gpsfun
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Posts posted by gpsfun
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A terrain rating of one star indicates that the path to the cache location is flat, smooth and perhaps paved. Period.
Once at the location, the placement of the cache may require standing, reaching, bending, crawling under a bench or other forms of mobility for retrieval. It is a good practice to include either the wheelchair accessible or not wheelchair accessible attribute to further clarify the placement. Since persons using wheelchairs have various levels of mobility this is helpful but still imperfect.
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And yes, I only have about 165 finds. Only four of those were EarthCaches. You have found well over 800 caches, NONE have been EarthCaches. I don't put you down because you don't like EarthCaches. Just because you don't want to log an EarthCache doesn't make ME less of a geocacher. It's a sport enjoyed by all of us so let's make it work for all of us. Please.
Well said. Thank you.
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They wanted a link to the regulations and I gave it. My original post already had the SPECIFIC regulation regarding hiking. DNR has no regulations on GEOCACHING. The title of the linked document contains this important line:
Current through State Register Volume 32, Issue 9, effective September 26, 2008.Please reference the original post in this topic where the newly enacted legislation is referenced:
In bill H3794 signed by the governor on June 2, 2009, the South Carolina General Assembly prohibited geocaching on all wildlife management areas, heritage preserves, and all other lands owned by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.An extract from the revised regulation is provided for convenience.
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In bill H3794 signed by the governor on June 2, 2009, the South Carolina General Assembly prohibited geocaching on all wildlife management areas, heritage preserves, and all other lands owned by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
The bill changed Section 50 11 2200 C and an excerpt is provided below. While the new language has not yet been added to the state's web site, it is the current law.
The door is open to the possibility of some future exceptions, and demonstrating adherence to the current regulation can smooth that path.
I am requesting anyone who has a cache in one of these areas to remove and archive it promptly. Since this message will not reach everyone, I am also asking anyone who becomes aware of caches in SC WMAs or Heritage Preserves to let me know confidentially so I may contact the cache owner.
There will be the question of why this was done. I don't know specifically, but I have heard from someone at SC DNR that members of their staff have found geocaches placed in sensitive areas on at least three Heritage Preserves.
Thank you for your cooperation.
-Brad / gpsfun
Groundspeak volunteer reviewer for South Carolina
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Excerpt from the bill:
Section 50 11 2200 C
C The following acts or conduct are prohibited and shall be unlawful on all wildlife management areas, heritage preserves, and all other lands owned by the department; provided, however, the department may promulgate regulations allowing any of the acts or conduct by prescribing acceptable times, locations, means, and other appropriate restrictions not inconsistent with the protection, preservation, operation, maintenance, and use of such lands:
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(30) geocaching;
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(E) A person violating this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than twenty five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars or be imprisoned for not more than thirty days, or both.
edit: restored C instead of © to document
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Many volunteer reviewers will help with questions on a time-available basis. In the areas where I review, I ask geocachers to create a very basic cache page that includes all of the coordinates (if it is a multistage cache or a mystery/puzzle cache) and to note any questions they might have about potential guidelines issues. Also, clearly note in the cache description area that the cache page is not ready for publication.
I reply in the form of a reviewer note on the cache page, which the system in turn sends to the cache owner.
Doing this is outside the scope of the regular duties of the volunteer reviewers and some may not be able to provide this extra assistance.
Hope this helps.
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Check your query for mutually exclusive selections such as I have found and I have not found, is active and is not active, caches of selected types with no types checked, and things of that nature.
Hope this helps.
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I have a cache in my local area... GCYBHK. It was disabled on March 9, 2009. The reviewer posted a note on July 9, 2009 that they would review it in two weeks. Being today is August 10th, nothing has been done. This one should have been archived long, long ago because the last person found it was back on May 10, 2008.
I would not be surprised to see the cache page archived soon if the cache owner continues to fail to respond.
There are often good reasons for cache owners to be a bit slow in responding to cache maintenance requests including personal life issues, the current economic woes, etc. Hard as it may be to understand, geocaching is not everyone's first priority - or perhaps it once was before something else got in the way.
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It will be best to send the information from the original post in an email addressed to contact@geocaching.com
Someone from Groundspeak will respond to you directly.
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It has been my experience that pocket queries create a list starting at the point closest to the reference point and continue with those incrementally further away until the selected limit number (500 in your case) is reached.
The things I would check first include the PQ selections - did you exclude certain difficulty and/or terrain ratings, caches you have already found, caches that are inactive, etc.? Does your GSAK list show that you have 500 waypoints in that database?
Also, check the number of waypoints already stored in your GPS receiver. My 60CSx holds 1000 waypoints and when I try to add something from GSAK that will cause that capacity to be exceeded, not all of the new items will load. I believe there is an error when this occurs.
If there is a way to see how many waypoints are already stored in the 60CSx I have not found it yet. I usually just delete all of the waypoints before adding a new group.
If this doesn't help maybe someone else will be able to contribute.
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You could mention it here and see if a reviewer will give the cache owner a little nudge.
There's really nothing wrong with posting a politely worded needs archived note when you see that a maintenance issue has already been mentioned in a few earlier logs. Sometimes life gets in the way of geocaching and a friendly reminder to a cache owner can help to get the priority list reordered. If it gets the cache fixed up, it helps all of those who come later who don't like finding a cache in poor condition any more than you do.
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Your cache page was just submitted today (June 28).
Adding a "please hurry" reviewer note to the cache page is probably not going to help. On cache pages I review, I pass such comments off as excessive exuberance.
While you are waiting, you may want to check the home coordinates in your profile - fixing that may save you some time.
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This is a very thoughtful essay and I thank you for it. I look forward to some interesting discussion.
