RGS

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of the meth lab (methamphetamine) problems we have in Missouri. Currently MO ranks #1 in the US and Franklin and Jefferson (just outside of St. Louis) are the top two counties. See the 2nd paragraph in the article below. Now that they are hiding caches of meth supplies in the woods, this may cause a concern with the authorities. I hope not but I sure wouldn't want to be roaming in the woods looking for a GC while the bad guys are looking for their caches. Or the police are staking out a meth cache while we are looking for one of ours. Rich Below is a reprint from an article on Nov. 4, 2002 in the St. louis Post dispatch-- ------------------------------------------------- Number of meth raids is increasing in Missouri By Matthew Hathaway Of The Post-Dispatch Missouri's methamphetamine problem is growing, and police, in an escalating battle against the illegal drug, have uncovered more than 200 meth labs this year in Jefferson and Franklin counties, according to state crime statistics. Missouri surpassed California last year to lead the nation with 2,130 raids on drug labs or discoveries of ingredient caches and meth-related dumps. This year, a county-by-county breakdown by the Missouri Highway Patrol shows the state already had reached 2,100 raids through September. And Detective James Jones, the head of the Jefferson County drug task force, said last week that his county alone had raided more than 30 labs since the Highway Patrol compiled those statewide figures. For years, the drug has been associated primarily with the Ozarks, and Jasper County in southwest Missouri still leads this year's count with 136 meth raids and seizures through the end of September. But Jefferson County finished second with 115 cases, and Franklin County wasn't far behind with 112 meth-related incidents in the same period. Figures weren't as high in other St. Louis-area counties. The Highway Patrol says there were 44 raids and seizures in St. Louis County, 39 in Lincoln County, 15 in St. Charles County and four in St. Louis. The Illinois State Police have not tallied meth raids and seizures for this year, but an official said that police had found 666 labs and dumps last year. State Police report that last year, 37 labs had been raided in Madison County, four in St. Clair County and three in Monroe County. David Jacobson, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, said the numbers might not be as alarming as they appear. Most meth is made in California's so-called superlabs, which can make as much as 10 pounds of the drug in an eight-hour period. Jacobson said that Missouri labs tended to be much smaller operations based in a kitchen, garage or automobile and that these labs were capable of producing only a few ounces of the drug. "Unfortunately, no matter how crude and small a lab is, it's still a lab," he said. "It still poses a serious threat to the environment, to law enforcement and to the community." Jacobson said that in some ways, the diffuse nature of meth manufacturing in Missouri made it harder to police than large-scale marijuana or cocaine distribution. He said the federal agency had responded by training police officers throughout the state in meth investigation and interdiction techniques. Jones, the Jefferson County drug investigator, said that training was one reason the county has raided more labs this year. "The question we're trying to answer across the state is whether meth is getting this much bigger or are we catching more (drug) cooks," Jones said. "It could be both, but I think the numbers are mainly up because of better cooperation between agencies and increased public awareness." Corp. Jason J. Grellner, the head of Franklin County's three-member narcotics squad, cites another factor. "It's a pyramid scheme," Grellner said. "When people cook meth, they aren't alone. Each cook teaches two or three other people and, eventually, those people start making the drug and teach two or three others." The only way to counter that growth, he said, was to go after the drug's chemical precursors, which include ingredients such as over-the-counter cold pills, ether and anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer usually stolen from farmers. Grellner said "there is no end in sight" until ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, the ingredients extracted from cold pills, are made a "Schedule 5" narcotic. That designation wouldn't require prescriptions but would make retailers keep the medicine behind counters and sell it only to customers who present identification. A recovering addict who worked as a lookout for meth labs in Jefferson County said that Missouri's meth problem was bigger than most people and many police officers realized. He thinks others are getting started on meth for the same reason he did: It's less expensive than crack cocaine, and the high lasts days instead of hours. "It doesn't seem to eat your money up like other drugs," said the 31-year-old addict, who is from De Soto but now is living in a residential treatment house. (Patients are asked not to identify themselves to reporters.) "But you find out that's a lie. It will take every penny you have and everything you own." Another meth addict at the facility said that many users of the drug defied stereotypes. She said that people unfamiliar with the symptoms of meth addiction didn't recognize the meth addicts they saw every day and that, as a result, they didn't realize just how big the problem was. "You can see these people everyday at ... the grocery store, but all you'll see is someone twitching or making funny neck and hand movements," she said. "But it's recognizable to a user." Steven Huss, director of Comtrea, Jefferson County's mental health agency, said that for the first time, more people were coming to the agency for help with drug addiction than alcoholism or mental illness. Huss said that focusing on meth interdiction could be counterproductive because addicts switched to different drugs. Although drug-addiction counselors and meth addicts in Jefferson County say that use of the drug is high in Jefferson County, Jones said that he didn't think Jefferson County had a much bigger problem than St. Louis or St. Charles counties. "I think the biggest difference is that we have a group of officers that's focused almost entirely on meth," Jones said. "And like anything, the more often you do something, the better you get. We're getting very good at finding labs."

