Challenge cache
The Texas 360 Degrees of Smileys Challenge celebrates the caching diversity the state of Texas offers along with providing a fun challenge along the way. From city to farm, lakes to beaches, plains to gulf coast, and atop mountains which offer 360-degree views of the state, Texas offers something for every geocacher no matter where you travel in the state.
The cache is at the posted coordinates, but since this is a Challenge cache you will have to fulfill some requirements before logging the cache. If you visit the cache without fulfilling the requirements you can log with a note. There should be no difficulty in finding this cache, the challenge is in qualifying!
Challenge Requirements
- Log at least one cache within each degree interval around the posted coordinates: N 29 33.261 W 098 29.431.
- Only caches within Texas count.
- Past finds count including archived caches.
- All cache types may be used.
- For caches where final coordinates aren't provided on the cache page (e.g., unknown, multi, letterbox hybrid), use the posted coordinates on the cache page.
- To figure out which degree a cache falls into, you can use the help tool provided below or, alternatively, use the great-circle distance formula to calculate it yourself assuming that 0 or 360 degrees is positioned at 12:00.
- If the location of a cache within a degree is questionable, I may ask to view your calculations to verify how you determined the cache falls within a particular degree.
- Pre-finds of the physical cache before meeting the challenge requirements are allowed.
In summary, to satisfy the challenge requirements, you must log at least one cache within Texas, of any type which is within 0-1 degrees bearing from the posted coordinates of N 29 33.261 W 098 29.431. And then you must log at least another one for 1-2 degrees bearing and so on, up to the 359-360 degrees span. You will need at least 360 logged caches to meet the challenge requirements. An online help tool is provided to assist you with this challenge. At the time of cache publication, all 360 degrees have more than one active cache in them.
When you complete the requirements of finding a cache in every degree, you are eligible to log the final online. If you used the help tool, you don't need to do anything else as I will verify your stats by using the tool. If you used an alternate means to identify the degrees, I will contact you through your geocaching account if I have any questions about your calculations.
Online Help tool
As a tool to help you find what degrees you have and which you need, you can use the online help tool. It should give you all the help you need. Simply enter your Geocaching profile name in the box provided and click 'Filter'. You can click on each interval to see which caches are available for you to find if you have not yet completed the requirements.
Your log
You do not have to write anything special in your log as proof; it can be seen by anyone using the online help tool. This is completely optional: if you have found the cache and signed the log, but have not yet completed the challenge, go ahead and post a picture of your current standings. Once you have completed the challenge, post a new "Found It" log, and include a picture of your completed challenge. AGAIN, THE PHOTOS ARE OPTIONAL.
At present I don't qualify, but a few people do and there are quite a bit more that are within one or two smileys of completing the challenge. Below is a picture of my results using the online help tool. Currently I have 296 of 360:
Special thanks to ganja1447, from Sweden, for the time and effort he put into building the online help tool and for allowing the use of his original cache idea GC423AB.