View the slide show of pictures from R.O.B.'s Run here. Friday kicked off with a cache run at Benbrook Lake. We quickly christened it R.O.B.'s run in honor of our local leader R.O.B.(formerly RobandKids), owner of several caches along the route. We met at the marina, and divided up into car pools for the 45 minute drive to south Fort Worth. This let us all get to know each other a little better before the hike started. I rode with Bikely, half of the team Bikely & Wifely, and Dave, a film professor making a documentary about geocaching. I highly recommend bringing a videographer on your cahe hunts, it brings out the star in everyone!
We parked at the trailhead, geared up and headed out for a "5 mile hike." Of course, in Texas everything is bigger, and we ended up hiking 8.8 miles, according to our GPS tracks.
First up was Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only A Geocacher, named for the hunting that also occurs in the area. The cahe contains an orange hunting vest for visibility, for cachers heading into the area. At 19 strong, we were in no danger of being mistaken for a deer.
Next up was The REAL Problem With Baseball, found after a quick hike around a ditch and through some scrub. The group was getting along fine, and we found out that one of our number, Leapin' Lee was near his 1000th cache. So after Sesame Street- Bert we held back and watched as he found Wind Swept Plains, a neat little offset cache for his grand find.
We continued on and found a total of 15 caches in about 5 hours. The temperature was in the high nineties, and the humidity was Texas sized, but everyone had a great time and said they were very glad they chose to come.
We headed back to the pavillion at Cedar Hill State Park to catch the evening event, Snoogans' project, One Degree of Separation
From the cache page:
This event will be the culmination of my fiendish plot to massively Snooganize the caches of of the world (Nope 'Ol Snoog hasn't flipped. There's a method to my madness.) AND to further my goal to ensure that no one in geocaching that has ever logged even ONE CACHE will go beyond the Third Degree of Separation from the caches in this project.
Each regular cache that is given away (200-250, or possibly more) will contain a log, a pencil, and at least 20-50, or more, log only, micro "seed caches" as part of the "One Degree of Separation Project." When the regular caches have all been handed out, I will have some extra micro caches for the rest of the attendees. No one will leave empty handed if I can help it. My main concern is that the regular (seed pod) caches be placed 20 miles, or more, (ATCF: As the crow flies.) apart to prevent over-saturation of ODS caches in the local geocaching continuums.
As with any other Seed Cache, there will be a few guidelines for titling the caches as they are placed as part of the project. Each seed pod given out will come with a unique adoption name that the hider will be given to hide the cache. Most of these names pertain to geocachers who in some way made this event possible. (I.E. Quite a few will be named for ParkerPlus from whom 10K of the 12K+ micros were donated.) Each "seed" should be named "(hider's name): One Degree of Separation or for those with long geocaching handles "(hider's name): ODS" (I.E. If CarleenP finds any ODS seed pod and takes a seed cache. She would name her cache, "CarleenP: One degree of Separation" OR "CarleenP: ODS") The reason for reversing the titles of the seed caches from the seed pods is to minimize confusion using the short names feature of GSAK or Spinner.
It was a great day, and a great way to kick off the Event!