Skip_
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Posts posted by Skip_
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By definition 1 degree is 1 nautical mile (about 6080 feet or 1.15 regular miles). Of course that's 1 degree north/south. If youre wanting to know east/west then you have to multiply by the cosine of your latitude. And if youre wanting to know at a random direction then Pathagoreas is necessary.
I really hate to nitpick, but if this were the case that would mean the distance from the north to south poles along the curve of the earth at sea level would be 180nm. One minute of latitude is one nm. With 60 minutes in one degree, that places the distance travelled between poles along the curve of the earth at sea level at a far more respectable 10,800nm.
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Skip's Private Strip:
Come visit my private air strip in my "back yard". The cache is located behind my hangar where my RV-7 (or maybe 8) is. See New York sectional for more detail. The runway is grass and 2000' long. Please call ahead to let me know you're coming. Geocaching pilots who call ahead as requested and understand they are using my private runway at their own risk have my permission to land.
Yeah, I can't even afford flying lessons, never mind anything like that. It's fun to dream sometimes though.
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There aren't a ton of PMO caches out there apparently, judging from my area and the areas that others have previously posted on this thread. What a cache owner wants to do in regards to access to their cache is ultimately up to them. They took time to plan the cache, money for the container and its contents and placed it out there. It's their baby. They didn't have to hide a cache at all.
In terms of FTF, yeah a premium member has an advantage no matter what. To the OP, if you haven't got the money or parental permission to send said money in for a premium membership I'm guessing you don't have a car that you can drive so you can get to a trail head at sunrise or maybe earlier in order to find a cache first, not to mention parental permission for such if it happens to be within walking or biking distance. FTF can be a fun thing to go for from time to time, but finding the cache itself, whether you're first, second, third or three hundredth to find is what it's really all about. Have fun and live for the hunt. There are plenty of caches out there for you to find. Count yourself lucky to have a great activity that you enjoy to do. Go out and have some fun. <old man voice>Why back in my day, there was no geocaching. When I was a kid I had to walk in the woods without ammo cans and Tupperware to find! Uphill both ways! With no shoes!</old man voice>
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After my old Wal Mart special boots went from being waterproof to water-resistant to completely porous, I went out and got a pair of LL Bean Gore-Tex Mountain Treads with a mid cut ankle. I tried them out in their new store in Burlington, MA and was hooked. They're comfortable, are waterproof as claimed (Springtime in New England tests that big time,) and they have excellent traction. Feet do differ though, so someone else's mileage may vary.
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I first heard about geocaching on an online forum. I immediately thought it sounded interesting, but didn't have a GPSr, so I wasn't able to immediately participate due to the fact I needed money to get one and had been unemployed and under-employed and couldn't spend the money right away.
A while later at my job there was a sales incentive points program and one of the items I could get was a Magellan SporTrek Map. I saved my points and got my new toy, and the rest was history. My first find was on Easter of '04.
I also used points from sales incentives to get my current unit, a Garmin GPS V. It's a little dated, but does what needs doing and I still haven't paid for a GPSr yet. My next upgrade will probably be cash though, since I'm no longer at that job.
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The problem with the first statement is that most "vacation" caches don't have a cacher to take care of them. The vacationers slips them through by telling the review that so-and-so will take care of it. The fact is so-and-so doesn't exist or was never contacted. That's why we (the local cachers) end up have to take care of the problems.
Well any problems with a nonexistant local maintainer could probably be taken care of by the reviewer sending off a quick email to them to confirm that they did agree I'd think.
As to the vacation cache issue as a whole, I really wouldn't want to hide a cache in a far off land I'd never or rarely see again. Maintaining my cache is a pleasure for me. I go several times a year to check up on it, read the physical logs, etc. However, at what distance would a cache be considered a vacation cache? It can't be based on just in the state you're from because you could live close to a border or in a small state in general. I can get to any state in New England if I drive for a couple hours in the right direction.
I guess in general flexible guidelines are better than iron shackles. Some people may have vacation homes they visit regularly or something. I guess my philosophy on cache placement isn't just to place a cache to bump up my number of hides, but putting something of value that takes someone someplace interesting. However, then you get into the whole "What constitutes a quality cache?" debate if you say that someone can only hide good vacation caches. Whose idea of good do you use? I don't understand why anyone would want to hide one, but I can't seem to think of a good reason for an outright ban if there's a legitimate plan, including verified help from a local cacher, for maintaining the cache properly.
All that said, if I were a thousand miles away and thought I found a great spot for a cache, I'd probably take a waypoint and suggest the location as a potentially good place for a cache to a local cacher who could take proper care of it and get credit for the hide.
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I have 19 DNF's and 94 finds. Sometimes my DNF logs can be far more amusing than some of my found it logs. I do wish you could look at someone's DNF's as well as finds in their account. I'm not ashamed of mine, in fact I like them. For me it's not really about numbers or anything, just about the experience and DNF's are an integral part of my geocaching experience.
As far as statistics, the 19 DNF's and 94 finds add up to 113 attempts. That gives me a find percentage of 83.19%.
