Gan Dalf
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Posts posted by Gan Dalf
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Something wen twrong when I first posted this. This is my second try...
Sorry, this post is long but I'd really appreciate others opinions.
I have seen "cache cops" (people who take it upon themselves to report caches or write scathing logs or e-mails to the cache owner) referred to in a derogatory manner in some threads. I have had some of my logs referred to as being a bit over the top myself and so I am trying to tone my log posts down a bit when there is something about a cache that I don't like or that I think is out of line. Still, when something is wrong with a cache or if I think there is something unsafe about the location then I feel compelled to tell the owner about it, if not post a Needs Maintenance or an Archive Request.
It is with that in mind that I ask what you would do in the following situation. This has to do with armchair loggers rather than the cache itself. People who know me from my area will probably know what cache I am talking about from what I am about to describe but I'd prefer to keep the cache anonymous for now so if you know the cache I am talking about please don't say which one it is.
There is a cache in our area that requires that you obtain one of four travel bugs in order to solve for it's location. The bugs themselves have codes on them that allow you to solve for the final location of the cache. I tried for months to find one of these bugs but always got to a cache too late or the particular bug that I was going for was listed as being in the cache but was not actually there. I was finally able to snag one of them, get the codes and find the cache a couple of months ago. I then put the bug back into circulation. It turns out that the cache was located at a spot that I frequently ride my bike by and so it was an easy thing for me to make the grab.
I often return to cache pages of caches that I have found to read if anyone else has found the cache since I had and to read what they said about it. A few days ago I went back to this particular cache page and noted that two people had recently logged a find on this cache. Both of these people had fewer than 10 finds. Because of the requirement of finding the Travel Bugs in order to solve for the location I was immediately skeptical that these newbie’s had found the bugs and solved for the final location. I checked their TB history and sure enough neither one of them has recorded ever finding one of the required bugs. Without them there is no way to know for sure where this cache is located.
The other day I was riding my bike by the location of the cache and I decided to stop and check if either one of these people had actually found it. The only other signature on the log after mine was one from a legitimate finder of one of the TB's. Neither of the two newbie’s had signed the log.
Now I am compelled to either write to the owner of the cache and/or the posters of these logs and let them know what I have found. I know, it's not my cache and really none of my business but it really annoys me that they would take credit for a cache they never discovered. Especially when it took me so long to find it properly. I just can't understand how it is fun for some people to just log a cache they have never found. It kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
I'm curious to know if anyone out there feels the way I do and would contact the cache owner to let them know that the two newest loggers did not actually find the bugs or the cache OR if you would write to the cheaters and tell them you know what they did. If it was my cache, I would not have let them get past logging it without having found the bugs. I would have gone out to the cache within a day or two of them posting their finds, checked the log books and deleted their logs once I found out the truth. I realize not everyone thinks the way I do.
So, what would you do? I'd really like to know.
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Sorry, maybe this is being discussed in the Release Notes but I didn't feel like thumbing through a 4 page thread with 169 replies to see if it was there.
Ever since the upgrade I can not login to my account on my blackberry. I get a "you do not have permission to access this site" message.
I have several questions:
Is anyone else experiencing this?
Is anyone at Groundspeak aware of the problem?
Is anyone working on it ?
and/or does anyone know how to fix it?
Thanks
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Congratulations!!! to Celtic Cacher for reaching #1500 on July 19th, 2008 at Historical Place (GCPP71) in Oregon while on a road trip with his Uncle. WAY TO GO CC!!!!
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I recently found a bug that before it was logged into the cache I pulled it from, had been missing for just shy of 5 years.
Logged into GCGCH2 on August 1, 2003. That cache was archived on July 3, 2004 with the bug never having been logged out. A friend of mine pulled it from GC195VE on June 21, 2008 and placed it in a newly release cache on July 17, 2008. I subsequently pulled it from that cache a few days later. That's 1784 days under the radar.
Don't know if that's a record or not but it's an awfully long time. The TB tracking number is TB2DFB if you want to check it out.
