drofrockology

Nothing to be scared about - well - maybe "Pucker Canyon".... it's interesting how pucker canyon got it's name. last year, while pre-running the course to obtain the official rally speed, after we all met at the washout to discuss its problems, rick (papa laughing gravy) said the car seat was still stuck to his. i'm not sure if it really does have a name. to the east is a canyon called gz (ground zero?) canyon. but, noting is on the west side of the sand spring range. i think it should be called laughing gravy canyon. monty

ok, rusty. here's a shy half a quid for your shameless shilling! i would suggest listening to ferrante and teicher recordings, eating your corn flakes with banana slices. . . oh wait . . . wrong preparations. since geocaching requires only a small amount of the functions your gps-r will perform, turn it on and get to know some of the other features it has besides the goto function. participation in the rally will require you to use the trip computer’s overall average speed feature to keep you on time. do not use the moving average. check out the reset the average and remember how to do it quickly. you’ll want to reset your trip computer every time you leave a checkpoint. set up a route in the gps-r and follow it. you’ll quickly see that it’s not a very effective way of finding geocaches, as it goes to the next waypoint when you get in the general area of the current one. but it’s a great way of following the rally route. during the course challenge sections of the rally, waypoints will pass to rapidly to goto one waypoint to the next. we suggest using two gps-receivers during the rally; one to navigate and one to hunt. you can also use the second unit’s average speed function for those irritating course challenge sections that appear out of the middle of nowhere. try finding an exact location with your gps-r without using the goto. go out somewhere with a fellow gps user and ask them to leave markers (small toys, small caches, small children) and take a waypoint for each. you find them by noting your location on the gps readout; watch the numbers change as you move about. in longitude the smaller numbers are to the east; in latitude the smaller numbers are to the south. you’ll be using this technique to find checkpoint challenge caches. on my garmin venture and vista i can change what i see on a particular screen. if i were competing in the rally i would set up the navigation screen so it shows me distance to the next waypoint and average speed. on the map screen i would have average speed and pointer (or distance to waypoint). on the video screen i might have “the big lebowski.” get your vehicle ready. make sure you have plenty of what it’s going to take to get it, and its passengers (you and your teammate), into, and back out of, the desert safely. bring a shovel, water, tow-strap, water, tools and don’t forget water. you’re going to be out in the desert. there’s a good chance that you’re going to not need any of the items. but, what if you do? basically, you want to do any vehicle prep you would normally when heading out into the backcountry. don’t forget to air-down your tires. you really don’t want to change a tire from of a rock-break because you were setup to tow a 5th-wheel with 60 lbs. of pressure just waiting to escape. maybe you’ll want to checkout your driving skills in areas of sand, crossing narrow (24”) washouts, driving off road at night, and general 4x4 driving practices. btw: this is not a rock-crawler course. it is a very reasonable course. but you will need ground clearance and 4x4. one of the events in the rally is a night rally, so you’re going to have to supply your own source of illumination (beyond these tips). headlamps, flashlights, lanterns, spotlights, etc. will be needed to play. practice holding your gps, light and a piece of 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper while chewing bubble gum. headlamps with lights strapped, duct taped, or bubble-gummed to your arm so you have free hands may be the way to go. get creative, because we sure did putting this thing together. put some vittles in the backseat. you’re going to be out there for a while on saturday. don’t forget to bring some water and a first aid kit for justin. you know, justin case? certainly, you will want to bring your camera and spirit of adventure. you should also bring some king crimson cd’s instead of the ferrante and teicher! well, i would!! you will also find more tips for participating in the gbes navigation cache rally at: http://www.phantoms-lair.com/rally05/directornotes.htm monty gbes rally director

