Location Info:
This event is hosted in beautiful Cheyenne Mountain State Park. As with most Colorado State Parks, there is a small entrance fee unless you have a State Parks Pass. Camping is also available if you'd like to stay in the park, but sites are limited and filling up fast! More info on entrance fees and the latest campsite availability can be found at: http://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/CheyenneMountain
Event Basics:
The event spotlight is a geocaching competition, brought to you by MikeAndJuli. Participants will be in four teams, and will be given a specific amount of time to 'race' and find as many temporary geocaches as possible in that time. Of course, there are some twists and turns thrown in to make the game as interesting and fun as possible!
For those who don't want to participate, this area offers a great backdrop for a very Colorado-Style Meet and Greet with some of the coolest geocachers on the planet! There will be trackables, food, and stories of geocaching from all around the world! Truly a fun event for the competitor and the spectator alike.
Once again, participation in the competition isn't required to attend. If you wish to participate, check out the registration info later on this cache page. Of course, since participation isn't a requirement of attendance, neither is registration.
The main event is on Saturday June 24th from 9AM to 4PM. The competition portion will be from 11AM-1PM, with various other activities at the coordinates all day long (To Be Announced - see time table below for details). Scorecards from the competition will take a little while to tabulate, so the winners will be announced the next day at a CITO event (GC72JNC).
If you do wish to participate in the competitiom, you should register by clicking HERE! Registration is how we prepare for the event, even up the teams, create packets, and keep the park rangers aware of what to expect. Basic registration to compete is free! If you wish to help support the event there are some options on the registration site to do so, and you don't have to be a competitor to help suppoort the event. IMPORTANT NOTE: Paid registrants and event supporters DO NOT receive any competitive advantages over free registrants! All proceeds from paid registrations are used to recoup the costs of hosting the event, and any excess beyond that will be used to fund future GCCO events.
Time Tables for The Amazing Geocache Race:
There are two time tables below. The first time table is for those who are competing in the race, and the second table will be for those who choose to opt out of the competition portion of the event.
Competitor Time Table
| 9:00AM to 10:00AM |
Late Registration & Meet and Greet |
| 10:00AM to 10:30AM |
Teams will assemble in their designated areas. Team Captains will be asked to meet with the event hosts for info packets. |
| 10:30AM to 10:50AM |
Officials will give a safety briefing and go over event details. Final Race Packets will be distributed to the Team Captains. |
| 10:50AM to 11:00AM |
Teams will be given a short time before the official start of the race to form strategies and go over puzzles. |
| 11:00AM |
The Amazing Race Begins! Competitors will be able to leave the control area and start finding the temporary hides! |
| 1:00PM |
The Amazing Race Ends! Competitors need to have their scorecard turned in to an official NO LATER than 1:00PM! We have designated multiple 'turn in stations' to make it easier for the competitors. |
| 2:00PM to 2:30PM |
Meet back at the event coordinates for a meet and greet. This is also your chance to enter into the various drawings! |
| ~2:30PM |
Final Announcements by the Event Officials (including the location of next year's event!). This is also when we will plan on holding the drawings, including a 2017 GCCO Gold Coin! |
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The following timeline is for those who choose not to compete:
| 9:00AM to 11:15AM |
Meet and Greet! There will be plenty of geocachers to mingle with, and there will also be an area to discover and trade trackables. Don't forget to cheer on the racers as the competition starts! |
| 11:15AM to 12:15PM |
To Be Announced |
| 12:30PM to 1:30PM |
To Be Announced |
| 2:00PM to 2:30PM |
Larger Group Meet and Greet (competitors should have returned by this point) |
| 3:30PM |
Final Announcements by the Event Officials (including the location of next year's event!). We will also hold our drawings including a 2017 GCCO Gold Coin! |
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All times are approximate and subject to changes before the actual start of the event.
How to Participate in The Amazing Geocache Race:
First: Register to race! When you register, you can pick which of the four teams you wish to be on, or request to be placed on any team. Pre-registration allows us to plan for team sizes, and to prepare scorecards and team packets. You can pre-register by filling out the form HERE! Pre-registration closes on Monday June 19th at 11:59PM. Late registrations will be accepted the day of the event; however you will be placed on whatever team is in the most need.
