yumitori

Got a list? I'm sure the local reviewers would appreciate the assistance in tracking down caches whose owners are violating the guidelines so they can take appropriate action. The matter seems simple enough... You want to have a commercial cache, contact Groundspeak first. That's what the guidelines say. They are a business; pay them enough money and they'll probably say yes.

I think folks seem to not understand what a commercial cache is. Some have made statements like these - I'm afraid I don't see the logic here. If I marched back and forth in the parking lot of PJPeters' restaurant with a full-color placard for a local furniture store listing all of the brands and styles they carry, would I be in violation of their advertising policy if all I was getting out of doing so was sore feet? A reasonable person would say that that I was indeed advertising for that store and common sense says that I would indeed be in violation of the policy. Advertising is commercial in nature, by definition. The Internet has even facilitated a whole 'new' class of advertising where the folks spreading the message are getting little if anything out doing so, certainly no monetary compensation. But it's still advertising. All I'm seeing in this over-lengthy discussion is a situation where a long-time guideline is being applied fairly to an event. Perhaps Groundspeak has clarified for the reviewers what constitutes commercial content of cache pages and the reviewers are in turn letting cache owners know. Maybe there have been times when commercial caches have slipped through and reviewers are now having to go back and 'fix' listings that violate the guidelines that the owner agreed to follow when they submitted their cache. And for their trouble the reviewers are getting raked over the coals by those who don't seem to understand the concept of 'commercial'. But the guideline itself is essentially the same as it was when I first started caching. There's not many good ways around the need to sometimes hold events at commercial establishments, and I don't know that anyone should work too hard on finding ones. But a link to a restaurant's website is clearly commercial in nature and the request to remove it is clearly appropriate under the guideline in question. Any reasonable person should be able to see that. Folks are smart; if they want to find out more about the venue they will look up the information themselves. Leave the link out.

Something to keep in mind when considering what to plan on selling the ammo cans for next time an opportunity like this comes up... I don't know what the going price is on the coast but we can get them for $4 retail in Spokane. So Peggy and I would go that high if we could hook up somewhere to pick them up, but $4 plus shipping would be cost-prohibitive for us.

Seems to me that anywhere on the I-5 corridor in Washington or Oregon would be a good choice. I'm sure folks would travel to it. Heck, make sure it's open during the summer and I expect you'd get folks from, oh say, Montana...

The coins are on their way to us now, and we'll be filling orders as soon as possible. And again, I've send invoices to everyone who has contacted me. If you have received yours yet, let me know and we'll get your order taken care of.

Just now getting around to saying 'Thanks!!' for this. We always enjoy visits to Forest Park but aren't as familiar with the area as the locals are, so having these will help a great deal. Since you are talking about potentially expanding the project, I'd like to see more of the coast covered as well.

Here. Let's give Montana more than Idaho. We didn't use snowshoes to get to Ride The Rat but we should have. The cache is potentially findable even in deep snow, as we proved. And a bit of an epic adventure in the process. Miniature Giant Space Capsule is intended to be found all year round and is away from the more commonly used trails in the area so it's a good candidate for this list. It's a much shorter hike but steep, so will be a good challenge nonetheless.

Unfortunately the Great Falls event is in conjunction with a festival in the local state park, so its date simply can't be changed. Several of the Missoula cachers go up to help out each year. We figure anything that helps our standing in the eyes of the managers of our public lands is a good thing. So unless y'all are going be cookin' your own burgers for Saturday lunch, we really do need to have the cache machine the weekend of the 21st. I understand that may mean some folks won't be able to attend and we're very sorry about that, but it's just the way it has to be.

