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Wet Pancake Touring Club

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Everything posted by Wet Pancake Touring Club

  1. My current slump shows as 220 days. However, I still haven't logged the 20 or so caches I found last summer. Wonder what happens when you backdate a found it log? I find all of the stats kind of silly, as they are your own, and you control them. Reminds me of the old joke: CEO interviewing three candidates for CFO. CEO to Candidate 1: What is 2 + 2? Answer: 4 CEO to Candidate 2: What is 2+2? Answer: 4 CEO to Candidate 3: What is 2+2? Answer: What do you want it to be?
  2. There is a fence post cache near me that doesn't have a connection with the cap. It is dropped into the fence post, and is attached with a metal wire. The wire is just hooked over the fence post itself. The cap is pushed down to lock it in place.
  3. And I would say I had a lot more fun reading about your cache, than I would have had if you described hiding a mint tin in a guard rail.
  4. As the ball must be 'controlled' within the end zone in order to score, some might say that the length of an American football field is 120 yards. (Cannot forget the end zones. They might get upset.)
  5. Check out the pictures on the caches of the Fargo/Moorhead Geotour. A number of them are regular sized ammo cans, inside of larger containers. One is a large, walk-in 'Ammo Can' complete with solar powered lighting. From the outside, it looks like an outbuilding painted green. Beer keg with a door on the side behind a bar, a gadget cache in a box hanging on a fence, a giant 'birdhouse' on a pole near a university research station. They just blending in with the surroundings. I was amazed to find so many regular sized caches in an urban setting. Not large, but some of them could have been. (They would have needed better weatherproofing, that is probably why they were containers within containers.)
  6. If we have rules, they would need to be enforced. And if the rules are not followed, then we may require police to police the policers. IMO, too much manpower for a particular kind of cache. Every log having to be reviewed by the CO, and the team that makes sure the CO is doing the job properly. And both receiving flak for log deletions.
  7. Best wishes to you and your wife. Hopefully she is able to join you. A number of years ago, I started a concerted effort to fill my 365/366 calendar. I did great, until one day when it was thunder and lightning, with a heavy rain. Since then, I have not gotten back to filling it in. I'm good through September, but have a lot of days in Oct, Nov and December to fill in.
  8. In a different topic, barefootjeff had a kind of geocache lifecycle, with a starting point, and an ending point. A red wrench (NM log) is an important part of that lifecycle, along with the OM after the issue has been addressed. Because it does serve an important part of the cache life cycle, I don't think we can abandon it. Therefore, a long term red wrench can be considered a breakdown in that life cycle. But, we know that COs can become inactive at any point in time (and for a variety of reasons). If we want to get to the end, we need multiple paths. A NA log takes the reviewer path. But, what should the path be for the long term red wrench? We can take an objective or subjective approach. I'm against the subjective approach of asking a reviewer to manually review and take action on the 'lifetime achievement award' wrenches. They have enough to do as it is. We do have all of the pieces to implement an objective approach by creating an automated procedure. We know how long the wrench has been on the cache, and we have a way to communicate with the cache owner. Let's start with a simple routine. If the wrench has been applied for a year, send a message (e-mail and message center). If the wrench is 15 months old, archive the listing. (Or whatever time periods seem appropriate.) Yes, it will archive the community maintained caches. It could have the effect of diminishing the use of the Needs Maintenance log. On the other hand, the automated approach means that the reviewer doesn't have to put up with any hate messages because a popular community maintained cache has been archived. If there are multiple wrenches in a row, with no intermediate OM, cut the time in half (or by the number of wrenches). Going further, this automated routine could be altered to remove the wrench if there are more than X number of Found It logs after the NM was posted. That may help with some of the community maintained cache, for a while. I'm not advocating doing this, I don't have an opinion on whether or not this is a problem that needs to be addressed. But, if it is, this is the way I would like to see it handled.
