Hawkeye Area Council
In all there was: 3 events
6 puzzle caches
20 multi-caches
71 traditional caches
You can find the bookmark list here. This list has all of the geocaches and event on it.
We the whole idea was first brought to me by WindChill. I thought the idea was great and instantly thought of putting one cache out for each year of the scouting program. There was a few certain caches the would have to be placed like the 12 "cache to eagle caches" and the 5 "treasure of scouting caches" and then a C.I.T.O event which Borky00 hosted.
To open the caches up to try to hit every ones interest I was able to get my hands on a pallet of ammo cans. This made it so I could put trading items inside the caches for people that like to trade, the containers where large enough so travel bugs could fit in them. Also with the mix of the types of caches, and some that were drive up caches and hiking caches. I figured this would open it up to show any scouts just about any combination of hides.
Some of the local cachers did donate some containers/swag/spray paint to the project. They were WindChill, Welch, DuitTuit. Also there was some special travel bugs that where put out by the Scout program. Which they where intented to draw attention to some of the great things about scouting. Borky00 made some pictures for each one and came up with the idea of attaching keychains to them that would hold those pictures. They are still floating out there. Also there was a travel bug that you need to attach to a pinewood derby car that's goal was to reach the location of the big scounting event for the year. At the moment I can't think of what that event was called though.
But getting back to the caches. My first task was to try to get permission from a whole lot of parks in the county's that made up the Hawkeye Area Council. Since I had 7 counties to deal with this ment I had quite alot of people to contact. I was so relieved to get all of those counties on board without any trouble at all. Everyone of them thought this was a great way to get people to enjoy their parks and they gave me the green light.
I also had to locate a bunch of Eagle Scout projects to try to hide 12 of the caches by or somehow use the information from the plaques to send a cacher off to where the cache was hidden. I really found this to be one of the hardest tasks to do. I have seen tons of project threw the years while out caching but never marked them. Also once finding one, I had to look and see if there was any caches with 528 feet of it. If there was I couldn't put a cache at or near the project to keep within the distance guidelines of geocaching.com. Then I would have to try to make the project a "virtual" waypoint and send the cacher off to a location where I could put a container out. This took me about 6 months to complete. These caches had one of the scout law in each of the caches. When a cacher could tell me what laws were where, they could get a special patch.
The other required project was the 5 "treasures of scouting". These could go any where though. I was able to get one place right at the scouting office. These caches also had cards in them that a cacher could fill out and drop in a box or mail to the office. Those cards where put in to a monthly drawing for a special geocoin. WindChill took care of the drawing each month.
As the year went on I found I had to use most of my free time to get these caches place. At a couple of points I really thought I was going to have to reduce the 100 caches to much less. But I kept at it and kept at it and finally towards the end of the year I was getting close. Then I found out I was going to have to have spinal surgery. At that point I was about 13 caches away. Since the snow was now hitting the ground it ment I wasn't going to be able to make any more "hiking" caches. I was really trying to avoid placing many park and grabs. The whole point was to get people to get out and enjoy the parks and exploring new areas while telling people about the scouting program. Luckily I still had some decon containers. I figured if I'm going to make some park and grabs, I wouldn't place a micro container. I really wanted to stick to making the caches have a few trading items and room for a travel bug. I did have to convert some of my own caches that I had listed on Terracaching.com. I really didn't want to do this, but I feel it worked out ok and don't think anyone had a problem with it.
When it came time for my surgery I still had about 6 caches to place. With the snow on the ground I couldn't do any type of hiking cause I couldn't risk falling on ice. Luckily I got some help from another cacher. Dazedandconfused got a container ready and went off to a spot I found that a cache would fit and meet the guidelines. They got that one placed for me and I was able to finish up with a few more park and grabs.
Once all the caches where placed I almost didn't know what to do with my free time. This whole project determined where I was going to cache for everyday and I just hadn't had time to venture outside of the areas I was placing caches. I really think this whole project showed scouts most of the aspect of geocaching. Which it was very cool they released a geocaching merit badge too. I still need to get my papers turned in and I'll be a merit badge councilor for the badge.
I think the whole project turned out very well and a lot of people have really enjoyed the whole series. I also have to give props to IowaAdmin for reviewing all the cache hides. I'm sure I kept his plate full over the past year.
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