Mr. Gadget #2

Bench marks have not been that big of a deal for me to log as found. I have and will continue to use benchmarks as a reference point for some of my geocache hides when and where they are close to a cache I may hide. Places like Fire Lookout sites, and mountain tops. Glad there is still an place where those who like benchmarking can continue through the way marking link.

I have a question in regards to Wherigo. Being Ground peak has taken over the Wherigo app updates, does it still work on GPSs like the Colorado, Oregon(s)? I have an Oregon 550t and the Colorado 400t it has the Wherigo feature built into it. Recently I tried a Wherigo cache with the Oregon 550t, and I could not get it to find the cartridge to proceed.

Where can I find GSAK to install on a new computer? I have used GSAK for several years. Bit my problem is that computer just crashed and I can not get anything form it.

Travisl, Where is the pre event gathering going to be held on Friday evening 3-23-18? I recall seeing something posted earlier and I failed to make note of it.

Travis, The road from Door No.2 near Corfu up to the top of Saddle Mountain requires a high clearance vehicle and this time of year 4WD may be necessary if the road is soft. The Earth cache is doable by most any street vehicle going in off of SR 24 from the South. I have been up there both ways.

Travis, I have looked over the route for the Quincy/ Ephrata cache machine and offer some changes that should be considered. Route Changes for the Quincy Cache machine. The following cache sequence locations should be changed to this sequence: 29, 32,31,30 Turn around after finding Cache No. 29… Unless you have a high clearance all wheel drive vehicle. The route noted is the Old Hwy and is bermed up at both ends. The next cache would be No. 32 Parking is along the East Bound SR 28, and only room for one vehicle to park. No. 31 would be next. Turn off SR 28 at N47⁰ 14.166’ W120⁰ 02.923’, Road is passable with most vehicles until the berm of dirt. Blocking the road. (4x4 high clearance can drive over it,) No 30 is beyond the berm and up the hill a short distance. Cache No. 50 to 57 status is unknown were in the wild land fire area from July, and conditions are not known. Caches on the Old Ephrata Air Base (83,84,85,86) are walks. The streets to these are closed off and are not maintained. Some will be a ½ mile or more of a walk one way depending where you park.

I do not know if this is my problem or has others noticed it missing also. I am referring to the link on the profile page where you could click on "Newest in Washington" and it would take you to all of the latest events and caches published. It is gone and I would like to see it returned. Or is it hid somewhere else andI have not found it yet. I had to go about finding what I was after through a more lengthly difficult way. I hope this is only a short term shortcoming. -G-

Are you guilty? “I am” The Wenatchee Cache Machine II is over and several cache seekers found many caches while visiting here. However there is also a dark side of this fun event. One of which I am guilty of participating in. It is relates to how some cache containers are attached to trees. I urge all to go back frequently and revisit the cache placement guide lines. I have not for several years, and there are a lot of changes and additions to them since I first started hiding caches over 6 years ago. I have a series of caches referred to as “Signature Caches”, most of which are bird houses, and are attached to trees. The first was placed back in 2005. I created these caches to provide a lot of entertainment and at times frustrations while figuring out how to access them to get to the log sheet. I crossed over the line when I recently had to replace my “Signature Cache GCNQMK”. I made the bad choice by boring a hole into this tree to place the cache container. I was asked about it from fellow cachers as the event dinner and I told this individual I was sure it was a dead tree. This is a NO NO, and as result a volunteer cache reviewer, had to archive this cache listing. This reviewer also sent me a personal email and the link explaining my mistake. I accept my wrong doings and it will be back to the drawing board for me to arrive with a better method for this line of cache containers. So to all of you other cache hiders, I urge you to revisit our cache hiding guidelines from time to time. There have been some changes over the years. I am sure there are others out there who may be as guilty as me. My Signature Cache series may be a thing of the past, as they are setting a poor example of cache placement. Mr. Gadget #2

Today I had the opportunity to meet dennisro and a cache near the Grant County Airport. He ia a very nice polite young man, a New York Transplant. He said he does not miss the misserable weather they are having back on the East coast. He also likes to do hiking caches. It would be nice if we are planning to be out and about going for a cache or two, to contact dennisro and ask him tag along. Lets welcome dennisro to Central Washington -G-

