+Themundies Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Hi folks, I was wondering if any one has any experience with setting up one if the regional geotrails out there. We did the AGT a couple years ago and had just about one of the best times of our lives doing it. We live just a couple hours south in pittsburgh and have been discussing how we would do one for the city or the county, but quite a few questions remain. It seems like they are mostly sponsored by local chambers of commerce, how did you approach them? We're there objections? It seems to me like a successful must do geotrail requires a geocoin as a reward, was there resistance to funding this by the chamber? Who designed the coin? How did you get it minted? There is a pretty avid caching community here in pittsburgh so I'm thinking getting help from other cachers in supporting, maintaining, and setting this up should not be difficult. What else should I know? What are the potential pitfalls of doing this? What am I not thinking of? And why doesn't every major city have one? Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Rather a lot of details in your post, so I'll only address two. Not everyone enjoys doing powertrails. Not everyone is up to the task of maintaining all the caches on such a powertrail. Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Help Center → Geocaching → Partnering 11.4. Organizing Caches For a City, State or Region http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=97 Help Center → Geocaching → Partnering 11.5. Tourism Initiatives http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=323 2013 List of Geotrails with Rewards http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=305897 Groundspeak's Current Coin Tracking Policy http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=116641 B. Quote Link to comment
+T.D.M.22 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Hi folks, It seems to me like a successful must do geotrail requires a geocoin as a reward, Yes-I'm going to do the same cache over and over again 500 times. It'll take me all day, but I'll do it just for a $10 coin. Remember-the cache is it's own treasure. You don't need a coin. A group of people in my city has done four-100 caches trails, with another one coming up in a month or two. We've had people come from quite a ways away. One person drove 7 hours just to do the trails. Another altered there route at least a couple hours and took an extra two or three days so they could get the trails. I think in order to be a good trail it has to be something different. Not 700 caches in a line. Our trails are split up, with one geo-art up and another coming. They also happen to mostly (OR all of them anyway) be available at night. You can drive by and look for reflective markers if you want to. This is in a city of 65,000 two hours north and we have a city of over a million. With probably hundreds of cachers. Do they have a trail? Nope. We had a sponsor for a coin (kind of like the chamber of commerce, but covering a vast area) But instead of doing a powertrail they put caches all over the province. It would take a couple hours to drive from the eastern most cache to the western most. These are good caches-LnL sized. Some in the city. Some near landmarks and historical POI. And some, well just to take you on an adventure. One cache requires a 4X4 truck where if you get stuck, there's little phone service. No other traffic. It's on government land open to the public, used for cattle grazing. No-one would just come by. And there's only about 50 coins. It's the adventure that attracts people to do these ones. So if you want it to be successful, then do something other than just 200-800 caches in a straight line. Quote Link to comment
+Themundies Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 Thanks Pup Patrol! I have no idea how that managed to evade my googling! I wasn't talking a power trail I was talking about setting up a regionally interesting set of sponsored caches. Quote Link to comment
+Themundies Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 Yeah really want to clarify here. I'm not talking about a powertrail here in any way. I'm talking about a series of caches 25-50 sponsored by local government spread out in interesting areas of historical or natural significance. Not 500+ film canisters on the side of the road. Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 It takes a fair bit of organization and planning and permission-seeking, and cooperation/sponsorship with the local government. Take a look at the trails in ShavedEwok's list and perhaps you could contact some of the cache owners for the scoop on how these things get set up and then maintained. I've got a few of these types of cache trails set up in my province, but they sure seem geared to travelling tourists. Some of the required caches are just too far away from me, so there's no chance of collecting the coin(s). B. Quote Link to comment
+badger10 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 We have a geocoin challenge where I live that has people finding ten caches put out in each of our three cities. It is sponsored by all three cities and the event is being held in a county park. It is also sponsored by our local geocaching association (GCSEWA). The caches are being put out near historcal/natural/significant places. This is our fourth year doing this and we will probably make MEGA this time. I am on the committee for this event. Contact me through GC and I can put you in contact with our lead Park Ranger for the challenge. For your info the geocoin is in three inter-connecting parts each with their own code. Quote Link to comment
+wimseyguy Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I'd suggest you look at the trails that are similar in nature to what you envision, and reach out directly to the CO's or creators of those trails. As you have already seen, you won't get many decent replies in here, and many of the people you probably want to talk to do not play in this sandbox. One suggestion is calvertcachers in MD. They are the driving force behind the Star Spangled Banner and Capt. John Smith trails. Quote Link to comment
+Great Scott! Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Rather a lot of details in your post, so I'll only address two. Not everyone enjoys doing powertrails. Not everyone is up to the task of maintaining all the caches on such a powertrail. Where was powertrail mentioned in the first post? Quote Link to comment
+cheech gang Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 At the risk of being redundant, they were likely asking about GEOTOURS. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Rather a lot of details in your post, so I'll only address two. Not everyone enjoys doing powertrails. Not everyone is up to the task of maintaining all the caches on such a powertrail. Where was powertrail mentioned in the first post? They said 'Geotrail', not 'cache series'. I made an assumption. My bad. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I think the same issues apply, however. Not everyone wants to do a cache series, and not everyone can/will maintain such a series. Quote Link to comment
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