T-storm

Yeah, what he said. My team has 2 different caches that include offsets to be resolved by compass. We make it clear in the description that offset work or compass will be required. Of course, in our case, if they can do a bit of simple math and use the features of their GPS, a compass is not STRICTLY required. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

We here in North Texas did contact the city of Arlington for our Don't Mess With Texas event. I sent them an e-mail introducing myself and geocaching, told them what we intended to do, where and when, then asked if they'd like to provide trash bags, gloves, litter sticks, disposal services or anything else. They were quite friendly and sent me 2 types of forms. One was an application for an ACORN Project (park cleanup or improvement on a one-time basis) and the other was an indemnity form that I have to get participants to fill out and sign. The project form wanted to know what we wanted to do and how to contact us. I've gotten 29 indemnity forms back to date and expect a few more still. They basically say that participants understand they aren't city employees with city benefits and that they are taking some risks. They are providing everything I asked for. All they asked in return is what I already described. There has yet to be a negative moment in the process since I first sent my message about March 1 or just before. We get brownie points with a large city in our area with lots of parks and lots of caches. All good stuff here! I can't imagine not asking in this setting actually, because I darned sure didn't want to have to haul the trash and pay dump fees or hope that the city would locate and dispose of our "haul" before it gets torn open and rescattered, nulifying all our work. There are no large receptacles onsite. But then my family pursues permission for all of our caches and have only been (conditionally) refused once. It was our choice to walk away, not the land manager's. Can't complain... T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

I thought the following quote from another section of the referenced NSS report was interesting: quote: I did receive one report where a register book was found burned. This has happened before but it is usually extremely rare cases. Apparently, some spelunkers consider the CCUS register book as a third source of light in emergencies. Seems that the cavers disagree amongst themselves a bit just as some cachers argue over the appropriateness of placing caches in some types of parkland. Just an interesting tidbit that struck me kinda funny. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

I was very pleased with the 6 days from order to delivery for the 32 shirts I ordered for the folks around here. If they can provide that kind of service to Texas, they're doing pretty well. So your week to OR experience probably isn't the norm. And yes, nicely done t-shirts! Wish I'd had more money to buy some for cache bait as well! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Tonsil-- I appreciate and accept your apology. Hopefully my child will forget the new potty word quickly now that the pic has disappeared! Now if Team 360 would care to return, maybe he could pick an avatar of one of the RugRats characters holding a box labeled "Lizard Doots"... T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

