On our geocaching podcast today, we have an interesting cache challenge in Nevada, the story of a lost cache and CSI style detective work, a serious topic with some tips for geocachers to avoid danger on the trail, some listener thank-yous to other listeners, a story about Geocachers helping others and [...]]]> http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/03/las-vegas.html http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/03/las-vegas.html
We drove out to the Hoover Dam and saw Jubilee!, Penn & Teller, and 'O'. Also rode the roller coaster at New York, New York. I didn't attempt the indoor skydiving, but I watched as another in my group did. Plus I found time for two caches.

Welcome to Las Vegas
Welcome To This Fabulous Cache

On our geocaching podcast today, we have a “Dear Abby” type question about a geocoin, GPS and Satelite systems in the news (solar flares, jamming, and improvements on the horizon), a great story about “random acts of kindness”, an FTF-like contest in Syracuse and how Florida tourism is promoting geocaching.

Show Discussion: [...]]]> http://www.mdgps.org/2010/02/the-star-spangled-banner-geotrail-will-launch-saturday-february-27/ http://www.mdgps.org/2010/02/the-star-spangled-banner-geotrail-will-launch-saturday-february-27/ http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/hedDCNQzn4k/ http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/hedDCNQzn4k/]]> http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/backlog-february-14.html http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/backlog-february-14.html
You can't get there from here!
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 4
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 2
BERLINERS FERRY PARK # 1
End of the Road (AKA Village Idiot)
CACHE A MOVIE
Roosevelt Elk
Connecticut Cache
Oregon Coast responds to Pearl Harbor
Home Run? or Foul Ball?
Express Yourself
Who's in charge here?
The King Lies In Slumber #1
Gargamel's Hut
Totem Pole Or Stump?
Muggle-iscious! Round 2
Brussels.........but not sprouts !
Drive-in Theater Motor-Vu
"Can you hear me now?"
RDRCK
Socket it me ??
Smurf Village
Kinney Kache
BERLINER'S MINGUS PARK # 2
BERLINER'S MINGUS PARK # 1
Dr. Bern #5
Bandon Crossings
Rock Me Gently, Rock Me Slowly
Old # 104
At the Cross
Canyon Creek TB Bed & Breakfast

We also looked for City Limits which is about .12 of a mile from my house. Yesterday Dave dropped by for a minute and we found it. I now sit at 1950 finds. Perhaps I'll be able to find a few in Las Vegas next week.

On our geocaching podcast today, we have an interview with German geocachers vozzik and Tojumo, news on the capture of a geo-thief in New York, and listener feedback on difficult ammo box hides, astronaut travel bugs and more. We’ll also share about a National Park Service Star-Spangled Banner Geotrail and a [...]]]> http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/backlog-february-13.html http://blazerfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/backlog-february-13.html"10 Years of Geocaching", Wintertime Fun-1 #4 event. This is the second year I have attended and for many it is a must do event. There were nearly 200 people in attendance. We found a lot of caches on the way over and the weather was great. I found my 1900th cache on this trip. Besides the event these were our finds:

Eat first then you end up with gas
Umpqua Winery & Vineyard Series #15
Suicidal Tendencies
Last of this Dorsey of Gnomes
Kumbaya
Middle Fork View
PARK N PLAY
ENDANGERED BEAR
!!T.G.I.F!!
Supply Stop
Roadkill Cache
Oregon Keychain Exchange
It's A Boat Time
Captanrdr's Big Bank
Winter Lake
Cold hard cache!
Just A Lil' In-Spire-d
IPS on the Pacific
Urban Camo #3 on the Pacific
Seek & you shall find...
Ode To Freddy's Deck REVISITED
Turn around here!
Drive-in Theater Bay
Only you can prevent Forest Fires
March Madness
Pit Stop!
BERLINER'S ANCHORS AWAY!
Blackberry Pie
Metric Eyeopener

