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Rund um den Henninger Turm
Schobbe petze
 English Version
History
The Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop (until 2008 Rund um den
Henninger-Turm, sometimes called the Frankfurt Grand Prix in
English; in 2010 Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt) is a
semi classic cycling race around Frankfurt am Main with the start
and finish on Darmstädter Landstraße outside the Henninger-Turm
(Tower), a grain silo belonging to the Henninger brewery which
backs the event. The race takes place on a complicated route in the
Taunus mountains west of the city with around 1500m (5,000 feet) of
climbing. The climbs of the Ruppershain, Feldberg and Mammolshain
have been regular features; the Mammolshain has a 26% gradient and
is climbed twice in the race. The race concludes with three laps of
4.5 kilometres in the centre of Frankfurt.
This cache is
in tribute and spirit of that race as well as the place I call
home: The Taunus. The challenge of this cache is quite unique to
world of Geocaching. In fact I only know of one similar cache and
guess who placed this one. It's called BI 29.
It all
started with a nice BBQ in our driveway and some beers. It was
winter and there was a little bit of snow in Niederjosbach. That's
not uncommon however this time it was uncommon cold. So there was
enough cold snow on the hills around to go snowboarding and we -
that would be Markus and I - thought of ways to utilise this. Well
one idea led to another and in the end the idea of the cache was
born:
With BI 29
you basically have to race down a meadow. There is no path, no road
no nothing. The distance between start and finish-line is about
420m and you got 52 seconds. Therefore you have to have an average
speed of at least 30 km/h. That doesn't sound too fast but there
are three major obstacles: a drop of 1m in the middle of the track,
a small creek as well as literally no clear space after the
finish-line. There are just trees. We did that race on a
snowboard - unfortunately it was the last winter-weekend of the
year and after that the snow was gone. All the cachers had to think
of another way and until now there are only a few people finding
that cache by fair means. Their ideas were as creative as they
could be and the first to find was actually a dog. Sampo was
showing quite a performance. Of course there were also
mountainbikes involved and a full-scale Bell 206 helicopter is
worth mentioning.
This Cache
The basic idea is pretty much the same. We have an area which is
easily accessible however you have to race from one zone to
another. And just to make it a little bit more interesting you have
to pass two additional gate-zones on the way. Did I mention none of
the zones is accessible by car? Oh too bad.
- The aim of the game is to
exit the start-zone, pass to gate-zones and get to the target-zone
within 480 seconds. That's 8:00 minutes. If you do that on foot,
try to be part of the next olympic team. That's about world-record
time.
This is how
the cartridge works:
- The clock starts ticking as
soon as you leave the start-zone
- On the way to the
target-zone you have to pass two gate-zones
- Enter the target-zone in
time (If you exit it right away - don't worry. Just return to the
zone - the clock stops while entering for the first
time.)
- Within the target-zone you
will see the coords of the final cache
In addition
to this there are some things you should consider:
- Turn off the Demo-Mode and
turn on the GPS (seriously!)
- Turn off the battery-save
mode since you might miss the zones with it. In this mode a signal
is only used every five seconds instead of one second
- Make sure you have a fully
charged battery
- Turn on tracking in order to
relive your victory afterward
If you have
any questions about this cartridge, wherigo or anything just feel
free to send me a mail. I am more than happy to help. Before you
ask: Yes I did the trip myself and ended up with a time of
5:57 minutes. Unfortunately for you these were close to perfect
conditions: dry, sunshine, tailwind and only a few people on the
cycle-track. Btw.: This is the Wherigo-cache with the lowest
GC-code. Worldwide.
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WARNING! Always keep in mind
that you are not alone on this track. Depending on weather,
daytime, holidays etc. the track can be more or less crowded. DO
NOT attempt this cache unless you are 100% sure that you can avoid
any risk of a collision with other boats, bikers, pedestrians or
any animals. |
Group
raids
I am not against group raids as long as it is by fair means. If you
want to team up please do so but play your part of a team which
could be:
- Riding a tandem
- Navigating while your buddy
is steering the plane
- Doing your job within a
sailing-crew
- Drafting in turns on
bicycles
That is all
ok and I wouldn't mind if all of those guys log their find.
Everybody played an essential part in that race. On the
other hand I can think of some foul-plays where your smiley is in
severe danger of being deleted:
- Being a passenger on a
boat
- Let your buddy ride the bike
and wait for him in the target-zone
- Hire somebody to get your
GPSr fast enough from A to B
If you really
want that cache of your chest / out of your home-zone, please spare
everybody the embarrassment and just contact me. I'll provide you
with another way of reaching the final box under the condition that
you don't claim in your log that you went through all the trouble
(means you have to include the words "I cheated"). I know this
sounds very harsh but I just want everybody to play fair on this
cache. It is disappointing to see an opportunist finding the cache
without any effort where you on the other hand tried really hard to
get your smiley.
So team up! Do your part of the job and find the cache!
Links:
Wherigo Cartridge Speeeeed
YouTube Video BI29
Bonus
Cache
Viel Spaß *gg*
Philipp
P.S.: Hacking the cartridge - which is easy - is cheating as well
:o)
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