Team Dralasites

Okay, having a little difficulty with the forum today. I didn't see my original post, so I re-posted, but then they both appeared at the same time. So then I tried to delete the newer one, but it said that this forum doesn't allow message deletion. Ack. [This message was edited by Team Dralasites on June 21, 2003 at 11:12 AM.]

We're going to Mt. Diablo for the first time this weekend. What are your favorite caches there? There seem to be a lot of them in the area. We'll be hiking with someone who's recovering from a back injury, so we'll have to stick with easy hikes only, but we'll probably be back again in the future. So feel free to recommend more challenging caches, too. Thanks! Colleen and Andrew Dralasites: biological, not geological.

According to my Lonely Planet book, on Oahu camping is allowed at numerous county beach parks, one botanical garden, and four state parks. You'll need to get permits before you stay, though. Let me know if you need help getting contact information for those. We visited Hawaii in September (staying on the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu), but we only camped on the Big Island. We actually ended up not geocaching as much as we planned, partly because of the trouble of finding an Internet connection, and partly because there were so many other activities we wanted to do (including windsurfing lessons and LOTS of snorkeling). Have fun on your trip! Sure wish we could be joining you. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We hosted a private geocaching adventure for our wedding guests last weekend, and didn't have time to collect all the ammo boxes afterwards. We are posting the coordinates for these boxes, and whoever finds them first gets to keep them. They are the narrow boxes; I'm not sure exactly what the specific dimensions are. Here are the coordinates to the three boxes: Ammo box #1 N 38 53.243' W 120 01.364' Ammo box #2 N 38 55.266' W 120 03.705' Ammo box #3 N 38 57.083' W 120 06.951 One of them is in a pretty high-traffic area; the other two are in slightly more secluded places, and all three are near established caches. None of them should be very difficult to find, since most of our participants had little or no experience with geocaching. We're hoping they'll get picked up soon, since they're not much better than litter where they are right now. It would be helpful if you could post a message here if you pick them up, or if you visit and they're gone. Thanks! Colleen and Andrew Team Dralasites Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We're getting married this weekend at Lake Tahoe, and we set up a geocaching game for our guests to motivate them to explore the beautiful Tahoe area during the day. The only problem is, we still need 1-2 more GPSr's (1 per team) to make our game work. Can anyone bear to part with their GPS for a few days? We know it'll be rough, but it's for a good cause (in a way). Please email us through the site if you can help. We'll find some way to make it up to you afterward. Thanks in advance! Colleen and Andrew Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We're getting married this weekend at Lake Tahoe, and we set up a geocaching game for our guests to motivate them to explore the beautiful Tahoe area during the day. The only problem is, we still need 1-2 more GPSr's (1 per team) to make our game work. Can anyone bear to part with their GPS for a few days? We know it'll be rough, but it's for a good cause (in a way). Please email us through the site if you can help. We'll find some way to make it up to you afterward. Thanks in advance! Colleen and Andrew Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We have no idea why they wanted to do an article on geocaching. Random human interest story? And the reporter did not go geocaching with us. They sent their photographer instead, to follow us around while we went geocaching for the day. It was interesting, actually...that had to be our worst geocaching day ever. Out of the four or so that we went after, we only managed to find one. On a slightly different topic...barefoot and twinkle, we didn't know you were cichlid keepers. We have some Neolamprologus multifasciatus in our apartment. We don't have much room for anything else at the moment, unfortunately. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We have no idea why they wanted to do an article on geocaching. Random human interest story? And the reporter did not go geocaching with us. They sent their photographer instead, to follow us around while we went geocaching for the day. It was interesting, actually...that had to be our worst geocaching day ever. Out of the four or so that we went after, we only managed to find one. On a slightly different topic...barefoot and twinkle, we didn't know you were cichlid keepers. We have some Neolamprologus multifasciatus in our apartment. We don't have much room for anything else at the moment, unfortunately. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

We're the ones mentioned in the article. And we're glad that people in the geocaching community seem to approve of this one; we tried to make sure that geocaching was accurately represented in it. It was great that Mike, the reporter who wrote the story, kept us in the loop as the article was taking shape. I'd say it's a pretty well-written article, especially considering all the extra information we kept feeding him. We couldn't help it-- we love talking about geocaching. Colleen and Andrew Team Dralasites p.s. Here are links to the article: photo of front page: http://www.sportsflea.com/cgi-bin/snapshot/merc/front/page1a.cgi?2002/8/15 the article: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/3867564.htm Dralasites: biological, not geological. [This message was edited by Team Dralasites on August 16, 2002 at 04:01 PM.]

