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Spokane Cache Machine


eagsc7

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:huh::cry: As per the WSGA meeting yesterday, I have started this forum thread. This is to discuss all aspects of the April 07 Cache Machine! I welcome all sorts of comments and discussion in relation to this event. :huh:

 

I will be getting in contact in the next few weeks with the following people/buisnesses for assistance

 

1) Geocachers! ;)

2) Shari's Restraunt in C'dL for a Dinner time

 

<----DISCUSSION ITEMS---->

The Starting Cache is up for Discussion. Things needed for good start are Parking(free), Breakfast avaliable(i.e. McDonalds), WIFI Avaliable, and a place to sit down and talk that shouldn't be interrupted.

 

Where to go after dinner. Anywhere, but South.(around the lake)

 

Night Caching. How much may that slow you down? For some of us, it is just grab the flashlight and go, others it is still a paradox like a black hole.

 

How many events to publish to the GC.com Website?

 

Anything else??

 

I'll be putting out the list of caches in a few days. Sorry Martin5. All of yours are already on it.

 

The Steaks

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I think the Machine should be only one 'event' on gc. But, I like the idea of perhaps doing it in two days -one route for Spokane, and another for Post Falls/CDA perhaps??

 

Also, for the morning of, folks are really excited to hit the road and route right away. I'd suggest that we just meet in a large parking lot, do some quick updates, announcements, and then let loose the (cache) hounds!

 

The Pre-event dinner would be a great time to sit down with folks for more in depth discussion of changes, local flavor, yada yada... :huh:

 

I'm really looking forward to doing this! :huh:

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I'm very excited about attending another Cache Machine! Is the April 07 date firm? That is during spring break for schools here on the wet side, also it's the day before Easter. Would the following weekend be possible?

 

Oh good catch -we'll have to look into the spring break schedules here... and Easter weekend wouldn't be the best, eh?

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I'm very excited about attending another Cache Machine! Is the April 07 date firm? That is during spring break for schools here on the wet side, also it's the day before Easter. Would the following weekend be possible?

 

Oh good catch -we'll have to look into the spring break schedules here... and Easter weekend wouldn't be the best, eh?

Oh gosh. My April weekends are almost all booked up at work and I'm going to have to move some clientele around to make this. :huh: A firm date ASAP will be much appreciated!

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So, to summarize the first few hours...

1) Name: The Spokane Cache Machine II

2) Pre-Machine Meeting Friday night before at hotel in area where

out-of-towners can stay(Hopefully at discounted price)

 

3) Date:(the April 07 was to mean April 2007)

Apr 20th - 2 votes

Apr 28th - 4 votes

4) Public Affairs:

 

Podcacher/Cache-a-maniacs podcast - I'll be calling them as

soon as we get a firm date and published page.

SeabekTribe page

WSGA

ID Geo Org

5) CITO is on the 14th.(though it is not published yet.)

6) Things not commented on yet:

Night Caching

**NEW**

Areas:

Spokane Only

Spokane and C'dL

Spokane, C'dL then Night to Sandpoint and back to Spokane

7) Anything Else!!!

Edited by eagsc7
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Ohh cool! I have friends up in Post Falls, what a great excuse to get over that way and see them.

 

I dont have any known date issues at this time, But will have started college courses by then, although I doubt it will be a problem.

 

Night caching I enjoy personally and do alot of it. Not to sure how well that will work on a numbers run though since it generally takes longer to make finds.

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So, to summarize the first few hours...

1) Name: The Spokane Cache Machine II

2) Pre-Machine Meeting Friday night before at hotel in area where

out-of-towners can stay(Hopefully at discounted price)

 

3) Date:(the April 07 was to mean April 2007)

Apr 20th - 2 votes

Apr 28th - 4 votes

4) Public Affairs:

 

Podcacher/Cache-a-maniacs podcast - I'll be calling them as

soon as we get a firm date and published page.

SeabekTribe page

WSGA

ID Geo Org

5) CITO is on the 14th.(though it is not published yet.)

