HikingSeal
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Posts posted by HikingSeal
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Hi all,
Many are having strong reactions about the recent change in event rules. When the time limit rules were announced, the reviewers in our area started enforcing another rule about events which unbeknownst to us has been in place for a while. This is the guideline about “moving” events. Given the broadness of the term, there are sure to be many types of events to which it applies. Here is the specific wording of the guideline.
***Guidelines clip***
Events should take place at the posted coordinates and must include both a start time and end time.
***end of clip***
What concerns me most is that this prohibits hiking events. For nearly six years I have hosted a monthly hiking event http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=b4f221a6-be57-466d-b1fd-227448e9f702. I’m certainly not the only cacher in the area that hosts hiking events, just the most consistent. I think our reviewers would have happily let things continue in our area as is if they weren’t being given grief by other reviewers who in turn were getting grief from cachers in their areas pointing to our events as examples of the types of events they were being denied. Ironically what attracted everyone’s attention to our ongoing hiking events was me.
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of my hiking series, I wrote an item for Podcacher. Then just a couple months later I was nominated as Geocacher of the month primarily on the basis of how much everyone enjoyed the hikes. Most of the votes were about the hikes as well http://www.geocaching.com/blog/2014/12/and-the-nominees-for-novembers-geocacher-of-the-month-are/#disqus_thread It seems everyone was pretty happy with the level of socialization they got on the hikes.
Now I fully intend to keep the series going just with a bit of a facelift. The events will be posted as trailhead meet-ups with a brief mention of the hike afterwards.
The first thing that bothers me about this is the essential dishonesty. Whatever window dressing is put on it, it’s a hiking event NOT a trailhead meet-up. I can’t put anything about the hike on the cache page. I guess I could provide a description of the trail here in the forums like the Cache Machine events do for that route. Putting descriptions on another website (not Groundspeak run) then linking to the cache page is against the cache page guidelines.
I also fear for newbies. All the regular participants will know what the deal is. Although I will be there for the required half hour, the regulars will know not to show up until later. I think newbies would be the only ones who may show up planning to stand around at a trailhead for a half hour. That’s going to be a pretty boring event. I can also see them being confused by any of these formerly “moving” events that have only a line or two about the real moving part of the event. Hopefully they will send the CO a note rather than just being put off by their confusion.
In good weather, we normally would be standing there for a while chit-chatting and getting our things together. In rain and cold (Keep in mind the trailhead for most hikes in this area is above 5,000 feet), we tend to sit in our cars until everyone gets there then dive out and start hiking. There’s a big difference between standing in nasty weather and hiking in it; the latter allows for some heat generation.
Given Groundspeak’s response to protests of our reviewers’ announcement that they are going to start enforcing this moving cache guideline, it appears to be a done deal. They are not budging on the guideline. (As a side note, I have to say I am further disenchanted with how Groundspeak handled the situation. The tone came across as “suck up and deal like everyone else.”)
That’s the story. I’m looking for three things to be discussed as a result of this post.
1) What’s the history here? Where did the restriction on “moving” events come from? Basically what did some numskull do to up their numbers that the rest of us are now paying for? Or is this a case of someone being upset they were physically not capable of participating in a hike? Or someone showed up late and missed the group?
2) Why does Groundspeak continue to put reviewers in the situation of announcing guideline changes by denying caches that violate the new guidelines? If it weren’t for Podcacher who has a large audience being responsible for the WWFM, I’m sure we would only have found out about the new time limits when cachers started complaining that their events were being denied. It also puts reviewers at odds with each other as in this situation. Guideline changes seem like they should be in the weekly newsletter. Maybe that needs to become more substantive and less happy-happy, joy-joy, marketing content. (Much the same issue as calling hard and fast rules “guidelines”.)
3) General suggestions about how to continue having hiking events within these new guidelines.
Thanks for everyone’s time and thoughts in response.
Chris
aka Hiking Seal
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I'm pretty pleased with Advanced search so far. Most of what I have tried worked. One addition I would like to see is the ability to search on Attributes for caches within an area. Related to that I would like caches that are recognized as geocache of the week to get a special attribute. Presently I am planning a trip to Norway. I remember there was a geocache of the week there quite a while ago that I would like to get. I am presently digging through the blog to find it. I want an easier way to find those extra special cool caches.
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To save everyone having to download 350Mb of stuff and install it, then get past Vista's security measures, I've included the patched exe
Install the builder if you have uninstalled it, or not bother installing it yet, then
overwrite your WherigoBuilder.exe which is probably located:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Groundspeak\Wherigo\Builder\WherigoBuilder.exe"
Over 5 years later this is still a valuable fix. Thank you!
Now if Groundspeak would just do something with Wherigo or at least sell it to someone who would.
