Road Trip

They say planning a trip is half the fun of the actual trip itself. So far, that seems to be true. A caching buddy of mine and I will be taking a few days off work soon to head north to try and find as many new caches as we can that fall within the boundaries of the individual pages of the Northern California DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer. 


For years, we've had this long-term goal of completing the California DeLorme Challenge (Northern) cache. And we figured while we're at it, why not simultaneously work on fulfilling the similar requirements of the Golden State DeLorme Challenge as well? Note that the latter cache does not allow you to claim caches found for the former, so we'll need to find a separate cache for each page of each DeLorme Atlas book.

To plan our little adventure, we're making use of every tool imaginable, including of course, the DeLorme Atlases themselves, GSAK and the handy little Challenge2 macro (that analyzes your cahce find data and reports/displays your progress on various DeLorme Challenges and USGS Quad Challenges for a range of geographic areas), Google Earth and the Geocaching Google Earth Viewer, and Google Maps to plan our route.


With just a few exceptions, my buddy and I need to find caches in roughly the same polygons as each other. But it becomes a logistical challenge trying to decide the best approach given our limited time frame. For example, should we do a big east and west zig zag across the state, or take more of an up and down approach? The more we delve into this, the more we realize that a straight shot up one route and down another is not an option, as we're going to be forced to venture out, and then double back, to the main trunk line just to make sure we cover as many DeLorme pages as possible. 


And then of course there is the dreaded page 62 to deal with - a DeLorme page that is about 95% Pacific Ocean and 5% land, and is home to a mere two caches:

Regardless, if the actual trip is half as much fun as the planning of the trip, then we're in for one sweet adventure.

Cache On!

Schmoozing With Geocaching Superheroes

Well, I was completely out of my element last weekend when I attended a couple of geocaching get-togethers, and found myself surrounded by caching superheroes. 


First up was the Castro Valley Meet and Greet, hosted by one of the nicest geocachers you'll ever meet, IrishJen. The event attracted a virtual who's-who of East Bay Area geocaching lore, including the likes of oneangrypuppy (11698 found), Materus (22882 found),  BuckyD (3700 found), frivlas (11697 found), and the top dog,  Alamogul (45162 found). It was great listening to the exploits of such fabled geocachers while munching on pizza and enjoying the raffling off of a variety of top-notch schwag items.


Speaking of Alamogul, as if being in the presence of such legendary cachers wasn't enough already, many of us (and many others) were invited to descend upon Alamogul headquarters for barbeque and more story-telling and socializing. I wasn't sure what to expect as I stepped through the front doors of the Alamogul fortress - would I see walls lined with cache containers and cabinets full of GPS receivers? To my surprise, it was simply a nice, typical home. But then again, I didn't see what was hidden in the basement...


But as I stepped out onto the patio, it wasn't long before I realized I was truly in the presence of the upper echelon of the caching elite, many who traveled from far away to be here. I got to meet hynr, the author of some of the best GSAK macros anywhere, and Berkeley Boomers, author of the wildly popular Fifty Parks Challenge cache. Many other geo-studs and studettes were present, and it was a pleasure meeting them all. The food was pretty darn good, as well.


Cache On!

Why A Blinky?

Often times you'll run across a cache description or hint that states something like, "you're looking for a well-camouflaged blinky". Okay, fine. What does that mean? Am I looking for something that lights up, a reflector, or a traffic signal? 


Well, after finding enough of these things, I finally figured out that a blinky is another name for a nano cache (I tend to be a little slow on the uptake). But I've always been bothered as to why that is. Well, I finally found a decent definition from GeoLex that satisfied my curiosity: 


Blinky – Often used as another word for Nano. In reality, a “blinky” is a small light, using a button battery and micro LEDs. They are intended to be attached to clothing, or even as earrings. They come with a powerful base magnet, and a similar removable magnet, to allow it to be attached to clothing without the need of puncturing the fabric. The electronics and battery can be removed in order to create a Nano cache with a magnetic base.


Sounds like the perfect accessory from the 1980's. Glad to see they've found new life in the geocaching world.


Cache On!


