Geocaching + road rally - recipe for disaster?

[Wet_Footprints]

I'm relatively new here, but with the few caches I've found, I'm very excited about a project that I plan annually. I run an annual road rally for my local Lion's Club to raise money for Leader Dog. For those not familiar, a road rally is when teams drive from place to place after solving clues telling them where to go next. The final clue usually leads to some kind of food establishment where prizes are awarded and stories/pictures shared.

 

So I'm thinking of combining that concept with a multi/event-cache and I'm wondering if the experienced folks out there have any thoughts? Usually there is a per person charge of $12-15. Half the money goes to Leader Dog; the other half goes into prizes and covering the costs of copies.

[PeterJull]

The only additional problem I forsee is that participators will need to be out of their cars for longer than to find a regular type rally clue and that might cause parking congestion at some locations. I'd have a go if you weren't so far away.

[+Mndcrime1]

Sounds like alot of fun to me!

[7rxc]

I used to 'rally' at a provincial, regional and national level, occasionally international. That was something quite different of course. As a group, we watched (sometimes in horror) at the social events put on by various groups. A few led to having all rally events banned over large areas of the countryside. This was not always the case, but just like in caching, people tended to want to be 'sneakier' than the last guy, and the results were sometimes catastrophic. Mostly this was due to NOT thinking through the consequences of their cute tricks. I just mention that side of organizing such an event. Always make sure to mention that the standard rule of get caught breaking traffic laws and you are disqualified. That will help a bit. Better to avoid it through better planning.

 

That said, the average 'rally' is thought to be a fairly sequential event. Do the steps in order. This can as was mentioned above lead to congestion at certain points. One thought would be to have a look at the way Orienteering events are set out. They define an area boundary, set out targets (hopefully in such a manner that there are many 'best' routes) and the competitor chooses what they think will work best for them. That might help distribute the load somewhat, if needed one could also 'draw' for the first target to find/start with similar to a shotgun start where people are at various locations, say tees on a golf course. That is one common example. The individual challenges/puzzles shouldn't be to hard to solve if they have to be done onsite... maybe better to simply get a copy and vacate the hide location a bit to work it out. That leaves room for others in short order.

 

Anyway, the idea sounds fun, but think about it carefully.

 

Doug 7rxc

Edited July 21, 2011 by 7rxc

[+rockhoundbmw]

I didn't participate, but I know there was a geocaching road rally held in San Diego because I found one of the geocaches that they left in place after the event: http://coord.info/GC1MKVG You may want to contact the event CO for more info on setting up your own event.