Geocaches within Devils Den Park

[Troop226]

I was thinking that geocaching would be a great fun learning tool for our local Boy Scouts. Our next outing is at Devils Den Park and would like to know if there are any geocaches found within the park boundaries that would be suitable for us to try our first hunt. Thanks in advance.

[Clark~Griswold]

Looks like this is the only one. You will have to read the cache page and decide if it is suitable for your scouts, but it looks OK to me. I'm sure Arkansas Stickerdude can provide more info. If he doesn't respond to this thread, you can click on his profile which will provide an email link. Have fun and welcome to Geocaching.
Clark

Vista del Diablo
(http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=e0182ec0-96ee-43ff-8fb7-50ba7aace639)

[Troop226]

Thanks a lot for the link and information. We certainly appreciate this and are looking forward to enjoying this sport.

Thanks again

[Gaddiel]

Welcome to geocaching!!!

I think your troop will love it. Be sure to follow up with us and tell us how your first hunt went!

Wayne

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Troop 226 thats right there is only 1 right now. When are you going down there? If there is time I'll go down and hide some more for your troop to find.

[Troop226]

Hello StickerDude. I sent you an email to the address listed on this site with some additional details. We are actually planning a campout this coming weekend so the time is short for any additional caches. The single one should be good for us to get into the idea of geocaching. It would be nice to have many of them within the parks of the state as this is where we and most other Scout troops will camp.

The Scouts generally will each plan a campout for each month of the year and something like the Geocaches makes for an interesting outing while at the same time being an aid for navigation and outdoors training. We are looking forward to finding the cache that is currently there if we can get the details of the cache before our trip.

I registered at the geocache site to get the details, but as of yet have received no email confirm for the registration completion.

We are only a small troop, but we will certainly be passing on the information so that all the other troops know of this sport and they can also begin to take part in this adventure on their outings.

Thanks

[BACKPACKNJACK]

Welcome troop226!!
I think you have chosen the best possible place to learn about geocaching and to get the quickest response to your questions about caching or the caches that have been placed in Arkansas. The Arkansas State Parks, lots of local city parks, corps of engineers parks, national forest, etc., places where Scouts are most likely to campout are full of great caches. If you would like to *burn* up the trails and *burn* off those hotdogs and marshmallows you may have *burned* over a campfire, check out all the caches “Grandkid38” and others have placed in **Burns Park**.
Location of caches:
It is a brand new edition to “Geocaching.com” that unless you have an active account and are logged in you are allowed to see all the details on a cache page except the actual grid coordinances so if you don’t get the verify email in time for this trip we can help you with that by PM or Email.
Just a tip from me to you:
When they actually find the cache remember to watch for that bright face look that comes over a kid’s (big kids too) face when they find a ‘for real, hidden treasure’, or you may miss something very special about caching. There is a reason why a lot of us cachers spend the time, money and effort getting permission to place caches, and I think you are about to see it first hand. I hope your troop enjoys this trip and maybe gets a chance to hunt in some of the more cache saturated areas in the Great Arkansas Outdoors.
Here is a link to a map of the caches in Arkansas (over 11 hundred now)
http://www.brillig.com/geocaching/arkansas.shtml

[Troop226]

Thanks, BACKPACKNJACK. It appears there are many caches very near to our location. Those would make for a nice day trip. I still haven't received anything from the geocaching site. I find this a bit out of place as most similar types of things have programs set to autorespond the details back to the originator within minutes. Is this normal to have such a delay.

I see that most things are listed using latitude longitude. Is this the normal format used. I always use the UTM when I make use of my GPS, and don't know if I have ever used longitude and latitude to navigate with. Is easy enough to translate it, I guess if this is the only listed format.

[BACKPACKNJACK]

Troop226
You can use UTM if you like, it is listed also.
I don't know why you are having trouble but many have trouble because of their spam blockers. I had the same problem with my ISP and had to resubmit using my "web mail".
Check your PM for some more detailed help I am sending you.

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Troop 226 I did not get an email if you would try again or you can call me at 479-461-9295. The ranger at Devils den is a good friend of mine I will see if I can place some temperary caches just for you guys.

[Troop226]

AR_StickerDude,

I will try to give you a call soon. We are actually from Greenwood so are local to you. We are a very small troop and most times our campouts only have from 4 to 8 boys and the adults for supervision. It is always a challenge to find things for them to do that are both fun and a learning experience and I think that the geocaches will fit both of those well. I have only hinted that the boys should bring compasses and we might do some orienteering work. They do not know about this at all, and I am going to hold this as a surprise until Saturday morning when we will have classes on map work and refreshers on compass work and I will bring a few GPS units. I think this will become a regular part of all our outings wherever a cache is to be found at the areas we camp at. I am looking forward to finding our first cache and thanks for placing it there so that we have the opportunity.


