Bear & Ducky

It has been a while since I've participated in these forums or publicly been out geocaching....it is with a sad occasion that I revisit. Paragon aka Frank McKnight passed on the afternoon of March 25th 2008 in a tragic car accident north of North Bay. Geocaching was an activity he introduced myself too and I know he has been a part of many of the area's (Ontario) geocacher's adventures. If anyone happens to have any photo's of Paragon in their collection it would be fantastic to have a copy of them to share with family. Thank-you all, Keith Aka Bear

Interesting link, I've been spammed by them a few times in regards to what they are doing. If anyone signs upit'll be interesting to know ifyou actually win something or just become another person on another spam/marketing list. It comes across to me as one of those "Hey you won 2 nights at....just come up and start filling in the forms..." Anyway good luck to any who try it Keith aka Bear

Yes it is a new server. Keith & I talked last wednesday and I put up a server on my network for it. I hope it serves the cause well and if theres any lag or problems I'm sure Keith will let me know but feel free to say so and I'll see to it the server has the power to provission these sites accordingly. Keith aka Bear

Just a note of update for Hamilton area CITO event efforts. I've received word from the City of Hamilton's Parks Department and hopefully within a week or 2 I will be able to have a face to face meeting to discuss their support to the event/endorsement as well as our local clean up commitee H.E.L.P. comes into play with that. Aside from which I've contacted the HCA to discuss our locations, since a couple do happen to be on conservation land, but so far no word. The HCA does hold a clean up at several areas in May, so I'm not sure if they care to be involved but I'll have a seperate event posted for a CITO on the may date for one of the areas in Hamilton. Regards, Bear Aka Keith

Great logo design (rev 3a) TT. I vote for the trillium in the middle, I don't care if the points match up to the trillium though as some others do...to me if you make it too symetric and measured it just doesn't look natural...its like laying a pile of perfectly aligned sticks over your geocache Keith aka Bear

Well I'll stick in my 2 cents in here as well...I like all the concepts presented but ultimately I think they detract from the original logo. Too busy.... I'll possibly take that bach when TT posts the more discrete versions with the maple leaf etc.. So another vote for the original logo no trilliums or mapple leafs. Bear

Ducky and I will be happy to handle the Hamilton CITO Event on April 17th. I'll be online chatting it up tonight and talking more with BQ to see whats been organized already. Bear.

Just a reminder to those who have signed up and those who may yet be deciding, next saturday is the next organized pub night (or rather next one to see the pub bug travel too ) Check out waypoint GCHC9F for the details. It should be a fun night, they have great ribs at the location, good beer and lots of great people attending. Along with lots of discussion about OGA I'm sure. Keith Aka Bear

You can count on Ducky and I being out there...so long as the Jacks don't count as 2 for our team..other wise I'll let them use their own gps Bear

I use FRS radios consistently, even when hiking alone I leave a note on my car to tune to FRS-2 to reach me. The difference between them and a walkie talkie would include the multiple channels to choose from with the privacy codes, with my set I can technically get 500+ different private channels by combining the two options. FRS radios I find also tend to have better range than regular walkie talkies. then there's the Rinos, with those units you have a gps and frs in one, you can actually transmit data across the radio, such as waypoints and your current location. In anycase I don't leave home with out them and if I'm caching with a group who doesnt have I always give them one of the units so we can stay in contact while splitting up on a search. Keith Bear & Ducky

I'm just wondering if it really is that useful to have a postal code search? I mean really I know my home coordinates and search mostly from there, when I go farther away I simply use mapquest or something to get base coordinates for a search. I have *NO* clue what postal code exists outside of my area so to me it seems like its not that useful. Any perspective onto why the postal code search makes it easier? Keith Bear & Ducky

Saw this a long time ago, its interesting but it would probably kill the servers if they tried to get interactive xoom maps with any level of detail close to this. There are online topo maps, though I havn't used them, I've had people print off samples and show me. They look great and they certainly give you a really good idea where the cache is. Keith Bear & Ducky

