Tour de Cache - NJ

Reading between the lines it looks like you may be talking about GC153FQ - WOO 2 forgot the Hoo on page 52. If it is indeed gone and there are no other caches on the page then we are going to have to work out some sort of exemption. But we will work that out with each cacher on a case by case basis. Best thing at this point is to check with the CO on the status of the cache and get back to us with the specifics. The intent of the Tour is for it to be doable and fun. So we will work with you when glitches like this arise. So, if I've hunted this cache and it's confirmed missing afterwards, I get this page for free, right? Do I have to return to this cache if it's repaired/replaced by the CO? What if it's archived and someone places a new cache on that grid before I get the final 'tudes for TdC-2. Do I really have to drive ALL the way back to that grid to get the new cache? Nik, Here are some guiding principles for this type of situation 1. If its unfindable, and you can convince us of that fact and there are no other findable caches on the page at the time you complete the Tour, then you can apply for an exemption. 2. If the CO replaces it and its the only findable cache on the page, then we would expect you go back to find it unless you can make a compelling argument and convince us otherwise. Part of the challenge is to find caches on each page. 3. If there is new cache is listed on the page before you complete the Tour, we expect you to find it to complete the page. No blanket exemptions will be granted. We will do this on a case by case basis and we will do our best to be fair and equitable about it. But the cacher will need to convince us of the need for an exemption to the rules.

Reading between the lines it looks like you may be talking about GC153FQ - WOO 2 forgot the Hoo on page 52. If it is indeed gone and there are no other caches on the page then we are going to have to work out some sort of exemption. But we will work that out with each cacher on a case by case basis. Best thing at this point is to check with the CO on the status of the cache and get back to us with the specifics. The intent of the Tour is for it to be doable and fun. So we will work with you when glitches like this arise.

Is there any charge for the download?

This thread is for posting your congratulatory notes and acknowledging a cacher's successful completion of either of the Tour de Cache Challenges. So with that preamble out of the way.... Congratulations to carels for being the first cachers to complete the Tour de Cache 2 - NJ DeLorme Challenge. They started filling in the pages of their DeLorme atlas on November 3 and finished five days later on November 7. While reviewing their finds it was quite evident that they had set up a systematic way of criss crossing the state to collect the required caches. Also of note is that every cache they found for the Challenge was a real physical cache with a logbook. Carels have set the bar high for the NJ DeLorme Challenge. Well done folks, you earned your smilie!

That's the way we wrote Rule #3 and how we intend to interpret it. We have a master list of all the caches that where in place on 10/25/07 and that's what we will use to judge completion of a page on the start date. To do otherwise would be tracking a moving target and we just don't have the time to do that. We are trying to make admin of this Tour manageable. (You can get to our list through some of the links in the first posting of this thread.) Refer to Rule #6. You found a cache on one section of Page 73. You're done there. Some other state challenges require you to find a cache in each section, we don't. If you find something on the page, you're done. Hope that answers your questions.

This thread will be used to provide updates and clarifications for GC16TDD - Tour de Cache 2 - NJ DeLorme Challenge 1. Rule #3 of the challenge allows you to claim completion of a page if you have found and/or hidden all of the available caches on that page as of the start of the challenge (10/25/2007). So far we are aware of two cachers who have successfully made that claim. To assist in determining if you qualify to claim a page under Rule #3, we are providing the following link which shows the cache count on each page of the DeLorme atlas at the start of the challenge with further links to our list. Atlas Page Cache Totals as of Starting Date (10/25/07) One interesting thing we noted when going through the caches was that there were three caches that fell on page boundaries. Considering there where 3,603 caches at the start of the challenge, that was not to bad. We decided that those caches on page boundaries will not be considered for determining the completion of a page at the start of the DeLorme Challenge. Further during the ongoing DeLorme Challenge these caches may be counted on one page or the other but not both pages that share the boundary that these caches are on. 2. Some cachers have posted bookmarks on the Tour de Cache 2 cache page to show their progress. For those cachers who are premium and members and have the ability to post bookmarks, we would encourage you to do so if you desire. Further for premium members upon finding a cache on each page of the DeLorme Atlas, submitting a link to your bookmark rather than sending the committee a GPX file of your finds will be the preferred method for submitting the information necessary for verifying your successful completion of the challenge 3. A GSAK macro that was originally written for the Virginia DeLorme challenge to determine what page a cache is on has been revised by Never Lost In Him for use in the New Jersey DeLorme challenge. We took NLIH’s work and applied it to the latest version of the Virgina macro and are making it available at the link below. Thanks Lance for spotting the GSAK macro and revising it for New Jersey. GSAK Macro for Determining What Atlas Page a Cache Is On

