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quote:
Does anyone know if there is a California Geocoin? I brought a Texas Geocoin back from Texas, and it was neat to track it.

 

-jabberwocky


 

There isn't yet but there is a thread in this forum discussing it. I believe that they are looking for designs right now. Pop on over there and maybe you can help design it!

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quote:
Originally posted by jabberwocky:

When I visited my Goose Meadow cache today, I got a good look at kablooey's smash coin. Neat idea. But it would be cool if if could be tracked like a geocoin (maybe it is an I just don't know it).


I don't know how much Groundspeak charges for a block of numbers. Obviously, they will sell them to you (since that's how the USA Geocoins track like travel bugs). I've seen some coins that have their own tracking page, but they aren't as neat because they aren't integrated into the cache pages. I don't think Kablooey has a tracking page for his coins.

 

--Marky

 

--Marky

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

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Mary and I are going to SF this weekend for the big bike race, the race is Sunday so we might actually go spend some time geocaching on Saturday. I may try for Forman's Webcam at the wax museum. The hotel we're staying at has network access in the rooms and it's just down the street.

 

george

 

"No one goes to The Valley of the Dead. That's why it's called The Valley of the Dead."

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The park I placed GCEE1E Forgotten City Gardens was in the Mercury News this morning, so I couldn't resist copying it here....

 

Posted on Mon, Sep. 08, 2003

 

Pity the poor prunes of petite Pellier Park

By Leigh Weimers

Mercury News

 

It's one thing to try to honor a bit of history. It's altogether another to disrespect history in the process.

 

That's Dee Danna's complaint after visiting San Jose's sorry little Pellier Park, and I couldn't agree with her more. The park, opened in 1977 to commemorate the valley's agricultural heritage and the introduction of the French prune here by Louis Pellier, was an undersize afterthought to begin with. It's basically a traffic island between Julian and St. James streets near a Highway 87 off-ramp, gussied up with a few prune trees, benches and plaques. It's so out of the way that the city put the statue of Capt. Thomas Fallon nearby to hide it.

 

But that's still no excuse for neglecting the park, Danna believes. ``The poor little prune trees there!'' she exclaims. ``They're so dry and stunted they look like rose bushes. Isn't anyone taking care of them?''

 

Not well, obviously, although the city regularly promises to do so. But with the economy tough and cash short, prunes hardly have the priority they once did. In times past, the start of school would be delayed until farm families and their youngsters had completed the fruit harvest. These days, kids start school in August, and adults don't even start thinking of prunes until they approach senior citizenhood.

 

That doesn't mean the wrinkled fruit don't deserve more respect as the foundation on which the ``Valley of Heart's Delight'' was built. ``My family still grows prunes,'' Danna notes, ``but in the Sacramento Valley. You'd think there'd still be some people around here, though, who could help take care of those few little trees in Pellier Park.''

 

You'd think.

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The forum volume has slowed, so I'll toss in a story that four Bay Area cachers know with too much familiarity.

 

Vdbalamo, DavidT21, maverix, and I were marathon caching Monterey on Sunday. Before sunset we had worked our way through the main Fort Ord area, then we jumped to the East Garrison off a public highway. We cruised through an open access with old defunct signage and formidable 6 inch pipe gating.

 

We cached some dirt roads, a cemetery offset, and an area of wooden one story military buildings at the garrison proper. We flipped on the headlights and headed for the gate, and (of course you've guessed) we find it locked.

 

One of us cleverly suggests that we follow temporary Laguna Seca Event signs to find a backdoor southern gate. That gets us another locked gate, but with a phone number on it. We drive back to a hilltop to get 2 bars cell coverage, and connect up with the after hours answering machine at the BLM district office. I'm thinking to myself, the guys aren't going to like sleeping in the car overnight.

 

But all went well. We worked our way westward, and finally reached wooden street baracades at a military housing area. Our diversion cost us only 30-40 minutes... just a couple of cache finds.

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A locked gate or two was probably the least of your worries. You need to be cautious wandering around there in the dark. A large part of Fort Ord is off-limits because of unexploded ordnance. One false step and Kablooey! Fortunately, it is all pretty well marked so the risk is low...unless you're desparate to find a way out.

