RUSCAL
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Posts posted by RUSCAL
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I archived my last ABDSP Geocache today. Too bad.... I know many people had fun scrambling up to get it. It seems the Park service is over-reacting to a perceived problem. The caches that they deemed inappropriate should have been dealt with on their individual issues. I'm sure the numbers in violation were few.
Following are some thoughts.
How much harm has the pursuit of finding and signing peak baggers logs caused to the terrain or trails leading to the top of our California peaks?
Probably not measurable due to the fact that peak baggers by nature do love the outdoors and the freedom to explore it. They appreciate the gift of nature and have no reason to harm her.
The mountain ridges do gain some faint hints of trails in the non rocky sections. Some of the trails are remnants from our ancient relatives.
Just by the difficult nature of the effort it take to get to remote places keeps out the undesirable folk who have no respect for our land and would spray paint the rocks and throw bottles and trash everywhere. Remoteness has its advantages.
How much terrain has been harmed by Geocachers in pursuit of finding and signing their logs?
Probably not measurable due to the fact that geocachers by nature do love the outdoors and the freedom to explore it. They appreciate the gift of nature and have no reason to harm her.
Sometimes a faint trail will occur due to the Geocaching traffic.
There are faint trails all over the desert leading to points of interest or just leading from one area to another. Animals leave trails everywhere in the desert.
Cache placement within a few feet of an existing trail or sand wash is desirable, but not always possible.
Remote terrain is harmed less than easily accessed terrain. This is caused by two reasons:
Remote caches tend to be accessed by more serious outdoorsmen who take better care of the land than some weekend warriors.
The physical challenge keeps traffic down to a few visits per year.
Easily accessed sites tend to be visited by city folks who my not appreciate what an asset our beautiful desert is. They may not understand proper trail etiquette and trample plants or cut switchbacks. They may toss wrappers on the ground or carve graffiti into plants or damage structure. Vehicles are driven off of established roads etc.
This kind of damage would be rarely caused by a typical Geocacher because:
Geocachers are typically mature adults or cache as families.
Geocachers belong to a community sharing the common pastime of Geocaching. The more experienced cachers educate the newer folks on low impact techniques for placement and finding of caches.
Geocachers are active outdoors people who want to cast a positive light on their activity. Many cachers are involved in cleanup and trail building projects.
Geocachers are not bored and in need of trashing anything to get their jollies.
Most geocachers have other outdoor pursuits such as hiking and backpacking which tie in with caching.
Many desert points of interest are fragile and need protection
An ancient native village for example is a popular spot to visit. One can wander through large rock slabs dimpled by our ancestor’s activities grinding food. Pottery chards can be seen lying about. You can imagine what it must have been like to live in such a harsh environment. How should we protect this site? Should we vacuum seal it and only allow archeologists to visit? I would hope I could experience this place with my children or friends and walk through the rocks and climb about. Nothing is damaged by our visit, take nothing but memories, leave nothing, suck in the feeling this place communicates to your soul. You walk a few feet away amongst the rocks and find a Geocache container, sign the log, replace it and walk away thankful that the cache gave you reason to know that this place existed and you were lucky enough to visit it. Did the caches existence in any way harm this site? Not a chance. Did the presence of the cache diminish another visitor’s experience? Not a chance. Did the cache bring in undesirables who would do harm to the site? I do not know one cacher who would harm any land.
Some archaeological evidence in the area is so fragile that public knowledge of its existence would surly lead to its destruction.
I have to say I am against the advertising of the find by placing a Geocache in the area. The risk of harm is too great.
Animal watering areas access is vital for the wildlife, especially in the summer months.
People do visit these sites, but too many people could cause the wildlife to avoid the area all together or be stressed. Geocachers numbers are insignificant compared to the general public to be of concern in 2008, but in the future the activity could grow to the point of concern. I would be against installing caches in these areas.
A case by case approval should be implemented by the park service. Realistic evaluation as to the real risk to the site should be used, not just arbitrary over protection of every square inch of the land. This land belongs to the American people and our future generations, and should be experienced, not placed in a vacuum wrapper where we can’t touch feel and smell it.
Physical cache more harmful than virtual cache?
Is the container the real problem here? I think not. How does a container harm any delicate land, plant or structure? The traffic to an area is controlled by the cache, not what type it is. Once they ban physical caches it is an easy argument to say all caches are harmful. This is just a ploy to make us think they are willing to give us something. I would rather find a virtual cache than no cache, but what about the kids? They want to find a real cache to be interested. The impact of going a few feet off trail to hide a container is not going to ruin the desert when a little common sense is used in the placement. In some areas footprints can last for decades, and others they only last until the wind blows.