I'm retired and do most of my caching alone during the week. For that reason I'm starting to have 2nd thoughts about being several miles into an area I'm not familiar with and slip or fall and break a leg or something, or even a snake bite. I can tell my wife I'm going to 'these 4 caches' and I'll be back in 6 hours, but that doesn't help much unless someone happens to wonder by and find me. This hasn't really changed my caching schedule, but as I get older I think about it more than before. Rich

We've got a loose knit group of about 60+ members here in the St. Louis area called "St. Louis Area Geocachers Association". Visit our website at www.geostl.com for all the info.

I met jogps and Southpaw on July 28, 2002 in a commuter parking lot just outside of St. Louis. This was a special day for BruceS because 10-14 cachers in the St. Louis area were going to celebrate his 1000th cache find that morning. What a surprise to see jogps and Southpaw sitting in their truck after driving 300 miles so they could congratulate Bruce on his milestone. Not many people would drive that far just to say "hi and congratulations". Here is the site that commemorates the happy event along with pictures of jogps, BruceS, and Southpaw. BruceS #1000. Rich [This message was edited by RGS on August 15, 2002 at 08:54 PM.]

I met jogps and Southpaw on July 28, 2002 in a commuter parking lot just outside of St. Louis. This was a special day for BruceS because 10-14 cachers in the St. Louis area were going to celebrate his 1000th cache find that morning. What a surprise to see jogps and Southpaw sitting in their truck after driving 300 miles so they could congratulate Bruce on his milestone. Not many people would drive that far just to say "hi and congratulations". Here is the site that commemorates the happy event along with pictures of jogps, BruceS, and Southpaw. BruceS #1000. Rich [This message was edited by RGS on August 15, 2002 at 08:54 PM.]

I don't know if you're aware of it but we have a looseknit group in the St. Louis area. We go by the 'St. Louis Area Geocachers Association' (SLAGA) and have occasional group hunts when someone gets the urge. We have 'members' from Rolla, Cape, and in Illinois. There is no membership or cost, and anyone can participate in our outings. This sunday we are going with BruceS for his 1000th cache find at Ononodaga SP cache. See our website at www.geostl.com for more info if you're interested. There is also a maillist you can sign up for and keep abreast of our ramblings and plans. Rich (RGS)

I'm from St. Louis and I know Bruce personally and I've gone caching with him. His numbers are accurate and honest. He starts at daybreak and finishes up after dark; we should all be so dedicated. He went on a 4 day trip to the Kansas City area several months ago and logged about 80 on that trip. Rich (RGS) St. Louis Area Geocachers Assn. www.geostl.com

In the St. Louis area we have a real nice park (Greensfelder St. Louis county Park) that is all wooded and contains lots of trails. In the mid 70's they used to hold orienteering events here, but I don't think they do any more. Most of the original posts (20) still exists and contain a post # and a 2 letter code. There are 3 caches in this park that take advantage of the posts as waypoints. One simply uses the 2 leters on the post to convert to a number for the offset in feet to the actual cache. Another uses 5 of the posts as WP's where the post numbers are put into a table and substituted in another table for the actual cache location. The 3rd one uses 4 posts as waypoints and the post number is used in a formula to caclulate the bearing and distance to the next post. The 3 caches are: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=10059 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=17744 http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=24062 I hope this is what you meant by your question. Rich

My etrex legend page button tore out from the rubber 2 weeks ago. It was still under warrenty so I sent it UPS ground last Monday to Garmin in Olathe, KS (I'm in St. Louis) and received it back on Friday of the same week. They returned it FexEx overnight. They basically replaced the case (glass, rubber, & plastic) and left the internal electronics intact. No complaints about their service. Rich

I've got a Legend and no, you won't lose any maps or stored data when you change batteries. As far as the distances changing, that's normal for any GPS. You need to be moving to get accurate readings, so the closer you get to the cache, normally you slow down or stop. As I get within 50-75 feet of the cache, I pay attention to the compass arrow and try to keep that heading as the distance gets smaller. Normally you will never be at 0.0 when you're at the cache. Don't forget that the cache placer also has errors in his coordinates, so the error could easily be 40-50 feet off. Sometimes you can find it right off the bat and other times you need to get 100 feet away and try again, or even come back a different day.

geospotter, You sure come up with the good ideas. You might want to look at Powerpoint for producing the "show". It has the option to save the slideshow as HTML which can be viewed thru a browser on a webpage or stand-a-lone thru a browser. It also has the normal "VCR" buttons for forward and backward. Another package is Flip Album CD maker which puts a presentation together for a CD and displays like a spiral notebook. If I can help, you've got my email. Rich