Second: Keep an eye out for emails from the race coordinators sent to the email address used when registering. We will keep communications minimal (nobody likes a cluttered inbox), and make an announcement on this event page after any important emails are sent. Shortly before the event we will send out an email with the official race rules and guidelines.
Third: Show up at the event coordinates no later than 10:00AM to assemble with your team. The team captains will receive info packets to distribute to their team. Then around 10:30 the event hosts will provide a mandatory safety briefing. Anybody who does not attend the safety briefing cannot compete in the event. After the briefing, final packets will be distributed to team captains. These packets will have scorecards, puzzles, coordinates, and flash drives.
Rules for Race Participants
First and foremost: remember that we are guests of this beautiful area. Be respectful by obeying the laws on the road, don’t go into restricted areas (they are marked). When hiking, don't go off trail.
Second: Do not share scorecards. Every cacher must visit the cache site for credit. While we want this to be fun, we also want this to be fair. We will disqualify any cacher who is verified to be cheating.
Third: Your scorecard must be turned in by 1:00PM. Any scorecard turned in late will have points deducted at a rate of 20 per minute (no lower than 0 points). GPS time is official time, and minutes are always rounded up.
Fourth: Remember, at the end of the day this is just a game. If you aren't out here to have fun, then you are doing it wrong. Keep a positive attitude and enjoy the scenery. Yes, we will disqualify anyone who creates a hostile/unfriendly environment during this friendly competition.
Details about The Amazing Geocache Race
As mentioned above, The Amazing Geocache Race is a geocaching competition involving four teams of geocachers. This year, the competition takes place in beautiful Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Every competitor will have a scorecard, and competitors will be searching for temporary geocache placements, varying in type and difficulty. The locations for these geocaches will be on a *.gpx file distributed at the begining of the event. Inside of each geocache is a unique stamp or punch that the player will use to mark their scorecard in the appropriate location. Caches found will be scored based upon difficulty and terrain. Competitors will be scored both individually and as a team. Team scores will be the average of all competitors.
In addition to traditional, puzzle, and multi caches, we will also have some unique 'activity' caches. These locations will have a monitored activity, and when the competitor successfully completes the activity the monitor will stamp or punch the competitor’s scorecard. Activity caches will have a higher difficulty and terrain rating to increase their point value. Every competitor will be required to complete at least one activity cache or suffer a 50 point penalty from their total score.
Competitors will be given 2 hours to compete, from 11:00AM to 1:00PM. The race will begin at the posted coordinates of the event, and there will be two waypoints added to each GPX file marked as scorecard turn in locations. Competitors can choose to finish their run at either location by turning in their scorecard, however any scorecard turned in late will be penalized with a 20 point per minute deduction, down to 0 points.
Other Events This Weekend:
There will be other optional events in the area all weekend. While you aren't required to attend any of these events to attend or participate in The Amazing Geocache Race, we want to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy multiple types of fun! For a full list of all of the fun this weekend, check out The Amazing Race bookmark list on the right side of the cache page, or go to the Amazing Geocache Race website by clicking HERE.
History of The Amazing Geocache Race:
The Amazing Geocache Race started in 2015 (GC5V0D3) by MikeAndJuli as a satellite event to Geocaching Colorado's Annual Campout (GC5KW44). They attended the Texas Challenge that year and modeled their race after that event. The event was a huge success, and before they knew it everyone was saying 'I can't wait to do this again next year!’ Right then and there preparations began for the 2016 race.
The second year the race was once again held as a satellite event to GCCO's Annual Campout (GC69Y10). The race was even bigger than the first, with twice as many competitors, more than double the activities and a slightly longer competition time. Once again, everyone was talking about what they will do next year at the event; however MikeAndJuli announced that the event would not return to the Campout for 2017. Instead, the event is going to travel around the state on its own! MikeAndJuli were also looking for a way for Geocaching Colorado to partner with Colorado State Parks, and this event is a unique opportunity for them to do just that. After some careful consideration, the decision was made to have Cheyenne Mountain State Park as the first State Park to host the race, and the announcement was made on a worldwide Podcast (listen here)!
We are hoping for 2017 to be the biggest event yet, with lots of activities planned for all who attend and compete!