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Six finds in two days! That's a success beyond belief for a cache that has to require at least 300 miles of driving. And none of the big three (M&J, G&M, FM) either! Congrats on a great cache series. I hope to have an excuse to complete it as well some day. icon_smile.gif

 

--

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

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quote:
Originally posted by kablooey:

Halley's Comet

Six finds in two days! That's a success beyond belief for a cache that has to require at least 300 miles of driving. And none of the big three (M&J, G&M, FM) either! Congrats on a great cache series. I hope to have an excuse to complete it as well some day. icon_smile.gif


We finished the planets yesterday, but were elsewhere in the solar system today. We will probably be looking for this one next weekend.

 

--Marky

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

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Ya, Catmit and the retreevers 4 caught me. Georgeandmary are still numeral uno and Mark (who couldn't find Fat City icon_biggrin.gif) passed Ron who's still having fun on the golf course and Geocaching.

 

Was there something else? Oh, ya... Tonto2002 is still the major leader in his catigory! [inside joke only few will catch.]

 

Bill of Green Achers

 

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

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quote:
Originally posted by Green Achers:

and Mark (who couldn't find Fat City icon_biggrin.gif) passed Ron who's still having fun on the golf course and Geocaching.


Hey, I eventually found it on my second attempt! icon_wink.gif

 

--Marky

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

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Yes, second stop worked for Marky. At the time you logged the DNF, I was shocked. But then I stopped over and see things had changed over time and it was no wonder. Marky's still ok in my book.

 

Bill of Green Achers

 

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

 

[This message was edited by Green Achers on February 19, 2003 at 10:43 PM.]

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Some of you may be interested in my new locationless cache in which you need to find and photograph bell guideposts placed along El Camino Real. (Placing started in 1906.)

The Bells of El Camino Real (locationless)

 

In the bay area, El Camino Real split into two paths. One went west up toward San Francisco and then over the water towards Sonoma (with a branch to the S.F. presidio). The other path lead to Oakland. From there it split in two once more as it headed north. So there should be a lot of the guidepost bells all over the bay area. Most were placed by local woman's clubs.

 

Parsa

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Our little group has been spammed (along with three others). [icon_smile.gif]

 

From some comments I had seen, it appeared that people were making an incorrect assumption on what needed to be determined for Dizzying Lengths. I've updated the page and added a hint to clarify. Not that it makes the puzzle any easier...

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Aarghhhhh...

 

I solved it. I'm off to get it now. Hope I can find it in the dark. I think it should be a 5 difficulty!

 

SK8 Sunken Gardens

 

I did this new Marky cache today. Wow, was it hard!

 

Marky, where do you get those containers? They are a very good size and look like they should be relatively waterproof.

 

[This message was edited by fizzymagic on February 19, 2003 at 07:13 PM.]

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quote:
Originally posted by kablooey:

quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I think it should be a 5 difficulty!


 

Well, previously I would have rated it a 5, but it's clearly easier to solve than The Big Picture. icon_smile.gif


 

Yeah, but a HELLUVALOT harder to find! icon_mad.gificon_mad.gificon_mad.gificon_redface.gificon_redface.gificon_redface.gificon_eek.gificon_eek.gificon_eek.gificon_frown.gificon_frown.gificon_frown.gificon_confused.gificon_confused.gificon_confused.gif

 

--Marky

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

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I am glad I am not the only one with thoughts of revenge. I am working on a straight forward cache that is impossible to find. I'm going to place in a little park outside Lodi. My biggest problem is printing the Stash Note in miniaturized brail (Drat, I gave it away. I was thinking of a night time only cache.). I already have the oak leaf for both the log (sign only, of course.) and the note. Yes, I am going to hide it in a live oak tree as the leaf is green and I don't want it to stand out in the winter.

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quote:
Originally posted by TeamJiffy:

My guess is that this is not approved yet, as the site won't let me look at it...

 

quote:
Originally posted by georgeandmary:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=55404

 

Don't really know how hard to rate this one. There's an easy way to solve this but I don't know how hard it is to find the easy way. I need some feedback.