We're the ones mentioned in the article. And we're glad that people in the geocaching community seem to approve of this one; we tried to make sure that geocaching was accurately represented in it. It was great that Mike, the reporter who wrote the story, kept us in the loop as the article was taking shape. I'd say it's a pretty well-written article, especially considering all the extra information we kept feeding him. We couldn't help it-- we love talking about geocaching. Colleen and Andrew Team Dralasites p.s. Here are links to the article: photo of front page: http://www.sportsflea.com/cgi-bin/snapshot/merc/front/page1a.cgi?2002/8/15 the article: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/3867564.htm Dralasites: biological, not geological. [This message was edited by Team Dralasites on August 16, 2002 at 04:01 PM.]

Vasona park... that's the same as Vasona Lake County Park, in Los Gatos, right? I noticed that it was the Citysearch Audience Pick for last year: Best of Citysearch 2001: Best Parks. Anderson Lake County Park-- is that where this cache is located? We visited that cache, but the name of the park escapes me now. Uvas Canyon also sounds good... I haven't been there myself, but I've been curious about it ever since the cache with the walking stick was placed. The only other park we've had firsthand experience with is Quicksilver... but that was for mountain biking, not picnicking or geocaching. (It's the site of my first "real" mtb experience... with bashed helmet and battle scars and everything. ) Actually, does anyone know if there are any caches in that park? Because a while ago we were thinking of putting one in there. Anyway, Andrew and I can probably come to the picnic, no matter which park it's in. It's going to be on a weekend again, right? Let us know if there's anything we can help with (organizing, etc.). Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

Vasona park... that's the same as Vasona Lake County Park, in Los Gatos, right? I noticed that it was the Citysearch Audience Pick for last year: Best of Citysearch 2001: Best Parks. Anderson Lake County Park-- is that where this cache is located? We visited that cache, but the name of the park escapes me now. Uvas Canyon also sounds good... I haven't been there myself, but I've been curious about it ever since the cache with the walking stick was placed. The only other park we've had firsthand experience with is Quicksilver... but that was for mountain biking, not picnicking or geocaching. (It's the site of my first "real" mtb experience... with bashed helmet and battle scars and everything. ) Actually, does anyone know if there are any caches in that park? Because a while ago we were thinking of putting one in there. Anyway, Andrew and I can probably come to the picnic, no matter which park it's in. It's going to be on a weekend again, right? Let us know if there's anything we can help with (organizing, etc.). Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by Stiv the Wanderer: Oh ye of little faith... My brother and noted the same thing, and we are getting ready to put in a cache that should score a 5 in difficulty to get to, but will be oh-so-easy to see. Should frustrate a bunch of really dedicated cachers to see an unvisited cache right smack in the middle if the valley!! Mwa ha ha! We'll be watching for it! Finally, a hard cache that we won't have to drive an hour to get to. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by Stiv the Wanderer: Oh ye of little faith... My brother and noted the same thing, and we are getting ready to put in a cache that should score a 5 in difficulty to get to, but will be oh-so-easy to see. Should frustrate a bunch of really dedicated cachers to see an unvisited cache right smack in the middle if the valley!! Mwa ha ha! We'll be watching for it! Finally, a hard cache that we won't have to drive an hour to get to. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

I'm just happy that geocaching.com doesn't show any banner ads or those pesky pop-ups. I don't need them to send me any trinkets to make it worth my $30. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