6) Things not commented on yet:

Night Caching

**NEW**

Areas:

Spokane Only

Spokane and C'dL

Spokane, C'dL then Night to Sandpoint and back to Spokane

7) Anything Else!!!

 

I like the 28th too -gives us more time to prepare, and should be warmer and lighter by then :huh:

 

There was a really kewl night cache after the cache machine in Wenatchee -that was a great way to wrap up the day, and introduce a bunch of folks to night caching. We have one out south of town at the Salvin conservation... but maybe we could get one going closer in by then that isn't so long.

 

If memory serves, the Super 8 out near Argon and I90 is cacher friendly -I think Rosco had a travel bug hotel there for some time too... that might make a good place to try for a discount block of rooms and a good starting point. There might even be a good place nearby for the pre-event dinner... I'm just not really familiar with what's right there.

 

CITO on the 14th is just the 'Official' CITO day -Spokane's hasn't been published yet and could be another day -we had it a week later than the official one last year as there was one just south of us already scheduled and I didn't want to compete for volunteers!

 

OK, just a bit o' brain dump for a Monday morning!

Lisa

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:rolleyes::blink: Thank you Everyone for the replies thus far. Lets keep this going! If everyone is good with it, I'll reserve 10 rooms for those whom wish to stay at the Super 8 motel out in Spokane Valley. That will be the place in which everything will be based out of.

 

The cost for staying at the hotel is as follows: Checking in on the 27th after 3pm and checking out before 11am on the 30th will cost you 222.70 for 2 queen beds - or 196.16 if you only need 1 Queen bed. The good thing is that a contental breakfast is included. I will check on opening times for the breakfast when I visit them in the next couple of days to look things over. Major note: If we don't get 10 rooms reserved for the time, we would incur a cost of 80$ for the meeting space.

Respond if you will be needing a room, and say you'll need X rooms. Once I get a few, I'll make the group rservation. At that time, I will post a link on here and the event to reserve a room with the group.

 

Talking of which, The Pre-Machine dinner will be pot-luck. Lets see if those living in the area will come thru with some fantastic food for the group.

 

The votes are all in and tabulated. April 28th is the date of the machine. Lets start requesting time off work now for this great weekend event.

 

The Steaks

Edited by eagsc7
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:rolleyes::blink: Thank you Everyone for the replies thus far. Lets keep this going! If everyone is good with it, I'll reserve 10 rooms for those whom wish to stay at the Super 8 motel out in Spokane Valley. That will be the place in which everything will be based out of.

 

The cost for staying at the hotel is as follows: Checking in on the 27th after 3pm and checking out before 11am on the 30th will cost you 222.70 for 2 queen beds - or 196.16 if you only need 1 Queen bed. The good thing is that a contental breakfast is included. I will check on opening times for the breakfast when I visit them in the next couple of days to look things over. Major note: If we don't get 10 rooms reserved for the time, we would incur a cost of 80$ for the meeting space.

Respond if you will be needing a room, and say you'll need X rooms. Once I get a few, I'll make the group rservation. At that time, I will post a link on here and the event to reserve a room with the group.

 

Talking of which, The Pre-Machine dinner will be pot-luck. Lets see if those living in the area will come thru with some fantastic food for the group.

 

The votes are all in and tabulated. April 28th is the date of the machine. Lets start requesting time off work now for this great weekend event.

 

The Steaks

 

Wow, that seems like a lot. They quoted me $70/night for a 2 bed room earlier today... Did you talk to the manager, and set up a discount block of rooms? Maybe we can get a better deal for out-of-towners -or is that the rate we need to pay to get that room?

 

The 28th it is then! :lol:

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Sorry for not saying in my previous post. That price is the Total after tax. That is for the full stay. Friday thru Sunday night. I had also called them earlier today to inquire on the room.

 

Start Time is at 0600. Sunrise is at 0540 in the morning. I Really wished it were that way now.

 

The Steaks

Edited by eagsc7
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Sorry for not saying in my previous post. That price is the Total after tax. That is for the full stay. Friday thru Sunday night. I had also called them earlier today to inquire on the room.

