Geocachers Make Good on
Donation to Fallon Families First
Fallon, NV, 12/12/04 ---The
Great Basin and Eastern Sierra Geocachers (GBES), on Wednesday,
December 9, 2004, donated the proceeds from the group's 2004
Geocache Navigational Rally to Fallon Families First, for the
relief of the victims and families of the Fallon Leukemia Cluster.
Monty Wolf, GBES Rally Event
Director, presented a check for $283 to Arthur Mallory, Churchill
County District Attorney after the group's expenses for the 2004
Rally were paid. "It's not much." Says Wolf of the
donation. "But, it was the first time that we've organized
such an event. We had to deal with a lot of expenses we were
not expecting; like having to double what we paid for portable
facilities at the last minute when the original provider pulled
the ones we'd reserved at the very last minute. Otherwise, we
would have been able to add another $300 to the total."
Plans for the GBES 2005 Geocache
Navigational Rally are already underway. Once again, the rally
will take place in and around Fallon, NV and the proceeds from
the event will benefit Fallon Families First. "This time
we are hoping to break $1000 after our bills are taken care of!"
The dates for the GBES 2005
Geocache Navigational Rally are May 20 & 21.
Geocaching is an entertaining
adventure game for Global Positioning System (GPS) users. Participating
in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful
features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have
individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world
and share the locations of these caches on the Internet (http://www.geocaching.com).
GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches.
Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety
of rewards – including spectacular views and backcountry
adventures. All the visitor is asked to do is if they take something
from the cache they should try to leave something for in its
place. The hobby of geocaching has taken the world by storm with
132,000 caches in 212 countries and thousands of participants.
In the Silver State alone, there are over 1500 geocaches.
The GBES Geocache Navigational
takes this concept several steps further by giving teams the
additional challenge of staying on a 100 mile course (on dirt
roads in the deserts and mountains around Fallon), presented
in GPS coordinates that requires the participants to find the
best route to get from point A to point B. Teams are also given
Checkpoint Challenges that will require the team's navigator
to find a hidden cache, in a limited time period, without entering
the coordinates into the GPS-receiver (GPS-r). There will be
up to 20 other caches distributed along the route for the teams
to find, each adding to the teams point total. New this year
will be Course Challenges where teams will have to maintain an
exact speed average over a 5 to ten mile section of the Rally
Course in order to earn the Challenge Bonus Points. "We
were so lucky in having such a successful event last year,"
Wolf said. "That we are making every attempt to make this
year's (2005) event even more fun. So, we're sending the teams
into the night for their first series of waypoints, challenges
and caches. By including an additional day to the new challenges
and the additional caches the teams need to find, we believe
the 2005 Rally will solidify this event as the premier Geocache
Event in the country. If you ask last year's teams – who
came as far as Las Vegas, Santa Cruz and Fresno, California –
many of them have already declared the rally as the best Geocache
event they have ever attended. We're very proud of that!"
The GBES Geocache Navigational
Rally is not a race to see who can reach the finish line first.
In fact, teams are penalized for finishing the route too soon.
The object is to complete the course without going too fast or
too slow, following the course without getting lost, finding
all of the Route Caches and completing all of the Checkpoint
and Course Challenges.
All that is required to compete
in the GBES Geocache Navigational Rally is a vehicle with greater
than average ground clearance (most SUV's are suitable), a GPS-r,
a driver, a navigator and a spirit of adventure.
To participate in the GBES
Geocache Navigational Rally contact Monty Wolf, Rally Director,
at 775-884-8000 for registration information.
Or send an email to montywolf@gmail.com.
