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Wenatchee Cache Machine


travisl

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This looks like a good route. Too bad you won't have time to find some of the caches hidden in the hills, like up the Squilchuck-Mission ridge area, or the canyons and hills outside of Cashmere and Leavenworth. These are some of the best for scenery.

 

May I offer some comments:

 

You allow 1 minute for A View from the Castle (Waypoint 21) (arrive at 8:31 and leave at 8:32). It's a good 20 minute hike to this cache, 40 minutes round trip.

 

You allow 6 minutes for Robe of Rainbows, Waypoint 58. This is a good 20-30 minutes round trip hike.

 

I am concerned about Waypoint 37 Holy Cliff Dwellers. This is a fragile home to some species of birds. I hesitate to go there myself for that reason.

 

There are 2 caches in playgrounds, Linkin Park (WP 13) and Cache from the Methow (WP 72). There are usually many kids playing there. Can 50 geocachers be discreet at a playground and find the cache unnoticed?

 

WP 78 Old Paint is a multi that takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to do The route schedule only allows 15 minutes.

 

Hope those comments are taken as constructive.

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This looks like a good route. Too bad you won't have time to find some of the caches hidden in the hills, like up the Squilchuck-Mission ridge area, or the canyons and hills outside of Cashmere and Leavenworth. These are some of the best for scenery.

Maybe I'll get up there on Sunday. Got any specific suggestions?

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Cash-mirror is currently unavailable as the park is closed during the winter. Before that, it closed due to damage from the Fisher fire this summer. Not sure when it'll reopen. The area was burned through, but looks really good now. Hopefully it'll be reopened by then.

 

Kiaya's cache is currently missing. The cache owner lives in california, and hasn't disabled it yet. I had offered to adopt but then wrote him back saying I wasn't able to.

 

Blue on Blue is currently disabled until the owners return from wintering out of state to fix it.

 

Finally, Non rolling log needs to be done before 6 PM on Saturdays.

 

I'll disable Holy Cliff Dwellers, Batman whenever teh Birds return, so it may or may not be available.

 

Looks like a great time. Looking forward to seeing y'all here.

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This looks like a good route.  Too bad you won't have time to find some of the caches hidden in the hills, like up the Squilchuck-Mission ridge area, or the canyons and hills outside of Cashmere and Leavenworth.  These are some of the best for scenery.

Maybe I'll get up there on Sunday. Got any specific suggestions?

You betcha. There are several you can get to in the Squilchuck-Mission Ridge area. Appleyard GCKZYG, Sandstone Formations GCJHQT, Mission Possible GCMT91 (the cache is less than 100 feet from the first clue), Hampton's Folly GCMN1C, Mountain view with a Mission GCM0XY, The Master's Touch GCJAWB, Above the Beehive GC708D, secret of the Grail Redux GC6B44. Streets and Maps shows a drive of 21 miles starting from Appleyard (close to town). All 8 caches are a short distance from the road (0.1 mile or less).

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This looks like a good route.  Too bad you won't have time to find some of the caches hidden in the hills, like up the Squilchuck-Mission ridge area, or the canyons and hills outside of Cashmere and Leavenworth.  These are some of the best for scenery.

Maybe I'll get up there on Sunday. Got any specific suggestions?

You betcha. There are several you can get to in the Squilchuck-Mission Ridge area. Appleyard GCKZYG, Sandstone Formations GCJHQT, Mission Possible GCMT91 (the cache is less than 100 feet from the first clue), Hampton's Folly GCMN1C, Mountain view with a Mission GCM0XY, The Master's Touch GCJAWB, Above the Beehive GC708D, secret of the Grail Redux GC6B44. Streets and Maps shows a drive of 21 miles starting from Appleyard (close to town). All 8 caches are a short distance from the road (0.1 mile or less).

Old School GCMN19.

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Snapdragon and Arco Edie are set up for river rafting caches while achievable from the road it is more difficult. Parking for these is an issue. Only way to park is along they Hwy and the Hwy patrol disapprove so I would take those two caches out. Portage another rafting cache is easily attainable.

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This looks like a good route. Too bad you won't have time to find some of the caches hidden in the hills, like up the Squilchuck-Mission ridge area, or the canyons and hills outside of Cashmere and Leavenworth. These are some of the best for scenery.

