SF Bay Area geocachers

[+The Rat]

PhilippeGPS and I were talking about Boulter's Bay Area Leaders board and I commented that I would be dropped off the bottom soon since I don't go for numbers any more. I like puzzles and sometimes a good hike or multi, but those 1/1's bore me. He said if they computed the average difficulty rating instead of just total number, we'd be up at the top. Hmm, so I just computed the average difficulty for my last 100 finds. 2.907 / 1.495 for difficulty / terrain according to the numbers shown on my found list first 5 pages. Combined difficulty is 4.402. Does anybody want to challenge me? I'm too lazy to compute all those other leaders' averages, so for now I'll claim the #1 spot. No fair counting just your last 5 or 10 - anyone can manipulate his average up that way. Last 100 finds.

[+Woof!]

This doesn't work if, let's say for example, 35 of your most recent finds don't have the correct difficulty ratings

[+Marky]

The great thing about geocaching is that it is pretty much self service. There's no need to look down on people who only do lower rated caches (for what ever reason) nor is there any reason to look down on anyone that does all the caches regardless of ratings. Everyone gets to pick and choose which caches they go for. There's something for everybody. []

 

--Marky

[+nostrada]

Three more posts on the forum and I have 100! Not that anyone is counting.

[+Marky]

Three more posts on the forum and I have 100! Not that anyone is counting.

The Rat is only one away.

 

--Marky

[+WalruZ]

I know more than a few geocachers who can't do difficult hikes and aren't interested in difficult puzzles - and they seem to be having a great time anyway. Indeed, difficulty ratings don't even matter to some of them.

 

I really enjoy the hikes, when I can get around to doing them. I hate a puzzle until I have it done. I go do a 1/1 to remove it from my list and to see where it leads me, good or mediocre. I geocache for myself, not for someone else, although I will say it's nicer when done with someone else.

[+boulter]

PhilippeGPS and I were talking about Boulter's Bay Area Leaders board and I commented that I would be dropped off the bottom soon since I don't go for numbers any more. I like puzzles and sometimes a good hike or multi, but those 1/1's bore me. He said if they computed the average difficulty rating instead of just total number, we'd be up at the top. Hmm, so I just computed the average difficulty for my last 100 finds. 2.907 / 1.495 for difficulty / terrain according to the numbers shown on my found list first 5 pages. Combined difficulty is 4.402. Does anybody want to challenge me? I'm too lazy to compute all those other leaders' averages, so for now I'll claim the #1 spot. No fair counting just your last 5 or 10 - anyone can manipulate his average up that way. Last 100 finds.

I have very mixed feelings about my leaderboard. I've gotten more feedback on it than any of the other tools I've created so far. Almost all have been positive.

 

What I was afraid of when I created this was that people would turn geocaching into a competition. I tried to post a note at the top of the page to dispel this, but I'm sure most people don't read that.

 

While I feel proud of the number of experiences I've had caching, I don't look down on someone who has fewer than me or wish ill on those who have close to the number I have.

 

I seem to have envigorated the "numbers count" mentality in some though and that disturbes me.

 

I fear that concentrating on the numbers will lead to making some of the better caches ignored. If you've got a day to go out caching, do you do 50 micros under benches in Fremont or do you a high-quality multi such as one of the Fellowship of the Ring series?

 

To me geocaching is about new experiences, fun and companionship. If people are trying to get one up on their neighbor, those goals are in conflict.

 

I'm in the middle of adding historical graphs to the page, but I'm reconsidering it based on some of the comments I've heard.

 

I'd appreciate other feedback on how we can keep an environment of non-competitiveness. Maybe I'll just sort the list alphabetically.

[+Woof!]

To me geocaching is about new experiences, fun and companionship. If people are trying to get one up on their neighbor, those goals are in conflict.

The great thing about geocaching is that no matter how different two cacher's goals are, they are never in conflict (unless someone does something malicious like leave fake hints at a cache site that leave you getting scratched up in juniper bushed for no reason). If someone wants to play for the numbers, does that really effect my caching experience? No. To me, my numbers only reflect the fact that I like geocaching, not that I like the numbers.

