Our First Annual
Roughneck Rendezvous:
An Off-Road Geocaching Adventure!
Ocotillo Wells SVRA proudly announces its First
Annual Roughneck Rendezvous. We would like to officially invite you
to mark your calendars for our upcoming geocaching,
adventure-filled weekend. This event is the first of its kind for
California State Parks and will be held from January
29–January 31, 2010.
The festivities will kick off on Friday with pre-registration
from noon to 4 pm at our event headquarters on Main Street. There,
participants will be able to register a day early and avoid any
long lines on Saturday morning. From 6-9 pm we invite you to join
us for an evening program at the new campfire center. The program
will include a brief talk from a Tread Lightly! representative, a
short GPSr 101 course, and a wonderful star program focusing on how
stars were used for navigation before we had GPS technology!
On Saturday morning between 7-9 am, we will line up our
vehicles, register (if you didn’t pre-register), download our
waypoints, and begin our grand geocache scavenger hunt! At 9 am you
will be released into the park armed with your coordinates and your
GPSr.
Your goal will be to find as many of the 100 strategically
placed geocaches hidden within our park. In each cache you will
find a special item that will be used to document your visit to the
cache. You will also discover an interpretive message about the
natural or cultural history of our park, or about responsible and
sustainable geocaching and riding. We will not be able to make all
100 sites official caches on geocaching.com because we will be
conducting this event for many years to come, and we would reach
cache saturation in a very short amount of time. However, we will
make a few of the caches permanent. And, don’t forget, you
can always visit some of our pre-existing caches!
If you are the “First to Find” on a cache, you will
have the opportunity to try and locate one of our bonus caches!
These caches are tougher to get to, and even tougher to find once
you reach their location. If you are successful, you will be richly
rewarded with a special prize!
The scavenger hunt ends at 5 pm. Don’t forget to turn in
your event booklet with your final cache count and receive your
raffle tickets. For each “First to Find,” you will
receive five (5) free raffle tickets; for each regular cache, you
will receive one (1) raffle ticket; and, if you found your one (1)
bonus cache, you can collect ten (10) free raffle tickets! There
will be a 2-hour break from 5-7 pm which will give you the
opportunity to grab dinner at one of our vendors booths (BBQ and
Hot Dogs!) before the night’s events begin.
Saturday night is jam-packed with excitement. The festivities
begin at 7 pm with a few words from park personnel, industry
leaders, and a Tread Lightly! representative. The raffle will be
held immediately after. All proceeds from the raffle will go
towards the continuing educational efforts of the park, and to help
fund special events.
After the raffle, we will announce the winners of the
“First to Find” and the “Most Caches Found”
competitions. The grand prizes for the competitions have not been
donated at this time, but we assure you they will be fantastic!
After the winners have been announced, we have one more surprise in
store for you—an outdoor movie in the desert! The film has
not been selected at this time, but we guarantee it will highlight
great off-roading adventures.
Bright and early Sunday morning, we invite you to join us for
our Roughneck Rendezvous “Cache In Trash Out” (CITO)
event. This is a great way to explore our park, go caching, and
help keep the park clean and safe at the same time. The CITO will
run from 8 am-1 pm and will be celebrated with a BBQ lunch donated
by BURRTEC Waste Industries Inc! Helping our park and a free
lunch—sounds like a good deal to me!
P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for our Event Geocoin!
Update!
This one has been a long
time in coming! So there will be quite a few
updates!
- Our raffle has taken
off! We have prizes from many different off-road companies
and we are getting more in all the time. As we get the prizes
in, we will begin posting them onto this page so you can start
dreaming about what you might win!
- A complete itinerary and
event rules will be posted on this page 1 week prior to the event
so you will be able to familiarize yourself with them prior to
coming down!
- You will have the
opportunity to check in with event staff and purchase water and
snacks at several locations throughout the park during the
event. These comfort caches will also be event caches and
will add to your total cache count at the end of the
day!
- We would like to remind
everyone that a 4wd, quad or dirt bike is highly recommended for
this event. If you do not own transportation of this nature
and would still like to participate, we would suggest posting a
note below and seeing if anyone has room in their vehicle for
you.
- Registration is
free! The entire event is free! There are no entrance
fees or camping fees in the park! We are offering this event
as a great way for the geocaching community to come out and play,
while learning about responsible and sustainable geocaching and
off-roading, while experiencing the wonders of the
desert.
