Can anyone help make this a game?

[+Helenafairylane]

Hi,

 

I am totally new to geocaching - found my first cache last night (what fun!)

I would like to organise a game/challenge for 2 two teams to compete against each other finding caches.

Anyone ever done anything similar?

We have a day to fill this weekend in Vancouver.

 

Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

fairylane

[+Ike 13]

Sounds like you want a competition. I think just going out and finding caches together is more than enough fun.

 

But if you want a competition. You could pick out 10 (and I say 10 since yall haven't found a lot yet) caches around town. You may want to keep them easy, but you could cover all different types.

 

Have each team start at opposite ends of the route (you could start in the middle and then drive to the opposite ends, if you want to guarantee an equal start time). Then try to find as many of the 10 as quickly as possible. You could make each find worth 2 points and the quickest time worth 5 points (or something like that).

 

So if you find 7, and get back to the middle first then you get 19 points. I find 9 so I get 18 points.

 

Just a half baked idea.

[+Helenafairylane]

Thanks for the idea!

 

There are 8 of us, which is why I'd like to make it into a competition.

Do you think 10 in a day is realistic? I guess it depends on the difficulty rating.

 

Maybe the difficulty rating could equal the number of points. Each team can decide if they want to go for more easy ones or less hard ones to make the most amount of points in a specific time, with penalties for being late.

What do you think?

[+Chokecherry]

10 in a day is realistic depending on drive between them. I did 10 the other day with my mom (actually tried for more than that). But some of them involved quite a drive into nothingness. Once we got ot the in town ones it went much faster and if it wasn't so hot we probably would have found more.

[+Helenafairylane]

Thanks!

 

Are you in Vancouver? Are there any that you would recommend?

 

I'm getting really excited about this!

[+Chokecherry]

I'm not in Vancouver but I would think there's a higher concentration of caches there. For a game I'd do a mix of sizes and difficulties (but nothing super hard). People have different strengths when finding caches. The different ones will cater to that fact.

[+AuntieWeasel]

Or just split into teams and see who can do the most in a day.

 

Be warned -- if these are eight people who've never cached before -- some people "get" geocaching right away, love it and are hooked. Some people never get the point and don't hugely enjoy it.

 

Sounds like you're in Group A. Don't be shocked if some of your friends are in Group B.

[+Helenafairylane]

Thanks for the warning, I'm hoping we'll mostly be in group A.

Most people are very competitive so I will hopefully get them on that!

[+ngrrfan]

One thing to keep in mind is that you want to have more possibilities than you expect to find.

 

Yesterday the group that I cache with did 24 out of a possible 43. We did these in 6-7 hours time. Some were easy finds, some involved hiking some 4 star terrain. A trip like this is about normal for us unless we're doing a strictly hiking trip. Then we'll do maybe 10-12 caches and about 5 miles of hiking.

 

So gear the hunt towards what most people would enjoy doing, that will also tell you how many caches should be included on the list. You might find that it's more fun to hunt for just 1 cache in a city park that is very well hidden. We've got some that it takes 20+ hours to find simply because of the camo.

[+CanDMan47]

I haven't done it, but I have heard of this a couple times. In a predetermined amount of time, ie 2-3 hours, find as many as you can with a point being awarded for every level of difficulty and terrain. For example a 2 difficulty and 2.5 terrain cache find would be worth 4.5 points. So you'd have to strategize if you want to find a lot of 2 point caches or a few 5-7 point caches. I'm not clear on how you confirm finds. I guess you either trust them or require photos of the logs or something. Since it sounds like most participants are newer, finding a place where you haven't found most of them already shouldn't be hard. I'd have to go to another city to place this game at this point. Good luck, let us know what you decide to do.

[+Michaelcycle]

I assume you have at least one GPSr for each team If you want a little of the outdoor flavor of geocaching, I suggest you head to Stanley Park. Looks like there are at least 10 caches there that would not discourage novices (including a very interesting virtual that each player would have to log at a separate location. That way you would not be driving all over town. Have fun and good luck!

[+Ike 13]

10 is very possible. Now if you've only found 10 all together then it will be much more of a challenge, but if you can find a shopping center with a nice park nearby then you should have 10. Michaelcycle's idea sounds good.

 

Again I think it would be better if all 8 of you went out together and just make finds. If you do this I suggest doing Huckle Buckle (when someone finds the cache they just walk away and say 'huckle buckle' or 'found it' and watch. This continues until all parties have found the cache).