Parsa

1. The prime meridian (zero longitude) was, I believe, once defined by a crater called Mostling. I think that the standard now is based on the mean (average) line connecting the earth and moon. On Mars, the prime meridian is centered on a crater called Airy, which is enormously appropriate, because Sir George Airy was one of the scientists who established the Greenwich meridian on Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/17mgsairy0/ On Mercury the prime meridian doesn't go through a crater. Instead +20 does... it goes through the crater Hun Kal, which mean "twenty" in Mayan! Latitude is, of course, based on the spin axis, just like earth. 2. I think on the moon we have some future landmarks. All the spacecraft that have landed will last for thousands of years without much deterioration except from meteorites. So, visiting the Apollo 11 lunar module (the base) would make a lunarcache for instance.

1. The prime meridian (zero longitude) was, I believe, once defined by a crater called Mostling. I think that the standard now is based on the mean (average) line connecting the earth and moon. On Mars, the prime meridian is centered on a crater called Airy, which is enormously appropriate, because Sir George Airy was one of the scientists who established the Greenwich meridian on Earth. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0102/17mgsairy0/ On Mercury the prime meridian doesn't go through a crater. Instead +20 does... it goes through the crater Hun Kal, which mean "twenty" in Mayan! Latitude is, of course, based on the spin axis, just like earth. 2. I think on the moon we have some future landmarks. All the spacecraft that have landed will last for thousands of years without much deterioration except from meteorites. So, visiting the Apollo 11 lunar module (the base) would make a lunarcache for instance.

quote:Originally posted by BassoonPilot: Assuming that everyone follows precisely the same route to the various stages . . . how likely is _that_? ***** __* __* __* 8 caches show up like this on the screen. Ignore the tracks (or turn them off). What's the letter?

Everyone in San Diego County will tell you that the most interesting logs in the county are by Yrium himself... Here's one as a typical example: January 20 by yrium (79 found) Gromit has been glaring at me all day. He mopes around a bit then comes back to glare at me some more. The Wonderdog is not having his dream weekend. We had been meaning to visit the Hellhole #1 cache yesterday but met with a couple of obstacles. Well one obstacle really, they don’t allow dogs and Gromit to the uninitiated person looks dramatically like a dog in a lot of ways. He’s got the furry ears like dogs do… He has a long wet nose like dogs do… He runs around on all fours like dogs do… So I can see how people get him confused. Anyway, after an hour of riding around in the car looking for an alternate way to the Hellhole #1 cache that didn’t involved going thru the preserve we gave up and came back home. That was yesterday, today I’ve been watching football all day enjoying myself, Glares from Gromit not withstanding. It’s the heavy sighs that he lets out now and again that are really breaking my heart. “We’ll go as soon as the game is over, I swear!” Okay the games over we head for the car. The sun has just gone down and it looks like we have about a ½ hour till it gets really dark. Will that be long enough? Nope, heavy traffic on the road keeps us from even getting to the trailhead till dusk is over. Not deterred, I just make sure I have my windup flashlight with me and we start out. Its still light enough so I don’t have to crank it up for a while. Gromit enjoyed this trail last year when we went hunting the WOODPECKER cache and he’s loving it again. There are a lot of dogs with their companions leaving for home now that we greet as we walk along and the smells emanating from the bushes and trees and ruts in the road are scoring me mucho points with the wonderdog. I don’t think he’ll be giving me the eye any more today! Okay, now its pretty dark, I have to resort to my flashlight to insure I don’t misstep. Whistlestick, knowing the geekiness innate to her husband’s psyche bought me a wind up flashlight that doesn’t use batteries. Ignoring puzzling-wondering looks from others has always been one of my fortes, so I have no problem using the laughable flashlight. “click..click..click..click..click…” emanates into the darkness as I crank away. Only sixty turns and I’ll be rewarded with a blinding beam of photons that will pierce the gloom. “… click..click..click..click!” and I’m done! Now to turn it on. Oh its so bright! I’m blinded I’m blinded! I can’t see it’s so intense! Oh err I’m going to confess here… I’m exaggerating a tad. The piercing beam is actually much more sedate, truth Sayers would probably use the word glow. The luminous glow softly lights our way in much the same way two tired fireflies on the Atkins diet would. We can see, but Gromit and I are heavily into squinting. I begin to have doubts that we will find the cache, but we continue on into the inky blackness. You get a bit of an atavistic thrill walking through the dark at night with a puny flashlight. Imagining wolves and coyotes behind every dark shadow adds a lot to the enjoyment of the hunt. I recommend walking this trail at night for a change of pace. The GPS is telling us we are near and I see a jumble of boulders and cracked rock festooned with creeper vines and surrounded by spiny brambly branches. Oh, that’s not going to be fun clambering over in the dark! We circled the mineral outcropping as I studied the GPS readings. Hmmmmm, all of a sudden it’s saying I’m still a hundred feet away. We move off a bit and narrow down our search radius again. Now I’m seeing a much more limited number of places for hiding the micro-cache. I investigate each place with tentative fingers till I touch the light cool plastic of the film canister. Eureka! We found it in the dark, and here Gromit was looking at me like I was crazy. That will show him. I took the dollar bill in the cache and replaced it with a stamped one as is my wont and then for an added bonus I added a key chain ring. No log to sign so I’m done. With a faint POP I sealed the cache and placed it back in its spot. I wonder what this area looks like in daylight? I can’t tell how much greenery is around me to know if it’s shady during the day or not. The towering tree nearby lords it over this little area. I bet its quite bucolic. Only one last incident to relate before my log is done, I’ve had to re-crank the flashlight three times more to light our way back out when I see another flashlight bobbing in the distance. Seems we have another nocturnal pedestrian. We get closer and closer till about 20 paces separate us when the oncoming hiker shines his light straight in my face! Is this acceptable behavior? Seems rude to me. I’m walking around with the light from a glowworm and this guy has just ruined my night vision. Now I have to stand still for a bit for it to come back. Let me talk to this guy’s mother! As we pass I offer just a terse “evening” and walk on by. Was that guy silently bragging about his bright flashlight? Kinda making a statement about the relative candlepowers of our respective bulbs? Less confident individuals than yours truly might have been miffed by the comparison but I just continued smugly on. Bet he can’t crank his up when the batteries give out. Thanks Mark and Marc for the cache. Gromit thanks you too.

