geodarts

Although there are other problems with the situation the OP describes, I agree that logging only an earthcache and not any traditionals is far from unusual. I have logged only a single earthcache in a couple of states and there are countries where I have found only earthcaches or virtuals. I don't know how many times - including today - where I have seen other logs refer to nearby traditionals that I had no idea were there. I don't know how many times I knew about traditionals near earthcaches but had no reason to search for them.

The GSA Earthcache Guidelines appear to be more restrictive: "All requests for photographs must be optional." Which guideline applies?

We were in the Mojave to visit the Cow Cove petroglyphs, and found ourselves close enough to detour to D is for Desert Phone Booth. We followed a sandy/rocky road seemingly in the middle of nowhere, to track down the legendary site. On the way back, the sun was setting and the desert sky became alive with color.

Of particular interest may be not simply whether a device has Galileo support, but if it uses dual frequency. The Broadcom BCM47755 chip, introduced last year, is "a dual-frequency (E1/L1+E5/L5) GNSS chip that can compute location with an accuracy of up to a few decimetres.…". I The Mi8 and other devices are beginning to use this. Other manufacturers are introducing competing dual frequency technology. This article is way beyond my technical expertise but seems to be a good discussion about dual frequency implementation.

Teakettle Junction took us to the Devils Racetrack, where the rocks move on the Death Valley playa, and the Lost Burro Mine.

What is the cliche about generalizations? I am not particularly interested in caching stats. I can't think of the last time I looked at them. But I have found over 200 challenges - less so since the post moratorium rules affected some of the challenges I like the best - and have a unfound list with many more on it. I was just thinking of doing a search for challenges, but for reasons that have more to do with potential logs than potential stats.

I suppose burn out is a factor for me. My numbers have dropped considerably each year I don't pay attention to most traditional caches, multis, and mysteries. I no longer will cache just to cache and quickly get bored with the search. But I don't get burned out with locations or adventures - a cache might be fun if it is part of a nice hike or kayak. I will look to see if there is a cache near places we want to visit for reasons that go beyond this game. Virtuals and earthcaches often are all that I need and I have not gotten burned out with them.

Seeing Hippos at the Saint Lucia Wetlands is not difficult. When arrived we heard them for most of the night - the next day they were resting in the wetlands before heading back to town, where they walk the streets.

Kha'zali Canyon in the Wadi Rum desert of a Jordan:

I wouldn't say I went to Kruger National Park to cache - the earthcaches and virtuals there were a bonus. But we saw the Big 5 and were able to include this game as part of our experience.

I just came upon this thread after being on an extended trip during the past 30 days. The guidelines seem clear to me - once you send the answers you can log the earth cache on as a find. So I have always felt that sending the answers is a necessary part of the process before a find log is submitted. It is what constitutes a find. This procedure makes it simple for me as both an earthcache finder and owner. As a finder, I have always believed that if I can post an online log I shouod be able to send my answers first. I logged over 50 earthcaches and virtuals during our recent trip, which covered three countries, often with limited or no internet. If I lacked internet, then I wrote the answers using the note app on my phone or tablet so I could send them when I had wifi access, before logging the find. Some earthcaches expressly required online research, but it was still easier to follow the guidelines so I could keep track of what needed to be done with each cache. I have never considered this procedure to be onerous. I think it's fair and considerate to the EC owner to do it this way. The only problem I have ever had with it was on another trip when it took me 7 - 10 days to post some find logs after I sent in my answers. An EC owner contacted me, I forwarded the answers I had already sent and it all worked well. As an earthcache owner, I have always asked people to send their answers before logging the find so I do not have to manage whether the logging has been completed. Usually people do that within a day or two, but going significantly beyond that makes management more complicated. Waiting 10 ten days or longer to receive a log poses a burden that the guidelines (as written) does not contemplate. My practice has been to contact a person if the logging answers are not received within a few days after I have read their log. I ask that they send the logging answers within the next few days. If they are a new earthcacher I may take the time to explain the importance of the logging requirement in greater detail. If it appears that a person might be traveling I ask that they let me know if there is any reason why they cannot send the logging questions. I hate to delete a log, so before doing that I encourage people to relog the cache as a find if it is more convenient to send me the answers later. I try to do this within a reasonable period of time because if i wait too long before contacting a cacher, then I think it's unfair to them because the recollection of my earthcache will be that much further removed. This thread posed some concerns because if the current policy is to extend the logging requirement out to an undefined time, I would have to evaluate whether I wanted to have the additional buden that such a policy imposes. But I'll interpret it to mean that the guidelines still stand as written but earthcache owners should err on the side of graciousness. I have no problem with that.

