Boy Scout District Cache-o-ree

[BSA534]

I'm in charge of the Foothills District (Conway, Faulkner, Perry, and Van Buren Counties) Camporee this year and it's going to be Geocaching themed. I want to call it a "Cache-o-ree". We expect up to 150 Scouts and it will be held at Blass Scout Reservation in Damascus. The dates are March 14-16.

I need the help of some cachers. I'm hoping I'll get some here. Still working out details, but here is some stuf I know I'll need:

I'll need help hiding temporary caches at the reservation on the weekend before the event.

I'd like some help teaching the Scouts how to use the GPS and the rules of geocaching and stuff like that.

I'd like some ideas for games or other activities we can do with the Scouts using compasses/gpsrs.

Normally all of the activites take place on Saturday. In the morning we'd break into small groups and have them go from station to station learning the skills they'll need for the afternoon competition.

On Saturday afternoon we'll pass out sets of coordinates to the Scouts and they'll spend the afternoon geocaching on the reservation. They'll bring back their finds and receive points for caches they bring back. The troop with the most points wins the event.

Thats the idea I'm working off of. I'd sure like to have some other geocachers to help out. Its a great opportunity to spread the word about our little game to and interested audience.

Tim Stone
BSA534
Scoutmaster
Troop 534 - Conway

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Count me in just send details I bet I can round up 2 or 3 more also just let me know. It could be Ozark Mtn Ghost, Mbell, TheCLB and myself.

[AR-HICK]

I was thinking about going to the Caddo with everyone. I think this is a little more important than just grabbing a few caches. I will talk to you at Paris about it.

[BSA534]

Thanks for the support. I think we can introduce caching to a lot of eager scouters!

Does anyone have any contacts at Garmin or Magellan? It was suggested that they might be willing to loan a few gpsr units for the weekend. I'm a little concerned that a troop might not come because nobody in the unit has a gpsr. I could get one of the executives from the Quapaw Council to write a letter if I knew where to send it to get it on the right person's desk.

Tim

[rklmbl]

We would be glad to offer our assistance in this endeavor. You may want to check with your County Extension Service because there is something in the back of our minds that we think our local Johnson County ES has access to GPS's. Let us know what we can do to help.

[Woodwalker9]

Boy Scouts and geocaching. A great combination. I certainly would love to get in on this project. Please let me kinow what I can do to help.

[HikerRon]

count me in for this event. it's on my calendar.
and i have an old Garmin Venture available for the scouts to use that day.

[BSA534]

OK I think I have some more specific needs now. AR-HICK and I went out and scouted the area out and talked with the ranger.

The date is Saturday, March 15, 2008.

Needs:

Some gpsrs that the Scouts can use. I'm not looking for anything fancy, I'll get the batteries, I just need something they can enter coordinates into by hand and search for the caches.

Some people to teach the Scouts the rules of geocaching, show them sample caches and maybe some info about geocaching.com

Some folks to help show the Scouts how to use gpsrs. How to enter coordinates and how to use the units to search for something. If there are any simple learning games that would be good here.

Some people to help run the contest in the afternoon. Help us tally the scores for the patrols. Help patrols that are having problems using the gpsrs.

We can't hide caches until after the Sunday afternoon the week before the Cache-o-ree, so AR-HICK is planning on doing some hiding on some weekday mornings before he has to go to work. I'm sure he'd welcome some help if anyone is free then. He needs to hide 20-25 caches in the area.

Please let me know what you can/will do. I really appreciate all the offers of help.

Tim Stone
BSA534
(501) 269-7239 cell
timdstone@gmail.com

[rklmbl]

We'll help with whatever is needed the most. Email sent.

[4wheeling-1]

I have a garmin etrex that I will loan for the occasion, I will also help AR-HICK hide some caches and I have a few ammo cans and tons of micros that I will donate as well, I will get AR-HICK on the hiding details, I am not sure if I can make it to the CACHE-O-REE due to my work schedule, if it turns out I'm off then I'll let you know and you can give me an assignment

[Woodwalker9]

I've got the day marked and will help in any way needed. I'll have a couple of GPSrs with me also. Looking forward to it.

[BSA534]

Great news! I have secured 15 GPSrs from the U of Arkansas Extension office. Not sure what models these are. I'll post as soon as I know so that we can get familiar with them. It should be a lot easier to teach the Scouts if they are all using the same model GPSr.

[AR-HICK]

Thats GREAT NEWS, one less thing to worry about. 8)

Now how many caches do I have to hide? :lol:

[BSA534]

Just enough to keep 100+ scouts busy for a couple of hours :wink:

I like the idea of placing some questions in the caches as well. Those could be worth bonus points in the contest. I'll get some cards and questions printed up this week for the caches.

[SJClimber]

I may be able to assist. If ARHick needs some help hiding the caches, I could do that one day and possibly get there the weekend. Let me know how I can help...

[BSA534]

The gpsrs are Garmin GPS3+ He said it was an older model but easy to use. Anyone familiar with these units?