 

In any case, there's no reason to do away with the leader board. People will compete with or without and that is perfectly OK.

[+Marky]

To me geocaching is about new experiences, fun and companionship.

Speaking of the above, I've not been on any of the previous fellowship quests, but I think it would be fun to try doing the Hobbit as part of a group. Also, I recall discussing doing an Ed Levin to Mission Peak journey. The weather is perfect right now, let's not waste it!

 

--Marky

[+nostrada]

I'd appreciate other feedback on how we can keep an environment of non-competitiveness. Maybe I'll just sort the list alphabetically.

nostrada is now known as aaanostrada

[+Nazgul]

Also, I recall discussing doing an Ed Levin to Mission Peak journey. The weather is perfect right now, let's not waste it!

I did that trek about a week ago with a couple of friends and I really wouldn't want to do it in warmer weather. Hats, sunblock and plenty of water are in order as it's a long hike with very little cover the entire way. I'm still Extra Crispy in spots. Great views though, definitely worth it.

 

Of course, YMMV.

[+WalruZ]

boulter - perhaps a little "planned hikes" calendar that boulter.com visitors could contribute to? Sure, this could be done in many existing venues, including this forum, but I'll bet you could do a better job.

 

I have joined that Alamo guy a few times, arranged over the phone. The shell ridge outing I met you on was done via informal email as you recall. I had a great time caching with Marky & Joanie at Ardenwood, although I had to sort of invite myself.

 

I meet newbies (compared to me) who want to do this sort of thnig. CDNinCA asked, and we joined up to do a few in Garin. There were people at badges 2 who didn't even have logons who wanted to cache in an informal group. SillLost & Pug went out with me during the Fremont Bug Hotel opening, an experience they won't soon forget.

 

I find that these sorts of group outings add the extra dimension that I like, not "gotta do 40 today to beat so-and-so".

 

As an example. I'm pretty set on going up to Alison Peak this wednesday. If I could "offer" that somewhere, and meet interested parties at the trailhead, that would be nice. We could then say "visit boulter.com to see what people are up to" to people who wouldn't otherwise have a group 'in'.

 

 

Initial suggestion - it would be nice to have a "fuzzy planning" so that something planned for "maybe tuesday, maybe wednesday" could be hashed out.

[+boulter]

To me geocaching is about new experiences, fun and companionship.

Speaking of the above, I've not been on any of the previous fellowship quests, but I think it would be fun to try doing the Hobbit as part of a group. Also, I recall discussing doing an Ed Levin to Mission Peak journey. The weather is perfect right now, let's not waste it!

 

--Marky

I'm up for both! Weekend after next would be ok, or the weekend of April 24 or May 1 would work too.

[+boulter]

boulter - perhaps a little "planned hikes" calendar that boulter.com visitors could contribute to? Sure, this could be done in many existing venues, including this forum, but I'll bet you could do a better job.

Yahoo Groups already have this calendaring feature and includes the ability to invite people or the whole group.

 

You could create a new group and add to the calendar or just use this one:

 

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

[+The Rat]

I have very mixed feelings about my leaderboard. I've gotten more feedback on it than any of the other tools I've created so far. Almost all have been positive. What I was afraid of when I created this was that people would turn geocaching into a competition. I tried to post a note at the top of the page to dispel this, but I'm sure most people don't read that.

While I feel proud of the number of experiences I've had caching, I don't look down on someone who has fewer than me or wish ill on those who have close to the number I have.

To me geocaching is about new experiences, fun and companionship. If people are trying to get one up on their neighbor, those goals are in conflict.

 

I'd appreciate other feedback on how we can keep an environment of non-competitiveness. Maybe I'll just sort the list alphabetically.

