Manitoba Geocaching Association

[junglehair]

It's amazing how this game has exploded in Manitoba in the last couple years.  As we are approaching the 1000 active caches in Manitoba mark, I thought I'd look back at some of the milestones along the way.

The first cache was hidden in Manitoba on February 5, 2001 (GC21C)

The first time I was home to do some caching in Winnipeg was Christmas 2003 and I think there was something like 24 caches within 100 miles of Winnipeg.

On September 24, 2004, I replied to a post in the GC forums by Prairie Jeepin.  He started the thread dedicated to Manitoba Geocaching issues.  My reply indicated that there were 60 caches in Manitoba at that time.

On May 2, 2005, The Stunt-man hid Train to Nowhere (GCNQY1).  The cache description reads "Hopefully this is Mb's 200th cache"

On April 12, 2006, TurdleEggs posted in these forums that the 500th active cache was just placed in Manitoba by Winnipegk5.

Now here it is, September 19, 2006 and we are 6 caches away from hitting the 1000 mark.  So who's cache will it be that puts us into the 4-digit range?

[1Queenand4Jokers]

Wow 1000 so soon eh? That is what we were hoping for with the May Madness Blitz - that we'd hit it before Christmas! Excellent. How does one tell which one is 1000 when there are so many that don't exist anymore? 1000 active ones I guess is the key. I hid one this week but have changed my mind since I had a better idea...Still out there but unlisted. Should I do it or not. 1000 should be a great one shouldn't it. Not a micro.  Ours is a micro. Nope not gonna do it. Even if we're tempted.  

[Wagonmaker]

Micro caches can be great, too. Granted, there are many out there that are not so hot, but a micro that is well done is nothing to sneeze at.
Micros can:

a) bring you to an amazing place or a fascinating landmark that you'd never have seen otherwise, and that may perhaps not have a place for a larger cache.

b) challenge your skills as a finder. You mentally block out certain hiding spots if you know a cache is a larger size. Micros can hide more easily.

c) be the most satisfactory finds. I look back at most of the caches that made me cry, "Holy cow, what an AMAZING hide!" and most of them are micro caches.

Don't underestimate the power of a micro. We (Daron and I) are big fans of micro caches, and we advocate for them 100%.

[dani_carriere]

I think it very appropriate that we'll probably hit our 1000th cache in time for our end of blitz event on the 23rd.

As it stands at 11:00AM Sept 21st, we're at 996 caches.  Only 4 more to go.

Since this number only represents the active caches, it would be interesting to know what the total active/archived is.  Too bad pocket queries limit you to 500 caches.

[1Queenand4Jokers]

dani_carriere wrote:

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 Only 4 more to go.

Since this number only represents the active caches, it would be interesting to know what the total active/archived is.  Too bad pocket queries limit you to 500 caches.

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I certainly also wish we could figure out the total ever hidden in Manitoba. I know that well over a 1000 have been hidden. We have 70 total hides but 6 are archived and two currently disabled. Does anyone know of a way of discovering this - total ever hidden in Manitoba? Do we need to know what all the archived ones are? Peter must know a way of finding this out. can one do a pocket query for only archived Manitoba ones and then add that to the list of current active ones and come up with a number. Just thinking out loud...

And as for Wagonmaker defending the fact that some micro caches being great and worth of being number 1000 (sigh) I agree but (sigh) the one I hid was neither great nor worthy (sigh) and will not be listed ever. (It was not a criticism of anyone else's hides just our own). And right now the ideas we have will take a short time to develop so...

-- Edited by 1queenand4jokers at 14:04, 2006-09-21

[grnbrg]

1queenand4jokers wrote:

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Do we need to know what all the archived ones are? Peter must know a way of finding this out. can one do a pocket query for only archived Manitoba ones and then add that to the list of current active ones and come up with a number.

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You can't do a pocket query of archived caches. Groudspeak doesn't make it that easy.
However, I started work on something earlier in the week, and this seems like a good spot to show it off:

       grnbrg's Archived caches in Manitoba bookmark list. Currently at 167 caches.

I may have missed a few -- if you see any archived caches that should be on it, but aren't, please let me know.



grnbrg

[dani_carriere]

 

Looking at ertyu, greatdane, and junglehair's finds may be helpful as well.  Look for cachers who have been around a while and who have lots of finds under their belts.

Maybe the cache reviewers can help too.

[junglehair]

Here are some that are not on your list:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=8450f39b-14b5-447b-ab74-
6b807f3c6b31

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c8f39577-8d0f-4b78-99d4-
6775251f10c9

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=1faa0857-e9b3-4cc8-b74e-
a637187f74ac

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f67c4f60-74f6-4bc4-a9d5-
5481ece9465a

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c5f5ca14-16d4-48a0-a774-
0904cb9daca7

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7b8aad78-3a56-4508-a387-
3b2a23860e39

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7410cfbc-440d-4fd2-bcec-
bfe029fad8ca

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=a8cc9d5e-7981-4303-9c5c-
4a5721e46dfa

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=e0bbd080-4789-4a0e-a77f-
e48c702c61a6

I don't know of any way other than a manual search to track down all the archived caches.  I don't think the reviewers can even do it, unless things have changed recently.  I asked the New York reviewer once about it and was told they only had access to the same search tools that we have.  We were trying to compile a list of archived caches so that we could verify that the containers were removed when the caches were archived.

-- Edited by junglehair at 13:13, 2006-09-22

[Dragonfreys]

There was a way with the old geocaching maps to check a box that would show archived caches for an area. I'm not sure how helpful that would be for the list generation.

[Peter and Gloria]

I have a list of 190 archived caches. I will download a pocket query of grnbrg's list and send him a list of the ones that he is missing. That should make his list 99% accurate. I don't think I have missed very many.

[Dragonfreys]

Here's one: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=652ea6d0-9c3e-4684-a490-
8bf3bd70ee96

I hesitate to post is since it may revive not so fond memories of an over 3 hour trek for a removed FTF. The geocaching dark ages of Parks Canada.

[Wagonmaker]

Here's a short-lived one you don't have:

Anthony Kiedis Habit

-- Edited by Wagonmaker at 02:32, 2006-09-24

[Jimbo 2]

dani_carriere wrote:

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As it stands at 11:00AM Sept 21st, we're at 996 caches.  Only 4 more to go.

 

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Sept 24, 4:50 PM....

Site shows 995 caches active in MB right now, but I've got one waiting to be published....