The Navigatorz

The Butte (cache) is located on Teanaway Butte. It appears to be a 9 miles RT hike with a 2200' elevation gain.

Thanks to all who are letting me know about existing caches at lookout sites. There's no quick way that I know of to search for caches at lookouts, so your contributions are helpful. Right now the Bookmark List contains 81 caches to choose from, but i'm still looking for more. It's a tedious task, but eventually I will have searched all of the lookout sites. What I do is this: I have a reference book I purchased that lists all of the 656 lookout sites in WA state. Usually they are identified by Mountain, Ridge, or Peak name. I take the name of the location, enter it into a Topozone.com search. Then I verify from the search results it is the correct location by cross checking the county and the elevation. After I know I've found the coordinates of the lookout, I copy and paste the coordinates into the geocaching search, and see if there is a cache nearby, preferably less than 0.1 miles. If not, I move onto another search. Eventually I will have searched all lookout locations. I think I've searched 200 lookout sites so far (out of 656) and come up with 6 more caches to add to the challenge. Why do I do this, because I'm crazy I guess. I'm hoping the result is more caches to choose from. So again thanks to those who have helped in the search.

Mount Higgins was a Forest Service lookout. It's now on the WA Lookout Challenge Bookmark List (Area 3). Thanks for letting me know. Set up a shared bookmark list of the lookout caches (from my list) and I will add your name and cache stats to the challenge page. Have fun!

There is no deadline on completing the challenge. You can take as long as you like. I'm thinking most will take the multi-year approach.

Thank you. It is a lookout site. The cache has been added to my Lookout Bookmark List. There used to be an 85' steel tower in 1947, replaced by a 50' wooden tower in 1965, which was removed in 1972. You're welcome I thought I posted about South Mountain too but I don't see my post. I think there was a lookout tower there but I can't remember where I read that. I have a cache there. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...e2-cca0b0894d0e Thanks again. It's Bookmarked. A lookout cabin was built by the DNR on South Mountain in 1956, and it was removed in 1976. For the challenge, its located in Area 1.

Thank you. It is a lookout site. The cache has been added to my Lookout Bookmark List. There used to be an 85' steel tower in 1947, replaced by a 50' wooden tower in 1965, which was removed in 1972.

You're right. I thought I removed the virtuals from the list, but looks like I missed one (Mt. Adams). It's off the list now. Thanks for pointing it out.

Introducing, the Washington Forest Fire Lookout Challenge (Waypoint GC130JH) In a nutshell, this challenge requires finding geocaches at 50 forest fire lookouts in the state of Washington. The state has been divided into 9 regions with boundaries identified on the cache page. Geocachers who take on the challenge will be required to find or hide “at least” 4 geocaches in each of the 9 regions. All geocaches found and hidden, past, present, and future count, except for caches that have already been archived before the start of this challenge. Presently, there are 72 known geocaches at lookouts and lookout sites. Only caches listed in this Bookmark List will be counted. At one time, there were over 600 lookouts in WA state, so with new hides, the Bookmark List will continue to grow. Please keep in mind that new hides must meet the requirements listed on the cache page, as well as the requirements established by Groundspeak. Also remember that all hides must be maintainable. Don’t hide a cache that you don’t intend to check on and maintain on a regular basis. The purpose of this challenge is to provide geocachers an extra-ordinary experience that combines the fun of geocaching, traveling to a unique destination in which to explore the great outdoors, and an opportunity to reflect on fire lookout history. Visiting lookouts can even be a challenge, as they are located on high peaks, accessible by mountain road driving or hiking (some may even require mountain climbing). Note that this is not a competition, so there is no prize for first to complete. Each lookout cache should be an adventure and an experience to remember. So if you are interested in taking on the Washington Forest Fire Lookout Challenge, take a look at my Bookmark List, identify which ones you have found or own, and create your own “shared” Bookmark List. Send me a link to your Bookmark and I will add your name and stats to the cache page, then get out there and start visiting lookouts. As you find geocaches at other lookouts, keep adding them to your shared Bookmark list. Occasionally send me your list so I can update the stats table on the cache page. A special thanks to Cascade Reviewer and Moun10bike for their helpful suggestions provided during the creation of this challenge cache. See you at the Lookouts!! The Navigatorz

Wow, you're list looks more complete. Maybe I should archive mine.

Finished updating the PCT Bookmark list. A couple more caches dropped off the list (too far from the trail). If anyone knows of other caches along the Crest Trail, let me know and I'll add them to the Bookmark.

I'm having fun with my new mapping software. Looks like the Crest Trail crosses the Highway 2 right at the summit. Therefore Green Eggs is back on the menu.

My birthday came early. I went to the new Mountaineer store today for the first time and they had a computer set up with Maptech Terrain Navigator. The guy there gave me a nice demonstration and afterward I reached for my wallet. Nice software for planning hikes...and geocaching. I'm going to insert the waypoints for each cache on the PCT Bookmark list and see if they qualify as "along" the Crest Trail. Perhaps Green Eggs will go back on the list.

My Bookmark list is for caches "along" the trail, not "on" the trail. You won't find any caches on the trail, so there has to be some distance criteria. I have hiked several portions of the trail, including the 27 mile stretch between Chinkook Pass and White Pass. I questioned if I was hiking the trail, how far off would I go to get a cache. I chose 1/4 mile. That may not be the same for everyone and each has to choose how far off the trail they are willing to go to find a cache. Some of the caches pages were sent to me as recommendations by others to put on the list. My only way of verification was either take their word for it, or as I have most of them, I checked using a map. I'm hoping to get some trails software for my birthday. if so, I will double check each cache on the list. If they're not along the trail using my 1/4 mile guideline, I will remove them. In the meantine I have removed Georoo's Skyline caches and Green Eggs from the list per your comments, although I felt Green Egss was close enough, being right along the highway near where the Crest Trail crosses.

Got it! Thanks.

They're on the list now. Here is the Pacific Crest Trail Caches (Washington and Oregon) Bookmark list

It's interesting to note that 10 of them are micros!! At least they're not the majority.

I have found/hidden 19 of the caches on the list.

I am leaning toward a dynamic list, but I am cautious of this for the reasons that runhills mentions - namely, that we've seen people throw out meaningless caches, often caches that don't meet the guidelines, in order to fulfill the requirements of a challenge cache. I am thinking along the lines of making any finds count, but only hides made after I posted this thread. Of course, then there's always the possibility of people teaming up to hide caches for the others to find and vice versa. Any suggestions on how to keep the noise down but permit the list to update with any legitimate caches is welcome! I'd still like to see more than 100 caches to choose from. Seems like finding 50 caches from a list of 100 caches scattered all over the state would take a long time to complete. It certainly won't be like the Delorme challenge where there were thousands of caches to choose from and you could go out in a weekend and pick up several Delorme pages. Some of these highest elevation locations might take a whole day just to drive to, hike in to the cache and out, and drive back home. If you included any cache at an elevation say higher than 5000 feet, there would be more to choose from. But its your cache so you decide. Just a suggestion.

The 100,000 suggestion wasn't meant to include previous finds, otherwise with the 16 I have found, I would have completed the challenge already. But if Moun10bike wants 35-50 finds in his challenge cache, then 250,000 may be more appropriate. I'd also like to see previous finds not included so as to level the playing field.

I think the challenge would be based on finding caches from the list Moun10bike provided at the beginning of this thread, the 100 highest elevation caches, not any cache. The list also provides an elevation minimum. The 100th cache on the list is at 5646 feet. but hopefully the list can be expanded a little to include more caches, say those over 5000 feet?

I think there is a decimal place or two off on that proposal. Or were you thinking of the moon? I believe he's suggesting that the combined total of the found caches would be 100,000 feet. In his example, 6500 ft x 15 caches = 97,500 ft, which is pretty close. Not a bad challenge idea. Lots of short mountains, or a few tall ones. Yep, that's what I meant by elevation totals, but hydnseek said it better than I did. Any chance of getting a bookmark list of these caches?

Thanks for the list Moun10bike. It was nice to see 4 of them are mine and I have found 16 others on the list. Since there are several others on my to-do list, I'd be up for a Washington's highest caches challenge. How's this for an idea for the challenge?: Find caches from that list with elevation totals of 100,000 feet. That would mean finding about 15 caches in the 6500 feet range.

I believe Mr. Gadget's comment "How can I get even?" was only in fun. I think we all said we learned a little history.

How far is it from Wenatchee? I may have to increase the mileage radius I have set for Notification of New caches. Nasty puzzle huh? Come on now, you're not referring to Camouflage are you? That should have been a piece of cake to solve for a former engineer.

That's cool. So how many geocached states will that be for you? I might be able to pick up four states next week. I'll be in Philadelphia, so a find in PA for sure. Then just 5 miles south of my hotel is the Pennsylvania - New Jersey border, 16 miles west of my hotel is the Pennsylvania - Delaware border, and another 25 miles further west is the Delaware - Maryland border. I won't be seeing you at the airport tomorrow, because when I made reservations, all Wenatchee flights were booked. So I have to drive over to Sea-tac and park my car for the week. I wish Horizon would bring more flights to Wenatchee. Seems like the flights they do have available get booked up fast.