Gambrinus & Crew

Thanks, for the link and the info. I had searched in this forum because the question was specific to the NGS, but didn't in the other forum. Live and learn... Thanks again. Interesting reading in the linked thread.

Hi, Rookie needing guidance here.... When doing a mark recovery with the NGS for a found mark, you are prompted for suitability for satellite observations. The message that appears on that screen is as follows: "Generally, a station is suitable for satellite observations if there is a clear and unobstructed view of the sky from approximately 15 degrees above the horizon at the location of the station. Small objects such as a light pole or small tree are excepted." Most often, it's pretty clear that a mark either is or isn't suitable, but in some cases, I've answered that I don't know. Does the description above mean that 360 degrees around the mark needs to be unobstructed from 15 degrees above the horizon and up? Or does it expect some portion of that circle to be unobstructed. I found a bench mark today that was along a 4-lane divided highway. On the side the disk was on, there were trees 100 feet away or so and so that direction would not be considered unobstructed. Across the street, however, there is some kind of construction going on and it's very unobstructed that way. I answered that I didn't know to the prompt in question. What would be the correct answer? Thanks much!

Thanks for all the input, guys. I guess I'll consider my marks available for hunting pool to have just gotten bigger and hunt these marks that the USPS has logged an "opinion" on. Haha! Like OBO266 Harry, the one I found Saturday that had been previously not found was pretty easy to find. It was down in a depression a bit, but it's in a very well-maintained lawn right on a street corner and fits the description perfectly. Maybe that one was a drive by for them. Thanks again!

I'm still a little new to benchmark hunting, having really only gotten into it in the last few months. I was wondering what other hunters do regarding benchmarks that have previously been logged as Not Found. If I'm just running out to hunt some near the office over lunch, or to grab one near a cache I'm hunting, I usually ignore them. But I plotted out all the BM's in an area north of where I live yesterday and went out hunting. I included a couple previously Not Founds in my to-do list and found one that the Power Squadron didn't find in 2004. I was really surprised. I guess I've just figured that if the USPS couldn't find it, surely a wet-behind-the-ears rookie like me wouldn't do otherwise. So, do you usually hunt these Not Founds, and if so, how often do you come up with a different result than the USPS (or whoever) did? Thanks.

Drat19 has been here in Winston-Salem, NC a few times on business and I've become a big fan of his logs, especially the DNF's. Check out his adventure on this 2 star ammo can here in town. He found it a couple days later, but check out the DNF logs on August 24, 2004. Walk in the Park Another fun (at least for me) ordeal of his here in town started on the same day as the one above. Scroll down to August 24, 2004 to begin the fun on this one, too. Keystone Caper Cache

I hid a cache this morning that is in a small park downtown near a huge fountain. There was a man sitting in the park when I got there, and I just acted like my sole reason for being there was to take pictures of the fountain. I took a few shots from one location, moved to another and took a few, moved to another and took a few (and placed the final), moved to another and took a few (and hid the first stage), etc., etc..... He kept checking me out the whole time. I'mo not sure why he was so interested in what I was doing, but he seemed to grow tired of it and left. I think I may use this in the future. It offers a good excuse for going all over an area (to get cool angles for all my photos), and there has to be time for review. It worked out great.

The Washington State Geocaching Association website has some great utilities you can use for this sort of thing. Edited to add, look at the Waypoint Projector under Links and Resources and then under Lat/Lon Conversions and Calculations

Here in the Triad of NC (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, & High Point), the FeatheredFriends did a great series called the Rainbow Dragon's Treasure. It has a prerequisite letterbox with series info, 3 main tough multis and a "final reward" cache. Each of three main caches has a distinct flavor requiring different kinds of caching skills, and each contains clues to a final cache in addition to the swag, etc. It's obvious a lot of hard work went into the whole series and it's great fun!

I'm in NC, too, and the poison ivy here is really bad this time of year. I doubt that most folks intentionally put it in the stuff. More often than not, caches in PI were probably hidden in colder months when there was nothing in the area. I had to check on a couple of my caches recently that were hidden in a cooler time of the year when there was nothing there, but right now it is pretty bad in some of those areas. I had to update the cache page attributes for it. I got it really bad a few times last year, mostly because I just threw caution to the wind and didn't take precautions at all. I still go out and shorts and will stomp around in it, but carry water and paper towels specifically for the post-cache rinse off I always do now once I'm clear of the nasty stuff. It doesn't take care of it 100%, but that little rinse off has cut my reaction down to just a few spots now and again.

Nice work on the log! I found a stage of a cache one time like that. Took my sister and brother-in-law so they could hunt it later on. While hunting it, my brother-in-law actually picked the thing up 3 times (that one had a branch sticking out the side making it easy to pick up with one hand) before he realized that it was strange to see that perfectly sawed end out there in the woods.

Is the rock on the ground fake?

