Event Cache Games

[+Geo_cats]

I did a search in the forums for this but found nothing.

I am looking for suggestions for games to play at event caches. We are planning a picinic in a few weeks and will have about 40 gcers there, about 10 of them kids.

What games, activities have you found that worked well at events?

 

[+SeventhSon]

I've never been to an event, but one game I read about sounded pretty interesting. The organizer went out prior to the event and got the coords to a specific spot that was easily recognizable but did not mark it. I think he lined up trees or something. Then during the event, cachers were givin the coord and a flag with their name. The one closest to the actual point won a prize.

 

He had a pic of the flags, and it was interesting how much difference there was.

[+BadAndy]

Set up an orienteering course. Heres how it works. mark a starting point, from there go x number of feet in x direction (say 200 feet at 174 degrees for instance), from there go x number of feet in x direction etc etc leading them around the event area. At the final spot each player marks the spot with a flag. the one who's the closest wins.

 

This gives the players many options, they can either project waypoints, use a compass and pace the distances, or just let the little arrow be their guide.

 

It's best to setup the course using a good compass and a long surveyers tape measure.

[+dragonflys]

does any one have the basic rules for Geo-Bingo, Poker Run and Geo-scrabble. any other fun event games?

[+Mr. Snazz]

There was a CRAZY event at the Champoeg Campout event here in Oregon last year.

 

Four or five teams were formed, and each team got coords for a wheelbarrow, parts, and a bunch of baloons, and a bucket. The teams had to use the parts to assemble a trebuchet, fill up the water baloons, and then launch the baloons at a team member holding the bucket. Oh, and you had to catch the baloons in a "beer bong", which then funneled the water down to the bucket.

 

Team that got the most water in their bucket was declared the winner.

 

Some photos:

 

http://groupware.zorcat.com/~journal/jmc_0...80_DSC00335.JPG

 

http://groupware.zorcat.com/~journal/jmc_0...D9_DSC00331.JPG

 

http://groupware.zorcat.com/~journal/jmc_0...FE_DSC00321.JPG

 

http://groupware.zorcat.com/~journal/jmc_0...D7_DSC00314.JPG

 

http://groupware.zorcat.com/~journal/jmc_0...B7_DSC00344.JPG

Edited March 31, 2005 by Mr. Snazz

[+W7WT]

I've never been to an event, but one game I read about sounded pretty interesting. The organizer went out prior to the event and got the coords to a specific spot that was easily recognizable but did not mark it. I think he lined up trees or something. Then during the event, cachers were givin the coord and a flag with their name. The one closest to the actual point won a prize.

 

He had a pic of the flags, and it was interesting how much difference there was.

We are planning a similar GPS Contest as part of the Spring Fling to be held April 10, 2005 in Bremerton, Washington. We have never done this so hopefully everything will work out OK. At a local park not far from the resturant where the event is being held we will conduct the contest. I plan on using my Garmin 76C and warming it up for two or three hours. Then we will run a NS line and along that line

select a point for Ground Zero. At that point we will run a EW line across Ground Zero. The ends of the lines will be secured by spike nails and after coordinates have been taken the lines will be removed but the nails will remain. These lines will be approximatey 40 feet or more long. We will be conducting the contest from 1200 to 1330 and as soon as people plant their flag they will go to the event. Depending on how many breaks we have we will secure a compass rose at Ground Zero and take both bearings and distance to the flags. Ranking will will be only

by distance and the bearings are so we can plot the flags. It will be interesting what GPSs seem to match what my 76C indicates. I am not about to get into the

Garmin-Maggy debate. We have a lot of nice prizes including four geocoins that will be awarded at the banquet. I have no idea just how many contesters we will have. Dick, W7WT

[+Isonzo Karst]

We did a coordinate accuracy game at our recent event. We were fortunate to have a friend, a licensed surveyor very kindly agree to set some points. These were accurate to within centimeters. Actually the majority of the partipants were within 10 feet, and many within 8' (one thousandth of a minute). The winner was about 2" from the tiny mark.

 

Also GXer bingo is a great mixer, you gotta hand that sheet off to 25 (16) different folks. Makes people talk and exchange bingo sheets. The grid can be larger or smaller (16 squares, 25 squares) depending on the anticipated number. With or without free squares Below is GXer Bingo, the DOH! version

[+W7WT]

We did a coordinate accuracy game at our recent event. We were fortunate to have a friend, a licensed surveyor very kindly agree to set some points. These were accurate to within centimeters. Actually the majority of the partipants were within 10 feet, and many within 8' (one thousandth of a minute). The winner was about 2" from the tiny mark.

 

Thanks for the information. I wish we could have such accuracy to be judging against. I have been running some test with my four GPSs and I am amazed at how close they all are including an old Garmin 45. Under heavy tree cover I think they would spread out. I tried a different approach where a spot was picked (lamp post) and they would record their coordinates and who ever came closeth to the average would win. What I found that while a GPS might be right on in Latitude it might be down the line in Longitude and they all came out to be about the same. My old Garmin 45 did about as well as my new 76C. So I decided this might not work out too well and went to the finding of a spot. Dick, W7WT

[Poppa Duck]

Geo Cats - it depends how young the kids are.

 

For the younger kids -

At one caching event we went to they set up individual take home mini-caches for the kids (disposable gladware containers, candy, party favor type toys, etc). Each kid was given a hint sheet and got to keep the cache when they found it. Went over great with my 6 year old.

 

For the older kids -

I ran a cub scout geocache program once. I followed the above for the younger scouts, but for the older ones I combined a mini gps based hunt with a mini-orienteering hunt. At the end of each stage they boys were allowed to pick something from the cache. One stage had simple items (pencils, erasers, flag pins), while the second had better items (baseball caps, mini-flashlights, etc).

 

Actually for the scouting event we didn't have to buy anything - the local businesses (phone company, power company, newspapers, etc) all donated the items.

 

-PD

[+dragonflys]

Geo-Bingo looks great, anyone else have some help

[+geosliders]

we have the same question - we are holding an event and we want to do something new. It's usually a fairly large turnout (80 - 100 people) kids and adults. We do the poker run, ice breaker bingo, etc. We are looking for a game that involves finding a cache but somehow you will need to talk to other cachers to get info for each step - in other words something to make everyone talk to each other and help the newbies get into the group. Maybe asking a question and saying which cacher does XYZ - then a choice of three or four answers - each one leading to a different cache final - only one of which has the log book.

 

Any ideas?