if i sound excited about this year's rally it's because. . . well. i am. i get excited every time we go out to grab a few waypoints for the route, look at checkpoint set-ups, course challenge sections, cache locations etc. ask cacheleen if she was excited when we took her up to checkpoint 3 last week . or, at least tried to take her to checkpoint 3. there was so much snow up there we couldn't get there . and this is not the highest elevation on the route. according to our botanical expert, willybee, we should have some very nice wildflowers to welcome everyone. cacheleen has suggested i put together a music cd to go with the "feel" of the course or the compliment the view. you don't know how tempting this is. hey, i gotta calm down, i've got a radio show to do right now. monty wolf

i was just going over the list in an update email to the nevada commission on tourism of groovy things about this year's rally and thought i’d pass it along. we've got a couple of challenging courses plotted-out. the night course will look quite eerie in the narrow beam of headlights and the glow of the full moon. it will have a bunch of caches for team’s to find including the multi-cache, which will send people on a night hike in the mystery of the desert. think you have what it takes? saturday morning will begin with the optional pancake breakfast, which for 6-bucks, including gratuity is cheaper than anyplace else in town. and with around 200 participants, officials and volunteers all trying to get breakfast at the same time from one of the restaurants or fast food joints, the pancake breakfast sure sounds like the plan to me. the starting line will be in the parking lot where the pancake breakfast will take place. the day course will put you into the desert within minutes of leaving the starting line. you’ll see areas created for the newland’s irrigation district that even few fallonites see. waterfowl abound, so keep your camera ready at all times. naval air station fallon is home to “top gun.” we will be crossing two bombing ranges used by top gun and other navy pilots. you may get to witness a practice bombing run or a mock dogfight. oh yeah, they fly on saturday, too so, keep your camera ready. you’ll pass by historic mining towns and trails from nevada’s past, a couple of canyons with incredible vista and one slot canyon that looks like a place that time has forgotten with walls of rich earthen colors, accented by bright colored lichens and thick moss. keep your camera ready! on both courses you’ll be given challenges where better than average performance is rewarded with a few bonus points. superior performance is rewarded with a bunch of points. there are four degrees of points rewarded in the challenges. checkpoint challenges will give navigators a chance to test their skills with the gps-receiver. you’ll need to find one of the rally’s many caches without using the goto function. sure, it’s easy, when the stopwatch isn’t ticking in your ear and all those bonus points are their for you to take. if. . . course challenges will put the team’s driver and navigator in a situation where rock-solid communication between the two will be imperative. there will be a lot of rapid turns in a relatively short length (5-10 miles). once again the stopwatch is ticking while you attempt to maintain an exact average speed of 21.7 mph. can you do it with 50 bonus points in the balance? oh, and don’t go too fast. if you are just one second quicker than the official course challenge average you will not get any bonus points. sure, you could play it say and run a little slower, but 50 points looks a lot better than 25 points. the multi-cache will take you on a short hike to a view that you will not soon forget. we’ve given you enough time to find all the waypoints from the parking area to the final location and checkout the scene. but, don’t space-out on it, ‘cuz you gotta keep your speed average as close to the official average for that leg. and if just having a fun time while you try to stay on course, on time and score a few caches while you travel scenic desert terrain, you’re going to love the gbes navigational cache rally. in this event, with so much to see, there is certainly no disgrace in taking your time and coming in last. the adventure will still be grand and unique. even nevada governor kenny guinn is proclaiming saturday of the rally nevada geocaching day, in honor of the rally. you will be a part of it! like wolfman jack used to say: “you go’ love it death, baby!” cache you later. monty

