travisl

I appreciate it. The March cache machines are always a really close call when it comes to snow impacts. Out of the 12 CMs I've hosted in March, the only snow impact so far was at Yakima II, eleven years ago. There was enough snow to make caching easier -- just follow the footprints -- but not enough to make things difficult. (I did, however, have to drive home to Tacoma via Portland after that one.) This year seems like one of the heaviest snow years we've had, so it's going to be fun to see what things look like in four weeks.

The event page is live, and if you want to check out the first draft of the route, here it is. If you're familiar with the area and see something dumb that I've done (like fording the river, or driving down a closed road), please don't hesitate to let me know. Heck, even if you're not familiar with the area, but something seems off, raise the question. My next step: contacting local cache owners to make sure they don't object.

Note: circumstances may change after this initial posting. Look for my posts (with the icon) in this thread for all the important details and changes. If you think you've seen this all before, focus on the unique-to-this-event information in red. (Link to dinner event cache) Pendleton: Where the West is still wild. It's known for its Round-Up rodeo in September and its 110-year-old Woolen Mills. MSN.com called it the most underrated town in Oregon, "anchored by the region's rich horse culture." There's also geocaches in them thar hills. So fill up the tank, grab your gear, toss down some breakfast at way-too-early o'clock, and start on the route at GCZK6W Drive-Up Travel Bug Swap Stop. From there, move at your own pace and get as many as you can. Dinner's going to be at Abby's Legendary Pizza, 828 Southgate (N 47° 12.786, W 123° 06.012). Please log your "will attends" on the event page so I can let the restaurant know how many to expect. Note that some caches on the route map may be marked with a "do not enter" icon . Those cache owners have justifiably asked for their cache to not be on the route, and for the cache to not be sought during the cache machine. The cache is, in the owner's opinion, in a sensitive area, whether it's environmentally unwise, socially sensitive, or physically fragile. Just don't get it. It's not like there's a shortage of caches in the area. Rules: 1) Follow all traffic laws, and drive safely. This is not a race; there are no winners. The only loser will be someone who gets hurt. When someone asks what you're doing, the right answer is honesty: "geocaching". 2) Respect private property, even if the cache owner didn't. Post your DNFs proudly. 3) One logbook entry for "PCM" is fine for most small and micros. Don't go filling up the logbook just because you want to mark your territory. 50 people's names and dates will fill up most one-sheets. Be kind and bring extra paper to add to caches with full logbooks. 4) As with all cache machines, if you find the cache, you'll be the one who has to re-hide it. Hide it as well as you found it. Handing it off to someone else and pointing down saying "it goes there" isn't good enough. Don't be a jerk. The extra 45 seconds isn't going to ruin your day. 5) Be gentle. Some cache containers are fragile, delicate, or weather sensitive. Take your time, double check the cache description, do it right. If you’ve already found a couple of these caches, that’s fine - give us a chance to find the cache, and then we may turn to you for a hint. Suggestions and ''Count me ins'' are welcome on the event page. ---- The Pendleton Cache Machine FAQ: When is it? Saturday, March 23, 2019. Start time is 6:30 a.m at GCZK6W Drive-Up Travel Bug Swap Stop. Will it be one large group, will we be split into teams, or what? We'll start as one large group, but after a dozen caches or so, the large groups will likely fragment, and on a long day like this, you'll probably be on your own by the time most people in town are waking up. If you want to go off-route to find letterboxes, Pokémon, portals, or Starbucks, well, you do you. Is anything going on before, during, or after? An unofficial informal they-don't-know-we're-coming pre-event dinner will be at OMG! Burgers & Brew, 241 S. Main Street, at 7:00 PM on Friday, March 22. The official event dinner is this event cache. Hey, there's a cache *right there!* Why aren't we getting that one? My standard answer here is that I try to avoid most multicaches, most puzzle caches, caches that appear to be overly time consuming, and caches that the owner has asked us to avoid. The route is built around highly-favorited caches, so some just didn't make the cut. A cache on your map shows the wrong place to park. // Hey, that road doesn't exist! // That's a long hike! // What's with making us ford the river? Thanks for catching that! Let me know, and I'll incorporate it your fix into the route. Why does the route go way past the dinner time? Is this a two-day event? The extra time is a buffer, in case you're so good that you'd run out of caches before you run out of daylight. I don't expect anyone would be able to hit all of them between sunrise and sunset. Of course, if you wanted to hit them after dinner, or on Sunday, I'm sure you'll be able to find folks to join you. It sounds fun, but I've already found some of them. Then come laugh at us, try to remember where they were, look at the old logbook signatures, or guess when we'll be at the caches you haven't hit yet. Maybe pass your phone number around for us to call when we get stumped. You have X cache on the route, but it's disabled/archived/a long hike. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route (if archived) or may check with the owner (if disabled). X cache is in an environmentally sensitive area. // My cache is physically fragile and I don't want it broken. By all means, let me know. I don't want to send dozens of people there to stomp all over it. I disagree with the whole idea of cache machines. I don't want you finding my cache. Sorry to hear that. It's too bad you've got a neat place to show us that we won't be able to see. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route. What's this gonna cost me? Nothing for the caching. Or, at least, nothing more than it would cost than if you did the trip solo (e.g., paying for your own gas, hotel, and dinner). I'm not collecting any money for this. Lunch? Breaks? Bathrooms? There's no breaks in cache machines! Just hold it. ? Or find something on the way. Rain? Snow? Heat? Landslides? Flooding? Rattlesnakes? Probably, yes. Do what you safely can, and skip ahead when reality or your capabilities don't match the plan. Be prepared and flexible. What do the map symbols mean? Turquoise lines show my suggested route, but if there's a brown trail or grey road that I've drawn in, ignore the turquoise. Red car icons show places to park a car for a short time (usually a trailhead).

