Epic Busy Cacher Day

26 May 2012

Background

A "Busy Cacher Day" is one where you try and do as many geocaches of different types as you can. I've already done one busy day with nine (9) different cache types, on 5/21/2010, that qualified me for the "One Busy, Well-Rounded Day in NY" (GC1P1MZ), but I'd like to do more in a day.

Based on the database statistics for the caches I have loaded in GSAK for a 500 mile radius from my home coordinates, the breakdown of caches is roughly:

Traditional (83%), Mystery (9%), Multi (6%), Earth (0.8%), Virtual (0.4%), Letterbox (0.4%), Webcam (0.2%), Wherigo (0.1%), Event (0.1%), Mega (<0.1%)

I categorized these types as:

- Common -- Ubiquitous caches
  - Traditional, Mystery, and Multi
- Uncommon -- You may have to look to find caches of these types, but not too far
  - Earth, Virtual, Letterbox
- Rare -- A lot harder to find or time based events
  - Webcam, Wherigo, Event, and CITO
- Epic Rare -- One of a kind or otherwise special
  - Mega Event, GPS Maze Exhibit, Groundspeak HQ, and Project Ape

Any wildly successful "busy day" attempt needs to be built around the epic rare and rare cache types.

The Perfect Storm

I've been combing the Groundspeak newsletter and looking for "the perfect caching storm" and 5/26/2012 looks like it might be that day, our "Epic Busy Cacher Day". Based on my preliminary research, it should be very possible to log 10 caches on that day, 11 assuming a GPS Maze event (or other event), and on a long shot, 12 if we can find a CITO too.

Epic Rare (2/4)

- Mega Event
  - - (FIRM) Sellersburg, IN -- "GeoWoodstock X" (GC2X6ZV) on 26 May 2012 9am-5pm

- - GPS Maze Exhibit
    - (VERY LIKELY) Dayton, OH -- The GPS Maze site lists The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery from May 26 - Sept. 3, 2012 (Hours: M-Sa 9am-5pm)
      - The listing for the current GPS Maze exhibit was published 3-4 weeks before the exhibit was scheduled to open. Expect this to be "official" in late April or early May.

Rare (3/4)

- Event
  - - (LIKELY). Most GPS Maze Exhibits open with a separate event. Still too early to be sure.

- - Wherigo
    - (FIRM). Two north of Dayton in Troy, OH.
      - "GCinOHIO Planned A Luau" (GC29GDF)
      - "Miami County Fairgrounds" (GC1T8AY)
        NOTE: Need to find out availability of these caches based on Fairgrounds hours
    - (ALTERNATE) Louisville, KY
      - "The Muggles Take Memorial" (GC24G61)
  - Web Cam
    - (FIRM) Louisville, KY
      - "Smile!" (GCJRE6)
        NOTE: The webcam posts pictures every 5 minutes Monday-Saturday, 8:00am-5:40pm. The DMV is only open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. I have a cron job setup to grab the picture every five minutes and compare it to the previous picture. If it is new, then it saves it in a dated folder. With this script, I have confirmed the operational hours of the camera. glass front door is visible in the picture. Previous finders have been photographed on the camera in some of the off hours by standing in front of the glass doors.

- CITO - (UNLIKELY). Still too early for these to be posted.

Uncommon (3/3)

- - Earthcache -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.
  - Letterbox -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.
  - Virtual -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.

Common (3/3)

- - Traditional -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.
  - Mystery -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.
  - Multi -- Many options available. Will firm up likely candidates later.

Goals and Objectives

Log 10 or More Cache Types In a Day

It should be obvious, but the primary goal is to find as many different cache types in a single day. The Epic Busy Cacher Day will be tightly scheduled and planned. There will be some buffer/safety time built into the schedule, but will be sticking to schedule as tightly as possible. There are several time bounded caches, so even an extra 15 minutes spent doing something unscheduled could negatively impact the entire objective. This is non-negotiable.

Have Fun!

While there will be more latitude for having fun on the trip down and back, the actual Epic Busy Cacher Day will be tightly scheduled and planned. We won't have time to explore the rest of the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. We won't have time to stop at restaurant for an hour long sit down lunch. We won't have time to do anything extra that is not directly in line with the goal of completing the Epic Busy Cache Day. Outside of the Epic Busy Cache Day, the schedule is open to anyone's feedback.

See Interesting Places

This trip will be taking us by several major metropolitan areas. There are bound to be places on the trip down and back that we'd like to stop at. This is open to anyone's feedback.

Find Meaningful Caches

We will be passing by A LOT of caches on the way down and back. My personal preference is to NOT stop at every guard rail cache along the way. While we we undoubtedly find a lot of caches during the trip, but this is not planned as a numbers run. I'm open to suggestions on caches to put on our collective @ToDo list. Possibilities include highly favorited caches, historical sites, or other caches to fulfill other challenges (D/T, Fizzy, etc.). This is open to anyone's feedback.

Trip Overview - Tentative Itinerary

Friday, May 25, 2012 - Departure Day

Total drive time is approximately 8 hours. The main route is 90W to Cleveland and then 271/71S almost to Columbus and then rural routes to Troy.

