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Afternoon would be better for our elf and reindeer that will be accompanying me. If there's any interest in hitting an early dinner afterwards (say in Scott's Valley), we'd be up for that as well. I'll just put a random time of somewhere around 2:00 pm that would probably work for us.

2:00pm sounds perfect. Joani and I would love to hang with geo-clause, elf, reindeer and who ever else might want to share a meal. Sounds like fun. We'll try to be there on time.

 

--Marky

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I'll be there. I was almost there today when one of the rear tires on the car decided to puncture, so we decided to abort and head home after I swapped in the spare. (ouch, new tire = $215)

 

If anyone wants to carpool to cut down on the number of vehicles going, let me know.

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I'll be there. I was almost there today when one of the rear tires on the car decided to puncture, so we decided to abort and head home after I swapped in the spare. (ouch, new tire = $215)

 

If anyone wants to carpool to cut down on the number of vehicles going, let me know.

I can carpool if anyone from this area would like to....

Can we leave my place (or meet in Los Gatos) about 1:30?

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I'll be there. I was almost there today when one of the rear tires on the car decided to puncture, so we decided to abort and head home after I swapped in the spare. (ouch, new tire = $215)

 

If anyone wants to carpool to cut down on the number of vehicles going, let me know.

I can carpool if anyone from this area would like to....

Can we leave my place (or meet in Los Gatos) about 1:30?

Joani and I are probably going to head over to the Scotts Valley/Santa Cruz area in the morning and head up to the cache after lunch. Just so you know, I just had Tomtom navigator do a route estimate and the best time to the cache site was over and hour. If you left at 1:30pm, you'd probably arrive well after 2:30pm. The route it picked from my house was Hwy 9 from Los Gatos into Big Basin, take Big Basin Way and then Jamison Creek rd to Empire Grade. I have no idea if this is the best/fastest way to get there from the Bay Area. Maybe geo-clause knows.

 

--Marky

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Are you guys gonna be back by then? I can be at your place or LG at 1:30 or 1:00 or whatever... If there's just 2 or 3 people I can drive us in the Jeep.

 

It's a pretty long drive because if all the roads and there's no really direct way, I think from my place it was something like 40 miles? An hour is probably a better estimate than a half hour.

 

If anyone else wants to come let me know, will take this offline...

 

(edited because Marky's post with the time info came up just before I posted mine)

Edited by Team Nazgul
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Well boys and girls, it looks like quite a gathering coming together for this special cache <_< . Good thing I had my elves working overtime to make a few more ornaments.

 

I checked with Mrs. Clause, and she confirmed that, indeed, it takes much longer to get to the cache than you might expect. 1/2 hour from LG might be pushing it. 45 mins. to an hour is more like it. The road, as I remember it, is very windy, no matter which way you go. Kealia may be able to give you a better idea since he doesn't live too far away (and even owns a cache in the vicinity).

 

Drive safe, and see you all there :o .

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Great to see everybody today at the "un-event". Sorry I couldn't join you for Big Ben and whatever else happened afterwards - had some family business to attend to.... <_< .

 

Hope y'all had fun. Let me know the condition of BB and if I need to do a little maintenance.

 

Happy Holidays guys.

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Greetings from Nurse Dave Land (the state formerly known as Oregon) where we're having Thanksgiving with the in-laws. Imagine my surprise when we got to Grants Pass and the dozen caches near our traditional hotel were all micros and virtuals! Plenty of ammo cans in the woods since then though. <_<

(Obviously I am catching up on the forums, where have I been???) Hey, we were there just after Thanksgiving ourselves. Did you make it out to the First Stash Plaque?

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I just posted a question in general geocaching topics about using a cell phone with a browser for logging caches. But I also wanted to get opinions from people in this forum about the best cell phone service in the bay area, both in terms of price and coverage. I live in Palo Alto, so good coverage around there is essential. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hi,

 

Kablooey, Marky and I (and maybe others) all have T-Mobile (I think?) and a Sidekick phone of some type. Mine is a Sidekick II and it totally rocks. I get pretty good coverage all over the place so far and I've been able to look up caches and log on the fly.