I hope the use of the word "gift" does not become a distraction. Since I have a particular paradigm around that word in mind, I took a look at Wikipedia to see how the word is treated there. I found this:
A gift or a present is the transfer of something, without the need for compensation that is involved in trade. A gift is a voluntary act which does not require anything in return. Even though it involves possibly a social expectation of reciprocity, or a return in the form of prestige or power, a gift is meant to be free.Personally I think it is fine for a cache owner to have some expectations in mind when they place a cache. I have only a few caches active right now and I like to see the logs that mention a unique hide style, an out of the way interesting location or some educational value to them. While I put them out for others to find, there is a very strong component of self-interest in the feedback I receive involved. I would not call them gifts, but maybe that's just me.
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I have been told by some people who drive vehicles with convertible tops that they leave nothing of value in the passenger compartment, and they leave the doors unlocked to keep the top from being slit by someone attempting to gain entry. This may or may not be a useful idea.
Also, here's a gift I received from my son. The item comes in various sizes and can be locked to a hinge or bracket in the storage compartment of a vehicle. pacsafe anti-theft bag
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Much of Kiawah Island consists of private golf courses and private communities - plus a lot of swamp land. It might have been difficult for geocachers to find public areas or locations where permission to place a cache on private property can be obtained. Since there are no caches there chances are that few if any geocachers live on the island.
I'm afraid you may need to plan some time away from Kiawah Island to a more cache-rich area.
I hope you enjoy your visit to our state.
-Brad
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If a geocacher intentionally damages the labels on a series of caches what can be done? My geocaches (little boxes) carry stickers that show a design on my hot air balloon. One geocacher constantly removes them. To whom should I complain (the geocache officer who Ok's the posting of my cache)? The sticker is of a semi-nude girl (nothing rude....except, apparently, to this prudish cache defacer).
It may be helpful for you to determine if the other cacher has a problem with you personally or just with the particular stickers that are being removed. You might try creating an alternate sticker with less artwork to see if it is more durable.
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In the not so distant past I have reviewed geocache page submissions for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as for Georgia and South Carolina. I have found that many geocachers in the New England states consider snow shoes and other cold weather gear to be standard geocaching equipment. (I understand that special equipment relates to the terrain rating scale but I am using the example to make the point of how difficulty is perceived.)
Many New England geocachers see non-urban geocaching in snowy weather as only moderately difficult.
Comparing this to what I have seen in other areas I would say that cache difficulty ratings are biased by location as well as by season.
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ASEL; not current for many years, flew 150s, 172s and an aerobatic Citabria.
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There is a new FTF Hawk in my area who has gotten pretty snarky about two caches and rules surrounding "claiming" FTF - specifically claiming it on the cache listing page. Between this and the recent FTF Hog thread here, I want to place an homage cache with arbitrary FTF rule. Something along the lines of "The seventh person to find the cache shall be declared the official FTF. Others claiming FTF shall have logs deleted."
Now for my question. Would this silly, arbitrary FTF rule make this an ALR cache and require listing as an unknown cache?
I would rather hide it as a traditional cache, but I thought I would get some input. If Keystone answers, all the better, since he is my reviewer.
A relevant quote:
If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg.Abraham Lincoln
FTF = FTF no matter what someone wants to call it.
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Neat web site, too.
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Hello Cachers...We have a cache owner in our area that does not maintain the cache hides they put out. Several have been muggled and despite a flurry of DNF's and Maintenance needed cause its not there, they caches still remain as active. I have even sent messages to this cache owner and offered to adopt a cache that I could easily maintain because its wet and the logged entries complain of it needing maintenance because of wet log. Cachers know that when you hide the cache you agree to maintain it...including archiving it if you are unable to do the upkeep. they are apparently still alive because its only been a few weeks since they last logged in...but the lack of maintenance has gone on for many months. Isn't there anything that can be done by Geocaching.com? Some of the hide areas are nice and because of their missing caches...nothing can be placed there.
After you have sent the cache owner a courtesy email and have placed a needs maintenance log on the cache page, all with no action, you can post a needs archived log on the cache page. That will bring the issue to the attention of the area volunteer reviewer who will contact the cache owner about the situation. If all else fails, the volunteer reviewer may archive the cache page. But please take the courtesy route first.
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OK, the real answer is that the date placed field gets changed to that value under some rare circumstances. I have now set it to the cache published date.
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I can't figure this one out. How is the date that old? GC1ACD1
I know the two guys involved, and it's a combination of a very old cache hider and a forgetful reviewer.
Am I ever going to have to pay for this post!
I'll fix it.
-Brad
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To have another geocacher adopt your cache, please go to this web page: www.geocaching.com/adopt
Once there, enter the waypoint number (GC?????) of the cache and click on the lookup button; then enter the geocaching account name of the person you want to take ownership and click the user lookup button. At this point you may add a message in the text box if you want, and when ready click on the Send Adoption Request button. The system will generate an e-mail to the prospective new owner, and once that person clicks on the acceptance link the ownership transfer is complete.
Hope this helps.
-Brad
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I have GPSFUN on one car and GPS4FUN on the other one. But they were just randomly assigned to me. Really they were!
They wanted a link to the regulations and I gave it. My original post already had the SPECIFIC regulation regarding hiking. DNR has no regulations on GEOCACHING. 
Rant: 1 Star Terrain
in General geocaching topics
Posted
A terrain rating of one star generally means that the path to the cache location is relatively flat, smooth and possibly paved. Period.
The accessibility of the cache is another matter. Some caches require standing, reaching, crawling under a bench, etc., to access the container. The NOT wheelchair accessible attribute is helpful in identifying those caches which are probably not accessible to a person using a wheelchair, but wheelchair users have such a wide range of abilities that neither the terrain rating nor the wheelchair accessible attribute can be taken as a guarantee.