Question
Is it illegal to be in ABDSP and just pick a mountain and climb it if there is no trail?
If so, there are a lot of law breakers out there every weekend, and they aren’t the criminal types either!
Just nature buffs doing what they love. Have they harmed the mountains? Not in the last several thousand years.
We have a right to explore this land. It is OUR Park. The park administrators need to understand that Geocaching will cause no harm if implemented with a “work with them” attitude in stead of a “hard line no way no how” policy.
Bob Dylan once said… “Don’t criticize what you can’t understand”. Let’s hope we can get some understanding from the park service.
I’m sure as a group, we can do the right thing to protect our land and still seek caches at beautiful spots around ABDSP.
Sorry for rambling!
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Looks like Geocaching as we know it in Anza Borrego Desert State Park is gone. The following log was placed on the upcoming "Squeeze" event cache page.
BUMMER!
By order of the:
Superintendent
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
Colorado Desert District
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Numerous geocaches have been placed within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park without authorization. No consideration was given to resource sensitivity in the placement of any of these geocaches, and many have been discovered in very sensitive locales. Caches have been removed from archeological sites, paleontological areas, bighorn sheep watering sites and in sensitive caves.
All physical geocaches placed within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park must be removed. If the cache owner does not take responsibility for removing his/her own cache, it will be removed for them and it will not be returned.
As of this date, December 21, 2007, placement of new physical caches will be prohibited in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Virtual Earth Caches will be considered on a case by case basis and must be approved before being
published on the Geocaching.com website.
Contact information for Earth cache approval:
Mark C. Jorgensen
Superintendent
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
200 Palm Canyon Drive
Borrego Springs, CA 92004
It was fun while it lasted...
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I spent the last two days working with a bunch of Lockheed Martin spacecraft folks (interesting bunch
). They have more acronyms than Carter Has Pills (And I thought us Launch Vehicle types had the acronym market cornered).Anyway, we have been working on the proposal for GPS III, the next generation of the Navstar Global Positioning System. After all I have learned about this technologically advanced spacecraft, I will feel kind of silly walking around in parking lots with my GPS'r lifting lamp post skirts
. I haven't told the group of scientists that all of their efforts on the improved technology will help us to look for Tupperware in the woods 
.Lockheed is currently in production on the GPS IIR-M satellite that provides a much stronger military and civilian signal than the previous versions. The first one was launched in September. Here is a pic of the IIR-M bird:
Rocketman,
That thing looks pretty serious. I had envisioned GP satellites as Sputnik looking things! When it is expended I hope it misses MY house!
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As mentioned above, the Garmin Quest will do service as a talking mobile navigator, and a competent geocaching unit as well. It has an internal battery pack, so two day caching forays aren't possible without a recharge, and it can't do projections, but is compact, has a great color display, large memory, and free maps. It wil keep satellite lock while in your pocket with the antenna folded out.
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Enjoy the degraded signals while you can. Once technology gives us 1-2' accuracy geocaching won't be challenging enough to be any fun.
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Y'ALL GONNA DIE.
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
A MAJOR LATE WINTER STORM TAKING AIM AT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.. A LARGE...COLD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL BE DEVELOPING OVER THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST THIS WEEKEND. A STRONG POLAR JET STREAM WILL DEVELOP OVER THE EAST PACIFIC AS THE STORM DEEPENS...SENDING COLD AND UNSTABLE AIR INTO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BEGINNING ON FRIDAY.. AND CONTINUING THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT. SHOWERY WEATHER IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THURSDAY NIGHT OR FRIDAY AS THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF IMPULSES RACES SOUTHEAST AHEAD OF THE STORM. PRECIPITATION IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE HEAVY...BUT SNOW LEVELS COULD FALL AS LOW AS 3500 FEET...WITH STRONG WINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS. A WIND ADVISORY HAS BEEN POSTED FOR MOUNTAIN AND HIGH DESERT AREAS THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.
A SECOND...STRONGER DISTURBANCE WILL APPROACH THE AREA ON FRIDAY NIGHT AND MOVE THROUGH ON SATURDAY. THIS COULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY HEAVIER RAIN...SNOW AND THUNDERSTORMS...WITH SNOW LEVELS FALLING LOCALLY TO 2000 FEET IN THE HEAVIER CONVECTIVE SHOWERS...AND STRONG WINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS. THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD LINGER INTO SUNDAY AS COLD...MOIST...AND UNSTABLE AIR CONTINUES TO FLOW IN FROM THE WEST. CURRENT INDICATIONS ARE THAT SIGNIFICANT SNOWS WILL FALL IN AREA MOUNTAINS OVER THE WEEKEND AND SPILL INTO THE HIGH DESERTS AS WELL.