 



Yeah, I would rate it a 5/1 right now, since it would be really difficult to find without the information on the page. Once the page is viewable, I'd lower the difficulty and raise the terrain... icon_wink.gif

 

--Marky

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

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Trouble is - I already know the easy way to find this info, so I was able to get coordinates for the cache in about 30 seconds. So for me (and probably for many of the people who like the Magic Trig cache of fizzy's, and would tend to know about this stuff) the answer is probably 'difficulty 1 or 1.5'

 

...but... ...ignoring that...

 

my thought...

 

I would ask... what would you rate a cache that is almost a cliff climb (terrain: 4), unless a person bothered to look at a topo map, and that would really show them an easy, clever way to get to the cache, that would be hard to guess at WITHOUT looking at that Topo map. The terrain is 1 for the topo map-using person, 4 for the person who didn't bother with the topo map.

 

I think this cache has the same properties...the brute force approach is long and tedious, but the right aproach is down-right simple. I'd rate it as the LOW difficulty, just like I'd rate that imaginary cache right off a good trail as a 1 or 1.5 terrain - even though people have to HUNT for the easy terrain approach. If people don't find the easy approach, that's their problem. The fact you TELL them the terrain is low, causes them to SEARCH for the easy approach. Your setting the difficultly low should give people a clue that they should be hunting for that easy way to solve the problem.

 

-J

 

quote:
Originally posted by georgeandmary:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=55404

 

Don't really know how hard to rate this one. There's an easy way to solve this but I don't know how hard it is to find the easy way. I need some feedback.

 

george

 


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I am guessing you used a text editor (Emacs,VI,Notepad,WordPad,Word,etc.) to load up the digits George provided? If so, it probably is relatively easy to find that way too... (unless the digits are broken apart by newlines, or spaces, across the search pattern George gives). that wasn't my "easy way", though - my easy way didn't require a text editor. I've found lots of people who use the web don't know how to load a file into a text editor, or know how to extract the file George pointed to.. so I assumed, for them, the examine-the-file approach would be the HARD way as they stumbled through determining how to do a search in their editor... of course, it may be the approach of using a text editor is indeed quite easy for EVERYONE (so my assumption would be wrong), which would mean both ways to figure this out are actually pretty straightforward for most...

 

-J

 

quote:
Originally posted by Kusanagi:

I found the answer in about five minutes just looking and using the information given. I don't know what the easy way is but it's not that hard to solve. I think it would be harder for me to find the easy way though. icon_smile.gif


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I did it both ways. Got the same answer, too. icon_biggrin.gif

What's especially interesting is that there is a 331 very close to the first 11331. I used it to find in the text file.

 

Dizzying Lengths

 

Went back today. I think there is a coord problem, which meshes nicely with my kablooey was there the first time! icon_wink.gif

 

Anyway, kablooey, you've certainly gotten your revenge! icon_razz.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

_Dizzying Lengths_

 

Went back today. I think there is a coord problem, which meshes nicely with my kablooey was there the first time! icon_wink.gif

 

Anyway, kablooey, you've certainly gotten your revenge! icon_razz.gif


 

The coords were dead on. The cache was within 2ft of where we all zeroed out. It makes me dizzy thinking of all the time we spent looking all around there for it. Besides the five of us, there may have been others who solved the puzzle but didn't find the cache. My record with finding kablooey caches at night remains unblemished... icon_razz.gif

 

--Marky

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

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Joani says the spirals have changed... and now the puzzle's solution is much less misleading. Maybe that's why we were duped into looking in the wrong place... I didn't see Kablooey mention that the spirals had changed. I am left feeling rather dizzy still.

 

--Marky

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

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Originally posted by TeamJiffy:

I am guessing you used a text editor (Emacs,VI,Notepad,WordPad,Word,etc.) to load up the digits George provided? If so, it probably is relatively easy to find that way too... (unless the digits are broken apart by newlines, or spaces, across the search pattern George gives). that wasn't my "easy way", though - my easy way didn't require a text editor. I've found lots of people who use the web don't know how to load a file into a text editor, or know how to extract the file George pointed to.. so I assumed, for them, the examine-the-file approach would be the HARD way as they stumbled through determining how to do a search in their editor... of course, it may be the approach of using a text editor is indeed quite easy for EVERYONE (so my assumption would be wrong), which would mean both ways to figure this out are actually pretty straightforward for most...

