Monthly Archives: June 2015

Message from the President, Newsletters, Organization News

Letter from the President – Summer 2015

waterfall

WGA President Summer 2015

Just a few weeks ago we held the 2015 WGA Camp Out at High Cliff State Park. I think everyone had a good time and having the weather cooperate bringing us sunshine and temperatures near 70 sure helped. There just was not enough time to sit around and visit as we had more than 17 caches publish for the event plus 2 CITOs (a 5D/5T Heavy Metal pickup along with a Garlic Mustard pull) along with the new WGA TeamUpToken game that wove elements of Letterboxing along with seeking out the new caches placed for the event. I think this new game went over well as it gave cachers the opportunity to meet up with new people and head out for some Smilies. I saw more than one log that came in talking about how the “newbies” schooled the old timers on how to find those tough caches. We ended the weekend perfectly with a great pancake breakfast at the pavilion before picking up and heading back to the far corners of the state.
August brings the 8th Annual West Bend Cache Ba$h and we will again host our Annual Pancake Breakfast on the Sunday after the Ba$h. GC5W01G Pieces of Eight Pancakes has been published so please, log your Will Attends now. For food events, it is very important to let us know if you are coming so we know how much food to prepare. The Spring Campout breakfast had about 50 Will Attends and 80 people came so the food went very fast. If you are interested in volunteering with us for GC5W01G Pieces of Eight Pancake Breakfast, let me or any of the other Directors know, post to the website, Facebook page or hire a plane and skywrite your desire to help out. We serve near 500 people that morning so we are always looking for more smiling faces to lend a hand.

 

After the WBCB Pancake event, we take about 6 weeks off and then it will be time for the WGA Fall Picnic. This year it will take place up near Superior, WI at Pattison State Park. September 26th should put it into the Fall Colors season and coupled with the nearby waterfalls, it should be a sight to enjoy. This will be the farthest North we have ever had a WGA event and we look forward to visiting our members in that part of the state.

Ever wondered how we go about picking the areas for the WGA events across the state? A few years back the Directors realized that with over 65,556 square miles to the state, it was not very easy to get to all the great places and fairly represent everyone. We now have a plan of alternating regions to hold the 2 big events (Spring Campout and Fall Picnic). This year the 2015 Campout was set for the NE quadrant while the Picnic gets the NW section. For 2016, we will rotate and we are now searching for a great state park or forest in the SE part of the state to have the campout. 2017 will bring the camping back to the NW part of the state and picnic to the NE, so we try to keep things moving around to highlight all the great scenery in the state and give everyone a chance to have a WGA closer to their home. As the group continues to grow, finding places to host 200+ people for a weekend becomes more challenging and usually we spend about 3 to 4 months investigating the best locations. Who knew this was so difficult?

Did you know that the WGA sponsors up to six CITOS throughout the year? So far in 2015 we have offered support for the 9th Annual Appleton CITO and the Wildcat Mountain CITO. How can you get your CITO sponsored? Any WGA member can submit a written proposal to the Board of Directors but the requests need submitted at least four weeks in advance, and ideally eight weeks in advance of the proposed event date. We feel so strongly that supporting the clean up of our play areas that we list CITOs and Leave No Trace as important purposes of our existence. We even have a WGA sponsored stretch of Highway 10 in Northeast WI that we have official WGA CITOS.

 

From each of the Directors, Becca, Rob, Renee, Pete, Michael, Val, Steve, August and myself ….THANK YOU to all 531 WGA members for being the most adventurous, creative, happy and friendly people not only in the state but in the country. You make this association such a success. We say it all of the time and it is still as true today as it was back in 2003 when we formed.

–Chris Walker, WGA President

General Geocaching, Newsletters, Organization News

Congratulations! Wow! Way to go!

silyngufyCongratulations on meeting your goal! Way to hit that milestone! No one understands our goals and achievements like other geocachers. Your grandma’s neighbor may not care that you have filled in every spot on your difficulty/terrain grid, but we do. And not only do we want to know that you met your goal, we want to hear about what special way you met that goal! Check out the “Milestones, Congratulations, And Other Pats On the Back” forum page on the WGA website.

Geocachers around the state are probably making new geocaching achievements and soaring to new heights every week. Here are just a few “pats on the back” we’d like to mention:

Congratulations to silyngufy for filling in her calendar. She has now found a cache on all 366 days of the year! She celebrated this accomplishment by finding the very excellent cache GC1J92T “Hal A Cache Odyssey”. Check out her photo where she thanked everyone who had hidden the caches that she has found along the way.

Congratulations to Trekkin & Birdin and WI_pattymel for completing the WGA State Parks Series. That is all 47 parks visited and cached in! They now join Geolivestrong as the only WGA members to have completed the series. Trekkin & Birdin’s final cache in the series was GC4HE36, WI_pattymel’s final cache in the series was GC4QEM6. Congratulations on accomplishing this feat! I liked reading their logs as they both had a bit of a synopsis for the series in there. Thank you for that!