Wow, once again I seemed to have sparked some lively discussion. First of all, thanks, boulter, for all your tools and general service to geocaching. The one I use the most is the Quick Search tool. Second, I don't look down on anybody who doesn't do the same type of caches I do, any more than I think people with thousands of finds look down on me for not going that route. I agree with everybody who says that geocaching is for whatever fun you get out of it, not to please others. Third, eliminate the competiveness? You've got to be kidding! That's what motivates at least half the cachers out there. I gave up trying for FTF's within a few months of starting because I just didn't have that competitive drive. Back in those days if I saw a new cache come up on my list and went right out for it, I'd be more likely to get run over by [names redacted for personal safety] than find the cache. Maybe it still happens, I don't know 'cause I'm not there except maybe for a puzzle cache that has been out and unfound for awhile. But anybody who logs finds on GC.com is by definition competitive. If it was just the fun of the hunt, there would be no reason to log it, or even sign the sheet. People do so in order to be recognized - to get credit for having achieved something, modest or otherwise. It is only when competition gets personal that it is ugly. I'm thinking of a couple of major players (not in the Bay Area) who weren't on speaking terms - that sort of thing. I look at it sort of like a great big softball game: some people are good hitters, others good fielders, some make the pennants, some bring the refreshments, some are not particularly good at anything related but just enjoy watching the game, and everybody can have fun from someone else's big play and congratulate him or her with sincerity, but none of that stops the natural human instinct to want to win. boulter, if you didn't want competition, you shouldn't create a list. aaaNostrada's comment demonstrates the fallacy of changing it - if you create any form of recognition, someone will strive to be first at whatever it is. It's human - go with it! And we can still all be friends.

[+BpSnake]

I'm in the middle of adding historical graphs to the page, but I'm reconsidering it based on some of the comments I've heard.

I like that idea, boulter! Hope that you continue with this. As a "non-competitive geocacher" (if such a person exists) who has both caching and NON-caching streaks, I'd like to see it on a historical graph. It'd be interesting to how certain events/trends, such as "marathon days" or my four months without caching (March '03-July '03) would look.

 

Going back to being competitive, I think I was the first one to find the Bay Area Geocaching Leaderboard. I even emailed boulter about it -- a "verification email", if you will. Therefore, I'm claiming FTF!

[+boulter]

The one I use the most is the Quick Search tool.

Well, this is your lucky day. I put the historical graphs aside for a bit and decided to add some features that make getting cache info and logging caches less tedious.

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/

 

I added 3 options to the search "details", "print" and "log". Each of these will direct you to a different page for a cache on geocaching.com. Also, the search checks to see if a keyword search will only return one result and if so will send you directly to the cache page.

 

For example,

 

If you were to type in "displaced" into the search box,

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/check.php?type=Auto&key=displaced

 

You would go directly to the cache page for my Displaced New Englander cache. Previously it would take you to a search result page with only result. This is something that Jeremy should really fix.

 

If you selected the "print" option, you'll go directly to the printer friendly version of the page.

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/check.php?type=Auto...ed&mode=printer

 

The most useful one for me is the "log" option. That will take you right to the page where you can log your find (or not!)

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/check.php?type=Auto...placed&mode=log

 

This also works for waypoints too, so if you stick a waypoint (GCXXXX) into the search box, it will go the appropriate page.

 

But wait, there's more! What if the search returns more than one result? It would be a shame to not carry your action all the way through, so added a little cache selection page, as long as you get less than 15 matches back. (I didn't want to deal with paging.)

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/check.php?type=Auto...enwood&mode=log

 

To wrap it all up, I added two new bookmarklets for the two new modes. Drag one of these babies to your bookmarks, and with one click and a keyword, you'll be right at the log page.

 

http://boulter.com/gqs/info.html

 

I really just make these tools for my own selfish reasons, but don't mind spending the little bit of extra time to share them.

 

Send me your feedback, bugs, gripes and all that. Thanks.

[kablooey]

I'm getting the one-result page still (instead of going directly to the cache page). I'm gonna link this anyway because I'm tired of scrolling down to the search by waypoint section on my phone.

[+boulter]

I'm getting the one-result page still (instead of going directly to the cache page). I'm gonna link this anyway because I'm tired of scrolling down to the search by waypoint section on my phone.

