Cyclometh

There's a mark in my hometown- SY3256 which I tried to get to this weekend, but couldn't. Upon arrival at the end of 46th Street (there's no T intersection, I found that a cul-de-sac was there. There seems to be three lots there- or the sign at the end had three numbers. One was developed, with a big huge "PRIVATE NO TRESPASSING" sign at the head of the driveway and a house down on the water. That was on the north, to the left. In the center, a large gate, closed and padlocked. On the right, a small path, no signs or gate. That's the path I needed, as it was heading southwards to the beach. The path is about half as wide as a driveway. I'm guessing if someone develops the property, it'll become the driveway. It cuts down steeply to the beach and drops down past a large bluff on the south side. There's a couple of utility vaults and at the bottom, a board with griptape on it spanning a small stormwater runoff ditch, which after crossing you can just step down onto the beach proper. I went down there, found the beach but also found that the tide was about midlevel and rising with a large amount of blowdown from a recent windstorm blocking access to the rest of the beach. I could only go about 100 feet or so. My plan is to head back when the tide is out so I can just walk around the blowdown of trees and dirt from the bluff above over to where the mark is at. This one's kind of neat because it's a spot originally monumented in 1872(!) and I'd really like to get a shot and rubbing of it. It's about .2 miles from the spot I managed to get to. So the question is, given that this property is apparently private, but not posted so, and there was clear unfettered access to the beach (with signs of other people having been there recently, such as dog tracks and footprints), should I be concerned about this? I could very clearly see the gates and the bulkhead of the property to the north, which had signs posted all over them about not going that way. I'm guessing people go down there and walk on the beach from the local neighborhood and that no one minds much, but the property owner to the north doesn't like people coming on his land. I'm also guessing that the property which has the path on it is either public (unlikely) or that the owner isn't making an issue of people crossing it to get to the beach. I could try and find another means to access this part of the beach, but it might be exceedingly difficult or even impossible without a boat, which I suppose I could also do, but in the end I'd probably still have to enter private, if unposted as such, property. Thoughts?

I take my six year old son with me whenever I go caching. He really has fun. We also hunt benchmarks, which he seems to enjoy as much or more. Once, we were looking for a micro in a small urban parklike area and he wandered a few feet away. I was getting frustrated pawing through the bushes and such and I heard a clanking noise as he was lifting up the base of a flagpole. Without thinking, I said- "hey, don't do that, little buddy" and he put it back down. I then thought about it and said "On second thought, do that again". Lo and behold, there it was. He was pretty proud that he'd outfoxed his dad.

http://www.topsmalibu.com/Products/Games/Mystery Capsule Tin.htm You can order these little things here apparently. URL has spaces, so copy/paste.

The subject line is implying jack. The post is flat out stating that some rednecks shot up an ammo can. Owning a gun doesn't make you a redneck. Randomly shooting up something just might. <foxworthy> If youuuu see a locked ammo can and decide to use it for target practice... You just might be a redneck </foxworthy>

I'm planning on making it a 4 or 5 difficulty rating, with a 1 or 2 terrain rating. I want it to be hard to figure out, not get. The actual cache will probably be an ammo can.

Yeah, I don't want to make my first cache a nano like this. But it would be fun to make my first cache a memorable one with this little baby as the first stop.

Now that's dastardly.

Horsepucky. There's a ton of people who don't log finds either, except in the cache logbook. It's just asinine to say that people who don't log on the website are vain.

I've never used anything but a lensatic compass before except to take really simple bearings. I wouldn't know how to put a different type to work. All that time in the artillery, I guess. When I'm taking a bearing I still have to keep myself from doing it in MILS.

Very nice! I've been trying to come up with something "new" to do with this one, but I'm pretty sure that everything under the sun's been done.

I use my dad's old compass: It's older than I am, probably made sometime in the 1950's or early 1960's. Still works better than any other compass I've ever used. Totally flawless, fast, liquid needle that settles in exactly and never wavers. Also, my dad died a few years ago, and this was something I remember from a very early age as bein "daddy's". He'd let me play with it, but I had to be extra careful with it. It's kind of a reminder of him every time I open it.