Thanks, SirKarp. With that, here’s the route updates: #13 Home Sweet Home (GC5KAPK). Note the parking coordinates. Might be a longer hike than I thought. #32 VERTIGO (GCGCY2). Lots of DNFs. Probably gone. #52 Seahawk Home SB (GC7JPEZ). Multiple people DNFed it today. Almost certainly gone. #53 The Swamp (GC6A87B). Found today! #66 Shelton Travel Bug Museum and Hotel (GCT9X5). Museum is closed for the holiday season. You can see the cache through the window, but that’s not gonna get you a find. See you you all tomorrow!

Lucky it's early in the morning. Google Street View shows how hilariously bad this is, and apparently how much traffic can get backed up here. https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2472605,-123.0467822,3a,75y,57.3h,57.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svOPJHBbjfV03cQMVRr7azg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Gonna be a wet one!

It's two days early, but with Christmas Eve and Day on Monday and Tuesday, I wanted to get this out. The final route is up! I've eliminated the southern loop. There's a lot of caches down there, but the batch that I was hoping for the most turned out to be a 45-minute hike behind a locked gate, and just wouldn't work for this kind of event. I had the route running five hours past dinner, so it just made sense to cut it. I also added the two caches Jester mentioned above. Thanks, Jester! Note that some of the route is, I believe, on dirt roads. Should be fun! I'll see you Friday night, December 28, for the unofficial pre-event dinner. Any last minute changes will be announced there, and then late Friday night I'll post those changes right here in the Northwest forum.

Draft 2 is up! Thanks to several folks whose input has improved this route significantly: - OhJoy, CloquallumGuy, and Yellow1961 for your suggestions and tips. Those trails and gates northeast of McCleary were quite the challenge to figure out! - 2nutsACKs, for more routing advice. Knowing Simpson 800 Main Line is almost definitely going to be open gave me some additional routes of exploration. - Team Sagefox, for doing some on-the-ground route inspection -- this second draft avoids the Cloquallum Truck Trail entirely. - Hydensek, for checking the list against recent DNFs. - Terrible Ts for the bookmark list, yet again. You've got mad skillz. - BLundeen10, 2nutsACKs again, and one other cacher for their advice about what I'm calling the "blue ribbon trail" off of Brookdale (caches 15-19 on the previous draft, 15-20 in draft 2). It's now a 2-mile round trip hike, with "only" 6 caches, but they're rated so highly, it's worth it. This far into the route, I don't imagine there will be a lot of cars at the gate all at once, and even if there is, Google Street View shows tight but adequate parking on the other side of the road. Just a caution, which is kind of alluded to in the "rules" page, but I'll make it explicit here: there's logging roads on the route. There's gates. If you go through a gate, you could get locked behind it. You could encounter active logging operations an heavy equipment. You could end up 10 miles down a road, find a gate, and have to backtrack 10 miles. That's the chance you choose to take when geocaching.