The Squilchuck area will get taken care of a little later in the year. In August the WSGA will be sponsoring a campout at Squikchuck State Park. I suspect we will hit the caches in the hills at that time.

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I've just written the Wenatchee Cache Machine page, which should be approved soon (I hope!).

 

The first draft of the route (1100K .pdf file) is ready for comments now. Take a look.

I noticed the route goes almost but not quite all the way to Levenworth. There are serveral good caches in Levenworth, including an opportunity to have another Group Shot at a Webcam.... this time one thats working :laughing:

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Geez, I'm exausted just looking at the route! The Roaster & Ale house is not going to be the final as they are unable to accomodate more than 35 people in their meeting room. They wanted to put you all in a convention center room (major cost for catering, room fee etc...) and would feed you a mass produced meal of only 2 choices. Thanks to the many events that I've had to accompany my husband, I've had more than my fair share of meals from the convention center and I highly suggest somewhere else...(pausing to let that comment sink in). I am currently looking for a better place that will accomodate such a large crowd (preferably one that serves libations). I know that the Wet Siders often invade Red Robin, but I'm afraid if that many of you show up to our humble little restaurant, it would make the front page of our 15 page newspaper, but I will inquire about seating such a large number in the BAR area. Or, how does Mexican sound? -R-

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Wow -- I swear that the Wenatchee Red Robin wasn't on their web site when I looked last month. That'd be my first choice, although if they're as small as you say, I'd think we'd better ask them first. I've only ever asked in advance once before, and the Red Robin in Vancouver BC flatly said "no, we can't handle a group of your size".

 

Mexican is fine -- we've ended at a Puerto Villarta after the Gig Harbor CM, and at an El Sarape after a geocaching poker run in Olympia.

 

A deal killer would be prohibitions on kids, which makes bar seating problematic. I also need to find out if Mickey O'Reilley's (the pre-event dinner) allows kids.

 

And yeah, decent libations are pretty much a requirement, too.

 

Regarding the caches noted above:

 

"You allow 1 minute for A View from the Castle": Oops. Forgot to tell MapPoint how long to wait here. Will be fixed in draft 2.

 

"Robe of Rainbows ... is a good 20-30 minutes round trip hike": No problem. Some of the six minute hunts will be faster than six minutes. It tends to even out.

 

"Linkin Park (WP 13) and Cache from the Methow (WP 72). There are usually many kids playing there. Can 50 geocachers be discreet ...?": Linkin is way too early in the morning for any sane kid to be out (6:50 a.m.). CtfM is at dusk (6:30 p.m.) when the group will be all spread out. I don't see a problem here.

 

"WP 78 Old Paint is a multi that takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to do.": That's why it's the last one. It's only there for anyone who -- very unlikely -- manages to finish the rest with time left.

 

"Cash-mirror ... The area was burned through, but looks really good now. Hopefully it'll be reopened by then.": I'm hoping so. This is one of the few on the route that I've already found, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the area's been hit. In fact, this cache is the primary reason I've got the route poking up US-2 instead of off in another direction.

 

"Kiaya's cache is currently missing": Thanks. I'll keep an eye on it, and remove it from the final draft if it's still gone in late March. I've tossed a "should be archived" note on it, to prod something into happening with it.

 

"Blue on Blue is currently disabled": I saw that. From the cache logs, I've got my doubts that it'll get re-enabled, thus my frownie face icon to remind me to check on it later. I saw that another cache of theirs, "GCJVV2 Evil is As Evil Does" had a M10B reviewer note ("Cache owners have contacted me and will be fixing up the cache when they return from Arizona"). That's the :laughing: on the map near 22, which I'll add back in if the owners fix it in time.

 

"Non rolling log needs to be done before 6 PM": Thanks. I'll remove it in the next draft.

 

"I'll disable Holy Cliff Dwellers, Batman whenever the Birds return": I'll keep an eye on this one.

 

"Snapdragon and Arco Edie are set up for river rafting caches while achievable from the road it is more difficult": A log for Snapdragon says, "I saw no way to access this from Hy 2. without a dangerous walk down the Hy or along the bank". This one doesn't sound like a 1.5 star terrain to me. I'll remove it in the next draft. However, the logs for Arco Eddie sound like it's possible to safely get that one by foot, and that the cops disapproved of The Navigatorz parking on the highway due to the firefighting going on at the time. We should be pretty spread out by this time of the day. Do you think it's bad enough to take off the route?

