Challenges and more Challenges

Utah may not be the startplace of challenges.  I am not sure if there was a startplace. However there sure are a lot here.  I thought I would list some of the different ones.  In particular the ones that may get listed today. If they are questionable, I left them off the list. Hopefully they will give you some ideas.  There are about 300 in Utah right now.  Though not all unique, there is a lot of variation and a lot of ideas.  They are just a sampling.  So enjoy.

Utah's Oldest Challenge

GCREMT 1000 Cache Finds Cache Challenge by Dorkteam6 - This the oldest challenge that I know of.  Though I am sure there are others nationally, this is the oldest in Utah. Placed in November 2005 it was simple and straightforward.  Find 1000 caches before logging. 

Traditional Challenges

GCYXXZ Utah DeLorme Challenge - Delorme challenges are pretty common. Find a cache for each page of the Delorme Mapbook.  Some areas can do it in a day.  In utah expect many days to get those obscure little corners.

GC3AVA9 Utah's Well Rounded Cacher (Fizzy Challenge) - Find a cache for every square in the Difficulty Terrain Grid. 

GC1CR3H The GC Icon Challenge - Find one cache from each of the regular icons (excluding the rare ones)

GC1Q51K Jasmer Challenge III - Utah - This is a challenge to find a cache for every month since the start of geocaching.  The later months are pretty easy.  The earlier ones can mean many miles of driving to get the caches.

GC1YEJG Cache Every Date Challenge - 100% - Find a cache for every day of the year.

GC3993M 7 Icons in a Day Challenge - Find 7 icons in a day.

Name Challenges

GC15Y83 An Alphabet Soup Challenge for Utah - Find a cache that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

GC1D60W Alphabet Cities Challenge - UT - Find a cache in a city that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

GC2AB1K Utah Color Cache Challenge - Find 30 caches that have a color name in the title.

GC2B969 Eeny, Minnie, Miny, Moe - A Name Challenge - find 150 caches with peoples names in the title.

Sheer Numbers

GC1PRHH Challenge of the Century: 100 finds in ONE day - Find 100+ caches in a single day.  This used to be very hard, not so much any more, but still can take some planning.

GC2FE5W Challenge of the Century: Event Caches - Find 100 event caches.  There are also other caches for many of the other cache types.

GC42R8P Earthcache Mica Discovery Challenge - Find 100 earthcaches

GC2ND3G Twenty Two Kay Challenge - Find 22,000 geocaches

GC30194 Streak Milestone Challenge - 300 - Find caches every day for 300 days.

Oldest Challenges

GC1X2WC --Ancient Caches of Utah Challenge-- - Find one of the two oldest caches from each cache type in the state.

GC34EP7 Oldest Active Challenge - Find the oldest active caches in five states.

GC1XRME Oldest in Provo Challenge - Find the 10 oldest active caches in the city.

Other

GC1EMWD Elevation Bands Challenge - This one is finding a cache in every 1000 foot altitude band.  0-1000, 1000-2000, up to the final level that is 10,000+

GC1Z0PR Lonely Cache Challenge - This particular one has you find lonely cache (those that have not been found in some time).  Then some specific info on tallying those to a qualification point.

GC2936D 4 States in a Day Challenge - Find four caches in a day in different states.  Could be tricky in the western US.

GC27KRZ 3 States, Same Name Challenge - Find caches in three different states, but are in towns that have the same name.

GC2G58M Challenge of the Century: 100 Unique Challenges - Find at least 100 challeges.

GC2H41Q Salt Lake County Thin Air challenge - Find a number of caches that are over 9700 feet in altitude, that total over 10,000 feet in altitude

GC2NK18 Souvenir Challenge - Earn at least 10 souvenirs.

GC2P4WW Waymarking History Challenge - Find 100 history based waymarks.

GC2PX82 Triple Double Challenge - Find 10 caches of three different cache types in a day.

GC3019F Finds by Placed Date Challenge Cache - Find a cache that was placed on every day of the year.

GC38A9P 4x4 Challenge - Find 10 caches with certain attributes.