Did you just meet a goal of yours? Or maybe your geo-buddy just met a milestone? Consider sending a shout out to herald the good news in the WGA forums.

Newsletters, Throw Back Thursday

Throwback Thursday – We have a little caching buddy who goes by Pooh

This article was written by Birdin’ of Trekkin & Birdin’ and was published in the June 2013 Newsletter.  Enjoy this blast from the past!

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We have a little caching buddy who goes by Pooh’s Pal. In real life, he is our 3.5 year old grandson, and for the last year or so of his caching career, he “gets” the whole picture of what this is all about. Turning on the Garmin, going to a “cool place to explore,” usually in the woods somewhere, looking for something hidden and if he’s really lucky, finding toys. For the record, he actually likes finding golf balls, too.

 

Recently, we took him out to place his first cache. He had very strong opinions about his placement, and once we took him to a general area, he did the rest himself. Then we waited. It wasn’t long before a couple of “found it” logs came through, and thankfully, his efforts were returned with nice logs. One even directed someone to sing the log to the tune of Gilligan’s Island to him, which we did…..and which he loved.

 

It doesn’t take long to write something a little special about your caching experience, if you take the time to do so. Some of us write novellas. Some may just write a sentence or two, but that sentence can tell volumes about that person’s unique experience with the cache.

 

We started geocaching in 2006, and the norm at that time was to write a short note in the logbook, then write a little bit online to share your experience. Things began to change within a year or so. Micros became the rule, not the exception, which meant a simple signature was all one could write on the logsheet. Power trails became more and more commonplace, which meant that instead of finding 5-20 caches on a good day, 50 finds or more became the new normal.

 

And then came geocaching phone apps. Trying to write anything on those small touchscreens is a challenge. All of these changes in the game have led to a big change in online logging. It doesn’t have to be that way!

 

Those of us who have placed geocaches for others to find know how much enjoyment comes from reading the stories of those who find them. “TFTC” at least tells us they found it, but nothing more than that. Generic cut and paste logs from a day of power caching tells only a little more of the story. While the website allows finders to file minimal logs, keep in mind that without hiders, there won’t be anything to find. More than one hider has stopped playing and placing because of the large number of generic or boring logs. Do your part to keep that from happening!

 

*Log from your computer rather than the phone. You can sit and relive your experience rather than hurrying off to the next find.

 

*Share a sentence or two about your journey. What did you find along the way? Singing birds? Thick brush? Startled deer running off at your approach?

 

*If you are doing a cut and paste from a big day, just add one line about the individual cache. Sometimes power trail owners will let cachers know they expect and understand cut and pastes, but we know from experience they still really appreciate that little extra effort.

 

*Photos are always fun to see as well. It can be helpful if you do include them to make a comment such as “…as the photos we posted show.” This lets the cache owner know that you’ve added them.

 

Take the extra time once you get back home to share your story. Cache owners like Pooh’s Pals and others will thank you, and feel encouraged to place more for you to find!

Member Submssions, Newsletters

Member Submission: Little CITO on the Prairie

Group shot at CITO on the Prairie
Group shot at CITO on the Prairie

“Little CITO on the Prairie” by Sandlanders

When one thinks of CITO events, picking up trash and pulling garlic mustard usually come to mind. This is what many geocachers did during the last weekend of April to make a difference and earn a souvenir. Here in Sandland (Adams County) we chose to host an event to clear the prairie in Roche-A-Cri State Park of some of the scrub oak that has been growing there for years. Budgets for parks have been historically tight, and with recent and future cuts in funding, many properties are relying on volunteers and Friends groups to pick up the slack and help when and where they can. We are members of the Friends of Roche-A-Cri State Park, and at our meeting in March, we asked what was something that a group of geocachers could do in a few hours on a day in a late April, and our CITO event was created.

Cachers, kids, dogs... We had them all!
Cachers, kids, dogs… We had them all!

We had a sunny spring day in which to do two hours of work, and we had eleven adults, two children, and a dog show up to do their parts. With loppers and clippers and hand saws, the scrub oak on the prairie at the south end of the park became less as the brush pile towards the woods became higher. We were working in proximity to the trail that people were taking from the winter parking area into the main part of the park, so we also had the chance to do some PR work for the park, the Friends group, and geocaching while we were working.

Cutting down the scrub oak brush
Cutting down the scrub oak brush

Those in attendance at the CITO event were Jean from the Friends group, plus cachers Tupacthepug, 1TheSister, Trekkin’ and Birdin’, labrat_wr, jar42, all four members of Team Honeybunnies, and both sandlanders. There is still some oak that will need to be cleared by volunteers at a future time, but for now, a part of the prairie has a new clean look. As cachers, we don’t need special days and souvenirs to volunteer at the places where we love to play. We can always pick up trash and pull invasive plants when we go caching, but if you live near a park or other property that is special to you, why not check to see how you can help out in any capacity at any time of the year?

View of the work area from the brush pile
View of the work area from the brush pile

Don’t wait until an event to make a difference. Just like geocaching, CITO can be done every day of the year.