sort of cacher but then again I like to run through the mud puddles.

When to give up searching, with so many kids?

Should I tell them to wear better shoes than our regular running shoes? bring water? wear warmer clothing probably...we already have to bundle up in the 40º F weather yknow?

 

Any other suggestions for things you think I might not have thought of? Everyone in these forums always has such good ideas, and experiences, that I want to just check with yall before I have us set out. THANKS so much for any help, and wish us luck.

[+briansnat]

I'd start with one or two easy ones then see how they feel about going further.

 

Or if you can get a few more units, perhaps you can split up into several groups and have a little contest.

[+Enspyer]

Thanks! We did end up with a contest. Another girl had an etrex, so we had two different teams. We each found 2 different ones, then raced to see who could find the last two. I purposely gave my group the harder two caches, as I didn't want to discourage the rookies, so we lost the race. I'm pretty sure I got my 200th find too (though I'm not certain, and I can't quite check right now.) It was good to bushwhack again and my legs are all scraped up the from the thorns.