Jump to content

SF Bay Area geocachers


Recommended Posts

Good luck with your new job. Hope Andy has fun with his game, and we have no problem doing a beta test on his game for him if he needs it. icon_wink.gif

 

Hi all I have noting to do but watch people cache now that Shane's working I have no wheels.

Darn the luck now we need a house and another CAR. icon_biggrin.gif

 

Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

Link to comment

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy your new job. My daughter loves the Portland area. She went away to school in Portland and never came home. She lives in Tualatin.

 

Hi Pepper: Instead of a second car consider a boat. Or maybe your new house should be near a ferry dock. During WW2 the folks that worked in the shipyard at Bremerton would get on the ferry in Seattle still in their PJs. They would wash up, change clothes and have breakfast by the time the big old ferry reached Bremerton. Now that's the way to commute. Can't do any of that stuff on BART.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Beast of Traal:

what dose this mean?

FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=This is not a hint"

this text showed up when I cut and pasted the cryptogram into word pad.


I never saw anything like that. Not sure what it was you cut, but it appears that it was an image.

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

Does that make Pepper a virtual or a locationless?

 

How about parking it on comfy bike, something like a Specialized CityBike with a cushy wide saddle? It will easily give you a 5-10 mile radius. I noticed wide wide shoulders on some highways, with flat or rolling hills, when we took a car rental from SeaTac through Puyallup on the way to Rainier. Pu-wall-up: someone told me to say the y like w.

Link to comment

...I haven't gotten around to trying out your program yet, but I will do so.

 

I had to write up some notes for myself on using Spinner and Plucker with the Pocket Queries and for using Cache Watcher as well. My brain was on overload as I tried to get my old laptop functioning, my desktop loaded with everything, and then everything loaded to a new laptop.

 

Anyway, I will get to it in the next week or so. Sounds like it is the best of both Spinner and Cache Watcher with yours residing on the computer instead of looking out across the internet.

 

The beautiful weather has drawn me outside a bit too, and hope to do more of what this is all about...caching...in the sun !

 

Ron

 

I've never been lost. Fearsome confused sometimes, but never lost.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Beast of Traal:

what dose this mean?

FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=This is not a hint"

this text showed up when I cut and pasted the cryptogram into word pad.

 


 

It didn't happen when I pasted the text into WordPad, so I assume you highlighted a little too much space and picked up some html code that wasn't displayed textually by the browser. I don't know html, but that's easy to verify by right-clicking the page and selecting "view source." That shows the the source code for the web page, and you will notice that the phrase you describe is located right after the ciphertext. With a web page, what you really download is a set of instructions and text like this, and the browser interprets the code and displays it graphically the way you are used to seeing it, but these kinds of coding strings are actually underlying every web page.

 

BTW - I found the cache today. icon_biggrin.gif

Link to comment

Correct bthomas I all I have been doing is DNF's and not posting them! SO THERE

Today I finally got the twins in school, I have the car and I WILL find me some WA caches. So ya'll have a good one I must hit the road. Will post my successes later this afternoon.

 

Missing my friends real bad.

 

Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

Link to comment

was not good. I was thinking of giving up geocaching after my second DNF, but after I finally found ONE and only One I decided to stick with it just a while longer.

 

I guess it will be a while before I can really do some Marathon Caching. I am still trying to get use to the streets up here and YES even with a GPS I stay confussed, but not lost.

 

So my day ended up a one out three, could be worse none out three and trust me I've done that up here!

 

Fizzy I am happy to here Chuguy has a new FTF nemesis!

 

Hotfoot I miss you!

 

Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

Link to comment

Ever since Pepper left, this place is DEAD.

 

I went out to the Central Valley today. Found most of the ones I sought, including a very neat new one called The Down Under. It was gray all day out there.

 

For those who haven't heard, I have a spiffy new application that allows you to get rid of MobiPocket forever. It's called gpx2html, and it does all kinds of neato things that MobiPocket didn't. It takes your GPX files and turns them into compact HTML pages for each cache. You use an open-source freeware program called Plucker to move the HTML to your Palm-OS handheld.

 

It's available here as a Perl script and a Windows executable.

Link to comment

I'm just about to come upon my one year mark and I've kind of slowed down too. Feb 3th was when I found this cache

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=13712

 

I thought about trying to hit 800 before then but I just don't have the time. I've been trying to get back into good riding shape and may even to a mountain bike race or two this season. But I'm still trying to fit in as much geocaching as I can.

 

Today I rode almost 20 miles on some really rough trails hid 2 caches and found 6.

