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12:46 am
October 14, 2009
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moonshake
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| PTC Wolf | posts 40 | |
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Hello All,
Anyone try this at the Cub Scouting level? I'm guessing it's pretty popular at the Boy Scout/Venturing level.
If you have done this, do you have any tips for brands/models to watch out for? Any features that are essential?
Thanks
John R.
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1:56 am
October 14, 2009
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Scouter Jeff
| | Southern California | |
| PTC Boy Scout | posts 150 | 
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As far as brands and models, I don't have much expertise in that. I have a basic Magellen Explorist 500 model, and it does pretty good, with very few bells and whistles. (For those of you not familiar with geocaching, this receiver is different than the one you would buy for your car. I don't know if a car one would work for geocaching or not).
We tried this once at the pack level, and it was a disaster. Way too many scouts going for a cache. We pretty much violated LNT policies, as the boys trampled everything to get to a cache first. Plus, there weren't enough adults that knew how to use a GPS, so that limited breaking up the group.
I tried it later as a den, and it worked really well. So my advice would be to keep the groups as small as possible.
And if anyone reading this is new to Geocaching, practice a lot before going out. That way you will spend less time searching and getting lost 
In Scouting,
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- Scouter Jeff
Assistant Scoutmaster, District Trainer
http://thetrainerscorner.wordpress.com/
Twitter: Scouter Jeff
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3:58 am
October 14, 2009
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moonshake
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| PTC Wolf | posts 40 | |
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Thanks Jeff,
Oh, I can imagine the disaster of a Pack stampede in your scenario. We are looking for a den-sized activity, so it should work ok.
A family friend, who has Geocached before, has offered to show our den around this weekend, but I would hate to get everyone's hopes up and then something fall through. So I'm thinking about picking myself up a GPS (and practicing with it). I'm sure I'd get some mileage out of it… in more ways than one.
John R.
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11:59 am
October 14, 2009
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Scouter Jeff
| | Southern California | |
| PTC Boy Scout | posts 150 |
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That's a great idea. It's a lot of fun as a den activity, and a lot of fun as a family activity.
You can get a free account at Geocaching.com and you are good to go!
Have fun!
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- Scouter Jeff
Assistant Scoutmaster, District Trainer
http://thetrainerscorner.wordpress.com/
Twitter: Scouter Jeff
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2:51 pm
October 14, 2009
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darthcooley
| | Cincinnati, Oh | |
| PTC Tiger | posts 17 | |
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Geocaching can be a lot fun with Cub Scouts. I did it once with my Pack at our Spy Themed camp-out ( Idea borrowed from a old Hour A Week Show) . To make it easier we spilt the boys into groups and had different Spy themed events for them to complete. One being Geocaching. I hid 2 Caches a easier one for the younger cubs & harder one for the older boys. Now to be honest I think I could have made them both alittle bit harder but the boys had a blast. Next time I think I will hide more caches & maybe a puzzle cache..
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Mike Cooley
Cub Master Pack 464
US Grant
Batavia Ohio
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2:58 pm
October 14, 2009
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Scouter Doug
| | Kenilworth, NJ | |
| PTC Webelos | posts 91 |  
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We did Geocaching over the summer (followed by a campout)… It was a great experience. We have a small Pack so once everyone showed it was closer to "Den level" as far as our numbers. I coordinated with one of the local geocaching clubs and they came out to give the boys a good introduction. They also had a few GPS units with them so it worked out to about 2-3 boys/GPS. It also turned one of our leaders into an avid geocaching fan… He now does it so often i'm literally jealous.
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12:20 pm
October 15, 2009
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smwalker_oh
| | Middletown, Ohio | |
| PTC Star Scout | posts 592 |
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We've done geocaching the last couple of years at our summer and winter campouts and it has always turned out really well. We do try to keep the groups small. It also helps if the adults who are leading know where the cache is themselves because nothing is worse than a group of boys who are upset the rest of the weekend because they couldn't find the cache that turns out to be the size of a soapdish so well hidden it's nearly impossible to find.
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PT – Pack 19 Middletown
CR/CC – Pack, Troop & Crew 801 Middletown
MC, Packs 321, 418 & 468, Middletown
Hopewell District Cub Roundtable Commissioner
Hopewell 2011 Fall Recruitment Coordinator – Middletown
Dan Beard Council Certified Trainer
GSWO NOVA #449 Service Unit Camping Coordinator
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12:38 pm
October 15, 2009
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Scouter Jeff
| | Southern California | |
| PTC Boy Scout | posts 150 |
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Post edited 4:39 pm – October 15, 2009 by Scouter Jeff
Scott brings up a great point! When reviewing the Geocache listings, we avoided “microcaches”. We'd even “small caches” if we could. It's much more exciting for a young boy to find an ammo box instead of an Altoids tin!
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- Scouter Jeff
Assistant Scoutmaster, District Trainer
http://thetrainerscorner.wordpress.com/
Twitter: Scouter Jeff
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9:20 pm
October 15, 2009
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ArvadaScout
| | Arvada, CO | |
| PTC Boy Scout | posts 184 | |
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Hadn't thought about avoiding micro- and small-caches. Thanks for the tip.
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Steve Waltz — Asst. Council Commissioner – Roundtables, Denver Area Council
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