Big News: WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour

[+hydnsek]

Are you up for a new caching challenge? Want to help create a GeoTour series for WA State Parks? Maybe win a shiny new geocoin? How about all three?

 

Announcing: the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour - "100 caches in 100 parks for 100 years"

 

2013 is the 100th anniversary of WA State Parks, and they've decided to make geocaching a key component of the year-long celebration by hosting a GeoTour. As part of our new partnership with Washington State Parks, WSGA is co-hosting this GeoTour, which kicks off June 7, 2013, and will feature 100 new caches placed on State Park properties across the state. (Thanks to Groundspeak for generously donating the GeoTour promotion!)

 

Geocachers will seek out the caches and record their finds in paper passports, which they can turn in upon completion to receive a commemorative geocoin. There will be two challenge levels (and two coins): 100 caches and 50 caches. Participants may complete one or both challenges.

 

This is an exciting geocaching opportunity, and if you're a WSGA member, we need your help! The caches will be placed and maintained by WSGA members in collaboration with park managers. Please contact me to volunteer, and if you have a park or area preference, let me know. I have the list of participating parks and will be pairing cachers with parks; the goal is to have everyone signed up by Feb. 15.

 

Learn more about the GeoTour and how to participate.

[+WRASTRO]

Email sent. I hope to claim Bridle Trails unless PhilNi has already done so!

[DannyCaffeine]

I'm down to try to get that challenge. Its gonna be tough though.

[+W7WT]

We got our discovery pass yesterday. Looking forward to doing this challenge. Dick & Arlene

[+eagsc7]

My hope is that all caches Published for this series have the PARTNERSHIP Attribute! Groundspeak, please make this happen. I WILL have to get back up there if this does!

[+W7WT]

PARTNERSHIP Attribute, OK first I have heard of it. What is it? And what does it do thatis important

in geocaching. My partner and I would like to know. Thanks

[+eagsc7]

The partnership attribute is to signify caches placed in a Partnership between Groundspeak and a civic organization. Examples of this would be the APE cache Series, and the PBS Dinosaur Trails.

 

What it does that's important to Geocaching? Forms partnerships between Geocachers, Groundspeak, and civic organizations to further the goals of all parties at the same time.

 

The Steaks

 

P.S. Lackey's feel free to correct me if I messed up on defining of Partnership Cache.

[+W7WT]

The partnership attribute is to signify caches placed in a Partnership between Groundspeak and a civic organization. Examples of this would be the APE cache Series, and the PBS Dinosaur Trails.

 

What it does that's important to Geocaching? Forms partnerships between Geocachers, Groundspeak, and civic organizations to further the goals of all parties at the same time.

 

The Steaks

 

P.S. Lackey's feel free to correct me if I messed up on defining of Partnership Cache.

Thank you. I agree it would be important. Dick & Arlene

[+vds]

Announcing: the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour - "100 caches in 100 parks for 100 years"

 

Woohoo !!!! Looks like the tour is live now - thanks in advance for all the hard work. Now to put the WA State Park license plates on the new geomobile and get planning my road trips :-)

[+hydnsek]

Ready, set, go! Today (June 7) is the launch of the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour - 100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years. Once you've found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches, you're eligible for a special geocoin.

 

Each GeoTour cache contains a unique ink stamp for recording your find in a GeoTour passport. Once you've found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches, you can submit the passport for a special geocoin.

 

GeoTour page – complete list of eligible caches. (There are 103 caches, but you only need to find 100 to complete the GeoTour.) You can download a GPX file of all the GeoTour caches by clicking the "Download this GeoTour" link on this page. All GeoTour caches have the series name "WaStatePks100" to help you identify them.

 

The GeoTour docs (PDF):

• Passport – for verifying your finds to qualify for a geocoin.
  
• Guidelines – full details and requirements.
  
• Park map – shows the 103 participating parks across the state.
  