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Marty again the way you suggest doing the search will return every page that includes the characters drum. What I learned since your post was to limit the search to the meta tag title by using intitle:drum
Cezzanne, actually Google does return archived caches AND trackables that have drum in the name. I've tried limiting the area. Essentially what I think I hear is that I have no choice but to run a search for each of the 50 states. I agree project-gc in better.
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I have been playing around with the different search methods suggested. Not perfect yet so I welcome some feedback to smooth out the bumps.
So far project-gc has been the best. The problem there is the archived caches as I mentioned before and it also pulls caches that have an owner with drum in the name. Needles to say I max out the allowed 500 returned items very quickly and have few caches to show for it.
I have also tried different methods with google
site:www.geocaching.com intitle:drum
gets me a lot of trackable pages. If I change the site to
site:www.geocaching.com/geocache intitle:drum
I start pulling a lot of archived caches again and Google starts thinking I'm a bot and won't give me all the results.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
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Cezanne that's cool! I hadn't used the search function of project-gc at all. When you first brought it, up I thought you were talking about the new challenge checkers under tools.
The only problem I'm hitting is it brings up active and archived caches (who knew this was a way to search for archived caches?!). Obviously for my purpose I want only active. I haven't had success in excluding the archived via trial and error. Any idea on what to add to the search "drum* United States" to get rid of the archived?
What have I learned from this exercise so far? There are not a heck of a lot of caches out there with drum in the name. I only need 12!
Again thanks to all who have added to the list!
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MartyBartfast thanks for the thought but that will only work if I want the word drum anywhere on a page on the GC site. I need to isolate to cache names which html can't differentiate from the rest of the text on a page.
Cezanne that's a thought. I was aware they'd added that but had not at a use for it at the time. I'll have to play with it.
For those who posted caches, THANKS!
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Sorry for the multiple posts. Every time I tried to post I received an internal server error 500 so I kept trying. Guess it went through sometimes. Please use this one for replies as I can't find a way to delete the duplicates. Thanks!
P.S. If any Admin sees this, it would be great if you could delete the two duplicates. Thanks!
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Alright fellow cachers, I need some help on a challenge. I am working on a 12 days of Christmas Challenge, need to find caches with the gifts my true love gave. I'm doing fine on the first 11 days. However, the 12th day is impossible. Out of Utah's (my home state) nearly 28,000 caches four have a form of the word drum in the name. I need 12. This is without a doubt the toughest "name" challenge I've tackled.
Here's where you can help. I travel a lot for business. I've begun looking in the areas I travel for caches named drum. Given the new search restrictions, it's a little tough. I ask that anyone who reads this does a search of their area and posts a reply with the GC# of any cache they find that has a form of the word drum in the name (e.g., drum, drummer, drumming, drummed, etc.)
I'll collect all the suggestions into a GSAK database that I can refer to as I travel.
Thanks a bunch for the help!
Chris
aka Hiking Seal
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We had planned to do it form the top down in August but didn't draw a permit. Guess I'll jump on board here. Count me as a definite.
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On my GPS (Oregon 450t) I have loaded the 100k that came with it, Southwest 24K, West 24K, Central 24K, City Navigator, Snow Ranger for all of Utah's Ski resort trail maps, and some custom maps made in Google Earth. Depending on my purpose of the moment, I easily switch between these maps by going into Setup=>Map=>Map Information Select Map. I see all of the above options listed. I enable the one I want and disable the rest. Easy as pie.
For the curious, why do I have 24K and 100K? There are differences in what's shown. The biggest difference I have found is in the San Rafael Swell area of Utah, the 100K shows a lot of the old mining roads that were removed in the more recent 24K. I have never confirmed it, but hearsay was BLM or some government agency that provides the data to the map makers does not want people to know about some of the old roads in remote areas for conservation or to prevent access to dangerous areas. I use the term roads to describe these lines on the map loosely. They were once roads but they are only fit for hiking or ATV now. Moral to the story if you ever get a set of maps, hang on to them. You'll learn more my looking at multiple maps of the same area. This applies to trails not city navigation.
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Nice! Thanks Ashleychachacha!
I knew what WAAS is but not its geographic limitations. The important thing I got from reading this article was learning about EGNOS. When I first read insig's reply I checked my unit to be sure WAAS was enabled. It wasn't, but I recently updated my software. The default is Normal GPS, not WAAS. What puzzled me though was the option said "WAAS/EGNOS". I had no idea what EGNOS was and dismissed it. This article taught me it's the European equivalent of WAAS. Apparently Garmin has updated their older unit's software to pickup that signal as well. Tomorrow I'll see my friend who just returned from Europe. I'm going to check her GPSr to see if she has that update and if it was enabled. I'm betting not. I also bet you are exactly right. That's the source of my accuracy issues. Although it doesn't explain why Hawaiian cachers I've asked about don't see the problem. On the other hand maybe it's just a matter of what we are each used to.