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It was a lot of fun geocaching with bthomas, he was really good at negotiating the maze of back roads at Ford Ord. The whole time we where locked in I was thinking, "oh man am I going to be tired tommorrow" and then "well at least we can cache out this place". Everthing worked out for the best, and when I got home I saw this rule on the BLM website:

 

PUBLIC USE IS ALLOWED FROM DAWN TO DUSK

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Congratulations on your escape from the garrison. Headed out that way (Monterey Peninsula) Monday, I believe, and I'm looking for a string of caches with higher terrain ratings. More interested in quality -- and some physical exertion -- than quantity on this outing. Recommendations?

 

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone really isn't out to get you.

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quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Big:

Headed out that way (Monterey Peninsula) Monday, I believe, and I'm looking for a string of caches with higher terrain ratings. More interested in quality -- and some physical exertion -- than quantity on this outing. Recommendations?


I can highly recommend this sequence of caches, just the thing you are looking for, I believe. Parking is relatively near (as the crow flies) to the first cache:

Green Acres

Bonus Bench

Salinas Ridge

Ridge and Beyond

Sea Otter Schwag

 

Make sure you get a trailmap. It will help you reduce the ammount of backtracking you do.

 

--Marky

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

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And the winner of the First Silicon Valley Geocachers' Cache of the Week award is ....

 

The San Andreas Fault Cache by MontytheMule!

 

You can view the winner's announcement page (of course there's only one there now, but all future winners will be there) at http://www.svmoms.org/svgeocachers/winners/

 

Congratulations Monty!

 

The ballot for the Cache of the For Sept. 13 is now up at:

 

http://www.svmoms.org/geocachers/vote.

 

Nominees for this week are:

Dr. Mahoney Baloney

Pfeiffer Stone House

Great Masters

Take and MAKE a Cache (aka Momma Cache)

K3 Gang

 

There are links to all those caches on the voting page. Good luck!

 

Kristine

 

Kreebelle

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Should Scott Peterson be invited? He hid one in the bay and it took a whole team of searchers MONTHS to find it...

 

geocan.jpg

 

Trash-out, EVERYtime

 

~~

 

Geo-cach-er, n. generally a highy technically competent person with lots of free time. (see also- "Unemployed", Computer administrator, aircraft technician- defense worker- dot-com executive- systems administrator, et.al)

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Be that as it may, I don't think he will be able to attend for a LONG time.

 

geocan.jpg

 

Trash-out, EVERYtime

 

~~

 

Geo-cach-er, n. generally a highy technically competent person with lots of free time. (see also- "Unemployed", Computer administrator, aircraft technician- defense worker- dot-com executive- systems administrator, et.al)

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(cross-posted)

 

Geocacher manstone (Scott) a dear family friend of mine, to whom I introduced geocaching several months ago, lost his life yesterday when trying to save a fellow kayaker.

 

The news article is here.

 

I understand that Scott attended a couple of Fresno geocaching dinner events. He also came to Joani's Buggy Birthday Bash here in San Jose.

 

Please keep his girlfriend Carol and his two teenaged children in your thoughts.

 

-------------------------------------

Becky Davis

Geocaching blog

San Jose, CA

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quote:
Originally posted by boulter:

This weekend I found two caches placed inside a 4-sized wooden box, built INTO the ground. I know these boxes were there before the caches. Does anyone know for what purpose these boxes were originally constructed?


I think the ones you are refering to were placed there by the cache hiders. I don't believe they were there before.

 

--Marky

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

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quote:
Originally posted by Marky:

quote:
Originally posted by boulter:

This weekend I found two caches placed inside a 4-sized wooden box, built INTO the ground. I know these boxes were there before the caches. Does anyone know for what purpose these boxes were originally constructed?


I think the ones you are refering to were placed there by the cache hiders. I don't believe they were there before.


 

They definitely looked much older than the caches. In both cases it was an ammo box placed inside the wooden box. The box had no top or bottom. One of them was one of your caches, another was not and seemed unlikely that a cacher would bring the materials to construct a cache in this obscure location that could have hidden the cache just as well under a tree or bush.

