Come and join the fine folks of PAGA on December 21st, for a small holiday gathering and bison tube exchange (I will get into what a bison tube exchange is shortly). We will be setting up shop today at the Panera Bread, located in the South Hills Shops between 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM. We will be meeting in the meeting room in the back of the restaurant. You will be responsible for any food and beverage that you purchase. They do ask that you please refrain from bringing outside food in. Purchasing food and or beverage is not required to attend this event.
So, what is a bison tube exchange you might be wondering. I was looking at some caches out east to find on my way back from CT, when I saw an event taking place in Altoona called Christmas Bison Exchange on the day that I would be coming back to Pittsburgh. However, the event is taking place around midday, and I will probably not even be into Pennsylvania at that point. So I thought, we could do something similar here in Pittsburgh.
So, here are the guidelines for this bison tube exchange:
- Prior to the event, you should hide a gift for someone else at the event (never to be published Christmas Cache, somewhere within 10 miles of the event location. This is key so, whoever gets your bison tube, won’t have far to travel to find their Christmas Cache. The gift can be whatever you want it to be… a gift card, unactivated geocoins, a couple of travel bug tags, swag items, a ready to place cache, etc. Use your judgement on what you would want to put out. Try to keep the gift and container around approximately $25.00 in value (container included). It’s important that people receive gifts worth what they give, so please don’t be a grinch! You may fill the container, for filler, with candy or Christmas cookies to take up any leftover space in the container, but you need to make sure whatever container you put your Christmas Cache gift in, it needs to be waterproof and critter proof. Take a waypoint of your hide for step 2 – very important!
- Bring a regular bison tube with you to the event, if you are participating in the Christmas Cache exchange (This is also NOT a requirement to attend the event!). Place a slip of paper inside the bison tube with the following information:
- Coordinates for the Christmas Cache
- Your caching name
- Some way to contact you if the person who gets your tube can reach you if they are having trouble finding their Christmas Cache.
- As you arrive at the event, you will place your bison tube into the box that will be wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and pick up a number. At sharply 12:45 PM, I will begin to call out numbers for people to come up and pick a bison tube out of the box. For families with multiple cachers, you may bring more than one bison tube, but there needs to be one Christmas Cache hidden for each bison tube placed in the bowl so everyone who places a bison tube, can get a Christmas Cache.
- After the event, go and find your Christmas Cache. Remember, the entire cache is yours to keep. This includes the container that your Christmas Cache was in. Please take the entire thing when you retrieve it. These containers are not to be left behind or published into regular caches.
- And finally – if you are retrieving a Christmas Cache, please wait to log your attended log until after you find your Christmas Cache. Use this opportunity to thank the cacher who hid your Christmas Cache. You can even post photos of the hiding place, of the contents of the Christmas Cache, and the hiding spot. I’ll leave the event page open for as long as I can so everyone has a chance to log their attend on the event.
Additional thoughts for this…
Be as creative as you want for hiding your Christmas Cache. If you want to make it a simple traditional cache, go for it. If you want to make it some kind of holiday themed puzzle or a multi-stage cache, that’s fine as well. Use your creative juices for this cache. Remember, the cache will not be published, so please do not submit for publication! You do not have to participate in the bison tube exchange to attend the event, nor do you have to purchase any food to attend the event.
With permission, I borrowed most of this pages write up from ProfBrad from his Christmas Bison Exchange (GC8E271).