This evening was the first time I have had to look at the forums for quite a while. You can not imagine how shocked I was when I open the topic of Allanon and read the sad new of Brian's passing. Brian seemed to be alway there at events. He would put the effort to travel many miles in all kinds of weather just to socialize with his fellow cachers. One comes to mind when he showed up in Wenatchee, and they had to drive over the pass in the snow. I am sure Brain was at every cache maching I have been to. One of my best memories was the time Brian, Little Blue and Andrewrj came over to join a local group in the crossing of the Wenatchee River (wading in waist to chest deep water) going after "Pinball", a cache on an island in the Wenatchee River. Brain may be gone but we all will have many fond memories. -G-

If it is not to late, I will take a set of five. Thanks Mr. Gadget #2

Congrats to K-Ddid for logging #1900 at Lake Missoula "Pebbles" cache today. He did it at one of his most favorite type of geo caches, an Earth cache. Nice work to add to your Earth Cache Maaster Platinum Level.

It is nice to see more milestone cache finds logged amongst the Cachecadians. Three in two day is really neat. Congrats to: mmauvil for #1100, g-people for #1700 on 1-29-2010 and The Navigatorz for #2900 on 1-30-2010

Even with the winter months upon us there are some local geo-cachers who have reached some milestone cache finds. Congratulations go out to: • Barnabirdy(s) for cache find # 6900 on 12-30-2009 • Lansearch for cache find # 1200 on 12-30-2009 • Medicrncen for cache find # 1000 on 12-31-2009 We also need to say thanks to g-people, medicrncen, mmauvil, and The Navigatorz for placing several winter friendly caches this past month

It has been a while since anyone has logged on this thread. There are a couple of locals who have made a major milestone cache find this past month. CONGRATULATIONS GO OUT TO : g-people who made #1500 just before thier 4 year anniversary of geocaching. and CONGRATULATIONS TO Max-x for reaching #1500 also this past weekend. Great job and we will be watching for the next milestone.

[b]]Congrats to g-people for reaching #1400[/color].[/b] Good luck with getting to 1500 by your 4 yr. anniv. in August.

I have tried three different times and still no success. Being this in Memorial Day weekend, I hope this is not a sign for us to take a moment and remember a has been PQ system.

K-Ddid here. Saturday or Sunday any weekend is good for me. None of those dates fall on my birthday which isn't a biggy anyway. Now WHO are you trying to kid.. Any one who is in their mid Eighties and still tromping the hills like you do is a very big "Biggy" in all of our eyes. There are a lot of us who wish we could be able to follow in your foot steps.

Any information you could share about the hike to those caches, such as distance round trip? Blythe Bounty is high upon the bluff overlooking Blythe Lake. It is a long hike if you park at the parking area at Blythe Lake. I am guessng 2 - 2 1/2 miles I parked further North and had little over a mile hike. Problem is ther was not much of a parking spot. Blythe Creater is on the way to Upper Goose Lake About 1/8 to 1/4 mile off of the trail. Upper Goose is about a 2-1/2 mile hike as I recall. It is important you do take the longer route to get there. There is a surprise if one decides to take the short LOS route. I would plan on taking a full day if you want to get all of the caches. And if you want to get all of the caches in the area. Start Real early and go until dark. There are aorund 30 caches within a 6 mile radius of Blythes Bounty. The hikes for these are easy. You cold rack up 15 to 20 miles. There are some that are almost drive by's also.

Nice going Max-x for the 1300 milestone.