(image courtesy of http://saminc.ca/tradingco/) 

More Numbers

 (Image via Wikipedia)

Groundspeak is encouraging all able-bodied cachers to get out there and cache on Sunday, October 10th, to celebrate 10-10-10 and 10 years of geocaching. The following item was taken  from the weekly Groundspeak newsletter:

Plan to Go Geocaching on 10-10-10

We want to see how many geocachers can go geocaching on a single day! We've chosen 10-10-10, since the date represents 10 years of geocaching and 10 years of Groundspeak in 2010. Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your worst enemy (if that's what it takes) and let's see if we can beat the previous record of 56,654 accounts logging on April 18, 2010. Even one log counts since we are counting how many accounts log a cache rather than the number of caches logged.

Cache On!

Getting Out

I'm afraid I don't have any good techno tips this week, so instead, I decided just to share my recent cache outing in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, which is nestled away in the hills of Oakland, California. This park is chock full of caches, and it has the added bonus of being very mountain bike friendly. So I packed up my bike and my GPSr, and off I went.

Hard to believe you are smack-dab in the middle of a densely populated urban region of more than 7 million people when you are in this park.

One of the few trails in this park not accessible to bikes. And they're serious.

While looking for a cache, I accidentally found this letterbox hide. The cache and the letterbox were hidden in the same tree.

Snake Crossing

View from the trail

Cache, and Ride, On!

Challenges Galore

A while ago, I posted an overview of Challenge Caches, and listed some of  the old standbys like the USGS Quadrangle Challenges, DeLorme Challenges, County Challenges, and the Fizzy Challenge. These were, and still are, the hallmarks of Challenge Caches, which may be one reason they continue to be so popular and enduring.


Recently, however, I've started noticing new types of Challenge Caches emerging that are more geographically confined than those listed above, and some that even incorporate pop culture elements into them. 


For example, the Fifty Parks Challenge (posted 8/3/10) requires the cacher to find fifty caches in fifty parks or regional trails administered by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). And the Las Trampas Challenge (posted 6/22/10) asks each cacher to find and log all the caches within the boundaries of Las Trampas Regional Park, which is just one park in the EBRPD system. Las Trampas contained a total of 79 caches when this challenge was posted, but that number appears to be growing daily.


The nice part about these challenge caches having all of the hides in the same regional area is that they can generally be completed in a day or two, and don't require putting thousands of miles on your vehicle.


One of my favorite, recent Challenge Caches posted in our area is the Bushwood Country Club Challenge, which combines caching and Caddyshack into one geocaching extravaganza. I'm happy to report that I have now completed all 18 holes, and have the coordinates for the final, Caddyshack cache. That's me, tied for 9th place with my buddy Rohrerboy on the leaderboard:

Following closely on the heels of the Bushwood Challenge is the Kingpin Challenge that just went live. Instead of visiting local golf courses to find caches, however, you are required to search ten east bay bowling alleys to complete the challenge.


Not to be outdone, I can report, without giving away too much information, that a new challenge cache is already in the works in the greater east bay area. That's all I can say for now, but stay tuned for more info. after publication.


So be sure to check out the challenge caches in your area. They may seem a little intimidating at first; but once you get into them, I guarantee you'll be hooked.


Cache On! 

GSAK, The Next Generation

Image via Wikipedia

A new version of the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) program was released this week. While version 7.7.2 includes some minor enhancements and bug fixes, it isn't necessarily a major update of the software. What is interesting about this version, is that it requires existing registered GSAK owners to use a newly-assigned serial number, as the old unique registration number we've always had will no longer be valid. So if you are a current GSAK user, make sure you refer back to the email you received from Clyde, the GSAK developer, that contains your new serial number. If you lost the email, or your new serial number, you can always visit the Lost Registration site to have it emailed to you.

Once you upgrade to the new version, one of the first things you'll notice the first time you load a GPX file (in the form of a pocket query or a single cache listing) into GSAK is that the file is most likely in the old GPX format that does not include attributes. GSAK will provide a pop-up window explaining that Groundspeak changed the format of GPX files to include attributes, but did not make this change the default on your geocaching.com account.

To make the change, you need to go to your gc.com account page, scroll down to the bottom, and change the "GPX Version" from 1.0 to 1.0.1.

Save the change, and you'll be good to go. Now every GPX file you download will include the cache attributes along with all the other pertinent information. Most applications will either use the extra attribute data, or ignore it. The only application that may have a problem with the GPX 1.0.1 format is Delorme Cache Register. If you are using an application that cannot handle the extra attribute data, simply switch back to GPX version 1.0 using the same steps described above.

Cache On!