Muggermots

And on KATU news... and on KPTV... the KOIN article just mentions GPS, not geocaching... grumble, grumble a much better one on KGW news with more geocaching info...

The Pipeline cache near Hood River may or may not be there, but worse, rumor has it that large portions of the pipeline itself may be damaged- and will probably not be replaced. Don't think anybody's going to get down in there to check it out until the water recedes some--- and it would help if it would stop raining. Access roads were still closed today, and water was still high, though nowhere near what it was. For pic and story: HR News - Trestle Bridge For News Video: Katu News story For comparison in drier weather: My pics Another one Someone else's pic- slightly different view

On the Hood River New's website. Dam to close in 2010 County eyes Powerdale lands for recreation or electricity use

Just saw it here, Portland area. Seemed like a pretty positive story to me. I was pleased they showed kids and thought the older couple was cute... and their caches looked pretty urban to me. Didn't look much like they were being discreet... but then, how would one be discreet with a camera crew?

I'm not sure what is going on, but I was only able to get the website once this weekend... and not for lack of trying. This morning, it mostly worked, but right now, I'm getting the same old message... Doesn't seem right to be paying for premium access to a website that isn't available to use, now, does it? Can't even get to the contact page to let them know about it - and the only way I'm able to reach the forums is because I know the url... and it's on Groundspeak.com, not geocaching.com. Something else that might be good to think about... a lot of websites have a status page that remains up and reachable even if everything else goes down... it would be nice to see SOMETHING, as I'm pretty frustrated with it right now.

In case you come back and look, I got in via Firefox, but I went through the Waymarking site. (And discovered I can go in direct, type-in.) But I cannot get in via the link on the main page with firefox. It hadn't occured to me to try explorer. I just don't use it anymore unless I absolutely have to.

Yeah, this is probably one of the crazier questions. And if this is the wrong place, feel free to move it. I can't seem to find an answer by searching, but it's quite possible I just don't know what to look for. I'm wondering, just how far is it, say from N 45° 41.395 to N 45° 41.396. Or even from N 45° 41.380 to N 45° 41.390. Is it the same or different then it would be from W 121° 32.572 to W 121° 32.573 or from W 121° 32.560 to W 121° 32.570? Are the distances standard, or do they vary from one area to another? If they vary, why, and how much do they vary? And yes, I'm wanting to draw (small area) maps... mostly for kids to use. Any help, or even any efforts to reduce my confusion, are quite welcome. TIA

Feds approve plans to remove a dam on the Hood River Figured I'd let the interested know. I'm actually a bit concerned about this--- I'm yet to be convinced this is going to improve anything... and may instead be detrimental to the whole area. But then, this section of the river has been a favorite place of mine since I was a toddler. I have no idea the end result will be for the penstock and the walkway... so many locals use it that it'd be a shame to have it disappear. If they really intend to keep it open to public use, perhaps something can be done to see that it remains a thru trail to the dam. We can hope, right? Then again... if the dam is gone, would there still be the right of way through the orchards to the fishing area? Something else I wouldn't mind seeing, though I don't know if the hillside would allow it, is to see Indian Creek trail somehow meet up with the paths below... I know it was possible at one time to go from the end of Eliot Drive clear down to the river, without it being too steep, but that's farther south then Indian Creek trail. (And that's from a time when kids didn't have to check in til dinner time, if then, and nobody cared whose property was whose... so other things then times may have changed.)

I'm thinking a catagory for playgrounds that are available for public use. I wouldn't want to say restrict it to just parks, because all of the schools here locally allow use when school is not in session. (Be it summer, weekends, evenings... I've seen homeschoolers on the playground between recesses.) That seems to be a fairly common thing... where there's a playground, kids will play. It'd be useful for vacationing families, families who've moved to a new area... even those who've lived in an area for years and "never noticed the little park over there".

I should have said, Lost Lake is the only one I'm sure it isn't. I'm too familiar with that area for it to be the right one, and it isn't really the right layout of road and lake... at least from what I remember. When you first drive up to the lake there, you're coming up to it perpendicular to the shoreline, and what I'm remembering, there is a part of the lake straight ahead, and yet part of it almost parallel to the road in the area where the dock is. And there's just no docks like that. Yes, this is bugging the daylights out of me. You have that one right on the money. For some reason, the dock is what sticks in my head. It seems odd to me too, to have a dock, expecially a square one, like that, but it seems right. I hope I'm not mixing up two places into one.

This is slightly off-topic, but you guys are the best resource I know for "what is where" out in the NW forests, and so I'm asking in hopes that someone recognizes it. I'm thinking Mt. Hood to Portland area, perhaps. Perhaps somewhere reachable by driving south on Hwy 35 and then around the mountain on Hwy 26 to the Portland area, but really, anyplace within 2-3 hours of Portland would be reasonable, and I'd like to hear about anywhere in the Northwest that you feel really, really fits this description, limited though it is. There's a lake there, and a dock. The dock is square, or nearly so. That's important. Not sure what material the dock is made of, I think wood, but might be metal or something else. The road either goes right up to the lake, or fairly close. Even if it's not really road, it's hard packed dirt or something sturdy enough for a vehicle to get fairly close to the water and the dock. The dock is right next to the land, not floating out in the middle, like something you'd swim to. There are hills fairly nearby, and there are trees, though not right up against the lake at point I'm talking about. Not sure if they're everygreen or deciduous or both, sorry, can't remember. I think the hills are mostly evergreen. Across the lake from the vantage of the road, part of the hillside is bare. It's rock, I think. Those falling sharp-edged kind of lightish-grey ones. The lake seems to bend off the left, as it moves behind a spit of land. I don't remember seeing a mountain from where I'm standing. It might be out on 4x4 only roads, or might be closer to populated areas. Either way, it has an isolated, abandoned feel to it. Especially in October or November. And now I'm going to post this, and go away, and hope someone reads it and knows where it is, so they can tell me and I can go look at it, and say, yup, that's it, now, lake place, would you please stop driving me crazy with trying to figure out where you are??