Cool! Love learning new stuff. Thanks a bunch!
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My experience with the problem in Alaska and Hawaii has been over the course of a week on multi-hour caching trips on multiple occasions across several years and GPS units. My friend's experience was over the course of three weeks throughout Germany and Italy, again on multi hour caching trips.
I make an effort my system software updated. Versions 6.2 for system and 6.0 for GPS are currently installed. These are reported as the current versions.
This unit is only a year old. I am not familiar with what a WAAS fix is. Nothing on the Garmin site illuminates the point either. Could you do so further please?
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Hi all!
I'm heading to Europe in a week. A friend who is a fellow cacher just returned from Europe. She complained that throughout the trip even with fresh batteries her accuracy was about 90 feet. This concerned and perplexed me. In my own travels I know I have had consistently poorer accuracy in Alaska and to a much greater extent in Hawaii. The latter is usually about 25-40 feet. When I've complained to Hawaiian cachers about this, they think I'm nuts. In the contiguous US, the same GPS displays around 10 feet. However, visiting southern portions of Canada I've never had an issue.
Is there something built into US sold/ based consumer GPS units that makes the accuracy poorer outside the contiguous US? If you know something, please share it, but please save the speculating. I'm also interested in hearing about personal experiences with accuracy as described above.
Thanks,
Chris
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In the interest of keeping perspective, check out this list of top hiders in the US http://project-gc.com/TopHiders/tophidden/?profile_name=&profile_country=United+States&country=®ion=&county=&submit=Filter&submitbutton=Filter
Three on this list live in my state. We often joke that the top of those three drives down the road and throws a container out the window while pushing the mark waypoint button, then names the cache after whatever song was on the radio at the time. He doesn't even bother to write descriptions on the cache page any more.
Best solution? Be a good example and maintain your caches. Log your DNFs. When you find it, put as much effort into your log as was put into the cache. (Write novels for good caches) Make good use of peer pressure at events and through social media among your local caching community. Post "Needs Maintenance" and "Needs Archived" logs when appropriate. Use the rating system at GCVote.com.
So glass half full, be happy you have one guy with only 60 poorly maintained caches!
Now go out there and maintain your caches people!!!
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Yay! It's not just me. I've now had 5 PQs evaporate. AND I can't post on the feedback site. Every time I click Post it tries to download a file. I noticed someone else said they would be the 12th person. I would have been the 12th if I could have posted. I think the gremlins are moving in at Groundspeak.
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A friend has a 60CSx which she asked me to help with. I have had no problem getting my computer to talk with several different Oregons, eTrexes and a Colorado. Although I was able to load caches on to her 60CSx using the send waypoint feature of my GSAK, I could not for the life of me figure out how to put a file onto her GPS. In every other computer GPS interaction I've seen the computer sees the GPS as a mass storage device. I've even seen a Colorado hooked up to a computer with the NEMA (sp?)/Garmin Spanner mode turned on. (That's the mode where the computer can use the GPS with a program like Microsoft Streets & Roads.) Even in that mode the GPS can still be seen by the computer as a storage device. I've had no luck googling or reading the manual for the thing.
So two questions for you.
That was a Colorado I saw hooked to a computer in that mode. Is what I saw true of the 60CSx too? Otherwise where is that setting so I can see if that is the problem.
What else would keep a computer from seeing a 60CSx as a mass storage device where gpx files can be dragged and dropped? (She said the same thing happens on her computer so it's not just mine.)
Thanks for the help!
Chris
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A friend has a 60CSx which she asked me to help with. I have had no problem getting my computer to talk with several different Oregons, eTrexes and a Colorado. Although I was able to load caches on to her 60CSx using the send waypoint feature of my GSAK, I could not for the life of me figure out how to put a file onto her GPS. In every other computer GPS interaction I've seen the computer sees the GPS as a mass storage device. I've even seen a Colorado hooked up to a computer with the NEMA (sp?)/Garmin Spanner mode turned on. (That's the mode where the computer can use the GPS with a program like Microsoft Streets & Roads.) Even in that mode the GPS can still be seen by the computer as a storage device. I've had no luck googling or reading the manual for the thing.
So two questions for you.
That was a Colorado I saw hooked to a computer in that mode. Is what I saw true of the 60CSx too? Otherwise where is that setting so I can see if that is the problem.
What else would keep a computer from seeing a 60CSx as a mass storage device where gpx files can be dragged and dropped? (She said the same thing happens on her computer so it's not just mine.)
Thanks for the help!
Chris
Hiking Events
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Two references have been made to "the other thread" without a link to the relevant posts in that thread being added. Presumably the reference is to the thread about the new event time guidelines. Although the issue of moving events is mentioned in that thread, well, complained about, no one answers "why?". What is that guideline addressing?
Also feel free to ignore my third question if you feel it has been sufficiently addressed elsewhere.