and then hemlock asked: Huh? this is funny, hemlock! yes. breakfast will be under $6. but, you'll have to wait to find out how much the awards banquet will cost. i like the way cacheleen paints the picture of value in the entry fee. $25 per person per rally = $100. that’s a bargain in my book! we are still waiting for gc.com to approve the rally as an event. they've had it in their hot little hands for quite some time. looks like one of the issues is the fee. a lack of communications between the area’s cache approver (no, it’s not hemlock, dear friends) and me would be another issue. this is certainly not from a shortfall of my attempts to do so. i tried to tackle these issues back in november and still we wait for the same questions to be answered here in, what is about to become, the second week of february. we've got some pretty big bills to pay to put this thing on. it would be nice if we could just say "come on out and play for free!" but, in a litigious world like we live in today, that is just not practical. but, there are many more expenses than just our liability. like where are our volunteers, and participants going to pee? some people are not comfortable with experiencing the “call of nature” out in nature itself. getting porta-potties out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere is not cheap. neither are the permits, timing devices, trophies (18 in all: first, second and third for night, day and overall for each member of the team), food for volunteers, etc needed to operate an event of this nature. NONE OF THE MONEYS WE ACQUIRE GOES INTO OUR POCKETS! WHATEVER WE DON’T SPEND TO PUT THE RALLY ON WILL GO TO THE VICTIMS AND THE FAMILIES OF THE FALLON LEUKEMIA CLUSTER. WE DON’T EVEN TAKE ANY CASH OUT TO PAY FOR THE GAS FOR THE MANY TIMES NEEDED TO DRIVE THE TWO COURSES. this isn’t something you can just put together on a map and call it good. ivan, teri and i must have run last year’s course 15 times. then the gbes admin group pre-runs the courses to determine the many course speed averages. oh yeah, there’s also all the trips of hiding the caches, setting up the checkpoints, picking up the trash, etc. that’s a lot of gasoline. all of it out of our pockets! this year, with an extra course and more elements, we will be spending even more of our own money to operate this thing. as a geocacher, i’m sure you understand why we do it. it’s because we love geocaching, just like the rest of the caching community. originally, when ivan and i first put the idea of a geocache rally together, we wanted it to be the best cache-event ever presented. from what last year’s competitors have to say, i believe we’ve done just that! we also wanted to expand the world of geocaching by introducing a fun competition that tests, therefore improve, the skills a geocacher needs in order to be a geocacher. i believe we succeeded in doing that, as well. we have also taken what we did last year another step by incorporating more challenges to the event, not to mention an extra day (ok, so it’s a night) into the mix. when i look at gc.com’s guidelines for conducting a cache event, it sounds to me like we qualify to the letter! perhaps, if we’d called it a “geocache safari” instead of a rally we wouldn’t be dealing with all this red tape. maybe a wiser man than i can lend a little insight into all this. monty wolf dr. of rockology

actually, the dates are may 20 (friday night) and 21 (saturday after a group breakfast). the biggest reason the fee was increased from last year is that we have a big liability bill and porta-potty expense to cover. last year we had a benefactor take care of the liability. that won't happen this year. that said, we thought if we had to raise the fee we might as well give the participants something for their money. so we are! we have just about confirmed the breakfast that will take place on saturday morning. it looks like it will cost under $6 for a pancake breakfast with, yes, pancakes, sausages and orange juice. the venue will, most likely, be the starting line for the day run. how convenient is that? still working on details for the saturday night awards banquet. there will be more features to the rally and a lot more caches (40+). you can checkout the rally's web site at: http://www.phantoms-lair.com/rally05/ btw: governor kenny guinn is dedicating saturday, may 20 as nevada geocache day in honor of the rally. how cool is that? as long as you have a vehicle that will take most dirt roads you should have no trouble with the course. oh yeah, BRING YOUR CAMERA! this year's route is stunning and with the winter we're having we should have some very nice desert wild flowers for your viewing pleasure. got a question on the rally: montywolf@gmail.com cache you later. monty wolf dr. of rockology

i can't think of any suv (even the ones designed around the cupholders instead of their off-road worthyness) that would not be able to participate. the event is more about navigation than driving. the course itself is quite picturesque and doesn't not require any special driving experience. navigating it and finding the caches is a different matter. btw: we have fail-safes built in to the directions that will insure nobody gets lost. however, if you use the fail-safes, points will be deducted from your score. looking forward to meeting you and all california cachers. monty wolf