Kickoff events: We are hosting eight kickoff events around the state on June 6-9 so that you can learn more about the GeoTour and pick up your passports and other goodies. These are free days at the State Parks in honor of National Trails Day, so no Discover Passes are required for parking. All the events have some cool stuff planned, and we hope to see you at one!

• Sat June 8 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Camano Island - the "lead event" at the place it all started, featuring the GeoTour managers.
  
• Sat June 8 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: South Sound
  
• Sat June 8 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: North Olympics
  
• Sat June 8 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Spokane
  
• Sat June 8 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Vancouver
  
• Sun June 9 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Bellingham
  
• Sun June 9 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Wenatchee
  
• Thur, June 6 - WaStatePks100 Kickoff: Tri-Cities – already done!
  

Geocoin: The GeoTour coin has the State Parks centennial logo on one side and the WSGA logo on the other, signifying our partnership. The coin has two versions, silver for completing half the GeoTour (50 caches) and gold for finishing the entire GeoTour (100 caches). We minted 180 antique silver coins, but just 30 satin gold coins.

 

Challenge caches: For added geo-fun, there are two challenge caches related to the State Parks GeoTour. (These caches are not part of the passport series and don't count toward the geocoin.)

• Find 50 of the GeoTour caches and you can claim the WaStatePks100: 50-Cache Challenge (GC47F89), located at Camano Island State Park.
  
• Find 100 caches in Washington state parks (not limited to GeoTour caches), and claim the Washington State Parks Challenge (GC48635), located at Larrabee, the oldest state park.
  

Duration: The GeoTour launches June 7, 2013, and will continue until all coins are distributed (1–2 years). Individual caches may remain in place longer at the parks' discretion.

 

Discover Pass: Most Washington State Parks require a Discover Pass for parking.

 

It takes a village: A project of this magnitude requires months of effort by a large cast, much of it behind the scenes, and both WSGA and the State Parks really came through, with Groundspeak as a supporting sponsor. The project managers were Abby Wolfe (hydnsek) and Tina Dinzl-Pederson (Ranger Tina), ably assisted by key personnel on both sides, including WSGA's PhilNi and NepoKama. More than 70 WSGA members participated in placing caches and organizing the kickoff events. An equal number of State Parks personnel were involved, from managers in Olympia to individual park personnel. And Groundspeak's contributions were equally important, involving several Groundspeak lackeys for different phases, including Rock Rabbit and MissJenn.

 

We hope you enjoy the caching tour of Washington State Parks!

Edited June 8, 2013 by hydnsek

[+thecaswellfamily]

I just want to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who made this geotour happen... the kids and I have only done two so far, but we love learning more about our state's history and natural treasures... not to mention we love geocaching. We are really enjoying ourselves and look forward to some fun road-trips this summer. Thanks!

[+eagsc7]

So, When are these caches getting their Deserved Partnership Attribute? Do we need to submit a help ticket?

 

The Steaks

[+MissJenn]

They all already have the GeoTour attribute.

[+MMGeoGeezer]

I like the idea of the GeoTour, to which we just started paying attention when we were camping at Camano Is St Park.

 

However, I seem to be missing something, here. I click on the "Download this GeoTour" link, and all I get is "Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request." Just in case, I even hooked up my gps to the computer. Same result.

 

Unless I missed something else, there appears to be no way to create a pocket query by searching for "WaStatePks100", either.

 

Appears one must download each individual wpt into the GPS, and there appears to be no way to get those wpts into my wife's smart device.

 

Any help -- even some direction on where I should be looking for an answer?

 

Thanks

 

Edit: There IS a way to the info into the Geocaching app on my wife's SmartDevice, but only 20-30 at a time, changing the location to get a new section to save to an offline list. Very tedious solution.

Edited July 11, 2013 by MMGeoGeezer

[+MissJenn]

However, I seem to be missing something, here. I click on the "Download this GeoTour" link, and all I get is "Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request." Just in case, I even hooked up my gps to the computer. Same result.