 

The Steaks

Most folks cache their way home on Sunday after a cache machine, so there wouldn't be much need for Sunday night lodging.

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Thinking I might have to make the jaunt over for this one, It's my birthday weekend so what better way to spend my birthday than on a cache machine :P .

We would probably head over on friday, be at the dinner, and then cache our way home on sunday, so we would only participate on the machine on Saturday, which is honestly enough. I remember the Bremerton Cache Machine II. Met up at 3am and cached until 8:30 that night Met for the after machine dinner, went and did a night cache, and got home at 10:30, shoosh, what a day that was, So I am sure Saturday only will be enough for us.

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Thinking I might have to make the jaunt over for this one, It's my birthday weekend so what better way to spend my birthday than on a cache machine :P .

We would probably head over on friday, be at the dinner, and then cache our way home on sunday, so we would only participate on the machine on Saturday, which is honestly enough. I remember the Bremerton Cache Machine II. Met up at 3am and cached until 8:30 that night Met for the after machine dinner, went and did a night cache, and got home at 10:30, shoosh, what a day that was, So I am sure Saturday only will be enough for us.

 

I would probably echo that here... I would be caching back home on the following day too.

 

Can I suggest something a bit different than other Cache Machines? How about a dinner the night before, and a breakfast/brunch the morning after? That would give people from the wet...er... west side time to drive home, but still enjoy some caching time. Also, it would allow you to do a night cache or two without worrying about missing the dinner the night before.

 

Just a thought,

Poppa J

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Can I suggest something a bit different than other Cache Machines? How about a dinner the night before, and a breakfast/brunch the morning after? That would give people from the wet...er... west side time to drive home, but still enjoy some caching time. Also, it would allow you to do a night cache or two without worrying about missing the dinner the night before.

There have been pre-event dinners at several other CMs (e.g., Longview), and that's a great suggestion. But the Saturday night dinner has never kept any of us from night caches - we usually go afterward as "dessert." :P

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Can I suggest something a bit different than other Cache Machines? How about a dinner the night before, and a breakfast/brunch the morning after? That would give people from the wet...er... west side time to drive home, but still enjoy some caching time. Also, it would allow you to do a night cache or two without worrying about missing the dinner the night before.

There have been pre-event dinners at several other CMs (e.g., Longview), and that's a great suggestion. But the Saturday night dinner has never kept any of us from night caches - we usually go afterward as "dessert." :P

 

The main dinner will be Saturday night, I believe, at a restaurant (plans still in the making!). Folks always trickle in over a few hours so that'd be the way to go, and it has worked well in the past. The dinner the day of the big event is just as much fun as the entire cache machine in my mind! Then as Hydnsek points out, night caching after dinner is the perfect dessert.

 

The pre-event dinner is just for those that get here in time and a good chance to go over any details and/or updates.

 

I do like the idea of a post event brunch too... :P

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Sorry for not saying in my previous post. That price is the Total after tax. That is for the full stay. Friday thru Sunday night. I had also called them earlier today to inquire on the room.

 

Start Time is at 0600. Sunrise is at 0540 in the morning. I Really wished it were that way now.

 

The Steaks

 

Oh OK, that makes sense on the price then -thanks! Looks like most folks only would stay two nights -Fri & Sat, and then work their way home Sunday so that they can be back to work Monday.

 

Any way we can have folks just make their own reservations (like a block reservation under our name -that way they'll get the special rate?), and then they can include Sunday night individually if they want? Or does that mess with the free banquet room for Friday night?

 

We should still do the bonus Sunday route... but quite honestly one day is probably plenty for me too :P

Edited by Lookout Lisa
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The main dinner will be Saturday night, I believe, at a restaurant (plans still in the making!). Folks always trickle in over a few hours so that'd be the way to go, and it has worked well in the past. The dinner the day of the big event is just as much fun as the entire cache machine in my mind! Then as Hydnsek points out, night caching after dinner is the perfect dessert.

 

The pre-event dinner is just for those that get here in time and a good chance to go over any details and/or updates.

