rdw

Not yet. I'll give it another week or so. If anyone wants to contact me via email, that would be fine as well.

Went to pull the camera from the Fountain Bluff Cache this morning and the cache was gone. So now am only looking for someone to take rsponsibility for the BIG Confluence cache.

I have graduated from SIU and will be moving soon. I hope someone will take over the responsibility for the cahces so that they may remain active. The first is Fountain Bluff #1 in southwestern Jackson county. On Fountain Bluff, obviously. This cache is very low maintenance because of its location and difficulty. It gets few visitors for this reason. The chance of accidental finds is about as low as possible. Before transferring ownership, I will retrieve the camera, get the pictures developed, and post them. I will also move the linked images from my personal website to the geocaching site and update the page accordingly. Before you accept responsibilty for this cache, please be sure you can make the hike to the cache. 30-45 minutes each way with lots of hills. The second is The BIG Confluence Cache at Fort Defiance State Park south of Cairo. This one is more maintenance heavy. As the cache page notes, this is a flood prone area. Though the current setup should keep it in place, there is a chance the cache could be washed away by the river. It may need to survive weeks underwater. If it wasn't sealed well by the last cacher, that means replacing the contents. Having said that, I haven't had to fix it very often. Before transfering these caches, or shortly after, I will check them both one last time to make sure they are in good condition. Change out old pens and pencils, restock them so they're full of goodies, etc. Please post a reply here in the forums if you are interested. rdw

I am looking for someone to adopt my 3 caches around Lake Shelbyville. They are: Lake Shelbyville #1 Coal Shaft Cache Lake Shelbyville #2 (Walk in the Woods) Contact me via email in my profile or reply here. rdw

It's a good thing I checked in on the forums this week. As Jeepster mentioned, I have special knowledge with regard to Illinois geography. I shall now enlighten everyone. The geographic center of Illinois is a wee li'l bit south of Lincoln. If you are south of it, you can't say you're in Northern Illinois. If you're north of it, you can't say you're in southern Illinois. Same deal for east vs west. But four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, and SW) are not enough for so large a state so we have centrals latitudinalllllllly and longitudinallllllllly. This significantly complexificates things. But I got it all figured out for you. If you are north of I-80, you are in northern Illinois. If you are south of I-70, you are in southern Illinois. If you are between them, you are in latitudinal central Illinois. If you are east of about 88.5° longitude, you are in eastern Illinois. If you are west of Springfield and Peoria, you are in western Illinois. If neither, you are in longitudinal central Illinois. Now to simpificate these lines, you may refer to Illinois areas as follows: 1. If you are north of 80 and west of 90, you may say "Northwestern Illinois". 2. If you are north of 80 and east of 88.5, you hail from "Chicagoland". 3. If you are north of 80 and in the longitudinal central zone, you are in "Northern Illinois". 4. If you are in the St. Louis area (E. St. Louis, Alton, Grafton, Edwardsville, etc.), you may say you are from "the St. Louis area". 5. If you are south of 70 but not from "the St. Louis area", you are from "southern Illinois". South encompasses southwestern, southeastern, and south central Illinois. 6. If you are latitudinal central, west of 90, but not near St. Louis, you are in "western Illinois". 7. If you are latitudinal central and east of 88.5, you are in "east-central Illinois". 8. If you are central-central, you are, of course, in "central Illinois". Simple enough. Right? Actually, there is a kind of pitiful debate going on in "southern Illinois" right now regarding whether or not the *s* in southern Illinois should be capitalized. People writing letters to the editor are more worked up about it than I would have thought possible. rdw

Ooh, that PanTrack feature looks cool. There have been several times I wished my GPS V had something like that. Edit: Plus 10000!! trackpoints too ! rdw

I'm glad you posted it here or it would have been hours before I noticed it. I was in elementary school when the Challenger happened. This brings back bad memories. rdw

It has been cold in southern Illinois the last few days but every time I think the weather is bad I check the weather on Mt. Washington. 32 below zero with winds steady in the 120s, gusting to 140+, helps put everything in perspective. I still wish it would warm up though. rdw