I tried to like Cachly. It just didn't click with me. There were things like the color scheme that i did not like (earthcaches should have brown pins) and substantive things that I use in Geosphere that Cachly did not support. So I kept my iPhone 6 on iOS 10 to run Geosphere for as long as I can. I have looking4cache on the iPhone as well but have a rugged Android with apps that meet my needs almost as well as Geosphere - Locus in particular. I find myself using that more often and turning to that on my current trip.

I agree that some opt in might have been helpful even if it led to disappointment. There was disappointment in any event with how the rewards were distributed. Perhaps it could be reduced by not by not making it a "reward." Is someone with a dozen hides, relatively few favorite points, and only one or two virtuals found, a better choice for a virtual "reward" than others? Even among those who were selected and published virtuals, I was surprised by how many I saw who seemingly had little or no experience with virtuals. Interest in virtuals and a desire to extend the game through them might be a good starting point. Opting in might be one way of getting there.

The Solar System -Sol at the Grouse Ridge lookout tower has got to have one of the best outhouses in California- unless you were using it at 2:00 am and stumbling around.

The Machado Postpile is 13 million years old - it was more than ancient when Devils Postpile was formed. It is an amazing experience to stand on them and contemplate their age. But the story of its discovery is what intrigued me when we were kayaking and camping at Silver Lake in El Dorado County, California. Jesse Machado discovered them in 1934 but kept them secret for decades - either to protect them or because he was antisocial. Eventually he told the forest service but they could not find them and refused to believe him. It was not until the early 1990s that a hiking couple confirmed his discovery. Today there is a route to the pinnacles marked by cairns, but we met people on the way back who had followed other cairns and were still only 2/3 of the way after 2.5 hours. Not all ducks are equally helpful. If you plan to go there watch a YouTube video by Lisa Michelle.

Several years ago a friend set out to cache all 50 states and used a similar route to this as a guide - although I think he based his trip on a two week itinerary that someone had done. Five days seems pushing it: https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-08-15/how-to-see-48-us-states-in-5-days The 30 day routes might seem mote reasonable but to me there would be so much to see and do that 300 might be more realistic.

I live a fairly safe existence. So far I've been able to keep my kayak stable but my wife capsized hers when she reached out to grab a cache container that had fallen from the end of my 20 foot pole. The waters were calm and I got her into the kayak (and eventually the container back in place) but the domestic ramifications were scary. I was glad I was carrying a hand pump. Other than that, there have been brief moments. I was coming back down after finding a cache near the top of Huayana Picchu when rains came in sooner than expected. I slipped on a steep rocky trail -- my hiking stick prevented me from falling. I paused to look down as the chasm where I would have otherwise been heading and realized the trip might have had a different ending. Then I was bushwhacking with friends in search of a series of caches in a very remote overgrown location, on a hike that had already taken its toll, before we even had to climb out of the canyon. I ended up with a piece of wood in my eye. Missed something more serious by that much, but my initial thought was more dramatic. Sometimes its just that initial thought. I was biking slowly uphill, after finding a cache, when a wild turkey came directly for my head. It surprised me and I went over the handlebars when the turkey declared victory and turned back. But there was that moment, when things seemed like they were in slow motion, where I wondered what was coming. My cut and scraped face looked worse than it was. I had a similar thought when a tree branch broke beneath me when I was climbing in search of a cache. But by and large, caching has been pretty safe. Even property owners have been nice when I have looked for caches that turned out to be on their property without permission.

Our main goal was the Sky Rock and 13 Moons petroglyph sites - finding those panels fulfilled a long held ambition - but in the same general area (volcanic tablelands near Bishop) was Noahs Ark.

Micros may be less forgiving in terms of maintenance, but they are easier to place. I have a friend who places micros because they are easier to carry to remote locations or trees. The same is probably true of most hides. How many ammo-can-in-the- woods cachers are there these days? It does not bother me that much. Some places are appropriate for micros, some for ammo boxes. But is the result that much different? If I am in a particular location that I want to visit apart from caching and there is a micro nearby, I'll look for it. I just won't look very hard. For me, the full experience does not lie in the container or the search - those usually are the least interesting things about this game. If you can't interest me in the location - or give me some reason to log the cache - I probably will not bother to look for a container. It makes this game much simpler. But then perhaps I am one of the few who believes that there are around 2 million caches too many. Whether they are micros or small is not the key factor.

