Team Rampant Lion

Congratulations. Keep on hunting!

Congratulations! Keep on hunting!

Congratulations! Keep on hunting (and hiding)!

Congratulations! Keep on hunting.

Congratulations! Keep on hunting.

Great job geobernd! I see all the bear conditioning you had from visiting my caches has paid off. Although walking away with a bear's dinner takes some big cahunas. Keep up the good work!

What is your level of skill and your bike type? If you are a confident rider and have at least front suspension, I would recommend doing Ay Caramba as a good ride. There are also a number of caches in Kitattinny State Park that are along decent singletrack trails. I'll see if I can put a list together for you for northern NJ as I bike a lot in the area.

Congratulations! Keep on hunting!

Here are the hikes planned for the day: Geocaching Hike #1 Geocaching Hike #2 Geocaching Hike #3 If you haven't done any of these, come on out and join us! 10:45 AM use coordinates for Ryker Lake "Bridge In" for the starting point.

Nope. The waters didn't get that high up here and it was under a very sizable rock. Could it have washed down? No, you may remember the historic flood Sparta had in 2000. They built up the banks of this stream to handle that type of flow and more. It would have had to come up and over the top to reach the cache and then have enough momentum to move the rock and cache. I came by the day of all the flooding in NJ and it was nowhere near the top. I retrived the cache this morning. It was about 0.2 miles from the hiding place behind a large rock across from the parking lot. I have a feeling someone thought about taking it, got to the parking lot and likely saw other people there so just abandoned it.

Bumping this one up as we are about a week away. Also need to do a roll call to see who can still help out. Thanks, TRL

Nope. The waters didn't get that high up here and it was under a very sizable rock.

Got a note from a trusted cacher that this one was now not in it's hiding place but out in the open in the parking lot! Unfortunately, I have to archive it as someone clearly has decided to mess with it.

On May 20th in Sparta, NJ there will be a Sparta Mountain Day event where a number of us will be teaching people about geocaching and then taking them on hike. Should be a significant group of people in a very interesting terrain area. Feel free to join us.

I have had critters move (and outright eat) some of my caches. But I can't blame them for moving a four foot tall, 14 inch wide, 8 inch deep, 20 pound metal cache hidden under a log.

And the first bear sighting of the 2007 season goes to... Harry Dolphin!

Yes, it's gone. I had just bought two more lacrosse sticks to stick in it as a prize too. Well, now those are underneath the Buttcracker Suite cache as they were too big to go in it. These are a great prize for kids so I hope someone with a family gets them.

Hmmm...well I did cut that one guy off on Rt 80. But no I don't think so. It could be a number of things so I won't point fingers. I have taken a number of groups of kids from Sparta up around Sparta Glen to show them how geocaching works (as I know has some others), there are a fair amount of muggles in the area and there are some illegal hunters who sneak around the area. So rather than speculate, I am asking others to give a hand in keeping the caches well hidden. If it seems out of place (per the clue) or is out in the open, please rehide well and drop me a note. I did check on The Motherload today and it is gone. I sent a number of "I regret to inform you thet your TB is gone notes". Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a similar container for sale to replace (not that my wife minds as the cache cost me $5 to purchase but $35 to ship when I bought it). So I archived the cache.

Recently, I have been getting a number of logged visits to different caches I own that include a reference to the cache "sitting out in the open". I was recently out hiking with my family in the Sparta Glen area and as we were walking alongside the river could see from a distance that my Sparta White Water cache was just sitting on top of the rock it was supposed to be under. Further up the hill, the Buttcracker Suite was also out in the open. I got a note yesterday suggesting The Motherload cache in the same area was gone. While this may be a completely unrelated event, it is very frustrating. I want to remind everyone how important it is to take the time to hide the cache just as you found it. As a cache owner of just a few, I also wanted to say that I never hide my caches out in the open so if you find it very visible please rehide where you think it ought to go and then drop me a note so I can check. Putting together a cache, finding a hide spot, getting permission and placing caches takes time, effort and investment. I enjoy doing it so if you could help with a little "Neighborhood Watch" attention, I sure would appreciate it. Anyone else having this issue in NJ?

Excellent! I have not yet met with the host as he is on vacation and I have been swamped at work. But hope to get all the details within the next week or two. I will be available and could lend my motor home to the event as a "geocaching command post". If you want to make a day of it, I have my camp stove and would be glad to cook up some food for the helpers if everyone contributes a bit. I no longer have an aircard for broadband available but if anyone else does and there is reception I can set up a mac or two and even create a hotspot to access gc's website. I also can do a paperless caching demo with my Treo700 is you think its appropriate and not to far over the heads of the attendees. Lastly, I think you should make this an event cache! Just a thought. Actually, I did try to make it an event cache but the way I wrote it up did not qualify. Because the event itself (Sparta Mountain Day) is not uniquely for geocachers it didn't fit. I was thinking of resubmitting an event cache at a new bar in Sparta (about 10 minutes away) to follow the Sparta Mountain Day. I would buy a beer for anyone who helped but anyone could join us. Let me ask the host about the motor home idea. I don't know if you've been to Rykers Lake area but the road back there might be a challenge depending on the size of your vehicle. You would probably need to be there real early to get a decent spot as they are suggesting several hundred attendees. I don't know where they are going to put them all anyway. But I do like the idea. I will keep you posted.

Congratulations! Keep on hunting!

Excellent! I have not yet met with the host as he is on vacation and I have been swamped at work. But hope to get all the details within the next week or two.

Awesome idea. I don't have a canoe or kayak but I do have a sailboat depending on the lake.

Solar Bursts threaten GPS system.

Here is the link to a newspaper story.