Need More Involved In Southern KY

[+woody33]

Here in southren Kentucky, Somerset, I am about the only one here placing caches. (42501) Does anybody have any suggestions on how to promote Geocaching except by just word of mouth? I have told about everyone I work with and know. I even made a bumpersticker. It seems no one wants to place any around here. I have seen several people here involved, but no new caches.

[Keystone]

Wow, you're right! It's pretty sparse between Lexington KY to your North and Knoxville TN to your South. My sympathies. And now for some advice:

 

1. First and foremost, "IF YOU HIDE IT, THEY WILL COME." Nothing sparks more geocachers like more geocaches. Several folks have said that they discovered the website very early, but after seeing there were only 3 caches within 50 miles, they moved on. Then, a year later, there were 200 caches nearby and they got hooked. Remember that EVERY area started off with just a few caches. Different regions blossom at different rates. Having studied growth patterns in several metropolitan areas, nothing influences the growth rate as much as having a small group of dedicated cache hiders to get things started.

 

2. Hide caches in a manner designed to spark interest among "powercachers" who travel from one city to the next. This means more placements within a few miles of major highways, and perhaps 2 or 3 caches in the same large park. Look at a map and place caches along a linear route that a traveler is likely to follow, with a cache every 5 to 10 miles.

 

3. Contact geocachers who are hiding caches nearby, like in Lexington, and join the local geocaching group there. Beg them to come down and hunt for a few of your caches. Make them drool for a road trip by describing the cool places where you've hidden caches.

 

4. THEN, ask those powercachers and Lexington geocachers to bring along an extra cache or two to hide for you to find. If it's outside of the range where the hider is comfortable maintaining it, then offer to serve as the local cache nanny once you find the cache. (You'll need to coordinate this with your local volunteer cache reviewer.)

 

5. Speaking of your cache reviewer, drop a line to KYAdmin and ask for other ideas or assistance. KYAdmin doesn't read the forums regularly and is not likely to see this topic.

 

6. Write directly to the local people who find your caches. Thank them for the nice log, and then ask them to hide a cache for you to find.

 

7. If there is a sporting goods store, community college or park recreation program in your area that offers outdoor education classes, ask them if you could present a class on GPS use, with Geocaching being a fun teaching tool. Other geocachers who have put on classes like this will be glad to help you with outlines, powerpoint slideshows, game ideas, etc.

 

Anyone else have ideas to help woody33? Run a zipcode search and you'll feel sorry for him like I did. Let's give him a hand to help grow geocaching in his area.

[+woody33]

Thanks for the tips, Im planning to hide a super cache in the area, as soon as i snatch a 20mm. ammo can. may put some more valuable stuff in it, and take the info to an upcomming event about 2 hours away. This is my next sales pitch, lol

[+TheRedSquirrel]

Yes. I am one of those in the area [see, I admitted it].

 

Here in the near future [next couple of months], I am planning to put out some caches. Jusy kinda of looking around for possible locations.

 

Right now, I am working on getting a TB ready for a race.

 

I have got one of our local high school kids hooked on geocaching; so don't fret. Try my zip: 40741

[+welch]

Maybe see if any local media would be interested in doing a story?

Or event set up some sort of event cache and invite a local reporter to attend.

 

If that doesn't work, get some big nets and a couple rolls of duct tape and travel to some of the more cache areas.....

[+briansnat]

Seed caches are a good way to jumpstart things. Place a large container and fill it with a bunch of smaller containers....decon boxes, or similar sized Tupperware. Put a log, geocaching letter, pencil and Ziploc in each of the contiainters.

 

The object is for finders to take one of the ready made caches, add a few trade items and hide it somewhere. Some people do this with 35mm film canisters, but unless you want to have nothing but micros to hunt, don't go that way....although a mix would be nice, 2-3 micros, and 4-5 decon boxes. You can re stock as needed.

[+RainbowCache]

Woody33 -

 

I have been in your shoes...8 months ago a search from my zip code was even worst than yours. The 20 closest caches were 17 to 75 miles away. It is a little better now. With the help of btouch & ckreef, 20 caches = only ~53 miles. And using Dublin, GA as our local center starting point 20 caches = 40 miles. Several newbies are logging finds, as well as "powercachers" being lured into the area as the cache density increases.