tomfuller & Quill

I thought land measurements in Canada were in hectares and meters. If the parcel is truly square, then the back corners of a 100 acre parcel are 2948 feet from the diagonally opposite corner (which would be .558 mi.). You might find a stonepile or other surveyor's mark if the adjacent property was surveyed. If the frontage road is TRUE N-S or TRUE E-W just add or subtract to get the coords of the back corners. Hope this is helpful. Tom Fuller

For those of us who refuse to go "paperless", write down the minutes (including the decimal) and divide by 60. You do remember how to divide on paper don't you? If you have DDDMMSS.SS You divide the SS.SS by 60 to get the decimal minutes. Now if someone comes out with a solar powered GPSr, geocaching would be improved. If you have the decimal degrees from a website, multiply the decimal by 60 to get minutes and decimal minutes. You do remember how to multiply on paper don't you? Calculators, PDA's, GPSr's, and other electronic devices tend to get lost or not function properly from time to time. Pencils can be sharpened and we're supposed to be carrying them anyway to log all those micros. Tom Fuller

I have a suggestion for a great location (IMHO). About 1000 feet North of Arch Cape Cache (GC1383). This might be a good place for a multi with the first stage hidden within the arch. If you want to put a hide near the top of Saddle Mountain to replace the one that was muggled and archived it would be appreciated. I had fun up there even though the cache was stolen or tossed off a cliff. Tom Fuller

Saturdays work better for me (and probably many others). If a firm date is set by Mar. 31, I'll see if I can get a few cachers from Central Oregon to come up for this expedition. We have an annual Fool-A-Paloozza event cache in Bend founded by Shotgun & Peashooter. If I can make it I'll bring my pickup and can haul a few bikes along with my own. Maybe we can set a record for the number of cachers visiting an APE cache on a single day. Put me on the definate maybe list for June. Tom Fuller

Did it.

I found a small cache in a graveyard (mystery cache) where you had to find certain gravestones to get the proper location of the cache. One of the hints was "Thumper & Flower's friend". Sure enough, there was one flat gravestone with a spotted fawn over it. The stone was for a woman who had lived to age 99.

Had a cache published at 4:03PM yesterday. It was logged twice before 10PM. (Stalag 13 - Revisited) No snow in the desert and I was careful to leave a lot of tracks all over the area to confuse followers. Tom Fuller

Remembered an archived cache this morning. Remembered a keyword, no listing found. Had to remember who had planted it originally, then I found it. Seems as if at least premium members should be able to get the archived listings without jumping through mental hoops. I'll be putting a new cache there sometime tomorrow to replace the one that was stolen over six months ago. Tom Fuller Crescent, OR Note to Psychic Cacher: Message to record on your answering machine-"You have reached the world's greatest Psychic, I know who you are and why you called, so just hang up."

Five for five today. Didn't need the snowshoes. Yes, central Oregon!!

As one of the "crazies" who competed in and completed "Counting Counties in Oregon" GCR9XY, I think this cache deserves more than just a mystery cache designation. Logscaler & Red and several other dedicated cachers worked long and hard to keep it under control throughout 2006. It was truly a quest scoring the maximum number of points for the 36 counties of Oregon, including seven 10 point caches (5/5's) Twenty-some individuals/teams signed up before the 9/30/06 cutoff date. Less than half finished by 12/31/06. The scariest 10 point cache that I did alone was 4.5 miles downstream along the Rogue from where James Kim died 3 weeks later. It took me 13 hours from the time I left the truck until I got back to the truck. I disagree with the notion that the cache lister must complete the quest cache themselves. I trust the reviewers to set the requirements that separate a mystery cache from a quest. Tom Fuller Crescent Oregon

I have hidden 2 puzzle (Mystery) caches in the past year. Neither one has been visited, although several cachers have emailed me to confirm the proper location of the first. The one that I put out last week (GC10JFE) requires that you have to solve the location of (but not visit) my first puzzle cache (GCWE3D). To solve the location the easiest, though not only method is to use Ed William's Javascript Great Circle Calculator. You also have to use the "Find a Benchmark" feature on this website. I provide the benchmark numbers and the cache #s for two of my other caches and give a radial and distance in Kilometers to locate the cache. My reviewer had no problem with either hide as long as the posted coords were within 2 miles of the final location. I posted a note on my first puzzle congratulating the first cacher to give me the exact location by email. The one I hid last week is within 3Km of a US highway. Solve it and I will post a note crediting the solver, visit it and you will get a FTF prize worth $12 (Tommy Trojan geocoin).