HI: I just wanted to everyone know that the Great Basin & Eastern Sierra Geocachers have organized the first Cache-Event of its kind. It’s a Navigational Rally that takes place in the deserts of Northern Nevada and requires the participants to find several caches and accomplish Checkpoint Challenges. The adventure begins at the pavement's end. Saturday, May 22nd 2004 in Fallon - the Oasis of Nevada Join us for an off-road rally that covers 150 miles of beautiful high desert landscape. With Nevada as our playground, we're going to test the skills of participants by pitting drivers against a mazelike course that winds through the deserts and mountains around Fallon, and finding Cache Challenges along the route that will sharpen the hunting skills of navigators. Teams must work together to make it through the course safely and successfully. Don't worry though, we don't want anyone getting lost, so drivers and navigators will have a series of Checkpoints to keep them on track, getting to those Checkpoints, however, will be entirely up to you. Entries will be limited to the first 75 applicants. Each team must include a Driver and a Navigator. Passengers are welcome, but bare in mind that the rally takes approximately 6 hours from start to finish. There will be a mandatory driver/navigator meeting prior to the rally at 7:30am, before the first car leaves the starting line at 8:05am. Entry fee is $30 for the team, plus an additional $5 per passenger. This cost includes memberships into the Great Basin and Eastern Sierra Geocachers. The entry fee will go to covering the expenses of the restroom facilities, timing devices, trophies, printing, postage, equipment rentals, etc. Proceeds will go to benefit the families of the Fallon leukemia cluster. While no serious 4x4 skills are required, there will be a vehicle inspection to ensure that everyone will be able to safely navigate the course. Clearance is the key word on this route. We also recommend bringing "standard desert supplies" (Ice Chest, Water, Lunches, Water, Extra Batteries for GPS-r, Water, Cell Phone, Water, FRS or CB Radio, Water, First Aid Kit, Water, Tow Strap, Water, Gloves, Water, Tools, Water, Shovel, and did I mention water?) Also handy will be pens and clipboards for the Navigators. We will have volunteers staffing the Checkpoints and are looking for anyone willing to lend a hand. There will be a four-person team at each Checkpoint, a chief timer, a checkpoint challenge timer, a traffic controller, and a floater. Volunteers will meet at 7:00am, before heading out to take up their stations. Anyone interested in volunteering, please contact us. Thanks to the assistance of CO_Admin, all Participants and Volunteers will be able to log in the Event and up to 9 additional caches that we will be placing along the course. You can find out more details by surfing over to waypoint #GCHVET or at : http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...f6-4c7c3dfa181a I hope you can make it. Monty Wolf

HI: I just wanted to everyone know that the Great Basin & Eastern Sierra Geocachers have organized the first Cache-Event of its kind. It’s a Navigational Rally that takes place in the deserts of Northern Nevada and requires the participants to find several caches and accomplish Checkpoint Challenges. The adventure begins at the pavement's end. Saturday, May 22nd 2004 in Fallon - the Oasis of Nevada Join us for an off-road rally that covers 150 miles of beautiful high desert landscape. With Nevada as our playground, we're going to test the skills of participants by pitting drivers against a mazelike course that winds through the deserts and mountains around Fallon, and finding Cache Challenges along the route that will sharpen the hunting skills of navigators. Teams must work together to make it through the course safely and successfully. Don't worry though, we don't want anyone getting lost, so drivers and navigators will have a series of Checkpoints to keep them on track, getting to those Checkpoints, however, will be entirely up to you. Entries will be limited to the first 75 applicants. Each team must include a Driver and a Navigator. Passengers are welcome, but bare in mind that the rally takes approximately 6 hours from start to finish. There will be a mandatory driver/navigator meeting prior to the rally at 7:30am, before the first car leaves the starting line at 8:05am. Entry fee is $30 for the team, plus an additional $5 per passenger. This cost includes memberships into the Great Basin and Eastern Sierra Geocachers. The entry fee will go to covering the expenses of the restroom facilities, timing devices, trophies, printing, postage, equipment rentals, etc. Proceeds will go to benefit the families of the Fallon leukemia cluster. While no serious 4x4 skills are required, there will be a vehicle inspection to ensure that everyone will be able to safely navigate the course. Clearance is the key word on this route. We also recommend bringing "standard desert supplies" (Ice Chest, Water, Lunches, Water, Extra Batteries for GPS-r, Water, Cell Phone, Water, FRS or CB Radio, Water, First Aid Kit, Water, Tow Strap, Water, Gloves, Water, Tools, Water, Shovel, and did I mention water?) Also handy will be pens and clipboards for the Navigators. We will have volunteers staffing the Checkpoints and are looking for anyone willing to lend a hand. There will be a four-person team at each Checkpoint, a chief timer, a checkpoint challenge timer, a traffic controller, and a floater. Volunteers will meet at 7:00am, before heading out to take up their stations. Anyone interested in volunteering, please contact us. Thanks to the assistance of CO_Admin, all Participants and Volunteers will be able to log in the Event and up to 9 additional caches that we will be placing along the course. You can find out more details by surfing over to waypoint #GCHVET or at : http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...f6-4c7c3dfa181a I hope you can make it. Monty Wolf

