RPW

Yahoo! Just got this in the mail. -------------------------------- Participate in our "Fall Into Geocaching" Contest Compete for prizes including campsites, 2007 Annual Passes and a $100 gift certificate to Indiana State Park inns through our “Fall Into Geocaching” contest, set to run from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31, 2006. Each participant is challenged to find a unique cache at the 22 participating properties. Coordinates and clues can be found on-line at www.geocaching.com. After finding the cache and signing into the logbook, you will find a word describing something unique about that property. When you've found 10 of the 22 caches, email the property names and corresponding words to the contest coordinator, whose contact information is found on the website. The first geocacher who finds 10 of the 22 caches will be awarded the $100 gift certificate to Indiana State Park Inns. All other prizes will be awarded at the end of the contest in a drawing for participants who have located at least half of the 22 caches. Anyone who participates will be entered in a drawing for one of 100 "Fall Into Geocaching" t-shirts donated by Indiana State Park Inns. To participate, go to www.geocaching.com after Sept. 15. Cache information will not be available on the site until then so everyone has an equal chance! More information can also be found at www.dnrfall.com. ---------------------------------- Of course the evil minded of us already know how to "game" the system; i.e., simply have a handful of friends go to a couple of the parks, sign each other names, and collect the clues. But where would the fun in that be? Personally I am glad to see the Indiana DNR embrace geocaching. Yippee! I see a road trip in my near future.

As an event organizer, the best way to thank me (aside from actually doing it in person/mail) and the best caching way is to hold an event yourself. That way I can attend and have fun. It is very much liking hiding caches -- what reward do people get from that? The short answer is nothing. The longer answer is much more complex.

In regards to Mr I's Log for the ACRES' Let's Get up and Bounce ! cache ... Actually let's hope that they are not reading that particular cache page. While funny, "Mr I" did several things that any nature preserve would shudder at. Namly leaving the trail ("... I left the path and walked across a semi-marshy area to get to the cache...") which led to habitat destruction ("... with the next step, I sunk deeply into the swamp ... both boots were stuck fast ... I decided to leave my boots ...") which led to violating neighboring property rights ("... I walked down the small path between the corn field and the fence and followed it to a farm house ...") Now I will be the first to argue that the marsh will recover quite nicely, that the marsh critters will love the new boots and that the footprints of "Mr I" will be rapidly erased. Also walking down the edge of a corn field, while technically trespassing, is hardly the worst sin in the world. However the log did indicate several violations of ACRES' (and other nature preserve's) policy and thus it is unfortunately not a shining example to hold up high and say, "yes Geocachers were here!" Now most of the other logs for that cache are nice examples of bringing geocachers to the preserve -- especially those with kids. SixDog's log is, well, sarcastic but what else would one expect?

I don't think we have seen this one yet. This is for a fairly old cache that does not get much traffic. Of course the concept is familar: newbie outdoes a high-number cacher in ability and in honesty. Way to go newbies! Spend the time to actually find the cache instead of just putting down your own container and claiming a find. Of course the sentiment of the high number cachers is good; i.e., "lets keep a cache going" but at least they could have DNFed or NOTEd their own container.

#0. Every other cache you find is an ISQ.

At the risk of (mostly) duplicating a post I made elsewhere. I went to the Fort Wayne Geocacher's bulletin board to read up what they were saying about the ACRES fees (since they are physically much closer to ACRES than I am). Two posts on it caught my eye. The first is from "The Herd" who is an ACRES board member: The second is from "sandVB" who wrote: Personally I act like "sandVB"; i.e., often sign the log book but then do not put down that I am at a preserve for Geocaching. In retrospect this is not a good idea If we want our voice to be heard then we should start speaking up. Not only at DNR or land trust board meetings but also "on the trail." It is our very anonominity that will doom us to be marginalized. From now on when I am at a preserve with a log book I will sign it "here for Geocaching" or, if the preserve does not have any cache in it, "would be here more often if there were Geocaches." I respectfully ask that the rest of Indiana Geocachers do the same. My local land trust does not, at this time, have any restrictions (nor policy) on Geocaches. However once they eventually do have a policy it would be nice if they were influenced by the number of Geocachers visting their land.

SixDog: Thanks for the link to the Ft. Wayne bulletin board in regards to the ACRES rules on geocaching. Two posts on it caught my eye. The first is from "The Herd" who is an ACRES board member: The second is from "sandVB" who wrote: Personally I act like "sandVB"; i.e., often sign the log book but then do not put down that I am at a preserve for Geocaching. In retrospect this is not a good idea If we want our voice to be heard then we should start speaking up. Not only at DNR or land trust board meetings but also "on the trail." It is our very anonominity that will doom us to be marginalized. From now on when I am at a preserve with a log book I will sign it "here for Geocaching" or, if the preserve does not have any cache in it, "would be here more often if there were Geocaches." I respectfully ask that the rest of Indiana Geocachers do the same. [P.S. to CyBret. I did read your post about moderation but given the wide range of posts that this thread has had, I believe that talking about an issue relevant to Indiana Geocaching is appropriate in this thread. I agree that the ACRES people are not reading the thread and that talking about the topic here will not directly influence ACRES, however I also believe that we can influence ourselves via chatting and talking with other Indiana geocachers. If you disagree then PM me and I will delete this post.]

A waterproof match safe. I agree that this was the police reacting. Perhaps not "over"-reacting -- they do have standard operating procedures to follow -- but certainly reacting. Now the John Q. Public may have over-reacted but after, what has it been, almost 5 years of alerts and scares it is hard to fault people for a gut-level reaction.

That is indeed sad news. She was a great person to meet at events.