 

"I noticed the route goes almost but not quite all the way to Levenworth": Hey, I've gotta have something to do on the way up. :laughing: Seriously, it's only because of time constraints. I think everyone who shows up to do the Wenatchee Cache Machine should take another day to hit the ones up Icicle Creek Road.

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Just wondering:

 

1. If anyone that is going is interested in carpooling over on Friday and hitting some of the others on the way (Leavenworth, etc.), and

 

2. Where others might be staying Friday and/or Saturday night so I can be near 'friendlies', and

 

3. If any other 'singles' might be interested in spliting a room.

 

Thanks.

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2. Where others might be staying Friday and/or Saturday night so I can be near 'friendlies', and

I'm staying at LaQuinta in Wenatchee. They were pretty reasonable - about $60 a night, have high speed internet, a pool, and most importantly for me, allow dogs.

I got the Red Lion for $69 per night. They also have Wireless Internet in all the rooms, and it's included in the room price. Most places are charging extra for internet access, so I consider this a decent deal

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2. Where others might be staying Friday and/or Saturday night so I can be near 'friendlies', and

I'm staying at LaQuinta in Wenatchee. They were pretty reasonable - about $60 a night, have high speed internet, a pool, and most importantly for me, allow dogs.

I got the Red Lion for $69 per night. They also have Wireless Internet in all the rooms, and it's included in the room price. Most places are charging extra for internet access, so I consider this a decent deal

Personally, I would chose the Red Lion. My husband lived there for 2 solid months before I got the house in SoCal sold, closed and relocated the rest of the family up here. They treated him well and you really can't beat the price considering what you get. The La Quinta looks promising as well. Clean and inviting from the outside.

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Does the cache machine typically start out as one big group, or are smaller groups staggered by several minutes at the start?

It's pretty unorganized in an organized way. Most cache machiners start at the designated spot and then start when they get antsy and ready to go. No official staggering but it works out that way. Before noon the smaller groups usually become a bigger group at a few of the more time consuming caches but for the most part it's mostly smaller groups that hit the caches at one time.

 

It's amazing the diversity of caching styles. There are those who race through the thing, those who are like the turtle in the race and get a late start but don't stop all day and just keep plugging along, those who just enjoy visiting with people, etc. With the variety of caching styles groups stagger themselves naturally.

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Does the cache machine typically start out as one big group, or are smaller groups staggered by several minutes at the start?

At 5:15 in the morning, the group certainly isn't as big as it could be, because some of the lazy cachers decide to sleep in instead of joining us. But yeah, for the first few caches of the day, the group is fairly big and noticable. They tend to spread out after the first half dozen or so.

 

(The Navigatorz @ Feb 23 2005, 08:10 AM)
QUOTE (travisl @ Feb 22 2005, 04:04 PM)

Cache from the Methow is at dusk (6:30 p.m.) when the group will be all spread out. I don't see a problem here. 

 

I do, perhaps the cache owners should decide.

 

Good idea. I'll ask.

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I've just written the Wenatchee Cache Machine page, which should be approved soon (I hope!).

 

The first draft of the route (1100K .pdf file) is ready for comments now.  Take a look.

How about a we try Jeremy's new "Bookmark Lists" and see how well they share. Putting all the caches on the route in a list and publishing it's url.

Good idea. I'll do that when I post draft 2.

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Racing through is best.

Of course it is, those who are racing through the route usually get to spend some time with Moun10Bike, Mr. Gigabyte, and/or me. B)

 

As far as the playground issue there have been playgrounds on other cache machines and there hasn't been any problems.

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As far as the playground issue there have been playgrounds on other cache machines and there hasn't been any problems.

Well, there was one, the now archived Honeycomb Hideout - KCPark #2:

 

:P  September 25, 2004 by Red Hot Mama (421 found)

Came from MT with family and friends to do TCCM. At first we thought this one would be trickie because there was a photographer there taking pictures and two young boys were sitting there watching the "honeycomb". However, as we came up to them they said, "If you're hunting for something we know where it is, we've been watching people get it all afternoon" or something to that effect. Anyway, we found it logged it, and gave the kids an education on geocaching in hopes they will respect it and not take it. They sounded very interested. Hope it doesn't disappear. Thanks for a great cache.

