Easter geocache hunt?

[+brutemus1]

I think it would be really interesting to hold some type of Easter egg geocache hunt. Has this been done before? Any ideas on what to do or how to organize this?

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

Do a search of this forum. This comes up every year and some good suggestions have been posted.

[+The_Incredibles_]

Yes, I've done this 2 years and will be doing it again this year. You are welcome to take a look at the event pages. There's alot of info that may be helpful.

 

In the past I've done day-time events. I've done different routes for different people. We start off with a traditional egg hunt for the under 6s. My daughter hides chocolate in the trees near the event coordinates and the little ones go hunting with their baskets. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes. Then we send people off on their GPS egg hunts. Each team gets 10 sets of coordinates. This year there will be a 2km route for everybody. There will be stashes with little plastic eggs they have to find and inside the plastic eggs there are plastic gold coins they can bring back and 'buy' chocolate at our 'store'. In previous years, I have just stuffed the plastic eggs with chocolate and candy so they get to eat while they're on the trail. The only downside with this is you have to hide them *just* before the event and pick a place where there are not too many dogs. Using plastic coins is good because I can hide them the night before and don't have to rush around the morning of the event.

 

I try to do a nice variety of chocolate, gummies, bigger eggs, chocolate bunnies. This year I am having fruit leathers too in case someone can't/doesn't want the chocolate. Not everyone can eat this stuff but may want to come. The 2km route was meant for families with kids. I also did a 3km route for adults and teens. They had eggs to find too, but in each egg, there was no chocolate, but rather a slip of paper with partial coordinates. After they found their 10 eggs, they had the coordinates to a big lock n lock full of goodies.

 

This year, I am adding a night event. This is meant for adults/teens. They will be given 10 sets of coordinates, which will bring them within 50 meters of a firetack, which will mark the location of eggs full of goodies. I will be putting glowsticks in one of the eggs in each stash to make it 'glow'. Still working on the details, but i may make some of the 10 locations interesting hides or something else to make 'em work for their chocolate.

 

Every year, I ask for donations. People are pretty good about bringing money. Last year I collected over $200 which pretty much covered the chocolate. The other stuff like the plastic eggs and lock n locks I reuse from year to year.

 

I budget about 200 grams of chocolate per person, which is a generous amount. There are always some people that come for the company and don't want to eat the chocolate. That allows for 1 big thing, like a chocolate bunny plus about 100 grams of little things plus the chocolate for the under 6s egg hunt. $200CDN covers chocolate for 60 people.

 

What I did to figure out the 200 grams was lay out what I thought would be reasonable for 1 person, then weigh it, then multiply by the number of people coming to figure out the total # of kilograms to buy.

 

Edited March 30, 2014 by The_Incredibles_

[+brutemus1]

Yes, I've done this 2 years and will be doing it again this year. You are welcome to take a look at the event pages. There's alot of info that may be helpful.

 

In the past I've done day-time events. I've done different routes for different people. We start off with a traditional egg hunt for the under 6s. My daughter hides chocolate in the trees near the event coordinates and the little ones go hunting with their baskets. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes. Then we send people off on their GPS egg hunts. Each team gets 10 sets of coordinates. This year there will be a 2km route for everybody. There will be stashes with little plastic eggs they have to find and inside the plastic eggs there are plastic gold coins they can bring back and 'buy' chocolate at our 'store'. In previous years, I have just stuffed the plastic eggs with chocolate and candy so they get to eat while they're on the trail. The only downside with this is you have to hide them *just* before the event and pick a place where there are not too many dogs. Using plastic coins is good because I can hide them the night before and don't have to rush around the morning of the event.

 

I try to do a nice variety of chocolate, gummies, bigger eggs, chocolate bunnies. This year I am having fruit leathers too in case someone can't/doesn't want the chocolate. Not everyone can eat this stuff but may want to come. The 2km route was meant for families with kids. I also did a 3km route for adults and teens. They had eggs to find too, but in each egg, there was no chocolate, but rather a slip of paper with partial coordinates. After they found their 10 eggs, they had the coordinates to a big lock n lock full of goodies.

 

This year, I am adding a night event. This is meant for adults/teens. They will be given 10 sets of coordinates, which will bring them within 50 meters of a firetack, which will mark the location of eggs full of goodies. I will be putting glowsticks in one of the eggs in each stash to make it 'glow'. Still working on the details, but i may make some of the 10 locations interesting hides or something else to make 'em work for their chocolate.

 

Every year, I ask for donations. People are pretty good about bringing money. Last year I collected over $200 which pretty much covered the chocolate. The other stuff like the plastic eggs and lock n locks I reuse from year to year.

 

I budget about 200 grams of chocolate per person, which is a generous amount. There are always some people that come for the company and don't want to eat the chocolate. That allows for 1 big thing, like a chocolate bunny plus about 100 grams of little things plus the chocolate for the under 6s egg hunt. $200CDN covers chocolate for 60 people.

 

What I did to figure out the 200 grams was lay out what I thought would be reasonable for 1 person, then weigh it, then multiply by the number of people coming to figure out the total # of kilograms to buy.

 

 

Wow thanks for all the info! The night hunt seems like a ton of fun. Haha I wish I could go to your events

[+NanCycle]

 

What I did to figure out the 200 grams was lay out what I thought would be reasonable for 1 person, then weigh it, then multiply by the number of people coming to figure out the total # of kilograms to buy.

 

 

How on earth do you know how many people are coming? Sure you've got your "Will Attend" posts, but on events I have seen, some say they will but don't; many more don't say they will but do, and most don't post their "Will Attend" until the day of or the night before the event. And even when a "Will Attend" is posted, most of the time there's no way to tell if that means 1 person or the whole family and each of the kids bringing a friend.

[+The_Incredibles_]

 

What I did to figure out the 200 grams was lay out what I thought would be reasonable for 1 person, then weigh it, then multiply by the number of people coming to figure out the total # of kilograms to buy.

 

 

How on earth do you know how many people are coming? Sure you've got your "Will Attend" posts, but on events I have seen, some say they will but don't; many more don't say they will but do, and most don't post their "Will Attend" until the day of or the night before the event. And even when a "Will Attend" is posted, most of the time there's no way to tell if that means 1 person or the whole family and each of the kids bringing a friend.

 

People in my area are pretty reliable, especially as they understand the preparation involved for an event like this.

 

However, there are things you can do. For starters, I've advertised my event 1 month in advance.

 

As well, here's the wording for my upcoming event:

 

When you log your “will attend”, please let us know how many kids and adults are in your party and which event(s) you plan to participate in (Baby Bunnies Egg Hunt and/or GPS Egg Hunt) so we can prepare. Please RSVP by April 10th.

 

I will post an announcement on April 10th 'closing RSVPs', 10 days before the event. A few days before I do this, I will post on the local Facebook group reminding people to RSVP. There will still be people who will try to RSVP after the deadline. This is OK, as I've allowed 10 days. There will be people who will try to RSVP even later, like 2 days before the event. I usually try to accommodate people whenever possible, for instance single adults, but I did end up turning away a caching team last year. It would have been way to hard at that point to accommodate them and it would have taken my attention away from the rest of the event, so I just said 'no'.

 

I've done quite a bit of organizing in general. I've never had a large number of people show up unexpected, but I suppose it could happen. If there are people that show up unexpected, usually this will be matched nicely by the number of people who no-show.

[+TheHarleyRebel]

People do it all the time, but that does not stop you bringing it to your local area, just list it as a event cache and ask the landowner if you can do it on their property.