Geocaching Australia

http://blog.geocaching.com/2010/11/24-h ... geocaches/

*Insert necessary words about "each to their own", "different things to different people", blah blah here*

Did some rough calculations on the alien highway part of their trip. 18 hours - 40minutes refuelling = about 56 seconds for each cache.... Hmm.... Possible I guess with a stamp, a dead easy find and no problems.... Impressed in some ways at the effort I must admit, even if I can't fathom how you could 'enjoy yourselves out there' after hundreds of near identical caches. You'd need a good sense of humour in the car I reckon...

I won't hold my breath for the cache owner to check all of them

????

Out of curiosity went to have a look at the series, and looked at the first:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... c3ce5e9905

Attributes - dangerous animals, thorns, requires scuba gear (!!!)

Is powertrail spelt with one "f" or two?

I believe it was discussed recently in regards to the World record for cache finds in 24 hours, though i'm still unsure how big the logbook is for 300+ finders of these caches, maintenance would be fun.

{insert necessary words}

mm

I'm going to have a go at least some of the E.T. power trail early next month.

Looking at the trail, it genuinely is a cache every 1/4 mile along the road. So, a team would have no problem at all doing them very quickly. I'm gonna be on my lonesome - unless anyone on here happens to be in Vegas at the same time !, so I will have to do all the stop-start myself. I'm guessing over 100 would be do-able in several hours. But it's still going to be a massive day if I do it all in daylight.

If we say 7 hours - that's still one every 4.2 mins. With no potty or food breaks !!

The biggest challenge here is the lack of fuel along this road. So, if you are running a car for a long time you need to take a bunch of extra fuel so you don't run out.

@imapom: Several of my locals (Austin, TX) have completed the trail. One in particular provided a crib sheet of sorts that says there are 168 miles (270.4 km) between gas stations (Ash Springs and Tonapah) Also, you should be aware that the west end of the series is in higher elevation and its snowing there this week (most likely will be snowing still when you go) -- I think a cache owner put a note on the cache page to this effect. You may want to factor these bits of info in when you select your vehicle.

The series is actually "owned" by a group of people. I've only heard good reports of cache condition thus far. (My last group of friends did the series -- and the alien head series as well -- in late September.)

My suggestion, if you haven't already, put a note on the cache page regarding when you plan to do the series, you might just find a few friendly folks that would love to join you!

It is my impression that the series is MUCH MORE fun with a group than solo.

The creator of the crib sheet would approve of my sharing the info (its mainly about lodging, cities to use for weather reports, and caches of interest), if you would like more.

cheers,
semik

iamapom wrote:I'm going to have a go at least some of the E.T. power trail early next month.

Looking at the trail, it genuinely is a cache every 1/4 mile along the road. So, a team would have no problem at all doing them very quickly. I'm gonna be on my lonesome - unless anyone on here happens to be in Vegas at the same time !, so I will have to do all the stop-start myself. I'm guessing over 100 would be do-able in several hours. But it's still going to be a massive day if I do it all in daylight.

If we say 7 hours - that's still one every 4.2 mins. With no potty or food breaks !!

The biggest challenge here is the lack of fuel along this road. So, if you are running a car for a long time you need to take a bunch of extra fuel so you don't run out.

If you do it, perhaps you can record some audio for Geotalk on your experience. While not my cup of tea, I would be interested to hear what its like as an experience.

Ok. So I did complete 1 thru 100 of the ET powertrail. I was signing the logs in the "proper" way, and I was alone, so I averaged 2.5 minutes per cache.
The alternative method is a team effort, where they remove the cache (they are all 35mm canisters or similar) and swap it for the previous one an repeat the process, and a team member in the car signs the log as the car moves to the next cache. I saw it first hand - sub one minute is quite do-able.
As I mentioned, all of the caches are 35mm containers or pill bottles. The road is very very remote (I will post pictures). There is some traffic but it's all fast moving or caching (I saw two other teams both much faster than the single person in my team!).
All the hides are very easy. Some at the base of mile makers under a rock, where you can actually reach the cache from the car seat ! Or they are a few metres off the road under an easy to find classic easy to spot pile of rocks. Sometimes they are at the base of very sharp cactuses which are very very sharp. Blood was spilled on ET 56 !!
I hired a hybrid car so I could leave it running at each stop and it wouldn't consume fuel, even then you would have needed to carry a significant volume of extra fuel to complete the whole powertrail.
It was amazing fun. And I got myself a new personal record of 103 in a day. Would be amazing to do as a team and do the whole lot.
I did send some audio to Spindoc Bob - I'm not sure how good it will be as I was so tired and jetlagged on the second "I found 100" one. But anyway....

iamapom wrote: The alternative method is a team effort, where they remove the cache (they are all 35mm canisters or similar) and swap it for the previous one an repeat the process, and a team member in the car signs the log as the car moves to the next cache. I saw it first hand - sub one minute is quite do-able.

What, you mean cache 56 moves along to be cache 57? I thought you are supposed to return a cache to where you found it. That explains a lot of things (and increases the evidence for the ridiculousness of such a trail (although I can appreciate that you can enjoy it at some level)). It also doesn't quite explain what happens to the last cache!

Hmmmm.

Glad you did it the "proper" way.

So by now Cache #1 is probably more like #100 hahaha

So i assume each team then has to turn around and put the last cache back in the spot they started?? And hope that nobody visited that one in that time?? (Assume a lot of DNFs on cache #1) What a strange approach - Clever re time saving, but I can't help feel it's bending the rules a bit too much....

Or perhaps it's just a clever way to do your maintenance. Pop in a fresh cache at #1 every day and let them work their way along the trail!!!

I'm waiting for the vertical power trail on the Burj Khalifa - you might be able to squeeze 5 in there. Hmm... Does the proximity rule count for height?

iamapom wrote:The alternative method is a team effort, where they remove the cache (they are all 35mm canisters or similar) and swap it for the previous one an repeat the process, and a team member in the car signs the log as the car moves to the next cache. I saw it first hand - sub one minute is quite do-able.

Zalgariath wrote:So by now Cache #1 is probably more like #100 hahaha

I can't quite understand this. If I am the FTF and only find the first 90 caches. I come back in two months after the caches have been found 90-100 times and find my name is already in the log book for the next 100 I try and find.

What if the owner audits his logs and can't find my name?

How can swapping containers be considered kosher?

Hey, we can use this to our advantage....

Go to #1. Sign. Leave.

Then other cachers will move your log for you so you can claim a visit on the entire powertrail without the effort (After all, sooner or later your name will be in the log of every cachein the trail)



So iamapom, congrats on your 'completion' of the entire trail

I like your thinking...

And sorry iamapom, well done on the effort in doing it "properly"

As much as I enjoy numbers runs, somehow I don't think a run like this would do it for me.

Well yes that's right - 56 container becomes 57. Looks as is logs get totally replaced sometimes too.
I think that number 1 is replaced with a totally new cache each time, and 1021 is kept in exchange I think.
In the mid 90s (by which time life was a total repetitive blur) I was overtaken by a team doing the whole lot. He took the cache I had just signed and replaced it with the earlier one, and he moved in on to +1. Which was fine, until I got to the next one, and there was my name in the log !!! Very odd experience.
I still think that it's quite do-able in 56 seconds using the swap method and a team.