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Washington Delorme Challenge

Moun10Bike

By Moun10Bike
in Northwest

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Sagefox

+Sagefox

Posted
Posted (edited)
As for the "hide a cache for a section" part, IF it is a problem, drop that part out and make it so that ONLY caches you have placed before the date this cache was published  count towards completing this challenge. Problem solved and other problems prevented. IE: drive by WH? caches to fill a spot.

I'm not just referring to this comment but to all the added rules suggestions...

 

Why is there such a tendency to take a very simple concept and turn it into something difficult??? It is not really necessary.

 

Find a cache. Hide a cache. Do it at least once for each DeLorme page. What more is needed?

 

There are plenty of rules in place to cover hiding and finding.

Edited by Team Sagefox
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Wienerdog

+Wienerdog

Posted
Posted
Maybe, just maybe GM111 and GRM74 are causing heartburn for some? 

:P Oh Gosh! I hope I didn't stir up a hornets nest here!

It seems everything came tumbling down after my post regarding Blindleader.

 

I was GENUINELY trying to acknowledge how involved he was with this Challange. I just happen to know him and know how interested he is in maps.

 

:P I think I'll stick with "Corn-ography" :P

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I am going to ask that if the discussions taking place here are causing anyone's blood pressure to rise, then they should step away from the forums and take a break. The purpose of discussing the hiding rules is to see how we as a community want to handle populating the DeLorme pages with caches while at the same time maintaining a high standard for hides. Please note the second-to-last guideline on the cache page.

 

If you are still having issues with discussing this, then please pay special note to the last guideline! :bad:

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Criminal

+Criminal

Posted
Posted
I'm not having any fun! :D

 

:)

Hmmm, I think I understand what you're feeling. M10B had a great idea (conceptually) but it seems everyone is trying to knock the "challenge" part right off the title.

 

As an aside, if I don't hunt the GRMs that are within a half mile of my house, why would I drive all over the state to hunt them?

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5Tucks

+5Tucks

Posted
Posted

A question for clarification on the Challenge. Is a cache required in both 29A and 29B or just one for the whole page?

 

I am hoping the answer is one for the whole page since I already have a find in 29A.

 

I am looking foward to trying to complete the challenge. Thanks to Mou10bike for all his hard work. :)

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Logscaler and Red

+Logscaler and Red

Posted
Posted

I must have been looking for something else in that area then.

 

I have sent a couple e-mails out to the locals in that area and maybe one of them will plant something for you to hunt.

 

I asked Red about taking a week off to complete the Washington, Idaho and maybe Nevada challenge's. I can not express the full effect of the "NO" I was given. I still think I could hit both states in a week of working at it. And then drop into Nevada if time was left over.

 

Logscaler.

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5Tucks

+5Tucks

Posted
Posted
Bad news for you, 5Tucks :D - a find (or approved hide) is required in block 29B, too!

 

I have a feeling that this will prove to be the most challenging of the WDC blocks!

Maybe we can petition the folks in Olympia to give 29B section to Idaho or get Delorme to redraw the map.

 

No.......well it was a thought. Who's going to place the cache in 58B? :(:(

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well, I know that blindleader is frantically working on being the first one to complete the DeLorme Challange, and I was curious as to his progress. So, I updated his map with his recent finds and hides. He has now skyrocketed to 62 pages complete! I know that he is out trying to clear the rest as I type, so who knows where he is now!

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GeoRoo

+GeoRoo

Posted
Posted

I'm just checking in via wireless in SE WA and see there is a conflict of interest on placing caches to accomplish the WDC. I'm doing all of the southern and eastern sections and then heading north and hope to get all the northern sections in the next few days.

 

I've placed 4 micros and 1 small cache and activated 2 pages and added caches to 3 more pages that had only 1 and 2 caches. None of the caches are really lame except for one at a rest stop. One is going to be a real challenge as it's hidden in a sneaky spot. None are really easy finds in dumb places. All of the areas are scenic and much of what I drove was the Lewis and Clark trail. I have 20 or so caches already in E.WA, so don't see this as a problem in maintaining. I hunt in the SE corner, so that area is covered as well.

 

 

Blindleader is right ahead of me as I've done 2 caches that he's already done. Looks like he's on a quest. I'm wondering how many caches he's hidden on this trip??? I see his total is updated to 62. I'm about at that today with the N section of the state to go. If my car doesn't blow up or we get a snowstorm I'll be knocking those out.

 

The way I look at it is if someone doesn't place caches in the "cacheless" areas then how is any one able to complete the challenge? Most aren't going to have weeks to drive like crazy all over the state and some "easy" ones out in the middle of no where are going to be mighty welcome.

 

I've driven about 600 miles so far and I'm having a awesome time seeing some gorgeous Fall colors in E.WA. The driving part is challenge enough for me and the caches are just secondary. Cache on!

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blindleader

+blindleader

Posted
Posted
  I've placed 4 micros and 1 small cache and activated 2 pages and added caches to 3 more pages that had only 1 and 2 caches.

[snip]

  Blindleader is right ahead of me as I've done 2 caches that he's already done.  Looks like he's on a quest.  I'm wondering how many caches he's hidden on this trip???

The answer is three, and two of them have volunteers for maintenance. Seems my rsearch was faulty and I might have skipped GRM35.

 

Now I wonder what the ethics would be of asking GeoRoo, who seems to be in the FTF race, to adopt GRM29B, so I can declare completion and go for it. I hope I don't have to drive back out to Asotin to find whatever he's dropped there.

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well, it looks like blindleader might be closing in on FTF for the Challenge! Here is the email I found waiting for me last night when I got home (posted here with permission):

 

This is to let you know that I did, indeed, finish the last page this afternoon. I'll probably log the finds over the next couple of days. No rush till the three newly planted caches are approved. I'm still looking for local cachers to assist on two of them.

 

I hope you aren't getting too much heat from kibitzers in the forum. I jist reads them rules and acts on'em. :D

 

If it isn't turning out quite the way you intended, just remember that I'm a gamer from way back, and delight in circumventing the intent of all kinds of puzzles and games and such. You'd be hard pressed to devise a game that I can't twist, and that anyone would want to play.

 

Now, I wonder how many more miles I'm going to have to go to get the final.

hmmm. a nice magnetic guardrail micro in Redmond would be just the ticket, heh, heh.

 

Of course, GeoRoo might also earn FTF - we'll have to see how things play out over the next couple of days. In any case, even if FTF has fallen, it doesn't mean that the Challenge is over! It is an open-ended challenge for everyone to participate in as they would like. Who will be third? :D

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xy,xx,xy,xy,xy,xy

+xy,xx,xy,xy,xy,xy

Posted
Posted

Firsties Schmirsties! I think we all knew from the get go that there would be a few cachers with the time and $ to bang this out relatively quickly, but I'm looking forward to doing this as a long term project. It is fun looking to see where all Blind leader and GeoRoo have been.

 

Having said that, I sincerely hope that Moun10bike hid the final cache either Notheast of Metaline Falls or Southeast of Anatone. :D:D:D

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Sagefox

+Sagefox

Posted
Posted
...it doesn't mean that the Challenge is over! It is an open-ended challenge for everyone to participate in as they would like. Who will be third?

A DeLorme Challenge cache is a personal challenge more than a competive one. I find that collecting Northern California pages (and now those of three other states as well) is fun and rewarding even if I never complete any state.

 

You can't claim a page without having had a bit of adventure in getting to it and out on the ground it represents.

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runhills

+runhills

Posted
Posted
Yikes, logscaler - I hope it's nothing too serious.

 

Don't worry, the Washington DeLorme Challange will be around whenever you are ready. Now, who wants to get started on the Washington USGS 7.5-Minute Quad Challenge?: :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

 

findsquads3tq.jpg

Methinks somebody with too much keyboard time has fallen off to the Evil side. :D :D :D

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GeoRoo

+GeoRoo

Posted
Posted

Wow!....Blindleader if you have it all wiped out then I bow down in your presence. I started out last week thinking I was the only one insane enough to try for this in a short time.

 

I'm just getting home from my 1,100 mile plus WDC trip and I'm not anywhere close to finishing it, so you don't have to worry. I did 36 pages, so if my math is right I should be at 76. I have all the hard ones done, so it won't be too tough to knock out the remaining.

 

What a awesome drive around the state. I started out last Wed. in the pouring down rain to grab pages 63 and 64. Got as far as Auburn and said to heck with driving further south and went back home for the night. Got up early Th. morn and headed south. Started at page 47 and worked my way counter clockwise around the state.

 

I see I was behind you on 3 caches through the SE section. Darn, I see you didn't have any problem with Cultus Hole. I was going to do the northern route, but didn't hear back from the cache owner and was afraid to do that in my car. I did the southern route and came up with a DNE on page 35 at A Great Little Overlook cache. What an incredible drive that is from Glenwood to Goldendale.

 

I skipped pages 37 and 38 as I get down that way hunting and fishing quite often, so I can knock them out any time. The ones all through the SE corner were the toughest in terms of driving. Long way between caches or lack of caches!.....I wish I had waited a week and been able to grab your caches. I'm sure it would have saved me hundreds of miles of driving. I placed a total of 5 caches, so I'm going to freak if they are right next to yours!.......B) I placed micros in 36, 29A, 29B a small cache in 35 and a regular in 116.

 

I didn't have any caches around the Spokane area, so grabbed those late in the day. Drove through downtown Spokane at 7pm and figured I could grab an easy micro in the dark....NOT All the bums come out at night and it's sad that Spokane has a large population. After giving up on several I headed out of town. I saw the Dirt Hill micro come up and went after that........Not my idea of a nice caching experience with dozens of beer bottles and cans all over the place. As I walked down the trail with my flashlite I really had to question my sanity. There was a ????? coming up the road/trail at me and he said Hi, so I said Hi back. It took me 5 mins or so to find the micro. Why was a micro in the woods in a homeless area????? I found it and got the heck out of there. That took care of page 89.

 

I then headed north to nicer country and needed to find a place to camp for the night. Many of the campgrounds and parks are now closed for the season, so I pulled into the closed Pend Orielle County Park. There was a nice new bathroom and a nice enough spot I could throw up my tent for the night. It was only 8pm, so figured I'd run into the park and grab page 105. Walking down the road I could see lights and a big dog started to bark! I could see a guy standing at the window of a mobile home, so walked up the driveway. Turned out that he's the park ranger and lives there year around. He was nice enough to allow me to camp at the gate and when I asked if he knew about the geocache he said he knew about it, but didn't know where it was. I said it was .24 miles NW and would he mind if I went after it. He said no problem and have fun. Wow, cool guy. Off I went and then up the side road. Cache description was confusing, so I ended up hiking way farther than I had to. I was in a hurry, so when I got close to the cache a large animal exploded from the side of the trail. Deer, bear?????most likely a deer, as this happened several times on this cache!......Cache was an easy find, so I took a short cut back to my camp. Not quite as I came out on a unrecognizable road and went the wrong way!........Luckily I could see the glow from the rangers house about 1/4 mile away and got headed in the right direction. Note to self always waymark where I'm camped.......

 

From there it was a beautiful drive north and west as I worked my way across the northern half of the state. The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous and if you get the chance do that part of the state ASAP. Blindleader helped me out as I was able to see what caches he did 2 weeks ago and follow in his foot steps. Pages 103 and 102 and then to 116 will add about 100 plus miles of driving. I was running late on 116 last night, so took a short cut up the Aeneas Valley and placed a new cache along the Sanpoli River in a beautiful valley. It's a crime there aren't more caches in this part of the state.

 

Today was my best page count at 8. You can't bang out caches like some think. The lack of caches in the SE and NE make it tough. My caches and Blindleaders will help out, but it's still going to involve over 1,000 miles of driving. I was using my laptop and National Geographic TOPO software. I was very impressed with the TOPO software and it only took me on one "dead end" road.

 

I averaged 37mpg in my Honda and camped out every night. Weather was mild all week and other than the rain at the start was dry all week. No flat tires and I missed all the deer that tried to commit suicide. One sad note a chipmunk is no more near Gifford. Lots of hunters especially near Omak and Winthrop. I met a nice couple from Ohio at Washington Pass and introduced them to geocaching. I see M10bike was up that way the other day. Won't be long till this cache is buried in deep snow and page 112 is unreachable.

 

This trip was definately one of my geocaching highlites, so thanks to M10Bike. Quad challenge is NOT going to happen with me! well at least till I get the WDC done........B)

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blindleader

+blindleader

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes. all the pages are filled. I'm just waiting to get coordinates for the final from M10B. People have been asking me how many miles I've driven. I say at least 3,000. I haven't totaled up any of the numbers, but they're all in a fairly detailed log -- documentation for the guys in the white jackets.

 

Cultus Hole -- I had skipped that initially for the same reason GeoRoo did. That mistake probably added a thousand miles to the entire epic. I'll calculate the cost of page 35 when I do the whole trip.

 

I thought I had seen the most beautiful road in Washington before. Now I know I have. On the 14th I was making my unsuccessful try at page 35 and the descent into the Klickitat canyon with the autumn colors and the clear air of that day will never be surpassed in my mind. Of course, my colors are in that part of the spectrum on the yellow side of red, so I'm biased. I was back on the same road yesterday, and stopped to take a panoramic photo, but there was a lot more moisture in the air and I doubt it will do the place justice.

 

I spent an hour failing to find A Great Little Overlook and am convinced it's gone. But then, I have a recent DNF on a one star cache which has since been found. It's encouraging that Roo DNF'd the same one. Won't we both be embarrassed when it turns up right where the owner left it?

 

Thanks again to Mou10Bike for a terrific challenge. I just hope you aren't placing the final out in page 119 or some such place.

 

Hmmm. I wonder if there's a market for custom itineraries for the challenge. I know now that very expensive miles add up at an incredible rate when things don't go as expected.

Edited by blindleader
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GeoRoo

+GeoRoo

Posted
Posted

Hey, crazy minds think alike. Today while logging my caches I did up the cache in page 29A and lo and behold your cache is 81 ft away!......I even looked around my side of the road and made sure there were no recent footsteps knowing that you were ahead of me. Not thinking you placed it across the road!

I was almost afraid to look at my 29B cache and was happy to see yours was miles away. I also got shot down on 2 more caches in pages 35 and 36 due to being on the reservation. Even though they are along public hyways. Looks like I'll have to make another run over that way. I skipped doing 37 and 38, so the other ones won't be too tough. What's another day of cross state driving.

 

I would agree the drive along the Glenwood Hyway has to rate as one of the most scenic roads I've been on with the fall colors. It was hazy later in the day when I went through, but I bet early that morning in the blue sky was incredible.

 

I hit Crawfish Lake cache page 101 early yesterday morning and it was beautiful with the larch trees all golden. I almost bagged the caching and got the fishing rod out and camped right there.

 

Doing a trip like this really makes you appreciate what we have to offer in our state. It's wonderful how geocaching can take you to so many great places. Now that there are a few more caches out in the boonies I hope more get the chance to explore that section of the state.

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blindleader

+blindleader

Posted
Posted

lucky that you don't have to go all out to Asotin again. 29A is not so bad especially since you still have some pages to pick up in that area.

 

Your DNF on the Overlook cache was the same day I drove the Glenwood Hyway and placed the rejected GRM35. That must have been about 5pm. What time were you there? The air was clear and dry at that time with only high stratus clouds. Tuesday was a more typical NW autumn day.

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Logscaler and Red

+Logscaler and Red

Posted
Posted

Congrats blindleader.

 

Talk about being in an exclusive group.

Max of fifty in this FTF club, unless you wanna throw D.C. into the mix.

 

We where lucky enough to have most of Oregon done already but we still ended up putting in something like 1500 miles in two weekends to get the final 4 pages.

 

Any word on who is close to finishing it besides GeoRoo?

 

There does not seem to be as much interest in doing the ODC as there is in the WDC. Better advertisement I think.

 

Logscaler.

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GeoRoo

+GeoRoo

Posted
Posted
lucky that you don't have to go all out to Asotin again. 29A is not so bad especially since you still have some pages to pick up in that area.

 

Your DNF on the Overlook cache was the same day I drove the Glenwood Hyway and placed the rejected GRM35. That must have been about 5pm. What time were you there? The air was clear and dry at that time with only high stratus clouds. Tuesday was  a more typical NW autumn day.

WTG Blindleader! That is quite the accomplishment or should I say certifiable proof to have you committed!......:o I still have 26 pages to go, so I'm not anywhere close to finishing up. My initial plan last week was to grab the pages in E.WA that would be snowed in soon and do some hunting and fishing. You know a leisurely geo/camping trip. You look at the map and think....."oh that cache doesn't look that far away"....if I go that way I can grab that page and I only have to drive over to this page and then double back and grab this page. It gets addictive once you get started.

 

I was at the Overlook cache about 1pm or so. If you go .9 miles west from there, there's another overlook viewpoint with a 150 ft. waterfall dropping down to a large pool. Looks like something you would see in Maui. I wish I could have had my cache approved there. It's a beautiful spot.

 

I'll have to check out the Idaho and OR challenges. To finish any of these is amazing. I bet the Idaho one would be tough. M10Bike might have a leg up on the Idaho one with all his caches over there. Hmmmm, I'd love to do a tour of Idaho......no no no!......:)

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Congrats to blindleader! I hope that everyone is having as much fun with this as I am!

 

I'm in Idaho right now so my wife can help her mom with a garage sale, and yesterday my father-in-law and I headed off for a DeLorme run for some of the northeastern pages I have not yet done. This is the perfect time to hit the Okanogan and Ferry County area! The larch trees are at their peak!

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blindleader

+blindleader

Posted
Posted
NOW...how long would it take you to complete my Idaho Challenge... :mad:

I don't know. There are olnly about half as many pages to take care of, but I think three cachers are in pretty good position to clean it up quickly. I think I'll save Idaho for next summer and spend more time enjoying the beauty of the North West. Besides, I'm still not recovered from Washington. The Coup de grâce was delivered to my feet yesterday on the UW campus by the other members of the Gang of Three along with Little Blue. I did more walking than in the entire two weeks of the Challenge run. I wonder if Wienerdog can get a mileage figure off her track log.

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