 

I do like the idea of a post event brunch too... :P

 

Speaking from experience, KidAce and I are always one of the people to arrive after the "dinner gong" has sounded, and almost always it is nigh impossible to find 2 seats together. Longview was a great CM, but we walked in to the restaurant for dinner and ended up getting takeout. Bellingham was the same way, and we were on the other side of the restaurant with Legion, as the room was way over full. (That being said, we got to meet Ruck and BunnyGirl, which was a good thing (IMNSVHO).

 

Having a brunch the next morning would allow people to cache as much as they wanted to into the night, get some sleep, and meet everyone the next morning... and I don't think I have heard of a CM brunch before.

 

Other things that were cool from past CMs:

 

- Half Canadian and her little cookie bags from the Bellingham CM... was a great treat and a good rest stop... perhaps add a Coffee Stop cache as an "event" cache to make permanent afterwards. I think at Bellingham there was a new cache put there for Pepper?

 

- Half Canadian (again, way to go girl) had some really inexpensive tie die bandanas there and at the Sylvana CITO... made it easy to pick out cachers later in the day and spurned on a great orange vs green pickup contest. Something to easily identify other caches for the day would be cool

 

- Something memorable. Kudos to Stump at Longview for such notables as the island cache (terrain 5 on a CM) and for the fact that it was a 2 state cache. Kudos to HC at Bellingham for the total breadth of caches, in both type and terrain. Make sure you put something in the CM that will make people remember it for years... such as a night cache.

 

- Make sure the route is spec'd out nicely with a realistic amount of time for each stop. HC did a good job for the die hards, but I remember hearing that a lot of people barely got 60%. For Longview, I remember that we were within about 10-15 caches of completing the route. Stump had realistic times to stop, park, get out, get the cache, and get back. Some were a bit off, but for the most part, I think he had a decent formula he used for the first pass, and adjusted it as he went.... remember, a couple of the caches were multis, and he took that into account on his timings.

 

- Encourage car pooling. At Bellingham, we met legion.... and even though it was more of a convoy at Longview, met Jennifer&Dean. That was a significant part of our enjoyment of the CMs. The carpool with Legion was easily easier than the convoy we were part of in LongView.

 

These are things I know that I have found really useful in past cache machines. Take each with a grain of salt, but these are a couple of things that I pulled out of "my hat" at a moments notice, just thinking back to the CMs KidAce and I have done.

 

Just trying to help out,

Poppa J

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I have a Group rate inquiry in with the hotel right now. I will also be going out there tonight to make sure that their space will work for the event. The itenerary will be at the bottom of this post as I currently have it all transcribed in my head.

 

<-------------------------------------------------------------------->

Itenerary:(all times in PST)

**NOTE: You can come and go as you please all thruout the weekend!

Friday, 27 April

6:30pm Pre-event Dinner. This is Potluck, so lets get those great family recipes and share the food(and the recipe if someone really wants it) Please say if your bringing Main, Side, or Dessert.

Saturday, 28 April

Sunrise(6am) - The Machine kicks off from the hotel parking-lot

on the Spokane Route(A).

CITO as we find trash near the caches.(Bring your plastic bags)

Lunch - enroute/talk to your driver(some may do drive-thru stops, but not as a group.)

Dinner -(6pm) TBD. I'm looking for places near the hotel for a dinner gathering of

appx 80 people. Of course, we could all invade a McD's or something on suprise,

but I'm gona run out and TRY and find a place!

Post-Dinner(8pm) - Geo-addicts will leave the dinner for a night of caching. There

will be a night cache that I will put together that everyone is invited to find

after dinner(coordinates announced at dinner). From there, those that wish to come along can join us for a night of caching(Route :P. NOTE: We will go thru such historic areas as the Pend Oreille State park, Newport, Priest River, and Sandpoint; searching for sunlight of any kind thruout the night.

Sunday, 29 April

Breakfast - Those who are STILL determined to find a cache(and GPS has batteries) may join people for the tour of Coeur D'Alene(taking no more than a couple hours) when we set out from TBD in C'Dl.