You should consider "Cache Across America-Washington" GCWWRT in Discovery Park. There are 7 others in the park (linked in the cache). Take a picture and post it in case you decide to do the other 49 in the next few years. My favorite place to stay in Seattle is the hostel about 2 blocks from Pike Place Market.

The first geocacher in Oregon was not Dave Ulmer. It was Chief Joseph and his tribe in The NE corner of the state. The women and children gathered Camas bulbs for weeks so that they would have a winter food supply. Their major cache was near present day cache GCNBGX. For some greedy reason the U.S. Government decided that they didn't want them there, so they muggled and burned the cache to force them to move at the beginning of winter. This is one of the history lessons I learned while competing in "Counting Counties in Oregon" GCR9XY.

As I wrote in the OTHER discussion (More accuracy problems). The best place I have found to answer all your questions about GPS accuracy, WAAS, CORS, DGPS, ephemeris from satellites etc. can be found at: http://edu-observatory.org/gps/dgps.html The link by Dennis Milbert is very good. tomfuller & Quill

Back in the days of Selective Availability I used a CMT-MCGPS to locate PA State Forest corners. I would sit on a corner for 3 three minute sessions. I brought the unit back to the office, downloaded to the server, then called up the CORS data for the hours that I was collecting. This is how Differential GPS works. The PA Bureau of Forestry also operates 3 base stations for the use of state employees. The US Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard also run Real Time Corrections ground stations To use RTCM-104 you have to use a separate receiver plugged into your compatable GPS unit. For everything you ever wanted to know about GPS accuracy visit http://edu-observatory.org/gps/dgps.html Check out the link by Dennis Milbert Most of the information that I find on Wiki is highly suspect. "An expert is a person form out-of town that thinks he knows what he is doing" Tom Fuller Crescent, Oregon

It won't help if there are no reporting groundstations for your area. The two WAAS sats are in geosynronus orbit (over the equator) . They serve pretty much all of the Western hemisphere from 60 degrees North to 60 degrees South. The only groundstations I am aware of are for the old LORAN system which I used before GPS sats were launched. If you use good batteries 1.40 + volts (not the 1.2 volt rechargeables) WAAS will help accuracy if you get a lock on a WAAS sat.

I snowshoed to the west of Chemult, OR on Thursday and put in a mystery (unknown) cache. It is called "Rock On" - The way to Miller Time (GC10JFE) . You could also take a long hike to find A. Spring (GCWE3D). I know there are cachers out there who have solved the location of A. Spring. Tom Fuller Crescent OR

Can't quite tell. Look closely and tell us if this photo was taken by the light of the FULL MOON. If you're looking for an impressive PA stone bridge, check out the Rockville bridge across the Susquehanna. It's the longest stone railroad bridge in the world

I hid a cache yesterday. It was published at 2:32PM. I got the email from Groundspeak about 2 minutes ago. 1 Hour 15 minutes late. I knew it was published over an hour ago only because I checked. "Rock On"-The way to Miller Time GC10JFE

skah-NECK-tahdee How's that? Now if we can get people to pronounce BING-ham-ton right. Hardly anyone spells it right either.

After watching the "YouTube" video of a search for "All The Cool Cachers log DNF's Here" I knew exactly where to look and what I was looking for. I don't often look for micros, but I made an exception for this one. As for my best hide, I took a 2 mile hike on snowshoes today to put in Rock On-The Way to Miller Time. It should be published soon as GC10JFE. To find this mystery cache you have to solve the location of my other mystery cache (GCWE3D) which has not been found since I planted it on June 2, 2006.

Did you "drop" it into a cache? It shows up as being in the hands of GeoTigger. Where did you get it from?

Make sure the people who do grounds maintenance and any security people are aware of cache and approve. I hope you have sufficient camo available without bringing any of your own. Good luck with any questions the reviewer may have.

How well does your GPSr work "in" the mall? Avoid making your real cache hide "commercial". Seek permmision from the mall owners/store involved before the bomb squad is called by security. For your virtual you will have to use Waymarking.com. You could mention the virtual in the description if your real cache if you can get it approved. Email a reviewer if you have more questions about what is allowed.

Oldest one I did in 2006 was "Wild Horse Homelands Confluence" GCB41 42.000N 119.000W, less than 0.5 mi from Nevada. Other visitors saw horses, I didn't. If anyone wants to go, let me know, I'll guide. Tom Fuller