Geocaching in Central New York

The Spot is about to hit its 10 year anniversary on May 26, 2010. I am planning on holding a low-key event to celebrate its decennial. I am asking around NY to get some input and ideas on the event.

So far, my thoughts are to have the event on May 29, the Saturday following the anniversary. (The previous weekend is ASP Geobash and the actual anniversary is on Wednesday.) I'm thinking we would meet and have the event at a local ice cream shop about 15-20 minutes away and then after a while we could migrate to The Spot. This is just the preliminary plan and it has already evolved a bit over the past two months as I have considered the options.

What does everyone think? Do you like the idea of meeting at the ice cream shop and then moving to The Spot as a group? Or would everyone prefer to meet at The Spot for the event and then optionally move to the ice cream shop after a while? The closest ice cream shop I could find via Google was Huntone's Cones at N 42° 36.138 W 077° 25.104. I called them a while ago and verified that they were open by late May, but they are closed now (for the winter, I presume) so their phone number is currently disconnected.

Would you prefer to have the event in the woods at The Spot or at some nearby location like an ice cream shop? Or would you prefer to start at one and move to the other? What time of day would be best? It might help to know that sunset will be about 8:20 that week.

For The Spot parking, I am listing N 42° 40.401 W 077° 20.258 -- for anyone who has been there, can you verify this really is the best place to park? It looks like a small parking lot to me.

Some various information:

The Spot (GC39 (http://coord.info/GC39))

• Placed: 05/26/2000
• N 42° 40.088 W 077° 20.086
• The first cache placed in New York state, ever.
• The second oldest active cache east of the Mississippi.
• The fifth oldest active cache (after GC30, GC12, GC28, and GC3E).
• New Yorkers would have to travel a hundreds of miles to find an older cache (in Illinois).

I like the idea of meeting at the ice cream place and then starting the hike.  Sagefemme says it took her well over an hour-not sure if she went in the right way or not, but my guess is that if we start in a big group, we'll all get there in our own time. . .

I would prefer to have the ice cream treat AFTER the hike.   As not everyone can hike with milk slogishing around inside of them then having to heave over the cache site to barf out all the ice cream is NOT a pretty picture!    :o

Nope, but thanks for painting that not-so-pretty picture for us :P

I was so preoccupied with avoiding ASP Geobash that I didn't realize the following weekend was Memorial Day weekend. (Actually, I thought that they were the same weekend.)

So here's the primary question now:

Do you prefer:

• A Wednesday afternoon event - 5/26
• A Wednesday evening event (sunset = 8:20) - 5/26
• A Saturday morning event (Memorial Day weekend) - 5/29
• A Saturday afternoon event (Memorial Day weekend) - 5/29

I'd prefer Wednesday afternoon.

Well, I would suggest it be a weekend if you want anyone who might come from a distance to attend. If you are expecting and wanting only those local to the area to attend, then wendsday would work.  Feel free to post it as a Group Hunt OR Event on the BlueLine Geocachers Forum. Place it under "Outside the BlueLine" - "Group Hunt" OR "Event"

Its actually kinda both.....Event/Group Hunt.  Sounds like alot of fun!

Thanks Geolobo -- I'll post in the appropriate section.

I was going for the following Saturday initially, but that's Memorial Day weekend and many will not be able to come then either, regardless of distance. It will be tough either way. That's why I'm looking for input. Thanks!

How about the weekend before ? The 22nd or 23rd. Thats only off by a couple of days. You were thinking about the weekend after anyways, and decided against it because of Memorial Day weekend. That would have been a couple of days off as well.

Weekends would be the only time we would be able to make such a trip. Have to work on a weekday and the trip is too far to travel to attend after work.

ahhhhhhhh, novac just refreshed my memory that weekend before is the ASP Bash

so, i was doing some more thinking......<smile> imagine that <smile>

I would think if you held the event on a wendsday, then you would only get a X number of people from the immediate area bacause that day is a work day. Also, you would be limited to a limited number of hours.

If you held it on a weekend, you have more hours for a group hunt to the cache, and an event (icecream social).

Hosting the event on Memorial Day weekend I believe would draw more people to the event than hosting it on a Wendsday.  May not be the same people, but more people.

You could also consider the weekend before ASP. I don't think an additional 7 days would make a difference. Its still pretty close to the date.

So, Myself and Bluegirl vote for Memorial Day weekend or the weekend before ASP!


<smile>  because we would love to attend

or just call in sick for 1 day!!!!    You'd be getting plenty of sunshine and excerise (hiking) - it's what the Doctor Order!!!    ;D

It would be two of us calling in sick, and it wouldn't matter anyways, we wouldn't do it on a weekday. If we are gonna drive to the Finger Lakes region, it would be a overnighter.

No biggie for us. If You all plan it on a Wend (or any weekday for that matter), we just wont attend. Im sure you will getty plenty of people who will though

Sorry you guys couldn't come-it would have been fun to see you again - when did we plunge over the precipice?  It seems like ages ago.  Anyway, we had fun yesterday, but I was thinking jumping into a creek might have been nice too.

Yes, it was fun - nice meeting you Lisa!

You too!