quote:Originally posted by Tonsil:What I mean to say is that it is completely wrong to steal someone else's image and use it as your own. Anyone doing so should be fed his own toenails. Then I suppose you are prepared to chow down, Tonsil? Would you prefer your own toenails, or just a pile of "doots"? You had permission neither for use nor alteration of the picture of the little girl with the cache box that you used as an avatar this evening. I know because that is my daughter and I took the picture. Unfortunately, she was sitting on my lap when I dropped into the forums this evening. She saw the picture, and as she is a bit older than when it was taken, she knows it was altered. She spelled the word you placed on the lid of the cache box to me and asked what it meant. I just told her that a nasty person had put an ugly word on her picture. If you must be so uncouth as to resort to potty humor to make your points, leave my child out of it. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Sorry about this folks, but I just can't resist cross-posting because I had such a great time and want y'all to know about it so that more can plan to attend next year! WOW!! All you folks who didn't or couldn't make do not know what you missed! This was one huge ranch with a variety of terrain and wildlife and the lake surrounding the peninsula and islands that were part of it. This is rugged, rock & boulder strewn, cactus riddled mixed woodland and plains terrain. Roads and dirt trails wind about the ranch, but they may not go where you need to go! There are active cattle and oil/gas wells on the property as well. First, the camping locations were great. There were grassy, relatively clear patches surrounding picnic pavilions and with extra picnic tables scattered throughout the larger ones. Some fire rings existed throughout these areas or you could build one if there was none close to where you pitched your tent. Restrooms generally weren't too far, and there were showers if you could take the wind blowing under the stall walls! Of course there were other options like dormitory bunks and a few cabins onsite or staying off ranch. Meals were provided for those who wished to partake, but since we are on a restricted diet we didn't get to sample the food. Next were the events: Clinics on several topics, individual geocaches to find, orienteering courses (including the GPS-O Hybrid and GPS-Only courses), and a night competition course (by GPS/Map or Map-Only) were all offered in addition to the option of simply enjoying the location by hiking, biking, or fishing. Brokenwing and I led clinics for a couple of hours (with Moosiegirl's comments punctuating) on "Geocaching 101" to explain the concept of geocaching to those there were interested but not sure what all is involved. That was actually more fun than I would have thought and garnered an invitation to come speak to another organization about Geocaching. A little later in the day the first of the caches were released for search and we found a couple of those before it started getting close to our event times. Brokenwing ran an Orange Orienteering course and I ran (I use that word loosely, you know) the GPS-Only course (which is supposed to be kinda like a Brown O course). I'll let Brokenwing describe the Orienteering to y'all. The GPS-Only course is a type of 10 point or so time rated multi-cache + letterbox sort of thing, done cross-country. You run 2 separate courses, 1 each day, for a cumulative time score. Imagine a place kind of like the Fort Worth Nature center where you are allowed, and indeed even expected at times, to be off-trail. The terrain was somewhat comparable I think, though there were more elevation changing features at the Sid Richardson Ranch. You go to the start line and time starts when you are handed your clue sheet. The sheet has 12 entries. The first line is simply the coords for the start line for reference. The second line has coords and a 1-3 word clue. Lines 3-11 have only these 1-3 word clues. The last line is simply an instruction to follow the flagged path to the finish line. You head off for the first coords and once there are searching for an unspecified method of providing the next set of coords. Some of the 10 such waypoints also contain a unique punch device with which you must mark the cooresponding numbered box on your scorecard. Missing a punch disqualifies you. Missing a waypoint means no way to go on and disqualifies you. All times must be under 3 hours and, of course, faster to be competitive. A Brown O course, similar to this one, is described as 3-5 kilometers and a hard difficulty. Remember that you are often cross-country, having to guess the best approach, and searching for micros when you arrive. The fastest times were turned in by BruceS (Missouri cacher with over 2300 finds to date) and Tresure-Finder (from Oklahoma, I think) who ran it in just over an HOUR **EACH** day!! I came in a distant third, with a time of 213 minutes total, and others came in well behind me by about 30 minutes or more. There were a few disqualified as well. I wish there had been more competitors, but I was pleased to place! Oh, one thing I forgot to mention... the orienteering classes are divided by not only the difficulty, but also gender and various age groups. The GPS-Only are GPS/Hybrid (with map) classes, however, are not split up. NO gender nor age divisions. I believe that I was the only female competitor to complete the event in a GPS type class, and I placed! Come on out next year ladies, and show the guys how it's done! Saturday night there was a Night Course offered with classes for GPS users and for Map/Orienteer users. Folks had to team up with at least 3 to a team. Brokenwing and I were lucky enough to have BruceS signup with us and we quickly got under way. This was such a blast! It was a Clue style murder mystery played out not by rolling dice to move to rooms on a gameboard but by finding 10 different waypoints and searching for cache boxes that listed a few clues each. We were handed a sheet describing the crime and 10 waypoints with a topo map covering the greater hide area. Teams were fanning out into the full dark searching across this rugged, rock strewn, cactus riddled woodland and plains terrain with flashlights and a 90-minute time limit. The idea was to not only find all the clues to solve the mystery, but to mark your sheet with a punch unique to each cache box, and do it faster than any other team searching by your method. Get all 10 punches (not all 10 required to solve the mystery, BTW) and get bonus points. I'd guess that the real distance traveled to complete all the waypoints in the loop we used was something over 2 miles. Uphill and down, clambering over boulders in dry creekbeds, dodging cactus spines, tree branches and other competitors. Our team solved the mystery, found all 10 waypoints/caches, and returned to the hall in 56 minutes to claim first prize in the GPS division! What a rush! And the prizes were great! If you're a collector, they would be a great addition or could be held for their value to increase. If not, their value is high enough that you could sell them for enough money to go buy a prize of your own choosing. Thanks, Web-ling, for the terrific theme and execution and prize donations, and thanks BruceS for the comradery and teamwork... you are terrific! Finally, there were the geocaches. We didn't get to very many of these, unfortunately. They were released in groups because some were within the same area as the competition courses and there was a desire to keep from creating a tangle with additional folks in the area. We tried hunting some of the first 5 released, but there were too many folks hunting for it to be enough of a challenge and then we had to go to our event starts. After the other 15 were released, we found that with three competition event runs each, we old fat folks were too tired to go bagging a bunch of caches too! However, others made the cache finding more of a focus or were in better shape and found many or even all of them. For those folks, finding the 10 caches which just happened to contain clues led to a 21st bonus cache with a high value prize for the first finders! It was very intense, with the last cache finally found by an Oklahoma team just 30 minutes before the end of the event! Great job folks! I hope that there will be a better turnout among cachers next year. Plan early!! The event is scheduled for next year also on the last weekend in March, March 26-28, 2004. Reserve this date for a terrific time, and get in shape if you want to have competitive success as well as fun, 'cause BruceS is out there! Rich (web-ling)-- A thousand thanks, this was a GREAT event you worked geocachers into! http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

