Yes, it is true. The rumors you have been hearing are in fact....facts. Geocaching is coming to MITM3 and in the coming days, we will be laying out the plans. Stay tuned here....our GC Coordinator is about to post the details!

Thanks,

Jonathan and Rick

Check it out: www.geocaching.com and www.geocachingcolo.com

 

Coordinator? I'll give what little info I know as I am a newby at this as well but it is a fun "game" where we are the search engine.
I first found out about this while reading the forum right here on NAM for the Dragon event this year.
Geocaching is a world wide GPS game. A GPS is not however required to play depending on your search skills. You will feel much better with a GPS that lets you put in coordinates and you can carry with you.
I simply use a Garmin Nuvi200 which I purchased for road trips just like this. Works great and won't break the bank.
You will find that some take a bit of work to find others may be as simple as recovering some information from a sign or ? at the coordinates and emailing them to the cache owner.
Please go to www.geocaching.com for all the information and key things to know on how to play. Just for fun put in your zip and see all the caches right in your own back yard. Practice close to home and be ready for the challenge of the Mountains.
You MUST create an account(FREE) to be able to see the actual coordinates to caches. You can become a premium member for a yearly fee and this will let you view member only caches.
We can meet at the parking structure on Thursday between 7:00 & 8:00 p.m. and find a few caches close by.
Set your coords Friday for Winter Park and we can have dinner at the Mini's dinner event. Mmmmm!!

Hey I'm not an expert at this but throw any question out and maybe we can get them answered together.

See you in the Mountains

JD

 

Geocaching kicks butt YEAAAA!!

 

awesome!

A new and exciting way for me to get lost... again!! Or should I say always? lol -- this should be very fun!

 

As a longtime map and GPS nut, I've placed a "traditional" geocache named Green Mountain 2 (GC1173). It's located (since July 2001) on the west side of metro Denver. It's been visited numerous times and boasts great views after a 30 min. hike. There have been a few snake (bull or rattle) encounters, including one by me. Travel Bugs have visited tool. Now I'm motivated to hide another one or two along MITM Rides. Hmmm. Might have to wait a bit for the snow to melt, but there are lots of potential locations in several US Forests in Colorado. Benchmarks are also fun to find, especially if you're the first.

When searching for geocaches near Copper Mountain Resort, use ZIP Code 80443 (Frisco, CO).

Does anybody have ready access to a Travel Bug? A Travel Bug is a dog tag attached to a "hitchhiker". If so, bring it to MITM and place it in a nearby cache. Maybe we should start a travel bug from MITM 3 and see if it can make it back by MITM 4, tracking it's progress, of course! I will have one ready.
Rick

 

Hey Rick,
I am actually starting a GeoCoin of mine from home with a destination of the cache on Mt Evans. Hopefully it will make it on top by the time we arrive for me to retrieve and bring back home. Maybe YOU will luck out and be the one to take it up for me to find. The TB from MITM III is a great idea to travel and return for IV.
Can't wait.

JD

ps I checked out your GM2, if I come that way I'll go find it. You need to get out and find some caches. 1 find and 2 caches hidden?

 

Rick, I've got a registered, but waiting on the sidelines TB. I can donate one to the cause.. Maybe a "MINI" Race...hmm.. Chili red vs Hazy Purple? Maybe we can finally put to bed which MINI is faster..

Also have one that was supposed to go to San Diego, but all of them turned out to be micros, so it came back with me.

 

You're right JD, my record is pretty dismal. It's actually 1 hidden cache, as Green Mountain (#1) was moved and became #2, due to the muddy terrain. I ordered some Travel Bugs, so that should get me back in the game. Now there are lots of caches to find, so there's no excuse...

Oh, about the Travel Bug (TB). I'll be attaching a purple (hopefully) MINI to my TB and take that challenge to see who's faster. Of course we all know that purple adds a bit more HP, right? Anyway, it should be fun to start at least 2 TBs.
Rick

 

In advance of our MITM3 event at Copper Mountain Resort, there have been hidden a number of Caches for you all to find. Check it out:

Coordinates #1:

N 39' 30.117' / W 106' 09.317'

Coordinates #2:

N 39' 30.112 / W 106' 09.382'

Coordinates #3:

N 39' 30.072 / W 106' 09.428'

Check them out!

JPS

 

This just in:

Yes, you can BORROW a GPS unit while you are at Copper this year. Just see the fine, friendly folks at the Information Center in Burning Stones Plaza. Then, follow the location coordinates to find the treasure. Each cache holds a variety of rewards, and as always - - if you TAKE something fromt the cache then LEAVE something behind for the next treasure hunter to find!