Opencaching surge

A few of us have noticed a surge in caches on the opencaching.com site.  No unique ones, but thousands of caches from a few cachers. 

A few of us had heard rumors that they were offering GPS units to select cachers to get them to move their caches.  I know a cacher contacted a reviewer about something like that.  Wondering if it was true. Now thousands of new caches showed up and never went through the peer review process. So I am guessing the new caches are those.

Congrats on the new GPS owners.  I guess.  Part of me would really be pissed if that is true.  If I put a lot of work and effort, and someone else dumps caches and gets a free GPS.  Wait.  I guess they got a pathtag.

Update on 2013-01-02 15:36 by firennice

In response to a message.  Yes I have the name of a cacher that was offered a GPS, however I am not posting it because I do not have permission from him.

Earthcache Guidelines Updated

The Geoaware team has been working for a month or more on updates to the new guidelines.  There are not actually many changes on the surface.  If you are making your first Earthcache, and you are diving into things you will not have much to worry about.

This goes over some of the changes, and just to describe them.

Purpose

Ultimately the purpose was to clarify things.  Dealing with complaints from cachers, community, land managers, and the review team.  We have a lot of people repeating the same process, and the same errors.  Sometimes cache after cache.  I will toss a few of the small changes, and go through them here.  In the past things may have been interpreted more liberally, so you may hit some roadblocks.

1. Earthcaches must provide an earth science lesson.

This is the shortest guideline (now).  Yet it is the one that I see the most problems with.  What is your cache about?  Does it teach?  These are the core parts of an Earthcache.

Earthcaches focus on the solid earth and the processes that shape it.

That means that many of the things that are submitted do not fit.  Biology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Atmospheric observations, Oceanographic observations, Geodesy, Archeology, History, and Engineering, are normally not accepted.  They fall outside the solid earth.  Many get upset at the reviewers, or point at other caches, but currently we do not.

2. Earthcaches must be educational

I see many submissions that do not teach a lesson.  Taking someone to a pretty view, or showing them a cool site is not enough.  Education is the second most important part of an Earthcache.

I see two common errors. Many caches I received take people to a hillside and ask people to tell me the number of a sign.   There is not educational material on there.   The second would be one that someone writes a lot of information on the plants and animals in the marsh.  When the reviewer lets them know that they need to do more, they then add to the 2000 word document another 1000 words and diagrams.  We now have a massive document.

Hint.  Teach people, but stay on topic.  Oh, and don't write a book on it.

Also, if you are a geologist, or know a lot about the geology, look at it from the level of a 14 year old.  You may have to describe a few more things for that level.

3. Earthcaches must highlight a unique feature.

We see many listings that are something that is not unique.  If a cache is written about the erosion of an area, you may not be able to do one on the same cache 30 minutes away. You may be able to if you are teaching something different. 

That said, there can be a few Earthcaches at the same location.  A cache on the stones, and another on the erosion could be at the same location (depending on how they are written up).

The feature should also be unique.  A river stone is not necessarily unique.  In fact this is why waterfalls, glacial erratics, springs, etc are no longer accepted. They are not unique.

4. Earthcaches must have approval from the Land Manager prior to submission

Some parks, cites, forest, etc have developed policies about containerless caches. If they have that policy online please point to that in a log.  If you think that you do not need permission explain why.  Just because the location is public does not mean you do not need permission.

Note for a National Park, you will need written permission.  It is part of the agreement with the National Park Service in helping with the program.  The email should be sent directly to the reviewer. 

5. An Earthcache can be a single site or multiple sites.

You have to have visited to location.  Do not toss out a site that you have never been to.  You may have problems in the review if you have not.  You need to get the coordinates there, and make sure the area is open to the public.  

Your cache can be at one location, or ask people to visit  4-5 locations.  I do not think this means that you can pick one of a number of locations to actually answer the question.  But I would have to see on a case by case basis.

6. Logging an Earthcache requires visitors to undertake a site-specific task which provides a learning opportunity related to the topic.