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Since there was recent movement before you found it I would think it would be very interesting to ask the cacher who found it on June 21 what they know about it.
I did that, he's a friend of mine. He took it from a cache down in Ocean Shores. I don't remeber which one right now but it wasn't (obviously) the archived one that the bug was last seen in.
I contacted the owner of the bug to ask if they'd let me adopt it and was surprised that they replied back to me. In my message I said that if they were no longer caching, as was apparent from looking at their logs, then would they mind if they adopted it out to me. Their reply was that they had recently moved and were going to get back into geocaching and so they wanted to hold onto ownership of this TB. That's cool with me, I can always watchlist it and keep an eye on it.
I'm goignt to check in on the other thread to see if any of the posters there have seen one that has been out longer and shows back up.
Thanks for all of your replies.
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Oh what a shock
It works with firefox! I agree with the poster a few threads above. This is ridiculous. What if you could only fill your car with one type of gas from one gas station? Your driving along and all of a sudden the gas you bought from Shell mixes into your Carburetor and your car coughs and chokes and stops working. Of course you don't know why, becasue the gas you bought from Shell last week worked just fine in your car. -
When clicking on search for nearest caches from your home coordinates (filter out finds) for the My Account Details page and then clicking on the Search for caches with Google Maps link, the page is blank. Caches show up at the normal zoom level until you get out ot more than 500 caches on the map, but the map itslef is blank, You get the message you get when zooming into an area that does nto have have adequate sattelite coverage of that area:
We are sorry, but we don't have maps at this zoom level for this region. Try zooming out for a broader look.
is anyone else experiencing this problem? I am using IE 7.0.5730 on Windows XP. I have an IBM T41 laptop.
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This blows my mind! Particularly since of the 23 trackables that I have released, two are completely missing, either muggled or never logged, two are being held by people that refuse to answer e-mails as to whether or not they intend to move them any time soon and five are in caches for over a month or that have been found and yet no one seems to bother to take my bug.
Anyway, I found a TB today that prior to being logged into the cache that I pulled it from had not been logged in nearly FIVE! years. That really gives me hope that maybe my missing bugs and coins will show up some time. The bug that I found's tracking number is TB2DFB if you want to check it out. I have an e-mail into the owner who has been inactive for 4 years to see if they will let me adopt this bug.
My question is, are there stats kept on the longest period of time between logs, or how long a bug has been declared missing and then showed up again? It really is amazing to me that a bug could be missing for 5 years and then come back into circualtion. I'd appriciate anyones thoughts or opinions on this.
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I tried making a hide is a state park once. I've been waiting 3 months now. Since my permit expires in December I hardly doubt I'll bother with the hide or bother trying to hide one in the state parks again.
Jim
You have a permit from the Washington State Parks commission? What seems to be th ehold up in getting it done? Is the approval not getting done or is it something to do with the park itself?
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Sorry for not being able to locate this as I am sure it has been discussed before but the Search Feature seems to be broken, at least for me.
Can someone point me in the direction of the policies regarding placing caches in Washington State Parks. I am considering placing one and I want to be sure and get all of the correct permissions before doing so, if it is even allowed.
Thanks
-FM
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OK, well this is all well and good but what do you do if you don't have firefox and don't want to download ANOTHER!!!!
program to get around this kind of stuff! -
Let me know how to proceed with this as the coords are off by about 50ft and they need to be changed for safety resaons as well as just so people can find the cache. The posted coords put you don't a steep embankment that don't match the terrain rating.
Just read the guidlines on adopting a cache. Sorry for not taking care of that before (and all the typo's...sheesh). I'll discuss it with the other person who volunteered to adopt the cache and proceed accrordingly.
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There is a cache near Mill Creek that appears to have been abandonded. There was a string of DNF's to which the owner never responded and then a previous finder posted better coords in a note and volunteered to adopt it. Is there a way for either of us to adopt it without the owners cooperation? I haven't tried to contact the owner, I don't know if the other person has either. The owner logged onto the site as recently as May but has not logged a find in over 2 years. Looks to me as though he is done geocaching.