 

It's lots of fun. <_<

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Remember Kreebelle's Cache of the Week? I wonder what happened to that. Probably she just stopped getting enough nominees, and too few people showed any gratitude, perhaps. I appreciated her efforts, but I confess I didn't bother to nominate any, although I did read with interest the nominees, and usually went out to find a couple of them. Anyway, we could use her list of winners or nominees as a beginning. Those already have a sort of stamp of approval based on members' votes. I'm assuming she would cooperate, although I haven't seen her logs or posts lately.

I remember that. She also came to our wedding along with her daughter. <_<

 

She also wanted to get the Silicon Valley Geocachers organized and I still think that would be a good idea.

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2:00pm sounds perfect. Joani and I would love to hang with geo-clause, elf, reindeer and who ever else might want to share a meal. Sounds like fun. We'll try to be there on time.

Well, d'oh, it's too bad I haven't been keeping up with the forums. How did it go? Fun? Anything left for us to get if/when we go this week?

 

Sounds like fun!

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Great to see everybody today at the "un-event". Sorry I couldn't join you for Big Ben and whatever else happened afterwards - had some family business to attend to.... <_< .

 

Hope y'all had fun. Let me know the condition of BB and if I need to do a little maintenance.

 

Happy Holidays guys.

We found Big Ben, and the tree seems to be in good shape... and yes, we found the cache, too and that's in good shape, except for one possibly missing TB.

 

That's a very roomy container!

 

I enjoyed the un-event, and thanks for the Christmas goodies. Happy Holidays!

Edited by budd-rdc
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TNT found in the Woods in Mill Valley

 

-- in an ammo box no less. They are waterproof, but something like this makes RubberMaid seem like a much better cache container.

Let's see... I've got 26 ammo cans out there... times $4 each for a good sized quality tupperware, plus the baggies to keep everything dry.... hmmm.

Gonna take a bomb squad encounter to get me converted over I think.

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Let's see... I've got 26 ammo cans out there... times $4 each for a good sized quality tupperware, plus the baggies to keep everything dry.... hmmm.

Gonna take a bomb squad encounter to get me converted over I think.

OK, I'll call 'em. Which cache? :)

Definitely "In Memoriam"... don't know how it's lasted this long across from the fire station!

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FYI if you haven't seen it -- There is an article about geocaching on the front page of today's Palo Alto Daily News. The headline is "GPS games cause headaches" and is mostly about a number of caches found by rangers in Edgewood Nature Preserve that are in sensitive-habitat areas. There's even a color picture of a ranger with an "area closed" sign in the background. Definitely an interesting read.

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FYI if you haven't seen it -- There is an article about geocaching on the front page of today's Palo Alto Daily News.  The headline is "GPS games cause headaches" and is mostly about a number of caches found by rangers in Edgewood Nature Preserve that are in sensitive-habitat areas.  There's even a color picture of a ranger with an "area closed" sign in the background.  Definitely an interesting read.

You can read it here and alert yourself to the terrorist front known as 'geocaching'

 

http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/dailynews...PA_20041220.htm

 

Geesh!

 

It looks like these were the 3 caches that were removed

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...7a-75cd7b50d5cd

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...2a-222a53a32733

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...90-6cd3f77e2c45

 

All of which I've already done. :)

 

Looks like NavySparks' log had the photos referenced in the article, but of course it doesn't mean that the caches were in those areas.

Edited by boulter
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Assuming that the Ranger is "Layja," he seemed to have done the proper thing by removing the caches and requesting them to be archived.

 

The owners of the 3 caches (which were placed last winter) seem inactive in the sport, and the last activities for those caches were back in October, not mentioned in the article, so I'll mention it as my "investigative journalism" 2 cents. <_<

 

At least, public entities are civil enough to handle things in good faith. With the headline, I was expecting an article about some private land owner with expensive attorneys on retainer threatening a frivolous lawsuit of some sort.

 

Weren't the issues with this particular park discussed earlier on this thread? It's a nice sanity check, though. Thanks for the pointer to the article.

