Upcoming events

I have been looking forward to two events all year.  I was afraid with them being back to back that I was not going to make it. But it looks like I will.  They are some of the longer running events in Utah.

The Maple Mountain Hike has been held 5 times.  The first in 2002.  Jac0b has ran it 4 years straight since 2007.  That one is saturday morning.

The night before is the Whiting Campground Event.  This one has been held for the last 4 years as well.  In conjunction with the hike the next day.

The granddaddy of them all is the Potters Ponds Event. This is the 8th time this event has been held. Bunkerdave has hosted most of them.  This is a few feet away from the first cache placed in Utah.  The first Potters Ponds event was the first overnight camping event. 

there are a few others coming up the next few weekends.

Salt Lake Valley has the Splash Mob. This is his water park, water fight.  that is now twice a year.  So if you are in the area you should go.

The Weekend

This last week I headed south to my families stomping grounds, Fishlake.  My grandparents had a cabin here long ago, and it was time for our annual family reunion. 

Not much happened of interest.  I wanted to take a hike around the lake but did not have the chance.  I did look for a few caches. I had pretty mixed luck that day about 50-50  but I did get the final info for a Earthcache I was working on.  I have a few more but I have to get permission from the Forest Service.  I just need to stop by the office in Spanish Fork and talk to them about it before I actually finalize it.  That has always been the biggest pain getting the permission part done.

There were a ton of caches listed this weekend.  I did a few from my phone.  I have to be a little selective.  If there appears to be problem then I have to wait and do it at home.  It takes far to long to write the notes on my phone. 

I did get to place about 6 caches in all. A few I made members only.  Mostly because I feel like they might vanish, so that might help them stay put just a little bit more.  I was shocked at the number of caches that are in that area that are gone.  It appears that a number of cachers have archived their caches that used to be in the area.  I used to have a number of caches in Richfield, and I had about 1/3 now I have about all of them, and i archived a few that have gone away.

I have tried to figure out why some areas are so successful with the number of cachers.  I think each area needs 2-3 people that actively place caches. or people find all in their neighborhood and they give up.  Vernal, St George, Weber County, Utah County, all seem to have so many caches being placed that it keeps people going.  Other places like Davis, and Salt Lake counties, seem to have enough cachers that they keep people going.  They get enough interest to travel to look for caches.

On another note, Geocaching Podcast mentioned the Kokapelli in southern Utah.  Billion put in a ton of work on those caches, and getting the it up.  What is really amazing is that he had to plan the caches before going and haul them all there.  Regardless of wether it was a hard place to get to or not.  Congrats Billion.

So many caches.. so little time.... talk to you later.

Getting Events Published

I thought I would take the moment to talk about events.  What is expected and what is required for getting it listed.

There is a good portion of people that love events, another group avoid them like the plague.  I have made a few errors lately and would like to point these out here, to help cut down on error is the future.  If you have any questions please email me.  I have no problem helping out.  If you are not in Utah, don't toss anything my way, but check with your local reviewer.  Things should be the same, but some see the same rules differently.

1-No cache hunts.

You cannot set up an event to look for a cache.  Nowadays every event cache has a cache near it, and we understand that you like to go after them.  I would even expect everyone to grab the caches in a park, or along a hike, but you cannot list the caches in the area, or on the hike.  If you want to set up a cache hunt so that you are not hiking alone, do so in the UTAG forums please.

2-Stacking Events.

Do not run events back to back in the same area to get additional smileys.  If the same people will be attending both events the new one will not be listed.   Having a meet and greet and a CITO, please stretch them apart time wise and/or distance.  Some of this is to prevent pirating of event attendees.  If I have to choose between PeanutsParents event in Provo and 2 and Jac0bs Cito in Orem and 2 one will not be listed. 

3-CITO is not a flash mob

CITO has a specific purpose.  Cleaning an area.  Showing up, and spending 15-20 minutes is not really a CITO.  In this case you should point out times you will be cleaning up, if they need to bring trash bags, and how much time it may take.

4-MEGA

Megas are not awarded unless 500 cachers are signed up for your event, or there is a proven history.  You should start well in advance.  Normally caches are listed 3 months out, but if you think it is special or has special needs (camping reservations, or vendors scheduling attendance) let me know and it can be listed up to six months in advance.   If you get enough people in the log books it can be changed later.  It hast to be primarily a caching event.  If you have 30 cachers and 500 others walk in most likely they will not change the event.

5-Sponsors. 

You can have a sponsor on the cache page of your event. It cannot have a link or a .com address.  But Pizzas brought to you by Peters Pizzaria is ok.

Once again if you have a question please contact me.  Most event caches can be worked out, and the problems with them solved.

The hunt...and a weekend :D

Well tonight my hunt was a little different one.

I got a call for two people going to look for my caches and asking if I wanted to go along.  (perhaps they thought I would help them).Jacob down in the trees

So off I went looking for them after placing them the night before.  A ride in the mountains is always worth it so I jumped in with DrJay and Jacob and headed up.  The ride was as nice as the other day and we worked our way up to my caches  The one I placed for Jacob and the other one that is on Timber Mountain. 

It also gave me the opportunity to place one on Pumphouse Mountain.  I had planned that one for a while now, going with friends gave me the chance to actually do it.

Now comes the weekend.  People emailing me or contacting me get to be ignored until Monday.  Lucky for you :D  I am heading down to Fishlake for the weekend with my family, to relax, visit and to place a few caches. Good luck all, and have fun.

Sunset from Timber Mountain

Placing a few, and traffic.

I had thought of placing a few for a little while now.  High in the hills and for Jacob.  He passed 12,000 finds and recently hid his 1800th and i wanted to place one for him.  So tonight I headed up the canyon to get the girls.  They went up with mom to camp for a night, and off we went.

I thought about grabbing some, but all of them up this canyon have been found.  So up up up we went.  Taking an old road and passing some people in a car camping.  I am still trying to figure out how they got up there.

I like the dry mountain forests like this feel like home.  Well my daughter looked at my gps and wanted to go to timber mountain.  It was a rough road. rougher than most i have driven on up here.  Some people apparently had been mudding up here and really tore up the road.

Well I did finally place Timber mountain, and on the way down grabbed my cache for Jacob.  A quite night reviewing nothing new.  A few people wanted caches under bridges, too close to others, commercial caches, and an agenda based one that I sent messages too. All in all a pretty typical day.

 Things are really getting busy.  I was hoping that I would have 100 visitors a month.  Just kind of a few people.  I was just looking that I am up to 160 people in the last month. Between here and my flickr I am over 1500 hits a month.  Thanks everyone for paying attention to my ramblings.  I guess I make sense to someone. (I know I don't make sense to me).