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rtyrie

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Posts posted by rtyrie

  1. I've only had one bear encounter while caching, coincidentally, just a couple weeks ago. It was near Patricia Lake, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. The bear didn't even look up at us, it was too busy digging around. So we just continued along our way.

     

    However, I've had many encounters before geocaching. Way back in university I used to work as a tree planter in northern Ontario as a summer job. In some areas bear encounters were a daily occurrence. I probably had at least 50 bear encounters back then. Out of all those encounters only one bear was aggressive, but that encounter turned out okay as well.

  2. Okay...

     

    thanks to your help and the help from some other friends, the route and hotels are fixed now:

     

    We will arrive at Vancouver on August, 28th and stay there until 31st. I guess that might be too short for a place like Vancouver, but there are more places to go :-)

     

    From there we will travel to Revelstoke (next Hotel) with a longer stop close to Chilliwack (caching @ Lake Cultus). We stay at Revelstoke until Sept. 1st and continue to Lake Louise. There we will stay 'til Sept. 8th and go to Banff and what ever we find. From there we will go to Jasper and on Sept. 9th we will arrive at Edmonton (St. Albert). We will be around there until Sept. 14th, when we will have to leave for Calgary, spending a last night on Canadian Ground and Leaving in the morning of Sept. 15th.

     

    I started to make a list with caches I want to do (not all of them, sometimes one only for an area: http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=20e61d5f-b8c1-40ad-9e53-7aab2060da31

     

    Any more tips from you?

     

    And if anyone of you wants to show us the places where we stay from a non-tourist point of view: drop me a note. We would be very happy to meet some of you there :-)

     

    I see that you will traveling to Revelstoke. One of my favourite caches near the town is Moses Creek, a nice waterfall that I would have never found if not for the geocache there:

     

    34106023-cd53-4e8a-bdb5-c0ac06fd35f1.jpg

     

    I also see that the Mt. Revelstoke Virtual is on your bookmark list. If you have time I highly recommend the back country trails that originate from this location. The Miller Lake and Lake Eva trails are spectacular, but are a significant hike, that will require most of a day. Most people don't venture much further than the Revelstoke summit parking lot, but the hikes that start from there are very rewarding.

  3. I really enjoyed the caches about a week ago in the Niagara Glen park, just north of Great Wolf Lodge. You can get right down to the river there (safely(

     

    I will second the suggestion for the caches in Niagara Glen. It is a great area and very close to the Great Wolf Lodge - I've been to the lodge several times with my kids.

     

    Before I started geocaching I had no idea that you could actually walk down into the gorge! There are stairs at the Glen that will take you down to the gorge. My favourite cache in the Glen is Niagara Gorge, as it is right along the edge of the river.

  4. It's amazing how many people miss that not activated message.

     

    A related issue is the placement of the "Enable cache listing" checkbox. It is currently placed in the middle of the cache submission page between "Coordinates" and "Location". I don't understand the logic behind this choice of location on the page. Such an important field should be prominently displayed - the bottom of the page seems to be a logical spot.

  5. Now the larger map on each cache page is totally blank.

     

    That's been happening (intermittently) to me for quite a while. Different OSes (XP, 7 Pro, 7 Home Premium), different ISPs. I've only tried Firefox. The big map is usually a big white box, but always shows up when I click "View Dynamic Map".

     

    This has been happening to me since the September 15 update. Usually it happens after clicking a link on the page - such as "View Logbook", and then after clicking back to the cache page, the map has disappeared. It is consistent and even after refreshing the page, the map does not appear. I use Firefox and Opera on OS X and Windows and it occurs in each case.

  6. When I hide a cache I always prepare the cache page beforehand. I tend to leave the last 3 digits as 000 until I actually go out and hide the container and measure the coordinates. Perhaps this hider did this as well and did not know to uncheck the "Enable cache listing" box.

  7. My most memorable animal encounter occurred a couple years ago while hiking in a nearby conservation area. We were walking down the trail when I spotted a snake (Garter). Then I saw another and another...I looked to the side of the trail and saw that the snakes were literally pouring out of a rock crevice. They were just emerging from hibernation. I stopped counting when I got to 50, but they were still pouring out as fast as ever.

  8. At this point, all we have is speculation.

     

    No, we have more than that. We have a general description from TPTB, and simply by looking at what gets highlighted and what doesn't we can narrow down the specifics. So far it seems:

     

    - non traditional caches are excluded

    - micros and "other" sizes are excluded

    - caches with difficulty higher than 3.5 are excluded

    - caches with NM attribute are excluded

    - caches not found in the past month are excluded

     

    That's probably most of it; are there any caches with any of the above attributes that are highlighted, or any with none of the above attributes that aren't?

     

    Out of curiosity I've tried to figure out the algorithm behind this feature and I can't figure it out. As an example, I own 4 traditional caches. All are small or regular size. All are difficulty 2. All have been found in less than 30 days (the most recent find was yesterday, and the furthest was found about 2 weeks ago). None have any issues such as NM. None of my caches are labeled as beginner caches. Yet other nearby caches - some with higher difficulties, some with longer times since the last find etc.. are labelled as beginner caches.

     

    I'm quite curious about how is algorithm works!

  9. T5 caches are highlighted as beginner caches if they have a low D-rating. I don't think that these are really beginner caches.

     

    I've been looking at this as well and I don't understand the mechanism here. I looked at my local area and see that plenty of traditional/low difficulty/low terrain caches that have been found recently are not labeled as beginner caches, while others are. I also noticed that a nearby 2.5/3.5 cache was labelled as a beginner cache, while nearby caches with lower ratings were not.

     

    I'm curious regarding the underlying logic of this feature.

  10. On a side note has anyone noticed that Algonquin Park has gone missing from Google Maps?

    You're right! What up with that? blink.gif

     

    I reported the issue to Google, and today I received a response. They confirmed the issue, and said that they will update the map soon.

  11. I found this Transport Quebec Website. It contains a java applet, so I can't link directly to the page. If you go to Couleurs - Jaune - Page 19, there is a very similar sign that indicates a tree plantation. I'm not sure why it is necessary to have a warning sign for a tree plantation though.

  12. I will staying near Minden, Ontario for a week at the end of July. Specifically I will be staying on Halls Lake, just a bit north of Minden. I've started looking at caches in the area. I notice that Wilberforce is not too far to the east. I think I remember this area being referred to as the geocaching capital of Canada. Does anyone of any recommendations for caches in the area, preferably ones on a nice trail.

     

    On a side note, has anyone noticed that Algonquin Park has gone missing from Google Maps?

  13. I live in Halton region (west of Toronto) and there are many great spots for hiking/caching along the Bruce Trail. I also have 2 children ( 9 and 12 ), so I understand the challenge of finding something interesting for them.

     

    One of my favourite spots is Hilton Falls. We hike there several times a year. There are several caches in the area. You can find a traditional, multi, letterbox hybrid, virtual, puzzle, and earth cache, all within a small area. In fact, the earth, virtual, and multi are located at a single spot on the Bruce Trail. And there is an excellent traditional cache within a short distance.

  14.  

    If I understand this correctly, you want trackables to be sent via mail to Germany?

     

    Do you and your "correspondents" receive permission for doing this from the trackables' owners first?

     

    I know that if I had any trackables out there in circulation, I sure wouldn't want someone sending them to someone else in the mail, let alone out of Canada.

     

    I think the OP is thinking of something similar to this cache

  15. I just noticed today that the "View the Image Gallery" on cache pages no longer shows the number of images in the gallery.

    Looking at one of my cache pages, the link says "View the Image Gallery of 3 images"

     

    Yes, this is a change because it used to say something like "View the Image Gallery (3 images)"

     

    Edit to add link.

     

    Thanks, I've taken another look and have found that if the gallery only has 1 image, it does not show the count. If there is more than 1 image, then the url is as you have described. I think they just need to make a minor change to their counter.

  16. I just noticed today that the "View the Image Gallery" on cache pages no longer shows the number of images in the gallery. I'm not sure if this change was introduced in this update, but it must be fairly recent. I often use the image gallery when selecting potential caches, using the image count as a possible indicator of a better than average cache. Now I have to view the gallery to see the number of images. Before, I would normally only click the link if there were more than a couple images. Is there a reason why this was removed and is it possible to get it restored?

  17.  

    Had a few minutes and I recognized this one right away, kids loved this dam

     

    Is it Revelstoke Dam / BC Interior Forestry Museum - GC2CCDZ?

     

    Yes, you are correct. We toured the dam last fall. Quite liked the Revelstoke area and the nearby national parks.

  18. GCPXKK - End of the World

     

    This was actually one of the first areas I searched, but I missed the cache somehow. Finally your first set of hints clicked - the 2012 hint especially. Neat area, years ago while doing my Masters in Geography, one of my colleagues was lucky enough to travel to Devon Island for research.

     

    Hopefully I will find another cache to post later today...

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