An adventure

Earlier this week I decided that I was going on a drive. I wanted to get away and get up into the mountains. It had been some time since I had gotten out. I had studied maps and decided where I wanted to go, my planned route, and how long it would take.

I took off up the left fork of Hobble Creek with the idea to circle back to Diamond fork, or down through the right fork of Hobble Creek. It was a good plan. I would turn around at any point that I needed to.

So off and up. I found a few caches on the way up. I had not been up here for some time and It was time for me to grab them. The road that I was planning on taking appeared to be closed. No matter up I went. The road at the base was rought but not bad. You could take it if you were careful in a car. Once you have to cross the creek then you could be in trouble.

From there on it got rough. I reached a point just past the scout camp and the road was a shale slide. My tires sank like I was in soft sand and I gunned it. I had images of me digging my way back. I promised myself that I would not return that way. (big mistake).

I worked my way up a road that was narrow, and steep. There were some very pretty views on the way up. It reminded me a lot of home down in Richfield. It seems like most roads up here are crawling with people. Not this one all is quiet.

I did make it to a cache called Lazy and placed a few out. There were not many up here, and I am not sure how many will actually make it up here in the long run.

Past that point I tried to go up a road to make it to the top. That road would let me drop into strawberry if I needed to. Well I got within about .2 miles of the top and it was too steep. I could have made it in 4 wheel drive but I need to fix that. That ended in me backing up down a road with rocks as big as a basketball, for about 1/4 of a mile.

So I decided I would take the longer way out. Driving up that road I began to have problems. The engine died, and I could not get it running quite right. I began to realize as the sun was going down that I was facing the prospect of spending the night on the mountain. I was not too worried. A truck, and I would have built a fire in the road. I had not seen anyone for 6 miles,

It was all down hill so I figured it was time to coast. I actually figured I would get down to some meadows. If I wanted to spend the night I could there. But coasting down there were no rises at all. None. So I coasted for about 2 miles, no power steering and no power brakes. Like the old trucks.

After a while I tried to start the engine and up it went. Apparently it had got hot and vapor locked. So all was well. I placed a few caches on the way down. I wished I had placed them higher where I backed down and where I turned around, but that's life.

The things we do for fun and geocaches.

View Todays trip in a larger map

Geocoins and Scouting

About a year ago I started work with the UNPC on some projects for the 100th anniversary of Scouting.  I spent a number of weeks convincing them to place the original order. We waffled from 100 to 300 coins.  Never really deciding what to do for months.  Quotes went out to six different companies, and weeded down to two.  For the next three months I played with the design, and I worked on trying to get the best prices for the order that by the time we hit December we were at 200-300 coins in size.  We thought of the risk and really had a hard time deciding. 

Each company kept modifiying their bids, wanting another shot.  We tried to stick with a local company that was near the low bidder, and wanted the business, but had no experience in geocoins.  Finally when the numbers came in we made our choice for Coins and Pins for 300 coins.  Th number was chosen because of thats what the looser wanted as a price point. 

So sometime in Febuary I finalized the design, I was really happy with it and could not wait until the time came.  By March the order was placed.  Then one day in May this massivly heavy box was on my doorstep.  Do you have any idea how much 300 coins weigh?  Lots.

I was so exited, and we had what I had hoped for, but never expected.  70 for a contest, 100 copper and 130 brass for sale.  Up for sale they went, and poof they were gone.  So we ordered more of a slightly different color scheme.  300 to be exact.  then recenly I was told they were gone.  So I changed the color scheme again and we ordered 100 more, two orders for 50 each  made us decide to jump the order to 200.  Now another person from back east is asking for another 130 or so.

So what was orginally an order for 300 that I hoped we would sell, has now turned into 800 with a possibily of 1000 coins with 3-4 different color schemes.  All from the original little hope that we would sell them. 

I am in the process now of finalizing the orders, and getting a design ready for 2011.  It was so sucessful, we are rolling with the next batch.  Thanks for everyone that bought some.  Hopefully you enjoy them.  I have seen 3-4 around, and have bought a number myself.

The contest

The contest is still going on.  If you want one. 120 or so were reserved for the UNPC get in the game contest.  This entailed finding a cache and getting your photo taken and emailing your entry. 

1. Log the cache and upload a photo of yourself/group at the cache site.
2. Email the following info to unpcbsa@gmail.com, Name,cacher ID, Address, Phone #, email, and the name and GC # of the found cache.
3. Please include a story of your cache hunt.
4. Missing or incorrect information may invalidate the entry.
5. Each UNPC Scouts cache will count as one entry (multiple finds on the same cache will not count).
6. A monthly drawing will be performed to determine the coin winners.
7. The contest may be ended, and/or rules modified to fit changing situations, and limited number of coins.
8. Limit one coin per household

We have awarded 50 coins out so far.. with 50-80 more to go.  If you are interested, you and/or your scouts. Please feel free to enter

The coins for the contest are the Antique Silver ones. Except for a few gifts, that is the only way to get one.  So enjoy, and we hope to see your entry soon.

Update 9/27/10

Go here /journal/2010/9/27/scouting-geocoins.html

for a picture of the new coins that arrived today.

Utah oldest 100 ... I mean 99

I put together a list of Utah's oldest 100 caches.

Actually there were 99.  I realized after I was done so oh well.

Guess what ... Potters Ponds is still the oldest cache.  Hopefully you have found many of the caches that are on the list.

Groundspeaks Geocaching Andriod App Part 1 - Initial Impressions

Well here goes the run with Groudspeak's app.  This will be multiple parts focusing on the Android app and how it works, and what you can expect from it.

First I should point out that I use a Sprint Hero running 2.1.  I have tried a number of other apps, all with their ups and downs. I did not pay money for any of them.  I stuck with the free versions, or apps that were free.  So the chance to jump on the app was great for me.  We were told that it was coming out sometime during the week, so I would check the app store every few hours.   No luck at all.

Loading

Finally the app appeared in the store.  I downloaded it and it said there was 50-100 dowloads at the time. So woo hoo here I go off to the great beyond.  <poof> $9.99 vanished from the checking account and a few minutes later I was downloading.

No problems on the load.  Well there was one. Where I was at work had a poor download speed.  Well I guess there was not hurry.. I was at work after all.  Not much I could do there.

Impressions

It was running nicely.  I liked the splash screen, it reminded me of a place I camped a few months ago.  It smoothly ran me to the screen that asked me what I wanted to do: Find geocaches, different searches, and a trackables button. 

I zoomed through a number of screens, I had it search for the nearby caches and came up with a list.  Skimmed through a number of caches on the screen.  I clicked on one and the cache listings came up.  There were many different options that appeared, I looked through them and was able to get all the information from the cache page that you see on a page.  Description, hints, and other info. 

Clicking Navigate took me to a screen that let me look at the map of the area... with a line to a nearby cache.  The one at the destination.  It was a simple Google map. 

I took it out for a spin and found a cache.  I was happy with how smoothly it worked.  There was no delay. and I quickly noticed that on the map screen was a circle.  I eventually figured out that the circle around the dot that represented me was the margin of error.  It was pretty small, but there were times (inside and near buildings) that I could make it grow.

When I selected the option to actually navigate with the compass (from the menu screen) it took me right to the cache.  I am getting really good accuracy.  Far better than I expected, especially after I read about the iphone 3g gps issues.

Then it was a simple matter of logging the cache.  There are two options.  One that let me submit the cache as a field note, or just submit the log later.  Either could be a good option.  You may want to publish things later and write a longer note, or you may wish to do ir right then.  Depending on your skill with typing logs, or wanting to make it bigger later.

Final thoughts (part one)

It worked really nicely and I was happy to get my first cache with it.  I found two more that night, it worked smoothly and I did find some other little tricks that I will bring up when I continue with this.  But I would recomend it.

On that note.. some users are having issues with a few models.  Android phones often have a special UI over the Android operating system.  My Hero runs one called HTC sense, and also has some Sprint UI built in.  The Droid X has had a number of issues.  So you will spend some time working around them until the next update comes up.  Apparently they all have work arounds but you will want to be aware of it.

Android Geocaching App - Part 1- Initial Impressions

Android Geocaching App - Part 2 - Searches, Trackables, and Settings

Android Geocaching App - Part 3 - Geocache Navigation

Android Geocaching App - Part 4 - Loading Saved Files

Android Geocaching App - Part 5 - Final thoughts

Android app has arrived.

After a few months of waiting and moderating the Android forum on geocaching.com the moment finally arrived.  This afternoon the Android app appeared on the market.

I have tried a number of the other apps out there, and was always left kind of bummed at almost all of them.  From the geocaching.com websiteThis afternoon I logged on and finally had the app.  It took me a few seconds and it was on my phone and then I had to wait a few hours for quitting time.  Then off i went. The first cache was a bust.  but I could not find it anyway, and the second I went right to it.

I have been pretty please. It appears I have the ability to log it to my field notes, so i can make a longer cache note later, save a batch and upload 4-5 logs, or upload each log as I go.

I really liked how it looks and its ease of use. I was worried with all the other stuff out there that this one would not measure up.  It does.  and I am happy that is does.   It is the favorite of the ones that I have played with .