[BSA534]

The Cache-O-Ree is this weekend, March 15. The Scouts will be camping out Friday & Saturday night. Ar-Hick has the coordinates for the front gate of the camp and will be posting them later. He's been hard at work placing 18 temporary caches for the Scouts to search for this weekend.

I'm in need of cachers to help out on Saturday morning by showing the Scouts how to use the GPS units we have borrowed from the county extension office. They'll need to know about coordinates and how to enter them into the units and how to use the GPSr to search for caches. We're planning on getting started around 8:30 or so on Saturday morning.

I'll be teaching a course on the basics of Geocaching. I'd welcome any help with that also.

The training sessions will be over before noon. In the afternoon the Scouts will set out to find the caches Hick has placed. They'll bring their cards back and I'll tally their scores and determine which patrol wins the competitions. If anyone wants to hang around and help with that, you are more than welcome.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you are going to try and make it out to the camp in Damascus.

Thanks!
Tim Stone
BSA534

[HikerRon]

i'll be there bright and early, with 2 GPSrs. i'm willing to help out in any way you want. will need those coords to the gate though.

[Woodwalker9]

I will be there unless something breaks between now and then. Really looking forward to it.

[AR-HICK]

Take 285 west in Damascus off Hwy 65, follow the Gus Blass BSA Reservation signs to the gate. Pretty easy :!:
Here are the coords to the camping area:
North 35 22.102
West 92 27.265

I will be there till noon and maybe later work permiting. Let me know if you need more directions for those of you coming from the west.

[rklmbl]

We'll be there.

[HikerRon]

Maybe Ar-Hick could post the coords for the 18 temp caches.....?
then i could have my gps pre-loaded for the scouts.

[BSA534]

Actually, thats part of the challenge, for them to learn to enter the coordinates in order to look for the caches. We've got the Garmin GPS 3 Plus units from 4H.

I'm planning on the geocachers running the classes on how to operate a gpsr. We can set 2 or 3 simple caches out nearby and let them try out their new skills.

Mike put one ammo box out in the open as a "gimmie" so that they can get an idea on how well their gpsrs are working.... Of course most of the caches are hidden in the woods, and these units don't appear to work that well under a canopy. ;-)

Tim

Anyone coming, be sure and get my phone # 269-7239 in case you need it!

[HikerRon]

just wondering....how many scouts will be attending? and what age group?

[BSA534]

Not sure how many, I'd guess 50-100 maybe. These are Boy Scouts so they are 12-18 (6th grade & up). There will probably be more 12-15 year olds there.

[BSA534]

I have the Garmin GPS III+ units in hand. If anyone is around Conway during the week and you want to take one of these units to familiarize yourself with it let me know. Just bring it on Saturday. You might also want to check out this link to the online manual for the unit:

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/gislab/equip ... Manual.pdf (http://www.gps.caltech.edu/gislab/equipment/GPSIIIPlus_OwnersManual.pdf)

[BSA534]

The classes start at 9:00 a.m. I'm relying on the geocachers to teach the Scouts how to work the GPSrs. We'll have a couple of manuals on hand in case you run into problems. I'll be teaching a class on geocaching at the same time, so I may also need some help there if we have plenty of help teaching the GPSrs.

I'd suggest you get to the campsite around 8 so that we can get everything set up and you have time to familiarize yourself with the units.

I know of one Scoutmaster who was so excited about this event that he went out and bought an Etrex Legend and he told me tonight he has no idea what he's doing! He wants to learn so he can take his troop out to search for the caches in Fairfield Bay. So he'll be there looking for some help along with many others.

I'll try to have some signs up at the front of the camp area. If you get to the "Bowen Lodge" then you've gone too far!

Thanks to everyone who's going to help. It ought to be fun. And wait til you see the cool patches we designed. Everyone who helps should be able to get one!

[HikerRon]

Fun day today! Those kids are amazing. I enjoyed it a lot and hope to do it again next time. -Ron

[Woodwalker9]

Hikerron, you are so right. Those kids were amazing and very excited about learning about GPSrs. I really had a ball and appreciate BSA534 for putting this together.

[rklmbl]

We enjoyed being with Tim and the scouts and hikerron and Woodwalker and AR HICK yesterday. Hope this was a success for you.

[BSA534]

First, special thanks to rklmbl, hikerron, Woodwalker and AR-Hick for coming out and helping teach the Scouts how to use the GPSrs and help them learn about geocaching. It was a very successful Cach-O-Ree! The Scouts had a blast! I think we created some new cachers.

Just thought you might like to know that we had a troop find 15 of the caches that AR-Hick hid and MY troop found ALL 18! I was pretty proud of them, but I had told them I expected them to win since they had more caching experience than any other troop there!

I really appreciate all Mike did placing the caches. I know he put in a lot of hours out there on the Scout reservation. The Scouts really enjoyed hunting for them!

Also, Thanks to everyone who helped out in advance giving me tips and providing me with resources to help pull this off. Maybe we'll get chance to do it again someday, (but lets wait a while!)

Tim

[AR-HICK]

Glad to help. I enjoyed it and I loved looking around the BSA reservation. It was great working with the kids and I hope they had as much fun as I did.