Topic: Seismic Monitor

[Ken (OP)]

Tried to find my first cache Friday!
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=26d7321e-a843-4ca1-acc3-29e64136740c

I didn't find it, so I knew that me gotta do more research to better understand how to look for a cache.
However... one of the people who had previously found the cache and found a camera in the items of the cache was kind enough to develop and post the pictures and a couple of them gave me some tremendous clues!

If you look carefully in the background there is a church that is only a few hundred feet behind that guy and on his right is a tree line. I already knew where that location is because on his left is an open field and you can see across it from the main street of King to where the tree line is (about 1000 feet)... and I know the church of course.
So... my first search was only 600-1000 feet short, but it could not be accessed from the direction I was coming from; this next time (this morning) I'll go through the open field.   :innocent:


Fast forward to today and I tried again:
Found the seismic monitor, but not the cache.  

In his description the cache owner said, "When you arrive at this location, you will understand just what you need to do."
The only clue that I could find was a small emblem for the Army Reserve that was glued to the top of the monitor box and because the emblem has a chevron in its background I thought that the point of the chevron might be indicating the direction that I should be looking.

Well I looked for about an hour, traveling out several hundred yards and found lots of stuff, but no cache.   :thud:

[Skhilled]

Maybe opposite direction or there is an army Reserve station nearby?

[Ken (OP)]

Maybe opposite direction or there is an army Reserve station nearby?

Doubtful on the direction part Steve, it's an open field that gets mowed.
I Googled the reserve station part for King and the surrounding areas and don't see anything that seems to fit.

It's more likely that I'm simply misreading the clue.  :undecided2:

[Ken (OP)]

Here's a little update on my progress for the Seismic Monitor cache.
My searching has two basic problems, no GPS available (will get one later, maybe as a Christmas gift) and lack of experience. (I?m getting better on the experience part)

So here?s a description of where my search stands.
My first attempt using a regular Google map put me behind the Lowes shopping center in their loading area and that gave no results of course. Then after some searching through the images posted to the page for this cache I could see the church in the background along with the tree line by the open field, thus getting a much better idea of where to look. That made it lots easier when I went out about a week later and was able to find the monitor box? but then miss-read the clues and looked around the site for an hour or two with no results of course.

So then I began to look for the simpler, easier caches around town, like the NASCAR series and began to have some success and along the way discovered that entering a set of Latitude and Longitude coordinates into a Google map would give a fairly accurate location.    
Armed with that map knowledge and a better understanding of how to look for clues I began working on the Seismic Monitor again and this is where my search stands:

Using the coordinates on the top of the monitor box (N 36? 16.585 W 080? 21.233) took me to the park on Kirby Rd and there I found the paving stone with Ellis Grubb?s name.

The only thing that I could see that might be a clue was Mr. Grubb?s service dates (1951-1953) and plugging those numbers (N 36? 16.951 W 080? 21.953) into a Google map gave me the park off of Pilot View Dr, across from the King Library. I searched the location indicated at the edge of the parking lot, but was not able to find the cache.

I've sent an email to the owner of the cache, asking him if this is the right track... hopefully I'm close.  :08:

Ps: The coordinates quoted and the Gentleman's name are in one of the pictures above.  :wink2:  

[Sport]

Ken ...if  I can find them I have a couple of  top Shelf  ( well a year or so ago) GPS  handhelds that I don't use...(sorry had GPU's on the mind)...you are welcome to take your pick...courtesy of me of  course!!

I've always found that concept fascinating....I may have to get into it on a local basis to start with ....I've heard of world wide caches that ended up in Yosemite national park after dozens or hundreds of ByPoints as far away as India!!!!


just a thought ....both post have splits in them almost looks like Radar

....go in those directions....just a shot in the dark; but I would follow the one on the right side; left side is the direction you came from, right side is the direction to go to


Another thought ...the door opens to the left ...go left


but I'm positive the posts are the clue!!!!!!!

[Ken (OP)]

Thanks for the offer on the handheld Sport, that would be great.  

And thanks for the tips... as it happens the cache owner responded to my email last night and gave me a great clue.
Seems that I should not be afraid of the monitor box and if you look at the picture I posted in the OP of this topic where the guy is holding up the cache log book you can see that he has the Church in his background and that means that the actual cache is located there. So, it sounds like the information that was gathered from Mr. Grubb's paving stone at the park must contain the combination for the lock that's on the monitor box and that the monitor box really contains the cache after all. We'll see, me gonna go out to the site this morning to see what's to be found.

And as for your area, if you go to the Geocaching Site and plug in your zip code it will pull up a page & maps with all of the caches in your area and you probably have dozens located within 3-4 miles of where you live.

Ps:
Glenn(cache owner) said that he had never heard of anyone being a Geocacher without a GPS, maybe I'm breaking new ground here. :hah:

[Skhilled]

LOL!

[Ken (OP)]

Found it!   :yahoo:

Geocaching for only three weeks sure has it's drawbacks when choosing a Multi-cache for your first attempt! It's also more difficult when caching without a GPS... gotta get me one of those.
Yes Virgina, you can cache without a GPS, but it ain't easy.

During the three weeks leading up to this find I've begun to learn some of the lessons on how to search without a GPS and how to read the available clues so that today's outing was easy, but it sure was hard before today. And during those three weeks my found total had reached four (4) because the smaller, simpler caches provided some lessons on how to get it done.

This is a wonderful cache, with lots of goodies that I only looked at and left as is except for signing the log.
Big thanks to NCMountie for this great cache and another big thanks to him for giving a helping hand that set me back on the path when I had strayed.



Ps: Although this is technically my #5, it's always going to my #1 to me.  :danban:

[Lesmond]

way to go Ken, sounds like fun, not sure if we have anything like that in the UK?

[Ken (OP)]

Thanks Les.  :disted:


Go to the site and put in your postal code to see if you have any... there may be a .co.uk version of the site.

Here's a quote from the site:

There are 910,640 active geocaches around the world.
Enter your postal code or address and click "go" to explore the geocaches near you.

[Lesmond]

Just looked the closes one to me is 15 mile away!

[Sport]

There are 15 within 1.5 miles of my Post Office....(center of Postal Code)

[Ken (OP)]

Just looked the closes one to me is 15 mile away!

That's close enough Les! 

Sport 15 will be enough to keep you busy for a day or two. 

[Sport]

I found both GPS units...let me charge them up and see what we have ...I'll send you one and I'll keep one!!! One is a Tom Tom ONE which is probably the better the other is a Fujitsu "Pocket LOOX " which if I remember right was my preferred ....just because I't fits in my shirt pocket better ...both are shirt pocket size ....let me check both of them out and we'll decided which you want and/or I'll send you (Compliments of SeriousCrunchers...and me) like I said I don't need both!!! both charge off of Mini USB and I haven't found anything other than the physical units so far ....will keep looking !!!

 Google both and get a feel for them


I checked the link  and registered as :SeriousCruncher: this could be addictive!!!!

EDIT I'll look for windshield mounts CD's etc. but for in the field or even getting there  these will both do the job ....we'll discuss more after you've had a chance to review

[Ken (OP)]

Sounds great.  :disted:

I don't know much at all about them, so what ever you send will be fine by me.