I have a CD exchange cache (The Jukebox) and a DVD exchange cache (The Disk Exchange). They're really only "only " caches in the sense that I loaded them to begin with with one type of item. Some folks have left other things and that's fine. I encourage people to return to trade whenever they want to, but as far as I know, nobody has actually gone back just to trade, so they aren't terribly popular for that purpose.

This one was apparently intentionally burned between hide and FTF. The first finders found it burned up (they posted pictures in their log). The hider rehid somewhere nearby and it has survived so far (not 2 months yet).

I enjoyed the show, DeltaDawg (and the first one, too). Keep up the good work. Good guest for this one! I live in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC area and have enjoyed drat19's contributions to our local cache logs when he's been in town for work. You'll never find a "Found it, TNLN TFTH in one of his logs. His logs allow you to vicariously experience the hunt with him (complete with bee nests, lost GPSr's, unexpected baths, and the like). You could probably get a full show just out of DNF stories from him. He's one person who really knows how to experience geocaching to it's fullest and is kind enough to share it all in his logs. Looking forward to future shows.

Brian, aside from the obvious, being parks, how do you find out what land is public? I've often wondered this. There are tons of wooded areas around here that aren't parks, but I don't know how to find out if they're public land or privately owned. Thanks.

Hi El Diablo, I'm a geek, but web site dev isn't my area of expertise (wait, saying that suggests that I have one... hmmm....). Anyway, I'm no webmaster, but wanted to let you know Id be interested in the site. Gambrinus

I was glad to see this thread this morning. I've always wondered what constituted "private" property. Obviously, someone's yard is their private property, but there are lots of caches on commercial property (lampposts in parking lots, land in business parks, patches of woods near malls, etc.) and that is owned by someone other than the city, county, or state, too. As such, it is private property. Given how many of these types of caches exist, I always just assumed that "private", as GC.com defines it, refers to land owned by private citizens. Now that you refer to the ATM as private property, I don't get it. So what exactly does GC.com consider to be "private" property? Thanks for edumacating me, Gambrinus

Hi Rusty, We went camping last July 4th up near Spruce Pine. I didn't get to do near as many as I would have like to and didn't do any that were major physical challenges, but Cool Dip and Cave Too is a nice change of pace for a location. Mossy Rock was a nice location, although it was foggy as can be and rainy the day we were there. We also wanted to do, which according to the logs is a great spot. But the wife and I got very sick the last day and it was all we could do to break camp and get home. Another intriguing looking one (I think it was disabled when we went camping) is Great Big Hole in the Enchanted Mountains. Have fun up there. Looking forward to going back!

I don't think it's that you question was lost on some folks. Every topic get analyzed to death from every angle in the forums and that's what occurred here. That said, I don't really understand the perspective that you don't mind paying to get in for the day trip (presumably hiking, picnicing, etc...) or camping but do for caching. 4x4van made this great point: "Nothing is free. You spent money to purchase a GPSr. You buy batteries for that GPSr. Maybe you also carry other equipment with you when you cache. You purchased SWAG for trading. You spend gas money to drive to the cache area. What about lunch? How about the monthly fee for your internet connection to access this website?" I laughed when I first read the topic and thought about all the cash I spend hunting these boxes full of junk in the woods. Gas alone these days blows away the $2-$4 I might spend to get into a local park to cache not to mention all the other stuff 4x4 mentioned. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but between hunting and hiding, I end up spending a pretty decent amount of money on this hobby. My wife probably wishes I would play golf instead.

I disagree. I don't think the fact that one is for-profit and one is not is really the basis of the analogy. The basis of the analogy seems, to me at least, to be that both services can be either used for free or said users can support the organizations through membership. Regardless of whether Groundspeak is for-profit or not, anyone can still use the service for free, just like NPR. I prefer to pay the small fee and support the service, however. I've wasted more than the yearly fee that I paid for this service in restaurants on less-than-satisfying dinners plenty of times.

Thanks for the info!

Just curious... I have two caches that I hid on 10-7, but when I click on the "Geocaching.com Maps" link on their pages or on the pages of nearby caches, these two don't appear on the maps. They will show up if I select Identify, but with the normal icons showing, they don't appear. Is it that they haven't been found yet? Do they need to be in order to show up? Thanks!

Drat19 was in town for business recently and hunted a lot of our local caches. He had some of the most entertaining logs I've seen on local caches. He had quite an adventure when hunting A Walk In the Park.

Since you've moved it and already modified the cache page, try adding a reviewer note to the page. I think the reviewer will be notified once the reviewer note is on the page and they can check it out again. Good luck!

I returned to one last night to grab some TB's I will be moving toward their goal on Thursday in another state. I found the cache completely exposed (it is in an area that is prone to flooding) and I got a nice email from the owner thanking me for visiting it and rehiding it. Our guess is that recent rains have compromised its hiding location. I don't revisit often and don't go back to trade swag but if I can help a TB along to its goal, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.