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FYI if you haven't seen it -- There is an article about geocaching on the front page of today's Palo Alto Daily News. The headline is "GPS games cause headaches" and is mostly about a number of caches found by rangers in Edgewood Nature Preserve that are in sensitive-habitat areas. There's even a color picture of a ranger with an "area closed" sign in the background. Definitely an interesting read.

When we did those caches, we questioned their placement. I guess nothing was ever done about it. That park is probably best left cacheless. It has too strict of off trail use rules.

 

--Marky

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FYI if you haven't seen it -- There is an article about geocaching on the front page of today's Palo Alto Daily News.  The headline is "GPS games cause headaches" and is mostly about a number of caches found by rangers in Edgewood Nature Preserve that are in sensitive-habitat areas.  There's even a color picture of a ranger with an "area closed" sign in the background.  Definitely an interesting read.

When we did those caches, we questioned their placement. I guess nothing was ever done about it. That park is probably best left cacheless. It has too strict of off trail use rules.

 

--Marky

I have been working withthe ranger involved and when we get a resolution will post here to let you know the outcome.

 

Krypton

Edited by Krypton
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When we did those caches, we questioned their placement.  I guess nothing was ever done about it.  That park is probably best left cacheless.  It has too strict of off trail use rules.

 

--Marky

Being the former owner of a cache in Edgewood Park, I've been doing a lot of soul searching the last few days.

 

In January 2004, I hid "Underpass Access" (GCHJZV) about 100' off trail close to the intersection of the Edgewood trail and the Serpentine Loop trail / service road. It was visited 40 times between January and August, when it was reported missing. I checked on it in April, and went looking for it on Labor day (no luck) and finally achived it at the end of that month.

 

Marky was the 37th visitor in July, and the first to question the placement. I have to admit that I didn't take his suggestion seriously initially. I was aware of the off-trail warnings in the park, but I figured that this was just standard liability stuff, and that Edgewood wasn't any more ecologically sensitive than any other park I've visited. I have to admit my opinion was reinforced by the lack of comments from any of the previous visitors. In my defense, I'm not a long time resident.

 

However, Marky's comment piqued my curiousity and I started to learn about the park. During this process I found that it is a unique place.

 

During the first visit back in April, there was no distinct path to the cache. When looking for it in September, there were obvious trails, mainly bent and broken grass. This didn't appear to be permanent damage, but I have no idea if some animal or plant habitat might have been disturbed. I hope not.

 

During the month of September, I debated with myself whether or not to replace the cache, and ultimately decided not to.

 

Based upon my experience, I have several observations and comments.

 

1. Please follow Marky's example and question suspect cache placements. His prompting led (eventually) to my actions.

 

2. Follow up on your efforts to correct poorly placed caches. After archiving my cache, I knew there were other questionable caches in Edgewood Park, and didn't do anything about it. I'm sure there are others who would have to admit the same.

 

3. Resist the temptation to find a poorly placed cache. I know this is a tough one. Perhaps it will be a good day when someone logs DNF and says, "I decided not to find your cache because it would have forced me to...(fill in the blank).

 

4. Resist the temptation to "follow the arrow". Another tough one. There seems to be some sort of badge of honor associated with going off-trail. I know I've done it. Then I've compounded the sin by describing my misadventures in the cache log. If you end up going off-trail (for whatever reason), it's probably best to keep it to yourself. The vast majority of the time cache is close to a trail, and if you'll just be patient the trail will take you where you want to go.

 

Matt

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Going off-trail isn't necessarily bad. It depends on the parks rules. I've hidden caches that are quite a bit farther that 100 feet off trail. Some parks welcome off-trail exploring, others don't. Like you mentioned, Edgewood is a special case, due to butterfly habitats, etc. They have some rules in place to protect them.

 

I think as responsible cachers, it's in our best interests to be self policing to some degree. I try not to be negative sounding (I re-read my log on your cache, and it wasn't too negative :angry: ) but I do question placements that I think might be inappropriate.

 

It will be interesting to see how talks go with the rangers.

 

--Marky

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I think as responsible cachers, it's in our best interests to be self policing to some degree.  I try not to be negative sounding (I re-read my log on your cache, and it wasn't too negative  ;) ) but I do question placements that I think might be inappropriate.

