Here is a run down on the 1^st time Bush Geo Cache Hosted by Paul and Donna Claus of Ultima Thule Lodge.  It was by invitation only so just being asked to participate I felt honored.  The event was broke up into two full days of flying.  The first day everyone received 6 eggs (eggs were chosen because they would not have to be retrieved when the event was over), we all had 6 hours to put out six eggs, each egg had the pilots initials and a secret word know by only the pilot and his spotter.

 

The area to place the eggs was set up to be a maximum of a 25 mile radius from Ultima Thule and then it was broken down into 4 sectors to give some aircraft separation to begin with.  Every pilot was given a sector and the first egg had to be put out somewhere in that first sector a minimum of 10 miles out, after that you could go anywhere you wanted to.  You could spend as much time as you liked hiking, climbing, swimming etc. to find the ultimate place for your eggs or just land and step out of the airplane, placing the egg right where you landed.

 

The eggs had to be in plain sight, able to be seen from 10 feet in all directions, once the egg was placed you put a bright red chalk ring around it and took the GPS coordinates and recorded the secret word and egg number (we also took a picture of placement). 

 

There was no returning to the lodge once you left the strip, if you returned that meant you were done placing your eggs.  You could have as much fuel as you wanted to carry and could stash fuel off airport if you wanted to go light (this is what I did).  Everyone was able to leave at noon and everyone should return by 6:00.  If in the event you were late there was a 15-point penalty for every 15 minutes past the hour.  Everyone had to carry a passenger for both days, they could help to spot other airplanes and in an emergency it was thought this might be better.

 

The point system was pretty complicated but it made the game more interesting.  The points went like this:

For every egg you found you received 3 points

For every egg of yours that was found by another you received 2 points

For every egg not found that you placed you received 15 points

For every egg that you placed that was only found by one person you received 10 points

 

We had a judge for resolving issues, for example:  I placed my first egg out of my assigned sector, my mistake.  I was penalized 3 points for this.

Another person was unable to take off after landing some very rough tundra surround by snow, he was concerned about the departure out, he waited for help to come (no damage to the airplane) he was penalized 15 points (1 egg) and only had time to place 4 of his eggs because of this.

 

I played the game with a strategy of finding as many eggs in the 7 hours the next day as I could, this meant if I saw an egg in the middle of a glacier I passed on it and went on to find an easier one. 

 

For me it was actually more fun going after everyone's eggs, it was a challenge to see how close I could land to the egg (save myself from swimming, hiking etc.).  I had a great time with this game and hope to participate again.  In the end I came in second, I tied with the most eggs found (17) and lost the game by only a few points. Darn! that dang 3 point penalty!

 

Greg