GClouse
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Posts posted by GClouse
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I do most of my caching in urban areas, and GoolgeEarth is great, but the resolution varies a lot. I think the images are composited from several sources with varying resolution. Large urban areas that use GIS for city planning probably use some aerial photos for some of the images and satellite imaging for the less interesting places. It really helps to locate those parking-lot micros, but is less useful in city parks in mostly residential areas.
Check this out... The google campus appears to be about .005m/pixel. This is obviously from an aerial photo.
Just to the south, the resolution appears to be about .5m/pixel with some dithering. It looks like a digital image and may be from a satellite.
The bay is rendered at a much lower resolution.
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Well, I have a no-name canvas daypack from walmart. For more serious distance or a heavier load, I use an old BoySccout frame pack that I picked up at a yardsale.
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The drive rotors in old floppy disk drives work even better that the hard drive ones.
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I was into orienteering years ago, I used some of those skill in finding caches. I also use some of the tracking skills from my teen years.
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To me, it not a big deal to go over to the closeout store and spend $10 on some premo swag items. I've dropped off little fm radios, battery operated fans (batteries not included), booklights and small flashlights.
These are things that are useful, and relatively inexpensive.
Other sources for good but inexpensive swag are the grab-bags in thrift-stores and the "dollar-days" displays at grocery stores.
The general rule should be not to leave something you would not want to take.
McToys are okay in caches that may be visited by children, as long as the toya aren't broken.
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I used to make wire puzzles as a teen. Some could be used as a lock. You cold get some ideas from some of the old folk toy websites.
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Way back around 1977, three high school teens from an area spelunking club entered one of the largests dry caves in the south eastern US. After 2 hours of crawling and climbing for a distance of nearly 1/2 mile into the cave, they left an artifact. A loarge spiral notebook to be used as a log, along with a bottle of ink and a quill-type pen. They signed it, dated it and left... Never to return.
I was one of those teens. Although none of us have returned, I have spoken to some that have found and signed the book. I don't consider it a geocache. It would be impossible to locate it with a gps since they don't work underground.
Te cave has historical value. It was the site of a gunpodwer factory in the civil war.
It also is home to the largest brown bat population in the south-east us. The land around the cave is now owned by the Nature Conservancy. I have mentioned the logbook to the person in charg of the property, but she knew nothing about.
With my health failing a bit, I doubt that I will ever visit the site again.
I was thinking about it the other day and how much its like a geocache. Funny how things come full circle:
Comments?
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When I get to the co-ords, I look around for anything in a 50 ft circle that might be a good hiding place. I do this because my old GPS is only accurate to 49 ft. After that, I spiral out, looking for any trails in the leaves (if I'm in the woods) or any obvious hidey-holes like hollow trees, unnatural piles of sticks or rocks.
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Hmmm... I was born in Pensylvania, but I have always lived in Tennessee
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There are several in the opry mills mall area. Maybe a dozen or so within a 2 mile radius.
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If you work at it a bit you can cram about 100 plastic grocery bags into a lays stax canister, with room for a small logbook. A little camo paint so it don look like the surrounding trash, and use it as the cache container.
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Back in my college days a Tennessee Tech, I went out on my bicycle to explore the roads north of Cookeville TN on a Saturday afternoon. After being chased by a pair of Dobermans that I did not wish to encounter again, I ended up in an area full of circles and cul-de-sacs. I knew I was somwhere north of town, but every road seems to circle, or dead-end. It got dark and I could see the glow of the city lights in the distance, but still could not find a road heading that direction, didn't circle or dead-end.
Around midnight, traffic got really bad from the high-school kids returning from the drive-in theatres in the area, and after the traffic died down, an ncredibly dense fog, the kind that even blocks sound, settled in.
Finally, A found myself at a rural crossroad, at 2:30 am, trying to guess which road to take, when I heard the faint sound of a car traveling at high speed. AHA! must be the main road. I took the road that headed in that direction, and after about a mile, I came to a two lane highway. I was about 20 miles north of Cookeville, and by the time I made it back to the campus, the sun was just coming up. I think I slept the rest of the day. After that I made sure I kept a map in the saddlebag on the bicycle.
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I took up geocaching just 3 or 4 months ago, mainly for moderate excercise. Many years ago I was involved in orienteering, which is more event oriented and competitive, but requiring similar skills. Since my health is failing somewhat, I have found that I really like the caches that bring me to historic locations in my area, that I never knew about until seeking a cache.
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I had a few thoughts on on urban caching.
Urban camo for the urban cacher
1) the engineer (for ages 24 and up )
print off the webpages for the caches you're seeking. also make up a spread sheet with your waypoints, coordinates and a check box for each waypoint. print the spread sheet. take all the pages, put all this on a clipboard, with the spreadsheet pages on top and a few blank pages for notes.
wear loose fitting tan colored work clothes that look a lot like the uniforms used by most meter-readers. When seeking, be sure to check the clipboard often.
Look at guard rails, power-poles, railroad track or anything else wihle searching. Do not look directly at other people. If approached by LEO, show them the contents of the clipboard. If approached by average Joe, use discretion bout how to handle him. If you see a bunch of muggles, make a note on one of the blank pages, leave and come back later.
2)the scientist/student ( ages 16 and up )
prepare a clipboard as with the engineer. Take a digital camera and take photos of flowers, bugs and such. Make notes on the clipboard. Count birds. Count cars.
wear casual attire. pick up any litter that you can carry and put it in the nearest waste bin. if approached by Law-enforcement, be honest and direct.
3) the tourist (all ages)
Dress like the tourists (in Nashville, where I am, that is blue jeans, dark shirt, and Cowboy hat) in you local area. The clipboard is a good idea here but leave it in the car. get the $20 gps book of maps for the area. They are marginally useful for getting to the general area and make you look more like a tourist. carry a camera,
gclouse
Utility Easements
in General geocaching topics
Posted
An easement is a defined area where the property owner is prohibited from building permanent structures. A right-of-way allows persons or organizations to cross property without explicit consent of the property owner. For example easements are common in residential areas to prevent houses from being built too close to streets. If you want to add to your house, you cant build on the easement.
An uncle of mine, lives on a large dairy farm. Onw his property is an old cemetary. Part of his driveway which is almost 1/4 mile long is considered a public access right-of-way to the cemetary, which is a local historic site. So anyone who wants to visit the cemetary, can not be charged with tresspassing , if they stay on the right-of-way.