An alternate route could be to take 80W from Cleveland to Toledo and then shoot across the border to Michigan to pick up another state and then take 75S to Troy. This adds approximately 30 minutes drive time.

- 8am - Depart Rochester NY
- noon - Lunch near Cleveland, OH
- 6pm - Arrive Troy, OH

NOTE: I've selected Troy, OH as the overnight spot because of it's proximity to the Wherigo caches. This should let us complete the Wherigo caches in the morning and then drive to the GPS Maze.

Saturday, May 26, 2012 - Epic Busy Cacher Day

Twilight: 5:42am

Sunrise: 6:14am

The key factors in a successful Epic Busy Cacher Day are:

- completing the GPS Maze as early as possible
- completing the webcam cache while the images are updating online
- arriving at the Mega Event well before the 5:00 end time
- The time between departing the hotel and entering the GPS Maze/event should be used to do the Wherigo and any other local caches that help us complete our goal.
- The time between departing the GPS Maze in Dayton and arriving at the Webcam cache in Louisville should only be spent driving and doing suitable uncommon caches.
- The time after the mega event can be spent doing any of the common caches that we haven't done yet or celebrating our accomplishment and running up our cache numbers.

Approximate Drive Times

- Troy to Dayton -- 35 minutes
- Dayton to Louisville -- 2 hours 45 minutes
- Louisville to Sellersburg -- 25 minutes

Tentative Itinerary

- 6:00am - Wake Up
- 6:30 - Depart Hotel
- 7:00 - Arrive Wherigo Cache
- 7:30 - Depart Wherigo - Drive to Dayton OH
- 8:00 - Arrive Dayton, OH
- 9:00 - Arrive GPS Maze / Event?
- 9:30 - Depart GPS Maze/ Dayton
- 12:30 - Arrive Louisville, KY
- 12:45 - Arrive Webcam cache
- 1:00 - Depart Webcam cache
- 1:30 - Arrive Mega Event
- 2:30 - Depart Mega Event
- 3:30 - cache! Cache! CACHE!

Sunset: 8:56pm

Twilight: 9:26pm

Sunday, May 27, 2012 - Return Day

All routes will take us through at least five states. I recommend doing a cache in all five.

Approximate Drive Times

- Quickest Route : I-71 N and I-90 E, 610 mi, 10 hours 29 mins
- Via Indianapolis : I-70 E and I-90 E, 667 mi, 11 hours 13 mins
- Via Wheeling, West Virginia : I-71 N 674 mi, 11 hours 44 mins (six states!)

Monday, May 28, 2012 - Memorial Day (Rest Day)

- Sleep
- Eat
- Log
- Repeat

For Fun

There are several things that we could do to celebrate/recognize this epic adventure.

Group Photos With Signs

Print up 8.5x11 signs with various information and take a group picture at each location to commemorate our journey. Signs might include:

- "Epic Busy Cacher Day"
- "May 26, 2012"
- GeoRoc or geocaching.com logo
- Large cache type icon for each of the cache types we are visiting

EBCD T-Shirts

A commemorative t-shirt with "Epic Busy Cacher Day" on it along with the cache type icons we are going for and maybe a spot for the GC numbers

- Predetermined GC numbers might be bad luck, maybe a spot to write them in with fabric markers.

EBCD Pathtag

If we can come up with a decent design, then we can order 50 tags for $116 or 100 tags for $177. We could split the cost and the tags evenly. We could also hold out a hadful of "communal" tags and drop those in each of the caches we visit that day.

Team Roster

Confirmed

D-T Grid

The Celebration

In honor of this epic undertaking, I've created the "Epic Busy Cacher Day Challenge" (GC3JF7T) that requires you to find nine or more cache types in a day. I'm excited to see what other trips this inspires.

@ToDo List

List for any must/should do caches:

Day 1 - (5/25) - Trip Down (Rochester to Cleveland to Michigan to Troy)

Near Erie, PA

"Auto Art" (GCJ8M8) - Virtual with 116 favorites

"State Game Lands #109" (GC184) - 9/2000 placement, Traditional

"Stone Wall Stash" (GCFF) - 12/2000 placement, Traditional

Michigan cache

"Power Lady" (GC34E)

Just South of Michgan

"Ancient Lake" (GC2DBE) – 1/2001 placement, Traditional

"Nova Nikki" (GC3EF) – 3/2001 placement, Traditional

Day 2 - (5/26) - Epic Busy Cacher Day!

With the exception of the epic caches, there are several options for each cache type. Several options have been highlighted (typically for proximity to other caches). Caches are listed in the order that we will likely be near them. Caches near Troy/Dayton first, caches near Louisville/Sellersburg last.

Bracketed numbers are [favorite points]

Mega Event

"GeoWoodstock X" (GC2X6ZV) Sellersburg, IN May 26, 9am-5pm

GPS Maze Exhibit

The GPS Maze site lists The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery Dayton, OH from May 26 - Sept. 3, 2012 (Hours: M-Sa 9am-5pm)

- - The listing for the current GPS Maze exhibit was published 3-4 weeks before the exhibit was scheduled to open. Expect this to be "official" in late April or early May.

Event