Everyone in San Diego County will tell you that the most interesting logs in the county are by Yrium himself... Here's one as a typical example: January 20 by yrium (79 found) Gromit has been glaring at me all day. He mopes around a bit then comes back to glare at me some more. The Wonderdog is not having his dream weekend. We had been meaning to visit the Hellhole #1 cache yesterday but met with a couple of obstacles. Well one obstacle really, they don’t allow dogs and Gromit to the uninitiated person looks dramatically like a dog in a lot of ways. He’s got the furry ears like dogs do… He has a long wet nose like dogs do… He runs around on all fours like dogs do… So I can see how people get him confused. Anyway, after an hour of riding around in the car looking for an alternate way to the Hellhole #1 cache that didn’t involved going thru the preserve we gave up and came back home. That was yesterday, today I’ve been watching football all day enjoying myself, Glares from Gromit not withstanding. It’s the heavy sighs that he lets out now and again that are really breaking my heart. “We’ll go as soon as the game is over, I swear!” Okay the games over we head for the car. The sun has just gone down and it looks like we have about a ½ hour till it gets really dark. Will that be long enough? Nope, heavy traffic on the road keeps us from even getting to the trailhead till dusk is over. Not deterred, I just make sure I have my windup flashlight with me and we start out. Its still light enough so I don’t have to crank it up for a while. Gromit enjoyed this trail last year when we went hunting the WOODPECKER cache and he’s loving it again. There are a lot of dogs with their companions leaving for home now that we greet as we walk along and the smells emanating from the bushes and trees and ruts in the road are scoring me mucho points with the wonderdog. I don’t think he’ll be giving me the eye any more today! Okay, now its pretty dark, I have to resort to my flashlight to insure I don’t misstep. Whistlestick, knowing the geekiness innate to her husband’s psyche bought me a wind up flashlight that doesn’t use batteries. Ignoring puzzling-wondering looks from others has always been one of my fortes, so I have no problem using the laughable flashlight. “click..click..click..click..click…” emanates into the darkness as I crank away. Only sixty turns and I’ll be rewarded with a blinding beam of photons that will pierce the gloom. “… click..click..click..click!” and I’m done! Now to turn it on. Oh its so bright! I’m blinded I’m blinded! I can’t see it’s so intense! Oh err I’m going to confess here… I’m exaggerating a tad. The piercing beam is actually much more sedate, truth Sayers would probably use the word glow. The luminous glow softly lights our way in much the same way two tired fireflies on the Atkins diet would. We can see, but Gromit and I are heavily into squinting. I begin to have doubts that we will find the cache, but we continue on into the inky blackness. You get a bit of an atavistic thrill walking through the dark at night with a puny flashlight. Imagining wolves and coyotes behind every dark shadow adds a lot to the enjoyment of the hunt. I recommend walking this trail at night for a change of pace. The GPS is telling us we are near and I see a jumble of boulders and cracked rock festooned with creeper vines and surrounded by spiny brambly branches. Oh, that’s not going to be fun clambering over in the dark! We circled the mineral outcropping as I studied the GPS readings. Hmmmmm, all of a sudden it’s saying I’m still a hundred feet away. We move off a bit and narrow down our search radius again. Now I’m seeing a much more limited number of places for hiding the micro-cache. I investigate each place with tentative fingers till I touch the light cool plastic of the film canister. Eureka! We found it in the dark, and here Gromit was looking at me like I was crazy. That will show him. I took the dollar bill in the cache and replaced it with a stamped one as is my wont and then for an added bonus I added a key chain ring. No log to sign so I’m done. With a faint POP I sealed the cache and placed it back in its spot. I wonder what this area looks like in daylight? I can’t tell how much greenery is around me to know if it’s shady during the day or not. The towering tree nearby lords it over this little area. I bet its quite bucolic. Only one last incident to relate before my log is done, I’ve had to re-crank the flashlight three times more to light our way back out when I see another flashlight bobbing in the distance. Seems we have another nocturnal pedestrian. We get closer and closer till about 20 paces separate us when the oncoming hiker shines his light straight in my face! Is this acceptable behavior? Seems rude to me. I’m walking around with the light from a glowworm and this guy has just ruined my night vision. Now I have to stand still for a bit for it to come back. Let me talk to this guy’s mother! As we pass I offer just a terse “evening” and walk on by. Was that guy silently bragging about his bright flashlight? Kinda making a statement about the relative candlepowers of our respective bulbs? Less confident individuals than yours truly might have been miffed by the comparison but I just continued smugly on. Bet he can’t crank his up when the batteries give out. Thanks Mark and Marc for the cache. Gromit thanks you too.

