Halloween Series - The event

Some people enjoy planning events.  For some, it's a chore.  Almost everyone loves attending them.  What you plan will make all the difference.

Okay, so a little bit of this post will be based on an event I held only two days ago, but with some encouragement from the kind words I've received about it, I felt that it wouldn't hurt to talk about creativity in event planning.  We could focus on events in general, and maybe in the future we will.  For now, lets look at some ideas for planning a Halloween event.

Hold your event at night.  This makes it a bit harder for the kids, but it makes the atmosphere ten times better for caching.  Speaking of caching...

Haunted caches.  If you can find a location with room to plant some caches, try to do haunted caches.  You can use the rat and skull caches from the previous two posts, or come up with something else.  Fake graves, ghosts in the trees, fake snakes and spider caches will provide those little EEKS escaping from geocacher's mouths.  If the area you are holding the event has some wooded trails, definitely plan on using them.  Put some Halloween related swag inside for good measure.

And speaking of wooded trails, if you're up for the task, try to build a night cache for the event.  Make it a haunted night cache to boot.  Night caches are fun in groups, even more fun in the atmosphere of Halloween.

It is Halloween so plan on people wanting to dress up.  Plan for this by holding a costume contest.  This will encourage some people to put more effort into their costumes and you'll see some interesting ones.  You may end up showing up at the event only to have a silent, heavy breathing, mad doctor staring you down as you try to guess whose inside.  And don't forget the kids.  Make it more fair and have a kids category and an adults category (don't forget prizes for both).

Mentioning kids reminded me something about caches.  If you are planning caches, it couldn't hurt to plan some kiddie caches.  Direct from the mind of redsoxfan65, who helped me with my event, plant some temporary caches for kids.  Fill them with Halloween swag that the kids can take so it feels like trick or treating.  Then, nearby, place a permanent "logger" cache.  When the kids find all of the temporary caches, the logger cache is the place where they can claim their find.

Try to plan for treat bags.  Everyone loves treats on Halloween, and the inner geocaching kid in all of your attendees will enjoy this extra step.  Plan on having more than what you expect to show up.  Chances are you will still run out.

Door prizes.  As with any event, try to have door prizes.  Especially if you hold a costume contest.  The chance to win prizes will get even more people dressed up.

If you can find something else to work into your plans, awesome.  For my event, we held the event at a park that had an observatory.  We worked with them to reserve it for the night and a member of their club came out and gave people views of Jupiter and the Moon through a HUGE telescope after the clouds rolled away.  It ended up being cool finish to the event.

All of this may seem like a lot of work, so ask for volunteers to help.  Put some effort into planning a fun haunted event and you'll have a lot of happy cachers in the end.

If you have other ideas to incorporate into a Halloween event, post some comments so others can plan for next year.

I have one last Halloween post planned and the plans can definitely be used outside of Halloween too - logbook design.  Bet you didn't think about that when planning your caches.  I sure didn't until recently.  All the artistic geocachers out there will love this one.

TripCyclone

Placing a Night Cache

Okay, I'm going to be stealing a bit from an article I wrote on my personal blog at the beginning of 2009.  This is only because I've laid out how to build a night cache already.  However, I will add a few things here before I send you over to look at that article.

So why am I doing this?  This past weekend, while at the 6th Annual Kearney Picnic in Kearney, NE, a group of us went after a night cache.  Since it has been a week since my last post, I felt that this is a good time to update a bit of information about night caches.  Especially since I am working on building some night caches for one of my own upcoming events. Let's take a look at what supplies you need to build a night cache:

• Cache container (try to use at least a small since you'll be in the woods)
  
• Logbook
• Flashlight
• Reflective tacks

The most critical part of building a night cache are the reflective tacks, often called "Fire Tacks".  You can find basic sets of these at most outdoor stores, like Bass Pro or Cabela's.  I've started to see them in outdoor departments at more common stores like Target and Wal-mart.  Usually, you'll find them amongst the hunting equipment.  Why is this?  Well, this product is a common product for hunters to use to find their way to their favorite hunting spots at night.

You can also look online.  Wildtech Corporation deals in fire tacks of various designs.  It is one of there products that I finally got to see in action this last weekend.  They sell tacks in 3D (pyramid shaped), 4D (cube shaped), and they even sell "Fire tape".  Their products also come in different colors, including a Stealth color designed specifically for geocachers.  I've seen the stealth color before and boy does it blend in during the daytime.  This weekend, I saw the 4D design.  Wildtech's tacks are smaller than the round tacks you'll find in stores, but they are bright and quite visible even at a distance.

As I talked with some fellow cachers, I will update one thing about the post I'm going to send you to.  Placing the tacks at night is an effective way to verify that standing at each tack allows you to see the next one.  On the other hand, you can also effectively place the tacks during the day.  While it is harder to see the tacks at a distance, you can definitely see what you placed it on.  The only thing to remember is that if you do place the tacks during the day, MAKE SURE you go back out at night at least once before you submit the cache to Geocaching.com so that you can make sure that others will be able to follow the path.

One last warning.  This article was written both to explain what a night cache is, but also how to both find one and build one.  The article is lengthier as a result of all of that information included.  With the number of times I've heard geocachers say they enjoy night caches, it's hopefully enough information for you to build your own.  I have three in the works myself.

Go to "What Are Night Caches?" to read the article.

Next, we'll talk about building Log Caches.

TripCyclone