There is an event tonight if you want to come in out of the wet cold and visit
with other geocachers.  Good food too!

http://coord.info/GC42ZDQ

North Austin
Pok-e-Jo's BBQ
2121 Parmer Lane
Austin, Tx. 78727

We'll be in the party room in the back from 6:00PM until 9:00PM.

Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you all there.

Melanie
(ACCLanMan)

 

Happy New Years to all my friends in Central Texas!  It's too nasty to make it out tonight, but  I resolve to make it to more Austin (and San Antonio) events in 2013!  We've had a great year, caching in some incredible places.  Gotta love geocaching!

Cheers,

Julie

Mrs. Captain Picard

On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Melanie <acclanmangroups@...> wrote:

 

There is an event tonight if you want to come in out of the wet cold and visit with other geocachers. Good food too!

http://coord.info/GC42ZDQ

North Austin
Pok-e-Jo's BBQ
2121 Parmer Lane
Austin, Tx. 78727

We'll be in the party room in the back from 6:00PM until 9:00PM.

Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you all there.

Melanie
(ACCLanMan)

Happy New Year!  May y'all have fun finds and awesome adventures!

Denise Vajdak
AdvoCare Independent Distributor
http://tx.ag/advocare

 

Almost all appraisal districts in Texas use the State Plane coordinate system used by surveyors. So chances are that the WCAD maps are in State Plane Central Texas (NAD1983) coordinate system. I'll email one of my former students who works for Wilco to make sure Mary Beth Emmy-n-Sapphie

---

From: John Grubbs <rockslide@...>;
To: CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com <CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com>;
Subject: Re: [CentralTexasGeocachers] Re: AJW's Initial Cache archived!?
Sent: Sat, Dec 15, 2012 2:19:25 PM

The City of Austin has a GIS program that is useful for checking the ownership status of a potential cache site as well. Some layers even add aerial photography. One caveat,  the photographic images may not line up perfectly with the other GIS information so that if you are placing a cache near a particular tree or something, the GIS image may show it incorrectly in relation to the property line. cheers, Anne From: Jay Bingham <binghamjc@...> To: CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 11:40 PM Subject: RE: [CentralTexasGeocachers] Re: AJW's Initial Cache archived!?   I have mentioned this before, but I think that it bears mentioning again. The Williamson County Appraisal District (WCAD) has an online GIS map application that shows property lines relative to streets and natural features such as rivers. This application has the ability to show coordinates for where the mouse is on the map, unfortunately they are not in any geographic coordinate format that I recognize. The coordinates for the center of the intersection of FM1460 and Industrial Ave. near the WCAD office are given as -10873237.694606127 3483863.831888059, which is obviously not degrees. Using the GPS Coordinate Converter, Maps and Info web site (http://boulter.com/gps/) and clicking on approximately the same location I get 30.622821228814843 -97.67601415514946 (or 30.622821 -97.676014 with less precision, N 30 37.369 W 97 40.561 in the format that we all know and love). It would be grand to know what system they are using for their coordinates and if it can be converted into something useful to us geocachers because then you could be much more precise about public vs private property. I looked on the website and could not find any reference to what coordinate system it is. By moving the cursor around I determined that the first number is the longitude component while the second is the latitude component. The coordinates for the border between Texas & Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico are -10814171.25258265 2993834.94189093, while the coordinates for the point of land at the mouth of the Sabine River are -10445927.791121159 3462221.2266417574. A little more fooling around and I find that the 0 point for east west is the prime meridian that runs through Greenwich, England and the 0 point for north and south is the equator. However, even without that ability it is possible to get a fairly good idea of whether the place you are about to put a cache is private property or not and if it is private property who owns it. In the case under discussion it appears rather obvious, at least to me, that the location of the cache was well within the property line, provided that the map shows the correct location of the river, which it may not. It would be wonderful if all counties had online maps such as this, last time I looked Travis County did not and I am pretty sure that some of the less populated counties in the area do not either. The WCAD GIS map application has undergone several revisions over the past 5 years and is now much faster and easier to use than it was in the past.   --| Jay /\ Bing-GTX |+| Georgetown , TX USA |-- “What you see depends mainly on what you are looking for.”   From: CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com [mailto: CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of atxtracker Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2012 2:24 PM To: CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [CentralTexasGeocachers] Re: AJW's Initial Cache archived!?     --- In CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com, Matt Wilson <matt@...> wrote: > > Holy cow!! Was AJW (GC2YVT7<http://coord.info/GC2YVT7>) really on private property? I somehow doubt it. Sounds like last finders just "poked" around too far. > > Nonetheless, while I certainly agree that caches shouldn't exist near places that cause any major amount of alarm or discomfort that would bring Geocaching a bad name, this sudden and brutal Prime Reviewer archive log makes me pretty sad. > > Also, I vaguely remember not being able to log an archived cache, but I also know for a fact that I've logged at least a couple that were archived, but still there. Thoughts? > Greetings all, As the placer of the cache, I do agree that the tax records do show the cache was on private property. This is my mistake; I'm sorry for the trouble I caused the land owner. Side Note: There are other maps (http://dgcoursemaps.com/CourseMaps/Print/RiveryPark.jpg) that are not so clear and show green space on the far side of the river. Ironically this map is posted on a big sign in the park itself. I am not disputing the archival, only noting that it was not intentional. There were no private property signs (at the time) or fences, and the posted map appears to be wrong. Advanced notification of the archival would have been nice, but I don't feel like it is owed to me, as I am the one who made the error. My main reason for posting is to let everyone know that the PowerRiddle Series is still in play, and has been updated to remove the dependence on AJW. I am working on a replacement, but it is not ready yet. Happy Caching, John