The event cache page is live, and here's a first draft of the route. It runs long, so I'll need to pare it down a little. I'm a little concerned about the "local road" between stops 38 and 39, in a lighter shade of teal, between Bulb Farm Rd and Cloquallum Truck Trail. That might be... interesting... in December rains. If you know about this road, or if you have any other suggestions, as it says above, please let me know. My next step: contacting local cache owners to make sure they don't object.

Note: circumstances may change after this initial posting. Look for my posts (with the icon) in this thread for all the important details and changes. If you think you've seen this all before, focus on the unique-to-this-event information in red. (Link to dinner event cache) Shelton was once the Christmas Tree capital of the world. Perhaps it still is. This was a community built on logging, dependent on the rails its people laid to move logs from the woods to the shore. It's the core of Mason County. Let's go caching. So fill up the tank, grab your gear, toss down some breakfast at way-too-early o'clock, and start on the route at GC7ZJHX Knees?. From there, move at your own pace and get as many as you can. Dinner's going to be at Sister's Restaurant and Sports Bar, 16 W. Railroad Ave., (N 48° 32.088 W 117° 54.288). Please log your "will attends" on the event page so I can let the restaurant know how many to expect. Note that some caches on the route map may be marked with a "do not enter" icon . Those cache owners have justifiably asked for their cache to not be on the route, and for the cache to not be sought during the cache machine. The cache is, in the owner's opinion, in a sensitive area, whether it's environmentally unwise, socially sensitive, or physically fragile. Just don't get it. It's not like there's a shortage of caches in the area. Rules: 1) Follow all traffic laws, and drive safely. This is not a race; there are no winners. The only loser will be someone who gets hurt. When someone asks what you're doing, the right answer is honesty: "geocaching". 2) Respect private property, even if the cache owner didn't. Post your DNFs proudly. 3) One logbook entry for "SCM" is fine for most small and micros. Don't go filling up the logbook just because you want to mark your territory. 50 people's names and dates will fill up most one-sheets. Be kind and bring extra paper to add to caches with full logbooks. 4) As with all cache machines, if you find the cache, you'll be the one who has to re-hide it. Hide it as well as you found it. Handing it off to someone else and pointing down saying "it goes there" isn't good enough. Don't be a jerk. The extra 45 seconds isn't going to ruin your day. 5) Be gentle. Some cache containers are fragile, delicate, or weather sensitive. Take your time, double check the cache description, do it right. If you’ve already found a couple of these caches, that’s fine - give us a chance to find the cache, and then we may turn to you for a hint. Suggestions and ''Count me ins'' are welcome on the event page. ---- The Shelton Cache Machine FAQ: When is it? Saturday, December 29, 2018. Start time is 7:30 a.m at GC7ZJHX Knees?. Will it be one large group, will we be split into teams, or what? We'll start as one large group, but after a dozen caches or so, the large groups will likely fragment, and on a long day like this, you'll probably be on your own by the time most people in town are waking up. If you want to go off-route to find letterboxes, Pokémon, portals, or Starbucks, well, you do you. Is anything going on before, during, or after? An unofficial informal they-don't-know-we're-coming pre-event dinner will be at Smoking Mo's, 203 W. Railroad Ave. at 7:00 PM on Friday, December 28. The official event dinner is this event cache. Hey, there's a cache *right there!* Why aren't we getting that one? My standard answer here is that I try to avoid most multicaches, most puzzle caches, caches that appear to be overly time consuming, and caches that the owner has asked us to avoid. The route is built around highly-favorited caches, so some just didn't make the cut. A cache on your map shows the wrong place to park. // Hey, that road doesn't exist! // That's a long hike! // What's with making us ford the river? Thanks for catching that! Let me know, and I'll incorporate it your fix into the route. Why does the route go way past the dinner time? Is this a two-day event? The extra time is a buffer, in case you're so good that you'd run out of caches before you run out of daylight. I don't expect anyone would be able to hit all of them between sunrise and sunset. Of course, if you wanted to hit them after dinner, or on Sunday, I'm sure you'll be able to find folks to join you. It sounds fun, but I've already found some of them. Then come laugh at us, try to remember where they were, look at the old logbook signatures, or guess when we'll be at the caches you haven't hit yet. Maybe pass your phone number around for us to call when we get stumped. You have X cache on the route, but it's disabled/archived/a long hike. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route (if archived) or may check with the owner (if disabled). X cache is in an environmentally sensitive area. // My cache is physically fragile and I don't want it broken. By all means, let me know. I don't want to send dozens of people there to stomp all over it. I disagree with the whole idea of cache machines. I don't want you finding my cache. Sorry to hear that. It's too bad you've got a neat place to show us that we won't be able to see. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route. What's this gonna cost me? Nothing for the caching. Or, at least, nothing more than it would cost than if you did the trip solo (e.g., paying for your own gas, hotel, and dinner). I'm not collecting any money for this. Lunch? Breaks? Bathrooms? There's no breaks in cache machines! Just hold it. ? Or find something on the way. Rain? Snow? Heat? Landslides? Flooding? Rattlesnakes? Probably, yes. Do what you safely can, and skip ahead when reality or your capabilities don't match the plan. Be prepared and flexible. What do the map symbols mean? Turquoise lines show my suggested route, but if there's a brown trail or grey road that I've drawn in, ignore the turquoise. Red car icons show places to park a car for a short time (usually a trailhead).