Nah. The real lows are the high-number people logging archived virtuals. See the posts from about a month ago. BTW: I decided not to let the one guy log my archived cache. Granted he was there twice and probably touched the spot where the cache but he didn't sign the log. We've all agreed that is the important part.

Forgive for I am ready to sin. One of my caches has gone missing and I am going to archive it. But I had one person who looked for it twice and can describe where it should have been. So I am thinking of (shudder) letting him do a "owner permission" log. It doesn't help that he is wheel-chair bound and thus has a limited number of caches to find.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that "no-one cares" about homeless people and where they stay. I suspect that most people, if asked, would prefer to have the homeless staying in shelters than out in the woods. But it doesn't work that way and since there is generally not a good solution to the homeless problem then people just turn a blind eye. Anyway, go ahead and do what you want. Sleep with the bums! Reporting it in the log might make a good story (we'll see if you can top 6-dog's tale) and I doubt if it will cause the cache to be pulled. In my experience what makes a cache disabled is when it is already illegally placed (e.g., in an Indiana state nature preserve) and people mention the illegality in their logs.

Well, I like the alpha sort and had asked for it when PQs first came out. That being said I wouldn't want to force my preference on anyone else. So if a variety of sorting options could be made available then everyone would be happy.

Indeed Ross Camp would be a good place for a group willing and able to spend the money for the inside facilities. There are sizable indoor facilities, a campground and even a chapel in case someone wants a geo-wedding. Right next to the 200 acre Ross camp is the 175 acre Ross Hills park and thus there is about 375 acres of rolling wooded terrain to wander around. We have had one geo-picnic in Ross Hills park but nothing in Ross Camp ... but this is because the open face shelter in the park cost $30 while the Camp's enclosed shelters are much more pricey.

Yeap. I wish I could go to the bagobash as well however other events are keeping me from doing so. I have been encouraging S Keillan and Joypa to attend. They need more 'dogs.

Cool cemeteries are always nice. Those that teach history are even more nice. I have been to some places that are absolutely wonderful to wander around. Unfortunately there are cemetery caches -- and this includes some ISQs -- are basically just cache'n'dashes. They are put in a cemetery simply because the property is more or less public. So I have mixed feelings about cemetery caches and thus usually put a limit of finding around 5 in any given caching day.

Do a "[view this log on a separate page]" on their log. You will then see options to either delete the log or to permanently encrypt the log. That's it. What you can not do is to edit someone else's log. Sending them a note on why their log was deleted is always a nice guesture since all they will receive otherwise is a "deleted" notice.

That's what happens when you finally break down and wash it. All of the dirt and sweat that was holding it together get sweeped down the sink and what is left are the holes. On the other hand the rest of us do appreciate this. We were starting to edge away from you at geocaching events. Don't think of it as an "oh no" hole but rather as an opportunity to put a neato nifty geocaching patch on your shirt.

Doug: Thanks for taking this over. It will be interesting to see what direction you take the site.

[deleted as per Jamie Z's implied request below]

I believe that "Central Time Zone" still means the area around Chicago (a.k.a., "The Region") and the area around Evansville. Although with the current administration anything is possible. :-) Anyway Evansville has a new social group (E.C.O. ??) which is part of Indigo. I don't think that The Region has a separate group different than the Chicago groups. Nor, perhaps, should they. Despite the area having a large portion of Indiana's population its viewpoint has always seemed (to me at least) northwest leaning. South Bend (in Eastern time) doesn't seem to have a group. In my area of the Eastern time zone there is CINCO (Lebanon, Lafayette, Logansport, Kokomo, Monticello) -- although given the staleness of the web page, well, I guess we are still alive -- plus INCA in the Peru area. Further east but still north of Indy there doesn't seem to be a group. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one good use for the indianageocaching.com site, in my opinion, is simply to get all of this information down on one web page with appropriate links.

So, the owner thought it was important enough to warn people about the wire, but not so much as to but it in the description? Actually I think that is less of a warning but rather more of a clue with the words "Be careful" added to the front. If you took off those two words then this would be a great hint -- assuming (1) that there are not many piles of barbed wire laying around and (2) no one removes the barbed wire and (3) that it is actually a noticable pile. Looking at that hint all a person would need to do is to walk 7' north from the barbed wire (which should be easy to locate) in order to find the cache.

"Chambanas First" is one of those small regional events. It is being held in Champaign/Urbana IL on July 22nd, 2006. 3 of us (S Kellian, Joypa, myself) from the Lafayette Indiana region are planning to go. If anyone else in the area wants to grab a ride with us then let us know. We are planning a full day of caching to and from the event. ----------------------------- Chambanas First by CIGA & Kerstin76 N 40° 07.090 W 088° 12.645 Use waypoint: GCWBCN -----------------------------

I have to disagree with that statement. Since part of the permit includes the GPS coordinates and a physical description of where the cache wil be located then the permitting process includes at least two visits to the cache location. The first to determine the location and the second, after potentially weeks of back and forth communications with the state park officials, to actually place the cache. That would be nice. Very nice. IDNR == Indiana department of natural resources for those confused about this conversation.

Note: I am about 3 hours away from Clifty so take my comments with a grain of salt. Given the number of active cachers down in the area (and having the Fall '05 picnic there) I suspect that if caches were allowed then there would be more. It is a state park and thus the normal permitting system would need to be used. This can be a hassle and this may be the reason that local cachers do not place more caches. I know that my local state park -- Prophetstown -- does not currently have any caches (mine were removed earlier this year) and I suspect the reason is the permitting process. But all of that is speculation. Maybe someone from IndiGo will chime in?