Big news from the IGO Board – You will no longer be able to log event caches as “attended” for events posted using the IGO account. The reason is the amount of email this type of activity causes. You can still log the event caches to a permanent cache close to the event. You can also still plan to log “attended” for event caches at events not posted by the IGO account. If you have not kept up with the forums, whether or not to log event caches is a very hot topic. There are very strong opinions on both sides. How do you feel about this issue? Stop by the IGO forums and let everyone know.

Well, as you will see, there is no cache profile this week. Sorry, but I ran out of highlights to publish. I am sending out a request to everyone reading the newsletter to highlight one of your own caches and send it to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org”. Even if you think you can’t write, go for it. I can’t write and I am putting out the newsletter.

By request this week we have a cacher profile of Iowa Tom. Also there is a report on the Hike-N-Seek event and part two of Blue Grass Tom’s Basics of Placing a Cache.

GC.Com Username: Iowa Tom

Number of Finds/Hides: I finally found more than I’ve hidden. LOL I’ve always been one that wanted to hide rather than find in any game of hide-and-go-seek. I find creating special caches and hiding them a creative outlet that’s hard to resist.

Occupation? I teach five science subjects each day; 8th grade earth science, 9th grade physical science, 11th grade biology, chemistry and human anatomy/physiology.

How you got your username? In 2000 I joined a Yahoo Group called Astronomer. I quickly discovered that Tom is a common name! To differentiate myself from the other Toms, I thought of calling myself Tom Fool, Tom Terrific, Tom Turkey and any of several other derivatives of Tom but eventually settled upon “Iowa Tom” then finally “Tom Iowa USA” since location is important for astronomy purposes. I was happy to discover that IOWATOM just fit on my personalized license plate! That made it perfect for a user name for geocaching.com.

How long have you been caching? I’ve been a member of geocaching.com since Wednesday, November 26, 2003. In cache years that seems like decades!

How did you get started? I first heard about geocaching when someone in a church I just started attending mentioned it in one Sunday school class. UNI bear was attending that church and was deeply involved. On the 26th of December, 2003 one of his caches was the first one I found. That was a day I will never forget. That first experience transformed me into an official geozombie. I now feel a need to participate in the geocaching game at every turn. I’ve never seen the world the same since. Now every plot of trees captures my interest as a potential hiding spot. Going to Menards to look through their stock of tubular containers has taken on a whole new meaning. Every time I walk into the place I have to resist the instinct to migrate to the PVC area.

I purchased my first GPSr not just for geocaching but to allow me to locate the centerline of where I needed to be to see a transit of the International Space Station across the moon and sun. The best solar transit for me occurred on April 16, 2003. As I recall I was the first in the group of satellite observers to record a solar transit on video. Since then a great many have and with a lot better equipment than I had for recording the video. My Hello ISS cache is dedicated to that event.

Favorite cache/why? My favorite cache is The Sign says it all by supergoober. My son (goes by Lycan) and I found it recently. The association of the cache with the sign could not be better! I also have a special memory of the Greenbelt Lake GOTO Cache by UNIbear because it was the first cache I ever found.

Least Favorite/why? I don’t care for caches where muggles are about. I’m self conscious often enough as it is. I especially don’t like looking for caches in playgrounds because of what parents might think of someone wandering around their kids.

Current caching goals? I see geocaching as a virtual laboratory that I can use to teach about science and history and so on. I get participants, my virtual students, to go on field trips to places I would like them to go. I use geocaching to dispel misconceptions. See the Light informs us that crickets do NOT chirp by rubbing their legs together and Sumac explains why the bright red in autumn leaves CANNOT be present before they turn red in the fall! Chlorophyll cannot mask that bright red even though many people believe that it can.

Once I received an email that stated how my caches were “predictable and mostly easy to find.” That was all the impetus I needed. From then on I began making multicaches that required a lot of work and made those easy finds not so easy to get into. For instance the Tombstones Rock cache requires a credit card or other stiff thin material to get open. If I didn’t include instructions for opening Bugs R-4 "Kids" Habitat many would probably give up trying. Find the Cross http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3e5006cc-0977-4b83-bb9d-841bd130b485 uses a mousetrap to keep it shut until one thing is done to allow the lid to be opened. The waterproof match container log is hidden in Newton’s Third Law and in Heart to Heart. These caches are easy enough to find but getting the log into your hands is the challenge. Until the Eye of the Needle was recently muggled by someone quite persistent, it was a favorite puzzle to get open. The hint contained the instructions. A recent visitor said this about getting to the cache, “A couple of MacGyverisms later, the cache was in hand.”

I would like to make more caches that require a user to bring their own tools and or batteries that allow them to interact with the cache. In conjunction with that I would like to continue to make them educational. Including good HTML a good addition as well.

One of the other things I teach about in my geocaches is Newton’s Third Law . I often make a cache that forces a person to learn to use certain programs on the Net and involves learning to use a GPS unit in ways that most people don’t normally bother with, like how to make a multi-leg route. Concepts like azimuth, bearing and back bearing are required for these three caches; The Flash Lag Effect, Class of 2005 Travel Bug Suite and Find the Cross. The multi-leg route is almost a must for Tombstones Rock.

Puzzle caches with few if any hints are becoming a fun thing to create. I devised Emoticons for a bunch of kids in a geocaching class to figure. Light Speed introduces helps people to grasp how fast light travels and It’s Elemental Dear Watson introduces people to the periodic table.

