ET Returns

Well after the sudden demise it looks like the ET Highway is on round two.

With the listing of a new event, and a google doc explaining a few things, the ET powertrail looks to be returning.   There were a number of issues with the first one, and possilby some misunderstandings, that led to the archiving of the ET Powertrail. 

Now that those issues appear to be worked through the trail looks to be returning in the next few months.

How it came about

It came about after a trip to Geocoinfest here in Utah about two years ago.  On the trip they decided to do the Shakespear/McGuiver powertrail.  (Now expanded a few hundred caches to the Seinfield series as well that makes up about 400+ Caches).

They had so much fun they decided to do their own powertrail. So for their eight hour trip home they planned and worked out the bugs for their own powertrail.  So after a number of months they finally got things finished and the cache placed.

International Visitors

Like our local series there was an explosion of travelers.  Even more than we saw here.  The appeal of 1000 caches drew people in, from all over the world.  It is interesting to follow one cache in the trail and then look at where all the people are coming from.

In fact the Nevada powertrail had so many visitors that the hotel that normally lays people off and has few  visitors during the winter months was still busy.  That was the ideal time for people to go and avoid the head of the summer.

Problems and Archival

As with everything a few people can ruin it for everyone else.  We know those, people that destroy and area to find the cache, or tear things up for fun.  The same was here.

NDOT was having many problems.

• Cachers not pulling completely off the road
• Cachers not paying attention and pulling out in front of traffic
• Cachers stopping IN construction zones while work was be done
• Caches in blind spots or not optimal viewing for approaching cars
• Caches in/on/near guard rails and mile markers. 
  

There was a stretch of highway that went through a pass that didn’t have a long clear view of the road ahead.  When we placed the caches in this area, we were careful to make sure cachers could safely pull off the road and not to put caches on blind corners.  This was fine in the summer, however; in the winter, this is a much different story.  Due to the elevation, highway 375 gets snow.  The snow along with guardrails, windy roads, made a small stretch reason for concern.  There was an incident where a cacher’s vehicle and a snow plow had a close call in this area.  I received a call from the supervisor of NDOT telling me of the incident.  We archived the caches in that area within hours of the notification.  However, the supervisor also notified Groundspeak that day or the next...The day after I got the phone call, caches were being archived.

New update

They have had a number of complaints from geocaching, and the local businesses about the archival.  Leading NDOT to issue a statement that they had no issue with the trail they just wanted to solve some of the problems.

So late august be ready for the arrival of 1500 caches.  They have worked with NDOT, County commissioners and the community to place these, safely.

So those that want to go... enjoy and have fun.

and be safe.

Update 6/7/11

If you are interested to place a trail.. some hints are in this story.

Update on 2011-05-30 20:51 by firennice

Camp Hobe and Geocaching.

Sorry I have taken so long to respond.  I got an email the other day asking about the little donation bar on the left hand side of my screen.  So here goes.

Every year for the last few years JeeperDad has help run geocaching at Camp Hobe. This year with him moving he has passed the torch.

What is Camp Hobe? From their website:

Camp Hobé is a special summer camp designed for children with cancer and their siblings, who are often forgotten in the cancer experience. Camp Hobé gives kids the opportunity to participate in camp activities just like healthy children whose families are not affected by cancer. The camp program provides medical and psychosocial supervision to ensure children are safe both mentally and physically during camp.

Camp Hobé serves children from the Intermountain area (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada) or those being treated for cancer at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Children (or teens) who have been diagnosed with cancer may attend Camp Hobé while being treated with immunosuppressive therapy (chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or immunosuppressants) and for three camp seasons after their final immunosuppressive treatment. The cancer patient’s brothers and sisters may also attend Camp Hobé during this time period. Because we do not wish to turn any cancer patients away, no more than four children may attend from any one family, including the cancer patient (that is, one patient and up to three siblings).

Throughout their time at camp, Camp Hobé kids grow in spirit, strength, and understanding. They are allowed to play outside with other children, to discover the joy and freedom of being away from the confines of the hospital, and to temporarily displace the fears that the future holds. This is their chance—sometimes their only chance—to “just be kids” and to escape the grown-up realities they face everyday.

Camp Hobé Inc. is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

As a volunteer service cachers have gathered to go and help at the camp and run the caching program.  This year Ho'okele is managing the process of hiding caches, getting SWAG for a few hundred kids and managing the caching volunteers, she put together a little web note here.

Her letter she place in our little Utah forums

Calling All Angels!

