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Portland Cache Machine II


travisl

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... 143. I feel very strongly that it is far too risky ... to have as an event cache.

 

Fair enough. I don't want this to be remembered as the cache machine where someone got sent to the hospital, and given the pace of the event, I can imagine some cachers trying to rush through this one faster than they should. I'll remove it from the final.

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... 143. I feel very strongly that it is far too risky ... to have as an event cache.

 

Fair enough. I don't want this to be remembered as the cache machine where someone got sent to the hospital, and given the pace of the event, I can imagine some cachers trying to rush through this one faster than they should. I'll remove it from the final.

Since I'm working on the draft you just published I drop it from the bookmark now, if you don't mind. I'll renumber from there on the bookmark, hope you don't mind.

Edited by jholly
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I posted the updated bookmark. Refer to the event page for the link. Per post #51 I took the liberty of dropping #143 and renumbering the caches that follow. Hopefully Travis and myself will be in sync on 6/20.

 

#038 - GC2M750 - Disabled, CO will try to get a replacement in for the cache machine.

#043 - GC267WD - 4 DNF's and a note from a previous finder indicating the cache is gone.

#047 - GC2M9WH - 3 DNF's in a row, but I think it is from the group of three caching together. Might want to watch it.

#049 - GC290PK - Disabled, Owner thinks it might be gone. No date on replacement since they are out of town.

#050 - GC1Z22Z - Last find indicates cache is in pieces. The group of three DNF'ed it. Certainly needs a watch or a drop.

#058 - GC2M1BY - 3 DNF's but probably okay.

#086 - GC204RQ - this one might be there, but I'm not convinced.

#101 - GC1W4PG - 3 DNF's in a row on a 1/1. You might want to watch this one.

 

I believe you got all the PMO's covered. For regular members wondering how to log a PMO cache, see post #6. Your on your own for the coordinates.

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Although I see that you have put (caution heights) on 143. I feel very strongly that it is far too risky (no guard rail at all & completely straight down on the edge) to have as an event cache. There will so many people trying to get to the cache that it could be quite dangerous. the obvious path that leads in takes you RIGHT on the edge of the cliff. I can take pics if you want to see how perilous it is. All it would take is one misstep & there could be a disaster. Just a thought.

That said, I can't wait to do this! We are slowly whittling away so we can participate but still have time for lunch & potty breaks. Thanks for putting all of this together. What a lot of work!!!

 

That's why I mentioned "bushwhacking" to it. There are ways to get there and not follow the cliff edge path. But yeah, crowds might not be good.

 

For that matter, whilre I didn't see it, there's a Poison oak warning too.

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Cachers will not be able to drive from GC2GRGK Bus Stop 73 to GC1VZP3 Mike likes it - you may not to, and then turn right on NE Columbia Ct. 33rd Dr north of NE Argyle Street and south of NE Riverside Way is closed for construction until October. You will not be allowed to enter according to a worker that I talked to this afternoon.

Edited by Rose Red
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:omnomnom: The pre-event dinner is confirmed: Friday, June 24, at 6:00 p.m. at Brick House Pizza, 6744 NE Sandy Blvd, N 45.546486°, W 122.593440°. It's a pizza and salad buffet -- they're closing down the restaurant for us, on the condition that anyone who enters, pays. (They've gotten burned by non-eating buffet visitors recently.)

 

Any changes that occur after the final draft is posted on June 20 will be announced there (and in this forum).

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We drove up 33rd this morning to see where the detour takes you. It turns you right on NE Riverside to NE 21st, then left on NE Argyle back to NE 33rd where you can turn right and continue the route. GCIVZP3 - Mike Likes It is in the middle of the construction.

 

We've put new logs in our caches along the route and looking forward to Saturday!!

 

Cachers will not be able to drive from GC2GRGK Bus Stop 73 to GC1VZP3 Mike likes it - you may not to, and then turn right on NE Columbia Ct. 33rd Dr north of NE Argyle Street and south of NE Riverside Way is closed for construction until October. You will not be allowed to enter according to a worker that I talked to this afternoon.

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The final route is up! Any changes I make after this will be announced at dinner on Friday and here late Friday night. Print this, save it, Kindle it, whatever... this is the route you'll want to have with you.

 

Don't forget that I'll be live-tweeting the event (@pdxcm2), so if you encounter anything folks should know about before, during, or after the cache machine, why not #pdxcm2 it?

 

Regarding Mike likes it, I spoke with the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services this morning, and the cache area should be accessible for pedestrians from the north. It's still on the route, and the road closure south of there is now avoided.

 

Thanks again to JHolly, to RoseRed, to KenGR, e2nluv, and everyone else who has helped put this together.

 

See you all Friday!

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Will there be a way to print the maps and cache list up when finalized as a PDF so it doesn't show really small with the thumbnails off to the left?

It is finalized. File->Print(PDF). The bookmark that will be linked on the event page is about as close to a list you can get.

Edited by jholly
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Thanks travisl for the map and list for PCMII. Good Stuff!

 

I am still looking for a ride if someone has an open seat.

 

Otherwise, I could use a navigator in my GeoMobile.

 

(I have to leave a little early if that makes a difference. Wish I didn't have to, but I have an event on Sunday, so I have to drive back to Tacoma Sat PM. I'll check my email tomorrow, then I'm out of communication range for the next week.)

 

Fuzzywhip

Edited by Fuzzywhip
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Ok am I totally missing something or has the bookmark list jholly puts together vanished? I am not seeing it on the listing page or on any of the caches on the route.

 

Jim, any chance you changed this from public to private?

It's being worked on. I did not want folks grabbing garbage and hunting me up at dinner and pouring my beer on my head. :ph34r: It will be up before the evening is over. Earlier in the cycle I'm not so worried about you getting garbage.

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Thanks everyone for your emails.

 

I have a navigator lined up for Saturday (first time I've done a cache machine this way.) Usually, I've either soloed or had a ride with someone. Should be a blast!

 

See everyone on Saturday (I have to get up at 4AM to make it to the start on time! Really hard on a nightbird like me!)

 

Fuzzywhip

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For years I depended on either my son or one of my daughters to act as navigator. About a year ago I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 1450. Except for a few quirks it has been great. I have found (and in a few cases DNF) about 130 of the Cache Machine caches with 20 still to search for.

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Built on top of a levee Marine Drive has a much higher than normal crash rate. It is one of the high crash corridors for the city of Portland. The intersection of 33rd and Marine Drive has one of the highest crash rates of any intersection in the city. Marine Drive has twice the city average for drive off the road crashes. Those who run off the road on north side of Marine Drive may end up in the river. So drive carefully whether on Marine Drive, the very narrow streets or the blind intersections of NE Portland.

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I do not think that "A's Concordia University Cache" (GC20C1Y) should be part of the Cache Machine. When we went there the road was closed so we had to enter the campus on foot. The garden is a very delicate. I cringed when I thought about trying to find a cache among the plants. We left after a brief DNF search. I cannot believe that the campus would even give permission to have a cache placed there.

Edited by Rose Red
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I do not think that "A's Concordia University Cache" (GC20C1Y) should be part of the Cache Machine. When we went there the road was closed so we had to enter the campus on foot. The garden is a very delicate. I cringed when I thought about trying to find a cache among the plants. We left after a brief DNF search. I cannot believe that the campus would even give permission to have a cache placed there.

 

I've found that one. If you look carefully and are on the right part of the right sidewalk, you can *see* it. At which point you step forward to where you wouldn't normally see it (but stay on the sidewalk) and pick it up.

 

Tricky, but doable without messing with the plants.

 

Mind you, Several caches I've found out of the ones on the list are tricky or could lead to messing up some stuff.

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I know this is not on or near our route but I have notifications on for portland and noticed a heck a lot of new caches and some series coming in at almost 10 a day. Like the Spring series and power bike trail. To bad I don't have more time. We have a schedule before and after the CM

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I have room in my geomobile for 3 cachers (I'm flying solo at this point). I have found 45+ of the caches on the list so am planning an abbreviated route of 100+ of the caches if anyone doesn't mind not going for the whole enchilada. I've never been able to find more than about 65 on the previous cache machines that I've done so 100+ should be more than enough to keep us "engaged"! I'd be happy to pick anyone up at the dinner location in the morning so your car will be waiting for you at the end. Let me know if anyone wants to join the fun.

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:omnomnom: The pre-event dinner is confirmed: Friday, June 24, at 6:00 p.m. at Brick House Pizza, 6744 NE Sandy Blvd, N 45.546486°, W 122.593440°. It's a pizza and salad buffet -- they're closing down the restaurant for us, on the condition that anyone who enters, pays. (They've gotten burned by non-eating buffet visitors recently.)

 

Any changes that occur after the final draft is posted on June 20 will be announced there (and in this forum).

 

Just called the place, it is $10 per person. All you can eat pizza, salad and cheesy bread. Drinks not included.

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Last minute changes: none. You might want to be aware, however...

  • #56, GC2M1BY, Pull Over for Some Cache -- several recent DNFs
  • #67, GC2HTVX, I Sure Like It -- several recent DNFs
  • #90, GC1VZP3, Mike likes it-you may not -- Access is likely pedestrian only past the "road closed" signs, and not if construction workers tell you to stay out.

 

See you all at 5:00 AM!

Edited by travisl
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Well, I didn't get to spend the whole day out there but the 5 hours I got to spend were a blast and I can't wait for the next one.

 

Thanks to travis and jholly and everyone else who made this possible.

 

What the heck took me so long to participate in one of these?! B)

 

[edit] PS - for PCM3, please consider coming to the southwest side of town. We have lots of great caches and would love to show off our part of this fair city.

Edited by ThePetersTrio
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We did the beginning and wish we could have done the whole thing but we came for also the oldest caches. Sorry to hear that some of the caches got archived from the attention and heard some police got involved. As a suggestion maybe on the next one someone could contact the police and let them know a CM is going to be in the area and explain what might happen and to see if they have any input. Just a suggestion.

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We did the beginning and wish we could have done the whole thing but we came for also the oldest caches. Sorry to hear that some of the caches got archived from the attention and heard some police got involved. As a suggestion maybe on the next one someone could contact the police and let them know a CM is going to be in the area and explain what might happen and to see if they have any input. Just a suggestion.

Perhaps it was not a good decision to have a herd of cars congregate in the fire lane behind IKEA at 5:00 a.m. But was it really the attention, or was it placing the caches without the knowledge or consent of IKEA that resulted in those caches being archived?

 

It's disappointing to see some of the resentment that's been expressed towards IKEA and the total lack of respect given to property owners in general. We watched one group blissfully ignore the no entrance signs at Concordia College and drive the wrong way through campus. We are not owed some special privileges just because we are geocaching.

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...maybe on the next one someone could contact the police and let them know a CM is going to be in the area and explain what might happen...

I did. This is one of my standard procedures for all CMs, and has been for the last couple of years. However, it seems pretty hit-or-miss as to whether my communication with the police administration filters down to the cops on the street. In relevant part, it said:

Although we will be starting the day as a single large group (at 5:00 am in the IKEA parking lot on NE Cascades Parkway), and the group will caravan on to the subsequent caches, the group will tend to fragment after the first few stops.

...

We know that geocaching activities can appear suspicious by the very nature of the game; non-geocachers concerned about several people searching in the bushes of small public "pocket parks" have called local police before. Therefore, we want to be sure that your department is aware of our planned event activities throughout the area in order to minimize public concern.

 

Perhaps I could have contacted them earlier, but I hesitate to do so before I have a route finalized. I couldn't find an e-mail address and requested it from http://twitter.com/#!/PortlandPolice on Monday afternoon. After I re-prompted them on Thursday afternoon, they replied a couple hours later, and I sent the e-mail Friday morning.

 

IKEA Portland has contacted me separately and asked me not to host any events on their property. I have passed this information on to contact@geocaching.com, although it's likely that they already know.

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Also, regarding #90, which was inaccessible because of construction, I spoke to the contact for the construction project at the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services last week, and although he couldn't be sure we'd have access to the cache, he was almost certain we could get to the driveway 30 feet north of it. On the day of the event, when I tried to get to the cache, we could only get within about 100 feet north of the cache. The site foreman said that on a weekday, we might have been able to get down there, but not on Saturday. Google street view)

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We did the beginning and wish we could have done the whole thing but we came for also the oldest caches. Sorry to hear that some of the caches got archived from the attention and heard some police got involved. As a suggestion maybe on the next one someone could contact the police and let them know a CM is going to be in the area and explain what might happen and to see if they have any input. Just a suggestion.

 

The police were just doing their job. They had a complaint from a property owner and responded appropriately.

 

*No* prior notification would have changed that.

 

Fuzzywhip and I got talked to as we parked at Red Cache for the Red Line. While it was arguable as to whether or not the cop was right to warn us away there, the *fact* is that all Max stops are *explicitly* labeled as private property with access restricted to folks who are going to be riding the Max.

 

As such, that cache is probably another one that shouldn't have been approved. But during normal circumstances, it's not likely to be an issue.

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I saw one card load of cachers pull their SUV right up onto a sidewalk and laugh saying that it was a Geocachers priveledge to get to do that. And this individual has been to every CM that I've been to.

 

Alas, most hobbies that are done outside the home seem to have a few folks like that. And they are why their hobbies get restricted. But they'll always blame someone else. It can't possibly be *their* fault.

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