This is another in the long list of people who seem not to think when hiding geocaches...
A bomb squad in Nevada investigated a suspicious pipe dropped off in front of a Carson City business earlier this month only to find the item was part of an electronic treasure hunt.
A man in a van without license plates assembled the object around 8 a.m. and put it in the bushes in front of SE Drywall on Gordon Street behind Slotworld near the corner of Highway 50 East and College Parkway, according to police.
Eric Sjogren, owner of the business, said he called the police to be safe, especially with “the state of the world at this point.”
The Tahoe Douglas Bomb Squad investigated the pipe only to find it was part of geocaching.
This is the point however where the police lose me. Probably not the best quote...."Quite a few people in this world have too much spare time,” Sjogren said. “We’re not one of them.” Lets hope the reporter misunderstood him.
Roger Wheeler, a Douglas County deputy with the bomb squad, said investigators have to take all calls seriously, and this one especially sounded suspicious.
The squad used a small explosion that would have disabled the object if it had been a bomb, he said, and a plastic bag came out identifying it as from geocaching.
From the Associate Press: CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - State transportation officials say they're finding more and more geocaches in highway rights of way.
A geocache is box containing items of little value. People can find a geocache by looking up its coordinates online and going to those coordinates using global positioning devices.
Highway officials say they're concerned about the safety of people who look for geocaches near roadways. Jeff Goetz, with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, says people looking for geocaches can create a hazard when they park their cars along roads.
He also says those people also can be a distraction for drivers.
Information from: Casper Star-Tribune - Casper, http://www.casperstartribune.net
We personally do not like geocaches in public places or along highways. We prefer a nice hike in a park. What do you think?
A library in Nova Scotia has developed a geocaching course to introduce children to the hobby. An hour-long basic skills training session will be held at the River John Library today, demonstrating the use of Global Positioning Sensors and showing how to get involved in the popular international sport. The workshop is free to all children and a scavenger hunt will be held for the participants to show off their newly learned treasure hunting skills. Great Idea! Get the kids out and doing something active and also bring them into a library. Maybe they will see a book for the first time!!
Rockbobster gets his 500th geocache. Congratulations!!
The Fifth Annual Hike-N-Seek is just about a month away and now geocachers have one more incentive to grab their GPSr's and head to Iowa. GreatBearOutdoors.com, a niche online retailer specializing in camping tents, sleeping bags and other outdoor gear announces their recent support for the HIKE-N-SEEK 2008 event.
From September 26 to September 28 Hike-N-Seek 2008 will be held at Swan Lake State Park. This year's event coordinator (The NVG) plans on having nearly 100 permanent caches for the weekend long event. The geocaching competition this year will commence at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and run through 10:00 a.m. Sunday with both individual and team categories (but you may only compete in one or the other). Both competitions will cover the same caches and be run simultaneously.
The caches are hidden county wide and there will be plenty of hiking. It's a 24-hour competition, so night caching is allowed. Camping will be available at Swan Lake and there are many hotels and motels in Carroll, IA.
The President of the Iowa Geocachers Organization noted the strong growth for the event, ""'Hike-N-Seek' is quickly becoming the flagship event for the Iowa Geocachers Organization and thanks to this year's Hike-n-Seek coordinator - The NVG - the event is heading very strongly into its fifth straight year and with nearly 100 permanent geocaches being hidden, it's going to be huge! The NVG has also incorporated night caching in the event with a 24 hour competition, so night caching is not only expected, but may be necessary!"
When asked why Great Bear Outdoors decided to be an event sponsor Managing Partner Geoffrey F. Moore had this to say, "Geocaching is a great way for families and others to enjoy the outdoors. We're just happy the Iowa Geocachers would let us participate."
In 2007 the event attracted over 120 attendees. With the gaining popularity of Geocaching the event is sure to attract even more participants.
The technology that was being used the day a 23-year-olds body was discovered may be the same technology that is used to help solve the cause of her death. According to the Times-Standard, law enforcement officials investigating the murder of 23-year-old Michelle Ashlee Dickson are hoping cell phone data will help them determine where the Crescent City woman was murdered, the final step needed to clear up which agency has jurisdiction over the case.