 

We're driving to Pleseanton tomorrow to visit some friends so let's see if I can fit some caching in too.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

Link to comment

F. and I have been living in the East Bay and Central Valley the past two weekends... today we need to (shudder) do stuff around the house, too many errands have not been run lately...

 

Fizzy - please e-mail me with your phone # again - when you called, F. had just climbed onto the "Fear Factor" structure - so I couldn't talk. I tried to be clever and type your number directly in the phone when you gave it to me but when you hung up, my phone cleared what I had typed so I lost the number!!

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by georgeandmary:

East Bay Tag

Anyone thinking about posting an East Bay tag cache?


Joani and I have definitely been considering a South Bay Tag cache. icon_smile.gif

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

While driving today (a half day at work) I thought of a silly idea: What if famous authors had written about Geocaching? I thought of the fabulous "The Old Man and the Sea" as a wonderful example that could be (ab)used in such a manner, and so I offer this... of course, if you haven't read the book, this makes less sense, and if you've never read Hemingway, please don't judge him on THIS drivel, and if you have, please don't be mad at me for this doggerel. icon_biggrin.gif

 

Anyway, I got bored with the idea after a while, so I don't think there will be an ending, but I thought I'd post it... Other titles could be, hmm... "Hotfoot's Complaint", "How Green Were My Arches", "The Caches of Madison County"... if people are better at this than I (that means: all of you) you might want to try your hand... or not... I send it here to the SF Bay thread because I gently and fondly tug at a few of the local cachers here.

 

THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CACHE

 

There is a young cacher - SeaLouis

 

He's gone 84 cache hunts without a find. His face is scratched from trying to find caches behind bushes, and his hand has a permanent indentation where he holds his GPS receiver. He sometimes sighs at his misfortune, but he records cheerful undefeated logs.

 

He has nick-named his GPS receiver 'Lanolin' - as he finds its backlight a soothing aid when darkness decends on his cache hunts. It is a special GPS, having gained sentience. Sympathising with SeaLouis's plight, he ignores the calls of his manufacturer to be sent to another, more successful cacher. He stays with the young man, who has found no cache. The manufacturer thinks that SeaLouis is salao, the worst kind of unlucky. It took Jeremy 40 days to build the site, and SeaLouis hasn't found a cache in 84 attempts."

 

SeaLouis thinks of Lanolin as a friend. He often talks to Lanolin about the legendary Geo DiMarryio, who finds almost every cache he hunts.

 

Lanolin has at times spoke to SeaLouis - and only he. Lanolin loves SeaLouis, recalling their more successful times together: The young man had taught the GPS receiver how to cache and the GPS receiver loved him. Lanolin sighed to SeaLouis one evening after a day of no-finds: "I can remember the sound of the grass being crushed, and the banging and the thwart CLICK noise of the ammo box closing. I can remember you throwing me into your pack where the cheap McToys were, and feeling the whole pack thud as you dropped it, and hearing the noise of your fingers logging your finds on the net, as loud as a fisherman clubbing a fish, and the sweet smell of spilled Technu all over me."

 

SeaLouis often doesn't think of eating. But Lanolin will have none of it. "You'll not cache without eating while my batteries last." SeaLouis replies, "Then run a long time and recharge yourself."

 

One day, SeaLouis sets out to cache again. But Lanolin - he stops talking to him. Today, SeaLouis is quite alone. He knew he was going caching deep in the East Bay today, and he left the silicon smell of the South Bay behind and drove out into the clean early morning smell of the foothills.

 

SeaLouis continues on his drive, past the great swell of the Sunol grade, thinking fondly of caching and Lanolin, his GPS receiver: "I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe I'll find a cache today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky and score all finds. But I would rather know my location exactly. Then when luck comes, you are ready to find the cache."

 

He gets reflective - thinking about how much he was talking to himself, and how he started talking aloud: It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily while caching in the woods, and the young man had always considered it so and respected it. But now he said his thoughts aloud many times since there was no one that they could annoy.

 

The young man quickly gets his thoughts back to the task at hand: "Now is the time to think of only one thing. That which I was born for: Caching."

 

He pulls into a bakery for breakfast - another in the growing chain of "Becker's Buns and Breakfast" restaurants. He looks at his pocket query, and sees a new multi-stage cache, by HotFizzyAcres, and using crytographic techniques taught to him by a Rattily dressed friend, he decodes a message that tells him to "compute the centroid of three MarJo micro-caches, in a valley whose distance from Pleasanton is 1/1000th the radius of the Earth at this latitude" - and it is without a first find. It's name: "The Sea Multi Cache Stage One - MarlinCache"

 

The young man pulls out his pencil and starts to solve the puzzle. "MarlinCache," thinks SeaLouis, "I love you and respect you as an unfound cache, very much. But I will find you before this day ends."