Here are a couple recent DNF logs of mine that I think are pretty amusing:
If they add their DNF's to a public bookmark list, you can see them. Mine are visible in my profile.
That's a good workaround for those of us who want to make them available. Thanks for the tip!
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I have 19 DNF's and 94 finds. Sometimes my DNF logs can be far more amusing than some of my found it logs. I do wish you could look at someone's DNF's as well as finds in their account. I'm not ashamed of mine, in fact I like them. For me it's not really about numbers or anything, just about the experience and DNF's are an integral part of my geocaching experience.
As far as statistics, the 19 DNF's and 94 finds add up to 113 attempts. That gives me a find percentage of 83.19%.
Here are a couple recent DNF logs of mine that I think are pretty amusing:
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When I was about 10 I got poison ivy, oak and/or sumac all over my body after some was burned in a campfire. Luckily it was all external, but still not fun. I had a course of steroids to treat it and found out I had a sensitivity to calamine lotion. It made my skin burn. It was so bad that I was getting a recurring case of it every year for several years, but after that I've never had it again even though I'm had some encounters that would have likely given it to me. For treatment of the milder recurring cases I had luck with using witch hazel, as well as rubbing crushed jewel weed. I just crushed the leaves and stem and rubbed it on the rash.
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Too bad it's not in a desert. Then people could say, "I went through the desert for a cache with no name."
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We always log our DNFs for the exact same reason we log our finds-- it's an experience we had and we ant to document it! GC.com offers a such a great service by allowing you to list the caches you've logged by Found, Didn't Find, Wrote Note, etc.... by not logging DNFs you're not getting the benefit of your membership.
Also, logging DNFs helps other cachers!
You can see our DNF milestones in our profile
Sure you may intend to come back tomorrow for another search but for now, you didnt find the cache. You ran out of gas while on your way to the cache site and never made it, did you find the cache, NOPE. The cache was surrounded by poison ivy so you chose not to grab it, hhmmm NO FIND! You can come up with a ton of reasons why you didn't find a cache. They can be very good reasons too, but the fact still remains,,, you didn't find the cache!
DNF = Did Not Find
It's not a hard concept to grasp and it's certainly not a bad mark on your geocaching report card. Log the DNF when this happens!
You both looked at my All Of The Cool Cachers Log DNF's Here, but didn't log a DNF. Who cares if you live zillions of miles away and haven't found the time to drive up to Oregon to find it? You didn't find the cache!
(You KNOW I'm just playing & joking, right? It would still be cool to see some more out-of-state DNFs on my cache, though...)
Woo! Just logged a DNF on your cache! Hopefully nobody gets on my case for padding my DNF count though. Despite what anyone might say about me, it's not all about the frownies.
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If I'm out caching I may or may not be carrying a Walther P-99 9mm loaded with Federal expanding full metal jacket rounds.
Also I may or may not be carrying pepper spray. A good 3" folder too.
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I'm going to guess that next to a hawk's nest isn't a good place to put your next cache. I've never heard of anything like that happening to anyone, but I can't imagine a hawk would attack you unless you were dangerously close to its nest.
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I've found several cemetary caches and all were done in a tasteful and respectful manner. I don't see a problem with them, especially in older cemetaries. If not for this one bringing people in, there would be little to no visitors aside from those doing the groundskeeping and the volunteers replacing the flags. Without it, who would be reminded that there were two little boys who died two days after Christmas in 1817? Their parents carried on for decades and were eventually laid to rest next to them. There are just so many touching and compelling stories to be found. Although we may not know all the details, finding just what we can from the stones in a cemetary helps carry the memory of those who lived before us, and helps bring us closer to our own humanity.
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Just thought this would be funny:
Hi, the name's Skip! *shaking hand vigorously and not stopping throughout* I'm just scouting some outdoor locations for my latest project. You look like the sort of person that wants to be in pictures! How would you like me to make you a star? You'd be perfect! I'm in room 307 over in the Sheraton. Why don't you come by and meet me in the lounge at about 8ish and we'll talk! You could be bigger than big! What do you say?
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I think there are a lot of cache owners who just don't "get it" when it comes to hints. They think their hide is either too easy, or that giving a hint is cheating, or that the fun thing to do is just be cutesy ("no hint needed" types). The way I see it, the hint does more than give a cacher another clue as to where to look.
1. If the area is full of muggles, a hint prevents seekers from looking too obvious and giving away the fact that there's a cache hidden there (this is about the only time when I will look at a hint without searching).
2. If the cache is gone, a hint enables other cachers to confirm that for you and might save you a trip to check on it.
3. If the cache is found lying on the ground the hint can provide finders with the information they need to replace it correctly. This would have been a great help to me a couple weeks ago, but when the hint was decoded I discovered it was in French. Thanks.
That's just three. There have got to be more reasons to actually use the hint feature. Anyone? Anyone?
Bret
Because I want my cache to be found. I'm not playing stump the finder.
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At the top of a hill, you take a quick drink of water before continuing on your journey ... at the top of a mountain, you sit yourself down on the nearest rock, catch your breath, drink your water, and wish you were in better shape ....