A WINTER STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR LATE FRIDAY MORNING THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT FOR THE MOUNTAINS AND HIGH DESERTS. PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG AND GUSTY WINDS MAY CREATE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AT TIMES. OVER A FOOT OF SNOW IS LIKELY AT HIGHER ELEVATIONS BY SUNDAY MORNING. THE COMBINATION OF COLD...SNOW...AND WIND COULD BE DEADLY FOR UNPREPARED HIKERS OR CAMPERS IN REMOTE AREAS. TRAVEL IN THE MOUNTAINS WILL LIKELY BECOME EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS AS WELL. IF THE STORM DEVELOPS AS FORECAST...THERE COULD BE PERIODS OF SNOW IN THE HIGHER INLAND VALLEYS...FOOTHILLS...AND HIGH DESERTS...INCLUDING THE CAJON PASS AND THE MORONGO PASS. FOR THE COASTAL AREAS...NUMEROUS SHOWERS ARE EXPECTED WITH CHILLY DAYS. SOME OF THE SHOWERS COULD PRODUCE LOCALLY HEAVY DOWNPOURS OF RAIN AND SMALL HAIL OR ICE PELLETS. THIS TYPE OF SYSTEM OFTEN PRODUCES ISOLATED WATERSPOUTS AS WELL. PRELIMINARY ESTIMATES ARE FOR ONE TO TWO INCHES OF RAIN TO FALL OVER THE COAST AND VALLEYS...WITH LOCALLY GREATER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN FOOTHILLS. LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN ON RECENTLY BURNED AREAS COULD CAUSE MUD AND DEBRIS FLOWS AND LOCAL FLASH FLOODING. ABOVE 4000 FEET...MOST OF THE PRECIPITATION WILL FALL AS SNOW. IF THE STORM CONTINUES TO DEVELOP AS FORECAST...FURTHER STATEMENTS AND WEATHER WATCHES WILL LIKELY BE ISSUED OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. ANYONE PLANNING TRAVEL OVER SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA THIS WEEKEND...ESPECIALLY THOSE HEADING TO THE MOUNTAINS...SHOULD STAY TUNED TO THE LATEST FORECASTS ON NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE TV OR RADIO STATION.
$$ JAD
Patrick,
You would not want to do Basilisk in those conditions. It could be very dangerous given enough rain. Caches in higher ground would be a better bet if no lightning. Also avoid large puddles, as some of the soils out there get mighty slick in the low areas. Traveling in small groups of vehicles is a good idea in case someone gets stuck. I carry my sleeping gear, food, and water with me in case I can't make it back to camp. This promises to be a fun weekend people will be talking about for years to come!
Russ
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Looks like my GPSr made the trip down from Paloverde Peak afterall. I found it in a tangle of webbing in the bottom of my pack.
I could have bought a new one if I got paid for all the hours I spent searching for it! DOH -
I had no issues with incompatibility when installing Mapsource v7 on dvd. The segment sizes appear to be the same size as earlier versions as well. I looks like Garmin may be going the way of factory installing the whole North America maps, so segment size won't be an issue. The Quest II has them pre-installed. It is a car Gps that will go portable for Geocaching limited by the rechargable batteries run time. With removable batteries it would be sweet. I used a Quest I for about 5 months with good results. It came with the maps on dvd, so had to install map segments up to the 115mb capacity. The batteries last all day, but not for 2 days. I lost the unit on Paloverde Peak somewhere.
I may just replace it with another Quest I for around $350.00 with Mapsource 7 included. The CX would be near $600.00 with maps. Pretty expensive for somthing that is subject to much abuse and chance of loss! -
It was a beautiful day today at Bikedog's life celebration party. Jerry certainly had a lot of friends. It was nice chatting with old and new geocaching friends. Thanks to Flagman for producing some handsome sets of Bikedog cards and placing them in some of Jerry's caches. Also thanks to Jerry's friends who put on the kind of party he would have enjoyed. RIP Jerry!
"Its all good"
Ruscal and Birdlegs
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Boy, this is sad news to come home to. Losing a good friend is hard to swallow. My sympathies to Jerry's family and friends.
