What's a Fox Hunt? And aren't they banned?
Don't worry, no animals are involved in the Geocaching version
of a fox hunt, except the geohounds which might be along for the
ride.
Put simply, the "Fox" (i.e. me) sets off with a Tracking device,
and everyone sets off to catch it.
Anyone who's done a "Hunt & Munch" event might know what to
expect.
There will be two parts to this event :-
- The start meet at the picnic tables in the main Swinsty Reservoir
Car Park - an open to all gathering of 30 minutes, where everyone
is welcome to come and have a natter and receive the final details
of the hunt. It's a beautiful location, about half an hour from the
Mega Campsite.
- The hunt itself, purely optional - anyone who attends the start
meet can log the event. Anyone who doesn't come on the hunt may
wish to explore the area, as there are a few caches nearby.
How the Hunt Works
You send a blank SMS message from your mobile phone to the Fox's
number, and it replies back with it's current position.
The Hunt part of the event will involve the use of a car with
a working Radio and a mobile phone, and will be best done in teams
of a minimum of two (one to drive, one to txt and
direct).
The texts will be at your standard rate. As we don't want to make
it too expensive for those who want to take part (and the fact that
each reply costs us money too) we are looking at making the hunt
work with as few txts as possible.
If possible, get someone in your team who either has a "free texts"
call plan, or is on the "Colourful Fruit" mobile network, as this
is what the Tracker is on.
The Fox will be moving between set locations, the details of
which are below. Therefore you should be able to work out which
roads it will be traveling on.
The fox will be driving below the legal speed limits, and you are
all expected to obey the highway code.
There are Twelve temporary caches hidden around the "playarea,
and where you "catch" the fox determines which coords you get.
Inside the boxes are tokens. Whoever is FTF on each stage will
get the chance to grab the highest value token.
The tokens are marked, so we'll know if you try to swipe more than
one token from each stage.
The maximum points a team could get is 150.
The Fox's final stop will be at the Mega Camping Event site,
well in time for the Hog Roast, where the points will be tallied
and a few modest prizes awarded.
The whole purpose of the event is to have fun, and to be taken
around the wonderful parts of this area of North Yorkshire. You
never know, the fox may pass a few caches along the way.
The event will take place in the afternoon, giving you a
chance to arrive earlier in the day to explore the caches in the
area beforehand, and will finish in time for the Hog Roast Event at
the Ripon campsite.
Start Time
The pre-hunt meeting at the posted coords will take place at
2pm, lasting half an hour.
It is quite a spacious car park, but you are advised to arrive
early, as it's a very popular spot for muggles out for a walk. If
you should find that car park full, there is another one at the
South end of Swinsty.
The Playarea
Check out the
map of locations that the Fox will visit, and it's overall
playarea.
Somewhere near each of the markers on the map, the Fox will stop
for a rest, giving the hunters a chance to catch up.
To visit all of the locations once, will probably involve up to 30
miles driving.
How to catch the Fox
If all goes well, you will be able to "catch" the fox without
stopping your car (though of course you can catch it when it's
having a rest stop).
The fox will be broadcasting the coords of the stages over radio
waves (all perfectly legal; anyone who's done the Covert Ops series
might be at an advantage). The frequency to use will be announced
at the start meet.
The coords that are broadcast whilst the Fox is moving will lead to
stages with more points in that those broadcast when the fox is
resting.
In tests we've had the signal working over several car lengths, so
you shouldn't need to tail the fox too closely.
I've designed the game so that you can follow the fox using as
little SMS messages as possible.
Ideally you should be able to do the following :-
- 1 ping to determine the fox's current position.
- 1 ping a few minutes later, from which you'll be able to work
out which direction it's travelling in - and therefore which Marker
it's heading for, and hopefully you'll also end up on the same
road.
Each stage is within a short walk of one of the markers, so once
you've got the coords, please move on to allow another team to get
close to the fox.
The terrain at each of the stages is mainly flat, except stages
Seven and Eight, which involve scrabbling around Rocks.
How to read the postion reports
Position Report:
The Fox
2008/07/16 13:47:52 (time in GMT)
53.98884,-001.54075 (see below)
GPS fixed (uses last known position if no GPS fix)
The Lat/Long format the Tracker uses is hddd.ddddd - which is
different to what we are used to on this website. You will need to
alter your GPS settings to use this format (ask at the Start Meet
if you are unsure).
For ease of compatibility, the coords broadcast by the fox for the
stages will be in the same format.
Be wary of the minus sign in the position report. "-001.xxxxx"
means W001.xxxxx - get that wrong and you'll be heading the wrong
side of the Meridian!!!
Finish Time
You can finish the hunt at any time you like, depended on
whether you are playing for points. At 5pm the Fox will end his
trips between the marked points, and will make a dash for the Mega
Event Campsite, which is where we shall meet to compare scores
(assuming the majority will be attending the Hog Roast event later
on that evening).
A few words of warning
The tracking device can only process so many requests at once.
In tests it seems to handle two requests per minute OK, but no more
than that. Please keep your pings at infrequent as possible. If you
are unlucky enough to put a ping in at the same time as another
team you will know if you don't receive a reply within a
minute.
Please do not spam the fox with multiple pings, as this will
only cause the game to grind to a halt for everyone
To the North of the play area, and near to the start location,
is RAF Menwith Hill (google it to learn what happens there). The
fox will not purposely drive near the base, but please be warned
that the military police take a very dim view of drivers who stop
on the roads surrounding the base.
For the moment, please form yourself into teams - the more
people to a car the better - and log your intentions here.