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Jeep_Dog

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Everything posted by Jeep_Dog

  1. 1) I wouldn't mind if you WERE critical. Water off a duck's back... 2) I'm not at all reasonable. 3) Debris trail? Titanic? In the immortal words of Dude, "what, are you a (beep) oceanographer now?" Should we call you Robert Balard? On a more serious note, I had emailed the owner and let him know. He replied back that not only had I found the debris trail (ok, ok, we'll talk in your terms- deck chairs), but I returned what I found to the EXACT spot where he had hidden the cache (uh, took the water robot thingy and put the chair back on the deck). This was no accident, since all the signs in the area pointed clearly to the exact location. Let's just suffice it to say I've done a little bit of tracking over my lifetime, and the signs were just as obvious as finding the origninal large container. So, he said it was ok to log the find. He also let the folks that found the replaced debris and my note log it as a find, also, seeing as it was in the exact spot. I'm not certain I agree with the "log" as the "cache." Perhaps at one time, this was the case, but with the advent of "virtual" caches, perhaps we should expand our definition of this particular reality of "location" or "find?"
  2. The one I found I logged as a find. Finding scraps is much harder then finding a big container! Here's what I logged: MUGGLE ATTACK! Cache is gone. My daughter and I found only the lid to the container, and underneath the lid we found one dragon tear and one purple whistle, so we collected those up and looked for the rest of the cache (hoping for a dog or animal raid as opposed to muggle raid). Swept around for quite some time (just in case I found what I thought was the cache, but doubted that due to finding a Dragon Tear Eagletrek) and lid matching discription for container) in bigger circles trying to find other cache deposits to rescue or parts of the container... to no avail. I propped the lid against a tree in case any other cachers came by (wrote "Muggle Attack" and date). Will stop by and drop off whistle & dragon tear if the cache gets restored.
  3. I glean many insights to life from my slightly less than two years old daughter. Her perspective is wonderful. Life is so innocent. She's a pretty lenient judge on caches. Every one we've found together (ok, only 8, but we're knocking 2-5 more out each weekend) she's been absolutely delighted to find. Does it matter that it is in a "nonsensical" location? Absolutely not, the glass beads made the trip worth it! Does it matter this or that cache "only" has buttons in it? Absolutely not, standing on a rock looking at gorgeous view of the lake made the trip worth it! Does it matter we only got to walk 50 feet from a parking lot to find it? Absolutely not, riding along with Daddy in his jeep and listening to bagpipes made the trip worth it! Does it matter we had to walk 2 miles to find it? Absolutely not, sitting on Daddy's shoulders and chattering (and drooling on his GPSr) made the trip worth it. Alas, what I have learned about Geocaching from little Sarah: It is the joy of doing something outdoors, preferably with someone fun to be with, that gives geocaching "intrinsic value."
  4. DOH! I did exactly that last weekend! Just for fun, of course (and for the challenge). I also have a pretty good feel for the space-time continuum thingy, errr... have good understanding of lat/long.... and can tell from the numbers the direction I need to go to hit a target point. Hrrrm. I guess this is what my GPS does in map mode... At any rate, thought you might get a kick out of knowing some clown out there actually applied the technique you outlined in jest.