- Registration is dependent
on having a GPSr. That means, if you have 4 people in the car
and 3 of them have a GPSr then 3 of them can register! This
will let you have some friendly competition between yourselves, who
will be FTF??
- We have our
Geocoin! This is definitely going to be a highly collectable
addition to your collection. The 2” trackable round
coin has a gold or silver finish, with the front bearing the words,
Roughneck Rendezvous 4X4 Geocaching Adventure, surrounding the
magnificent and original logo art from this year’s
event. The reverse bears the words, Ocotillo Wells SVRA
Trackable at Geocaching.com with the tracking numbers, surrounding
the CA State Parks Logo with the OHV Rocker. This is the
first time CA State Parks OHV Division has allowed their logo to be
used on any geocoin! Added to that, all proceeds will help
further the educational programs and special events at Ocotillo
Wells SVRA. Please follow the link below to the Friends of
Ocotillo Wells website to preorder your coin, or you can buy one at
the event. If you preorder and choose for the coin to be
shipped, it will be shipped right after the event, or you can pick
your coin up at the event. We must warn you, supplies are
extremely limited so act fast!
Another
Update!
This one is lengthy as
well, but please bear with us!
1. This event has
from the beginning been about providing a high quality recreational
opportunity in a fun and safe arena, while learning about
responsible geocaching and off-roading in Ocotillo Wells. To
facilitate this we have gone to a tiered reward system based on the
number of caches that you find.
Tier
#1 1-5 caches found= 5 Raffle tickets
Tier #2
6-15 Caches Found= 10 Raffle tickets
Tier #3 16-25 Caches Found= 15 Raffle Tickets
Tier #4 26-40 Caches Found= 20 Raffle Tickets
Tier #5 41+ Caches Found= 30 Raffle Tickets
We will also have 10 “Golden Caches” placed randomly
throughout the park. You will know that you have found a
golden cache when you open it and find the inside painted a
metallic gold. Log the cache in your cache booklet like you
would any other and leave the cache there! Then make a tally
mark for each one you find on the front of your booklet and we will
give you the tickets when you turn your booklet in.
Also, in an effort to increase safety for our visitors we are going
to allow participants the opportunity to start the scavenger hunt
as soon as you have registered and received your waypoints.
2. We have
received quite a bit of rain in the last week. By the weekend
of the event, it should have dried up a little, but expect some mud
in the washes. Just a reminder, most areas require an
off-road vehicle/rhino with moderate to high clearance, an ATV, or
dirt bike to access them.
3. If you do
not own an off road vehicle, you are still in luck! We have a
great group of volunteers that are going to be running an
orienteering course/walking scavenger hunt that anyone, with or
without an off-road vehicle can participate in.
4. We are also
setting caches in an area that is accessible only by walking.
There are not as many caches in this small area, but it will still
be a fun way to spend several hours if you do not own an off-road
vehicle.
5. We are asking
people to bring their GPSr data transfer cables. While we have a
few generic ones, we cannot guarantee we will have one that fits
your GPSr! For transferring data that morning, we will be
using GSAK, Easy GPS, and for any DeLormes we will have a computer
with TOPO 7.0.
6. We are
also recommending that if you have a personal laptop to download
coordinates from, bring it! We will have CDs available on
Saturday morning loaded with the waypoint files that you will be
able to borrow. This way you can use your favorite program to
transfer your coordinates, and it will be both faster for
you.
Thank you for your
enthusiasm and dedication to this brand new event. Please
read the following event rules and guidelines. We will see
you out there!
Registration
• Registration
is dependent on having a GPSr unit. One (1) unit per person
will get you one (1) registration packet per person to use out in
the field to log your caches.
• Once you have
registered, or if you have pre-registered on Friday afternoon, then
you can proceed with your event packet to the waypoint download
station, where you will be able to download waypoints directly into
your GPSr, or receive a CD with the waypoint file to download
directly from your own laptop.
• Once you have
registered and downloaded your waypoints, you are allowed to go
into the park and start hunting caches.
Scavenger Hunt
• After you
have left the event area, remember that the speed limit is 15 mph
within 50 feet of people or campsites.
• Even when not
near people and/or campsites always maintain a safe speed in order
to insure yours and others safety.