Every page has a cache on it. Though Pages 40 & 52 admittedly only have one cache each. I guess that balances Page 31 which has 236 caches on it. Also there are no caches on the top section of Page 66 but then that is where the Salem Nuclear Plant is locates so don't look for caches there anytime soon. You can post a progress note on the page as you did on the original Tour de Cache though its not required. Also we don't have access to the mapping software used on some of the other challenges so we will not be able to do that. We are open to suggestion on progress tracking. We just wanted to get the challenge up and running so that folks can start working on it now that fall has hopefully got started too! Some statistics - we all love them! Page 21 = 19 caches in 8,300 acres along the northern border of NJ above Wanaque Resevoir. Page 39 = 5 caches in a 290 acre section of Leonardo. The rest of the page is Sandy Hook which is closed to caches - though there is a virtual cache out there. This will be challenging Page 40 = 1 cache in a 970 acre section along the Delaware above Lambertville. Page 52 = 1 cache in a 570 acre section along the Delaware in Penns Grove. Page 66 top section = 0 caches near the Salem Nuclear Plant. Pahe 66 bottom section = 4 caches in 24,000 acres of prime marsh land along Delaware Bay near Port Norris and Fortesque. Well just like in the original Tour de Cache - NJ County Challenge, we had to work with what we had. You may recall the challenge of Hudson County which last year had only 10 caches in it. Now we are showing 19 caches there. Perhaps with all the new cachers, the DeLorme Challenge might encourage some cache placement in these cache lean areas. A few other pages with less then 10 caches in them are of note: Page 34 = 9 caches - along the Delaware River centered on Frenchtown Page 67 = 6 caches - this is the area along Delaware Bay east of Bridgeton Now contrast this with some of the areas of high cache density. Pages > 200 caches Pages 24, 25, 26 and 31- the area between Patterson in the east and Andover in the west plus the area extending South to Florham Park. Some serious cache density here. These four pages contain 887 caches which represent almost 25 % of the 3610 caches in NJ! Pages 47,54,55,56,62,63,64,65,70 - roughly extends from Burlington along the Delaware Southeast towards Atlantic City, containing the Wharton State Forest. These pages contain 828 caches which represents 23 % of the caches in NJ. Very interesting distributions when you look at them So all we can say is that there are some pages with very few caches and some pages with quite a few caches. The contrast should make the DeLorme Challenge fun. And please be mindful of Rule #11 - "Remember that this is a game and is supposed to be fun!"

Yes you can use a cache find for both challenges. However it is up to you to be sure that the cache complies with the rules of each challenge. See Rule #7. As for logging the final Tour de Cache - NJ County Challenge for this challenge, that is OK provided you found it on or after October 25, 2007. Also per Rule #5 you need to log that cache based on its listed coordinates, not its final coord. The listed coordinates will be used for determining what page a puzzle or multi cache is on since we have noway of knowing or verifying where the final cache may be. See Rule #5. We expect that having found all the caches on a page will be an exception that should not occur often. The way Rule #3 is currently written, you do not need to find a new cache that may appear on a completed page. We may rethink this Rule if there is a flood of exception requests. After all this challenge cache is about finding caches. How you play the game is certainly your choice. However if you do not log caches submitted for the challenge online, we have no way of verifying that you have completed the challenge short of physically checking the unlogged caches that you may claim to find. We just do not have the time and resources to do that. Also Rule #2 of the challenge clearly requires you to log the caches online. Therefore you can not use unlogged micros and LPC caches for this challenge. You are free to go back and log these caches on geocaching.com and then submit this for this challenge. We felt it was important that everyone start at the same time. Otherwise the "vintage" cachers could likely claim a find for this cache today based on previous finds. That would be a bit discouraging to the new cachers. Also as in the original Tour de Cache, we want to encourage everyone to step out of their home caching territories and discover New Jersey. Plan wisely, take your time and injoy the trip!

The Tour Committee is proud to announce our latest offering: GC16TDD - Tour de Cache 2 - NJ DeLorme Challenge This cache is based on the popular series of DeLorme challenges that have appeared in many other states. To log the cache you must first find and log one cache on each of the 56 map pages in the New Jersey DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer. The challenge starts on the day this cache is listed, October 25, 2007. This cache follows the pattern set by other DeLorme challenges with the following differences. Caches found before the listing date of this cache, are not allowed for this challenge. Everyone starts at the same time. Hiding a cache does not count for this challenge except in the case of a cacher who has either found and / or hidden all of the available caches on a page prior to the listing date of this cache. This challenge is about finding caches, not placing caches Caches submitted to any other challenge cache may be submitted for consideration in this challenge provided they comply with the New Jersey DeLorme Challenge rules. The Committee does not want to get into the business of policing cross posting between the various challenge caches. This cache is different and distinct from our original cache, GCXQ4H - Tour de Cache - NJ County Challenge. The DeLorme challenge will allow for caches of any size as well as Virtual caches and Webcams whereas the County challenge did not. Please refer to the cache listing for all the details. Feel free to write to The Tour Committee if you have any questions. Remember this is supposed to be fun – so let the games begin!

We SOLD what we were planning to sell and we are OUT of stock. What we have not sold are the gold coins for the Tour de Cache award program and a hand full of reserve coins to cover any loss in shipments. Someone must have liked the coin.

SOLD OUT The Tour de Cache geocoins have sold out other than a few we have kept in reserve to cover delivery problems. These will made available from time to time on eBay. Thanks to everyone who bought one of these coins for making this program successful. If enough people are interested in a Tour de Cache coin we will consider a second issue. Just contact us via geocaching.com mail.

Back to some Tour business: DISCLAIMER A number of caches have been placed recently that indicate that they “satisfy” a certain county’s requirement for the Tour de Cache. These caches are neither sponsored by nor endorsed by the Tour Committee nor are the cache owners affiliated with the Tour Committee. We appreciate cache owners that place caches that meet the Tour guidelines. However the Tour Committee will not endorse specific caches as being “Tour eligible”. There are just too many caches for us to review and cache conditions are constantly changing. Cache eligibility will be reviewed when a cacher posts their list of Tour finds on a case by case basis. The Tour Committee remains the sole arbitrator of cache eligibility and successful completion of the Tour de Cache A new challenge cache has been placed in a neighboring state (DE), with a defined list of caches to be found. There is no list of specific caches that must be found to complete the Tour. As long each cache meets the Tour guidelines and they are found in accordance with the Tour rules, and you find one in each of the 21 New Jersey counties, then you can successfully complete the Tour. Now let's go find some caches and have some fun!

We have another team that has found a cache in each of the 21 counties of New Jersey. Congratulations to m_and_w who have been sent the final coordinates for the Tour de Cache. You can expect them to find and log the final cache soon. We still have a good supply of the "antique gold" Tour de Cache coins which are awarded to cachers after completing the final cache. Also we still have the "antique silver" version of the coin available through our online store. Thanks to everyone for your continued support of the Tour de Cache.

And if you would rather sit back and purchase one of the fine coins we still have them in stock. *** Tour de Cache Store ***

BUMP We still have Tour de Cache geocoins in stock for immediate delivery. We can now deliver these coins to Canada at the same price as the US: 1 for $ 9.00 2 for $ 16.00 3 for $ 24.00 4 for $ 32.00 Pricing for most of Western Europe is: 1 for $ 13.50 2 for $ 21.50 3 for $ 29.50 4 for $ 37.50 All prices include shipping and handling. For deliveries to other areas or other quantities, please request a quote before ordering. Our online store has been updated with links for multiple orders and delivery to Western Europe - Pricing to Western Europe applies to those countries in USPS Global Priority Mail Rate Group 3. (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom). Order at our online store. Thanks, Tour de Cache

Recent News: Congrats to StormRunner for completing the Tour on December 22 and finding the final cache on December 23. Also congrats to Brian07663NJ for completing the Tour on January 1. He has been sent the final coords so look for him to find the final cache soon. Looks like Brian put his holidays to good use to visit NJ by finding most of the counties between Christmas and New Years. Thanks for all the continued interest in our cache folks! TdC - NJ

Rumor Control Alert..... The Tour de Cache is still alive and well. There are plenty of gold coins left for awards to finders of the cache. Of the initial minting of 50 gold coins we have awarded 15 which leaves another 35 to go. And if the silver coins continue to sell, we will consider an additional minting. It will all come down to finances as the coin program is a break even propostition, the sales of the silver covers the costs of the gold. Your support of the program so far has been appreciated. If you are interested in the silver coins, they are still available at this address: Tour de Cache Geocoin - Forum Announcement and Tour de Cache online store And with or without the coin awards it is intended that the Tour de Cache remain available to seek and find for the foreseeable future.

Clarification: All of our prices include shipping to the US. For other destinations, drop us a line and we will quote you a price to your location including shipping. One of the "coin sites" had erroneously listed our coin as not including shipping. They have since corrected that error. So if you have held off ordering over confusion over shipping, we would appreciate it if you would reconsider our coin. Thanks, Tour de Cache

As for the 21 counties - you work with what you have. Surprisingly there is a tremendous amount of variety in geography from one end of New jersey to the other. And for one of our counties - Hudson - there is the added challenge of the county being very small, very urban and with few qualifying caches as we are not allowing micros. I can not imagine 254 counties for Texas. I hope your coin is as big as Texas and made of solid gold as you will earn that puppy by completing that challenge. Thanks for the compliment on our coin. Feel free to come do our challenge for a "gold" coin or if you can't make it this way the "silver" coins are available for purchase.

Look for a few unactivated coins in caches as FTF prizes and cache challenges with a coin as a prize from time to time from both ekitt10 and Frodo. They have purchased coins for that purpose. Thanks for the offer for help Jayman - we may be in touch. Thanks to everyone for your support and enthusiasm so far on this coin.

Make up your mind... 6 caches or 9 caches?!? Nik, I liked your original thought of 11 caches for the mini-tour! Whatever the number any excuse to "go places and eat good things" is a good excuse. Good luck with your min-tour! TdC

We must all be thinking on the same wave length in New Jersey these days. Just released for general sales the Tour de Cache Gecoin. The "antique gold" version of this coin will be awarded to cachers who successfully complete the Tour de Cache - NJ County Challenge. Sales of the "antique silver" coins are supporting this award program as our pockets are not as deep as the folks organizing the Oldest Cache in New Jersey award. Here is what the "antique gold" version of the coin looks like: Take a peak at our coin in the goecoin section of this forum if you are interested.

The Tour de Cache Committee is proud to announce a new geocoin which is available for delivery now. The coin is dedicated to the Tour de Cache - NJ County Challenge and it is trackable on geocaching.com with its own icon. The coin comes in two finishes, "Antique gold" which will only be awarded as a prize to those who complete the Tour de Cache and "Antique Silver" which is being offered for sale here and regional geocaching clubs. The coin looks like this: Here are some of the coin facts: Mint: Oak Coins Designers: Frodo_Underhill & Team ekitt10 Diameter: 38 mm / 1.5 inches Thickness: 3 mm Weight approx.: 1 oz Finishes: "Antique Silver" - 200 "Antique Gold" - 50 Tracking: Activate at Oak Coins Tracking on geocaching.com Icon: Price: $ 9.00 includes shipping and handling to the USA. Please inquire about shipping outside of the USA before ordering. Ordering: Through our *** PayPal store *** For multiple coins ***click here*** Delivery: In stock for shipment upon receipt of payment via 1st class US Mail. For more information and a link to our online store, please visit *** this link ***

Oak Coins for sure. Kudos to Sarah! They produce excellant coins and know how to support you to ensure your coins get their tracking numbers and icons if you go that route. Great customer service for the first time coin purchaser

FYI, JoiseyGirl and lakelady have found a cache for each of the NJ counties and they have been sent the final coordinates for the Tour de Cache. Nicely done folks. Good luck in your search for the final cache. It is getting to be the hunting season so "dress accordingly" Looking forward to reading about your adventures.