 

From there, get some sleep and rest for Monday at work.

 

The Steaks

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I have a Group rate inquiry in with the hotel right now. I will also be going out there tonight to make sure that their space will work for the event. The itenerary will be at the bottom of this post as I currently have it all transcribed in my head.

 

<-------------------------------------------------------------------->

Itenerary:(all times in PST)

**NOTE: You can come and go as you please all thruout the weekend!

 

...snip

 

Saturday, 28 April

Dinner -(6pm) TBD. I'm looking for places near the hotel for a dinner gathering of

appx 80 people. Of course, we could all invade a McD's or something on suprise,

but I'm gona run out and TRY and find a place!

 

...snip

 

The Steaks

 

Speaking from experience of hosting the Bellingham CM, finding a suitable place for Saturday dinner is one of the most important aspects of a CM, and one of the things that people will remember afterward if it was a good (or bad) experience. I had made reservations for 125 people at the sports bar where we had the Bellingham dinner, gave them notice weeks ahead of time, and worked with them to develop an abbreviated menu that their kitchen staff could handle. As it was, there were over 150 starving cachers who all rolled in at the same time, between 5:45 and 6:00, and it took awhile to get everyone served. I can state with absolute certainty that you will have at least that many cachers looking forward to a hearty, cheap sit-down dinner at a place that also serves beer. "Invading McDonalds" would not be a good idea!

 

On another note, a tip for whoever will be doing the route planning. MS Streets and Trips is not the best program to use for laying out a cache machine -- instead use its big brother Mappoint, which works basically the same but allows a lot more flexibility in routing, adding comments, etc. It's an expensive program to purchase, but you can buy a free 60-day full-feature demo disc from Microsoft for just the cost of shipping. That's what I did and it worked out really well. Mappoint Demo Disc Link

 

The Mappoint layout that Travis originally set up for the cache machines has worked well, and people have really appreciated. Here's a copy of the Bellingham Cache Machine PDF that I patterned after Travis' template: BCM Route

 

H-C

Edited by Half-Canadian
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I have a Group rate inquiry in with the hotel right now. I will also be going out there tonight to make sure that their space will work for the event. The itenerary will be at the bottom of this post as I currently have it all transcribed in my head.

 

<-------------------------------------------------------------------->

Itenerary:(all times in PST)

**NOTE: You can come and go as you please all thruout the weekend!

Friday, 27 April

6:30pm Pre-event Dinner. This is Potluck, so lets get those great family recipes and share the food(and the recipe if someone really wants it) Please say if your bringing Main, Side, or Dessert.

Saturday, 28 April

Sunrise(6am) - The Machine kicks off from the hotel parking-lot

on the Spokane Route(A).

CITO as we find trash near the caches.(Bring your plastic bags)

Lunch - enroute/talk to your driver(some may do drive-thru stops, but not as a group.)

Dinner -(6pm) TBD. I'm looking for places near the hotel for a dinner gathering of

appx 80 people. Of course, we could all invade a McD's or something on suprise,

but I'm gona run out and TRY and find a place!

Post-Dinner(8pm) - Geo-addicts will leave the dinner for a night of caching. There

will be a night cache that I will put together that everyone is invited to find

after dinner(coordinates announced at dinner). From there, those that wish to come along can join us for a night of caching(Route :P. NOTE: We will go thru such historic areas as the Pend Oreille State park, Newport, Priest River, and Sandpoint; searching for sunlight of any kind thruout the night.

Sunday, 29 April

Breakfast - Those who are STILL determined to find a cache(and GPS has batteries) may join people for the tour of Coeur D'Alene(taking no more than a couple hours) when we set out from TBD in C'Dl.

 

From there, get some sleep and rest for Monday at work.

 

The Steaks

Trust me on this...however many people you think you will have (ie respond to the event listing)...figure at least 1.5 to 3 times that for comfortable seating and food allowance. I'm not kidding.

 

It's better to have too much space than not enough and lately, all events have been getting VERY BIG!!!!