Wow. There must be a ton of mountains out there then.
I'm really in horrible shape right now. -
Spring and fall are my favorite times to go out caching. The weather is neither too hot, nor too cold. I've always liked New England woods in the fall, and the spring is really good too. Spring is probably the best time for waterfalls. Winter's nice for them too when they're all frozen, but I don't much like trudging too far in the cold and snow.
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I don't really live in an area that's inundated with parking lot micros, but I really don't seem to see the huge deal. That's not to say I'd go seek them out if they were here. Maybe I'd do so once in a while opportunistically, but it's not my preference by a long shot.
I started to geocache for the experience of finding new, interesting places in the outdoors. I'm not someone who really likes to look for a woodland micro cleverly disguised as a pine cone in the middle of a coniferous forest, although as a stage in a multi with a regular sized cache at the end it wouldn't be as bad. I just tend to avoid caches that don't seem like they'd interest me. There's even an "Ignore This Listing" option on cache pages so you can permanently disregard lame micros, puzzle caches that you have no desire to try and solve, etc.
As far as the argument that a parking lot micro would make a full sized cache nearby impossible, I just don't see it happening and have seen no examples of thwarted attempts to do so. A shopping center parking lot isn't all that interesting a destination in the first place and the size of a container wouldn't make a cache there more or less desirable for me. If there's an interesting park nearby I'm quite sure a place could be found in it that's more than 528 feet away.
I don't like to hide caches just for the sake of hiding them. I want them to take the finder somewhere that I find interesting. That's why I only have one hide. I like to put some thought into it.
In terms of comparing stats, which seems to be something that some people can't seem to get away from, there really is no way to compare stats apples to apples no matter what you do. A 21 part 5/5 multi will get you 1 find. A 2/2 regular a mile or two into the woods will get you 1 find. A lame micro will get you... 1 find! That sort of disparity existed before the proliferation of micros in some areas, due to the differences in various caches. The experience, the difficulty, the enjoyment are all intangibles that aren't quantified, and can't possibly be quantified, in the stats. Each cache that you find and is listed on gc.com is a find as far as stats are concerned.
If some people think that driving around all day and finding as many film canisters stuck in parking lot light poles is fun, let them have it. I can't say I'd probably be joining in, since that's not what I do this for. I don't think that could possibly compare to this, this, or this.
I may finally get to 100 by the end of the year. I may not. What I do know, is whatever caches I find along the way will be enjoyable to me, and that's what really matters.
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My favorite things to take that I never have to bring leftovers home.... Hash brown casserole (very easy and is always a bit hit) and Rice Krispies treats - who doesn't love those?????
If you make Rice Krispies treats, be sure to add mini chocolate chips to the mix.
For all us chocolate, geocaching lovers.
If you're going to do that, might as well just go all out and make them with Cocoa Krispies too.
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I know from the topic this seems like it's off topic and silly, well I assure you it's only the latter.
I'm planning on going to go to an event in my area that is being presented as a pot-luck. Everyone's supposed to bring things if they can, but I'm pretty stumped on what to bring. Chips and drinks have been covered, and I wouldn't mind actually doing some cooking.
So, after a long day of caching what would you guys want to eat? Thanks in advance for ideas.
Meaty lasagna is always good. At least that's my opinion. And since you asked for it, there you have it!
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There's one stat game I still play, that until now I THOUGHT one could only play legitimately: The "states cached" game. I've cached 39 states, DC, and 4 Canadian provinces. Traveled to and found a cache (or several) in every single one of 'em. I'm proud of that accomplishment, I've driven literally hundreds of miles out of my way to get some of my states, and I'm working toward also getting the rest of the "gaps" in my map. I'm proud of my fellow Mississippian DavidMac for achieving the 50-state milestone this weekend.
Could it be that some folks are now finding a way to circumvent even THIS variation on the stat game???
You need to make up your own stat categories to be best in. I do!
Yeah, looks like you have me beat! I concede!
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One of the things I always used to enjoy about caching was reading the logs describing the adventures cachers had while searching for and finding (or not finding) the cache. Not only was it fun to go back and read other's logs on caches I had been to, but it was fun to read them for most caches. Now, most log entries are some variation of "TFTC" or "Team Number Ho's was here" cut and pasted all over the place. Maybe doing away with stats would bring back some of the sharing of our adventures which was one of the contributing factors, I think, in establishing our sense of community back when this hobby started, and it would probably get us back to our roots, to what Geocaching originally was, which to me was a lot more fun.
I enjoy reading good logs too, and also always try to record my adventures when I write them. I have most of the caches I found watch listed so I can see others' adventures in finding them and also relive my own when someone else finds it. I don't know if getting rid of stats would improve the quality of logs though. Some people either don't enjoy writing descriptive logs, aren't talented writers or just don't care. I won't get on someone's case for a nondescript log, but I hope cache owners and others find my rambling prose enjoyable.
SEEKING A CACHE USING COORDINATES
in How do I...?
Posted
You may want to double check those coordinates, as they're in the middle of Costa Rica not France.