 

 

Actually When I first used the link provided by George, It opened a new window of IE with a website listing the digits. I don't know how to use the link as it is now either icon_biggrin.gif When I searched the web I found something that should make it really easy except I couldn't get that to work either. icon_frown.gif

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IMHO I would rate the PI cache a five and then I would run like h@#l in the opposite direction of all that math icon_biggrin.gif.

Anyway, nice pic you found there George where did you get that from haven't seen it before.

 

Well my Parents are leaving today a 1:05PM and it is time to start caching again icon_smile.gifyipee, yeah, yahoo.

 

Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

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With most puzzle caches the number of stars is not as relevant as the description. Solving the cypher might take days but the actual cache is easily spotted or one may have the solution in minutes but the the cache is so cunningly concealed that you never find it. So, maybe a third catagory is needed or let it be understood that the stars concern only the actual cache since there is a wide range of ease in solving puzzles.

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quote:
Originally posted by hotfoot:

With most puzzle caches the number of stars is not as relevant as the description. Solving the cypher might take days but the actual cache is easily spotted or one may have the solution in minutes but the the cache is so cunningly concealed that you never find it. So, maybe a third catagory is needed or let it be understood that the stars concern only the actual cache since there is a wide range of ease in solving puzzles.


 

I agree... I think there should be 3 ratings for puzzle caches and a new set of guidelines for setting the number of stars (Puzzle/Hide/Terrain). Then we can have 5/5/5 icon_biggrin.gif.

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quote:
Originally posted by Lamneth:

I agree... I think there should be 3 ratings for puzzle caches and a new set of guidelines for setting the number of stars (Puzzle/Hide/Terrain). Then we can have 5/5/5 icon_biggrin.gif.


 

Totally agree. "Find the S in Stevens Creek" is a hard find without the hint tho' the co-ords are given so it would be 1/5?/1 without the hint and 1/1/1 with. And Sounds Good is an easy find - if you can solve it!

 

I think an objective rating system for hides should consider at least: The number of likely hiding places in the immediate vicinity given the kind (size) of cache container; camoflague; how easy or not it is to be discreet when retrieving/replacing the cache; ...

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quote:
Originally posted by georgeandmary:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=55404

 

Don't really know how hard to rate this one. There's an easy way to solve this but I don't know how hard it is to find the easy way. I need some feedback.

 

george


 

You want feedback? I read the first sentence of the cache page:

"Pi is defined as the ration of a circles circumfrence to it's diameter. "

 

After recovering from an apoplectic fit I vowed to create a Word Police Quiz 2 based on this page alone. Four errors in one 13-word sentence must be a new record. Maybe that could be the secret theme - the number of errors in each succeeding sentence could the numerical key to the cache location. I think I'll pass on going out to this one. I don't mean to flame icon_frown.gif - I'm really a nice guy icon_razz.gif - I'm just a purist when it comes to the English language. Feel free to ignore me; everyone else does.

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quote:
Originally posted by The Rat:

I'm just a purist when it comes to the English language. Feel free to ignore me; everyone else does.


 

Having my grammer/spelling corrected is nothing new and it never upsets me. I could only catch 3 of the 4 at first. I think I cleaned up most of the first paragraph now.

 

That's why I teach math/science and not English.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

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

 

[This message was edited by georgeandmary on February 22, 2003 at 07:10 PM.]

 

[This message was edited by georgeandmary on February 22, 2003 at 08:09 PM.]

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It was so beautiful outside today that I wished we had a geocaching picnic. We need an event in the Bay Area. And soon! So let's decide where to have it, to start with.

 

I'd nominate the park in Alamo that has the Behind Gertrude cache. It is probably the nicest park I've seen in the Bay Area, and we could probably bully vdbalamo into helping host the thing. But something more central might be the park in Niles that has 3 caches in it. It is also very nice. Or maybe it's time for a picnic on the Peninsula.

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The weather today was awesome. Joani and I were just hanging around town today, doing some cache maintainance on some of our caches, finding some recently hidden caches, and just having a relaxing day.

 

All those parks sound great, although I agree, that park up by Lee(vdbalamo) is awesome. Best par course in the valley. The views are amazing.

