The United States Geological Survey has created the defacto
standard for maps for the bush. Everyone who has ever set foot
outside city limits, or have actually taken a vehicle off-road is
either familiar with these maps, or should be. These maps are
commonly known as quad maps.
Many people have emailed me with questions about
quad maps. A quad map isn't the same as a topo map, but if you look
up the area where you are planning a cache in on a site like
topozone.com, it does give the quad name for the area. At
topozone.com you go to "view maps" near the upper right corner.
Lets say I wanted to place a cache in Laytonville, CA. I put that
in the appropriate blanks, and I know it is in Mendocino county, so
I fill that in too. Up pops the link to Laytonville, and I click on
it, and it says "Laytonville quad" right up at the top of the map.
Next, I go to the home page at geocaching.com. In the upper right I
go to "search by state" and put in California. When the cache map
for California comes up, there is a link at the top that says
"map". I click on it and a map of the caches in the state comes up.
I zoom it down to the Laytonville area, and I notice there are no
caches at all in the area, so I am free to place a regular sized
cache in an appropriate place there. When I get it approved I
double-check all nearby caches and see that there are none within a
radius of 2.5 miles, so I can now log my find for Fill in the
Blanks.
Most quad maps are named for the major geographical feature
contained on that particular map. For example in Idaho there is one
called Crater Rings which as you would expect has a geographical
feature named 'Crater Rings'.
The goal of this locationless cache is to find the geographical
feature the quad map is named after. Once you have found it, you
must place a traditional, regular sized cache there, get it
approved, then post the coordinates and a link to the cache here as
you log your find.
As always there has to be rules:
1) If the quad has any other caches
placed in the namesake spot, it's not a valid find. We are looking
for virgin territory. As a general rule, there should be no other
caches within its quad or about 2.5 miles away from the next cache.
2) Quad maps named after a city are allowed only if there are no
other caches within the city limits. These will be mostly small
towns.
NOTE NEW
REQUIREMENT
3) On or after 8/15/05, at least part of the name of the quad or a
dirivitive of the quad name must be included in the cache name. In
other countries where the quads are not named, this does not
apply.
4) Caches must be regular-sized or large trading caches. No
micro caches unless there is sufficient reason why a regular-sized
cache cannot be placed (email me first). Multi-caches and Mystery
caches are fine as long as they lead to a regular-sized cache. In
the case of a multi-cache, the final location of the cache is what
counts.
5) Geocachers may find this cache more than once, if they find
another new quad and place a new traditional, regular-sized
cache.
6) You must get your traditional cache approved. This means you
are responsible for getting permission, etc. for your cache just as
you normally would.
7) Where a town and a geographical feature and quad map all
share a name, then both the town and the geographical feature are
open. Twin Falls, Idaho is an example the town and quad map are
named after Twin Falls on the Snake River.
8) Geographical features where you can't set a traditional cache
are disqualified. Craters of the Moon in Idaho is NPS land. No
traditional geocaches are allowed and so it's disqualified. Other
areas may be on private property etc. that prevent a traditional
geocache from being placed. That's all part of the challenge.
9) The approval date for your cache has to be newer than
September 1, 2005. This date will be updated every so often. The
idea is for new caches to be placed.
Do your research and find an unclaimed geograhpical feature
worthy of a traditional geocache. Then place the traditional cache.
Next get the cache approved. Once it's approved place the
coordinates and a link to the cache in your log for this cache.
That's it. No need for a mug shot. You have created a place
worthy of a traditional cache. So worthy that it is in fact a
sanctioned traditonal cache and will soon be enjoyed by those of us
who like to get out and see places we have never been. Hopefully
this will help spread enjoyment of the sport.
Canada Rules:
To confirm the location in Canada, the Map segment submited needs
to be listed with the government's NTS Map System. A list of NTS
locations is avaliable at Canadian NTS maps. To claim a Canadian cache, In
addition to the normal caches rules for this locationless, you need
to submit the NTS map segment number, the location name, and the
province(i.e. NTS#043G08 - Ekwan Point - Ontario) Some NTS numbers
have no name, those are not allowed. if there is no NTS number,
then the claim will be deleted. Some NTS quads are actually smaller
parts of larger ones, those are usually named "PART OF 000X00" or
some such thing, those NTS maps are not permitted as they are
already parts of the listed map they are a part of. Canada
questions should be directed to your Canadian host;FunkyNassau.
*Note: some of the cache rules have been changed, so the
older caches may not reflect this, but the same basic concept
concieved by Renegade Knight is still there.