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Poppa J has some good points there! one thing we'd like to mention is contacting cache owners. Try to make sure folks are prepared for all the logs on their caches. :P

At the Spokane Cache Machine back in whenever a bunch of the micros had their logs get filled up. You might ask a few cachers to carry replacement kits to help alleviate this issue. We still have the log from one of the ones we replaced as the owner didn't care if they got it back.

 

Also, check to see if the caches you choose were on the first machine. It may seem silly but there were alot of out-of-towners at that first machine and they may not want to repeat too many caches if they come for this new machine. We plan on comparing the route to our finds and may change it slightly to skip ones we have found. Luckily for us it has been almost a year since our last day of Spokane area caching so there will be a lot of new ones to search for!

 

One of the fun things about these is the car-pooling/convoys that happen. We had a small group we spent most of our Longview time with and have actually talked to a few of them on and off since them. KidAce picked some type of flower at one cache and geve it to Dean. The now dried but still bright yellow flower it still in the Jeep, kept as a reminder of that totally fun day we spent in WA and OR.

 

With the convoys there are alot of chances for fender benders and other moving violations... We remember the accident during the Longview machine at the racetrack cache very vividly. It might be a good idea to stress safety as much as possible during the planning of this machine. And especially, plan the route and ask locals to chime in on very small parking areas or other areas that may cause bottlenecks and the such to decrease the chances of accidents. The convoys tend to get pretty spread out over time but at the beginning there are very few places that can handle 20-30 cars arriving at once. :P

 

Recdiver- if we go, wanna carpool? :P

 

-Jen

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Thanks Laurie for your voice of experience! I am also looking at places to accommodate us all and passing them on to the Steaks... As there hasn't been a CM in some time, I am thinking that we'll have a huge turnout for dinner -plus locals that don't do the CM will probably join us for dinner too :P

 

Is that Longhorn still there on Argon? I'll keep on hunting too... geesh -I'm getting hungry now and thirsty for a beer :P

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Poppa J has some good points there! one thing we'd like to mention is contacting cache owners. Try to make sure folks are prepared for all the logs on their caches. :P

At the Spokane Cache Machine back in whenever a bunch of the micros had their logs get filled up. You might ask a few cachers to carry replacement kits to help alleviate this issue. We still have the log from one of the ones we replaced as the owner didn't care if they got it back.

 

Yes, I am planning to keep a lot of extra log books and micro papers. And of course I plan to have my Cache Repair Kits handy! :P

 

Also, check to see if the caches you choose were on the first machine. It may seem silly but there were alot of out-of-towners at that first machine and they may not want to repeat too many caches if they come for this new machine. We plan on comparing the route to our finds and may change it slightly to skip ones we have found. Luckily for us it has been almost a year since our last day of Spokane area caching so there will be a lot of new ones to search for!

 

Yes, we are planning to do only caches placed since the last Spokane CM -thanks!

 

snip ---------->>

 

With the convoys there are alot of chances for fender benders and other moving violations... We remember the accident during the Longview machine at the racetrack cache very vividly. It might be a good idea to stress safety as much as possible during the planning of this machine. And especially, plan the route and ask locals to chime in on very small parking areas or other areas that may cause bottlenecks and the such to decrease the chances of accidents. The convoys tend to get pretty spread out over time but at the beginning there are very few places that can handle 20-30 cars arriving at once. :P

 

Recdiver- if we go, wanna carpool? :D

 

-Jen

 

Oh yes how well I remember the Tri Cities Roundy Round racetrack cache... er... crash!! We want none of that now!! :D

 

And that's good advice on how to have the first handful of caches have good parking -I also remember the Wenatchee CM where the State Patrol were called on us since there were 50 cars parked on the side of the highway at 6am and people dashing all around... :D

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Also, now that the date has been decided, you probably want to get the cache page submitted, so people can calendar it (not everybody reads the forums), and you can start putting key info on it and people can log their intentions. Or maybe wait till you have the restaurant nailed down, since I think the "event" is the dinner from gc.com's perspective. :P But you can get it listed on the main WA calendar that was linked a few posts up, so people don't book any conflicts with it.