 

WHAT HAPPENS TO SEALOUIS? WILL HE FIND MARLIN CACHE?

 

[This message was edited by TeamJiffy on January 20, 2003 at 07:23 PM.]

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by TeamJiffy:

While driving today (a half day at work) I thought of a silly idea: What if famous authors had written about Geocaching?

Anyway, I got bored with the idea after a while, so I don't think there will be an ending, but I thought I'd post it...


 

I had a variant of this idea. I, too, am no Hemingway/Steinbeck or even Bulwer-Lytton. However, as a frustrated author, I just created a story cache. Maybe we can create a new category. It hasn't been approved yet, so I won't say any more about it yet. And it's members only because I don't want a bunch of complaints from parvenus who don't know how to use their GPSr's. When/if it is approved, let me know if you think it is rated right. icon_wink.gif

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

Ever since Pepper left, this place is DEAD.


 

The board is a little less noisy, but I'm surprised at how many new caches are popping up. About three or four weeks ago I was only one cache away from being onto my third screen, but there are now about a half dozen caches I have not found on the first two screens.

 

Partly this is due to being too busy to do a lot of caching over the holidays, bad weather, or I'd go out to other areas with friends. Partly this is due to the new cache I've been working on (Fizzymagic - this is now a full payoff of the blackmail threat). But I think that there are now more people placing caches locally. The hobby is gaining popularity, IMHO.

 

This is good and bad. If it continues to grow rapidly, it will soon be impossible to keep up with all the new ones, and too many of them will be uninteresting. But it will be great to have a large selection of the clever and interesting ones. I am enjoying Kablooey's in particular, and I'm waiting for Lamneth to post his new one. It will have to be good to match Double Agent. So how long do we have to wait?

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by The Rat:

The board is a little less noisy, but I'm surprised at how many new caches are popping up. About three or four weeks ago I was only one cache away from being onto my third screen, but there are now about a half dozen caches I have not found on the first two screens.


 

We're pretty lucky to be in a cache-rich area. Lucky perhaps, but it's more due to the work of the first cachers here who seeded the area with good caches. I'm glad that quality is stressed over quantity.

I've been out placing caches in good and interesting places I hope. Though I really messed up with one. I put it in some poison oak and now another cacher and I got it. It's moved now and I can't wait to see the comments of whomever finds it. I think that I found a tough spot.

 

Mickey

Max Entropy

More than just a name, a lifestyle.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by MaxEntropy:

It's moved now and I can't wait to see the comments of whomever finds it. I think that I found a tough spot.


Cool, we'll have to go get this one now. icon_wink.gif

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by The Rat:

I am enjoying Kablooey's in particular, and I'm waiting for Lamneth to post his new one. It will have to be good to match Double Agent. So how long do we have to wait?


 

I really liked Kablooey's "Sounds Good", despite his cruelty with the lack of hint in the beginning.

 

Yes, I did mention in December that I was getting ready to release another cache. It's not a puzzle cache so you may be disappointed... I wanted to do something a little more traditional this time, but I think it'll still be worthwhile. It's actually been in place for over a month now, but is being delayed due to circumstances beyond my control (the delay has nothing to do with the approval process).

Link to comment

....but I can appreciate the work of all who have gone before. I enjoy the genuine feelings expressed over a fellow cacher who has relocated to the Northwest, this is community.

 

I have learned much from the postings and I am now ready to place my first cache. It will be a ammobox with quality that cannot be purchased.

 

You crypto folks freak me out, I have much to learn there. Maybe a crypto cache using Ogham stem writing, my Irish roots are stirring...

 

Thanks for being out there...somewhere

 

MontytheMule

Link to comment

Hi Montythemule: Hope to see you at some event or other. It's a good way to meet some great folks and assign faces to screen names.

 

Pepper, I got your call but you didn't leave your new phone number. Your old numbers I scribbled on a cache page printout and after 6 months in a fanny pack it became confetti. (The National Geographic paper that Fizzy gave me is indestructable. I think the fanny pack will go first.)

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Marky:

quote:
Originally posted by MaxEntropy:

It's moved now and I can't wait to see the comments of whomever finds it. I think that I found a tough spot.


Cool, we'll have to go get this one now. icon_wink.gif

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"


 

I don't know if the system will let you log a Found twice, but if you can, go ahead. The cache is the same box and cache number, but in a completely different environment.