i have no use for virtual caches. unless, of course, it's part of a multi-cache with the virtual offering a clue to the final, or next leg of the multi. seems to me that too many virtuals are available to log just for the sake of somebody wanting to boost their personal cache palcement count. i would like to see gc.com create a unique count for virtuals in total cache counts. that would make some of the cachers out there with high-3-figure and 4-figure counts look more realistic. i have logged a couple of virtuals as a "note" just to gain miles on a travel bug, but i am virtual cache free and intend to stay that way. it's not about the exchange for me - it's about the find. the argument that traditional caching is just an exchange of cheap trinkets doesn't hold water with me. what came first the tradional or the virtual? a sign, a headstone, a view, a trail, etc. are not caches, they are what they are. this is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinons. cache you later, monty

i don't think the email fired of the the parks and rec dude was excessive. it's just one email from one person. very few admin-types take email seriously. but then, i don't worry to much about offending idiots. i'm not very liberal that way. # # # # # if you want to get the ban overturned, you're going to need to get your local paper, tv or news radio station to do a story on it. i'm a radio news reporter. even if i weren't a geocacher, even if i didn't know what it was, i would love a story like this. put together a news release. have somebody who is a writer do it. then call the station and ask to speak to the news director or a reporter. tell them what's up and that you'd like to fax, or email them the release. make sure you have a spokesperson who will sound literate. a woman would be your best bet. do you have a local geocaching group? if not, get one organized. we started one here in reno about 2 months ago. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gbesgeocachers/ so far, we have around 35 members, have had one event cache and have shared many ideas. but, the best thing about a group like this is, you will have a network of people from various walks of life. one of them is going to be the perfect spokesperson. this will also give the tv or radio reporters a variety of people to talk to, maybe go on a hunt with them and see how begnine this activity actually is. from there it won't take long for the reporter to make the parks and rec department look like fools. good luck. Have a day, Monty

I have a cache that is missing in action I have no reason to believe that it's been plundered. I just think that I might have messed up to coordinates when I logged them. I did follow the Geocaching guidlines by taking multiple readings. I think it's because of the narrow canyon and the cache is in a tree. The cache page is called Stout Cache and is located just of Hwy. 89 between Hatch and Mt. Carmel Jct. All of the details have been updated to help any Cache Detectives find it so I can adjust the listed coordinates. If you have any questions, you can email me atmontywolf@lycos.com. It will be a few months before I will be back in the area to get better coord's . As a reward, I will Snail Mail the FTF a very low numbered GeoToken I'm designing . Thank you, Monty [This message was edited by drofrockology on March 09, 2003 at 11:47 AM.]