[Team Deejay]

I had an opportunity to do the ultimate test for this. I was recently in Buenos Aires, and took my old Etrex and my new 76Cx with me. The day I was testing, it was raining. I was walking down narrow streets between tall buildings, and from what I can tell, there seems to be fewer satellites available down there. In short, about the most extreme cover conditions you will find. My 76Cx never lost its link. To get a lock on my etrex, I had to walk to the middle of an intersection (dodging maniac taxi drivers) and hold my GPS straight up in the air. Even then, etrex would lose its lock while I was just standing there (maybe a thicker cloud came by or something). Bottom line – SIRF seems to really work as advertised.

[Team Deejay]

The GC numbers are not coordinates at all. These just function as serial numbers, so that each cache has a unique identifier. You have to get the cache coordinate from the cache page. They are located just under the title and look like this:

N 45° 47.968 W 089° 09.898

You enter these into your GPS, not the waypoint. Some people choose to download their coordinates from their PC to their GPS and some of these use the waypoint code GCXXXX to identify each cache. But the code itself will do nothing for you without first putting in the coordinates.

Is that the question you were asking?

[Team Deejay]

Not sure what you mean by alpha, can you post an example?

[Team Deejay]

I think this is outstanding. I can propose 2 improvements.

1. I think there needs to be some allowance for seasonal caches. There are certain caches out there that really should be disabled during the winter (or maybe the anti-winter, although I haven’t run into any of those). Perhaps a requirement that specific open and closed dates be listed on the cache page would address this.

2. Perhaps you might want to add some verbiage allowing for a greater than 4 weeks for repair in “special circumstances”, leaving it up to the reviewer to decide if the circumstances are, indeed, special. I can’t really think of anything I would approve, but it is probably worthwhile to leave an official “out.”

Thanks for pursuing this.

[Team Deejay]

Just to throw in my two cents worth…….

I think the answer is….. It depends. There are really two types of series. There is the type where the series is really a series of loosely connected caches that share some common theme, hiding technique, location type, etc. In these series, a person can find just one or two of the caches to experience the “feel” of the series. Examples of these that have been nominated are the Thanapolis series, the Nemesis series and the Red Cedar Trail series. IMHO, I believe that, for series of this type, single members of the cache should be nominated, rather than the whole series.

On the other hand, many series require completion of all the parts of the series to appreciate the full quality of the series. Recent nominees of this sort include the Clue series, Along the Milky Way Series, the Flag series, and, yes, the HBZ series. In these cases, it makes little sense to nominate one member of the series, as one has to find all (or nearly all) the members to appreciate the series. While I suppose you could just nominate the terminal cache of the series, you would be, in reality, just using it as a proxy for the whole series. So for these, I think it does make sense to nominate the series instead.

[Team Deejay]

Now how am I going to catch you if you keep going like this! Great Job!

[Team Deejay]

Pretty neat. Are they going to post a link somewhere on the site so people can find it? (Maybe while they are at it, they could create a link to the cache adoption page!) I only see one problem with this. The list appears to be sorted by the distance from the route, i.e. caches within 0.1 miles of the route are listed before caches that are 0.2 miles from the route. (Or maybe it is just some kind of GC.Com Bizzarro World sort that I am too dense to pick up on.) This results in nearly a random ordering of the caches. Of course, if you are downloading the PQ into a database, this is not problem, but if you are not….. Maybe they could add a few sort options while they are developing it (Longitude, Latitude, D/T, Date placed, date last found come to mind as nice sorting options).

[Team Deejay]

We just got back from vacation in Tennessee. I can tell you that the caches here are much better with regard to “significance of location”. Most of the caches we have visited in Wisconsin seem to be placed to draw attention to a particular location, with the possible exception of puzzle caches, which are a kind of “virtual” location. In Tennessee, the best caches we found there were cemetery caches and virtuals in the NP. Mostly, we found many caches in lame locations, including caches on fire hydrants (at a tourist trap), stuck to a waste grease bin at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (with the cache title of “The Smelly Crack”, you think they got permission for this one?), in an outhouse behind an old church, many, many lightpole hides at convenience stores, gas stations, coffee shops, etc. I am very glad that we started here in Wisconsin. Had we started in Tennessee, we probably would have given it up after a week or two.

Maybe the best way I can express it is a ratio. In SE Wisconsin, for every 20 caches, maybe 1 of them is bland with nothing to recommend it. In Tennessee, it was more like 15 out of 20 were weak. Also, the cache descriptions here do a much better job of indicating what you will find at the location, so if you don’t like historical caches, or cemeteries, or long hikes, you can usually avoid them. Not so elsewhere.

To close, I am grateful that there are so many talented cache hiders in this area. Thanks for all your efforts in making geocaching what it is in Wisconsin.

[Team Deejay]

Go, bunnies, go!! Congrats and…….

Stay cool!

[Team Deejay]

After a couple days of hiking, caching and river swimming on our vacation, Julie gives me a shopping list for “stuff” we need from Walmart. Note that we found every cache we looked for except one. Here is the list:

Ice
Spring Water
Gatorade
Water shoes, size 7 (she forgot to pack hers)
Camo Tape
Waterproof Matchcase

Of course, I have to ask “whats with the camo tape and matchcase?”. Julie tells me that we are going to replace the missing cache (it was pretty obviously abandoned). “So now we are adopting caches 500 miles from home?” Her answer: OF COURSE! And I thought I was the addict.

[Team Deejay]

Any reason why it has to be in Manitowoc? As I recall from my days living in Sheboygan, the Sheboygan Library is open later and I believe they have WiFi as well.

[Team Deejay]

@Cathunter wrote:

In the end, my final opinion on the quality of any cache comes from what I find (or don’t find) at the given coordinates.

I may be misinterpreting your comment, but I feel the opposite way. I couldn’t care less what the container is or what is in it. I think that the location, the challenge to reach the location, and the hiding technique all combine to determine the quality of the cache. If I learn something in the cache finding process, that counts as a bonus. Occasionally a very unusual container adds to the experience, but that is very rare. In my experience, the cache contents don’t make much difference. For me, it is all about the journey, not the destination.

PS: Caches who coordinates are wildly off automatically get a bad grade in my book.

[Team Deejay]

Woohoo! 1000 down, 999,000 to go!

[Team Deejay]

OK, here you go.

0101100101101111011101010010000001101000011000010111011001100101001000000111010001101111001000000110001101101111011011100111011001100101011100100111010000100000011001100111001001101111011011010010000001100010011010010110111001100001011100100111100100101110

[Team Deejay]

Dave, I thought this was you! Maybe you should file for trademark infringement.

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