On our geocaching podcast today, we’ll chat about mixing geocaching with Valentine’s day – or any other special day and we have an important “Hazards of Geocaching” segment about distracted driving. Also, a cacher caught in the act (now for all the world to see …), a photography gadget good for [...]]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/7-bcVHx5xkk/ http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/7-bcVHx5xkk/]]> http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/02/remember-locationless-caches-theyre.html http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/02/remember-locationless-caches-theyre.html
Is there any way that you would publish a mystery/puzzle cache without there being an actual container? The whole point would be to get pictures of Cachers from around the world without them having to travel to the actual cache. The one that I want to put out would be to get people to take a picture with there favorite rock or rock formation, and post it in there log, and then it would count as a find.  So it would be sort of like a virtual or locationless earth cache, but it would be posted as a mystery cache.
Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks for your email. Sorry to say that this type of cache cannot be published on geocaching.com. There has to be a physical cache for people to find and a log for them to sign, as per the guidelines. I'm not sure how
long you have been geocaching, but a few years ago there was a category of geocaches called "locationless", which the cache you describe would fit into. The cache owner would stipulate what the requirement was to log a find: see a yellow Jeep, find a Kent Feed sign, etc., and then post the coordinates where you saw it. Those cache types are no longer allowed to be listed on geocaching.com.

On our geocaching podcast today, we have more entertaining travel bug stories for you, a controversial cache that we are sure you have never found, a personal challenge called The Geocache Diet, a rant AND rave related to poison ivy and a great new contest.

Show Discussion: In the PodCacher Forums Show Images: [...]]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/7Jt-mUCiUXM/ http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/GeocachingWithEmcOfNorthridgeCa/%7E3/7Jt-mUCiUXM/]]> http://www.mdgps.org/2010/02/mgs-member-spotlight-returns/ http://www.mdgps.org/2010/02/mgs-member-spotlight-returns/ http://www.wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=News2&_tab=recent&sid=144 http://www.wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=News2&_tab=recent&sid=144Click here to go to the election page and cast your votes for your favorite candidates. WGA members may vote for up to 5 of the candidates before voting closes on Sunday, February 14th at 11:59pm.

Here are some general notes about this phase of the Board of Directors election process.]]> http://www.geocachingonline.com/2010/01/29/its-official-maritime-mega-is-a-go/ http://www.geocachingonline.com/2010/01/29/its-official-maritime-mega-is-a-go/ http://www.mdgps.org/2010/01/mgs-meet-the-officers-meet-greet/ http://www.mdgps.org/2010/01/mgs-meet-the-officers-meet-greet/ http://geocachejournal.com/2010/01/24/microcache-container-tutorial/ http://geocachejournal.com/2010/01/24/microcache-container-tutorial/ http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-to-catch-up-on-sbas.html http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-to-catch-up-on-sbas.html]]> http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/01/cold-weekend-in-iowa.html http://iowaadmin.blogspot.com/2010/01/cold-weekend-in-iowa.htmla single car accident. A car had left the 4-lane roadway and rolled over several times in the median. It looked like no one could have survived, but I read online that there were three people in the car and they all survived. We had stopped for gas just a mile or two before arriving at the accident scene and I saw a state trooper whiz by while I was stopped at the gas station. It made me think what might have happened to us if we would not have stopped for gas and had been near the other car when it blew a tire. It's disheartening to see the chances some people take when they're driving without ever thinking about the consequences to themselves, their passengers or people in other vehicles.

We just wanted to thank you for all the time and effort you give so that we can put out and hunt caches. It is amazing how many you have approved this past year. We just started geocaching in June and are having such fun as a family. We appreciate all you do and we know we couldn't do it with out you. THANK YOU!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Is this coordinate confusion becoming the new trend? How is it possible for a cache owner to view their cache page, see the map of their cache so far away, and do nothing to fix it? My little yellow eTrex can at least put the cache in the correct county! Isn't THIS the reason we have reviewers?

To find each cache, I thoroughly read the cache description, pulled up the Google Map view of the coordinates, zoomed in as much as possible, and could identify within approximately 10-12 feet exactly where the cache was hidden. If fact, I felt more confident about finding this cache than I usually do whenever I use my GPS. Not only did I know what area of town the cache was in, what street it was near, and what park it was inside; I could tell which tree it was under and almost which side of the shrubs it was on. Needless to say, it took me longer to ride the elevator down from my hotel room than it did to find this cache - even without a GPS.

Aerial views are great, but Google has now gone one step further and added Street Views to its maps for most major metropolitan areas. This extremely close view can help you pinpoint exactly where a cache is located from ground-level. Using this feature, urban geocachers can not only see what an area looks like from above, they can view extremely close details of the hide location allowing them to scout out an area well before they arrive on the scene to begin searching. So, is a GPS receiver still necessary for Geocaching?

