Is This Related To Remorser

[+Team Sand Dollar]

Got a note on one of my long lost travel bugs around the time Remorser started. I was wodering if they are related events?

 

REMOVE #1

 

********************************************************************

4/27/2005 ucgis posted a note for it

 

I was given this bug to pass on. It can be found at 40*27'23.77" N

109*31'33.06" W.

 

P.S. ask for the G.I.S. department.

********************************************************************

[+Ladycacher]

Has anyone gone to get it or do you know what place it is at?

[+Munin]

That's a really interesting log entry, so I did some digging around. (Hey, I'm a geek, it's late, and this seemed more fun than coding! )

 

Let's start with the the geocaching.com cache map for that lat/lon. (You can use JeEep's Coordinate Translation page to convert the deg/min/sec coords to decimal degrees for use with the Hide And Seek A Cache search page.) Using the "Identify" option and clicking on the map again gives a list of the nearby caches and what state they're located in.

 

Okay, we're apparently somewhere in Utah, so that's a start. Taking a peek at the nearby Where Did Wooly Beast Go? cache, this is apparently in Vernal, UT. Hmmm, still not terribly illuminating. Going to the Microsoft MapPoint link and zooming all the way in shows that there's a courthouse nearby, as well as the Utah Field House of Natural History. TopoZone shows City Hall a couple of blocks away. So this may be an area with a cluster of government buildings.

 

GIS is "Geographical Information Systems", so I'm wondering if this "ucgis" might be someone who works for a state/country/whatever GIS agency. Since I'm just guessing, I switch search engines and pop that location into Google's Street Map, while searching for "government" to see what's nearby.

 

Hmmmm - I see a listing for "Uintah County G.I.S.", and it looks like the right spot on the map. (Isn't Google just so much fun?) Further Googling leads to the Uintah County Web Site, which does indeed include a listing for a GIS Department:

 

Uintah County GIS Department

(435) 781-5397

152 E 100 N

Vernal, UT 84078

 

So I'm going to take a guess that "ucgis" is someone working at the "Unitah County GIS Department".

 

Lord only knows how your TB ended up in the Unitah County GIS Department, but I'd guess someone there might've read the dogtag, followed the directions to log onto geocaching/Groundspeak.com, figured out what a TB was, and went on to create an account (using the departments abbreviation for their name) so they could let you know where your bug was. Seems likely that the person doesn't have a clue about GeoCaching - if they did, they'd know that there was a cache just a couple hundred yards from their office (that "Wooly Beast" cache I linked to above) where they could drop the bug.

 

A couple of options that I might try, were I in your shoes. Possibly start by sending a friendly message to this 'ucgis' account - thank them for their note about your TB, explain that you're not really close enough to swing by and pick up the TB at their office, and perhaps ask if the person is familiar with geocaching and would be willing to pop over to "Wooly Beast" to get your bug back into play.

 

If that doesn't pan out, maybe post a note on Wooly (or in the regional forum) and ask if there's a cacher who'd be willing to swing over to the Unitah County GIS Department and retrieve your TB.

 

Good luck!

[+Damenace]

I thought those coordinates looked familiar, I was just down there this weekend flyfishing the Green River and remember looking at my GPS to see 40 degree north and 109 degree west.

 

Well I might be able to help a little. Both SpiderTracks and Wagon Wheel live in Vernal and are a great group of cachers. I would recommend contacting one of these two cachers and see if they can help, in fact they probably know right where the building in question is.