MnGCA

Trekkin' and Birdin' · Geocacher Joined: 22 Oct 2008 Posts: 97

Here's the story...we have two big chunks left in the state to complete. The western border from page 42 north and the stuff up in the BWCA and Iron Range. We're trying to do the state parks at the same time as we do our DeLorme pages.

So.....if we had to choose between one of those two regions to finish up this fall, which should it be? I'm wondering if it's smart to get the western states now, since flooding is often an issue in the spring. Any thoughts? We're just not keen on doing any of these in the winter.

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

The western most pages aren't that hard to do even with flooding. I think outside of the Grand Forks area, I was able to complete every page without ever having seen the river. And you can easily do the Grand Forks page even with flooding though you may encounter inconvenient detours.

I think doing page 89 will be the toughest, winter or summer.

DeLorme

Trekkin' and Birdin' · Geocacher Joined: 22 Oct 2008 Posts: 97

Thanks for the insight, Bart. Luckily, we already have page 89. It's the Ely/Hibbing/Savanna Portage-ish pages we need. I think there is a clump of 8 right in there, between the "spine" of the state and the North Shore.

We're taking a road trip out west in October and can probably get a few of the western pages on our way through to North Dakota. Where'd you get the cool map? I like it better than the profile one we have.

MNMizzou · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:17 am Post subject:

Scenery wise I would lean towards the Ely BWCA area in the fall... just for the bonus of the colors up there. If I remember right when we did the DeLorme Ely was on one page, and the next page east there was a pretty easy cache maybe 20-25 mins drive time due east out of Ely, so it wasn't too terrible to get that adjoining page. Ask the wife she is the guru of DeLorme/State Challenge road trips!!

Sharknose Bunnies · Geocacher Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 297

BananaForce · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:00 pm Post subject:

I was curious if there was a place to get the Delorme pages grid line coordinates.
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sparkyfry · Geocacher Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 345

Trekkin' and Birdin' · Geocacher Joined: 22 Oct 2008 Posts: 97

Thanks for the tips....we're hoping maybe to actually go next week to celebrate that "I don't have to go to school" feeling. We actually have the page east of Ely, but will still go for that letterbox. We'll see how life plays out for us. If any of the state park caches are particularly longish, that insight would be good to know, too. Looks like most of them up there have only the "official" cache. We try to do them all if we can, but it's not like there's nothing to do up that way. We're hoping to get Schoolcraft, Savannah Portage (which we remember from Volkswalk days as being a tougher hike), Scenic, Hill Annex, Tower Soudan, McCarthy and Bearhead.

And of course throwing Alvin's Phone Line in there along with Maymaygwashi. Can't do the two tough virtuals or Magnetic Rock this trip, but there will be others.

sparkyfry · Geocacher Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 345

EPMinnesota · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 1898

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

A few years back, when he was still geocaching, our geocaching friend Rubbertoes mapped out the MN DeLorme blocks and placed them into a Garmin MapSource GDB file. I've placed it on my web server for you to take a look at.

MN_deLorme_blocks.zip

I do not know what he used as the source. I am not sure if it's dead on accurate or just an estimation.

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

jrest · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:01 am Post subject:

Spotted this interesting tool while looking over the Wisconsin Delorme challenge, and looks like it will calculate the maps based upon your "my finds" query.

Delorme Calculator

The DeLORME Calculator allows you to upload your "My Finds" pocket query from Geocaching.com and will create state maps showing which DeLORME pages you have found caches on. This site currently supports Delorme Challengs in the following states:

Illinois
Iowa
Kentucky
Maine
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Wisconsin

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Trekkin' and Birdin' · Geocacher Joined: 22 Oct 2008 Posts: 97

I can't use that calculator, due to some bothersome apostrophes in our caching name. BlackCat has tried to fix it, but we're surviving.

And Bart, we'll get those three, just not this time. There are a number of "up north" caches on our list for someday.

sparkyfry · Geocacher Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 345