Knowing that it was already after 2:00am and we would be returning less than 2.5 hours later, we decided that we would just go and grab a bite to eat at Denny's before returning to the park entrance around 4:20am. As we were approaching the park again, we saw what we thought was the same police car driving away from the park. Shortly after, we could see the first of many cars re-entering the park well before 5:00am. My wife and I decided that if we were going to find the coin and win the hunt that we would at least do so honestly and play by the rules. One of the official rules says, "Do not enter locked or closed premises or premises without authorization." To us, this included White Rock Lake park until 5:00am, so we sat and impatiently waited.

We knew that if the coin were just recently hidden between 2:00-5:00am under the small footbridge closest to the stone tables (the same bridge that we had thoroughly searched hours before) that it would easily have been found already by the pre-5:00am searchers. So we decided that we would thoroughly search one of the other bridges in that section of the park. There were two road bridges and one additional wooden foot bridge over the creeks branching off of the lake giving us a 1 in 4 chance of searching the correct place. Because of the words "amble," "ramble," and "rover," we thought our best bet would be the one remaining large footbridge over the creek instead of the two road bridges.

As soon as our car's clock said 5:00am, we drove to our bridge location and began our search. When we arrived, we were the first car parked there, but not the first people searching. One of the cars that we could see driving through the area before 5:00am was apparently dropping people off at the various bridges in the park and leaving again trying to avoid being caught by the police officer. Even though we knew we weren't the first hunters to search this wooden bridge, we gave it a good hour of our time anyway.

We grabbed our flashlights and climbed over and under every inch of that wooden bridge while trying to avoid spiders, wasp nests, and who knows what else. My wife and I both slipped and fell into the creek (feet-first thankfully) at one time or another so we both searched the creek bed under and around the bridge. We looked under rocks, in piles of debris washed up against the side of the bridge, under and over all of the bridge supports and girders, in the cracks between the planks, and in every possible nook and cranny. Finally, we decided that we had looked in and around every possible hiding place on and under that rather large wooden bridge and called off our search after almost an hour. At this point, we felt confident that the coin was not under our bridge and knew that if the coin were under one of the other 3 bridges that it was probably already found.

But we still didn't stop. We looked under and around the original small stone footbridge and both of the road bridges although not going into the water to search since these bridges crossed rather deep sections of the creek and smelled like raw sewage. Once we were convinced that we had searched all of the bridges in the area without success, we started our search on other areas thinking that maybe the clue didn't mean a bridge but instead was something that we would normally just step over instead of walk or drive over like a large rock. We searched drainage ditches under roadways, under all of the slides and playground equipment that kids could climb over, and even resorted to fanning out over the area looking under individual rocks, sticks, trash, and anything else that a coin could be hidden under. Still no success. After almost 8 hours of searching and waiting all through the night and early morning with only a few hours of a break at Denny's, we were tired, wet, and physically exhausted from our search. For one last attempt, I called for advice and maybe an additional interpretation of the clue. My mom suggested that maybe it was talking about "going over" the park guidelines possibly on a sign about dogs. With this latest interpretation, we drove around that area of the park and searched on, around, and under every sign that had any sort of rule including several ones about dogs.

Finally, after around eight and a half hours of searching every square inch of that park and zero hours of sleep, we said goodbye to some of the other hunters still hanging around and left Dallas around 9:30am. While talking with some of the other hunters just before we left, we compared clues and clue interpretations. Interestingly, none of the hunters present at the time interpreted all of the clues. Nobody understood "DeagleD". Nobody understood for certain "don't lose your head." We were the only ones that understood, "the truth shall set you free," but were the only ones NOT to understand that "Legal Hill Fop" was an anagram for Flag Pole Hill. Some of the hunters we talked too heard from another hunter that a guy found the coin in a small black pouch under the small stone footbridge at 3:30am, but who really knows if that is accurate.

Overall, there are several possible scenarios for what happened. The coin could have been found by accident earlier in the week. The coin could have been hidden after the police officer made everyone leave the park at 2:00am and found later by someone who sneaked back in before 5:00am (most likely scenario in my opinion). The coin might not have been hidden yet and could have been hidden later that day when all of the original hunters left. Or, all of us at White Rock Lake who didn't correctly interpret all 30 clues might have been searching for a red herring in the woods.

Whichever scenario turns out to be true (and we may never really find out), we had a fun time and enjoyed our late night adventure in Dallas.