MnGCA

[Jam3s]

[joboo]

[bflentje]

Done 4. I am 2 for 4.. coords off but acceptable on one and the other off significantly. Other two were ok.

[CLARIFICATION]

- Kathio: OK
- Crow Wing: stage #2 botched by 200'
- Lindberg: OK
- Hennepin: A couple of stages off 20-30' but maybe acceptable

[Jonas]

We went for the Afton safari cache yesterday. All coords were ok. The only potential issue was the last stage. The coords pointed less than 50 feet from a woodduck bird house and the hint is "Don't worry, no one is living there.".

We walked up on a couple that had looked in the wood duck house and we did as well. I'm guessing that this wood duck house would not be very usable by any inhabitant for the next three years.

-Jonas

[loneeagle_24]

I did two on Sunday and the coords were good at one but the location of the cache was questionable, at best. I already let pearhead know about this.

As for the other park (Big Stone), they were off a bit I gave the park manager what I came up with for the second stage. Then had to go and chat with her after not finding the final. Was told I was close. I think what she did was took the waypoint while she was parked on the road, and forgot to get the ones at the actual cache location. I am going to call her later today and get her some closer #'s that will help others in finding it instead of wandering around and not finding it. It was off by about 70' on the final stage. Should be fixed by the weekend though.

Haven't been to Upper Sioux, but was informed that that one had to get adjusted as well. It should be fixed now.
_________________
King of the Jeff Gordon TB's!
They put that cache WHERE?

[bflentje]

Complaints registered at Sakatah about bad coords. I am headed down this coming weekend to help average a new set of numbers.

[andrewmcc]

[Bus&Betty]

Coordinates at Father Hennepin were off by about 45 feet. Many folks have mentioned this in their logs.

Coordinates at Banning were spot on.

[msrubble]

Split Rock Creek: coordinates to final OK when I was there, but they were handwritten. Someone else logged that they were half a mile off.

Blue Mounds: coordinates to final not in expected format. I had to perform some calculations. I had feedback from the state parks asking me for an explanation of the problem so that they can help later searchers.

Lake Shetek: no problem.

Upper Sioux Agency: Coordinates on web site were wrong, but they had a sign posted you could hardly miss. I found the first stage, and those coordinates have been changed on the web page. I could not find the second stage, and suspect that those coordinates were also bad. I was there right after sunset; maybe that makes a difference in ease of finding.

[m&tcacheseekers]

We did 3 parks.
Camden park (we helped with this one from the beginning of the program) the other half of M&T did the find and others have found with no problems.
lake Shetek - this was a nice one and no problems
Upper Sioux agency- had problems with the web page coordinates and stage one had posting for webpage coordinates not stage 2. We helped them get things straightened up and they should have webpage and first stage fixed by now. they also had the D/T ratings at a 1/1 and gave them an explanation of how ratings work and that they should have them looked at and updated. The park had all the demo gps units setup with the different stages and people who went into the park and used the parks gps units had no problem with the cache.

we also sent into pearhead information for camden state park to have that data added to the parks cache webpage.

Had a good first day of park caching with 2/3 FTF's

[NeoAddict]

[Pear Head]

I would highly suggest that you don't rely on the DNR to read every single cache log (I know, I know). If you notice a problem with a cache I would suggest noting it in the log for others to read but also contacting andrewmcc directly so he can pass it up the chain (for example, if you notice a stage missing). I'd also (naturally) suggest letting the park management know if you can.

It seems like most problems that I've noticed on the cache pages are being addressed, but I also imagine that it's easy for them to slip through the cracks.
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Hmm...

[Paklid]

I've done 13 of these caches (and scored 2 wild cards in the process - whatever that means?).

I am a little surprised at how many are either nearly identical to the history challenge cache in the same park or EXACTLY the same as the history challenge cache. Seems like in a big old park there would be more than one nice location for a cache.

Beyond that, it's been fun again walking the park trails. I joined the hiking club this year and intend to collect all those passwords - and log their acceptable recordable miles. Unfortuately, that probably means I'm moving towards doing them all again...... Another trip to Garden Island late July??

At Temperance River, my GZ for the final was in an area I figured would be too dangerous to clamber to, so I didn't do it. Instead I looked in safer nearby spots and found the cache very quickly (about 50 feet away). I marked the position and reported that to the park ranger who placed the cache. Seems the surest way the feedback gets to the person who could actually make necessary changes.

I've also noticed that many of the stage markers are very nicely constructed and look like they're intended to be there for the long haul. It is a little funny though. As I walk through the park, not knowing how many stages there are, if I see a sign in the search zone I assume (almost always correctly) a stage marker (with coords) will be there. If I don't see a sign, I start looking for an ammo box.

I'll bet all the coordinate issues are fixed very soon if not already and we'll have these nice quality caches available for a long time.
_________________
-Paklid

[bflentje]

[ArcherDragoon]