In other words to what I wrote above, the situation here contrasted with other types of risks presented by this game. If there is a cache on top of a tree, I know my abilities and can easily determine if climbing is something I want to do - there is a conscious choice to do it or not. The risk assessment is up to me. The same thing applies if a cache is up a steep cliff, involves traversing white water, or any number of situations where the risk is clear and can be measured directly against my skills. A storm drain is a bit different. It can seem perfectly safe when you enter. It is not a location that many people have dealt with before and the risks may be hidden. Those types of location may require added cautionary descriptions. It's easy to say in hindsight that I should have checked the weather and not entered under certain conditions. But if I obtained permission and placed a cache in that type of location I would at least feel better if I gave an explicit warning about the hidden dangers people may face, For that reason, even in my kayak caches I note when the cache was placed and state that people should consult tide tables to avoid either strong currents or being stuck in the mud, It should be obvious, but more information is better.

The storm was described as being massive and torrential, I assume that there were predictions of rain. And a storm drain or sewer is not the place to be found if rain is at all predicted. But it see no reason to condemn them for lack of ability - any more than I would condemn Rebecca Bunting for being in a storm drain in Philadelphia - or for that matter the kayakers I referred to earlier who did not update the weather predictions and did not have wet or dry suits. There are lessons to be learned from each story but condemnation is not one of them There have been times when I have felt cache owners carry some measure of responsibility- the cache placed on private property that led to cachers being assaulted by the property owner may have been an unforseeable result but it was not unavoidable. Here, assuming the cache was placed with whatever permission might be required (and it's hard to see how some permission would not be required), then the situation may have been foreseeable, even without being a proximate cause. The popularity of going into such places means that people will not necessarily have the knowledge to calculate the risks involved - although I do not know if that was the situation here since mistakes can happen in any event. The information in the article I quoted earlier should be required reading on both the explicit and hidden dangers of draining. Yes, anybody going there should know that draining is dangerous and should not be done without having the maturity and responsibility to do it. They should know not to enter a drain if there is any chance of rain. But unfortunately if there is a cache listing, people may try to find the cache without knowing enough to make this assesment. That might be where the real danger lies. I do not know what the cache listing stated. But in some situations even a general disclaimer that the cache could be dangerous may not be enough. The cachers that are drawn to a listing come from many different backgrounds and have many different levels of experience. We are inviting people to go to particular areas. Be clear about what those areas might entail.

I have been in storm drains - both for caching and exploration - although these days I am less likely to go there since there are other locations I like better. Cachers are not the only recent deaths in a storm drain. Things can happen. Situations in a drain can quickly magnify, although i have been in other areas where flash floods could pose a risk - and where I found some of my favorite caches. For that matter, I was caching last week in an area that is generally safe, but where people have died kayaking because the weather changed on them. I hiked in when a kayaking guide believed that conditions on the water could change before we got back. The urbanex motto is if it rains don't go into the drain and to pay careful attention to the weather. Legality is is a complicated question. One urbanex site says, draining is inherently dangerous and is illegal in most places - although there may be good reasons for going there. Even mainstream publications have recognized that storm drains are "regularly explored" by photographers even in areas where all of them are "off limits." Are there ordinances, is the drain posted, who owns the drain? Although civil trespass usually involves being someplace without permission, laws vary greatly by state and country (particularly for criminal trespass). Assuming that a CO is not responsible for the risks people take in finding a cache, responsibility for placement is not a simple matter. Even if you can enter a drain, permission might be needed to leave something there - if interpreted broadly there may be ordinances that prohibit anything left in drains. And since private property owners in my state have been held liable for storm drain maintenance that passes under their property, perhaps there are issues there as well. At least one country banned an urbanex web site for promoting activities that pose a risk to public safety or the infrastructure. While that is an extreme reaction (although perhaps no different than bans on guard rail hides), there are considerations that might require more than a disclaimer on the cache page.

I don't think anyone would want unfettered virtuals. But a single virtual as a premium member perk (even one given after reaching a five year status) would not be unfettered - especially if they were subject to distance or location restrictions. Use them to celebrate national parks, world heritage sites, and the like. A 1,000,000 virtual cache power trail is a more of a worst-case dream than anything that might be contemplated.

We set up camp at a Harris Beach in a Oregon and then went for a panoramic view at Alien Artifax before a storm came through. There was something unworldly about what we saw . . . just a matter of timing.

There we were. Driving on the beach because life's a beach, then you erode. We came across this minutes after we were wondering why we had not seen an eagle on this trip.