Geocaching Take Me To Church - OBGCP62

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This week..

Doctor D tackles the issue of favourite point etiquette.

Can half asleep teenagers be trusted to navigate?

News on #UKGeocachingHour

The silent searcher has locals stumped with his latest hide.

An American attempts to find some Church Micros.

The March Ey Up Me Duck Challenge is revealed.

plus more..

Last week..

GC5N2P2 Podcasting 61 by CraigsOutside

Three from the Silent Searcher...

GC5NAT3 Dont forget to log it Dr D

GC5NAR9 Oh Beep

GC5NAPG Banana source

News..

#UKGeocachingHour Tuesday 8 - 9pm (from cotswoldcaching.boards.net) (Thanks to Yorkshire Yellow for submitting)

Dead Ski World Cup man was on geocaching trip (from www.thelocal.se)

Dumb stuff geocachers do..

Don't rely on a still asleep teenager to navigate.

Nemesis geocache..

Oh Beep by silent searcher GC5NAR9 10 DNF's

A tricky little thing this from the brains and hands of a 6 yr old too! Hope you enjoy the frustration of trying to find it

Feedback..

Hi ya its j+b.arsenal hear any chance you can solve   GC3FG90 Childhood Hero by Ottaway's123 for me please?

Thank you

 

Mark, you called me out for being "competitive" and I am. Challenge accepted! Like I told you, we don't have "Church Micros" here in the states. What we have are "Spirit Quest" caches in cemeteries. In fact, of my 5700 finds I had found only two with the word "church" in the title. I did a quick search and found that there are exactly six caches containing the word "church" within a 30-mile radius of my house. I knew the chances were slim, but I wasn't about to let that stop me from trying. One of the caches had a string of DNFs and was clearly missing, so that one was dropped from my list right away.

 

I headed out Sunday afternoon, in 15*F temps and getting over a bad cold, to find the other 5. The first cache I went to was Church Road Park (GCX1W0), which was about a half an hour from my house. The park was not surprisingly abandoned, and I made the relatively easy trek to GZ where I stood scratching my head. It's very possible that the snow and frozen ground caused me to search the wrong part of the right host, but it's also a possibility that the host has been altered since the cache was last found. Or it's even more possible that I was searching the wrong host altogether, although I did expand my search by up to 50 feet in all directions. DNF. Bummer. I remembered that I had a backup "church" cache about 50 miles in the other direction that was near where I pick up my son from his dad's house, so there was still a chance of finding five. 

 

I moved on to the second cache, Churchill Island (GC1N3CT). The walk to GZ was quiet and peaceful. I stopped for a few pictures along the way. I got to GZ and searched for a good half an hour, digging through the foot of snow on the ground with a stick, poking along in the hopes that I would stumble across the container. Unfortunately the snow made this one much too difficult, and the GPS bounce didn't help matters. Even a quick PAF didn't help. So I had to walk away without a smiley. Strike two. By this time I was cold and frustrated. But I am not a quitter.

 

I wasn't far from the third cache, Churchville Cemetery "Illinois Spirit Quest" (GC2V1M1), so I headed over. It's a multi placed by my friend, Dutchlandian, from Holland. (Hi Ans!) I arrived at the posted coords and thought there was no way I'd be able to read the headstone with all of the snow. Luckily though I was able to brush away the top few inches, which was enough to read all of the inscriptions. I did some quick calculations and was off to the final. Finally! I am so glad this one is hidden where and how it is, so that I could get at least one smiley today! 

 

I was feeling a little more optimistic now, and moved on to Who Has a "Church Key" (GC29ZHV). The closest parking was about 500 feet away and I had to walk along a busy road to get to GZ. I wasn't sure what to expect here, given the large percentage of DNFs and the fact that the description says it's not winter friendly. I was happy to find that the "rock" (a Rolling Rock bottle cap) that the cache is under according to the hint was in full view! Somehow there was no snow on the ground in only this one small area. I seemed to be on a roll. But then ... I tried to pick up the cache. It wouldn't budge. I found a stick and tried to pry it up. It started to move a little, so I wedged my finger between it and the ground and pulled. Something came loose all right, but it was just the bottle cap, and the cache itself was still stuck in the frozen ground. The wire attaching the cap to the cache pulled right through the cap. Oh no! I broke the cache! (An apology email was sent to the C.O.) I tried and tried, but the ground was just too frozen and I could not get the container unstuck. Despite finding the cache, I could not put my signature on the log so no smiley here for me.

 

So at only one find out of four attempts, most people would probably just go home. Not me though. I was only a mile or so from the last cache, Anybody Got a Church Key? (GC5AF83), and had no choice but to finish my list. This one is on private property (with permission of course), around the back side of a small local brewery, Church Street Brewing Company. Even though it was Sunday and there was no one around, I still felt a bit uneasy walking around the building. I was very happy that this was a quick and easy find! Retrieval and replacement on the other hand, not so easy being only 5 feet tall. But I got the job done. 

 

Final stats for the day: 4 hours, 70 miles, 5 attempts, 2 finds. February Challenge = DNF.

 

Thanks for the fun adventure! I'm looking forward to next month's challenge.

 

shortyknits

Ask Doctor D..

Greetings, Doctor D, from Detroit, Michigan - USA!

I’m scrapcat, and I have an etiquette question about Favorite points.

Recently, I had two different experiences where cachers wrote in their logs that they were giving my cache a Favorite Point.  But when I check the “Who Favorited this cache…” their favorite points weren’t listed.  I’m assuming they either forgot to do it or changed their mind or don’t know how to do it.

Is it appropriate to contact them and ask them to add the favorite point? And, if so, what is the best way to go about it without alienating them?

Thank you and happy caching!

S.

GeoPauls video of the week..

LMGA 78 - Cuevo Ambrosio by LAN Monkey

 

 

 

The Ay Up Me Duck challenge..

Geocaches we found..

GC46G5M Church Micro 3773 ~ Durham ~ St Mary the Less by Just-Us-Two

GC57J5D Church Micro 6031...Sutton Bonnington - St Michael by GeoSandJLeo

GC38DV9 WLH#15 - Church View by PlasmaWave

GC57A87 Church Micro 5981 ... Hathern - St Peter & St Paul by GeoSandJLeo

GC57A6G Church Micro 5983 ... Normanton On Soar by GeoSandJLeo

Winner of Februarys challenge:

The Old Soldier

Well done on the Feb challenge. Ady was having a moan earlier in the car as we were listening to your last show saying you wouldn't let him join in the competition but then had to eat his words!!

Anyway this months challenge is entitled the pi challenge and will mean you will have to cache for 3 consecutive days. On day 1 you are to find 3 (and only 3) caches. The next day you need just 1 cache and on day 3 you must find just 4 (and no more) caches.   By Sunday we will have done 7 days of pi (3.141592) and it's killing us just doing that number on the day.  This all ties in with a challenge I am waiting to be published.

Travelbug race..

Our Oh Beep! Where are my other legs? is still in Australia. Tracking History (11904.7mi).  Last known location, GC5A4KA xoB tsoP arrumarruT by Post Master B@W

The Monkey King’s Southern S@m has is apparently back from the dead and has been discovered by Geocacher Luy83, who wrote on the log:

Habe den Harry Potter - TB im Cache TB-Hotel Cacher biggdisch gesehen.
Liebe Owner - the Monkey King - dein TB ist nicht weg :)

Translated to English:

Did the Harry Potter - seen Cacher biggdisch in the cache TB TB hotel .
Dear Owner - the Monkey King - your TB is not going away :)

Check out this episode!