”It is another piece of the puzzle and eventually all the pieces will come together,” said Del Norte County District Attorney Michael Riese.
While the primary suspect in the case, Josiah Miller of Arcata, has been arrested, prosecutors cannot charge Miller until it is determined where Dickson was fatally injured, or died.
Her body was found by several geocachers under an Oregon bridge on July 23. She reportedly met with Miller the evening of July 15, when she was last seen alive. See Cachers Make Gruesome Discovery to learn more about where her body was discovered.
Del Norte County Sheriff's investigator Tim Athey said cell phone call logs can tell investigators where calls were made from and who made them, while data from towers can help determine where the phone was located. Cell phones are constantly sending out signals to towers, he said.
”The phone continually tells towers where you are so you can get your voice mails,” Athey said.
The technology section of The Manchester Evening News in the UK has a well written piece on the reports first foray into the world of geocaching. The following is from their website.
I START my geocaching career with a sophisticated GPS device in one hand - and a good old-fashioned A to Z in the other `just in case'.
Straight away I have problems - there's no satellite signal because of the buildings so the gizmo bleeps and flashes but does little else.
I punch in the co-ordinates again, get a reading and follow the tiny arrow on screen. I'm making good progress but concentrate too much on every twitch and change in direction and too little on speeding cars and lorries.
Is it me or does the reporter look like Austin Powers?
Then, in the shadow of a church and staring at a giant sculpture of an acorn, the gizmo tells me I've arrived. The hard part starts now. The point of the game is that geocaches need to be small and hard to find.
I was hoping for a giant box with a flashing neon arrow suspended above it but, then, there would be no fun in that. Because fun is what I'm having scrabbling around on the ground. I'll admit to cheating slightly by having looked for clues on the geocaching website, so I have a decent idea where to look. Except, when I look, there's nothing there but half bricks and crisp packets.
The photographer quickly gets frustrated by my useless attempts . . . so we both end up on all fours, squatting in the grime. I almost faint with pride when I spot something with no earthly business being stashed under a bench in Manchester. I check that no muggles are about and grab my prize.
The cache is wrapped in black tape which I unwrap like a child at Christmas.
Inside the tiny container is a scrawny piece of paper which reads: "Well done".
Just a tad underwhelmed, I scribble my geocache username and put it back where I found it.
"My first attempt has been a success. And it's only on the way back to the office I realise what I really am . . . late for work and wearing dirty trousers.
An article in The Daily Citizen tells the story of Pat Vaughn who discovered geocaching in 2003. He has been addicted ever since. The article, titled Gold at the End of the E-Rainbow, discusses how Vaughn discovered the hobby and his personal quest to complete the Arkansas State ParkCache Challenge.
To complete the challenge Vaughn visited all 52 state parks in Arkansas and battled the elements to complete his goal. "The difficulty of actually finding each cache was not that hard, but some of the terrain was really tough,” Vaughn said. “Daisy State Park, southwest of Hot Springs, involved walking almost a mile and a half in 100-degree weather and several elevation changes. It was the most difficult one for me. But once you got in there, there was a fantastic view, well worth the effort of getting in there.” Vaughn said he drove over 1,000 miles in his quest, and that his favorite state parks were Mount Magazine, Lake Ouachita, Devil's Den and Withrow Springs
The response to the Arkansas State Parks' ParkCache Challenge has far exceeded expectations, according to Joe Jacobs, manager of marketing and revenue for the Arkansas State Parks.
“The challenge went live on July 14 and in four weeks we have had 550 finds, which is an average of more than 10 per park,” Jacobs said. “We have had four ‘finishers' who found all the clues in the 52 ParkCaches and were able to locate the 53rd and final cache.”
For information on geocaching in an Arkansas State Park and the ParkCache Challenge, go to ArkansasStateParks.com/things-to-do/geocaching/. For information on the Arkansas Geocachers Association visit ArkGeocaching.org.
