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Any 5/5's in Iowa?


kc0ubz

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I know some that might be a 5/5 due to the current weather conditions.

Two county parks in Fayette County have Caches in them one could even be extreamly had to do. The parks are closed but some people find a safe way to park on the gravle and walk in. Snowshoeing might be easyer right now.

Anyway, here are the links:

 

This is the one I would not do in bad weather. You could fall off the path and get hurt.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...43-d16b422eb15d

 

This one would be a long walk in one way and shorter the other. How ever the short way in could be very dangerous.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c4-ca14302fee8a

 

Good Luck!

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It's not in Iowa, but if you want to venture a short distance over the border into Illinois, you can try The Journal. It can be done in one very long day or split into two days. Plan on 10-12 miles of walking.

 

I've done the journal. It's more of a 4/4.

 

There's none in Iowa that I know of. I haven't really checked out western Iowa very well though. I do know in eastern Iowa there isn't one.

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Technically, using the Clay Jar ratings system I am not aware of anywhere in Iowa that would qualify for a true 5/5 in terms of strictly terrain (which, I believe terrain alone won't get you to a 5 anyway).

 

I think the only thing that would tip the 5 rating scale, in Iowa, would be the use of "specialize equipment". That could be a cache that simply requires a canoe or even a ladder.

 

We are planning on implementing a 5/5 this summer on a campground down in south-central Iowa that will require special equipment / knowledge to complete. But, from a purely terrain perspective...it'll be easy.

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Looking for the hardest cache possible in or around Iowa to try a shot at. (I have to get away for a day or two to keep sane.) Or any suggestions on some cool ones?

 

Which part of Iowa? And if you had to pick one would you prefer a higher rating in terrain or difficulty?

 

Ah, you're in the CR area. I'd recommend heading up to Dubuque, good caches and nice views.

 

For tough try The Steepest Hill in Dubuque and The Sharpest-Angled Corner in Dubuque.

 

Iowa's Oldest Building is supposed to be good, that one's a 4/3.5

 

Then have lunch/dinner at the Shot Tower Inn

Edited by BlueDeuce
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This one is a 5 in difficulty. Read the logs. Not too many terrains in Iowa are going to be a 5.

 

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that I went back and played around with the Clay Jar rating system (the "suggested" system when submitting a cache that guides you through auto-rating it) and the only way I could get a 5 terrain was by checking the "requires special equipment" box.

 

So, I suppose that's the only way to get it anywhere...

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I have one that is a 5 terrain rating but it's nowhere near a 5. It's out on a small island. The cloest you can get to it is 480 feet before you get wet and the furest is .22 tenths of a mile. I started out at a 2 and a half but kind of got force to move it to a five. I never took into account that some people can't swim. For me during the summer it's a quick 15 minitues to check on it. Right now it's no more that a 1 and a half. Easy walk up over the thick ice.

 

So I kind of had to give in and move it to a 5 terrain to make people happy. :blink: But I also never looked at it from a non-swimmers perspective.

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I have one that is a 5 terrain rating but it's nowhere near a 5. It's out on a small island. The cloest you can get to it is 480 feet before you get wet and the furest is .22 tenths of a mile. I started out at a 2 and a half but kind of got force to move it to a five. I never took into account that some people can't swim. For me during the summer it's a quick 15 minitues to check on it. Right now it's no more that a 1 and a half. Easy walk up over the thick ice.

 

So I kind of had to give in and move it to a 5 terrain to make people happy. :blink: But I also never looked at it from a non-swimmers perspective.

 

This sounds awesome! (I will be checking out some of the others tomorrow!) Can I get the cache name for this??

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This one is a 5 in difficulty. Read the logs. Not too many terrains in Iowa are going to be a 5.

 

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that I went back and played around with the Clay Jar rating system (the "suggested" system when submitting a cache that guides you through auto-rating it) and the only way I could get a 5 terrain was by checking the "requires special equipment" box.

 

So, I suppose that's the only way to get it anywhere...

Specialized equipement is of course always a terrain five. The other way is 'or is otherwise extremely difficult'. To get that rating, leave the first question at NO, set the 2nd to YES, and 3-5 to the bottom radial and it will come back as a terrain five.

What this means is the cache is a 10+ mile, overnight hike, threw heavy overgrowth, no trail and there are Severe elevation changes. If it has only a few of those things, then its a four something (missing just one the systems gives it a four someting).

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This one is a 5 in difficulty. Read the logs. Not too many terrains in Iowa are going to be a 5.

 

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that I went back and played around with the Clay Jar rating system (the "suggested" system when submitting a cache that guides you through auto-rating it) and the only way I could get a 5 terrain was by checking the "requires special equipment" box.

 

So, I suppose that's the only way to get it anywhere...

Specialized equipement is of course always a terrain five. The other way is 'or is otherwise extremely difficult'. To get that rating, leave the first question at NO, set the 2nd to YES, and 3-5 to the bottom radial and it will come back as a terrain five.

What this means is the cache is a 10+ mile, overnight hike, threw heavy overgrowth, no trail and there are Severe elevation changes. If it has only a few of those things, then its a four something (missing just one the systems gives it a four someting).

 

Those would be the terrain 5's that probably don't exist in Iowa...figured there had to be an alternative way to obtain a 5. Just didn't toy with it enough.

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It's not in Iowa, but if you want to venture a short distance over the border into Illinois, you can try The Journal. It can be done in one very long day or split into two days. Plan on 10-12 miles of walking.

 

I've done the journal. It's more of a 4/4.

 

I would personally rate it at 4.5/4.5 or so. Regardless, it is rated by the owner as a 5/5 and I think there is room to do it that way based on the length and such.

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It's not in Iowa, but if you want to venture a short distance over the border into Illinois, you can try The Journal. It can be done in one very long day or split into two days. Plan on 10-12 miles of walking.

 

I've done the journal. It's more of a 4/4.

 

I would personally rate it at 4.5/4.5 or so. Regardless, it is rated by the owner as a 5/5 and I think there is room to do it that way based on the length and such.

 

I've got to check that out...

 

This is the only 5/5 I can personally attest to having been in the vicinity of: French Peak

 

Unfortunately, I can't log this because when I did French Peak when I lived in Washington it was before geocaching existed, but this would define a 5/5 to me. And, honestly, there are harder places in the world...

 

It'll be interesting to see how this compares to me. It's all kind of subjective anyway...it's nice to know that there are places in the midwest thought can boast this kind of difficulty even in a subjective manner. I know when I used to live in a southern Missouri there were some surprisingly difficult hikes we did.

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The Journal is quite a hike, with some pretty good off trail hills and such. Bit it isn't ever going to match up with something in the mountains. It gets its terrain mostly because of the length of the hike. It gets it difficulty from puzzles that are done in the field.

 

I definitely recommend it whether it can really be considered properly rated or not. It is a well thought out cache in a very nice area. I think it is pretty much tied with a couple of others for my favorite cache ever.

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I definitely recommend it whether it can really be considered properly rated or not. It is a well thought out cache in a very nice area. I think it is pretty much tied with a couple of others for my favorite cache ever.

 

Yeah, like I said properly rated or not is somewhat subjective anyway, it certainly looks like a fun one...frankly, I wish there were more of these. Looking at the logs it seems like a "don't miss" cache to me.

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This one is a 5 in difficulty. Read the logs. Not too many terrains in Iowa are going to be a 5.

 

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that I went back and played around with the Clay Jar rating system (the "suggested" system when submitting a cache that guides you through auto-rating it) and the only way I could get a 5 terrain was by checking the "requires special equipment" box.

 

So, I suppose that's the only way to get it anywhere...

Specialized equipement is of course always a terrain five. The other way is 'or is otherwise extremely difficult'. To get that rating, leave the first question at NO, set the 2nd to YES, and 3-5 to the bottom radial and it will come back as a terrain five.

What this means is the cache is a 10+ mile, overnight hike, threw heavy overgrowth, no trail and there are Severe elevation changes. If it has only a few of those things, then its a four something (missing just one the systems gives it a four someting).

 

So would someone not nowing how to swim make something a terrian 5?? I just ran the Grudge again threw the clayjar system and come up with a 1/4 so I changed it. Now I bet my inbox is going to be full tonight. :mad: But seriously less than a 500 foot swim, do ya think that would call for a 5, and in still water too, not a river. :mad: I have done other island caches and I don't think I've seen a 5 terrain. One up in Waterloo, was a good long walk to get to the island but I never cared enought to look at the diffculty ratings.

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So would someone not nowing how to swim make something a terrian 5?? I just ran the Grudge again threw the clayjar system and come up with a 1/4 so I changed it. Now I bet my inbox is going to be full tonight. ;) But seriously less than a 500 foot swim, do ya think that would call for a 5, and in still water too, not a river. ;) I have done other island caches and I don't think I've seen a 5 terrain. One up in Waterloo, was a good long walk to get to the island but I never cared enought to look at the diffculty ratings.

 

I am not sure what cache you are specifically speaking of, but here is my thought on swimming / boating caches on bodies of water that you describe as relatively still water. I would leave terrain low, probably 1.5 or 2. Then I would make difficulty probably a 4 on the basis of swimming or boating being a "specialized skill".

 

This is kind of a good example of subjectivity...everyone will have varying answers on is those are specialized skills or not, but I would prefer to err on the side of caution and make notations in the cache description so that people don't get all the way out there and they can't swim or don't have access to use a boat.

 

Whenever I do a cache with a difficulty of 3 or higher I always read the cache description to determine why because I cache with small children.

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This one is a 5 in difficulty. Read the logs. Not too many terrains in Iowa are going to be a 5.

 

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that I went back and played around with the Clay Jar rating system (the "suggested" system when submitting a cache that guides you through auto-rating it) and the only way I could get a 5 terrain was by checking the "requires special equipment" box.

 

So, I suppose that's the only way to get it anywhere...

Specialized equipement is of course always a terrain five. The other way is 'or is otherwise extremely difficult'. To get that rating, leave the first question at NO, set the 2nd to YES, and 3-5 to the bottom radial and it will come back as a terrain five.

What this means is the cache is a 10+ mile, overnight hike, threw heavy overgrowth, no trail and there are Severe elevation changes. If it has only a few of those things, then its a four something (missing just one the systems gives it a four someting).

 

Those would be the terrain 5's that probably don't exist in Iowa...figured there had to be an alternative way to obtain a 5. Just didn't toy with it enough.

Oh I agree, there probabably aren't many (if any) terrain 5s in Iowa, I was just pointing out it is possiable to get that rating w/o the need for 'specialized equipement'.

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So would someone not nowing how to swim make something a terrian 5?? I just ran the Grudge again threw the clayjar system and come up with a 1/4 so I changed it. Now I bet my inbox is going to be full tonight. :lol: But seriously less than a 500 foot swim, do ya think that would call for a 5, and in still water too, not a river. :lol: I have done other island caches and I don't think I've seen a 5 terrain. One up in Waterloo, was a good long walk to get to the island but I never cared enought to look at the diffculty ratings.

 

I am not sure what cache you are specifically speaking of, but here is my thought on swimming / boating caches on bodies of water that you describe as relatively still water. I would leave terrain low, probably 1.5 or 2. Then I would make difficulty probably a 4 on the basis of swimming or boating being a "specialized skill".

 

This is kind of a good example of subjectivity...everyone will have varying answers on is those are specialized skills or not, but I would prefer to err on the side of caution and make notations in the cache description so that people don't get all the way out there and they can't swim or don't have access to use a boat.

 

Whenever I do a cache with a difficulty of 3 or higher I always read the cache description to determine why because I cache with small children.

Thats about what I would say too.

How one person defines 'specialized' could affect how they rate a cache. Would 'non special' is something you already know? or something most people know? or something that is at least very easy to learn??

(Same argument applies to specialized equipement... like for a nightcache is a flashlight special equipemnt? or do most people have one already? what if they have a flashlight but its not part of their usual caching gear?)

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So would someone not nowing how to swim make something a terrian 5?? I just ran the Grudge again threw the clayjar system and come up with a 1/4 so I changed it. Now I bet my inbox is going to be full tonight. ;) But seriously less than a 500 foot swim, do ya think that would call for a 5, and in still water too, not a river. ;) I have done other island caches and I don't think I've seen a 5 terrain. One up in Waterloo, was a good long walk to get to the island but I never cared enought to look at the diffculty ratings.

 

I am not sure what cache you are specifically speaking of, but here is my thought on swimming / boating caches on bodies of water that you describe as relatively still water. I would leave terrain low, probably 1.5 or 2. Then I would make difficulty probably a 4 on the basis of swimming or boating being a "specialized skill".

 

This is kind of a good example of subjectivity...everyone will have varying answers on is those are specialized skills or not, but I would prefer to err on the side of caution and make notations in the cache description so that people don't get all the way out there and they can't swim or don't have access to use a boat.

 

Whenever I do a cache with a difficulty of 3 or higher I always read the cache description to determine why because I cache with small children.

Thats about what I would say too.

How one person defines 'specialized' could affect how they rate a cache. Would 'non special' is something you already know? or something most people know? or something that is at least very easy to learn??

(Same argument applies to specialized equipement... like for a nightcache is a flashlight special equipemnt? or do most people have one already? what if they have a flashlight but its not part of their usual caching gear?)

 

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. To me swimming is not a special skill but then again, I grew up with swimming lessons every summer and even was a certified lifeguard through the Boy Scouts for a while. So I never looked at it from a non-swimmers perspective. Really I'm not worried about someone that can't swim trying it because if a person knows they can't swim they shouldn't be out there at all. But then again I have noticed a lot of people can't understand that ya can't find them all and sometimes it's ok to just walk away.

 

A flashlight as specialized equipment??? That's got to be a joke. :) I mean come on I have a flashlight tucked away in my cache bag. To me that's a standard thing to have. But then again I do a lot of my caching in the evenings. That and I just carry it because you never know. I've found quite a few small caves that I like to take a peak into. And I've ran late and it's gotten dark on me out in the woods.

 

I can see where the argument of what is specialized equiment comes from but there are just some things that people should carry on them just because you never know what could happen. Like I also have a small first aid kit in my cache bag. Again something I think everyone should relize that's it a good idea just to have.

 

So what's next a hiking stick is needed to take a short hike in the woods?? Would that be specialized equipment. :) (I mean that in a joking way and nothing more) I have noticed that as new caches are coming out the rating of diffaculty going higher and higher and really stuff isn't getting harder. In other words lots and lots of cachers are overrating. I just wonder WHY??

 

I think I do some more updating to my cache page and bring down the diffculty to where I had it in the first place. Thanks again for getting me to pick my brain a bit.

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