(from the city of Olympia home page)
Set on the shores of South Puget Sound, with the rugged Olympic Mountains rising in the distance across the water and the dome of Washington's Capitol soaring above the town, Olympia ranks as one of America's loveliest cities. Enjoy all the pomp and pageantry that come with being a state capital...the marble halls, the monuments, and the gorgeous capitol grounds. Surrounding the stately dome, there is still a small town at heart.
Olympia is the largest city in Thurston County with a population of 42,514. The neighboring cities of Lacey and Tumwater and other jurisdictions make up a total county population of 204,300.
So fill up the tank, toss down some breakfast at way-too-early o'clock, and meet on the Capitol grounds at 7:00 a.m. We'll leave at 7:15 a.m., at the crack of dawn. We'll stop at the Summit Lake Community Center to eat sack lunches (or get something from the nearby Summit Lake store). The sun sets at 5:10 p.m., but we'll have BFLs to hit a few more caches before we arrive at the Olympia Red Robin around 7:00 p.m. to recap the day, quaff a few drinks, and embarrass a few waitresses.
Some cachers have made reservations at the Best Western. Others are staying at the EconoLodge.
As before, if you find the cache, you'll be the one who has to re-hide it. Hide it as well as you found it.
If it's a micro cache, one ''Olympia Cache Machine'' log entry should suffice for the group. We tend to fill up log books too quickly, and our stickers tend to make micro log books hard to re-stash. For normal-sized caches, or even large micros, everyone should sign in.
Bring FRS radios if you’ve got them. We’ll use Channel 2 to communicate among caching vehicles and to say 'Howdy' to listening locals. Suggestions and ''Count me ins'' are welcome below. If you’ve already found a couple of these caches, that’s fine - give us a chance to find the cache, and then we may turn to you for a hint.
The OCM FAQ:
What's the route?
See the link at the top of the page.
When is it?
Meet at 7:00 a.m., January 3, 2004. We leave the first waypoint at 7:15. Latecomers can track us down en route.
Will it be one large group, will we be split into teams, or what?
One giant group, which means we'll hopefully find each cache quickly. Then it's on to the next one. This event is all about large quantities of caches and going to as many neat places as we can. Past history shows that the large group tends to spread out farily quickly after the first few caches.
Is anything going on before or after?
- For those of you that may want to get together for dinner on Friday night, LucyAndRickie have planned dinner at the lounge of the Prime Connection which is in the Best Western (900 Capital Way South). We will be there from 6:30 to 8:30. Stop on by to share stories and recieve the last minute updates.
- As is our tradition/fate/doom, dinner on Saturday is at Red Robin, at about 7:00
A cache on your map shows the wrong place to park.
By all means, let me know. Prior cache machine events wouldn't have been as successful as they were if we wouldn't have had locals help plan the route. If you're a local cacher who's found or hidden some of these, I'd love to talk to you about our route.
It sounds fun, but I've already found some of them.
Then come laugh at us, or guess when we'll be at the caches you haven't hit yet. Monitor FRS channel 2.
You don't have X cache on the route. Why aren't we getting that one?
I'm avoiding most multicaches, and caches that appear to be overly time consuming. If you think it's quick and easy, let me know.
You have X cache on the route, but it's disabled/archived.
I'll generate a final route around December 28, with updated data. This should catch any new caches that get created in the area, too.
X cache is in an environmentally sensitive area.
By all means, let me know. I'll work with the cache owner to minimize our impact, or skip the cache altogether.
What's this gonna cost me?
Nothing for the caching. Or, at least, nothing more than it would cost than if you did the trip solo (e.g., paying for your own gas and hotel). I'm not collecting any money for this.
Lunch? Breaks? Bathrooms?
Bring a sack lunch -- we'll stop at the Summit Lake Community Center, the only multi-cache on the route.
Bathroom breaks... you'll have to figure out on your own.