WE have a local cacher Res2100, his anniversary date is halloween and he has about 656 cache finds in one year. (his first year for that matter) At a recent event we had we granted him and his son the title of "Cache Machine" Keith Bear & Ducky

Yes very common in my case..I have a dozen to log and just havn't gotten around to it since I need to look up my notes and check the day/took/left etc.. Having more fun doing caches than I do reporting them online. Keith Bear & Ducky

In regards to shipping ammo boxes or going with them through customs. An ex girlfriend of mine (whos from Michigan but lived in Ontario for University) Use to carry an ammo box as a purse. She'd walk through customs all the time when we went to visit folks in the US, then again this was way before 9/11 ever happened. I think an ammo box probably draws as much attention as a sword does, I ship them with no problem, but you have to expect the box will be opened and searched. So no sticking any shell casings in as trade items Keith Bear & Ducky

Ahh...thought something was missing. The idea is an excellent one, and in reference to a question asked in the original thread about costs to ship. I suggested that I spend about lets say up to 50.00 US to ship anime dvd box set of about 2lbs and 75.00 US to ship swords (real..yes I collect them) which weigh in close to 6 lbs (but are larger boxes. I once paid 20.00 US to let something tour on boat across, it was painfully slow. A suggestion I made to overcome fees of oversea shipping was to work out a chain of cachers to assist in moving the cache to the final location. Perhaps asking in forums for cachers that are going to be overseas and see if they'll take a package with them and then they could find a spot to stash and place and report the coords. You could then get another cacher to pick it up whom was close to the coords. Ideally it would be almost like the old moving caches, except you can't officially post those unless gc.com makes an exception, the exception being that the cache will become a traditional as soon as it arrives. Either way you try to get it there I'm sure this would be a lot of fun. Another question I replied to was someone mentioned how to handle price tactfully. I think if your up front and specify what you think is a good minimum and maximum price then ask the other what they think as well. All sides should be able to agree and there shouldn't be any 300.00 caches traded for 5.00 caches 9as a post now deleted brought up.) Anyway my 2.5 cents. Keith Bear & Ducky

Not even sure what the pirates were? I wasn't in here last week. Keith Bear & Ducky

quote:I thought it was a valid statment in the context. I'd have used "tough luck" I was assuming the nuts were a regional variation. No its not quite as simple as a variation. Or maybe the langauge in the Western US is a little different that and on the eastern side of Canada. Anythings possible. To myself if I had to equat Tough Nuts to something else it would be more like "Pi** Off you limey *****" (Note built in triggers prevent me from giving you the actual phrase but I think you can guess...if a mod sees this please not its not being used as an attack context, merely a langauge comparison. If you still feel its out of line then edit away and I'll apologize, ) That may be closer to more regional terms for you in the UK...of course I'm basing that on the way my family talks being mostly from England and Austrailia (but all England born with the exception of my generation). Keith Bear & Ducky

quote:Originally posted by ScottJ: Some don't even use a GPS -- now THAT's primitive, and I love it. Funny that, actually on one cache I had an outdated cache page printed out that placed the cache a good 12 kilometers away. Then my wife reminds me, hey isn't this cache suppose to be within 500 meters or so of the one were doing. The reason that was on her mind was the joking going on in another forum how the two cachers had placed these so darn close to each others spots at the same time for a big multi cacher multi cache (which we participated in) and they both had big zones...of all the spots they picked the smae spot on the border of their zones. Anyway to make the longer story a bit shorter, the clue for the cache page was extremely accurate. It said something like "go down the hill and follow the river, when the trail veers up and away your there." So we did just that and walked right to the cache. Good for us since we were 100 km from home and didn't want to have to drive home to get updated coordinates. After I logged the find with comments on the clue the placer updated his clue to be a bit more vague. I've also done a few virts without the gps turned on....knew the area enough and just enjoyed the walk while recording the information. Keith Bear & Ducky

