cluster caches..spontaneous week-end events

Are fuel cost crimping your caching ? I'm developing acid reflux watching the Shell sta across from my office raise prices twice a day..my Suburban is a thirsty beast . Though not recommending this for anyone else, we are going to begin placing 'cluster caches' , i.e., a mixture of 3-4 ammo cans, plus 4-6 micros , all within a very close proximity. I would like to see the distance between caches waived while fuel prices are so astronomical . If there is a cluster of 10 or so caches the drive is worthwhile. Another thought is to car-pool from a pre-arranged area and share fuel cost. Could AGA have a site for those intrested in caching together ...look at the site ,see whos going and jump aboard . There has not been a summer event since last August . We could have week-end events byop ( bring your own picnic );, a couple of folks could arrive early , place some new hides ,go for it., or , just do a joint search. Perhaps this site is destineed to be an opinion page only ; not something to bring us together . Some folks have better verbal skills than oithers , but , when you meet them they turn out to be a hell of a nice person . Could the gas crunch be put to a good use? Nothing brings people together better than mutual adversity. Would AGA care to take the lead here ...this might be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. When we place our cluster they will be designated as such.

I have to say that the gas prices have affected our caching. There have been at least two trips where, after considering how much the trip would cost, we decided not to go. :( Our vehicle gets probably about 25 MPG, but that is not good enough to make a long trip fit into our budget.

I have a similar philosophy about placing a large number of caches in an area. "Clustering" has an end result (in my opinion) of making the drive to an area worthwhile. I know that if I can pick up 20-30 caches within a small radius, it gives me more incentive to make the trip...

Regarding the cache trips, if there are enough people that would be interested, maybe we could start scheduling some monthly cache trips (Cache Attacks?) around the state. They could be events, but they wouldn't have to be... I think it's a great idea, and something ArkGeo members could initiate! It would give us a great chance to meet other ArkGeo members and to include some new cachers.

Having a web site for this would be a little more work, but for now, we could let everyone know by posting it on the NEWS section of the front page and we could use a forum thread to keep track of who is planning to attend.

Who's interested and who would like to schedule one?

Ditto all but one of the above suggestions! The cache proximity rules can't be waived except under certain conditions, cost of gas not being one of them, but all of the other comments are great ideas!

I belong to two AGA's - here and the Alabama Geocachers Association http://www.alacache.com. The alacache site is all about bringing cachers together. We do all the things mentioned in this thread and more to bring cachers together and promote the game.

We have found our web site, which is essentially like yours, to be invaluable as the state-wide communications center for our ~700 members. Sure, you have some strong opinions here - so do we, but ArkGeo can be the place that brings the above ideas to everyone!

Cache runs to distant cities are quite fun and popular here, whether 6 folks jump in a Suburban for a day-trip to Atlanta or just a few get together for local caching.

Except in larger cities cache saturation is rarely an issue, and your idea of placing caches in such a way that folks can get multiple finds in a day will certainly attract cachers.

Have fun,
NF