Let me know how to proceed with this as the coords are off by about 50ft and they need to be changed for safety resaons as well as just so people can find the cache. The posted coords put you don't a steep embankment that don't match the terrain rating.
Thanks
-FM
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You can place it in the event and then pull it out again if you did not leave it. That way it will get credit for the event and log the miles.
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I've seen this phenomenon myself recently. There is a cacher in our area that picked up a coin of mine from a nearby cache. When I went to look at the persons profile I noticed that they had only been caching for about a month. In that time they have found nearly 120 caches and have taken a combination of 25 coins and bugs from those caches. Problem is that they haven't returned any of the bugs or coins that they have found back into the wild. It's only been a few days since they grabbed my coin but my fear is that they will continue to hold onto these for a while or being new they don't really understand that they should be moving these along. 120 caches and 25 trackables is a heck of a lot for a brand new cacher. I didn't reach 100 caches for nearly 4 months and I've never logged a month with over 100 caches in it and I consider myself to be a pretty active cacher. I've seen several of these types of things where people get all gung ho and cache and cache and cache and then stop and never do it again. Usually it happens when they place their first cache and then they never log onto the web page again after it publishes. My fear is that is what is going to happen with this person but this time it is going to be travel bugs that pay the price.
Anyway I usually give people who grab my bugs a month or more before I sedn them a reminder message asking them to release my bug. I'll wait a bit on this one before sending in a message but I'm wondering how much longer than th etwo week time limit I should wait before contacting them.
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Thanks again for putting this together. Wish I could've stuck around longer to chat with everyone bu tI had another 6 or 7 miles to do and I still had to go pick the kids up. Hoepfully next tiem I can stay longer.
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I am a graduate of the UW Microbiology Department, Class of '94. My Wife (often referred to as FobesWife in my logs) is a WSU Department of Education Graduate, Class of '92. Now here is the funny part, I'm 5 years older then she is. I was a late bloomer but that is a story I will tell if we ever meet over a beer.
We are both born and raised Washingtonians but she is a coug through and through. I on th eother hand have always rooted for both schools, (expcept when they play each other) I am convinced that the rivalry is almost completely one sided.
BTW I am the cacher but the family often accompanies me on my adventures. Probably about 1/4 of my caches we have logged together.
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Just because you didn't post int he right area doesn't mean we can't answer.
I think the hardest terrain I have experienced so far is the new one in our area Entangled at the edge of my Forest (GC1DP4X). It is only rated a 4 star and without sufficient experience with higher ratings I shouldn't judge but I feel that it should be a 5 star. Their is about a half mile hike to get to the closest spot where you will have the least amount of bushwhacking. That part is fairly easy if you don't mind the longish walk but once their you must deal with mud, nettles, black berry vines, swamps and ponds and 6ft high grass. Plus there is a barb wire fence that is difficult to see due to all of the other growth in the area you can get snagged on if you are not careful.
I also recently did the Wild Stallion's Rides again Cache on I-90 near Vantage. That one is a 3 star but is a different kind of hard. I've done higher rated terrains before but the hike is a straight up 1/3 mile hike on a soft bank.
The view and of course the adventure for both of these caches makes it well worth it though.
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All right, I looked too. I have cache's in the area that they logged as well and now I have to go back to them and see if they really signed them...
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I might be able to make this. I see there are some faces I know and others I'd like to meet that have already said they are coming. If I come I will plan on riding my bike over from Canyon Park. I wouldn't be able to stay too long but it would be good to meet some more of the area cachers.
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I don't use a 60CS, but I think I heard that it is possible to move a downloaded cache to a new location? Is it possible you accidentally relocated a couple of points?
I'm not sure how I would have done that. Are you saying that once you've loaded a cache onto your Garmin you can move its coordinates (or change them maunally) to another location? If I did, it would have been a complete accident and th echance of it happening twice are remote.
