In July 2013, I found myself as a volunteer, working at the Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree. This is the first year that the jamboree or "jambo" was held at its new permanent site called The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve aka "the Summit", located near Beckley, WV. The Summit spreads over 10,600 acres of land reclaimed and restored after strip mining. It is a bit more rugged than Fort A. P. Hill to say the least. Beside serving at the permanent site for the national jamboree, it also hosts the Summit High Adventure Base, and the National Center for Scouting Excellence.
Due to some luck, I ended up running the geocaching booth that Groundspeak sponsored in the Technology Quest area, located in the Cloud. This was tagged as the area for "high adventure for the mind", with exhibitors such as NASA, National Geographgic, the Franklin Institute, LEGO, Microsoft, and many others there to give the scouts some hands-on fun with the geek toys. At the Geocaching booth, we hid a few caches around the immediate area and handed out GPSr to the scouts to give geocaching a try. Those that complete all caches received a pin.
The cache that now sits ag GZ sat right outside the entrance to the booth and served as magnet, capturing the attention of the scouts passing by. It drew them in to see what geocaching was all about. Many scouts worked on this cache while at jambo. Some figured it out and some did not. Some did it on their own and some had groups of over a dozen trying to work this out. It was a sight to see!
None of this would have been possible if it were not for the efforts of another cacher WVTim. I knew of his reputation and asked him to create a cache for the jambo at nearly the last moment. Somehow, he pulled it all together and it was a hit. This cache is just the tip of the iceberg for the work he has done with other groups and his caches are quite popular, which is a bit of an understatement.
The plan for this cache was to find a location at the Summit to put this permanently but we could not find an acceptable location. Luckily, we have now found a home for this cache at the Blue Grass council office of the Boy Scouts of America. Since this cache is a bit more invasive to its surroundings, it most certainly needed explicit permission for its placement. Thanks to Matt Roberts, Director of Field Service and COO of the Blue Grass Council for allowing its placement and for selecting its resting spot and thanks to Renee Siegel, GeoScouting committee chairperson at the Blue Grass Council for securing that permission.
THE CACHE
I have blabbed long enough and it's on to the info that you care about, if you are now standing in front of the cache. This assumes that you find where the cache is located, which should be no trouble at all. It sits in plain sight and is probably visible to those passing by on Richmond Rd. What you will find is a lock that you need to open in order to sign the log. That's it! Easy peasy.
Inside is a container with log, pencil, and room for trade items. Oringial contents included pins that we handed out to the scouts who found all of the caches at the Summit. Please take one as your reward. There are only so many so once they are gone, that's it. As always, bring your own writing instrument just in case.
Enjoy and good luck.
