Ringrat
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Posts
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Posts posted by Ringrat
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I've been a CO that didn't make it to my own event. I knew the morning of the event so was able to post it to the event page so that it wouldn't have been a surprise to attendees. Looked like they had fun without me anyway.
I've also been the CO of several events where no one else came and I spent the time alone.
Thankfully those two circumstances didn't overlap.
Yes, log it.
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The Challenge Bear near Kelowna, BC is 100, I think.
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This virtual (https://coord.info/GC891DA) is a 7-minute walk from Abbotsford International Airport (YXX). Doesn't look like it's made the list yet!
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I use Locus Map Pro with the Geocaching4Locus add on. They're an API partner so I can easily download caches for offline use, use a live map for caching if I'm somewhere with service, and log from the app if I wish. For maps I use the free ones available from Openandromaps.org, which are OSM-based. Locus is a strong mapping & navigation program and I can do any waypoint or track-based function I want.
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I made a special effort for the final stage of Zanadians Adventure to be my 500th cache. The first and second stages were on top of a mountain and in an abandoned mine. Having completed both of those stages, I planned for 500 to be the 4x4 & hike trip to the final (or in my case, hike & more hike, since I don't have a 4x4) at an alpine lake. The three stages spanned the region, a couple of hours apart (to the trailheads...) each. The multi has only been completed 12 times in the 15 years since it was hidden, and I was the fifth. The final was the most challenging for me; I'd been up the Stage 1 mountain before, and Stage 2 was spooky and a knee-deep wade but not technical. The final was fine until I got to a broken bridge and a rushing stream with the cache on the other side; creativity, care, and crawling were all involved in getting me across without getting TOO wet!
The final lake:
Path to the final:
The water was deeper than expected in the mine:
Stage 1 is in the lookout on top:
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Bug is there for me too. W10 with Firefox 87.0.
I just sent an awful lot of messages that just said "Hello,"
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I've always preferred the "screenshot a spreadsheet" approach. I have a file with different tabs for a variety of challenges, a system that I started using before challenge checkers became common and before the new challenge guidelines. It's still my preference!
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Not counting events or adventure labs, hidden 77 with 71 still active.
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I ran the stats for my region in late 2017 when this thread started, and I have the general impression that the local collapse that began in 2017 has continued, so let's see...
East Kootenays, British Columbia. Event caches excluded.
2000 - 0
2001 - 5
2002 - 29
2003 - 73
2004 - 82
2005 - 103
2006 - 100
2007 - 128
2008 - 230
2009 - 251
2010 - 260
2011 - 208
2012 - 264
2013 - 256
2014 - 111
2015 - 199
2016 - 4412017 - 67
2018 - 73
2019 - 50
2020 - 48
2021 - 5 to date (4 of them mine...)
I'm still seeing the same thing as in 2017 on new caches. Only a few of the "old" cachers who were doing a lot of the hiding 10 years ago are still active and in the area, and some of them are still hiding a few. The new crop of cachers hasn't made up the difference. Our region also feels much less like a community that knows each other than it did then. Fewer events, and often more on the fringes of our region (because that's where I live and I host about half of them these days) than in or near the main city in our area. I used to know the prolific cachers in the region - their real names, their dogs names, their email address and phone number. I know next to none of the new cachers.
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In addition to some already listed here, I've found a few with photographic film in a film canister as a log. Shocking, the original use of a film canister!
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1 hour ago, Frau Potter said:
We have not run the script yet for the attribute for challenge caches. We expect to do that early next week.
What you have discovered is a BUG. The new attributes are not showing visible on the cache Edit Page (although they were there for most of last week). We have notified the engineers and hope for a fix soon, so that you can apply the attribute yourself. Thanks for your patience.
Thank you, I will be patient. I have another challenge cache that has had the attribute applied, so the script for that must have been running at some point!
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Everything I've read here leads me to believe that the Challenge attribute is able to be added by the owner when editing the cache page, but on the 4 challenges I own that have not (yet) had the attribute added automatically, I don't see it in the list of attributes that I can select. Is there a secret to having the new attribute available for selection?
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I have one of these stashed in all of my first aid kits and my house: https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5025-913/TickLasso
I've had several ticks embedded, but only one where I couldn't remove it myself - my hairline on the back of my neck. I had a friend nearby who did it for me, but I would have asked anyone to assist. Or gone to my local health clinic.
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I grew up in Edmonton, so yes, I've heard of it. I now live in SE BC so make the drive up Hwy 2 several times a year, but can't say I've ever detoured quite that far off-route!
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5 hours ago, Team Microdot said:
It takes less than a minute to acknowledge correct answers.
If that's too much trouble, don't be an EC owner.
If I get a message through the message centre, I will respond. If I get an email through the site with a return address, I will respond. If I get an email with no return address, the sender will only hear from me if there was something in their answers that wasn't correct, and far enough off that I feel compelled to reply to point them in the right direction. If the answers were correct, I'm not going to go to the website, find their profile, and email them through the site. If someone wants a response from me, they need to use a method of contacting me that has "reply" capability.
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East Kootenays, British Columbia. Event caches excluded.