 

Thanks for reporting this bug. Let me ask some develop-types who know more than I do to look into that.

[+hydnsek]

I like the idea of the GeoTour, to which we just started paying attention when we were camping at Camano Is St Park.

 

However, I seem to be missing something, here. I click on the "Download this GeoTour" link, and all I get is "Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request." Just in case, I even hooked up my gps to the computer. Same result.

 

Unless I missed something else, there appears to be no way to create a pocket query by searching for "WaStatePks100", either.

 

Appears one must download each individual wpt into the GPS, and there appears to be no way to get those wpts into my wife's smart device.

 

Any help -- even some direction on where I should be looking for an answer?

 

Thanks

 

Edit: There IS a way to the info into the Geocaching app on my wife's SmartDevice, but only 20-30 at a time, changing the location to get a new section to save to an offline list. Very tedious solution.

Glad you like our GeoTour! It's been wildly popular so far, far beyond WSGA and the State Parks' expectations.

 

Yes, the "Download this GeoTour" link seems to be broken, perhaps related to the site issues that geocaching.com has been experiencing the past couple days. When it is working, the link will give you a GPX file of the caches, as I've done it.

 

Meanwhile, you can do a search on "WaStatePks100" and get a list of all the caches, check all the box(es) on the left-hand side, and then use the Download Waypoints button at the bottom of the page to download a LOC file. But you're right, that's only the waypoint info, not as robust as a GPX file.

 

Cache on!

[+TheWinterTrio]

Additionally, If you are a premium member, here is a link to a bookmark list (Courtesy of the WSGA!). From that list, you can create a PQ of all the caches in the GeoTour...

 

-TWT

Edited July 14, 2013 by TheWinterTrio

[+hydnsek]

Additionally, If you are a premium member, here is a link to a bookmark list (Courtesy of the WSGA!). From that list, you can create a PQ of all the caches in the GeoTour...

 

-TWT

Doh! How could I forget that. Thanks for pointing it out.

Edited July 14, 2013 by hydnsek

[+Sagefox]

Just a couple of thoughts here. I've been looking around to find a policy for when stamps go missing. We ran across one this weekend at Twanoh and the CO says finds don't qualify for the passport without a stamp.

 

This is not a big issue for us since we are not too far away and we need to go back for Belfair but if it were a far east corner of the state we would not likely be able to go back.

 

And, how soon can stamps be replaced?

[+hydnsek]

Just a couple of thoughts here. I've been looking around to find a policy for when stamps go missing. We ran across one this weekend at Twanoh and the CO says finds don't qualify for the passport without a stamp.

 

This is not a big issue for us since we are not too far away and we need to go back for Belfair but if it were a far east corner of the state we would not likely be able to go back.

 

And, how soon can stamps be replaced?

When stampers go missing, WSGA provides a replacement to the cache owner, and the cache is disabled until the new stamper is in place. I bought extra stampers for this very purpose, and we try to get them into the caches ASAP, pending owner awareness and request. A couple of stampers were returned after being taken accidentally, so we do try to make sure that is not the case first, since the stampers are expensive. The down time is usually less than a week.

 

Yes, per the rules, the stamp must be in the passport for the park to count toward a coin. The parks only verifies stamps on passports, not logs or photos (those are for the CO). Stamps on extra pieces of paper pasted into the passports don't count, either; unfortunately, due to known cheating, we've had to limit the options.

 

So, yeah, if a stamper is missing, you'll either need to go back later to get it, or choose another park to do instead. Remember, there are 103 parks on the tour, and those extra parks are to provide options should a cache or stamper go missing. (If you DNF'd a required cache on a challenge, you'd have to go back to it to finish the challenge....I know several folks who've had to recross the state or redo a long hike to correct a DNF for a challenge.)