The search wasn't working when there were travel bugs or new icons in the listing. Fixed.

[+nostrada]

The Rat Posted: Apr 5 2004, 06:46 PM 

 

Solutionary

 

Posts: 100

Joined: 19-August 02

 

Congratulations to The Rat for achieving an important milestone - 100 forum posts! Well done, way to go! :-)

[+Marky]

I added 3 options to the search "details", "print" and "log". Each of these will direct you to a different page for a cache on geocaching.com.

You are my hero once again. I was just whining to Joani that I was going to have to create my own quicksearch page so I could get it to do some of my more repeated tasks (and save me a handfull of page loads to get to where I need to go).

 

One other interesting thing for Joani and I that would save page loads is if there would be an option for going straight to the ALL LOGS (log=y) page. It seems we are constantly clicking on that link. Same goes for the decrypt. Not such a big deal when you are on a standard browser, but on the phone, you are saving minutes of time if you were able to go directly to the page you want without having to load multiple pages. I wonder if there could be some checkmarks that you could have as options, that would insert '&log=y' and '&decrypt=y' into the URL of caches if you had them checked.

 

--Marky

[+nostrada]

[Devil's advocate]

 

I have attended a few hikes during the last few months and most of them have been big fun. One thing I noticed is that not everyone in the group has the same level of fitness. This fact can be the cause of discussions and friction within the group and can leave "bad vibes" afterwards. The larger the group, the more likely it is that some want to go fast and others want to take it rather slowly.

 

I have come for myself to the conclusion that it is the best to go for a substantial hike with friends I know well and in a smaller group. This increases the chances that we can achieve our objectives in a pace we all agree on. Some hikes allow someone to stay back for one particular cache, other hikes do not have this options, one-way hikes for example. (El Sombroso)

 

On the other hand, if the group is large enough it can split up in various sub groups hiking at different speeds. But this should be discussed beforehand and expectations should be set accordingly. The faster group would not need to wait for the last one to arrive, for example.

 

I guess what is all comes down to is that I wouldn't mind to abort a hike if a good friend of mine doesn't feel well, but would be rather disappointed to turn around at the first hill because a fellow cacher I have never met before can not get over it.

 

[/Devil's advocate]

 

PS: Post #100!

PPS: Ducking for cover now

[+boulter]

One other interesting thing for Joani and I that would save page loads is if there would be an option for going straight to the ALL LOGS (log=y) page. It seems we are constantly clicking on that link. Same goes for the decrypt.

A fine idea, Marky. I added checkboxes for both of them. Originally degreno wanted the printer-friendly page to display no logs, but I decided to change it to the default when I added the new options.

 

I suppose I could add an option to show 5, All or None for logs, but it seems like overkill.

 

I also fixed some of the stuff I broke this morning when working with new caches and caches with bugs.

 

In other news, I added another statistic to the leaderboard which makes me feel a bit better about it.

 

Enjoy.

[Wintertime]

Hi, all.

 

Does anyone know whether there's a DRG file of the USGS "Yosemite Valley" 1:24,000 topo map available online?

 

I have the 1:24K individual quadrants for the Yosemite area (obtained from the UC Davis CASIL web site), but the YV map would really be handy because I wouldn't have to keep switching between the Half Dome and El Capitan quadrangles to view all my waypoints in the valley (benchmarks and virtual geocache waypoints).

 

I tried pasting together a couple of quads with Photoshop Elements, but it freaked at the large file sizes (about 12-15MB each). Maybe that's my answer; maybe no one has made a digital file of the whole YV map because it would be so large. (The printed map has portions of four quadrangles--the two mentioned above plus Yosemite Falls and Tamarack Flat.) But I figured it was worth asking.

 

Thanks!

Patty

[+workerofwood]

Check the Silicon Valley edition of Bay Area Parent this month...

Very nice article on geocaching, with quotes from some "notable" local geocachers (a-hem, cough).

[+beckerbuns]

Check the Silicon Valley edition of Bay Area Parent this month...