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I have tried to duplicate your problem here at the office with both the 60cs and the 60csx using GSAK and both times GC1DG0M registered the correct coords. I also used the Send to GPS function with both GPS units and the Garmin Colorado as well. I know that doesn't help you but I tried!
Maybe you'll find some other data point that will lead to the problem and solution. If so please post it here and I'll look into it further.
Hi Nate,
would it help if I forwarded my PQ to you? You must have just loaded the gpx file off of the cache web page. Perhaps it has something to do with the PQ itself. BTW I was using the most up to date version of GSAK (on a different computer now so don't know what that is) in case you are using an older version.
Send me an e-mail from my profile with your e-mail address and I can forward my PQ to you.
thanks for the help.
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Hi, this will take a bit of explaining so I apologize if it gets a little long. I am using a Garmin GPSmap 60CS with caches loaded using GSAK from a pocket querry of non-mystery and non-multi caches that I have not found within a 13 mile radius of my home coords.
Over the weekend I was looking for a couple of caches that I had dowloaded into the GPSr. When I got to the first one I was being pointed to an area where the cache could not possibly be unless the owner was playing a very mean joke. At first I thought that was the case but when I returned home and looked up the cache location on google earth the location I was being directed to was not where google earth was placing the cache. At the time there was an electrical storm in the area and so I attributed the misdirection to bouncy sats due to the storm. I went back the next day and tried again and the same thing happened but this time I came armed with some information that told me exactly where the cache was. It was then that I checked the coords that were loaded into the GPS and they were completely wrong. The published coords of the cache are N 47° 58.290 W 122° 08.273. The ones that are loaded into my Garmin are N 47° 58.345 W 122° 08.347 which is a fairly significant difference.
The same thing happened with another cache that is nearby. The coords for that cache are listed as N 47° 57.326 W 122° 08.412 and the ones that are loaded into my Garmin are N 47° 57.371 W 122° 08.445. The funny thing is that a third cache in the area at N 47° 58.067 W 122° 08.038 is loaded correctly. All of these caches were loaded using GSAK at the same time from the same pocket querry.
The funny thing is that I have another tool that I've loaded onto my blackberry called cacheberry. This tool loads complete cache descrpitons including hints, logs and whehter or not there were TB's at the time the pocket querry was generated. I used the same pocket querry to load that as I did to load the Garmin and the ones in cacheberry are correct.
this could very well be an issue with GSAK and I realize that is probably not supported here bu tI ma wondering if anyone else has expereinced a similar problem or if any thing like this has been reported. I will post a similar message on the GSAK forums too.
thanks in advance for any help or advice.
It works with firefox! I agree with the poster a few threads above. This is ridiculous. What if you could only fill your car with one type of gas from one gas station? Your driving along and all of a sudden the gas you bought from Shell mixes into your Carburetor and your car coughs and chokes and stops working. Of course you don't know why, becasue the gas you bought from Shell last week worked just fine in your car.
program to get around this kind of stuff!
]
Cache Cop
in General geocaching topics
Posted
You act as though I already e-mailed the owner and the cheaters in question and that I went out of my way to check on this. Neither is true. As I said, I ride my bike past the spot where the cache is all the time. It's in a spot that I often stop to rest. Since I was there and I was curious about it, I decided to open the cache up and check the log. I never even had to get off my bike.
You chose an interesting line to quote from the guidlines. Especially "Delete any logs that appear to be bogus". My interpretation of this is that is what a cache owner SHOULD do. Since they did not, amnd the guidleines are clear on what they should do, I wonder if they are aware that someone has cheated on their cache.
How it takes away from my fun is that I was taught that when playing a game you should play by the rules. Part of playing the game is getting the satisfation that I was able to accomplish the same things as others. When someone cheats and says they did something I did without actually doing it, it minimizes that accomplishment, regardless of whether there are no winners in geocaching.
I'm not losing any sleep over this. I was just curious how others might feel. You've made yourself clear on how you feel. I appriciate your feedback.