Just checked it out with ExpertGPS. It shows on the 100K:1 maps, but not on the 24K:1. It doesn't look like a peace sign in the aerial photos. Pretty cool find though. Look at: N42°42.844 W76°49.546 rdw

quote:Originally posted by Team GPSaxophone: But you live on Fort Collins. I thought the atomic clock was in Boulder. WWV and WWVB both broadcast from Fort Collins. The website has the coordinates for the antennas. rdw

quote:Originally posted by crr003: On the 3+ you can delete (it's in the manual): a) individual WP by symbol c) all WP I would think the V has at least the same options? Nil Satis Nisi Optimum It does all three. Find... Waypoints... By Name... OK (on popup keyboard thing)... Menu Finding by nearest does not have the same menu. rdw

You have to make an "other" log on your own cache page. Select the bug from the drop down list at the bottom of the page. That's it. rdw

We've been down this road before and are still where we are. rdw

quote:Originally posted by Renegade Knight:They are a game of their own. It's called locationless caches. They are called that because they are different from Traditional caches etc. etc. etc. ad nausium. The point is that they are different, but they are not counted differently. If they were counted differently, 99% of the opposition to them would disappear immediately. rdw

How long does it take you to download Mapsource maps to the GPS? I faintly remember it taking something like 20-30 minutes to download just under 19MB of maps. Since loading the 2.09Beta, it's now taking over an hour!! It's been a while since I've loaded in a map set so I might be wrong. And I'm also not sure that it is the 2.09 version because I'm using a new computer. I was walking out the door when I realized the maps I had in the GPS did not cover where I was planning to go, so now I'm sitting here typing away waiting for the dadgum GPS. 26% complete, 46 mins to go. BTW, Metroguide to GPS V 2.09 Beta rdw

geoace, You are in very good place to start caching. SLAGA (St. Louis Area Geocaching Association, I think) is a large and very active group. They place group caches, they go on group hunts, they do it all. Check out the website at http://www.GeostL.com I'm sure you can find somebody willing to help you get started. rdw

I started a poll lobbying for a bigger version of Workin' On It for use as a wallpaper right after the change. There were more votes for "rdw is a psychotic stalker" than in support of Workin' on it. Oh, I voted for workin' on it. And the smoking squirrel worked too. rdw

Still confused and scared by that previous picture. IMHO, the weirdest geo-picture was the first time Anders' geocaching suit was discovered and posted. rdw

quote:Originally posted by Goat6500:This isn't from a hunt, but I did find a pretty uh...suprising photo(image #4) in my cache camera: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=15687 Sadly, I know the culprit.... DO NOT LOOK... DON'T DO IT... You have been warned. You should have censored the whole picture!! rdw

quote:Originally posted by sbell111:I guess you missed that this cache has been approved. No, I caught that. Should it have been approved though?? rdw

Perhaps you are missing one of the points in your original post. "They said that there are enough train related ones..." Maybe this has something to do with it. Last time I looked there was a "find a caboose" cache, a "find an engine" cache, and who knows what else. At some point the admins need to say enough is enough before we get to the point where you take pictures of everything you see then come home to find the locationless cache that it fits. And I say this as the owner of a now archived locationless cache, "Don't Know Much About History" (GC402F). Even the pro-locationless faction must admit that there are some really crappy locationless caches out there. I applaud the approval crew's high standards for new locationless caches and think they could stand to be even more strict. The locationless boom is just like the dot com boom. Lots of excited people making new companies, many of which were of questionable quality. The dot-coms crashed, taking out the weak companies and leaving only the strong. The same thing should happen to locationless caches. Weed some of them out and leave only the best. New caches should only be approved if they meet strict standards. rdw

It would be really cool to see the Markwellation for other continents. South Africa cachers to Markwell, for example, might be tricky. rdw

If anyone can get Superman down to Champaign or Bloomington by Wednesday next week, I will get him the rest of the way down to Metropolis. I would be willing to further north if I was sure it would be there. Anyone....? rdw

The problem is that there are not very many mocaches around. There are 2 fairly close to 62902. They show up in the listings with a small icon to the left of the cache name. rdw

It sounds like Web-ling has the idea. What is there besides the marker? Just because national parks don't allow traditional caches doesn't mean we have to "place" benchmark caches just to have something there. If there is nothing at the coordinates special enough for a virtual cache, the benchmark is not going to make it any better. There is an entire portion of the website dedicated to finding benchmarks and there is a longstanding locationless cache along the same lines. I can understand the approvers denying yet another virtual based on a benchmark. If there is something truly unique at the coordinates, make your case to the approvers. rdw