Hike-N-Seek

The 3rd Annual Hike-N-Seek Event was held this past weekend (9/23/06) at Lake Wapello State Park. Thirty two cachers (a total of around seventy five cachers and guests) participated in the event. The day started out rainy but cleared by ten o’clock and was beautiful for the remainder of the day. All were invited for a pot luck dinner and prizes after the day of caching.

The event included forty five traditional caches, three multi-caches, two night caches and one pocket cache. Boasark, Welch, Hill Folk and 3AMT all hid caches. Summitt Dweller, Fishpounder and KCmose provided the night caches and pocket cache. More than one cacher was heard commenting “This is so cool!” when doing the night cache. Some caches of note were Calf Deep by Welch and Don’t Fence Me In by Boasark.

Summitt Dweller, the President of IGO, surprised 3AMT by making him the latest recipient of the IGO Volunteer Geocoin. This coin is awarded to those putting forth an extra effort in volunteering for IGO events and causes. Congrats to 3AMT for the honor. Past reciepients include Blue Deuce, welch, WindChill and Summitt Dweller.

Prizes from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Ankeny and CiCi’s Pizza in Des Moines were accompanied by geocoins, maping software and a GSAK license all donated by cachers attending the event. Thanks to all who donated prizes. Also a big thanks to the DNR for working with IGO to allow the event at a State Park.

"CACHE TYPES PART 2"

Last time, we talked about the "Traditional" and "Multi" cache types. The majority of geocaches out there fall into one of these two categories, but there are a number of other interesting type you should know about.

One type is the "Offset" cache. Although it is technically classified as a Traditional cache on the website, this kind of hide is sort of a cross between a "Multi" and a "Puzzle." The coordinates aren't made up, as with a "Puzzle" cache. They actually take you to a location to start from. Once there, you look for a historical marker, monument or building according to the web instructions. You usually then find some numbers on the market or a plaque which are in turn used to calculate your next stop. A good example is Mill Creek Cache (GCHDYJ) in Jackson County. You visit an old railroad depot in the nice little town of LaMotte, travel down a gravel backroad, and end up near the creek that the cache is named after. (If you do this one in summer or early fall, bring your fishing rods. There are some super trout streams in the area!)

You can't "hide" a "Virtual" geocache anymore, but you can find and log them. The idea with these was to go to some place of natural beauty or historical importance and experience the site. The reason you can't set them up is the new geocaching-affiliated sport of Waypointing, which sort of takes this concept and expands it. More info on that is available at Geocaching.com. To get credit for this type of find, the cache owner usually requires you to photograph yourself at the site or to send them an email with some unique information you could only obtain at the site.

I did one of these recently near Orlando, Florida, at the Kennedy Space Center called STS-107 Columbia (GCBD49). I had to count the number of steps to the top of the viewing platform and then send them to the owner in order to get credited with the find. We did another interesting "Virtual" cache in July just east of Galena, Illinois. Bird's Eye View (GC5B2E) is at the top of a large wooden tower of the fire-watch variety. It's a bit old and rickety, the stair railings feel like they could give way sometimes and if there's a wind, it just adds to the feeling that this 4-story tower may not be as strong as it first looks! Actually, you just need to report the year that Ulysses S. Grant arrived in the area, which is listed on a sign at the bottom, but you can't come this far without savoring the view of Illinois countryside, and bits of Iowa and Wisconsin.

A "Webcam" geocache is kind of a variation on a "Virtual" cache. You go somewhere and make sure a friend or family member at a computer captures a picture of you in front of the webcam. I've done just one of these - it's outside the Pacific Tsunami Museum right on the bay in Hilo, Hawaii, where the Big Island town was hit on April 1, 1946, and again in 1960 by some monster waves. The cache's name is appropriately April Fool (GCD2C8), based on the fact that when warned of the approaching tragedy, many people suspected they were just being told an April Fool's Day joke. When I was there this past spring, anyone who could have done the computer capture was with me or out of town somewhere else, so I took my own picture with a camera in front of the museum and webcam, and sent it (begging) to the cache owner, who did give me credit.

A nice "Letterbox" hybrid is Smile and Watch the Cars Go By (GCR9XP) in Davenport. Letterboxing is the historical ancestor of geocaching, and used clues to find boxes with a book and a stamp inside. You'd stamp the book with a stamp you carried, and then stamp your own book with the stamp in the cache as proof, in both cases, that you were there!

Back to the Devonian (GCMPXH) at the south end of the Coralville Reservoir is what's known as an "Earth" cache. It's located at an "outdoor interpretive center" which shows various rock layers and fossil formations. It never hurts to learn a little about the earth. Enjoying the earth outdoors, or course, is one of the attractions for most of us to geocaching.

And, finally, there is the ever-popular "Event" cache which ranges from indoor "geobreakfasts" to multiple day camping events to weiner roasts and potlucks. You can find out about these on Geocaching.com by linking from the front page to the calendar, or you can select your state in the drop-down menu on the front page, and the upcoming "Event" caches are listed at the top of the next page listing events and new caches. It's neat to meet the faces and people behind the caching "handles," and to swap stories on finds and hides, share a clue or two, and to view and exchange travel bugs and geocoins.

While you may favor a particular type of cache, make sure you try some of each category. Variety is the spice of life, and adds some spice to your geocaching as well!