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Organizing caching day for newbies


Ibar

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Hi,

 

I've got the "responsibility" to organize a day of geocaching for a social club my wife belongs to. They will be about 10-15 families with mostly teenage kids. With just one or two exceptions, they have probably never heard of geocaching. My goal is, of course, to make their day as exciting as possible and hopefully pass to them some of the passion I have for this game/sport/hobby, and there is where I would welcome your ideas.

 

I'm thinking about looking for an area with a high density of caches (the plan is that people will walk from one cache to the next one)with eventually different starting points, so that they don't step on each other toes, and obviously not higher than D3 T3.

 

Other than that, could you give any hints about how to make a succesful geocaching day for that community?

 

Thanks in advance

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Hi,

 

I've got the "responsibility" to organize a day of geocaching for a social club my wife belongs to. They will be about 10-15 families with mostly teenage kids. With just one or two exceptions, they have probably never heard of geocaching. My goal is, of course, to make their day as exciting as possible and hopefully pass to them some of the passion I have for this game/sport/hobby, and there is where I would welcome your ideas.

 

I'm thinking about looking for an area with a high density of caches (the plan is that people will walk from one cache to the next one)with eventually different starting points, so that they don't step on each other toes, and obviously not higher than D3 T3.

 

Other than that, could you give any hints about how to make a succesful geocaching day for that community?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Do all the caches yourself a couple of days beforehand to make sure they're all there, in decent condition, and there's nothing unpleasant at the GZs.

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Just my 2 cents here...

I'd not take a crew of newbies to look for listed geocaches. I'd go to a local park and hide some temporary caches, teach them about using a GPS to find objects, the basics of a hide/find, and essentials of playing the game at Geocaching.com (take something, leave something of equal or greater value; dealing with trackables; signing the logbook; hide as found; etc.)

 

Then, if they like the game enough, you can direct them to the website to learn more, and that you;d be available to help them get started with actually playing if they're interested.

 

I know that I wouldn't want my caches targeted by a group of fly-by-night, temporary, hit-it-and-quit-it people--the likelihood of a cache being muggled, broken, not hidden properly after a find, trackables going missing, and more become real issues when you take out enthusiastic newbies who might not keep playing beyond your single event.

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Just my 2 cents here...

I'd not take a crew of newbies to look for listed geocaches. I'd go to a local park and hide some temporary caches, teach them about using a GPS to find objects, the basics of a hide/find, and essentials of playing the game at Geocaching.com (take something, leave something of equal or greater value; dealing with trackables; signing the logbook; hide as found; etc.)

 

Then, if they like the game enough, you can direct them to the website to learn more, and that you;d be available to help them get started with actually playing if they're interested.

 

I know that I wouldn't want my caches targeted by a group of fly-by-night, temporary, hit-it-and-quit-it people--the likelihood of a cache being muggled, broken, not hidden properly after a find, trackables going missing, and more become real issues when you take out enthusiastic newbies who might not keep playing beyond your single event.

+1 Yep.

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When I've taught or helped teach geocaching to newbies, I generally start with about half an hour of "classroom" presentation, explaining the basics of GPS/coordinates, cache sizes/difficulty/terrain, trading, trackables, etc., with a lot of hands-on examples (passing around examples of different containers, trackables, devices, etc.).

 

After that half hour of "classroom" presentation, I go one of two ways. If the entire class is going to be about an hour, then we spend the rest of the time spotting temporary caches that I've hidden outside, near wherever the "classroom" presentation was held. I like to have more temporary caches hidden than I have students, so everyone has the opportunity to spot a hidden container. I usually do this type of cache at church, with the "classroom" presentation in an actual classroom, and with the temporary caches hidden in the landscaping somewhere nearby. All the temporary caches are in the same area, so I can take the kids to that area and have them raise their hands when they spot caches that haven't been spotted yet.

 

If the entire class is going to be a few hours, then we split the students into small groups with an experienced geocacher in each group, and a preloaded loaner device in each group. Then each group sets off down a trail that is saturated with caches, but where each cache is different from the others. We can be back to the trailhead after 2-3 hours, and everyone has had the opportunity to spot several varied caches. These classes start at a trailhead that is somewhat remote from residential areas. Ideally, the first cache is a "hidden in plain sight" cache at the trailhead.

 

I specifically do not take new geocachers to the urban/suburban caches in the local neighborhoods. Even if I trust all the kids in my class, I don't necessarily trust their friends and classmates who hear about hidden "treasure boxes" in the neighborhood.

Edited by niraD
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When I've taught or helped teach geocaching to newbies, I generally start with about half an hour of "classroom" presentation, explaining the basics of GPS/coordinates, cache sizes/difficulty/terrain, trading, trackables, etc., with a lot of hands-on examples (passing around examples of different containers, trackables, devices, etc.).

 

After that half hour of "classroom" presentation, I go one of two ways. If the entire class is going to be about an hour, then we spend the rest of the time spotting temporary caches that I've hidden outside, near wherever the "classroom" presentation was held. I like to have more temporary caches hidden than I have students, so everyone has the opportunity to spot a hidden container. I usually do this type of cache at church, with the "classroom" presentation in an actual classroom, and with the temporary caches hidden in the landscaping somewhere nearby. All the temporary caches are in the same area, so I can take the kids to that area and have them raise their hands when they spot caches that haven't been spotted yet.

 

If the entire class is going to be a few hours, then we split the students into small groups with an experienced geocacher in each group, and a preloaded loaner device in each group. Then each group sets off down a trail that is saturated with caches, but where each cache is different from the others. We can be back to the trailhead after 2-3 hours, and everyone has had the opportunity to spot several varied caches. These classes start at a trailhead that is somewhat remote from residential areas. Ideally, the first cache is a "hidden in plain sight" cache at the trailhead.

 

I specifically do not take new geocachers to the urban/suburban caches in the local neighborhoods. Even if I trust all the kids in my class, I don't necessarily trust their friends and classmates who hear about hidden "treasure boxes" in the neighborhood.

Tremendous. Bravo!

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