LOL good list, On a serious note, you asked who would enforce it? I think if you really want a creed/code of ethics/honor etc.. then the best thing would be to get geocaching associations on board. It's one of the things I've thought over for when I talk to another cacher locally in the next week about SOGA (Sothern Ontario Geocaching Association...not existing but hey we have a nice logo and some ideas to start) I'm trying to convince him to be president for the first year since I know I have more time to sparsly plan with him than lead, and one of the areas we need to discuss is what kind of role the association could or should have. Maybe some of the others in existing associations could express their view points. In one light I think its hard to actually enforce and in the other there will be people saying again its another layer...get rid of it. Anyway its yet another suggestion good or bad to be discussed. Keith Bear & Ducky

The problem was tough nuts was not used as a direct response to my replies. It was used in one of Jeremy's posts when he said what he thought were his opinions and then summed it up with if you don't agree then tough nuts. Nothing to do with my posts, in fact the two items being discussed then may have evolved from my posts but they were in fact dealing with two issues (FTF and Approvers approving their own caches) I did participate something in that thread, but I wasn't advocating opposing opinions. I did however suggest tough nuts was bad form for the guy at the top (no matter how much he says his opinion should just be carried equal) I too have worked with many non profit orgs, I beleive in open source..how can I not work with non profits. So as a volunteer for them I agree there are those who complain. There are also those orgs where the top becomes a closed private club and all others had best stand clear or be squashed out of the org. So I guess thats why I've been so persistent and heated at times. Beyond that I agree completely that we can let bygones be bygones....but its probably best to say we agree to disagree on some things here and leave it at that. Since the points debated now are no longer points that help or hinder geocaching, those have already been made. Keith Not trying to get the last word in either so post a reply, if I don't see a fundamentaly new debate item in it then I think were kosher. Otherwise I'll be happy to debate anything (and agree too) till the cows come home. Bear & Ducky

Lol Pan Finally I'm starting to feel the comic relief. Heck you could add the witty remarks in this thread, if you wanted Just don't make them personal and start the spit flying again Keith Bear & Ducky

Yes same, I've used the LOC files, but I keep reinstalling Linux (actually Familiar 0.72 is the official version) onto my Pocket PC, and while I've taken some time to make the data accessible to me there I have not always bothered with it. Besides Its another thing to carry and possibly loose, I've dropped keys, cell phone, hmm what else have I lost...(memory oh yeah thats it) all while caching because I tend to pick trails that deserve 4 ratings or higher. Not that I find they stay that way long, but occasionally climbing up that terrain tears the clip holding something off. I think to answer the primary question, it has as a cacher gotten much better (I'm not going into the other side again....) So as a cacher I've been happy and the local caches are starting to get extremely interesting. Lots of natural containers beginning to spring up. The features of the site havn't actually improved the way I cache in any way, although the changes do take some time to adjust to I have noting good or bad to say about the site layout a year + later. I started caching probably 1.5 to 2 years ago with friends, casual with them as they cached, then september 2002 I had a GPS myself and registered to start doing caches on my own. Keith Bear & Ducky

Hopefully a long enough time to forget all the witty replies. If I'm not mistaken we've come full circle in some of the threads and almost seem to have a completely civil discussion going on again. Keith Hoping civility wins the day. Bear & Ducky

Yes you are correct is seems like my concerns are being looked at more. Which is why I've tried to be more persistent even after being bashed in return...and still some creative nasty emails. But filters work wonders for them. (oh and yes I did send a note about them to contact@geocaching.com...in case your wondering...hard to say if anything can be done.) I think had I just dropped off and let it die then perhaps some (not all) of these issues may just get passed up as..oh well he's just whinning and now he's gone. I have always said and hoped that it would only generate better policies, since we can't see what they are doing behind the scenes then I can't tell if it has helped. But I suppose as the new policies get revealed I will know one way or another what has been decided. The tough nuts comment is still harsh though, I think a more polite and service orientated reply is better such as suggested earlier "Thank-you for your suggestion/concern we don't have that implemented at this time but will consider it for future revisions." It goes a lot farther than tough nuts. Keith Bear & Ducky