My record so far is 13 caches in a day (San Diego area). I would have had 14, as a cache appeared near the last one that very afternoon. I didn't find out about it until that evening. I also planned my own first cache that day as well (taking coordinates, etc.), so it was a productive day. I've also done 10, 8, and 6 cache "marathons." Admittedly, these were easier caches. Most were under 2* for difficulty and terrain. You have to plan ahead to do a good marathon.

You could have a multiple cache in which the geocacher goes from cache to cache in an area. Then after they've been to all the caches, the points on the GPS receiver will map out a letter or symbol. This could be emailed to the cache owner as proof.

Niliishi kitika nchi ya Kenya kwa miaka mawili. I lived in Kenya for two years... I was in the U.S. Peace Corps and we had three months of training in Naivasha (just south of town at a training center called Malaika). I also visited Lake Nakuru. The description given is perfectly consistant with the area. The sisal farms, the volcanic nature of the area (there's a huge geothermal plant in Hells Canyon), the incredible number of flamingoes, etc. I've been thinking of making my former school (where I taught) into a geocache. Tourists never visit because it's not next to a game park, but the area is incredibly beautiful. There is wildlife within driving distance if you go just a bit to the north. It's sort of the southern extension of the same forest as Aberdare National Park. I saw monkeys, colorful tropical birds and "evidence" of elephants. The real treasure are the people. What do you think of the idea of geocachers visiting the school and the village... meeting "real" Kenyans then posting your stories online? You could ask permission from the headmaster to talk to the kids about your country. I'd know if they were real by the descriptions (emailed to me first) and by the stories about the "mzungu" (white guy) who used to live there 12 years ago. I was there for 2 years, so a lot of the young adults (who speak English) had me as a teacher.