 

It will be interesting to see how talks go with the rangers.

 

--Marky

I agree, your post was appropriate. Thanks for setting me straight and making this effort to improve geocaching.

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Not sure if it's the fall doldrums or what but I've been noticing that the names on the cache lists in my recent logs all look similar and most already have over 200 finds. It's great to see all the familiar names but where are the new cachers? What happened to all those excited sub-50 "newbies" we used to see?

 

Here's an example from ProTechCC's "Above Almaden Valley" which I found recently. (With find totals and in order of find):

 

Marky ...................... 3651

Worker of Wood......... 1789

Team Alamo ............. 6088

Walruz ..................... 1414

Geek Dad.................. 200

Team Nazgul.............. 659

MRSquared ............... 679

GeoWal..................... 800

Kealia ...................... 230

Nemglan .................. 218

KennyHannahJacob.... 214

 

Perhaps Christmas will bring an influx of new names?

 

/Lefty

 

P.S. Above Almaden Valley is an interesting example of off trail caching. I'd argue that it's an environmentally sound example as long as the visit count doesn't skyrocket. Any thoughts from others who have visited?

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Not sure if it's the fall doldrums or what but I've been noticing that the names on the cache lists in my recent logs all look similar and most already have over 200 finds. It's great to see all the familiar names but where are the new cachers? What happened to all those excited sub-50 "newbies" we used to see?

 

Here's an example from ProTechCC's "Above Almaden Valley" which I found recently. (With find totals and in order of find):

 

Marky ...................... 3651

Worker of Wood......... 1789

Team Alamo ............. 6088

Walruz ..................... 1414

Geek Dad.................. 200

Team Nazgul.............. 659

MRSquared ............... 679

GeoWal..................... 800

Kealia ...................... 230

Nemglan .................. 218

KennyHannahJacob.... 214

 

Perhaps Christmas will bring an influx of new names?

 

/Lefty

 

P.S. Above Almaden Valley is an interesting example of off trail caching. I'd argue that it's an environmentally sound example as long as the visit count doesn't skyrocket. Any thoughts from others who have visited?

I've been noticing a similar drop off, though I do see lots of new names come through every week on my caches.

 

I suspect it has more to do with the fact that the addicts among us (no need to name names ;) ) seem to cache no matter the weather or the season. The newbies still think there are other things more important to do, or stay inside in the rain and cold (they'll learn better soon enough).

 

I suspect we will see a lot of newbie logs in the week after Christmas...

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P.S.  Above Almaden Valley is an interesting example of off trail caching.  I'd argue that it's an environmentally sound example as long as the visit count doesn't skyrocket.  Any thoughts from others who have visited?

I would agree. It's a game trail and the number of deer that run that trail FAR exceeds the cachers and any damage that we do.

 

There are a couple of newbies in the Santa Cruz area who've not only found some caches but placed a few as well. new blood is always nice and so far the caches have been good (nice spot, good swag, too).

 

Just yesterday I was SO close to the Precious on this cache.

Edited by Kealia
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Nice pic Fizzy! - I'm jealous <_<

 

On another note.....

 

We found it! It's ourz again! Couldn't be stopped by hobbits, orcses, or that stupid Smeagol! Found the Precious in a cache this evening.

 

84667a37-cb7f-4d38-8d2b-6d518002ded9.jpg

 

Now, anybody up for a little game?

Thinking about a little "keep away from Nazgul" now that I have the Precious. I'll leave it in a cache over in SJ somewhere and the game is to keep the Precious away from Nazgul without holding it too long (don't want "the eye" to see you).

 

Move it from cache to cache (say within a 15 mile radius) before Nazgul can get to it (even if you've found the cache it's in before). If Nazgul finds it, I'll have to come up some kind of reward.

 

Just thinking out loud....thoughts?

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1. Cute kitty!