I still have not received the email confirm from geocaching.com and since you say that you did not receive your email then perhaps they also did not receive one. I did get the UTM values from BACKPACKNJACK via PM so I am set with that part of it. Thanks for that.

[Geezer_Veazey]

It is always a challenge to find things for them to do that are both fun and a learning experience ...
Have you thought about the railroad "hump" yard in North Little Rock? It's not geocaching related but very definitely both fun and a learning experience. I haven't been there in several years. They may not allow visitors any more.


I still have not received the email confirm from geocaching.com

Try logging on with the Id and password you chose and see what happens.

Geezer.

[Troop226]

Geezer,

I tried what you suggested and I got right in. I then went to the profile and noticed I had typoed the email address. I corrected that and all seems fine now. Thanks for that and thanks for the additional information about the railroad "hump" yard. That does sound like it would fit the bill although it is a bit beyond our normal travel range.

I now have the coordinates for the Vista Del Diablo and we will be hunting it this coming Saturday. We will also have time to just play "find on the map and seek" using the maps compasses and GPS. Should be a fun day for us.

ASD, I may give you a call later today to say hello and introduce myself.

[arkansas_stickerdude]

I'll have my phone on me.

[Troop226]

... and I left mine at home ... I will try to make the call tomorrow, Friday, as it is pretty late in the evening now. We leave for our campout Friday evening and will set up camp in the dark Friday night.

[Phantom_491]

We leave for our campout Friday evening and will set up camp in the dark Friday night.

I see some scouts getting their Polar Bear Award this weekend.

[Troop226]

:D

That is for certain, but will have a good time doing it

[Troop226]

Troop226 Update:

On Saturday morning, Nov 19th, after we had made and eaten breakfast, the boys asked what we were going to be doing that day. I introduced them to the concept of geocaching and they all seemed very interested in this. I gave them an overview of geocaching as I understood it, and then gave a short introductory course on topographical maps and UTM and how GPS units worked. We located our camp on the topo maps using the GPS units and this helped to show them how the UTM grids were used to pinpoint locations on the map, and how the GPS was very accurate in determining location. We then locked in the location of the geocache Vista Del Diablo into one of the GPS units.

I had them identify the terrain where the cache appeared to be located on the map and the compass bearing from where we were currently sitting. The bearing would take us staight up the side of a large hill with some bluffs if we followed directly. This was an opportunity to explain to them how the compass cared little about how difficult it was to get from point A to point B. A straight line was a straight line :)

I asked them to take a close look near to where the cache appeared to be located and see if there was anything there that might be used to help find it. One of the boys noticed a trail went past that point. They then backtracked the trail on the map and then used one of the park given maps to identify the trail by name and we were off on our first geocache hunt.

It was a nice hike along the trail and I had the boys stop several times to lock in their coordinates and locate themselves on the topo map to give some further training the the use of the GPS units and their association with a topo map. As we approached the location for the geocache and the GPSr went from miles to feet on the distance countdown the boys were getting a bit anxious to begin their search. As we drew next to the cache the pointer arrow began to rotate to the right and the distance was at 50 feet and I explained to them that this meant that we were now passing the location and that the cache would be within 50 feet of where we we standing, give or take a few yards, in the direction of the pointer arrow. We then spread out to begin the final search. I had the clues on where it was supposed to be hidden and I wandered over and found it pretty fast. Being as how the cache was pretty near to a bluff, I gave a quick hint to the boys that I had found it already and they all converged over to where I had just been. One of the boys yelled out I found it and rocks began being rolled and boys were digging for treasure.

This was a nice moment and the boys and the adult leaders both really enjoyed finding this cache and looking through all the goodies that were inside the caches ( 2 ). We signed the logbook and re sealed the cache boxes and then rehid the boxes back in their original location as best we could. The boys who did not go on the campout found out about the geocache hunt and were disappointed that they did not go to this campout. This will become a regular event for us on our trips and we will also do our share of hiding of some of them in the future also.

Thanks to all who hide these things out there for people to find.

Troop226

[Clark~Griswold]

Troop226 Update:

Thanks to all who hide these things out there for people to find.

Troop226

Stories like this are the reason we hide them. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Gaddiel]

Troop226 Update:

Thanks to all who hide these things out there for people to find.

Troop226

Stories like this are the reason we hide them. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Ain't it the truth. This story adds to my enjoyment of the game. It really is our reward for placing caches. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with us!

[arkansas_stickerdude]

Thats a great story and thank you for using my cache for the adventure.