No major updates. Looks like stop 3, Color Crayon Cache-Orange, is likely missing. Stop 16, Pac-Man Mania ~ Pac-Man was also DNFed today, but it’s possible that it’s still there. See you tomorrow!

The final route is up. Any changes after this point will be mentioned at dinner on Friday and then in this forum shortly after dinner. Three things to note: 1) I don't think a National Forest Pass is required anywhere on the route, but I could be mistaken. You might want to shell out $5 and have one in your car, just in case. 2) The rose-colored lines on the map indicate Delorme Challenge boundaries. If you're trying to fill that challenge in, note that the SW corner of the route doesn't go into page 39; you should make a side trip to Rice on Friday or Sunday. 3) The pre-event get together on Friday isn't my doing this time -- it's a separate event cache hosted by Grandkids Rock & D’Dawg. Colville Cache Machine final route

Just a heads up before I post the final route in a few weeks: there’s no unofficial pre-event dinner this time. Instead, there’s this event where we can share whatever minimal pre-event last minute stuff needs to be known. https://coord.info/GC7XAQT I’ve coordinated this with the event organizer; we’re on the same page. See y’all there!

You shouldn't have to. I just right-clicked the link and opened it in incognito mode, no login, and saw it just fine. Message me if you're still having trouble getting it.

And here's a first draft for your perusal. Take a look and see if you can figure out where I'm sending people down a road that doesn't exist, or making them ford a river, or making them hike up a vertical wall. If you see something strange like that, please let me know.