  5. Good answers from all. The problem seems to be semantics. Both bearing and azimuth seem to mean the same thing, but are different. 1) Bearing: This is an angular direction measured from one position to another using reference lines. Generally used to indicate a magnetic or radiometric (in aviation) reference line. 2) Azimuth: The horizontal angular distance from a reference direction, usually the northern point of the horizon, to the point where a vertical circle through a celestial body intersects the horizon, expressed in degrees. Generally measured from position of Polaris (North Star) on the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere (aka True North). We'll let the Aussies explain the Southern Cross in another post. Ok, this is where things get confusing. I'm really trying to keep this simple. Bearing is commonly used to refer to a magnetic heading (direction), while azimuth is commonly used to refer to a true north heading (direction). Topo maps are oriented to true north, so if you draw a line between two points, and schlepp a compas on it, you've got an azimuth. Unfortunately our planet's magnetic fields don't align perfectly to Polaris, and wiggle all over the place in invisible isogonic lines. We have to correct from a map by applying this isogonic difference (referred to in another post as the "deviation"). Isogonic lines either have an easterly or westerly correction (someone pointed out topo maps list this at the bottom). For easterly, going from true to magnetic direction, you add the deviation. Subtract for westerly. Alas! Unless you've got a really fancy (and expensive!) GPSr and set it up to correct for all of this magnetic deviation, your GPSr doesn't care about all of this, and utilizes True North (which would be... ta-da, an azimuth!). On the flip side, contrary to what I saw mention in another post, there isn't a floating magnetic compass out there that can correct to true north (I've only seen one very, very, very expensive electronic compass that does this, at least in my lifetime). I'm betting the cache creator is a stickler for such finer points of definitions (doesn't interchange bearing and azimuth as most folks out there do), and means azimuth (what your GPS knows). Set your GPS in compass mode and follow the numerical azimuth given at the cache redirect. Or, email the cache creator and ask them what in the daylights they were talking about. Whew. I'm sure I just confused things even more. I'll take my newbie "found 8 caches" self and go hide under a rock again (though I've been orienteering for 20+ years).
  6. (cough-cough) yeah, in my massive 8 caches found, my advice may be considered by some as worthless. (shrug) I don't know much about the geocache mode, since I use a relatively cheap Garmin Etrex Venture. Generally I'm a minimalist when it comes to something like geocaching since I've been orienteering for 20+ years, and my experience is when you get within 100 meters of a target a good set of eyes and paying attention to the environment is priceless. Recently I blew past some geocachers that had some REALLY fancy gear, electronics that rival a military aircraft cockpit, top of the line clothing (some official geocaching stuff, to boot), the great extendo-rod hiking stick. They were quite a sight, and I was very impressed. After observing the wonderous sight of such wonderous and experienced geocachers (going literally in circles, mind you), me and my little caching assistant (daughter who's just a wee shy of 2 years old) waltzed directly to the cache, played with the swag (daughter, not me), signed the log, re-hid the cache, and off we went again. The fancy-attired and electronically assisted cachers (with over 200 caches found) still hadn't the foggiest of idea where the cache was. I suppose my point is that observation and situational awareness is worth the fanciest of GPSr. I'd opt for the cheaper GPSr. Then again, I'm sure I'll get a dozen or so cachers tell me I've nary a clue.
  7. HA! That's exactly what she was thinking last night when we went to 2005 Premier night and she espied a yellow Wrangler Unlimited (in her opinion, it went very well with the YJTB clutched securely in her left paw). Let's give her a couple more years before daddy parts with the cache (pun intended) to get her a jeep, too. Hey, she got a new backpack last weekend to ride on my back when the caching gets rough, that should suffice for a couple of years. Besides, that would go really bad with my spouse. "Honey, I'm sorry, but I have to buy a new yellow Jeep since our daughter loves the YJTB too much to part with it." Uh-huh. That'll work REALLY well. I shouldn't press my luck, since my wife purchased us a new GPS this week. Imagine that, she supports daughter and daddy caching addiction.
  8. I don't think I'm a knucklehead. Check it out: My daughter (just a wee bit under two years old), absolutely refuses to let me drop the YJTB. Yes, she caches with me (she calls it "Twesser-Hunt-ING!"), and I can't get her to let go of it. We went to one of the more challenging caches in the area involving a decent elevation change (hoping to get her tired, you see), to no avail. She starting bawling the second I postured to drop the YJTB, crying loudly "NO. NO! Jeep TAVEL-BUG!" Great. So, what a problem I have! She has made me a kucklehead who managed to find a YJTB. I will try again this weekend to get it moving along its way.... but is this the type of situation the 1,000 reserve was created to assist? If so, can I get one? Ah, by the way, my first post on the forums. Too many opinions, too much emotionally charged folks with the sky falling over little things (my humble opinion), so I've been lurking.
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