I am about to have Team Misguided lock this topic. I will wait for a few days to see in anyone else wants to jump in. I have never met or do not know any of the members of T & S Caches. During this past few days there has been some very positive things take place. "T" of the team has contacted me via email(s) We have discussed some of our differences. Even with some of my concerns not being answered, I feel very positive this tiff is behind us. I have seen some improvement on some of their recent finds. So in turn, I went back and edited my logs on 3 of their recent caches. Maybe some time in the future at a event or at a cache, I may get the chance to meet them. Mr. G2

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this topic. At this time I wish to clarify some doubts in some of the comments generated so far. The positive thing is; it has provoked the thought process and sharing of different views. This is not an overnight occurrence that just happened. The negativism has been festering for some time. There are others in the area that are having issues. I just happen to be the one to bring it to a head. Yes I should have been a little softer or struck out any identifiers other than the GC#’s in the copy of the email I posted, criticism well taken. Short and brief logs posted. Yes my logs on their caches are currently brief. In the beginning I was more complementary in my logs for their found caches. After issues arose, things changed. The encrypted log on my entry for the Stickers cache, I did not encrypt it. The cache owner opted to do this. The PYN and NSV: WRASTRO gets a attaboy! Pad You Numbers and No Significant Value Maybe I should have waited a few more days and let the boiling pot simmer and cool down before it boiled over. My initial gut reaction was to call it as it was “A spade a spade” I am sorry if I came across as being so cold and callous. I do feel much better getting it off of my chest. –G-

In the past few weeks several situataions have taken plalce over several local caches by T & S Caches which is a mother daughter team that have been placing very high maintenance caches whic also are on the verge of being considered to be almost geo litter. We have been finding them simply for a PYN cache and really they have NSV cache status. Yesterday I recieved an email from one of team menbers regarding a log entry I wrote on one of their caches. They even encrypted my log. I sat on this over night and decided to respond in a very diplomatic way. I will include a copy of the email in this post. . This raises the question: What is cache etiquette. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Geocaching" <noreply@geocaching.com> To: <eugene.reed2@verizon.net> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 6:06 PM Subject: [GEO] savage04 contacting Mr. Gadget #2 from Geocaching.com thanks for giving away stickers for everyone User's Profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=8f...eb-bf4e0cad555f ------------------------------------------------------------ Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com thanks for giving away stickers for everyone User's Profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=8f...eb-bf4e0cad555f ------------------------------------------------------------ Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com Copy of an email sent to Mr. Gadget #2 from savage04 1/31/2009 6:06 pm thanks for giving away stickers for everyone User's Profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=8f...eb-bf4e0cad555f ------------------------------------------------------------ Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com My log entry was: "Quick Rd side PYN cache Tnks -G- ************************************************************************************* Sunday Feb. 1, 2009 Greetings to "T" of T & S Caches, (savage 04) and" S" of T & S Caches lys74517 What is your problem? It is apparent to me; you are not a very happy people. Your conduct is becoming a topic of discussion amongst other cachers in the Wenatchee area. I have been privilege with some emails exchanges others have shared to you or about you, regarding your actions with cache logs, or your style and type of cache hides. I need to advise you that I take exception to your personal attacks you have displayed towards me personally. To start with lys74517's cache GC1D9YM Pooders Hide, I posted a parking coordinates with my original log for a public location that one must use to go after this cache. If you take a moment to notice on the "Log your visit page" there is a place we can use to add additional way points that are pertinent to the logs or the cache. One must be very careful not to misuse this feature in any way which will give away hidden locations or details in a puzzle or multi-cache. lys74517 did not approve of my original log, and then deleted my log just because of a valid entry. This action really was uncalled for. So I simply posted "found it logged it. As before I mentioned via a note on the cache page, my intent was to help others to go where to park. When gercachers have GPS units that have the capability for auto routing, the most direct route will lead you into a private driveway and still a great distance from the cache location on Pooders Hide. When your cache GC1J0Z0 "Can You See Her Fly" was published, you took a personal attack towards me with the snide comment: (PS "Gadget don't give this one away!!!") This simply was an insult as far as I am concerned. Now regarding my log entries on any of your hides never has my log given away where the hide was at. There was a lot of discussion over this. I was pleased when you rightfully deleted this comment from the later version of the cache page. Then yesterday I get your email sent to me regarding GC1KVXK "Stickers". Wow! I am still scratching my head trying to figure out how my log entry has given this cache away to everyone. I welcome you to respond to this. I hope today is better for you than yesterday Gene Reed, (user name: Mr. Gadget #2 geocaching.com)

Nice going Tudles-