I'm just happy that geocaching.com doesn't show any banner ads or those pesky pop-ups. I don't need them to send me any trinkets to make it worth my $30. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Also, your opinion... how do you, (or should you) log cache maintenance? I think it would be nice for anyone looking at the page to know it was checked out and OK on the date the maintenance was done. I agree, it's good to let visitors to your cache page know that the cache is being taken care of. You should log your maintenace visits as "notes" (not "finds"). About the missing pages... I like phantom4099's suggestion of putting multiple copies. Also, do you have a "master copy" that stays in the cache that no one is allowed to take? (So that everyone can at least read the documents, even if there may not be a copy they can take home.) And maybe you should put a big note on your cache page (as well as in the physical logbook?) asking people to report which pages they took so that those pages can be replaced. Good luck! Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by beatnik: Has anyone tried or been successful in recycling bugs. I won't go through the typical sob story about a bug being lost we've had plenty of disscussion on that matter. What is geocaching.com's policy on this. After all we purchased the bugs. Does that mean we technically own the bug's number? Is it wrong to send out an exact replacement for your lost item with an attached card rather than the lost dog tag? beatnik I'm no authority on this, but my guess is that you could re-use the number... as long as you're certain that the bug is truly lost, otherwise it could get messy if you end up with 2 bugs out there using the same number. Also, have you considered using the "copy" tag as a tag? The travel bug page says, "There's no rule that you can't use it, so it's up to you what to do with it!" I'm assuming that would include sending it out as a recycled bug number. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by beatnik: Has anyone tried or been successful in recycling bugs. I won't go through the typical sob story about a bug being lost we've had plenty of disscussion on that matter. What is geocaching.com's policy on this. After all we purchased the bugs. Does that mean we technically own the bug's number? Is it wrong to send out an exact replacement for your lost item with an attached card rather than the lost dog tag? beatnik I'm no authority on this, but my guess is that you could re-use the number... as long as you're certain that the bug is truly lost, otherwise it could get messy if you end up with 2 bugs out there using the same number. Also, have you considered using the "copy" tag as a tag? The travel bug page says, "There's no rule that you can't use it, so it's up to you what to do with it!" I'm assuming that would include sending it out as a recycled bug number. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by nyisutter: My thoughts exactly. Was just thinking a web page for the game is in order. Unfortunately, I am web design challenged. I can supply ideas, but getting them on a page is another story! I was thinking of asking the webmaster for our local geocaching association to help me and then link from our main webpage. But if anyone here is willing to help build a page, just let me know. I can do a webpage for you if you want... just let me know. But maybe there are benefits to working with your local group, such as extra publicity, or a shared interface. You may want to look into it. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

quote:Originally posted by nyisutter: My thoughts exactly. Was just thinking a web page for the game is in order. Unfortunately, I am web design challenged. I can supply ideas, but getting them on a page is another story! I was thinking of asking the webmaster for our local geocaching association to help me and then link from our main webpage. But if anyone here is willing to help build a page, just let me know. I can do a webpage for you if you want... just let me know. But maybe there are benefits to working with your local group, such as extra publicity, or a shared interface. You may want to look into it. Colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

nyisutter, maybe you or someone else should create a central webpage somewhere describing the project and listing all the caches and bugs involved (including their current status). This sounds like a fun project, and we may be interested in maintaining a cache in the San Francisco area-- Bespin? But we're reluctant to volunteer unless/until we can find a suitable place for a new cache. colleen Dralasites: biological, not geological.

Yeah, this is one of those things that people seem to disagree on. Personally, I would have logged the first visit as a "note", and the second time as a "found" (a new entry). I only use the "not found" option as a way to alert the owner (and potential visitors) that the cache might have gone missing. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

I agree with the others, that it should be marked as a "not found". To me, the "not found" option means "it probably isn't there anymore". There shouldn't be any dishonor or stigma involved with logging a "not found". You're just conveying some useful information about the cache to its owner and any potential cache visitors. Marking the cache as a find when you clearly didn't find it would be untrue and misleading. Dralasites: biological, not geological.

For our first two travel bugs, we sent out a pair of mini beanie babies-- a sheep and a giraffe. The sheep has made it through about 5 caches so far, but the giraffe went missing after the second cache. In hindsight, we now suspect that both of them were too cute to be travel bugs. I'm imagining a scenario where someone just took off those pesky tags around his neck (including the laminated card with detailed instructions) and gave it to their kid to keep. Poor Twigs, he didn't even come close to reaching his destination (England). Dralasites: biological, not geological.