Texas Challenge 2013 is coming up quick.  And Texas Challenge 2014 will get here
pretty quickly too!

We need to have a meeting to sit down and discuss these two events.  We're
handling the Friday night event this year.  I'll have "Bingo" cards to fill out
ready to go.  It would be nice if we had some other things to do as well.

And we really need to decide where we're going to have the 2014 Challenge and
get after it.

So, it would be nice if we could have an event January 26 somewhere in the
Austin area.  I have no clue where, but if someone would grab this bull by the
horns and get an event together I sure would be a happy camper.  In the
meantime, be thinking about what you can do to help, especially with the 2014
event.  Thanks!

EWB - Tom

Nah, that needs to be about milestones.  We could have the meeting the next
afternoon and that would work for me.  Then again, it doesn't have to revolve
around me.  There's a very capable group of people here.

--- In CentralTexasGeocachers@yahoogroups.com, John Baker  wrote:
>
> There is one Tom. But, It isn't setup for a meeting.
>
> http://coord.info/GC3EB30
>
> John/thenkengrene
>
> On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 7:49 AM, electric_water_boy <
> electric_water_boy@...> wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > Texas Challenge 2013 is coming up quick. And Texas Challenge 2014 will get
> > here pretty quickly too!
> >
> > We need to have a meeting to sit down and discuss these two events. We're
> > handling the Friday night event this year. I'll have "Bingo" cards to fill
> > out ready to go. It would be nice if we had some other things to do as well.
> >
> > And we really need to decide where we're going to have the 2014 Challenge
> > and get after it.
> >
> > So, it would be nice if we could have an event January 26 somewhere in the
> > Austin area. I have no clue where, but if someone would grab this bull by
> > the horns and get an event together I sure would be a happy camper. In the
> > meantime, be thinking about what you can do to help, especially with the
> > 2014 event. Thanks!
> >
> > EWB - Tom
> >
> >
> >
>

Howdy!

I am worried about wet conditions tomorrow morning and I am therefore changing
the start time for the Adopt-A-Highway CITO event (GC431N7). Please note that we
will start at 9 a.m. instead of 8am.
Sorry for any inconvenience this change might cause!

Thanks, see you tomorrow!
Esther/BGTx

If you want a coins and path tags from the 2013 Texas Challenge you need need to
register for the 2013 Texas Challange before the 31st of this month.  They look
really good, so don't let them slip away from you.  Register now!

Be on the look out for a series of events coming to Austin on February 9.  The
first one will be very early in the morning.  The second will just be early in
the morning.  Others will be later in the day.  Not sure of times because I'm
not the one hosting them.  Hopefully YOU can make it to them!

EWB - Tom

I've asked a few times for suggestions of where to have the 2014 Texas
Challenge.  We really need to get this squared away.  So here's what I'd like.

1.  Post here the name of a place or an area you'd like to have CenTex host the
2014 Challenge (and as much as I'd like to have it in Hawaii too, let's please
keep this reasonable and in the CenTex area).  You don't have to kow if it's
possible to have it there or not.  Just post your idea.

2.  Post if you'd be willing to work on the hide team, which is really kind of
important to have since the Challenge part of Challenge would be pretty boring
without it.

3.  Post if you'd be willing to help with Camp Kiddie Cacher.

4.  Post if you'd be willing to help in some other aspect.

I'm not an army of one.  I can't - and won't - do this by myself.  I have a
couple of people who have said they'd help, but it is no where near enough
people.  I need YOUR help - and yes, I mean YOU.

I'd really like to announce in April where we're having the next Challenge, but
without your help it isn't going to happen.  Without your help, Challenge isn't
going to happen.  It's our turn to put this on.  Let's get it done!

EWB - Tom

I stumbled across this video from The Chicago Geocacher.  For anyone who has seen the videos that use the clip from Der Untergang (Downfall), he has made made a parody about FTFs (has some adult language):

Hitler Reacts to Missing a Geocaching First-To-Find

 

I stumbled across this video from The Chicago Geocacher.  For anyone who has seen the videos that use the clip from Der Untergang (Downfall), he has made made a parody about FTFs (has some adult language):

Hitler Reacts to Missing a Geocaching First-To-Find

http://youtu.be/0704bum1arA

-Rachele (strontium87)