Very nice article on geocaching, with quotes from some "notable" local geocachers (a-hem, cough).

Hehe... My 6 year old (Andy) reads Bay Area Parent every month and he hadn't even noticed the geocaching article when he brought this issue home yesterday. He was delighted to see the article but he thought it was about a geocaching EVENT of some kind and he wanted to go. Anyway, nicely done....

[+Lamneth]

Congratulations to kusanagi for hitting the 1K mark yesterday

[+Green Achers]

Congratulations to kusanagi for hitting the 1K mark yesterday

1,000 CACHES!?

CONGRATULATIONS!

[+Woof!]

Congratulations to kusanagi for hitting the 1K mark yesterday 

1,000 CACHES!?

CONGRATULATIONS!

Yeah, that's a lot!

[+r.haus]

I think there was another geocacher in the Bay Area that hit 1,000 last week. Now, if I could only remember who that might have been.

[+kusanagi]

Actually there were two , Congrats to Woof! and dandm .

[+TeamJiffy]

Wow, Woof!, dandm, and kusanagi! Three in such a short time! Congratulations!

 

-Jif

 

On a completely unrelated topic, the frog-looking-away-from-you icon looks like a hotel reception-stand bell to me. You know - the kind that you tap on the top? ding! Does anyone else think that?

[+Marky]

Wow, Woof!, dandm, and kusanagi! Three in such a short time! Congratulations! 

Congrats to all! I had the fortunate pleasure to be caching with Woof! and Kusanagi when they hit 1000. Thanks for sharing the good times guys.

On a completely unrelated topic, the frog-looking-away-from-you icon  looks like a hotel reception-stand bell to me. You know - the kind that you tap on the top? ding! Does anyone else think that?

 

I thought it looked like a plate of lime Jello with a Cherry on top.

 

--Marky

[+Kealia]

Just wanted to drop in say "Hello" the cachers that I saw driving South on 85 yesterday around 4:00PM in a silver SUV with an oval GPS sticker in the back window.

 

I was coming home from work when I saw the tell-tale sign of a fellow cacher.

I may not have been recognizable as I was wearing more presentable clothing than just my loin-cloth .

 

Anyway, just wondering who I saw........

[+WalruZ]

Wow, Woof!, dandm, and kusanagi!

 

(WalruZ genuflects...)

[kablooey]

Just wanted to drop in say "Hello" the cachers that I saw driving South on 85 yesterday around 4:00PM in a silver SUV with an oval GPS sticker in the back window.

 

Anyway, just wondering who I saw........

Wasn't me. My silver SUV didn't make it to Southbound 85 until about 10:30pm last night.

[+beckerbuns]

Congrats to all! I had the fortunate pleasure to be caching with Woof! and Kusanagi when they hit 1000. Thanks for sharing the good times guys.

Hey, I coulda gotten to 1000 by now if I had Marky and Joani showing me where the caches are. Just kidding!!!

[+beckerbuns]

Just wanted to drop in say "Hello" the cachers that I saw driving South on 85 yesterday around 4:00PM in a silver SUV with an oval GPS sticker in the back window.

I don't know who that is, but if you ever see a Smurf-blue Ford Focus station wagon with an oval GPS sticker in the back window, that's me and the boyz (and maybe Nurse Dave too). We frequently drive that same stretch of highway.

 

You have a long commute, don't you Kealia!?

[+Woof!]

Hey, I coulda gotten to 1000 by now if I had Marky and Joani showing me where the caches are. Just kidding!!!

[+Kealia]

You have a long commute, don't you Kealia!?

I do. And if I wasn't so fried after work I'd start picking off caches along my way .

 

Besides, I'd recognize you! Now the guy in the pretty white outfit.... .

[+boulter]

Tools Update

 

I've been working on a new tool to Calculate the Distance between GPS coordinates for a while now. I've just gotten around to finishing it.

 

What's special about this tool is that it builds on some of the other tools I've written so you can just plug in two waypoint names for example and it will go find the coordinates on those pages and compare all of them.

