Near some geocaches, you may find a GeoStake.
GeoStakes solve one of the proverbial difficulties associated with geocaching. When a cache is placed in an area with a lot of tree cover, your GPS unit can lose sight of the satellites. Ditto if your geocaching on a heavily overcast day. You lose the satellites and you lose your accuracy.
The Jose Gaspar Crew places a GeoStake somewhere in the general area of a geocache. Unlike the cache, the GeoStake will be in relatively plain site. Once you've seen the GeoStake, you can use it to help you zero-in on the cache, or you can ignore it and continue searching on your own. The choice is yours.
The GeoStake contains information on it telling you how to specifically get to the cache.
GeoStakes
are three-foot wooden stakes. Surveyors and utility companies often place
these stakes in the woods, usually with pink plastic ribbons attached to them.
Those are stakes, but they are not GeoStakes.
GeoStakes can be clearly identified by the three bands of color painted on the top. They also have engraved with the initials JG&C (Jose Gaspar & Crew) somewhere on the stake. The location varies per stake, but the initials are always there.
On the body of each GeoStake is written, in indelible ink, a series of numbers. For example, you may see 135/5. To the uninitiated, these numbers are meaningless. However, if you understand the code, you can pinpoint the location of the cache with these numbers.
The
first of the two numbers is the compass bearing. In our example, the first
number is 135. Hold your compass over the top of the GeoStake and look
where the heading of 135° points you.
The second number is the number of paces from the GeoStake to the cache. Note, a pace = two steps. Start with both feet together. Begin walking, starting with your right foot. Take a normal-sized strides. When your right foot touches the ground again, you've just walked one pace.
The average person has a pace that is approximately 5-6 feet in length. So in our example, the second number was 5. The cache is 25-30 feet away from the GeoStake on a heading of 135°.
Home | Caches | News | Geocaching | Jose Gaspar
Copyright © 2008 Gasparilla Trading Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved