LeadMagnet

Hilarious! The same thing happened to us just this morning about a half hour ago - we'd had a little TB Beaver making the rounds a few years back, and he suddenly went missing after having been placed in a cache in New Hampshire... the next visitors to the cache reported he was missing, but no logs appeared. This morning, out of the blue, we get a log - he's been picked up from a cache in Vermont!! He had been missing for over two years, and suddenly appeared again. So there's still hope! Crazy things happen.

It was a lovely early afternoon in Cambridge, though the weather report foretold of dark (and moist) times to come. Undaunted, the missus and I set out on bikes, had a lovely ~8km ride in cool sunny climes. We found the cache, and turned around for home. The wind was at our backs, and we were making fantastic time. The air was fresh and cool, and the sky was blue... ...until we were about 3km from home, and watched as the blue sky was devoured by advancing dark clouds that came out of nowhere. 2km from home. We felt the first soft pinpricks of rain on our faces. 1km from home. The skies opened up, and an amazing downpour was upon us - torrential. Cars were stopping in the streets to let it pass, their windshields obscured by the onslaught. We were both of us soaked to the core within a matter of seconds. 500m from home. Fast as it started, the rains abated and we observed only the lightest of showers from above. 100m from home. The rains had stopped completely. Home. A peek of sunlight strained to shine through the clouds. Stupid weather gods. (Or perhaps it was a weather god / BBC Weather forcaster joint project? Someone clearly wanted to teach us a lesson for shrugging off the forcast.) But, we both agreed it was well worth the soaking. Another find to add to our profile, a fantastic fast ride along great roads - heck, even the downpour was fairly entertaining for the pure overwhelming force of it all.

Some years back, my wife and I were walking back along a forest path after successfully completing a multi in the area. Approaching us in the distance was a fairly fast paced hiker holding a small piece of paper. We thought at first he may be a cacher, but quickly tossed that idea aside when we could see no sign of a receiver (or any electronic device for that matter) about his person. Also, he seemed to be moving far too fast down the densely forested (and therefore signal-poor) area to be trying to zero his position. However, our opinion was soon swayed as we watched him pause to look at his paper for the briefest of moments, take a split-second glance at a carefully concealed device in his pocket, and leap straight into the undergrowth off the trail - which happened to be exactly where the first stage of our recently completed multi was located! We walked past him, and noted that this guy must be some sort of super-spy, for there would have been no way to know he was even there had we not seen him "enter". We couldn't resist having a little fun, and as we strolled past we called out. "Good luck!" A looong, long pause. And then a response. Very sheepishly. "Do you know what I'm doing...?" (Luckily, he was doing what we thought he was doing in there, and we had a great chat afterwards!)

We're in Jango's neck of the woods, and have placed a few puzzle caches since our arrival this past January. The Missus' and I both love the puzzle cache format. We've found that, on average, the difficulty ratings for puzzle caches in East Anglia have been a bit higher than what we were used to back in Vancouver, which is very densely populated with caches. To now, we've rated our puzzle caches in the 3 / 3.5 range, with the expectation that cachers will have to sit at their desks for at least a few hours (and perhaps a bit more *grin*) and mull over just what exactly we're on about. Oh - and vague hints. It wouldn't do to give away the game. As an example, these are our two puzzle caches currently active in East Anglia: GCTMVC - Sam Spade & the Maltese Lock & Lock GCT93A - Slipped Between the Stacks Our main reason for not rating these guys higher is that we've experience many a puzzle cache back home that had us up the walls for months. A prime example, and one which is still a favourite, is The Rosabelle Cipher.

Thanks all for your opinion! It was good to get a better idea of the community view on this one. Cheers, LeadMagnet

LeadMagnet was (and still is) my online gaming name - I'm absolutely awful at all of those online FPSs and am, therefore, a lead-magnet. MOBMONSABII, on the other hand, is more specifically geared towards geocaching, and describes the moment I realized I was well and truly hooked: "Middle Of Bog, Middle Of Night, Seeking Altoids Box. I'm Insane."

I'm interested in picking the brains of cache reviewers out there... a team of cachers and I recently had a difference of opinion with a reviewer on a topic, and I'd like to get the opinion of the community at large. I'm one of five cachers in five different countries who are working on an interconnected series of multi-caches. Basically, each cache (there are five, one in each country) is comprised of five stages, and the coordinates for each stage after the first are hidden in caches from each of the different countries. The details aren't too important - just that it's understood that in order to find the final stage of any one of the given caches, it requires the cooperation of a cacher in each of the countries. Now - the debate that we had with two of our reviewers was whether or not each of the cachers that worked together to solve the caches should be allowed to log each of the caches (in all of the involved countries), or if they should only be allowed to log the cache in their own country. We (the owners) were of the opinion that, since none of the caches could be solved without the participation of the entire team, everyone should be allowed to log each of the caches - they had a hand in its finding, afterall. However, our reviewers couldn't agree on this point - three of them agree with our logic, while two insist that team members only be allowed to log a find in their own country. They've refused to publish until we concede, so we're going to have to do so even though we disagree. I was just curious to know the opinion of the community at large! Cheers, LeadMagnet (Cambridge, UK)

A quick heads-up. Hopefully this will be fixed soon, but currently any cache I visit has its encrypted hints section appearing twice - and the second time it appears unencrypted! Bad news for cachers who accidentally pick up more information than they expected. Is anyone else seeing this same behaviour? Cheers, LeadMagnet

Apologies for the duplicate posting - I placed this question in the Canadian Geocaching section, but haven't gotten any replies. ------------------------------------------ Looking at the descriptions of Mapsend Streets & Destinations and Mapsend Topo (Canadian versions in both cases), I'm trying to figure out if Mapsend Topo is simply an extension of S & D with additional topographical detail, or if it contains less detail with respect to...well...streets and destinations. Is there information stored in S&D that is *not* included in Topo?

Looking at the descriptions of Mapsend Streets & Destinations and Mapsend Topo (Canadian versions in both cases), I'm trying to figure out if Mapsend Topo is simply an extension of S & D with additional topographical detail, or if it contains less detail with respect to...well...streets and destinations. Is there information stored in S&D that is *not* included in Topo?

I think that one of the most exciting things to come will be seeing how Google combines their mapping software with Keyhole, a satellite imaging company that Google acquired not too long ago. The interfaces and current level of coverage seems to be eerily similar, so I'm fairly excited to see what sort of combination comes about.

Thought some might be interested in a good article written recently for the Vancouver Courier about our fine sport. Being one of the interviewees, I couldn't resist passing the link around a bit: http://www.vancourier.com/issues05/022205/.../022205nn1.html

We got a pair as a gift this past Christmas, and though the novelty may wear off before too long, we've found it incredibly helpful for searches in heavily populated areas. With one watcher on the trail and the other hunting in the woods, it seems to be a more efficient operation. The only unfortunate side effect we've seen so far was when, while a pair of muggles walked by and I casually pretended to tweak my bicycle, my pocket happily and boisterously proclaimed "I FOUND IT!! I FOUND THE CACHE!! WOOO!!!". They looked at me a bit funny. They didn't ask.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any tourism / travel websites that cater to geocachers? I.e. coordinates of tourist attractions, suggested routes for download, etc. I'm prepararing for an upcoming trip to England & France I'm taking in July, and have begun to plug a few waypoints of must-see tourist attractions into my GPSr to create my own personalized tourist route. This got me to thinking that maybe someone has already collected this information and put it online somewhere.

Here's an etiquette question for you folks: My GF and I started caching this past January and have been having a fantastic time. In the beginning, I registered myself on geocaching.com and my identity quickly became our *team* identity. Problem is, she and I are now *both* completely hooked, and she's off in Europe for the Summer and has already purchased a second GPSr to take with her. She's considering registering herself on the site as well, but is wondering if people would take great offence if she went back and logged finds for herself that were originally found by the two of us under our team name. How have other people handled such a situation?

JMBella's got a good point about the addictive quality of this past-time. I only got started at the beginning of this month, and already my life is no longer my own. Why, between doing my own caching, keeping an eye out for new caches in my area, reading logs of other people that visited caches after me, keeping track of travelbugs I've bumped into, putting my two (and sometimes three) cents into the forums, playing with my mapping software and just generally oogling new GPS technology, there are hardly enough hours in the week for anything else. *grin* My GF and I have run into that experience a few times, but after a few minutes of both parties trying their best to look as inconspicuous as possible while wacking away at the local foliage, it becomes pretty obvious as to what's really going on. It's an interesting way to meet new people! In our searches, we've started to use UTM coordinates once close to the target, due to increased accuracy. (Also, it helps a bunch for calculations, as you're already working in meters.) Not sure about the overall efficiency comparison, but I can say it has worked well for us.

I'm still a bit choked about a recent experience... note that this is due in no way to the owner, just unfortunate circumstances: Over the past month, my GF and I have been working our way through a series of ten caches in our area. Contained in each cache were clues which, once assembled, would give the cacher coords to find a final cache with some upscale goodies for trade. So a week ago, we find the final cache, we have all the clues, and we're ready to go. I do one last check online to check the status of the 11th mystery cache.... ...and discover that a development company has clearcut the entire area, as well as fenced it off. A sign indicates that it'll be back open to the public sometime 'round 2007. so, crap.

I agree. Back when Mapquest & Mapblast were running head to head, I always chose the latter. Since Mapblast got picked up by Microsoft, I've continued to find it to be a fairly handy tool for quick direction & location finding. On the home front, I've been using Magellan Mapsend to interface with my GPSr. Decent enough for the basics, I suppose, but fairly lacking in the functionality/customization department. Only one coordinate system format, a frustratingly clumsy distance measurement tool... Something a bit more feature-rich would certainly be welcome. Streets and Trips seems to be a popular choice. Have people had good experiences with that one?

I've been searching around the web in vain for a worked solution of a 2D trilateration problem, which I need to help me solve for a cache location. It's been a while since my math classes, so I'm a bit hazy. I'll copy down what I was able to figure out, and hope someone can help me continue it on! ============ The basic concept is fairly straightforward: Given three points on a plane, P1(x1,y1) , P2(x2,y2), P3(x3,y3) as well as three vectors /d1, /d2, /d3 and the fact that (P1 + /d1) = (P2 + /d2) = (P3 + /d3) = P(x,y) Determine the location of P(x,y). ============ So the general idea is to trace a circle around each of the points.... i) a circle of radius |/d1| around P1, ii) a circle of radius |/d2| around P2, iii) a circle of radius |/d3| around P3 And the one location where all three circles intersect will be P(x,y). ============ The general equation for a circle with origin C(a, and radius r is: (x - a)^2 + (y - ^2 = r^2 Applying this equation to the circles described above, the following three equations for the circles around P1, P2 and P3 can be written out: (x - x1)^2 + (y - y1)^2 = |/d1|^2 (x - x2)^2 + (y - y2)^2 = |/d2|^2 (x - x3)^2 + (y - y3)^2 = |/d3|^2 but this is as far as I got... so I put it out to the forums! How can I contrinue from here to solve for P(x,y)?

Just to throw in a newb's comments: I've only been caching since the start of this month, and while having a great time, it is still evident that there are certain points of caching etiquette that are not always documented extensively. The majority of newbs new to *any* social/group activity want to do their best to learn how the system works so as to participate and not offend, so any time someone takes the time to *politely* point out an error, it is greatly appreciated. No one wants to be set straight by getting an insulting note. I've encountered nothing but helpful and friendly assistance since starting, and it has boosted my desire to participate enormously.

Just when I was starting to see fewer 'LOL's and 'ROTF's coming at me through messenger, I get into geocaching. *grin* Therefore, in an effort to maximize my cache-savvy, I was hoping to start a formal list of 'decodes'. Most of these I think I've been able to figure out properly on my own, but some others I'm not so certain: TNLN = Took Nothing Left Nothing TNLNSL = TNLN + (Saw Lots?) TFTH = (Thanks for the hunt?) FTF = No earthly idea... Those are the ones I've seen so far. Are there others to add to the standard caching dictionary? Based on my personal experiences so far, I might suggest: MOBMONSABII = (Middle of a Bog, Middle of the Night, Seeking an Altoids Box. I'm insane.) - LeadMagnet