You must use information from the cache page, and the location, to perform a task to help the person learn. Those tasks needs to be about the geology of the site.  A word off a sign, couning fence posts or stairs, pillars, etc does not have anything to do with geology and will not be accepted as an Earthcache logging task.

That task is the proof of a visit. Photos are still not allowed, and you have to be able to send your answers to the cache owner through the Geocaching profile.  That also means that auto-responders are not allowed.  Why?  You are not maintaining your cache.  You are creating something to take care of the work for you.  Also auto-responders do not allow you to have good logging tasks.  You want an answer like 7, or green.  Not a logging task that makes someone think, or educate.

Also when you submit your cache, place your answers in a reviewer note. 

7. The Earthcache text and logging tasks must be submitted in the local language.

I think the is obvious.

8. Respect Trademarks and Copyright and only use text, images or logos if you have permission.

We have seen more and more caches where someone is copying entire web pages, logo or diagrams without permission.  Many state agencies, or other organizations would like a reference to the book or website where you got the information.  Just because it is on the internet, does not mean you can copy it entirely. 

9. Earthcache sites adhere to the principles of geocaching and Leave No Trace outdoor ethics.

Don't dig a hole, tear up the ground, paint something, or leave a cache or other materials at the cache site.  Try and stay near trails/roads.  Stay away from fragile ecosystems.

10. Earthcaches are submitted through geocaching.com and must meet these guidelines and adhere to the Geocache Listing Requirements / Guidelines and geocaching.com Site Terms of Use Agreement.

Yep.  Simple.

Conclusion

We had a number of problems, small and repeated.  So some tweaks were made.  Sorry for those that wanted photos back. 

On that note.  I was one of the most vocal at first that the photos were needed. Taking them away was stupid. I think that was the term I used.  I now disagree.  This is not a virtual cache, it is an educational experience.  A photo means the person does not have to actually answer the questions, and the owner does not have to actually see that they learn.

Earthcaches is education about geology and this earth.  Not photography, not numbers.  Take some time, and enjoy the world around you.

The End of Challenges

From this post in the forums:

In our effort to inspire outdoor play through Geocaching, we are often faced with decisions about what to focus on next, and what to focus on less. It is through these decisions that we explore opportunities to grow the global game of geocaching.

Occasionally, during this process, we are faced with the reality that certain ideas don’t catch on as we had hoped. In these situations we owe it to ourselves and to you to make tough decisions about the future of every project and the resources to be applied to each. Sometimes, as a result, cool features must become casualties.

In this spirit, we have decided to retire Geocaching Challenges.

This means that, effective today, we have disabled the ability to create new Challenges. We have also removed the Challenges application from all mobile application stores. In approximately 7 days, we will be removing all traces of the Challenges functionality and related content from Geocaching.com.

On an office wall here at HQ is a sign that reads, “Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow.” By accepting that we will sometimes get it wrong, we can allow ourselves to learn from and imagine new opportunities in the world of Geocaching. Our hope is we can take the lessons from Challenges and create better tools to guide you on your next adventure.

Give Thanks to Others this Thanksgiving

This was a holiday weekend in the United States.  Thanksgiving, a time that we give thanks for all that we have been given.

So now that everyone has thanked those around you, take the time to give thanks to the impressive and awesome caches that you have found over the years. It is a simple way to let other cachers know how you appreciate them.  So often people are so caught up into numbers that they forget to thank others.  As a cache owner I took the time to go back and find the caches that really impressed me, and I wanted to flag as a favorite.

It is also useful to find caches.  When I was traveling this weekend, and I was running out of daylight (at 5:30 sheesh) , I started to pick caches that had 2-3 favorite points. I was doing searches on my phone, then looking for 3 or more favorite points.  I avoided the one favorite point caches.  I have seen best friends give a favorite point because of the cache owner, so I was skipping those as I traveled through the area.

My process of giving out favorite points.

I have given out about 200 of the 300 favorite points that I have.  I keep thinking about others, but at the same time I may be overly picky.