 

Mickey

Max Entropy

More than just a name, a lifestyle.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by MaxEntropy:

quote:
Originally posted by Marky:

Cool, we'll have to go get this one now. icon_wink.gif


I don't know if the system will let you log a Found twice, but if you can, go ahead. The cache is the same box and cache number, but in a completely different environment.


The system lets you log a cache twice. It is up to the cache owner to allow (or disallow) multiple finds. When I re-hide a cache in a new location, I allow previous finders to find it and log it again. Of course, this doesn't apply in this case since we didn't find it in its original location (I don't particularly care for poison oak icon_wink.gif)

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by MaxEntropy:

 

I don't know if the system will let you log a Found twice, but if you can, go ahead. The cache is the same box and cache number, but in a completely different environment.

 

Mickey

Max Entropy

More than just a name, a lifestyle.


 

You can log the same cache found more than once. See CVC Tag

 

The cache keeps moving so each find is different. Even if you've seen the container, it's tough to find.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

Link to comment

Remember that one? Well after all the mystery and suspense involved with the Gold Garbage bug I took it down to LA. Far far away from the bay area.

 

Well, I just looked at the recent logs and a local Sonora cacher just picked up and dropped off the bug.

 

One of those small world things.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

Link to comment

Fran and I spent Sunday in San Francisco, and we would like to suggest some fun caches in the city for others to try. These seven caches will get you to different parts of the city, and will make for a fun day. Note: It completely skips some parts - for example, there is nothing in this list in Golden Gate Park - but there is more than enough to make a full day in the city.

 

We hope people enjoy finding these!

 

-Joel

Clipper Cove. This cache is located on the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, on the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Bridge. You need good timing to find this - much of the time the path to it is underwater - at some times (very low tides) it is walkable. Lots of fun and you can walk to it, and see boats in the harbor, etc.

 

Sutro Baths. This cache requires very good footing, but we enjoyed it. And the views of the cliffs (you are on the cliffs in this cache!) and the ocean is fantastic.

 

Columbo. It is findable, and Washington Square Park is in the middle of the Italian section of town, so you know lunch will be good.

 

Poppy Cache. No great views, but who would think, if you suddenly opened your eyes and found yourself here, that you were in San Francisco? Lots of fun! Anything more gives the surprise away.

 

Ex Libris. A fun cache, and there is a clever twist - if you don't understand how to be truly thorough in searching such a place, I'd say you would have a 50/50 chance of just not finding this (look at the found/not-found logs.)

 

Island 2: Treasure Island. Another cache on the island(s) in the middle of San Francisco Bay, on the San-Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge. Man-o-man, the view....

 

SFO Mini 2. This gets you to the touristy Fishmans' Wharf area - some like this area, some don't. Now and then, Fran and I revel in being 'silly tourists' and will head up here, but the well-known joke of this area is that if you are going to cheat on your spouse, take your date to Fishermans' Wharf, because nobody who lives in San Francisco will ever be there! icon_biggrin.gif However, this was our first experience of a mini-cache, and it is a very different form of micro-cache (I.e., it is not a mini-container such as a 35mm film cannister)

 

[This message was edited by TeamJiffy on January 23, 2003 at 03:57 PM.]

Link to comment

This is Fran of TeamJiffy. I've not posted here before...

 

I was so tickled by this. I noticed a "new" cache posting on the home page as being in Saudi Arabia. Check out the military being geocachers, using all their military lingo. It's good to see they have some fun down there. Cheers to our fellow geocachers in the Mid-East!!

 

wounded knee (Shaib Luha)

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=30309

 

And here's M&Ms new one:

NOT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Near Edge of the World)

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=51513

 

[This message was edited by TeamJiffy on January 24, 2003 at 12:40 PM.]

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by TeamJiffy:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=36595. It _is_ findable, and Washington Square Park is in the middle of the Italian section of town, so you _know_ lunch will be good.


 

Well, I dunno about this one. I believe it's findable, but if you don't have a clue what you're looking for or where you're supposed to be looking, this one can waste a lot of time, though I haven't tried going at lunch time...

 

--

I'm off in my own little world. That's okay, people know me here.

Link to comment

Still no FTF on TheRats multi/puzzle. Is Marky the only one working on it? It is such an interesting story that I may get my butt out of my snug nest and join the morning migration over the Sunol Grade to the South Bay.

 

Reading the story was annoying as the text is wider than my monitor screen so I had to scroll sideways a lot. Is there a way to setup my browser or PC so I can see all the text without it being cutoff?