quote:Originally posted by Cracker7M: I have never heard of ANY kind of "FREE" permit... / I have permits from the Army Corps of Engineers that didn't cost me a thing. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

... for the replies so far! We are looking forward to the trip. Hikenit, we'll be in Chattanooga the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'll send you an e-mail to tell you how you can contact us if you really have a traveller you'd like to send south or west. RonEli, yep, lots of winding roads! This will be the third year we've been to the area. Brokenwing was born in the area. Last year when we drove from Chattanooga to Clarkesville we jumped across a twisty little road that crosses the AT to pick up 17 at Helen. Geoferret is prone to being carsick... we had to bathe her on the trunk of our rental car stopped in a little wide spot with bottled water! Thanks, guys! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

I'll be traveling from Fort Worth to Georgia in a little less than 2 weeks. We fly in to Atlanta, but most of our trip will be spent in the northeast corner of Georgia, specifically operating out of the Clarkesville area. We will take a short trip up to the Chattanooga area and back as well. I'm hoping for some cache recommendations. We generally prefer non-virtual caches. We will have a 3-year-old along most of the time, though we might get one day to ourselves. Geoferret has been with us on most of our hunts, but there are some where we would not take her. If we cache around Chattanooga, we will have not only the 3-year-old, but also a person with mild to moderate physical limitations. We love to cache, but most of all we love to have a really great cache experience. I already know that I want to do Reactor Road simply because of the importance of the area to my personal history. I will also be trying to pick up a cache somewhere near Hartsfield to drop off a TB I expect to have with me. Other than that I have no specific plans. Make some suggestions for target caches? I have also posted this message to the GGA board. Thanks, T-storm and Clan Geoferret http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

quote:Originally posted by Markwell:People are complaining about not having a rectangular search based on coordinate boundaries. I'm always amazed that no one has suggested that they over-search and then sort by lat and lon respectively in EasyGPS and deleting. Hmmm--- maybe that's a possible new function for Easy GPS or ExpertGPS... Doesn't EasyGPS already give you a way to do this? When I travel, I do just as you suggested. I select overlapping areas along my route or in the areas where I will be staying. When I get the .loc files from my queries, I open multiple files at a time, use a minimized window size to allow me to see all open windows at once, and hilight and drag all the waypoints from each secondary window into the first window. Duplicates are not written to the work window, even where I editted the descriptive name and icon in the work file before doing the drag & drop operation. One thing I also like to do is create waypoints for the approximate coords of places I'll be staying. Then it's easy to pick out starting coords and sort the waypoints by distance! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Texas has what is known as the TUUNA act, something like Texas Uniform Unicorporated Non-profit Association act. It provides many of the same sort of benefits of being incorporated without the expense and additional headaches. A not-for-profit club under this act can hold property, be recognized as an entity for purposes of obtaining insurance, and be recognized as an entity in case of a lawsuit in order to protect the officers and membership. Try digging around in your state laws to see if you have similar code that would benefit you. In Texas one does not have to hold federal non-profit status to qualify under the TUUNA act. Unless your club plans to do a lot of printing or buy a lot of equipment or services, you may find federal status not worth your while. With TUUNA, forming some simple by-laws and articles of association is enough. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Note to self... pay attention to what you are doing...