2. Congrats Boulter!

3. I think that newer cachers are more prone to be getting finds closer to home, usually urban hides. There are also a lot of cachers that stick to easier/urban hides in general. I looked at the last 10 finds I made (all urban) and nearl all have at least one find log from someone with <200 finds on the latest five logs that show on the main cache page. I see 3, 116, 34, 38, 5, another 34.... (There are some definite exceptions though. Check the logs for Walk Like a Duck, fifteen visits with the visitors averaging a staggering 958 finds!)

 

But it does seem like maybe there are few excited newbies around, maybe because it's winter, holidays, etc.? Perhaps that Bay Area Backroads episode (when it finally shows) or some other local stories will help get more people interested.

 

Also many of those excited sub-50 newbies don't stay that way for long! It seems like the Geobrowns just started what, last Tuesday and they already have about nine billion finds. <_<

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Now, anybody up for a little game?

Thinking about a little "keep away from Nazgul" now that I have the Precious. I'll leave it in a cache over in SJ somewhere and the game is to keep the Precious away from Nazgul without holding it too long (don't want "the eye" to see you).

 

Move it from cache to cache (say within a 15 mile radius) before Nazgul can get to it (even if you've found the cache it's in before). If Nazgul finds it, I'll have to come up some kind of reward.

 

Just thinking out loud....thoughts?

It would be more fun if it were a Frodo TB and I could poke it in the shoulder with a sword if I managed to grab it. :lol: I'd be up for it, although my wife is about ready to clobber me for running out caching all the time as it is. <_<

Edited by Team Nazgul
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Also many of those excited sub-50 newbies don't stay that way for long! It seems like the Geobrowns just started what, last Tuesday and they already have about nine billion finds.  :lol:

You mean not everyone is having as much fun as us?!!

We want to hit 500 by years end, not sure why, sometimes it's just fun to make little goals like that for no reason. I sure hope the weather doesn't hinder us, or the sore throat I am starting to get. If not, no biggie. Well, maybe raingear, a scarf and lozenges will do the trick! <_<

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Now, anybody up for a little game?

Thinking about a little "keep away from Nazgul" now that I have the Precious. I'll leave it in a cache over in SJ somewhere and the game is to keep the Precious away from Nazgul without holding it too long (don't want "the eye" to see you).

 

Move it from cache to cache (say within a 15 mile radius) before Nazgul can get to it (even if you've found the cache it's in before). If Nazgul finds it, I'll have to come up some kind of reward.

 

Just thinking out loud....thoughts?

We're game as long as that guy isn't attached to the ring, he's worse than your avatar. <_<

 

 

On another note, my brother, (non cacher so far) invited us to go hiking in Sunol Park. Already looked up the caches there. Any suggestions, must do's from anybody who's already hiked the park? What's the terrain like?

 

I'm anxious to try a few others, Montebello and Grant Park too, would love to see one of those little fellas above, what a great shot! With the cooler weather, it's nice for hiking I think.

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On another note, my brother, (non cacher so far) invited us to go hiking in Sunol Park. Already looked up the caches there. Any suggestions, must do's from anybody who's already hiked the park? What's the terrain like?

There aren't too many bad ones in Sunol. You might want to shy away from micros (and some of the Sunol micros we found a long time ago are archived). The terrain is pretty hilly once you get off of the road that runs along the river. I would suggest just picking a route to hike, and then figure out which caches are near the route.

 

--Marky

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Hey I've got a suggestion for the Nazgul/Ring game. Team Nazgul has to wait at least 6 hours from the posting time for his "start" (travel time from Mordor no doubt accounts for this). Also, I suggest getting the ring on at least 8 folks watch list!

 

This could end up being a great tour of everyone's favorite big outdoor adventure caches and a guaranteed exercise plan for the Nazgul and his mount! /Lefty

 

P.S. AND, when found by Nazgul, the hunt starts over with Kealia as "it".

Edited by KennyHannahJacob
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A six hour delay? Around here? You really want this to go on a long time don't you? :P And would that be from the time of the drop or the log? People would have to add a time to their logs if we used the former.

 

I note that The Precious is not shown among the TBs in Kealia's possession. Is this going to be a new TB? It might be fun to make its mission a never-ending game of Santa Clara/Santa Cruz counties keep-away. Then when the person who it is being kept from gets it they get to name the new person it must be kept from.

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