I don't even log all my finds. I'll log a DNF if I think it's likely the cache is gone. If I'm pretty sure I just couldn't locate it, I don't bother. I'm in it for the caching, not the logging. I generally won't even bother logging a find unless I need to drop a TB or have an interesting tale to tell. Most of the time I just sign the cache log. Too many people get wrapped up in their find numbers and I find it distasteful.

Well, there's so many micros around here that I don't want my first cache to be yet another miniscule cache. I've got some ideas for a really fiendish puzzle cache, involving this as the first stage, but I need a theme for it first. Something still needs to come together to make it "gel".

Some hardware stores will have an o-ring cabinet. You may get away with buying only the one that fits. Yeah, I'll check into that on the way home tonight. I'm looking forward to setting this one up. I have a feeling that if I do it right, it'll be quite tough and rewarding.

Why, thank you. I wonder if the thing's even useful any more, though. I assume that if the pin is there it's still useful, but it probably hasn't been referenced in the last 20 years or more.

Except the one you refer to is legal (has the approval of local LEA) and you can get the proper gear to do it safely. It's not legal to jaywalk and there's not much you can put on your body to protect you from a car on a busy street.

I just have one, an old Palm III that I hadn't even turned on in probably five years. You could probably get one for next to nothing on eBay or just get a friend to give you his/her old one.

Leave it in your pants pocket and run it through the wash (not dryer ). Try teflon, o-ring, nothing; see what happens. Hey, good idea. I took a closer look at it and there is a cupped bit on the socket side which would be perfect for an o-ring. I think that would be best if I can find one to fit. I thought at first glance that it wouldn't work because there was no space for it to fit.

Do you mean Teflon tape? That'll get ruined with the first person to open the container. If it isn't waterproof, maybe a little o-ring? Or put it in a dry location. Yeah, I did mean teflon tape- you think it'll get ruined by one opening? I haven't had problems in the past with it. I actually don't know if it's waterproof- I'm assuming not, because it doesn't have any o-ring. I may leave it in my backyard for a week or so and see how the paper fares. Dry location is probably best all around. I picked it up at a little funky store in the town I live in called Archibald Sisters. They sell all kinds of cool stuff, and they had a bunch of these little things- they're made of aluminum, and I think it was called a "poetry capsule" or something like that. It cost something like 2 or 3 dollars as I recall.

I found this: At a local store while shopping for cache swag. I snagged it because I can throw some plumber's tape on the threads and have the first stage of a truly, deeply, nastily fiendish multi. I'm not totally certain what I'll do with it, but I'm probably going to put a riddle in it and make it part of the puzzle. Now, if I can figure out a place to hide it...

Estimated depth currently is 450' - 500'. I don't think scuba will help and the amount of silt and sand blown into the lake since about 1960 will have buried the marks, anyway. John I did some research, and a rebreather (heliox was mentioned) could get you that depth. But it would require months or years of training and experience to safely dive that deep. It'd take a support team, and you would likely not have a huge amount of time to search. It'd still be a hell of an accomplishment! Would that be a found poor or just a found as described?

Submitted this to NGS for SY3260 today: --- Disk is gone, concrete base remains, and pin disk was set in is also present. Access is no longer possible from Mission Street. Alternate access can be had by proceeding an additional .015 miles from Mission Street (approximate) north on East Bay Drive. Turn left into Priest Point Park entrance. From Kitchen No. 2 on the south side of the park, follow the trail west to the beach. From the sign warning the public off the mud flats, go south southeast (160 degrees magnetic) 122 paces to the marker monument. The witness post, gate, tree and triangular blaze are no longer present. --- I was just pleased I was able to find anything of the mark at all! My son and I found it on the beach after a short hunt and a talk with someone who lived at the end of the street in the datasheet, who explained that the street had been demolished years ago, the gate was still back there somewhere and the beach was now private. Found alternate access, as the mark itself was on the public portion of the beach, then found the mark, or at least where it had existed. One thing I love about benchmark hunting is learning about local history and places you've never been in your own area- I've lived around here for 35 years and never even knew this bit of beach was there. I always thought it was mudflats from end to end around there.

Dropped them in Poor Man's Pool today!

Hmm. Can you get SCUBA equipment that lets you dive that far? Logging a "found" on those would be a feather and a half for your cap!