Note: circumstances may change after this initial posting. Look for my posts (with the icon) in this thread for all the important details and changes. If you think you've seen this all before, focus on the unique-to-this-event information in red. (Link to dinner event cache) The Colville Chamber of Commerce advertises "Discover our good nature! ... Come to visit us and enjoy our small town hospitality... where outdoor recreation is literally at your doorstep." That means geocaches, right? So fill up the tank, grab your gear, toss down some breakfast at way-too-early o'clock, and start on the route at GC3DY9W Leap. From there, move at your own pace and get as many as you can. Dinner's going to be at South Main Restaurant and Sports Bar, 993 S. Main Street, Colville, (N 48° 32.088 W 117° 54.288). Please log your "will attends" on the event page so I can let the restaurant know how many to expect. Note that some caches on the route map may be marked with a "do not enter" icon . Those cache owners have justifiably asked for their cache to not be on the route, and for the cache to not be sought during the cache machine. The cache is, in the owner's opinion, in a sensitive area, whether it's environmentally unwise, socially sensitive, or physically fragile. Just don't get it. It's not like there's a shortage of caches in the area. Rules: 1) Follow all traffic laws, and drive safely. This is not a race; there are no winners. The only loser will be someone who gets hurt. When someone asks what you're doing, the right answer is honesty: "geocaching". 2) Respect private property, even if the cache owner didn't. Post your DNFs proudly. 3) One logbook entry for "CCM" is fine for most small and micros. Don't go filling up the logbook just because you want to mark your territory. 50 people's names and dates will fill up most one-sheets. Be kind and bring extra paper to add to caches with full logbooks. 4) As with all cache machines, if you find the cache, you'll be the one who has to re-hide it. Hide it as well as you found it. Handing it off to someone else and pointing down saying "it goes there" isn't good enough. Don't be a jerk. The extra 45 seconds isn't going to ruin your day. 5) Be gentle. Some cache containers are fragile, delicate, or weather sensitive. Take your time, double check the cache description, do it right. If you’ve already found a couple of these caches, that’s fine - give us a chance to find the cache, and then we may turn to you for a hint. Suggestions and ''Count me ins'' are welcome on the event page. ---- The Colville Cache Machine FAQ: When is it? Saturday, September 22, 2018. Start time is 6:30 a.m at GC3DY9W Leap. Will it be one large group, will we be split into teams, or what? We'll start as one large group, but after a dozen caches or so, the large groups will likely fragment, and on a long day like this, you'll probably be on your own by the time most people in town are waking up. If you want to go off-route to find Munzees, letterboxes, Pokémon, portals, or Starbucks, well, you do you. Is anything going on before, during, or after? An unofficial informal they-don't-know-we're-coming pre-event dinner will be at Fired Up Brewing, 1235 S Main St at 7:00 PM on Friday, September 21. The official event dinner is this event cache. Hey, there's a cache *right there!* Why aren't we getting that one? My standard answer here is that I try to avoid most multicaches, most puzzle caches, caches that appear to be overly time consuming, and caches that the owner has asked us to avoid. The route is built around highly-favorited caches, so some just didn't make the cut. A cache on your map shows the wrong place to park. // Hey, that road doesn't exist! // That's a long hike! // What's with making us ford the river? Thanks for catching that! Let me know, and I'll incorporate it your fix into the route. Why does the route go way past the dinner time? Is this a two-day event? The extra time is a buffer, in case you're so good that you'd run out of caches before you run out of daylight. I don't expect anyone would be able to hit all of them between sunrise and sunset. Of course, if you wanted to hit them after dinner, or on Sunday, I'm sure you'll be able to find folks to join you. It sounds fun, but I've already found some of them. Then come laugh at us, try to remember where they were, look at the old logbook signatures, or guess when we'll be at the caches you haven't hit yet. Maybe pass your phone number around for us to call when we get stumped. You have X cache on the route, but it's disabled/archived/a long hike. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route (if archived) or may check with the owner (if disabled). X cache is in an environmentally sensitive area. // My cache is physically fragile and I don't want it broken. By all means, let me know. I don't want to send dozens of people there to stomp all over it. I disagree with the whole idea of cache machines. I don't want you finding my cache. Sorry to hear that. It's too bad you've got a neat place to show us that we won't be able to see. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route. What's this gonna cost me? Nothing for the caching. Or, at least, nothing more than it would cost than if you did the trip solo (e.g., paying for your own gas, hotel, and dinner). I'm not collecting any money for this. Lunch? Breaks? Bathrooms? There's no breaks in cache machines! Just hold it. :-P Or find something on the way. Rain? Snow? Heat? Landslides? Flooding? Rattlesnakes? Probably, yes. Do what you safely can, and skip ahead when reality or your capabilities don't match the plan. Be prepared and flexible. What do the map symbols mean? Turquoise lines show my suggested route, but if there's a brown trail or grey road that I've drawn in, ignore the turquoise. Red car icons show places to park a car for a short time (usually a trailhead).