Those statistics can't be right. You were talking about the general population right? Current statistics reported by professionals working in the field are that 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 3 girls will be sexually abused by age 18. Numbers show that, for reported cases only, the numbers are that 1 in 10 adults is a child molester. The number of women works out to about 3% of those. So out of 1000 adults, 100 will be molesters, 97 of them male, and 3 female. And that all of those figures above are believed to be drastically under-reported. Actual numbers may be two or three times that. Nearly all actual sexual abuses on children are committed by someone they (and most especially, their parents) know and trust. That said, I'm an overly cautious parent... and I still wouldn't have a problem with someone caching in a local park or playground. Big difference between someone obviously at a task, and someone observing or trying to talk to my kids. But then, funny thing... kids are pretty darn safe when a parent is actually SUPERVISING them... something many people seem to have forgotten these days. I should qualify that... make that "safe from people"... it doesn't seem to keep them from falling off the tire swing when mom is ten feet away and just not fast enough!

Thank you for the laugh- and the interesting idea... wasn't expecting to see a puzzle that resembles some of my 9-yr-old's math homework assignments! I'm going to have to look over that idea a bit more...

I was getting them, and mine stopped, too. Not sure when they did, since I delete them after I look at them, but I haven't gotten one for the two most recent new caches in the area.

I'd been watching and waiting, but none were nearer then the Portland area (an hour drive from me) and then I checked the local list Saturday and got a shock- a jeep had been dropped off just five miles from my house. So I pestered and pleaded with my neighbor, since my car is in the "doesn't go out of town" stage of misbehavior, and we went and grabbed it.

I'm thinking you're calling The Pipeline* the popular one, so won't mention it. (lol) Another close-to-the-freeway one is Wah Gwin Gwin, and it's beautiful down there right now. Hood River - Suspended is an interesting micro. So is Hood River - Flights Of Fancy - it might be quite the surprise for a non-local.

You could kill lame with "nice", I suppose... as that's what "nice" often means. As in not enjoyable or unique or difficult or any other potentially positive adjective to have said adjective applied to it... But not even awful enough to be attain a creatively derogatory appellation.

I have six of them (Rayovac) that I've had a little over three years now. I have a little 4-space charger. They're used in my digital cameras, handheld video games, and now in the GPS. I love the darn things. Most of the time, it takes less then 15 minutes. I haven't experienced any loss of charging ability that I've noticed... Can take the average amount of pictures on one particular camera using approximately the same amount of time "on" as I did when I originally bought them. I hated the long-rechargables I had previously. That took too much planning, and they lost a lot of charge waiting between uses. These don't seem to lose much charge when not in use. I was a bit dubious at the price to start with, but it's been worth the extra $$. If I could just find some as reliable and never-ending for my laptop, cell phone, and PDA, I would be one seriously happy battery-camper.

Fort Vancouver Regional library's online databases include one that has many regionally-related maps... I was looking for old city maps at the time, so I don't know what else might be there, but it might be worth checking out.

Chanting: Gorge, Gorge, Gorge, Gorge... Huh? What was that? Oh, don't mind me... I'm just attempting... yeah, attempting... um... to uh, encourage some of those to travel slightly eastward. Yeah, that's it.

Now, I can see the point of the GPS being in it. But I really don't like the idea of requiring ME to be in them, either. And I see there are an awful lot of logs that have the GPS + the hand holding the GPS, and that's it. Seems like those are permissible since there are multitudes of them on the locationless caches that request a person in the photo?

Thank you! Nice to know I'm not imagining things or missing seeing them. The cache you mention is too far from my location this time, but I'll keep watching and hoping. Looking forward to playing with the jeep and the camera... terrible having all these ideas and no jeeps to go find, lol.

I'd figured there would be some out by now, but still haven't even seen any in the PDX area... has anyone heard anything?

Ah ha! Must have been you, Klossner, cause Starvation Creek was one of the places we stopped at. And I think it was Oregon plates, though being from the gorge, I've pretty much stopped paying any attention at all to the states, since I've literally seen them all here. All I remember is that it was parked somewhere, and at the time I was wondering what the heck the letters stood for. Thanks for letting me know I wasn't seeing things...

I think I saw this plate last week in the Gorge... it's driving me crazy cause I'm not sure if I caught it right or not. I figure if someone's dedicated enough to have that vanity plate, then someone around here just HAS to know who they are! Satisfy my curiousity and let me know I'm not (entirely) crazy.