2000 - 0
2001 - 5
2002 - 29
2003 - 73
2004 - 82
2005 - 103
2006 - 100
2007 - 128
2008 - 230
2009 - 251
2010 - 260
2011 - 208
2012 - 264
2013 - 256
2014 - 111
2015 - 199
2016 - 441
2017 - 67Last year's spike was basically one cacher placing a LOT of park & grabs all over. It wasn't a new cacher, they had placed many in the past also, usually in waves, but last year's was on a whole new level. Other than that spike and a drop in 2014, things have been quite consistent. The placing of a power trail along one of our bike trails didn't even make a spike in 2011, as the hides along the trail were multiple owners, types, sizes, difficulties, etc., so they kind of replaced many of the interesting caches that might have been placed otherwise that year. 2017 is showing a drop here too, though. Our park & grab placer has moved away, and many of the more experienced cachers are placing less. The area around Cranbrook is fairly cache-heavy, and that's where new cachers are most likely to pop up. Although I excluded events from the stats here, many of the typical event hosters have also moved away or to the outskirts of the region which makes bringing new cachers into the community is harder. Or, maybe something else is going on.
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I use Ibycus Topo in my eTrex30, and for the US (I'm close to the border) I use topos I've downloaded from gpsfiledepot. I've gotten files from there for overseas travel as well. On my phone I run Locus Map Pro with OSM-based maps from openandromaps. Between the two I can usually figure out where I am. I've never used a routable map on my GPS and never on my phone for any caching-related purpose.
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I too ran into a delay with logs showing up on the Dashboard today. I was logging via GSAK. My first log showed up after about 3 hours. The next couple, made those few hours later, showed up immediately. Unfortunately, they all showed up with the date stamp for when they appeared on the Dashboard, not the date of the log (or, in the case of the first log, even the date I logged it). The Dashboard should reflect my caching history, not my logging tardiness.
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Yep, the first cache I ever hid was muggled before it was published. It had a set publication date (for an event), and I went to check on it the day before. Nothing to be found!
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I have a stamp that I use in caches with actual logbooks. It takes up quite a bit of space so doesn't get used for micros or nanos. I didn't just want the text of my name or a stock image, so I ordered from Landsharkz (I live in Canada). Their price includes custom art & design work.
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(It's funny, I've missed the past two Earthcache souvenirs because the day to get them is on Canadian Thanksgiving.)
Yah, the only reason I've been able to go for them is because my family's been doing Thanksgiving on different weekends. I can't remember why in 2015, but this time it was because I had a 3-day course that weekend, conveniently in a town I had some unfound ECs in. I managed to squeeze one in between field work and group dinner. Would I have gone caching that day without the souvenir? Nope! But I'm glad I did, it was a cool one.
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I can't say that I noticed any ill effects of the souvenir as a CO. My ECs combined had 1 log on EC Day this year.
I think that people who want to "cheat" will do so for some reason or another. Yes, the souvenir might give them another reason to do so, but it's not the souvenir that's the problem. I personally don't really care if they're accurate about what day they visited, as long as they visited. Maybe some COs see a slug of logs that require deleting for non-visitation on EC Day, but they may have seen the same logs spread out over a different period anyway.
I have seen an uptick in logging during some of the other promotions (like the Road Trip). By far the majority of the logs that stood out as someone doing an EC purely for the souvenir said something along the lines of "I don't normally do ECs but decided to try yours because of the souvenir". If a promotion gives someone who doesn't normally attempt ECs a reason to try, that's a good thing to me. Maybe a good experience at my EC will prompt them to try others and find some cool geological features.
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I'm not sure exactly what the legend for your map is, but it looks like you've got the F26 marked in dotted line. That road (and any other F-roads) being open will be highly dependent on snow quantity, but they're generally closed by then. Keep an eye on road.is for conditions.
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Yup! A new souvenir for finding an EarthCache on October 9. I'm glad I've saved the local ones. Forty within forty-five miles. Some not easy or interesting. And, as I've mentioned before, I won't spend $15 in tolls for the ones on Staten Island, Long Island nor NYC. Glad I've saved the local ones. Yes, I've found some interesting ones trips through Pennsylvania. But I'm not travelling 224 miles for a souvenir!
Find EarthCaches on trips, but save the local ones for the souvenirs. And I still find this sad, and pathetic.
Yes, I still have that EC saved up. I will be out of town on a course on Oct 9, conveniently in a town about 3 hours away where I've never bothered to get off the highway and find the ECs, so I will have a couple to choose from. Otherwise, I would have been visiting family for Thanksgiving in a place where getting away to drive across a city to find an EC would be highly unlikely. Either way, that one about 45 minutes from my house is still getting saved, probably for next year at this point! Might be time to put some effort into hiding another one though...
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Announcing Virtual Rewards 4.0
in Geocaching HQ communications
Posted
That's what I did with mine too, it's in the middle of nowhere on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego (https://coord.info/GC9P589). Unfortunately I'm unlikely to be eligible this time around as that cache meets the date criteria but is unlikely to get 4 finds. I also live in an area with little traffic, so any caches I hide this summer locally would also be unlikely to get 4 finds by end of year.