The question - The answer - "http://www.geocaching.com/subscribe/" Looking at the answer in more detail, it's ... # Pocket Queries # Caches along a Route (i.e. pocket queries) # Google Maps (Groundspeak Enhanced) " [allows] ... you to add caches to a bookmark list on the fly for later download as a Pocket Query." So, pocket queries then. # Paperless Caching Ah. Using pocket queries with electronic devices. # Instant Log Notifications Hmmm. It's not pocket queries. Anybody not get their instant notification and miss out on that all-important first-to-find? # Unlimited (well, 5000) Watchlist items Again, anyone not getting log entries from all 5000 of their Watched caches and bugs? # Bookmark and Ignore Lists Okay, Ignore lists can be a big thing depending. Anyone suddenly seeing caches that they shouldn't? # Geocaching Maps "With the ability to pan, zoom, and identify caches on a map you can quickly pinpoint an area of interest and visualize your caching route." Um , actually I tend to do this with (you guessed it) pocket queries. # Member Only Caches Nope, not affected by the recent downtime. The caches are still there, and I can still find them. (Unless I can't get a pocket query.) And now that the site's back up I can log any I did find. # Be the *first* to see new feature enhancements Eh. I mean, some folks like to be first at everything so I guess this is important to some. At least it's not pocket queries. So going through the answers it kinda looks to me like the big loss is pocket queries for the time the site was down. The other services are still available; accessing some of them was just delayed for awhile. If you are a paying member purely for the sake of the benefits then what has been your loss due to the downtime? Let's see, 5 queries a day times 365 days in a year is 1825 queries a year, if you utilize your membership to its fullest. At $30 a year that works out to a little under 1 2/3 cents a query. Call it $ 0.02. So anyone who missed out on a pocket query, send me your mailing address and I'll reimburse your 2 cents worth.

One of the prizes we won in the Montana Tourism Board's geocaching contest last year, Roadside History of Montana is a fairly accessible book aimed at visitors to the state. The stories typically provide enough history and context to put them into proper perspective without becoming too dry for the casual reader. The highlighted events are not always the ones I would have chosen as the most important or interesting ones for the particular locations, but do often provide background I was previously unaware of. Anyone planning to do any hiking around Missoula needs a copy of this book. (Hint, hint, to those planning on attending the Missoula Cache Machine.) Day Hikes Around Missoula, Montana covers many of the most popular trails in the area and has been the first inspiration for several of the caches in the mountains and hills around this part of western Montana. Ever since taking classes from him, I have thought that David Alt had the perfect name to be attached to some geological formation. Anyone interested in the history and effects of the great floods that scoured our region and left their mark all the way to the Pacific Ocean should read Glacial Lake Missoula: And Its Humongous Floods. Inspiring for not only locations for geocaches, but as well for earthcaches and Waymarking sites from Missoula to Astoria, Oregon.

If you are interested in guides.

Back on track, it's a pity this came to pass. We don't get to Seattle as often as we would like, but had our eye the caches in Discovery Park whenever we were checking out fun-looking areas. Folks would recommend that we visit there if we had the time, but it always ended up being a case of 'next trip'. I guess there's no rush now. I just wanted to say 'Thank You' to the folks who are working on the possibility that the visit will indeed happen someday.

I don't usually use the term 'muggle' in the typical geocaching sense, but I like "mughals". The idea that your cache was raided by a tribe of Persian marauders isn't a bad one...

I've sent out invoices to everyone I have received an order from. If you've e-mailed me but haven't gotten a response yet, we'll need to try again. Make sure your e-mail address is in your message and let me know this is a second try. I'll double-check and see if I got the first one or not and if the invoice was sent. We'll figure out any problems from there. Ron/yumitori

The Montana geocachers are happy to announce that Montana's first 'official' geocoin is now available for orders. The 2 inch coin is in the shape of the state, has two-sided 3-D relief, and comes in gold and silver in deference to Montana's motto. There were a total of 500 of each metal minted. The coins is trackable at geocaching.com and has a unique icon - The Gold version - The Silver version - The obverse commemorates Lewis & Clark's explorations through the state. Typical geocachers, they are searching elsewhere while overlooking the ammo can near their feet. The reverse is of Granite Peak, the highest point in the state (and incidentally the location of Montana's highest geocache), with its coordinates and benchmark. Prices will be as follows - $9.00 per geocoin $2.00 + 0.50 per coin shipping & handling So if for example you order 5 gold and 5 silver, your total would be ($9.00 * 10) + $2.00 + (0.50 * 10) = $97.00 One coin would be $11.50 with shipping, two are $21 and so forth. Payment will be through PayPal, sent to my gmail.com e-mail address, username 'yumitori'. E-mail me with the number of each type you wish, and I'll send you an invoice for the total. If for any reason you don't 'do' PayPal, contact us for an address to send money orders to. Be sure to include your geocaching name as well as your real name and address. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me directly, either through my geocaching.com profile or to my gmail account. I may not see something posted in response to this message. Ron/yumitori