Edited July 23, 2013 by hydnsek

[+Sagefox]

So, yeah, if a stamper is missing, you'll either need to go back later to get it, or choose another park to do instead.

 

Got it. Thanks.

[+MissJenn]

However, I seem to be missing something, here. I click on the "Download this GeoTour" link, and all I get is "Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request." Just in case, I even hooked up my gps to the computer. Same result.

 

Thanks for reporting this bug. Let me ask some develop-types who know more than I do to look into that.

 

This malfunction with the download should be fixed at this point. Actually, it's been fixed for a few days...

[+MMGeoGeezer]

Additionally, If you are a premium member, here is a link to a bookmark list (Courtesy of the WSGA!). From that list, you can create a PQ of all the caches in the GeoTour...

 

-TWT

 

Thanks for the bookmark link.

 

Came back to let the Lackey MissJenn know that the link is indeed now working and was ready to reiterate the silliness of Groundspeak providing a great SmartDevice app and this really inspired GeoTour concept but failing to then provide a method by which to combine them. But you have provided a resolution for that issue, thank you very much.

 

I take it that this bookmark list thing is the accepted method for creating a SmartDevice PQ for those existing and future GeoTours for which we aren't lucky enuff to have WSGA, so I will make a note of that.

 

Thanks again, for the bookmark link, and to GS for getting the list download link fixed.

[+NWHappyCampers]

Is this Geocache Tour still active? I am new to Geocache.com.

[+Panther&Pine]

Is this Geocache Tour still active? I am new to Geocache.com.

The caches in the Tour are still out, most still have stamps but I think all the coins have been given out.

The State Park really underestimated the number of coins they needed, if you ask me.

[+The Jester]

Is this Geocache Tour still active? I am new to Geocache.com.

The caches in the Tour are still out, most still have stamps but I think all the coins have been given out.

The State Park really underestimated the number of coins they needed, if you ask me.

I've heard that they are making a second coin (50 parks) that can still be earned. I beleive you can't use the same parks for the second coing, so if you've gotten the 50 & 100 coin you're out of luck for the new coin.

[+hydnsek]

Is this Geocache Tour still active? I am new to Geocache.com.

The caches in the Tour are still out, most still have stamps but I think all the coins have been given out.

The State Park really underestimated the number of coins they needed, if you ask me.

I've heard that they are making a second coin (50 parks) that can still be earned. I beleive you can't use the same parks for the second coing, so if you've gotten the 50 & 100 coin you're out of luck for the new coin.

Yes, the Washington State Parks GeoTour is now in its second year, and continues to be a partnership between WSGA and the State Parks. You can get your passport and the guidelines here.

 

We have about 20 Silver coins (50 caches) of the original 180 left, and we recently announced a second minting of 250 new Silver coins (revised design) for when the first batch runs out. I'm working with my State Parks partner right now to encourage them to adjust the minting to 200 Silver and 50 Gold (100 caches) so that we can continue rewarding those who find all the GeoTour caches. The State Parks is primarily interested in getting more people into the parks, so their focus is on the 50-park level, but they understand some cachers are completists, so fingers crossed!

 

As for why we didn't mint more coins the first time, as has been explained several times, it wasn't a matter of underestimating interest, altho it's true that participation has been greater than expected. (Yay!) The State Parks had extremely limited funds (remember, the legislature almost defunded them, and they laid off 1/3 of their staff). They minted as many coins as they could afford - and even those coins wouldn't have happened if WSGA hadn't agreed to provide half the funds. Thanks to the success of the first year, they convinced the Special License Plate program to fund the new coins, using monies from the State Parks license plate (so, if you have one, you're helping fund the coins!).

 

FYI, we have a list of finishers here and some cool statistics.

 

Lots of folks still doing the park tour this summer, good luck to all! Please report any missing stamps to the CO promptly, as we are replacing them as quickly as possible when they go missing.

 

hydnsek

GeoTour co-Manager

WSGA President