I need your help! This year, I am hosting the geocaching event at Camp Hobé in Tooele. In past, JeeprDad hosted the event. Unfortunately, he will be unavailable this year. He has passed the torch to me.

Camp Hobé is a special summer camp designed for children with cancer and their siblings, who are often forgotten in the cancer experience. Camp Hobé gives kids the opportunity to participate in camp activities just like healthy children whose families are not affected by cancer. This is their chance—sometimes their only chance—to “just be kids” and to escape the grown-up realities they face everyday.

Where: Camp Hobe in Tooele
When: June 14, 2011 and June 21, 2011 (both on a Tuesday)
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon

How can YOU help? There are plenty of ways:

1. First and foremost, I need volunteers!! We need lots of angels to help hide the caches and then help the kids find them. If you can help out one or both days, that would be fantastic! I realize that these days fall on a weekday and many of you have jobs, school, lives... But I promise not to tell your bosses if you just happen to call in sick on one or both of these days! And I also promise you that this will be an amazing and rewarding experience for you.

2. I need to borrow some GPSrs. We host a large number of children who all want a chance to use the GPS unit. The more I can get a hold of the better. I promise to take good care of them. Please make sure to mark you GPS unit with your name if you wish to lend it to me so I don't mix them up.

3. If none of these options work for you, I could always use a small donation to help buy the SWAG. I need to fill 6 caches with enough SWAG for about 125-150 kids (times that by 6 and that's a lot of SWAG). I will be buying everything from the Oriental Trading company to keep the cost down. I am not looking for large donations. Even $3-$5 will help! Please click on the link to make a donation. The donation button is on the right hand side of the page where it says "ChipIn!"

http://camphobegeocachers.chipin.com/mypages/view/id/eebd843b697d6b76

I am not very well known in the geocaching world so please feel free to forward this information on to all your geocaching friends. I need as much help as possible.

My contact information:
Kalei Weber
kalei.weber @ gmail.com

Donations

If you wish to donate time or lend a GPS please contact her above.

If you wish to donate for SWAG.  Click on the link to the left.  Note this is not a tax deductable donation, but a group helping to help the kids.

If you wish to make a tax deductible donation to the camp see here.

Update on 2011-05-26 16:04 by firennice

Downtime, phones, and thoughts

Downtime

Just a reminder for everyone that geocaching.com will be going down tomorrow for a few hours.  Actually four to six hours.  It is supposed to happen 10 am Mountain time (GMT -6) and up to 4 pm.  So it looks like all reviewing during breaks, and surfing maps will be halted.  Hopefully you will be able to get in what you need.

Take care of everything now.  For those of you in timezones that may be in Europe.  It will be down during the evening, so I would jump on things now so you don't have any problems.  I am guessing that also means that all apps will also be down.  So run your GPX files now and get them loaded into your phones and GPS units so you will not have any issues in the field.

Phones

For those who follow the Latitude 47 threads and use cell phones, you are aware that updates to the android and iphone apps are coming soon.  Having seen one of them, it is really nice.  It was posted that they will be ready for release soon.  So stay tuned.

Thoughts

Locally I wish to say farewell to Goblincamper2004.  They have been a staple in our area for some time.  They moved to the southern part of the state.  Caching here will never be the same.  Their smiles and their excitement for the game of geocaching was always apparent.   They were at all the events and threw a large number.  They loved the chance to get together.

It was a chance for a FTF nearly three years ago where I headed to a cache a few blocks from my work when I first met them.  Because of the speed at which many responded she had waited to greet the ftf people.  Since that time I have seen them often at many different events.

Farewell and I wish you luck in the south. 

Update on 2011-05-04 05:52 by firennice

May 5th Geocaching Update

For those that want to see a preview of the new geocaching update.  Note this also includes a large hardware update mentioned by Jeremy. 

Update on 2011-05-03 05:02 by firennice

Appealing and Reporting Geocaches

Over a period of time there are a number of times when people see that there are problems.  Sometimes it is with their own cache, other times it is a problem with a review.  Some argue that they realize that there are problems with the cache but believe that theirs is a special exception to the rule.    Other times there are problems with a cache itself, one that they have found.  They see the cache is behind a private property sign, a property owner chases them away, buried, drilled into a tree, or damage done to an area to make the placement, or because of a massive hunt people have destroyed a sensitive area.

Groundspeak thought of that and they have written it into the guidelines, and made ways that people can contact others.

Needs Maintenance

This is the first note that many see on their caches.  It is left up to the cache finder to determine if there is an issue.   I have seen them for full logs, soggy logs, missing logs, and for caches that are damaged or obviously missing.   Those seem to be some of the most common reasons.