See you on the other side Jerry,
Russ
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Anyone care to share their favourite caches around Carlsbad? Friends of ours live up there and we want to go geocaching with them.
TIA!
I enjoyed "The Batiquitos Lagoon Cache" as my first find. My son and I did it at night which added to the fun. Nscaler hid it a few years ago, and I adopted it when he moved South.
Have fun,
Ruscal
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Be sure to do the close by regular cache Mono Cache and go swimming in the lake! (I did while I was there) The mineral level in the water makes you float like a cork! ... well, maybe a waterlogged cork, but it is an experience. ( I almost said nonetheless or nevertheless but maybe a period is best these days!) Enjoy your trip.
They also have clouds of weird flys that buzz all around you, but won't land on you! Mono Lake seems like a place from another planet.
Ruscal
wierd looked weird so I changed it...
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I just dropped off a little girl named "Jenelle" (AKA White Jeep Rubicon Travel Bug number JPXXXX) at a rather scenic, but difficult to access geocache. If you have your own Jeep Rubicon you won't have any trouble bagging this one.
Look up GCH9C0 "The Short and Long of It: Cookie Tin 2" The cache is over a year and a half old and had only been found once until yesterday when I went out there.
Am I devious and perverted for putting it in a blazing inferno?
Maybe,.....But these are rare, highly sought after, almost unobtainable, highly coveted, desirable, stupendous, and downright wriggly.
You may want to read my cache log to get an idea of what you're in for.
Ladies and gentlemen start your engines!
Also congrats to team Gobolts for sucessfully completing "Wizard's Chess" and picking up the first WJTB I hid.
Ruscal
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Congrats to Rocketman and Kawikaturn!
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This many caches
I have been off the board for a few weeks and missed out on the latest geonews!
Russ
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I had decided to switch my plans to attend the big Tierra Del Sol Jeep rally and attend the Greater Palm Springs Geo Event since it had been too long since we have seen our cacher friends from up north and the desert. Birdlegs was looking forward to the fun as well. Then about mid last week Birdlegs got a hitch in her back and was hobbling around in pain, abruptly ending her trip plans. I asked my son "Eagle Eye Rye" if he wanted to go, and he gladly accepted, which surprised me! So the trip was on again. We drove down Friday afternoon taking the high route through Anza and down the serpentine cache studded road to the desert. We found ten or so caches before a lightning storm ended the fun. After checking into our hotel we headed for La Quinta to grab some dinner. I gave Daryl of team Nohoch a call and told him where we were eating. Coincidentally he and Jamey were just leaving the house to meet Dana Dakiba and one of his friends at the restaurant where we were! This worked out well, since we all got a chance to visit before the event kicked off the next morning. Daryl and Jamey still had a lot to do before retiring for the night, but we kept them up way too late anyway. I’ll bet they didn’t get much sleep! They really put a lot of time, effort, and creativity into making a fun event for everybody. Several Greater Palm Springs cachers volunteered their services to man all the necessary event tasks to insure we would all have a great time. They also hid a large number of new caches timed to go active at the event. Ryan and I sure did appreciate all their effort! Saturday morning we hooked up with Splashman, Vulture and The Geobabes for some fun urban caching. Then early afternoon we went with the Geobabes for some light canyon hiking caches. Late afternoon Ryan and I started The 20 Cache Rally, and found all the caches, finishing just after dark. Some of the coordinates had problems making the search a little more fun and challenging!
Then we all met for dinner and awards completely taking over the pizza house. You had to walk sideways to walk through the place! San Diegans made a great showing in the awards, with Team Rocketman, Flagman, and Trailgators taking the” most caches that day award” with 101 finds! This was impressive, as there were some heavy hitters from up north in the crowd. The next morning we met The Splashes, Vulture, Skimmer, Rocketman, Flagman, and Trailgators at IHOP for breakfast before heading out for more caching. Ryan and I hooked up with Rocketman, Flagman and Trailgators for the day’s adventure plucking caches out of bushes and from under rocks all over the place.
I give many thanks to The Greater Palm Springs Cachers, and especially Daryl and Jamey for applying the glue to hold it all together.
I’ll tell Birdlegs it weren’t no fun at all… she didn’t miss a thing…nosiree….
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I haven't been on the thread for a few days and see the Splashes have zipped by the 2K cache mark! Congrats Janie and Steve!