JPS

 

Perhaps Rick and I will cache a nice MINI prize on Thursday. We will POST some coordinates (somewhere in Colorado, not too far from Copper) and the first person to get there....well, you know.

Watch for the rules (we have to make them up) right here in this forum and in this thread!

JPS

 

Are these coords caches that are listed on geocaching.com? or are they only shown to us on this board? I've already got about 100 caches printed out for Copper Mtn and surrounding area. Geeez there is a lot of hiking involved if finding Colorado caches.......

 

All I can say is....these ones are there.

And more.

Looks like we will do a prize hunt all 3 days....Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

JPS

 

They're not entered in Geocaching dot com, so as to make them more special for MITM geocachers. If they were in the Geocaching web site for the rest of the world, they'd be found long before MITM.

 

Count us in for this! Glad to see itwill be done in the evening as we will be working during the day! Look forward to adding another state to the caching list. We had planned on doing some caching but thought we would have to do it on our own. We got hooked on it at the Dragon (thanks to the meet & greet held by ProfessorZoom & MrsZoom)!

Anyone thought of listing this as an event on geocaching.com? There may be some that are planning on caching but haven't seen this thread......

 

I pursued it somewhat but there were some specific rules required to make it an Geocaching event. I was going to try to duplicate the event cache at MOTD somewhat but have gotten busy and forgot about it.

Batman

 

sounds like fun. even my tomtom has an input for coordinates.

 

NO VICK..... DON'T DO IT!!!!

 

Get those geocaches loaded, let's do some hiking and hunting.

 

While field testing the MITM 2008 Grille Badge (see the MITM Store thread), I stashed two geocaches (with Travel Bugs!) and hope to place one or two more by MITM Thursday. I *have not* registered these caches with Geocaching.com (yet) because I want to give MITM attendees 1st crack at them. I will only provide hints for now. Here's how it will work for MITM 2008:

• MITM event caches will NOT registered publicly (geocaching.com) until after the event, maybe. Of course you're welcome to go online now or later and see if there are any other "public" caches near Copper Mtn (or anywhere else)
• No earlier than Thursday (8/7) morning, printed Geocaching information will be available for MITM attendees who request it. Just ask at the check-in tent.
• You will probably need a portable GPS, as MITM caches are not in plain sight or near landmarks, but are placed within sight of where you park, after no more than about 1/4 mile walk. Can't make it too easy and we don't want the caches to be found accidentally (by someone just walking around).

The printed information will contain the following info (and more) for each MITM "privatge" cache:

• Cache Name and general contents
• General location description (watch this thread for hints) and a high level map
• The most important thing: Latitude & Longitude (WGS84 Datum), formatted like this:
  • Latitude: N ddd mm.mmm (N is North latitude, ddd is degrees, mm.mmm is minutes with a decimal portion)
  • Longitude: W ddd mm.mmm (W is West longitude, ddd mm.mmm same as above).

Depending on the interest, prize(s) (like Geo Cash?) will be awarded to those who find the caches and report the coordinates closes to those which I recorded when I hid the caches. Let me know if you have any ideas to make this more fun. Let me know if you can work with this format. If not I can express lat/long in another format.

To keep this post from getting too long, I will post the hints I hinted about in the next message (post). MITM geocachers: let me know what you think!

 

Here are a couple of hints about the special MITM caches available to those who attend MITM 2008. These caches have not been posted to the geocaching.com system, yet (maybe).

Geocache #1 is aptly named Loveland Pass Tundra. Among other things, this cache contains the starting point for a brand new Travel Bug named "MISSION: Red MINI Cooper" with Tracking Number: TB2AG8H. You can check it out on geocaching.com/track . Read about how to handle Travel Bug sif you're not familiar with them.


Geocache #2 is named "Western Dragon". You figure it out. It also has a Travel Bug associated to it, named "MISSION: Morris Mini", with Tracking Number TB2AG7J.


Here's the intent of the travel bugs. They begin their one-year journey near MITM (the caches above), mingle with other MINIs (hopefully with other Travel Bugs) at MITM, then continue their journey throughout the entire U.S., favoring back roads and twisties. We can track their progress on geocaching.com ! Then, next year about this time all MITM Travel Bugs will hopefully come back for a big reunion (and to swap stories) at MITM 2009.
--Rick

 

Those are awesome travel bugs.....I need to find one of them!!