Link to comment

Yes, we are hunting it too.. icon_smile.gif

 

We found the first stage (not too hard - that is a standard cache find) and have computed coordinates to the second stage. We think we are right about the coordinates, but along the way, we got hungry, got a wonderful meal to eat, and then decided we were sleepy enough to want to go home...

 

so, lazy-bones that we are, we are going to continue the cache hunt around 7:30-8AM tomorrow. (We'd go earlier, but annoyingly, I have a conference call for work from 6AM-7AM tomorrow icon_frown.gif)

 

Perhaps, if other people are going to be around hunting, we will run into you on the trail... icon_biggrin.gif

 

-Joel

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by TeamJiffy:

so, lazy-bones that we are, we are going to continue the cache hunt around 7:30-8AM tomorrow. (We'd go earlier, but annoyingly, I have a conference call for work from 6AM-7AM tomorrow icon_frown.gif)


a 6:00AM conference call ON A SATURDAY! Ack! icon_eek.gif

 

We might be there tomorrow morning as well. Not sure where we are going tomorrow.

 

--Marky

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by hotfoot:

Still no FTF on TheRats multi/puzzle. Is Marky the only one working on it?


 

I was in the area yesterday so I went for it... I found the location for the second cache but I couldn't find the container. It was dark when I was searching so maybe you guys will have better luck, but I've given up on it until somebody posts a better hint.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by Lamneth:

 

I was in the area yesterday so I went for it... I found the location for the second cache but I couldn't find the container. It was dark when I was searching so maybe you guys will have better luck, but I've given up on it until somebody posts a better hint.


 

I'm surprised but delighted there's no FTF yet. I thought the second stage would be no harder than the first for anyone who knows how to project waypoints. I checked yesterday and the container is still there, still easily accessible, and still covered by ... you know. But it doesn't require moving anything besides the container itself.

 

I'll give it through the weekend to see if anyone finds it before adding any clues. icon_biggrin.gif

Link to comment

It's perhaps slightly ironic that you post that you enjoy my caches and then list a cache that's only available to members. I'm going out of town this weekend anyway, but maybe I'll take a look at the projected coordinates for waypoint 1 next week.

 

--

I'm off in my own little world. That's okay, people know me here.

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I ran into kablooey today doing a FTF hunt. He can't be a charter member for Political Reasons, which I understand and support. That's one of the reasons that I tend to turn Members Only caches into unrestricted caches after a couple of weeks or so...

 

It's complicated, isn't it?


 

Politics in Geocaching? Say it isn't so. How could paying a couple bucks to a game become Political? icon_confused.gif

 

Bill of Green Achers

 

"I'm Not Sure I Understand Everything I Know About This."

Link to comment

quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I ran into kablooey today doing a FTF hunt. He can't be a charter member for Political Reasons, which I understand and support. That's one of the reasons that I tend to turn Members Only caches into unrestricted caches after a couple of weeks or so...

 

It's complicated, isn't it?


 

Obviously more complicated than I anticipated. I may remove the members only restriction if I am given the rationale. My motives for making it members only were twofold:

 

1) to keep myself from having to respond to a lot of questions or complaints from newcomers about how to do certain things that are explained in their GPSr instruction material. The cache is designed to promote land navigation skills and GPS use, and I figured the charter members would mostly know how to locate a waypoint a certain distance away, etc. without having to be told exactly how. This is the selfish reason.

 

2. To encourage members to send a few bucks in to Groundspeak. I'm a big believer in paying for "free" services I make use of. I pay to non-profits like KQED, the American Cryptogram Association and KKUP because I get enjoyment from them. Similarly I've gotten much enjoyment from geocaching, and it seems fair to support it by becoming a member. It really is a very sophisticated website for a freebie, and is almost devoid of advertising; it must cost something to maintain. I think the members should pay their fair share. This is the altruistic reason.

 

I am unaware of what the political reasons behind kablooey's objections are, but if Fizzymagic supports them, they probably have some merit. If either of you would like to share them either with this board, or off-list with me privately, I would be glad to know them. I will not post anything about your explanation if you prefer it that way.

 

I, too, am disappointed to hear that politics has entered in this sport/hobby, and hope that it does not end up in dragging it down or creating cliques or factions within the members. The camaraderie is a big part of the fun.

Link to comment

I became a member to support the site. But at this point I can't make it without the pocket querries.

 

Now if you make a stand for politcial reasons that's fine. But it's not much of a stand if there isn't a sacrafice.

 

I forgot that kablooey wasn't a member. At the first bay picnic I helped zero him out for Bog Log Polly since it was an MO cache and he did not have the cords. He found the cache but I don't think he ever got to log the find.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...