Very kind of you to place yourself in a position of instructing me. I deeply appreciate it. There's some history here that some of you might not be aware of if you do not read all of the geocaching.com forums. This is not deafhunt's first innocent inquiry. Again, I'd rather focus on ways we can all strengthen our community through our shared interests, not find reasons to exclude one another.

I think you are missing the point some of us are trying to make. Sure, many who are deaf feel a strong sense of community, but they are hardly the only group that does so. In fact, many of us who geocache also feel a strong sense of community as well. We can choose to focus on our differences, or we can focus on what we have in common instead. Personally I'd rather make our community stronger, rather than look for ways to fragment it into smaller cliques.

Leonata and I will be flying through Denver in March, and have a 3 1/2 hour layover at Denver International going both ways. Rather than wasting the time hanging around the terminal we'd rather try and bag some finds in a state new to us. Are there any locals who would have the time and ability to pick us up, run us out to a cache or two nearby, and get us back in time for our flights out? We're flying on United, and are scheduled to arrive on Monday, March 17th at 9 am and depart at 12:40 pm. Going the other way, we'll be arriving on Wednesday, March 26th at 9:30 am and departing at 1:20 pm. If you think this is a possibility, you can reach me through the geocaching website and we can discuss particulars. Thanks! Ron/yumitori

Heh. We 'did' the Portland cache machine several weeks early while we were in town visiting friends. We spent four days following the route and still didn't get to everything. (But I did end up with a very long list of comments from an out-of-towner's point view to share before the event.) Folks might want to plan some extra days if they can, just to get out of the valleys and into the hills a bit. Missoula has a lot of public land in close vicinity and we've been making good use of it with our caches.

Pssst. Hydnsek. Glade Creek is up on the Montana/Idaho border, but it's actually on the Idaho side. So you have 1 in Montana and 1 in Idaho.

Since you asked. There's actually quite a few caches in Montana and Idaho that you can get to on snowshoes. Now finding them, that's another matter... Glade Creek can easily be done on snowshoes as well. It's intended more as a cross-country ski cache, but that's just because I'm a little sadistic. Getting from the trail to the cache would be easier on snowshoes, though I placed it on skis. So there you go. Two birds with one post.

Peggy and I always carry maintenance supplies, including replacement containers. We only do like size with like size, of course, and only under extreme circumstances (totally shattered plastic containers, for example). We don't try to replace ones that were specially camouflaged or otherwise require offsite effort. Mostly we do a lot of log replacements on less-than-watertight containers. There days we have taken to carrying one of the cache maintenance kits from Dr. B's since it has everything we typically want (and stuff we never realized we needed). That and a lock-n-lock container gets us through most situations.

Well, you specified Washington so I won't link to my first high terrain cache, which was placed on snowshoes. No one's ever found it that way, although a couple of folks tried. From their logs it doesn't sound like they picked the wisest approaches given the conditions. And even though I stated that the hiding place was specifically chosen for accessibility in deep snow some searchers seemed to get bogged down looking in potential locations that would have been under three feet of the white stuff in February. Still, it seems to make a good anchor point for a day's caching loop through the area.

I'm sure there are, but they don't let that define who they are or how they cache. Well maybe not doing some of the steeper trails or the like. Sure we do. It just takes us longer. . . . For what it's worth, I just learned that a long-time cacher in my area is deaf. It doesn't impact him as a cacher in anyway, so why should I have known sooner? Any red-haired lefties out there? (Or those who used to be red-haired?)

Donating to ensure that the deposit was covered did make for an expensive dinner for leonata and I. But if the folks who were counted on to attend the meal but did not make it for one reason or another were to contribute a bit to a future cache machine slush fund, we'll consider ourselves covered. Thanks for the idea.