It’s between stops 21 and 22 on the route. I plan on stopping by tomorrow morning. Also, I’ve received word that stop 38, Ashlynn’s Cache (GC2P4AG) has been eaten by a lawnmower. I’m gonna skip that one. And late word of a homeless camp near the Earthcache stop 73, Revitalizing A Neglected Urban Watershed (GC1AV6D). I’d taken a nearby vacate off the route for a similar reason, if I remember right.

Good news: there's no changes since draft 2. Feel free to use draft 2's route if you've already invested effort into it, or you can use this final version. Really: the only difference between the final and draft 2 is the file name and the title on page 1. Any subsequent changes will be announced at the unofficial pre-event dinner on Friday, and in this forum, after dinner.

I'm an old-timey cacher in Lakewood, so I know the area a bit. What about https://coord.info/GC345 , Steilacoom Stash? The cache description states "While you are there, go check out the Steilacoom Marina- it's like something out of a Scooby Doo movie. Rather interesting but scary too!" Based on the description you gave, though, it sounds like there's a private parking lot across the creek from the trail entrance, and I'm not coming up with much that matches. There's Sequalitchew Creek in DuPont, which has a trail down to the sound and opens like you describe. It's a wide freeway of a trail now, but maybe in the early 2000s it was more overgrown. See https://coord.info/GC2MVTG for a nearby cache. Alternatively, there's a slim chance it's Solo Point ( https://goo.gl/maps/uNPbc3e3BgH2 ). That's on Fort Lewis, and civilian access isn't allowed, but there's also nothing preventing it other than signage. I don't remember there ever being a cache down there, though. Third, perhaps you're mis-remembering the Chambers Creek caches? https://coord.info/GC9D48 is one from 2002. It's near the parking for the fish ladder, and a trail up to Fort Steilacoom starts here. The "no train tracks" though... that's tough, as if you're on the beach between Nisqually and the Narrows Bridge, there's going to be heavily used train tracks.

Draft 2 is up! Let me know if I've missed anything. The final draft will be posted here on the TUESDAY before the event (June 19), not on the usual Monday. (I'll be driving back to Tacoma from Pullman most of Monday). Also, note that the SW Washington chapter of the WSGA is hosting a lunch stop! GC7PXTV, Rest / Relax / Eat / Cache On!!! How cool of them is that?

Two things: 1) WSGA Southwest is hosting a lunch stop, Rest / Relax / Eat / Cache On!!! (GC7PXTV), from 10 AM to 2 PM during the cache machine. How cool of them is that? I'll be adjusting the route slightly to include the stop and the caches in this park. 2) It looks like 78 and 79 are outside the park and there's non-park parking nearby. Number 80, GCKT6Z-Smeltdipper is indeed in the park. The parks' parking fee site says: The Google Street View in the area is from before the fees kicked in last year. Any idea if there's still parking available here, next to the pipeline sign?

Thanks for spotting these. My thoughts are in red inline below:

Oops. That's what I get for manually typing the URL instead of copying and pasting, and mentally still living in the 6-digit GC era. https://coord.info/GC7P0Y0 is correct; GCP0Y0 is not. I've emailed the admin to see if I can get that fixed. Thanks for finding that!

How about a first draft? Take a look, and if you know the area, let me know if I've steered folks to the wrong end of a park, into a homeless camp, across a non-existent bridge, or any other ridiculousness. If a particular spot is unexpectedly unsafe, I'd like to know that, too.