• Once you have
found a cache there are several things you must do to claim that
cache.
1. Open cache box and
look on the inside cover of the lid, there will be a sticker with
the cache name. Open your Cache Authentication Booklet, and
find the corresponding cache that will be listed within.
2. Inside the cache,
you will find a stamp and an ink pad. Ink the stamp, and
stamp the box to the right of the cache name and coordinates in
your cache booklet. Make sure that the stamp is legible as it
will be compared to a master copy when it is turned in.
3. Take an
interpretive trading card out of the cache, and write the answer to
the question found in your Cache Authentication Booklet in the
stamp box. One card per group please.
4. Replace the cache
in the same location that you found it.
5. Re-hide the cache
as well or better than you found it to make it an interesting find
for the next cachers.
6. And as always,
watch out for muggles! If caught, please take some time to
explain geocaching and the event that is going on and direct them
to the headquarters on Main Street if they have any more
questions!
•
Remember, this event is not a race! We have a tiered
reward system, so you can choose how many caches you would like to
pursue throughout the day. The more caches you get, the more
raffle tickets you receive, but there are golden caches hidden out
there as well. If you find a few you can easily increase the
number of raffle tickets you receive. Strategy and NOT speed
will earn you the most rewards!
Tier
#1= 1-5 caches found= 5 Raffle
Tickets
Tier
#2= 6-15 Caches Found= 10 Raffle Tickets
Tier
#3= 16-25 Caches Found= 15 Raffle Tickets
Tier
#4= 26-40 Caches Found= 20 Raffle Tickets
Tier
#5= 41+ Caches Found= 30 Raffle Tickets
Golden
Cache= 5 Raffle Tickets For Each One Logged
• When you find
a Golden Cache, you will know because the inside of the cache is
painted in metallic gold. Please log this cache like any
other normal cache you find during the event and leave it for the
next person to find. You do not have to take the physical
cache with you to receive your raffle tickets. The only thing
we ask you to do is tally how many you find on the front of your
booklet. Good Luck!
- When you have finished
caching, please return to the event area to turn in your Cache
Authentication Booklet. We will open the registration table
to receive these booklets at 4:00 PM on Saturday afternoon.
If you are not in line to return your event packet by 5:00 PM, you
will not be able to turn in your numbers.
• When you
visit an event earth cache, you must answer the question that is
asked on the event earth cache info page on the back of your
booklet. Once you have done this, you may count that cache as
logged. Since visiting earth caches are a great way to learn
about your desert, if you complete all 7 event earth caches you
will receive 5 extra raffle tickets. Good luck!
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RAFFLE
PRIZES!
This is not a complete list but here
are some of the sponsors and what they are bringing for the
Raffle! Some of the raffle prizes will be a surprise as even
we haven’t seen what they are yet! They are in no
particular order!
- Gear One = Rhino Parts, Shirts,
Hats
- Custom Snuggies =
Snuggies!
- Delorme = TOPO software, Atlases
and a Geocoin
- Luv2camp = 2 nites 3 days of a
trailer delivered!
- SDORC = Shirts
- TDS= Surprise!
- Racewerks = Surprise!
- Gotomycamp = Whips and
Flags
- Goodyear – 5! Yes
FIVE 37” Goodyear Wrangler Mud Terrains!
- Calmini – 42”
Rockcrawler Bumper, TJ Gas Tank Skid Plate, Hi-flow Intake
System
- Hanson Offroad – Part Of
Calmini’s Donation!
- Airbedz = Truck Bed
Airbed
- Jeeps R Us = 50 Hats!
- Borrego Water = Supplying all the
water!
- Cabelas = 10 Utility
Knives
- The Epicenter = Geocaching and
Safety gear
- Sand Sports Magazine = Magazines,
Shirts and More!
- “The Buggy Bunch” =
Some great T-Shirts!
- Pittman Outdoors = Part Of Airbedz
donation!
- Travertine Grill = 10, $10 Gift
certificates
- BURRTEC – Multiple items of
camping gear!
- ABDNHA = Surprise!
- North County Crawlers =
Surprise!
- SwagHouse = Surprise
- 4Wheel Parts= Hi-lift jack, Tow
Straps and some surprises!
I know I am missing some more so as
soon as I figure out who it is I will post them as well!