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Philadelphia anyone?


angeloned

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Hi all

My 12 yo son is looking to have a birthday "party" that includes some geocaching. He wants to invite a few friends and send them on a challenge to get as many caches as possible (His parents are avid adventure racers to we may be rubbing off a little bit). Anyway, Im looking for some state/county parks that we can bring a group of his friends and compete for finding caches. I believe I had seen some parks in years past but can't seem to find pre-arranged courses. any help you can provide would be wonderful

-DJ

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Hi all

My 12 yo son is looking to have a birthday "party" that includes some geocaching. He wants to invite a few friends and send them on a challenge to get as many caches as possible (His parents are avid adventure racers to we may be rubbing off a little bit). Anyway, Im looking for some state/county parks that we can bring a group of his friends and compete for finding caches. I believe I had seen some parks in years past but can't seem to find pre-arranged courses. any help you can provide would be wonderful

-DJ

You could set up your own course, with temporary caches, in any way you like. This way, you know they're all there, and there's no separation requirement. You can place them in whatever cool spot you want to. Remove the containers afterward.

 

One idea is to have a "poker run" where playing cards are in envelopes in each container. Grab an envelope at each find (don't open the envelope til it's time). The more you find, the better chance you have a winning poker hand.

 

But each person or at least each team, must have a GPS receiver (phone or whatever) with some kind of GPS App, unless you're using paper maps. Maybe the Google Map App will do, but not all phones will have that already. Some participants will need to load an App. And everyone will need a list of coordinates.

Edited by kunarion
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You should also know that this hobby is really targeted at 'players'. Introducing people to geocaching is great, especially kids, but there are concepts about this activity that participants MUST understand.

 

Caches are created (at some expense) and placed in the field by individual players for other players to find. It isn't, as many activities today are, set up by a town or a faceless authority out there for people to have fun with. It isn't like a network of trails or chess tables in a park, set up by some parks department for the casual and incidental use by anyone who wanders by.

 

There are rules that govern the game and the handling of caches. Often, people with no understanding of it find caches and take items or damage containers or fail to rehide or adequately reseal containers; not with malicious intent but simply out of ignorance.

 

Unfortunately, it's often kids (adults, too, tho). They find something, or are shown the game by well-intentioned players but don't have the proper perspective. They tell some friends about the cool hidden box with the great stuff inside, and then it's gone.

 

So, if you want to include caching in the party, great, and welcome aboard! but please treat our hobby with respect. Maybe the ideas suggested above about creating your own set of caches, not published on the website is a way to run a fun activity, but not involve other people's property.

 

For example, what will you do if you send the kids out to find ten caches in a park, and they come back WITH the cache containers? "Found them - here they are!!!"

 

You'd get more control over the game and you might not have to go through the hassle of putting an app on every kids' phone. What will you do if a parent says "No" to that install or a kid doesn't have a phone? You have to have at least one membership to use the app, anyway.

 

I don't mean to turn you off to ceocaching, in fact if you're adventure racers then this hobby just might be a good fit for you, but I don't think running a bunch of kids through the ACTUAL game is a good idea.

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