A reviewer has no special power to see these, and no notice is sent to anyone but the cache owner.  Like any player of the game, I only see the flags when I specifically search for them or if I look for the icon.

It does attache an Icon to the cache page in the attributes.  This also appears in searches.  Everyone can see it.  If you log a Owner Maintenance log it will clear it up and remove the flag. Please make sure that if you take care of your cache that you perform maintenance that you remove your flag.  I have seen many people traveling through that filter everything out with that flag so that they do not waste their time looking for something that may have issues with it.

the statement from groundspeak on needs maintenance

If you find a geocache that is in need of some help (e.g. container is cracked, logbook is full or wet), please post a "Needs Maintenance" log on the cache page so the cache owner and the community is notified.

Needs Archived

A cache has problems.  There are a number of ways I have seen this used, and heard the argument in many ways.  In essence if the cache is defiantly not there, or has guideline violations people will log this.  Buried caches, caches that deface, or are on public property, seem to be common. 

Many times a cache is a simple hide that many people have found over and over, then suddenly, the string turns to dnf's.  You will have to determine for yourself when a cache has reached a point where action should be taken by the cache owner, or it should be archived.

A needs archived note is sent to a reviewer.   Many times I leave it alone for a little while, seeing if any response is taken, I may post a note saying that something has to be done, or in the case of a cache behind private property signs, the cache is archived. 

This log sends an email to the cache owner and a local reviewer. There are several instances when using a "Needs Archived" log is appropriate. Here are some example situations that warrant a Needs Archived note.

1 - There is a law enforcement, trespassing or similar issue requiring immediate attention. Occasionally a cache is placed in a location that is inappropriate because of security concerns - schools, court houses, or airports among the most common.
2 - There is no immediate problem, but it is painfully evident that the cache is missing AND the owner is missing.

Appealing a cache decision

Once an a while an action taken on your cache will seem to be inappropriate. 

1. Contact the reviewer and discuss it with them.  Contacting another reviewer usually will do no good, if someone contacts me about a decision about something RedHiker reviewed I will ask them to contact him.  I do not second guess his decisions.  Likewise when the cacher from California contact me I ignore those.  I am not from those areas, and will not "plead your case" to your local reviewer.  Sorry it is just not my job.  Contact the original reviewer with your concerns.  Sometimes the case is borderline, and the reviewer has denied the cache and it may not take much to be swayed.
2. Ask them for a peer review.  This entails asking the reviewer to share your listing with others and get an opinion from them.  We see many listings a week.  Asking peoples opinions.  Some are obvious commercial, or distance form other caches.  Others drum up a lot of discussion on topics and open our eyes to new ways to do caches.
3. Take it to appeals.  I recommenced this as a last resort, but sometimes people do not contact me or ask for a peer review and go straight to this method.  There are times i am not comfortable with a cache that someone has submitted, or I am not certain that it fits in the guidelines so I send it on to appeals.   appeals @ groundspeak .com is the proper address for those.  They will then follow procedures.

I have had a few go through each process, sometimes they convince me that there is no problem, other times I take it to a peer review without asking.  They have changed my mind a few times.  Appeals have also gone through, and looked at the decisions that I make.  Sometimes they contact me for more info, and the cache owner. 

Reporting Issues

If you are trying to report problems, please include all relevant information.  GC#, name of cache, your player name, previous contacts.  I get a number of emails that have no contact info. 

Last month you looked at my cache, I think i fixed it. Please reviewer it again.  Bob

That is not helpful.  What cache?  who is this person?  what was the problem?  In the winter months I may spend time tracking info down, in the summer months I will email you back.  I am just to busy to spend 30 minutes going through all my caches on hold to figure out what cache you may be talking aboug.

Final Thoughts

Think ahead, read the guidelines.  If you are stretching the rules, contact ahead of time.  I felt so bad for a guy that traveled 4 hours into a national park and hid a cache full of travelbugs, then left went back to California and I could not list the cache.  He tried again and again, with park approval I would, and he could never get the approval.  Happily he returned the following year to gather the travelbugs and send them back on their way, but I bet most are lost forever.

Think about your arguments.  Just because you see another in another area that is like that one does not make it OK.  Many cache types (virtual, webcams) were ended long ago.  Other things like additional logging requirements (ALR's) might never have been reported to the reviewer, so they they are not allowed. 

Remember reviewers are there to help, along with Groundspeak. 

Update on 2011-05-01 21:45 by firennice