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Parsa,
1.5 Kilocaches!
Congrats,
Ruscal
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On Saturday we had a really great time finding some caches at In-Ko-Pah. The group was Parsa, Gershon, HelBobDuo, HollandHunters, and me- DHsundance. We did Mission to Iraq (great swag), Smuggler's Cave, Rear View, Gould or Gold, probably one of the toughest caches in San Diego County, Paxton's Vacation Villa.
The Paxton cache was the reason I wanted to head up there becuase it had had no finders and was very close to my cache on top of the Elliot Mine. Well what better way to get to the cache than by having the owner guide you. We had to park our vehicles and walk about a mile and a half round trip to the cache site. The walk though is very leisurely. The climb up to the cache is not. But it is well worth it because of the sense of accomplishment and view.
I highly recommend doing this cache.
Just curious if the coordinates were ok as posted. Multiple DNFs until this weekend suggested there might be a problem. Have not previously searched for Paxton but hope to since it has been one is on the Gecko "to-do-eventually" list.
-Gecko Dad
Don,
I'll go up there with you if I can get some time off. Let me know when you want to go.
Russ
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Greetings. We would like to invite you all to a geo-event held in La Quinta, on Saturday, March 5.
Thanks,
Daryl & Jamey
TEAM Nohoch
Daryl and Jamie,
We had a great time at your last desert gathering and hope to see you at this one!
Ruscal and Birdlegs
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Russ- How about the Mojave Road for the power trail? It's really long- I've driven about 1 day of the 2 days it takes to complete it; from Afton Canyon to KelBaker Rd.
Dave
Dave,
I don't know where the Mojave Road is, so will have to do some research. If we do the caches in our local desert it will be easier to maintain since I go out there frequently. I'm always up for a run in the mojave though.
Russ
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"We greased the rocks???"
Holy smokes! The Geobabes are upstanding, clever, smart, and always willing to help! Ha!
Actually, we have a really nice autographed get well present for Jeff, that we know he will like. He probably knows what it is.
Russ, you're a funny guy.
On a different note, I read where the Bradshaw Trail might be opened back up in a month or so. We should all get together and go for a Jeep run!
Splashette
Splashette,
Jeep run sounds like a must do! I guess we could even allow other types of transportation, as long as they don't show us up.
Looks like your rock greasing trick may backfire. Now Jeffery has even more time to cache and dream up all kinds of puzzle torture for all of us.
Good news about the Bradshaw trail. I hope they reopen it, as I have never been out thataway.
Russ
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Russ- I figured you'd have found most of the caches out there.
Regarding a power 4 wheeling trail- have you considered the Bradshaw Trail above the Salton Sea? I haven't checked the cache density in the area yet. But I think it is fairly low on caches. This trail is looong and mostly a long dirt highway for sand rails. One of my favorite caches is there called "Trestle". I know it's a ways away but desert caches usually have a long shelf life and don't need much maintenance.
Dave
Dave,
Looks like Daryl and Jamie and friends were thinking like you. They just placed a string of caches in the area, but the area was closed down three days later by the government due to the protection of desert tortoises. Too bad they went to all that work and had to disable them! Good for tortoise though
I have been going to the desert since 1969 and have yet to see one.
Russ
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Russ- I figured you'd have found most of the caches out there.
Regarding a power 4 wheeling trail- have you considered the Bradshaw Trail above the Salton Sea? I haven't checked the cache density in the area yet. But I think it is fairly low on caches. This trail is looong and mostly a long dirt highway for sand rails. One of my favorite caches is there called "Trestle". I know it's a ways away but desert caches usually have a long shelf life and don't need much maintenance.
Dave
Dave,
I hane not been to that area, but would like to check it out. I'll see if I can find it on my maps. Is it on the east shore?
Russ
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FYI
TucsonThompsen is undergoing surgery to repair a shattered left elbow he suffered while caching today. He should be OK, I believe he broke the humerus in 7 places while hiking, but he's staying overnight at Inland Valley Hospital near Wildomar.
Bad luck but he'll be OK.
I think the Geobabes were out there greasing up the rocks.
). They have more acronyms than Carter Has Pills (And I thought us Launch Vehicle types had the acronym market cornered).
. I haven't told the group of scientists that all of their efforts on the improved technology will help us to look for Tupperware in the woods 
.
I could have bought a new one if I got paid for all the hours I spent searching for it! DOH
I may just replace it with another Quest I for around $350.00 with Mapsource 7 included. The CX would be near $600.00 with maps. Pretty expensive for somthing that is subject to much abuse and chance of loss!
The San Diego Thread
in West and Southwest
Posted
OK Parsa, now we need "Music to Cruise Old 80" CD's! [
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Ruscal