Nail Polish Dolls Doll Clothes Note sets (often contain themed note paper, stickers, pen, etc) Beads & other costume jewelry Gift certs or cards (toy store, book store, Bath & Bodyworks, restaurants Makeup brush sets Of course these are not by any means the only things I think big or little girls would be interested in, just a few that seem a little more on the feminine interest side. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

We haven't often used cache cameras, but when I do, I have to say that I probably wouldn't pay so much more than retail just to have a geocaching branded camera. Especially since one of our cache cameras got swiped. I'm most likely to drop dollars on clothing type items... like the vests when they're available, or t-shirts in colors likely to hide the dirt collected in caching, or one thing that hasn't been done yet, kid sizes. I have a 3-year old for whom I would buy at least one SS and one LS t-shirt, and maybe 2 each, again, so long as they were in stain hiding colors (tan, olive, heather gray, etc.). No white for a little kiddo please! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

... we did walk off and leave our backpack sitting at a micro-cache location about 75 feet off the main street through a medium-small town last weekend! Didn't realize it until we had left, fueled the truck, and driven halfway across the county to another cache. T-storm: "Where's the backpack?" BW: "I dunno." Back in the truck and across the county we go. Nearly two hours have elapsed by the time we approach, and I'm feeling sick to my stomach thinking of all the stuff that has been lost. Digital camera, 14 rechargable AA batteries, FRS radios, close to $50 in cache swag and small supplies, plus, of course, the backpack. I just can't stand it. We're envisioning the log: "Took way cool loaded backpack. Left dirty, slobber-slimed broken McToy and a ruptured golf ball I found in the parking lot. THANKS!" Much to our astounded surprise and good fortune, the bag was STILL there, contents intact. So very thankful! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

The problem I have with caches placed on personal property is the potential for straying onto another party's property without realizing it. It sounds like it was not clear to seekers of The Marine what they really were or were not allowed to do in pursuit of the cache. I have found a cache on personal property once. It was within 20-25 feet of an intersection of roads, so the chance of straying was minimal as long as both the hider's coords and the hunter's receiver were reasonably accurate (enough to put one on the correct corner). Also there were no fences around it, so there was no issue with wondering if this was a fence I had permission to cross or not. But I am aware of another that had cachers wandering about on adjacent property, much to the property owner's surprise. If you're going to hide on private property, make it painfully clear where any boundaries are and what the cacher can expect to encounter, and stay well away from any location that might draw a cacher to approach across another's property. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

I'm no lawyer to nit-pick at these things, but I'd say that the people taking/appearing in cache cam images can be reasonably assumed to have understood that the cache, the camera, and the resulting images belong to the cache placer. By taking their picture on a cache cam and replacing the camera in the cache, they have given tacit permission for the pictures to appear as a part of the cache listing. If you wish to use cache cam pics along with your article, I would still suggest that you get permission from the cache owner and also from the people appearing in the photo. If they can't be identified, then choose a different picture. You might do as well to go on a cache hunt, take lots of pics, and have your own stuff to offer so that you avoid these issues? T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