 

Jeff

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quote:
Originally posted by boulter:

They definitely looked much older than the caches. In both cases it was an ammo box placed inside the wooden box. The box had no top or bottom. One of them was one of your caches, another was not and seemed unlikely that a cacher would bring the materials to construct a cache in this obscure location that could have hidden the cache just as well under a tree or bush.


 

You'd be surprised at what a cache hider might do to make a good hide. I think I know which other one you are refering to, and that box was placed by the hider as well. icon_smile.gif

 

--Marky

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

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I just found something neat. Well, several things! And I'm sure these exist elsewhere too.

 

First of all, on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space website:

 

Calendar of Activities

Trail Maps and Features

Trail Conditions

(Main website)

 

From Santa Clara County Parks website:

 

Calendar of Activities

Trail Information (closure info; includes links to trail features page)

(Main website)

 

I thought that a lot of this information could be useful when placing caches, planning events, etc. I thought the star party and night hike ideas were pretty neat in particular. Plus there are lots of caches in these areas/parks.

 

Thoughts?

 

-------------------------------------

Becky Davis

Geocaching blog

San Jose, CA

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Hmmhhhh ..... Check out the Motley Fool article linked below. Garmin is considered a hot stock. Here's a quote.

 

"With most small planes in America equipped with Garmin technology, aviation products account for about 20% of Garmin's sales, while consumer-product sales -- which are steadily growing -- account for the majority"

 

How many of these consumer oriented sales do you think are directly or indirectly due to Geocaching?

 

Garmin Article

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quote:

"With most small planes in America equipped with Garmin technology, aviation products account for about 20% of Garmin's sales, while consumer-product sales -- which are steadily growing -- account for the majority"

 

How many of these consumer oriented sales do you think are directly or indirectly due to Geocaching?

 


 

I bought my first Garmin for Aviation, the second for Geocaching. I hope the third one will be a dashboard mounted unit with a new car wrapped around it....but I digress

 

*****************************************

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

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quote:
Originally posted by bthomas:

Giants fans: If someone is going to PacBell Park in the next week or so, I'm holding a travel bug that has PacBell as a mission component. Just lemme know by e-mail, and he can do a scripted and well executed hand off.


 

I too have a TB that wants to go to a giants game. I've talked to the owner who says its ok to take all the time I need to get it there, but I would obviously like to complete the goal sooner than later.

 

So, if your going to the game and want to take a few pics with the little guy...lemme know.

 

Happy Halloween

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quote:
Originally posted by Woof!:

quote:
Originally posted by bthomas:

Giants fans: If someone is going to PacBell Park in the next week or so, I'm holding a travel bug that has PacBell as a mission component. Just lemme know by e-mail, and he can do a scripted and well executed hand off.


 

Geoevent at the ballgame?

 

george

 

I too have a TB that wants to go to a giants game. I've talked to the owner who says its ok to take all the time I need to get it there, but I would obviously like to complete the goal sooner than later.

 

So, if your going to the game and want to take a few pics with the little guy...lemme know.

 

Happy Halloween


 

"No one goes to The Valley of the Dead. That's why it's called The Valley of the Dead."

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Hey all. I want to thank you all for your kind thoughts and words in regard to the drowning death of geocacher Manstone (Scott). I have passed them on to his longtime partner, Carol.

 

I know this is short notice, but I wanted to let you all know that we are having a memorial service for him today at my mother's house in Los Gatos (my mom is one of Carol's best friends). It will be at 2:00. Here are the coordinates:

 

N 37 14.347

W 121 56.85

 

All are welcome.

 

-------------------------------------

Becky Davis

Geocaching blog

San Jose, CA

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And the winner of the Second Cache of the Week award is ....

 

Take and MAKE a Cache (AKA Momma Cache) by Marky & Joani

 

You can view the winner's announcement page http://www.svmoms.org/svgeocachers/winners/

 

Congratulations Marky & Joani!

 

The ballot for the Cache of the For this week is now up at:

 

http://www.svmoms.org/svgeocachers/vote

 

Nominees for this week are:

 

Fellowship of the Rings

Underworld Adventures

Don't Mess With the Army

Girly Girl

Hail Caesar

 

 

That page has links to all the cache pages plus descriptions of why they were nominated.