When I sat down I decided that the caches that I was most likely to give favorite points to were the Virtual and Earthcaches. So I just pulled them up when I was looking at them.  then went through them.  After that I gave a look at the multi caches (mostly because I did not have many of them).

Then I pulled up maps.  I looked for caches that I found in the hills and mountains.  Ones that impressed me.  Followed by the caches that others may have favorited.

Like I mentioned, I still have 200.  I never want to give all of them out.  If I come across a great string of 10 caches (rare but possible), I want to have that available to give out. 

Logging interesting logs.

I had not thought of this until I was typing this.  You can not easily go back to your caches and add large long cache logs.   There are a few options.

Log as a note.  On my phone, or gps I put small notes that will help me later.  I can log from my phone, but it is tricky and slow.  So I usually will save them until I get home.  Pull up my field notes and add an interesting log.

Some may have seen this, I posted it on Facebook, but I wanted to share one of my favorite logs, that I received on a letterbox earlier this week.

Oh great and powerful wizard of the gossamer coils spread across the world, and gatekeeper who doth guard the access to the mapping of treasures by us mere mortals, I embarked upon a noble adventure this morn to be the first to uncover your treasured prize in the fabled canyon of precious jewels and eating utensils, on this, the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, being not a date upon which I had successfully completed such a task in years past. A chill was in the air as I climbed aboard my azure chariot and began my adventure, uncertain as to my fate. Upon my arrival at the location of the starting point mentioned in the scrolls I was disheartened to see that two chariots were already on the scene. Had usurpers arrived prior, thus robbing me of the glory I sought? A pair of young lovers unrecognized by me had recently dismounted their chariot and had proceeded up the trail. Were they there seeking treasure? Or perhaps they were there seeking the fabled mineral pools in order to copulate in their mystical warm waters. I immediately proceeded along the path foretold in the magical electronic prophesy. When I saw that the lovers had chosen a different path than I, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that I would not have to engage them in combat for the prize that I sought and silently wished them success in their copulatory endeavour.

But what of the other chariot? Might there still be a usurper afoot? A brief examination of the path before me, and the lack of telltale footprints in the glistening frost led me to believe that I alone was on this adventure and that my only enemy would be myself and my good senses. I forged ahead, not knowing what awaited me. I descended into the crevasse, forged across the raging river, and emerged successfully out the other side without incident. I could see the signs that you, oh omnipotent wizard, quite nearly tumbled in the mud on your adventure.

As I ascended out of the crevasse, the landmarks laid before me, just as was foretold in the prophesy and I proceeded without trepidation. At last, I arrived at a green and living stone, and beyond that a large log stretching up and away from the trail. Was this the location of the treasure? Had my adventure finally come to an end! A brief inspection revealed to me that it ultimately did not match the description in the prophesy... my adventure was not yet complete. Curses!! I proceeded onward.

Further up the path, was a foreboding place that seemed to present a bit more of a challenge, which was alluded to in the scrolls. My journey may have finally come to an end. Upon making the transit around the fabled green and living stone, I spotted the log and sticks, and I knew then that I had finally reached my goal. I uncovered the treasure, my heart pounding in my chest. Only one issue remained: would the parchment inside be devoid of writing? My hands trembled as I removed the scroll from its protective sheath, and slowly unfurled it to reveal that it was unblemished by another's hand.

VICTORY WAS MINE!! I shouted a cry of praise to the Spirits of Valhalla and proceeded to make my mark, thus claiming the prize as my own in the fiftieth minute of the ninth hour. I carefully replaced the treasure to its hiding place to await the next adventurer and then proceeded back down the path to my awaiting chariot, to make my way home and to the arms of my impatiently waiting fair maiden, who not surprisingly cared not to hear the tales of my adventure.

But that does not make the victory any less sweet. Long shall I remember this adventure, and my point of favor is awarded to it to mark it as a grand adventure to all for all eternity.

TFTFTF, oh great and mighty wizard. You shall forever hold a place of honor in my eyes.

Thanks to Dr. Jay for the log. 

Remember to share.  Share your experiences.  It is why geocaching is more interesting that some of the other games.  We share our experiences.