I went looking for something that looked redheaded, and, well... um... you can guess. I found this Jessica Rabbit, which for her seemed on the tame side, and dressed in a forestry uniform and it just seemed perfect. Now if only I were that skinny.... T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Makes no difference to me, I never used the list of all caches in a state anyway and as it stands will not likely use this page either. That said, if a tool is offered, it should work well. As others have pointed out, the city list is suspect. If I want a list centered from a city I'd do better to go look up a zip and search by zip. Some examples for Texas: Watauga is not listed. Population 20009 in 1990, city now reports 23000. Keller borders Fort Worth and Watauga. 1990 population at 13683, city website now says 19,200 but it's booming, so even that number is likely out of date. Appleby is listed. State lists pop in 1990 at 449. It is a small community, one flashing light where the biggest 2-lane road in town crosses a US highway. Nacogdoches, located a little over 5 miles from Appleby had a 1990 population of 30000+. It is NOT on the list. My point is that the data supplied to Jeremy about population is badly off and apparently not just because it is outdated. If it's 1990 info, then really, 12 years, at least in metropolitan areas, is too old to be useful. If it's older... well, you get the point. I figure that the intent was to try to offer more useful tools to folks, not to stymy their cache hunts. So pointing out flaws is useful and saying you'd rather have a simple list of all caches in a state is useful. Maybe you'll get a search tool that better meets your needs. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Well, I think with the way that the Geocaching.com cache guidelines are evolving to meet the increasing demand on resources and time, you might find the cache as I understand it might get denied. Temporary caches not of an event cache nature are now a no-no, so that might be an issue. Why don't you find a place you'd like to set a long-term cache and name and theme it to be your bug trap. Bug-hotel caches have become pretty widely done. Or if you want to change the theme once your trip arrives, just edit the cache listing. And don't forget when you get here to hit Rock Road Adventure! It's kinda tough because it gives very little in the way of hints to figure out its secret, but plenty of folks have proven it findable. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat:I never deleted other parts, in fact I provide a link to the entire act. Still, I've yet to find a paragraph that prohibits Geocaching, or similar activities. I refer to your post stating: quote:OK, let's say that we remove the mineral prospecting part(which was probably added to pacify the mining lobby), the act then reads: Nothing in this Act shall prevent within national forest wilderness areas any activity, if such activity is carried on in a manner compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment. That seems to me a poor attempt to convinvce folks that not only does the Wilderness Act NOT prohibit geocaching in wilderness areas, it actually prevents rangers from prohibiting them. That finagling of the text coupled, repeated posting/reference to that one section and no acknowledgement of the pointing out flaws in using the text to try to protect geocaching are what I object to. I agree with you that I see nothing in the Act that actually prohibits caching within Wilderness Areas. There is no need to mislead by omission (of the context of the section in which your favorite quote appears) to make your point. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Hmmm... an &quotadult&quot themed cache, eh? Let's see, what to put in it... Depends Reading Glasses Glasses Repair Kits Samples of headache remedies Samples of antacids Hair Dye Hat or cap for those with no hair to dye Ben-gay, aspercreme, etc. Ace bandages to wrap those achy joints Folding or telescoping walking stick Gift subscription to Modern Maturity Senior discount card to local eatery Coupons for Ensure Heh. T-storm P.S.-- Only cache-cam we ever placed was in a cache that was stolen entirely, so we never got to see the pics. http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Best e-mail the person who posted the pic and ask for their permission to use it. They can likely provide you with a better resolution image if they are willing for you to use it. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

quote:Originally posted by BrianSnat:There is still the issue of the Wilderness Act of 1964. For those of you who haven't been through this entire thread, I'll repeat a passage: _(2) Nothing in this Act shall prevent within national forest wilderness areas any activity, including prospecting, for the purpose of gathering information about mineral or other resources, if such activity is carried on in a manner compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment._ I guess that the question of what activity is _compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment_ is up to the individual land managers, but I don't see how looking for a geocache is all that much different than _prospecting for mineral or other resources_. Oh for crying out loud! Read that little quote in the context of the whole act and specifically the other sections around it, and quit trying to delete selected phrases to make it appear to say what you wish it said! Like it or not, make sense or not, what they were writing into the act was protections for the mineral rights that might be owned by someone prior to the land being acquired for the WA. All the surrounding sections pertain to various rights that are often sold separately from land. It is not a guarantee of anyone's &quotrecreational rights&quot. It is NOT an opening for geocaching. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching