The San Diego Thread

[+golanv]

Thanks Parsa.....

 

and for the rest of you, please, just be patient. David and I have a plan, and are trying to do this the right way so that everyone benefits. Trust us, we are both very reasonable people. Remember, there is always more than one side to things.

 

Thanks.

golanv

[+RocketMan]

Hello San Diego group, and especially those of you in North County that have any interest in the SDRP (San Dieguito River Park)

 

Great news scoop for you all, and you are the first to know! As such, please realize that details and particulars may change, but we wanted you to know the latest!  Now, again, I don't really represent the park, but my husband is spear-heading this project, and gave me permission to share.

 

Ok, here goes, They have officially achieved a clean slate of no caches in the park as of yesterday (yes, even members only caches, sorry Clyde, that puzzle was fun by the way, I solved the first one pretty easily) So, now that they have a clean slate, my husband will be drafting a policy for allowing geocaching in the park again.

 

Yes, you heard me correctly.  They will allow caches in the park again, under certain guidelines, and even have some ideas that people could use in creating new caches.  A couple caches that were removed by an overzealous ranger, may be replaced also, but you didn't hear that here.  They aren't going to charge money for placing caches, at least not that he mentioned, and we are both strongly against that idea.

 

SO, in the meantime, to not ruin this, please don't place any new caches in SDRP until this new policy is done.  That will take around 3-4 weeks, hopefully.  I will update you with the info when it is available. If you have any suggestions, please do feel free to email me with them, but they may not use every idea, so don't get mad if they don't, Please! I will pass them to my husband though.

 

Hooray!   AND Thanks to all the geocachers who were cooperative and patient with the park over the last year while they established their response to geocaching.

 

golanv

Thanks for the note golanv. I am glad to see that the SDRP folks and your husband in particular are willing to work with the geocaching community by drafting a policy to allow geocaching within prescribed guidelines. I think that this will be the best approach and it does support the Mission Statement of the SDRP.

 

For those who are not aware of all of the previous caches that have been removed from the SDRP, here is a list of most of them by date placed:

 

28 Apr 01 Bernardo Mountain by bikedog and howling wolf

19 May 01 Lake Hodges Overlook by Tuna

01 Jul 01 BREEDER by yrium, superfly, whistlestick, fruitcups, & gromit

03 Jul 01 Steven's Cache by gcalland1

05 Jul 01 Lake Hodges Picnic by SteveL

03 Aug 01 Dos Equis XX by Jnglkat

15 Sep 01 Bernardo Mountain #2 by Smitty21 and Cloe Dog

31 May 02 Ammunition Sgt. Cox! by Parsa

11 Sep 02 Rocket Man's 9/11 Cache by Rocket Man

21 Sep 02 Technogeek @ Lake Hodges by Rocket Man

05 Jan 03 Clevenger Canyon Cache by TrailGators

01 Feb 03 Coolswag @ View Junction by Rocket Man

04 Mar 04 Westwood Valley Lore by The Senior Sleuths

24 Mar 04 San Pasqual Trail Cache by tbrunner

 

There were some great caches in this bunch. Hopefully some of them can be replaced/reactivated.

 

Rocket Man

 

Edit: I missed this one:

 

29 Jun 02 Solo's Bounty #1 (at Lake Hodges) by Solonomo

Edited April 14, 2004 by Rocket Man

[+SoCalAdmin]

I'll be on the lookout for caches in the SDRP area from now on. Since they began removing them, I've tried to keep them out, but the boundries of the SDRP seem to be a little nebulous.

 

Does anyone have any maps of the areas affected?

 

Oh and golanv, I've contacted you via email also.

[Parsa]

SoCalAdmin,

 

That's exactly what I said in this thread.

 

Parsa

[+golanv]

Thank you RocketMan, I really appreciate you listing the caches for everyone, I was super-duper busy last night.

 

namaste

golanv

[+golanv]

Check out the approach these cachers in Nebraska took...

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ndpost&p=875695

 

sorry for the dupe post to those of you reading the other thread I added this to.

[+sddarkman619]

The point at which the direction on your GPSr no longer points in the correct direction, mostly because you've slowed down to a point that it doesn't know in which direction you're moving.

well I was walking fast enough to have it point in the right direction, but when your going in one direction and the pointer doesn't point in that direction, but goes "sideways" thats what was also happening. it was going sideways as opposed to pointing in the right direction. anyway I have fixed the problem, I found this site:

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/secret.htm

and what I did was a hard resert of my GPSr and didn't lose anything. the maps and waypoints were still there, all of my settings were reset to factory default and it works better than when I got it. it tracks very nicely now and even when I come to a halt the pointer stays in the direction I was traveling in when I am in the car. must be some software issuue, but it works really good now.....

[Parsa]

I was wondering how many of you local folks have one of the new Garmin color units (60c or 60cs). How do you like it? Does it make things easier, or is caching about the same? Are there things you *don't* like about it?

 

I'm still using my Garmin 12XL that I bought even before I started caching. I love that it's built like a brick, but the innards are a bit outdated now. It has no map capability (other than the simple track and waypoint map), measures in hundredths of a mile or kilometer (no feet or meters), and forget about any advanced functions. On the other hand, I've dropped it a few times (on rocks and cement even) and it's so sturdy that nothing happens to it.

 

Parsa

Edited April 21, 2004 by Parsa

[+TFTC]

I was wondering how many of you local folks have one of the new Garmin color units (60c or 60cs). How do you like it? Does it make things easier, or is caching about the same? Are there things you *don't* like about it?

We've got a 60cs. It's great but we haven't had enough caching time lately to give it a good workout. We've done a few benchmarks but since their coords are way off, it's not a good test. We've used it a lot for autorouting in the car though and it excels at that!! Previously we were using a borrowed Legend which worked great for caching too. What the 60cs lets us do is go paperless - all we need is the GPSr and a (very) cheap web-enabled cell phone.

[+RocketMan]

I was wondering how many of you local folks have one of the new Garmin color units (60c or 60cs). How do you like it? Does it make things easier, or is caching about the same? Are there things you *don't* like about it?

 

I'm still using my Garmin 12XL that I bought even before I started caching. I love that it's built like a brick, but the innards are a bit outdated now. It has no map capability (other that the simple track and waypoint map), measures in hundredths of a mile or kilometer (no feet or meters), and forget about any advanced functions. On the other hand, I've dropped it a few times (on rocks and cement even) and it's so sturdy that nothing happens to it.

 

Parsa

I posted some picture of my 60cs here and here shortly after I started using it. I upgraded from a eTrex Vista to this unit and I have to say that I love it. Here are the things that I like about it as compared to my eTrex:

 

1. Color display: It is much easier for me to read than the display on my Vista, particularly when on the map screen. It does not get washed out at all in bright sunlight like some of the older color screens did.

 

2. Autorouting: I don't know how I lived without this before. It is particularly nice when doing urban caches in an unfamiliar area. Just punch in a cache waypoint and it routes you to the closest point on the road. This is particularly nice when doing paperless caching.

 

3. USB: It is sooo much faster than the old serial connection that I had with my Vista. With the Vista, I had to plan ahead for trips requiring map downloads. Now I can quickly download them just a couple of minutes before the trip.

 

4. Memory: Could be more, but still a big improvement over my Vista.

 

5. Signal Strength: This unit seems to do much better than my Vista when in areas where the signal is obstructed. With my Vista, it would loose signal if I held it close to my body. With the 60cs, I can hang it in the belt clip and walk a couple of miles and it will record my track no problem.

 

6. Menu Structure: This is much better than my Vista now that I am getting used to it. If you know the correct shortcut keys, you can get to where you want to much quicker than on the Vista.

 

There are a lot of other little things that you will find out about if you buy yourself one but I can’t think of all of them right now (e.g. Hitting the find button twice brings up the list of previous finds with the most recent at the top - I use this all the time).

 

I give the 60cs a big thumbs up.

 

Rocket Man

[Parsa]

I think the reception is due to the vertical helix antenna. The etrex line uses horizontal plates. My 12XL has a vertical antenna, so I'm used to that.

 

What's the "special geocaching navigation mode" all about? Have you used this?

 

(I guess you'll have to change your avatar now Rocket Man. )

 

Parsa

 

P.S., Oh, btw, if anyone wants to donate their old GPS receivers to a school teacher, I know one who could use them for his science classes.

[+RocketMan]

I agree that the quad helix antenna is the reason for the better reception, but I am used to the patch antenna that wants to stay horizontal, so I find the new antenna a plus. It seems to work well in the horizontal or vertical position.

 

As far as the geocaching mode goes, it is nothing to write home about. The one nice thing is that it has a note field where you can input the cache name among other things. I use EasyMps to convert my GPX files into Mapsource and I end up with the following type of info in the GPS note field after downloading waypoints from Mapsource (there a limit to total characters):

 

Rancho Bernardo View I by PJH and retePH by PJH and retePH, Traditional Cache (2/3)

 

Whatever is in the Mapsource “Description” field will go into the GPS note field. I use GC number as the waypoint name on the GPS. The GPS will assume that a waypoint is a geocache if it has a geocache icon. When you do an offroad find for a geocache, the geocaching screen/mode comes up. Other things that the geocaching screen/mode does are the following:

 

1. The geocaching screen looks different than the standard compass screen.

2. When you click on Note, it will show you the cache name (or whatever you put in the note field).

3. When you click on Found, it will prompt you to find the next closest cache and it puts an entry in the calendar for the cache that you just found.

 

I have not found any of these things to be particularly useful (other than the note field).

 

With respect to my avatar, I can’t change it from a Vista to a 60cs. That picture was taken by chance and it looked so bizarre, I decided to use it as my avatar. I had my Vista hanging off the windshield and when I took a picture of it, the reflection of my fingers showed up in the glass. It was kind of eerie when I went back to look at the pictures.

 

 

Rocket Man

Edited April 22, 2004 by Rocket Man

[+RocketMan]

MissMarbles - This is ugly. Get another cache quick!

 

[+yrium]

Hello everybody,

 

I want to publicly thank Gecko Dad for his selfless act of distributing Yrium's Pals Geocacher trading cards for me. He was gracious enough to help me with the huge backlog of cards I had built up due to my recent lack of geocaching. Recently he let me know that he's used up all the cards I had sent him.

 

Thanks Don!

 

Since I'm once again able to sit in front of my computer for more than a few minutes before calling it quits, I think I'll be able to start up production again. I've been extremely tardy in getting cards made and its time I rectify that situation.

 

Now I just need to know the names of some caches that are findable by a guy who can only walk fifty feet or so. The distance can be longer if its wheelchair accessible. I'm trying to build up my arm strength

 

--- yrium ---

[+sddarkman619]

well depending on if you can bend over, I have a cache called community cache, which is a curbside grab and wheelchair accessible, there is also a multi-cache i have called romance in the park in the same general area, both at the court house in hell cajon.....

I have one of your cards and look forward to getting more...

[+Dan-oh]

MissMarbles - This is ugly.  Get another cache quick!

 

To heck with the numbers, this is way uglier!

 

[Parsa]

I posted some card-friendly caches in the Yrium's Trading Cards thread.

 

Parsa

[Parsa]

Tomorrow is the main kickoff day for people starting the hike north on the Pacific Crest Trail. The event is going on now at Lake Morena. If you are hiking on the trail in the next couple of days, say hi to the folks and tell them about geocaching.

 

Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff

 

There are usually online journals at the Association web site, but I can't connect to it.

 

A few journals will be placed on the Trail Journals web site here.

 

Parsa

[+Chuy!]

... That picture was taken by chance and it looked so bizarre ...

Rocketman, that reflection of your hand is kind of freaky.

 

The first thing I thought when I saw the note field in the geocaching screen is that you can write down the hints to a cache. I use the LOC files and print out a list of some 30 caches on one page with the hints written in the comments' field. If I struggle with a find, I pull out the list and check out the hints. With this screen I can go paperless. Dang it, I want one!

Question, how loud are the audio alerts during autorouting? We use a Streetpilot III at work and the thing talks to you and tells you when to turn and which side of the street you are going to be looking for the coords. (Yes, I sometimes "borrow" it for my hunts, I have it now, shhhhhhhh .)

 

A public annoucement for all: I want to put in a nothing-for-me-to-gain plug for Quail Unlimited, a national non-profit organization that provides snake avoidance courses for dogs for $60 ($30 is tax deductible). I have Ginger signed up for the course coming up in June. Ginger defines her breed well, a golden retriever; she will chase anything that moves and having come across two snakes already this month, I am quite concern she might get bitten by snake.

[+RocketMan]

The first thing I thought when I saw the note field in the geocaching screen is that you can write down the hints to a cache. I use the LOC files and print out a list of some 30 caches on one page with the hints written in the comments' field. If I struggle with a find, I pull out the list and check out the hints. With this screen I can go paperless. Dang it, I want one!

 

Question, how loud are the audio alerts during autorouting? We use a Streetpilot III at work and the thing talks to you and tells you when to turn and which side of the street you are going to be looking for the coords. (Yes, I sometimes "borrow" it for my hunts, I have it now, shhhhhhhh .)

I guess you can put anything you want to in the geocache note field on the 60cs. The only problem with trying to put the hint there is that the note field is limited to 31 characters in length so in many instances, the hint would be truncated.

 

As far as the autorouting alerts go, there is a distinct type of beep when a turn is coming up. I have had no trouble at all hearing it in the car and I have been very pleased with the autorouting function in general.

 

Rocket Man

[+Miles678]

I have a question for north county cachers. I want to follow the wishes of the San Dieguito River Park and avoid placing a cache within their boundaries until it is ok. How do I know exactly what their boundaries are?

 

I have some good ideas for caches and have scoped out some ares for my ideas. However, a few of my areas are close to the SDRP. How do I know what areas are ok to use?

 

I appreciate the feedback.

 

Miles678

Edited April 25, 2004 by Miles678

[+golanv]

I just sent Miles678 some contact info. thanks!

golanv

[Parsa]

As I said, there seems to be a lot of confusion about what are the boundaries of the area under the jurisdiction of the rangers. Is it the whole focus planning area, the land owned around the lake by San Diego, or some other area? golanv advises going into the ranger station and asking them.

 

Parsa

Edited April 25, 2004 by Parsa

[+Miles678]

Thanks for the quick response! I'll follow up on it. I want to keep my caches legit.

 

Miles678

[+Dan-oh]

I think many of us would like to know the extent of the SDRP as well.

 

Its hard to tell from the paper map they sent me or even from their web site. That map shows Bernardo Mtn outside the park but it must be inside because the cache has been removed. See if you can tell anything from their map overlayed with Topo! Unfortunately their Hodges map is the only one this detailed.

 

[+borregobill]

Dan-Oh,

Your manipulation had me cracking up!

Too Funny.

Edited April 26, 2004 by borregobill

[+Dan-oh]

Here's the original. I zoomed out and lost some detail. I'd love to see a full 7.5' topo with all the park boundaries, not just Hodges.

 

[+borregobill]

Sorry, I was laughing at this:

 

 

Not your map.

[+Dan-oh]

Sorry, I was laughing at this:

  X

Not your map.

Ah-ha. I never know what I have running with PhotoShop.

Notice that the scariest of all is the shortest...taxes.

[+norbu]

Hey, I've volunteered in SDRP before, and they are a really great group of people. They just acquired the Bernardo mtn territory from what I read on their site. also, you should go to their office, the maps and plans are really cool. They have gigantic ones.

 

Their park is actually very very large. One person explained to me during a habitat restoration volunteering afternoon, that sometimes areas that are outside the park boundaries are actually still protected or taken care of by the park. Especially watersheds, so, maybe that has been some of the issue. Why doesn't someone call them? I would, but I really don't see what the problem is. Probably better for one of you to call and clarify.

[+norbu]

Oh, I just noticed, the maps you put in here, and the ones they would send you by mail are just trail maps. You _have_ to go to the office to see the definitive maps. Maybe that is why they are making a policy for you to help alleviate such confusion? Seems like it to me. anyway, not trying to stir an obviously already bubbling pot. I just don't see what the big deal is. Have any of you talked to the rangers??? They were nice when I volunteered.

[Parsa]

Hehe... ... ... ... hehe... sockpuppet

[+norbu]

haha

I happen to really feel that way. think what you like.

I prefer red-headed-she-devil btw...

namaste

[+sddarkman619]

ok, so ...someone has a TB of mine for a while now. I have sent them several emails and I noticed they were on geocaching.com yesterday, what have you folks done in the past about TB deadbeats? is there really anything you can do? except send emails?

[+norbu]

That sux darkman.

I have a couple bugs that I am holding to take to Europe in July, but I got permission from the bug owners. Actually, I awaiting permission on Marilyn and FlagSon Andrew (hint hint TB owners), but I figure, no worries, if they contact me and say HEY! LET MY TB GO! I will

 

Holding them hostage is just plain mean!

tell us who they are! tell us! heheheheee. j/k

[+Miles678]

I got the green light from SDRP!! Thanks for getting me pointed in the right direction. I figured that I was safe with my spots, but I wanted to be absolutely sure. They were helpful in clarifying the validity of my locations. I should make it clear that my locations are NOT in SDRP. They have not given the go ahead for caches in the park yet.

 

I have some good ideas for a few caches in those areas and Gggdick has been helping me engineer them. We're still working out the details though.

 

Before those are ready I have another one about ready to go. I am anxious to see how it turns out and will be looking for feedback. My lips are sealed on the particulars though!

 

I too hung on to a bug for a bit for a European trip (I was supposed to be there now actually). I hung on to a TB that wanted to go that way. I also obtained the owner's permission. However, since I won't be going until August now, I moved the bug along and let the owner know.

 

Miles678

Edited April 28, 2004 by Miles678

[+Dan-oh]

Calling all seasoned cachers!

 

We got a taste of the coming summer weather this past weekend and I'm wondering how cachers managed the last few summers. So did you stay coastal, get up (very) early, stay up late, do some night caching or wear that shirt you were keeping in the freezer?

 

I've done other outdoor activities over the summer time but tell me/us how have you worked it for caching.

[Parsa]

Heat.

 

Well, even in the summer, San Diego is not always 100 degrees like Phoenix. We've had some record highs this spring, but who knows what the weather will be like in August.

 

A few days ago when the temp was 100 in Escondido, Mount Palomar was in the 70s. Yesterday it was 100 again, while Oceanside was about 76. So, checking the current and expected temps helps. Hiking in the inland chaparral is probably a bad idea unless you like opressive heat.

 

The vegetation is growing back up in the backcountry. Its probably time to archive some of those toasted caches and place new ones up in the mountains.

 

Parsa

[+dhsundance]

Well last year- despite the heat many of San Diego's cachers headed to Anza Borrego and found the Sea to Sea caches. This all in the June desert heat. I really wished this event had been in March- but we all lived.

 

Dave

[+Chuy!]

Has anyone met Arcticabn? The guy is on a tear. He has logged 300 caches in 48 days. He found #'s 400 and 600 in San Diego County. Wish I had this kind of time on my hands.

 

Dan-oh: I am no seasoned cacher but I bike ride 25 miles work to home (downtown SD to Lakeside) via Mission Gorge Rd at least once a week, rain or shine. I almost past out two years ago on my first hot ride. I don't do that (almost pass out) anymore. The key is to hydrate. Drink plenty of fluids and carry as much as you can on long hikes/rides. You'd be surprised how far you can endure the heat with proper hydration - and sunscreen. Those hydration packs are a good investment. Good hunting.

Edited May 4, 2004 by Chuy

[+Kite and Hawkeye]

I have to admit I was getting a little suspicious of arcticabn, because it seems a little odd for someone from Minnesota to be logging so many San Diego caches over such a long timespan, and rarely putting anything but the same one-liner in the online logs. We just replaced the logsheet in our Frogs on Guard cache, though, and he did indeed sign it. I guess it's not hard to be a power cacher in this area if you visit often and hadn't previously cached here much. We started when the density was much lower, and it's hard to find a nice cluster anymore.

[+Night Hunter]

Yep, he's really here, I have picked up TB's that he has left and seen many of his logs. The shorter your online logs are, the more time you have for cacheing I guess. Wow, 300. That's just crazy.....Arcticabn? Any comment?

[Parsa]

300 in that time is pretty possible when going to dense, virgin cache areas. dhsundance and I did 48 one day in Riverside, and last Sunday we found 44 in Long Beach. If we did that for 45 days straight, we'd find over 2000 caches. (Of course we'd be dead, but that's not the point.) To get 300, you only need 7 such days out of the 45.

 

BTW, Russ seems to be on a cache-centered vacation now. He's found a plethora of caches in Palm Springs and Simi Valley. We also noted that Vagabond had been active at many of the caches in Long Beach.

[+pqcachers]

Here's a question......I submitted a cache last Wednesday (A Viridian Queen larva) and it has yet to be approved. I haven't seen any new caches since then so I'm just assuming the approver has a life (I know they volunteer their time) and hasn't gotten to it yet, which is fine. I'm just not sure if there might be a problem. I don't want to be a pain, but should I e-mail him/her?

[+Night Hunter]

I submitted a cache last Wednesday (A Viridian Queen larva) and it has yet to be approved. I haven't seen any new caches...

I was wondering why I was able to get so caught up on my nearby caches list

[+dhsundance]

If we did that for 45 days straight, we'd find over 2000 caches. (Of course we'd be dead, but that's not the point.)

 

Would that be death by exhaustion or because the female of the house would shoot you?

 

Dave

[+norbu]

This female-of-the-house would be laughing if husband did such a thing. Your females need to be calm and enjoy the entertaining qualities of the male beast.

[+Miles678]

Haven't you heard of the term 'Geocaching Widow'?

 

Miles678

[+Arcticabn]

OK all, Yes I am a real person. And Yes I am from Minnesota. I've been commuting out here for at least one week a month for about a year now. This last trip was for 8 days and included a weekend. I am a defense contractor that is currently working on a Navy contract.

 

AND YES I MONSTER CACHE.

 

I usually work from 5a.m. to 3 p.m. and then get a couple of hours in before dark. This last weekend I started Saturday at 6a.m. and went North starting above the Torry Pines area up the coast over to La Costa and back South on the East side of 5 for 28 caches. On Sunday I started at 6 a.m. in the Jumal area and worked my way north to Santee. On the week days I try for about 10 caches after work.

 

And yes I have a life, a wife and a family. They are just not here so I can be focused.

 

By the way I am a retired Army paratrooper (Arctic Airborne). So I deal with the pain and the heat and just Drive On.

 

The secret to the numbers is a good game plan and route planning. I did my homework before arriving here and had the 8 days preplanned. I use GPS visualizer to provide me the overall maps.

 

My only draw back is because I don't know the hills or have a caching partner here I won't venture to far up or out into the back country. It's just something I won't do by myself.

 

I'll keep an eye on the thread and let you all know when I'm going to be back next time. Maybe we can get together for a friendly hunt and a beer.

 

Arctic

[+Miles678]

pqcachers,

 

I too submitted a cache last Wednesday and it just cleared last night.

 

Miles678

Edited May 5, 2004 by Miles678