 

--Marky

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

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I was out in the area today (didn't get to geocache much because... well, let's just say I hate marketers!). Anyway, I have noticed that there are no geocaches anywhere near Half Moon Bay. Seems to me it would be a prime geocaching spot! I was tempted to leave one today, but I'm not exactly a local, so I didn't want to step on any toes.

 

Is there some reason there are none? Or is it just happenstance?

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http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=55616

 

It's not approved yet but it's the first cache in a good size state park. The wildflowers are starting to take over, the hills are green and the weather is perfect. I think I'm going to need sunscreen soon.

 

It should only be about a mile hike (each way). Bring a cache to plant because the park has many more nice spots to visit.

 

george

 

39570_500.jpg

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

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On a few posts:

 

1) An event cache sounds like a great idea - and F. and I have been thinking of this as well. We don't know the park Fizzy is mentioning - but it sounds wonderful. When should we hold it? We'd be glad to share in sponsoring this and getting it going.

 

2) As to the puzzle caches, yes, I think a 3rd rating would be a great idea. Why not just *do* one - I.e., put "Puzzle Rating:" in the short description and use the same stars that the web pages reference?

 

3) Thanks, Marky! It was a great day - for lots of reasons - and having 25 in one day to get to 202 was unusual and lots of fun for us.

 

I don't know how easily we could repeat it - we decided to make yesterday a 'numbers' day - which has its ups and downs - and I miss going on trails (our favorite during the day yesterday was your Blue Hill one, because it got us on a bit of a trail). (Dizzying Lengths was our favorite night-time)

 

But, F. wants to do 365 caches in 365 days, so we'll see what we need to do... it comes to 10 per weekend, roughly, for us.

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Feel free to debate this, but here's a start. To be totally honest, I used the ratings many of you placed on your caches as guidelines.

 

One Star: The puzzle requires very simple math or simple deduction or a simple anagram to get the answer. You could solve this puzzle with nothing but the cache page in front of you while sitting at a park bench. Many multi-caches have this attribute to them. Example cache: Tongue Radius

 

Two Stars: Requires you spend time and learn new things perhaps, but requires no special NEW skills in math, cryptography, etc., beyond what would be expected of a high-school graduate in their normal course of study. Or, requires calculator work or simple algebra. Example caches: Word Police Quiz

 

Three Stars: Requires simple trig or geometry in math, or puzzle-book-in-supermarket level puzzle solving, or requires new knowledge, but gives the instructions on how to solve the problem in the cache page itself. Or, requires research that will take a bit of time on the web. Example caches:Cipher Sites, Circular Reasoning, FBI Quiz,

A Little Logic.

 

Four Stars: Requires skills that are not taught on the cache page, in cryptography, in trig+geometry, in simple (high school) physics, etc. OR has a trick to it (the type of puzzle is hidden, or the layout is mis-directing, but honest), but once you figure out the trick, it's pretty straightforward (for obvious reasons, I won't give an example of the last type) Or, requires specialized knowledge (having read a particular book) Example caches: Fellowship of the Ring, Cipher Creek,

Magic Trig, Black Box,The Golden Number.

 

Five Stars: These are just plain devious, but still honest. They require you to scratch your head, and even when you find how to solve it, solving it requires using some specialized techniques (perhaps found by solving other simpler puzzle caches.) The cache description gives no clue how to solve the puzzle. I won't give any examples here, but the forum members have heard about them...

 

Of course, the 1/2 stars are used when you are on the border about a rating...

 

-J

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Fizzymagic another nice pic, nice enought to just make me sick! icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

Even though it has been very gray, cold and ugly for the past TWO WEEKS, today was typical spring day in the Bay except I'm in WA. The girls and I found 5 yes I said 5 caches today and darn proud of it too. Two brand spanking new caches popped up just around the corner from me this moring, so I took off at 7AM just ready to beat the locals to a FTF. The joke was on me I could not find either one of the new caches icon_mad.gif. Typical for Pepper.

 

icon_mad.gificon_mad.gificon_mad.gifNo house the deal(my dad) fell through. icon_mad.gificon_mad.gificon_mad.gif

I should of seen it coming. I think it will take a while for me to get over loosing that house.

Sometimes I could just strangle my DAD! icon_redface.gif

 

Sad Pepper

 

Horizontals where it's at!

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