Note: circumstances may change after this initial posting. Look for my posts (with the icon) in this thread for all the important details and changes. If you think you've seen this all before, focus on the unique-to-this-event information in red. (Link to dinner event cache) Vancouver (not BC)! Clark County (not Nevada)! Washington (not DC)! It's 29 years older than its Canadian counterpart, 307 miles further south, and chock full of caches. So fill up the tank, grab your gear, toss down some breakfast at way-too-early o'clock, and start on the route at GC6Z7FK Fishing For a Cache. From there, move at your own pace and get as many as you can. Dinner's going to be at Sweet Tomatoes, 12601 SE 2nd Circle (N 45° 37.224 W 122° 32.507). Please log your "will attends" on the event page so I can let the restaurant know how many to expect. Note that some caches on the route map may be marked with a "do not enter" icon . Those cache owners have justifiably asked for their cache to not be on the route, and for the cache to not be sought during the cache machine. The cache is, in the owner's opinion, in a sensitive area, whether it's environmentally unwise, socially sensitive, or physically fragile. Just don't get it. It's not like there's a shortage of caches in the area. Rules: 1) Follow all traffic laws, and drive safely. This is not a race; there are no winners. The only loser will be someone who gets hurt. When someone asks what you're doing, the right answer is honesty: "geocaching". 2) Respect private property, even if the cache owner didn't. Post your DNFs proudly. 3) One logbook entry for "VCM3" is fine for most small and micros. Don't go filling up the logbook just because you want to mark your territory. 50 people's names and dates will fill up most one-sheets. Be kind and bring extra paper to add to caches with full logbooks. 4) As with all cache machines, if you find the cache, you'll be the one who has to re-hide it. Hide it as well as you found it. Handing it off to someone else and pointing down saying "it goes there" isn't good enough. Don't be a jerk. The extra 45 seconds isn't going to ruin your day. 5) Be gentle. Some cache containers are fragile, delicate, or weather sensitive. Take your time, double check the cache description, do it right. If you’ve already found a couple of these caches, that’s fine - give us a chance to find the cache, and then we may turn to you for a hint. Suggestions and ''Count me ins'' are welcome on the event page. ---- The Vancouver Machine II FAQ: When is it? When is the start time? Saturday, June 23, 2018. Start time is 5:15 a.m at GC6Z7FK Fishing For a Cache. Will it be one large group, will we be split into teams, or what? We'll start as one large group, but after a dozen caches or so, the large groups will likely fragment, and on a long day like this, you'll probably be on your own by the time most people in town are waking up. If you want to go off-route to find Munzees, letterboxes, Pokémon, portals, or Starbucks, well, you do you. Is anything going on before, during, or after? An unofficial informal they-don't-know-we're-coming pre-event dinner will be at McMenamins on the Columbia, 1801 SE Columbia River Drive. The official event dinner is this event cache. Hey, there's a cache *right there!* Why aren't we getting that one? My standard answer here is that I try to avoid most multicaches, most puzzle caches, caches that appear to be overly time consuming, and caches that the owner has asked us to avoid. The route is built around highly-favorited caches, so some just didn't make the cut. A cache on your map shows the wrong place to park. // Hey, that road doesn't exist! // That's a long hike! // What's with making us ford the river? Thanks for catching that! Let me know, and I'll incorporate it your fix into the route. Why does the route go way past the dinner time? Is this a two-day event? The extra time is a buffer, in case you're so good that you'd run out of caches before you run out of daylight. I don't expect anyone would be able to hit all of them between sunrise and sunset. Of course, if you wanted to hit them after dinner, or on Sunday, I'm sure you'll be able to find folks to join you. It sounds fun, but I've already found some of them. Then come laugh at us, try to remember where they were, look at the old logbook signatures, or guess when we'll be at the caches you haven't hit yet. Maybe pass your phone number around for us to call when we get stumped. You have X cache on the route, but it's disabled/archived/a long hike. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route (if archived) or may check with the owner (if disabled). X cache is in an environmentally sensitive area. // My cache is physically fragile and I don't want it broken. By all means, let me know. I don't want to send 50 people there to stomp all over it. I disagree with the whole idea of cache machines. I don't want you finding my cache. Sorry to hear that. It's too bad you've got a neat place to show us that we won't be able to see. Let me know, and I'll remove it from the route. What's this gonna cost me? Nothing for the caching. Or, at least, nothing more than it would cost than if you did the trip solo (e.g., paying for your own gas, hotel, and dinner). I'm not collecting any money for this. Lunch? Breaks? Bathrooms? There's no breaks in cache machines! Just hold it. :-P Or find something on the way. Rain? Snow? Scorching Beaverton-like temperatures? Landslides? Flooding? Rattlesnakes? Probably, yes. Do what you safely can, and skip ahead when reality or your capabilities don't match the plan. Be prepared and flexible. What do the map symbols mean? Turquoise lines show my suggested route, but if there's a brown trail or grey road that I've drawn in, ignore the turquoise. Red car icons show places to park a car for a short time (usually a trailhead).