 

I'd love to see more nominations roll in ... tell me about a great cache and why it

should be considered for cache of the week! Yes, you can nominate your own, and yes

you can nominate a cache that has been nominated before!

 

Kristine

 

P.S. I'd like to invite you to join the Silicon Valley Geocachers list at Yahoo Groups. Go to:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/siliconvalleygeocachers/

 

Membership is not automatic, because I don't want the spambots to join, but I'll approve you just about immediately. That list can be used to talk about anything geocache related. icon_smile.gif

 

Kreebelle

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He knows every nook and cranny of the Bulb, McCabe said, right down to the location of a strongbox used by people who play an electronic version of hide- and-seek using a global positioning system.

Without a GPS system, Barringer found the strongbox hanging by a chain from a rocky ledge overlooking the water.

Barringer is waiting to hear from some brave souls who want the full treatment, a 24-hour overnight tour to the places homeless people gather, party and sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sounds like it's time to move the cache...

 

BAAAD! BAAAAD!!!!

 

A BAAAD Ancestor is Good to Find!!!!

http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/

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OK, does anyone else have a problem with the location of this cache (GCGYFJ)? It's located less than ten feet from a known letterbox cache that is not posted on the gc site, and it's terribly confusing to find a Tupperware container and a logbook that is NOT the expected geocache...

 

[Never mind -- it's been archived. I wonder how Hemlock even became aware of it; I didn't report it to them. Makes me wonder if approvers continue to monitor caches they approve for a while. Which makes me respect even more what they have to do while putting up with all the complaining and name-calling.]

 

[This message was edited by GeoROCKS! on September 24, 2003 at 07:33 AM.]

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Originally posted by GeoROCKS!:

[Never mind -- it's been archived. I wonder how Hemlock even became aware of it; I didn't report it to them. Makes me wonder if approvers continue to monitor caches they approve for a while. Which makes me respect even more what they have to do while putting up with all the complaining and name-calling.]

QUOTE]

 

That's an easy one...."Hemlock" saw your original post here, went to look at the cache page. Archived it. Then Fizzy posted his note.

 

Ron

 

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

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quote:
Originally posted by Ron Streeter:

That's an easy one...."Hemlock" saw your original post here, went to look at the cache page. Archived it. Then Fizzy posted his note.


 

Yeah, but still they monitor closely without having to be notified. Many times I've created Members Only caches and watched at least one admin visit my cache page several times over the week or so after approval, probably as a method of monitoring my edits to ensure that the cache is not vastly different from the one they approved. My point is that I admire them for being so thorough despite the abuse they get...

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quote:
Originally posted by GeoROCKS!:

Yeah, but still they monitor closely without having to be notified. Many times I've created Members Only caches and watched at least one admin visit my cache page several times over the week or so after approval, probably as a method of monitoring my edits to ensure that the cache is not vastly different from the one they approved. My point is that I admire them for being so thorough despite the abuse they get...


 

How can you see who looks at your page? Just curious.

 

_____________________________

... where is it?

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quote:
Originally posted by nostrada:

 

How can you see who looks at your page? Just curious.

 

_____________________________

... where is it?


 

When a cache hider makes a cache a MEMBERS ONLY cache, it establishes an AUDIT TRAIL of the members who actually VIEW the page.

 

Only the cache hider will receive a message at the top left of the cache page which allows the hider to VIEW THE AUDIT TRAIL.

 

This is a good way to see who is interested in your cache.

 

NOTE: This is different than who is WATCHING a cache. Those folks who are watching will simply get email notifications of any logs posted on the page. Thus, they can WATCH without actually viewing the page.

 

ADDITIONALLY, when a cache placer looks at the audit trail, he will see the total number of times a cacher has looked at the page. If someone looked once on April 1, then looked again on May 5, the total would be 2 and the last date would be May 5. It also shows how many times the cache hider has looked at the page.

 

I recently looked at on of my audit trails and saw that I had looked at it a total of 35 times. A cacher had looked at it 34 times. Maybe that's because he thought it should be ARCHIVED instead of disabled !

 

Ron

 

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

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