 

This comes in really handy for verifying locationless caches. Just plug in your coordinates, the locationless cache waypoint, and it will tell you if it's already been found. Huge time-saver. It also gives you a link to go log that cache right from the page. In the future I want to see if it's possible to pass in the coordinates to the log page as well.

 

Other uses are to verify puzzle cache solutions (such as the Rat's latest, 7.44 miles from the posted coords).

 

Fizzymagic was nice enough to share his code from GeoCalc, so you can get the same high-accuracy calculations.

 

http://boulter.com/gps/distance/

 

Once again, feedback, bugs and suggestions are appreciated.

 

No one's commented on this yet, but I also added historical graphs to the leaderboard last week.

 

Enjoy.

[+Lamneth]

Other uses are to verify puzzle cache solutions (such as the Rat's latest, 7.44 miles from the posted coords).

Yep, 7.44 miles.

Great tool boulter, thanks!

[+KennyHannahJacobKatie]

Wow ..... The hardest part of my Montalvo caching afternoon was LOGGING the finds on the webpage. Lot's of errors and timeout messages caused the process to take over an hour (including breaks). Other none Groundspeak webpages seemed to load normally.

 

Is this a common occurence these days on the Geocaching.com site or just my computer/DSL connection?

 

On the other hand, it was a clear day after the morning rain and the view from the Montalvo lookout point was spectacular.

 

/Lefty

Edited April 19, 2004 by KennyHannahJacob

[+nostrada]

Planned Upgrades, Defeating the Server Too Busy errors

 

They are working on it. I am sure it will be better in a month. I hope. I wish.

[+montythemule]

Hi All. I am happy to announce that the San Andreas Fault (Stevens Creek Canyon) Cache has been reactivated!. The original cache container and it's contents were recovered and replaced, but hidden just out of view behind something to avoid detection. I put in a new logbook but excerpts of the original are viewable on the gallery page of the cache, curious alien scribble for sure.

 

We added The VAULT to facilitate coin (Foreign or domestic or tokens) exchange. Make a deposit or make a withdrawal. The VAULT stays in the cache. I usually have a lot of foreign coins left over so..

 

A link to the cache page:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...41-f5b290bb2b63

 

Enjoy

MontytheMule

Edited April 19, 2004 by montythemule

[+Alamogul]

Congrats to 4wheeler for joining the 4-digit club last week!!!

[+Green Achers]

Congrats to 4wheeler for joining the 4-digit club last week!!!

I want-a join...

 

Congratulations to you big cachers.

[+boulter]

Speaking of 4-digit cachers, is there life after 1000 caches?

 

Looks like I'll be there in June or so, but after that I'm not sure what I'm going for. Sure, it's all about the experience, but what are some motivating cumulative goals? I noticed that georgeandmary got to 1000 then slowed down quite a bit.

[+BuckyD]

I'd like to propose that when groups of geocachers go out on a "high-find day" and come across one of the moving caches, Perhaps each in the group can log a single/joint find, and then decide together what the new coordinates will be (within the "rules" of the cache). There were a couple problems with g.M.P.R?T this past weekend, with updating coordinates, at least one DNF that I know of, and now its out of its "required" range. I was watching this cache this weekend for someone, and drove them crazy with phone calls about new coordinates (which were, effectively, not valid/current anyway). I think Fe felt the same way, given his note in big red letters that afternoon...

[+Marky]

Speaking of 4-digit cachers, is there life after 1000 caches?

 

Looks like I'll be there in June or so, but after that I'm not sure what I'm going for. Sure, it's all about the experience, but what are some motivating cumulative goals? I noticed that georgeandmary got to 1000 then slowed down quite a bit.

I suppose it depends on what drives you in the first place. Joani and I were never all that interested in the numbers. We just like having a reason to get outside and do something. We still like to. We may have slowed down a bit, but are still active and enjoying it (I even enjoyed the two 1 star difficulty DNFs I had this morning). Ultimately, it's the hunt that keeps us interested and active.

 

--Marky