 

:P  September 25, 2004 by travisl (862 found)

Found on the Tri-Cities Cache Machine; logging way too late. Bet the kids who were watching us muggled the cache.

 

B)  September 25, 2004 by bubble_luscious (174 found)

Our last find of the machine. Had to use the BFL.

 

:)  October 15, 2004 by Team Sagefox (1046 found)

What a great name for this cache. I thought I searched each and every honeycomb cell but perhaps I missed one. Doing this very late at night and had to be a suspicious looking guy to the young people hanging out in the park.

 

B)  November 28, 2004 by YeOleImposter (529 found)

Went out and verified. It is missing.

Looks like I need to get out and replace this one.

 

But this seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I've had the same thing happen at another cache that I was hunting solo (kids catching me doing the find, and it disappearing before the next find), and not happen at other CM finds (at Nokitty, that's a bad Peacock! in Victoria, I handed both kids a toy out of the cache, and it's still there 19 months later).

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Well, in the case of cache from the methow, it's a very exposed park, and a tricky hide. I'm not so sure about including it. I had a large group of kids staring over my shoulder during scool hours the first time I attempted it. I came back at another time, and had figured out where to look, and found it. But there were several families hanging around at the time. They come there in the evening, cause the park is surrounded by houses on all sides.

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I'll be staying at the La Quinta as well- with the whole family. Which brings me to my second topic- Husband and kids will be using the family van on Saturday to see the area while I do the cache machine:

 

Is there anyone I can cache with during the day? <_<

Me too, for Fri/Sat nights. I can take up to 3 folks in my car for the grand tour on Saturday, including you, m'dear, if you don't get a better offer. <_<

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You need to realize, Wenatchee is in a small valley surrounded by hills. If you drive outside of town into the canyons and leave the roads on foot, you will most likely be hiking some steep terrain. A View from the Castle, Music Sweet Music, and Robe of Rainbows are those kind of caches. Not the jump out of your car, run out and grab kind of caches. These you need to take at least an hour each to enjoy the hike and the views. They are well worth doing for sure. Take a look at the terrains at topozone.com to see for yourself. If some are staying over on Sunday, there are those and others you can do for nice view caches, including: Take a Hike. Other day after recommendations, the lookout series. These you can drive to, and the views are awesome:

Chumstick Mountain

Chelan Butte

Sugarloaf

A Beautiful View

Boundary Butte The Top

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In Tri-Cities we skipped a good portion of the machine and did the addended route instead and they were mostly of the type Navigatorz mentions. Definitely worth the time to do but not really cache machine type caches.

 

I think it would be awesome if we could have a Sunday morning event to get some of the caches that are worth doing but not cache machinable.

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In Tri-Cities we skipped a good portion of the machine and did the addended route instead and they were mostly of the type Navigatorz mentions. Definitely worth the time to do but not really cache machine type caches.

 

I think it would be awesome if we could have a Sunday morning event to get some of the caches that are worth doing but not cache machinable.

Great idea!

 

Pepper

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QUOTE (Stump @ Feb 24 2005, 09:40 AM)

In Tri-Cities we skipped a good portion of the machine and did the addended route instead and they were mostly of the type Navigatorz mentions. Definitely worth the time to do but not really cache machine type caches.

 

I think it would be awesome if we could have a Sunday morning event to get some of the caches that are worth doing but not cache machinable.

 

We already planned on spending Sunday hiking to some of the longer/scenic caches. We'd be happy to meet up with others who have the same idea.

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2. Where others might be staying Friday and/or Saturday night so I can be near 'friendlies', and

I'm staying at LaQuinta in Wenatchee. They were pretty reasonable - about $60 a night, have high speed internet, a pool, and most importantly for me, allow dogs.

I got the Red Lion for $69 per night. They also have Wireless Internet in all the rooms, and it's included in the room price. Most places are charging extra for internet access, so I consider this a decent deal

Personally, I would chose the Red Lion. My husband lived there for 2 solid months before I got the house in SoCal sold, closed and relocated the rest of the family up here. They treated him well and you really can't beat the price considering what you get. The La Quinta looks promising as well. Clean and inviting from the outside.

After seeing these reviews for the Red Lion in Wenatchee, we decided to stay at LaQuinta.

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