I'm 60, retired, and having a great time caching. Rich

I'm 60, retired, and having a great time caching. Rich

I presented a plan to our parks dept. in Crestwood, Mo (suburb of St. Louis) to setup a cache that would be owned and maintained by the parks department. I got the go ahead from the parks supervisor and was put in contact with one of the rangers who I would work with. I wanted to set it up as a multi cache with waypoints (5) throughout the 100 acre park. The waypoints would contain the coordinates for the next WP along with a letter that would be decoded to give the combination for a lock at the actual cache. The actual cache is a "give" that contains a logbook along with special pencils and "I found the cache" buttons. The WP's are actually 6" by 6" engraved brass plaques embeded in concrete and buried several inches above the ground in the woods and near trails throughout the park. Not to leave out the non GPS users, I created a handout for the park community center and a PDF file for the city's webpage. It has a satellite image of the park with the WP's shown on the image. Each WP has a clue to help find the WP. Then using the letter on the plaque, they have the table which will allow them to convert to a number for the combination lock. Setting up everything was great and I was given free rein to do what ever I wanted. The hangups were waiting for the ground to thaw to dig the holes, placing the waypoints that would be hard enough for the GPS'ers to find but still allow the non GPS'ers to find them with the clues. WP's were moved several times to get consistent readings and meaniful clues. Then working with the city administrator to have the city webpage go "live" when the cache went public was a timing issue. There are still some small kinks (city webpage not quiet right) to work out but that cache went public on Tuesday. Hopefully the non GPS'ers won't take advantage of the free goodies and give the combination to all their friends. Time will tell. The cache page is at http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=12535 Rich

I had done the same thing. I found the cache spread out in a 25 ft. area and everything was frozen solid since it's in a low area by a river. Not knowing the exact hiding spot, I picked up everything and placed it in a hollow stump 75 feet away. I made a log entry saying that the cache was spread all over and had notified the cache owner of it's new location, although it was not salvagable. I emailed the owner and never got a reply. About 3 weeks later he archived the cache. I went back and checked and the pieces I had placed in the stump were gone. I would have hoped for at least a "thanks" or "don't toouch my cache".

geospotter, Another great idea you have. You must have a lot of free time! The Civil War was before my time (not by much), but I'm in St. Louis and we have quite a few areas here related to the War. Jefferson Barracks is a large park and cemetary (which has several caches already) and U.S. Grant was born and raised here. If you need any help with caches in this area, I'd be glad to help. Rich

When I first got my Legend (W/O Mapsource), I tried expertGPS and bought it. I've got Mapsource now for the GPS for traveling, etc, but I still use ExpertGPS for the topo maps. With broadband, the topo maps display and can be moved in realtime. I enter the waypoints, or create my own on the topo map, save as a file for future reference and print the map to take with me. I think it's great! Rich

Geospotter-- Got my tattoos today too. Great idea and I tried one on my wife and got rid of the butterfly. . This could sure open up possibilities for other ideas such as a Geocaching logo for local groups, customized ones for a cacher to leave when finding or placing a cache, etc. Thanks for the idea and sharing. Rich

Geospotter-- Got my tattoos today too. Great idea and I tried one on my wife and got rid of the butterfly. . This could sure open up possibilities for other ideas such as a Geocaching logo for local groups, customized ones for a cacher to leave when finding or placing a cache, etc. Thanks for the idea and sharing. Rich

Geospotter, Great idea! It looks like you've got a winner on your hands. Thanks for allowing us to try them first hand. RGS

Even a listing by state would be good..... quote:Originally posted by Web-ling: ...The recently logged page only listed logs on caches within a certain distance of your home coordinates? _That_ would be useful! http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/25021_1200.gif

macro, I actually set this up on Dec. 1 and shut it down on Dec. 31. The cache is 'where Am I' at http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=10665 . I used just 12 cards and the logging has been sporadic, but they are trickling in. I know #1 still hasn't been placed yet. It's an interesting experiment and some of the cards moved quite a distance. I'll keep it going until the activity dries up. quote:Originally posted by macro: I like this idea a lot. I would start out with 50 cards and see where it goes from there. Even if the cache is easy to find, that amount of cards should get you through a year. Good luck with your idea. Hope to get one of your cards out my way!

I setup one like this several days ago called Waypoints R Us http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=16281 and another called Roman http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=15355 . With Roman, at the last waypoint, I have a tag with the bearing and distance. The distance is only several hundred feet so following the bearing will keep one in a reasonable range for error. In Waypoints R Us, there are no coodinates. The cacher uses the bearings to arrive at a trail intersection, an eagle cage, and finally the cache at a rockpile. The distances between the waypoints are 400-600 meters and they can find the correct spot with a little looking around. Even with that, there have been problems getting to the right location to make the waypoint. That said, I would think a heading/bearing of 192 degrees at 1 mile could cause quite a bit of error. At 191 degrees instead of 192 for 1 mile, that point could be quite different. If you're trying to find a building or something, no problem. But if you're taking them to a spot under a rock or in a tree or something, I think it would be awful hard to find. Just my opinion, but I still enjoy those kind of challanges. Rich quote:Originally posted by Tomas P. Dawson: I am thinking of creating my first cache and I am going to make it a multi. I want each pointer cache to include heading (like 192deg for 1 mile) directions and miles to try and keep people on the trails. Has anyone done this and does it work? Thanks