 

My regular crew has confirmed their intentions to attend already, so you can expect hydnsek, k7-wave, and cache ahead in the Hydi-Mobile. Can't wait!

Edited by hydnsek
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Cool! Looks like you guys have this well started!

I thought it was you who had the crash but was trying to confirm before I said who. It was pretty cool that you were able to catch up to all of us just a short time later.

-J

I think that we are off to a great start -the Steaks are really working hard to brainstorm and incorporate everyone's great ideas -huge kudos!!

 

Yes, I was the one that had her geo-rig totaled in Tri Cities... Thanks to everyone there, we were able to keep on caching with the help of some re-arranging of people and gear. With some creative retooling of the route, we were able to skip a loop and then get back into the main pack (as honored passengers) for more fun :P

geocrashing.jpg

So lets be careful out there and watch for muggles that pass illegally!

Edited by Lookout Lisa
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Also, check to see if the caches you choose were on the first machine. It may seem silly but there were alot of out-of-towners at that first machine and they may not want to repeat too many caches if they come for this new machine. We plan on comparing the route to our finds and may change it slightly to skip ones we have found. Luckily for us it has been almost a year since our last day of Spokane area caching so there will be a lot of new ones to search for!

 

Yes, we are planning to do only caches placed since the last Spokane CM -thanks!

WHOA! There are a TON of people that didn't do the first Spokane CM (myself included). Anybody who was at the previous CM can easily filter out caches that they've already found on their PQ, and simply skip those. Much easier than leaving the inexperienced no option but to remake the entire route for themselves so they don't miss out on a lot of caches.

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WHOA! There are a TON of people that didn't do the first Spokane CM (myself included). Anybody who was at the previous CM can easily filter out caches that they've already found on their PQ, and simply skip those. Much easier than leaving the inexperienced no option but to remake the entire route for themselves so they don't miss out on a lot of caches.

 

PP has a good point! When I made up the route for the Bellingham CM, I knew that many of those attending would have already done lots of the caches on the route, which is why I intentionally put many more caches on the route than could be finished in one day, even by the most rabid cachers. That allowed people to filter out the caches they had done but still have the benefit of a logically-sequenced route to follow that brought them back to the starting point at dinnertime. Those that hadn't cached in Bellingham finished about half of the route on Saturday, and many of them stayed over and finished the rest of the route on Sunday.

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WHOA! There are a TON of people that didn't do the first Spokane CM (myself included). Anybody who was at the previous CM can easily filter out caches that they've already found on their PQ, and simply skip those. Much easier than leaving the inexperienced no option but to remake the entire route for themselves so they don't miss out on a lot of caches.

Hey, I don't think you have to worry too much. Looking at the map there are plenty of caches in the area. Even a super number grabber like you won't make it to every cache in the area during the CM! :(

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Hey, I don't think you have to worry too much. Looking at the map there are plenty of caches in the area. Even a super number grabber like you won't make it to every cache in the area during the CM! :(

But I hyperventilate when I have to drive by a cache without stopping! :D

I can vouch for that. :D

 

Here's another vote for not worrying about what was on the last CM. Two of us in my car didn't do it, and the third doesn't mind revisiting a few (quick finds for us!).

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One advantage of putting more caches on a route than any normal cacher could find in a day is that it provides an opportunity to start the day in the middle of the route. We did that in Everett, started at the end and worked backwards as that seemed to be an interesting area to explore.

 

One CM rule for micros is that only one person needs to sign the log for the CM so as not to fill up the log book (and no stickers in micros.) If we can get to the cache, we counted that as a find. There was one micro in Bellingham that we could see but could not reach without getting even more wet than a drenching downpour was getting us - we dnf'd it.

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One advantage of putting more caches on a route than any normal cacher could find in a day is that it provides an opportunity to start the day in the middle of the route. We did that in Everett, started at the end and worked backwards as that seemed to be an interesting area to explore.

Agreement. My team's MO is to not start at o'dark early, but to start a tad later and at an interesting-looking part of the route, often in the second half and go backward, so we see folks coming the other way.

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