  9. It really depends on what you want to be able to carry with you. I use a multitude of bags, depending on the situation. I would suggest inventorying what you may want in the bag. Then, look for a bag that would comfortably carry those items, and make it easy to access. A large bag with a single compartment can get cluttered up real easily. I have one bag that can easily carry 4 large battery packs, with slits on the sides for power cables. Great if I'm in a large group, on a longer hike. Can recharge phones and GPSr's easily. It also has insulated drink pockets. Unfortunately, it is rather small, and outside of those special compartments, it only has one large compartment. It also has no place to attach anything external to backpack. I have a full size camping backpack, with a frame. I don't use it for geocaching, it is too large and cumbersome. I get a lot of backpacks at trade shows. Each with strengths and weaknesses. Generally, the canvas ones hold up better than the nylon ones.
  10. I am not a CO because I don't really want to do the planning, getting permission, and doing the maintenance. On the other hand, I like building things, and would like to build gadget caches. A bit different than your idea, I was thinking of building a giant 'ammo can in the woods', similar to this one. https://coord.info/GC4RPG8 I have property, so placement would not be a problem. I would place some of my gadget caches around it, and if another cacher will commit to placing it, I would give it to them.
  11. Here's a thought. What about partnering with the Washington State Geocaching Association (WSGA) for a Block Party? HQ provides the location, and pays for some of the expenses. WSGA provides a bunch of volunteers and does most of the organizing. From what I've seen of the WSGA, they are really good at organizing and getting things done.
  12. If we do show the number of stages, this would need to be a maximum number of stages, or even a range. While very rare, there are multi-caches where you have choices. I was thinking of making one where each stage had a list of 3 or 4 coordinates. Pick one, and see where it leads. (Remember where you've been, so you don't end up in a loop.) Maybe it takes you four stages, maybe it takes you twelve. And, maybe we want to add another set of distance attributes, or something to do with driving. This multi-cache, https://coord.info/GCM0GX has 50km between waypoints three and four. And, when you do make it to the fourth waypoint, you have an uphill, 5km long hike (one way) ahead of you, on an abandoned rail line (through tunnels, and across wooden trestles). Maybe something like driving recommended, or total travel distance > 50km. Anyhow, back to the OP's question, I think that attributes would be more appropriate than a new cache type. I would like to see some adjustments made to the attributes, to make selecting caches I want to find a bit easier, and I would love to see crowdsourced attributes for older caches. But, that's a different topic for a different day.
  13. I ride a class 3 e-bike (28 mph max pedal assist). Most of the bike trails have a posted speed limit of 15 mph. I'll be cruising along, and be passed by someone with a human powered bicycle, doing maybe 35. And, they don't warn you they are passing. (In Idaho, you must give warning when passing someone on a bike trail.) It's not necessarily the max speed of the device, it's the max speed of the brain of the person riding the device. Believe me, in some cases, 2 more IQ points, and some of these guys would be grapefruit.
  14. I'm going to cherry pick some of the parts of your thoughts and questions. To me, gravel by itself doesn't mean a cache can't be wheelchair accessible. But, it does need to be hard packed. This geocache https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3QFYD is in a WA state park where the entire park is designed to be wheelchair accessible. The trails are wide, and are hard packed gravel and a few boardwalks. The park has a trail map that is color coded with slope information. The cache is about halfway along a 1.5 mile trail. (The geocache was in a 3' tall stump, right next to the trail, and covered with a piece of moss.) My thought is that the handicaching site be linked to only if the wheelchair accessible attribute is set. You do bring up an interesting question, should the CO rate their own cache? I think they should. The handicaching site appears to allow for multiple ratings per cache, so if others disagree with the CO, they can post their own ratings based on their own experience. In some respects, the handicaching site can be considered an extended logging system that allows wheelchair users to quickly view logs specifically dealing with accessibility. (Didn't recognize you initially, you changed your picture.)
  15. While this site is not affiliated with Groundspeak, I would suggest that, for any cache with the Wheelchair accessible attribute, GS link to the rating for that cache on handicaching.com. handicaching.com encourages linking to the site, and on each ratings page, they have cut & paste code for how to do it. Here's a link to a specific cache on handicaching.com. http://www.handicaching.com/show.php?waypoint=GCA1BRK As lots of people have pointed out, and from personal experience, not all people in wheelchairs have the same abilities. Adding a link would show that GS cares about people that use wheelchairs, and shouldn't cost much in terms of development time.
  16. What you just described fits my definition of a field puzzle. You must go into the field to collect the info.
  17. We can use attributes to categorize these. Takes less than one hour Field puzzle And, if we take the 'hike' attributes and change the meaning to mean total distance traveled, not necessarily by hiking, we can get an idea of the area that the multi-cache spans. Short hike Medium hike Long hike For example, most offset caches (2 stage caches) should have the field puzzle, takes less than one hour, and short hike attributes. Multi-caches with more than 5 stages would probably be not takes less than one hour, and be a medium or long hike.
  18. If webcams were to be allowed again (and, I'm not advocating for this), I think they should be what I will call 'true webcams'. A lot of webcam caches piggyback on someone else's webcam, such as a highway department webcam. Their purpose is not to be a webcam cache, they are used to monitor highway conditions. A 'true webcam' would be one placed by the cache owner, with the primary purpose of being a webcam cache. I'm really against using highway department webcams as webcam caches. They are on focused on highways, so to get in the picture, you will need to stop alongside said highway. Generally, there will be some kind of building, usually for a generator and weather station. So, stopped in a turnout, next to a government installation. Surely, that wouldn't draw law enforcement's attention. Try to safely get in this webcam frame. (This has not been cropped. But, full disclosure, it is cherry picked. There happen to be two other views at this particular location.)
  19. I look at the Long Hike > 10km as an objective attribute. Is it longer than 10km, yep, the attribute applies. However, IMO Significant Hike would be a subjective attribute. And, it should require explanation in the cache description. Significant could be because of the elevation, or the grade, or whatever. Here are some examples of what I would consider Significant Hikes. A 1.5 km long hike at 3,000+ meters elevation, with a steep grade. That one really winded me. A multi-cache along an abandoned rail line. We had to cross a number of trestles along the way. The spacing of the ties did not correspond with a normal walking gait. Having to alter ones gait, especially over any distance, caused a real pain in the a--. Significant Hike because the 'trail' was not a normal walking trail. A cache, only 3 km from parking, with a 250 meter elevation change over a distance of .25km. Climbing equipment not required.
  20. One prolific hider in my area would leave foreign coins for FTF.
  21. There are lots of examples of public land being maintained by some kind of third party conservancy group. The Nature Conservancy used to manage some BLM land on Lake Coeur d'Alene in my area. And, they worked out access rights to adjacent private lands for a trail between the parcels. The Nature Conservancy does this with a lot of public (and private) land, and they are the ones to contact. Looks like the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is similar in nature. So, while they might not own the land, they have contracts and agreements in place to manage all of the land, not just the trails.
  22. I think this is more the case of Groundspeak allowing a user to control whether or not a person wants their information shared with third parties. Doesn't matter what kind of information. That would explain why the Groundspeak app has access, and others are blocked. As for why, maybe there are laws in some countries that require Groundspeak to implement such an opt-out mechanism.
  23. I'm thinking it was the fact that a box on pole suddenly got attention. Maybe an inquisitive neighbor came along to see what the fuss was?
  24. IMO, that's what it appears to be, with the incentive being awarded a cache type icon on your stats for a discontinued cache type. And, it's debatable as to whether or not this cache fits the description of a location-less cache. I came into this hobby after this type of cache was removed, but I thought there were two basic requirements for logging a location-less cache. There was a theme item that had to be recorded (bridge, dam, courthouse, library, etc.), and A particular location could only be logged once. So, I am on the fence about doing this cache. My OCD half is telling me that I 'gotta find them all', while the other half is telling me that I wouldn't really have earned the cache type, so why bother. Well, at least I have a fair amount of time to wrestle this one back and forth in my head.
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