› Forums › Geocaching in Wisconsin › Help › Geocaching Presentation for the DNR – Bong Rec. Area
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MajorBrat.
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05/16/2006 at 3:41 pm #1720351
Very early this spring, I was contacted by the naturalist at the Bong Recreation area to conduct a geocaching class. The Bong Recreation area is located in Northwest Kenosha County.
I’m looking for some experienced geocaching volunteers (the more the merrier) to come out on the evening of Saturday, June 3rd to help out for the cache hunting portion of the program. I would anticipate about a one hour classroom portion, and maybe about an hour or two of temporary / permanent cache hunting in small groups.
It would be nice if the volunteer would pass their GPSr around the group during the hunt to give everybody a little chance with the equipment. If you have more than one GPSr, that would be great too. I figure it would be a good idea to keep the owners and their GPSrs together in the same group.
The participants would mostly be campers staying at Bong that evening, along with some people coming in locally. Everybody is invited, but I believe that attendance will likely be limited due to the physical classroom size.
Tentative schedule for June 3rd….
5:30 PM
Volunteers arrive (with their GPSR’s) to receive a download of the temp caches.6:00 PM
The classroom portion starts, conducted by the park naturalist and myself.7:00 PM
Class participants split up into groups with one volunteer per group to go out into the park and find the temporary and permanent caches.Dusk
Return to the classroom to return any borrowed equipment. (The DNR might be loaning out compasses, don’t know for sure yet.The DNR folks at Bong have been very receptive to geocaching, and a good volunteer turnout would really help further that positive relationship.
Please respond here or via e-mail if you would like to help out. My e-mail is: wga2 dash admin at wi dash geocaching dot com.
The program is open to everybody, so if you are new to geocaching and would like to come out and learn more, of course you are welcome!
NOTE: Everybody volunteering to help does NOT need to have or purchase an admission sticker, as the entrance fee is waived for that evening. However, participants will still need to have or purchase a sticker to drive into the park.
[This message has been edited by Buy_The_Tie (edited 05-16-2006).]
05/16/2006 at 4:34 pm #1741382I have to check my schedule, but I think I am available for this.
Bec
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going05/16/2006 at 5:02 pm #1741383I’ve always wanted to go caching in Bong. I might be able to be there as well. Depends on a scout thing that day – I’ll see what I can do.
Team LightningBugs
* * * * * * * * * *05/16/2006 at 5:22 pm #1741384da beast will be there
05/16/2006 at 5:27 pm #1741385Not sure if I can take the night off from work…this is the week we get home from Texas…but chances are Bob will be able to attend. We have 4 GPSR’s that can be used that night. Bong is only a few miles from our house, so even if we’re not able to attend, we could make arrangements to loan the units to you if you’d like.
Bong is a nice place, and has many trails with lots of hides. Some better than others, but there are a lot out there.
One point I’d like to make about Bong…it is FULL OF TICS!!! We’ve never come out of there without finding several on us. It’s not a place for you to take the dog out for a walk unless you plan to search him extensively ASAP! Depending on the weather, mosquitos feast there as well, but the main pest is the tic.
MB05/16/2006 at 5:29 pm #1741386Hey Brian…contact Kelly…spiderjugs…this is her stomping ground! She has most of the hides out there. If she’s able to, I’m sure she’d love to help you out. Plus she’d get to watch people seek her logs.
05/16/2006 at 5:33 pm #1741387I have a GPS 12.
I have a GPS V.
I have a GPS 60CS.
I have a State Sticker.
I have June 3 free.
I have marked it on my calendar (pending approval ).05/16/2006 at 10:26 pm #1741388Yay!
A geocaching event that does not require me to get up early in the morning!
I can bring 1 Garmin and a couple of Magellans if it takes place on the eve of June 3rd.
05/17/2006 at 1:29 am #1741389In addition to my 60CS, I also have access to 2 geko 101 — not able to upload coordinates, but my fingers are very dexterous.
And I can confirm my attendance — I need to get pointers on how to run a class like this!
Bec
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going05/17/2006 at 8:46 pm #1741390We will be there. Are we going to use the caches already in the park or will this be temps?
05/18/2006 at 2:57 am #1741391I Haven’t yet looked too closely at the layout of the existing permanent caches in the park, but I intend on having a series of temp caches in close proximity (short hiking loops) to the classroom.
For the more interested students, they can venture out far and wide into the park and find some of the permanent ones.
05/18/2006 at 6:29 am #1741392If you want, I can place the temps, which I would intend to list as permanents just before the event (Bong is my “homefield”.) How many do you have in mind? Is the seminar in the nature center building just inside the gate?
05/21/2006 at 3:58 am #1741393Dejay,
I was at Bong on Thursday afternoon, and scoped out places for about a dozen caches. The problem is, these caches are all pretty much on the same hiking loop, and they are all very close together (as close as 300 ft in some cases).
If I could get maybe another half-dozen easy temp caches placed on another loop, that would be great. I could then use only half of my spots, and another half-dozen on another loop.
There is a self-guided nature trail to the south of the visitors center, and that’s the loop I have planned to hide temps on. If you could find anohter short loop (a mile hike or so) that’s hikable from the visitor’s center, to place more temp caches on, that would be fantastic.
If you want to place some permanent ones, that would be OK too.
The presentation will take place at the “Molinaro Visitor’s Center”.
Thanks,
Tie.
05/21/2006 at 7:37 am #1741394I doubt that you will need that many temps. The class we attended last fall only had 8 temps, including a virtual. As far as I know, we were the only newbies to attempt all eight. Remember that many of these people will have never found a cache, and that we will only have about 2 hours of daylight to work with. Also, you probably should have at least one two-stage multi and one virtual, so that they understand the concepts. I have had to explain the multi concept to several people trying to find “Sticks and Stones”. All of them had actually found the first waypoint, but ignored it because they were looking for the final at the WP1 location. (I know this isn’t my cache, but it is one of several abandoned caches on my babysitting list.)
Maybe we should take this to email if we want to get into specifics.
05/22/2006 at 6:18 pm #1741395Brian…if you want some temps hidden and the one offering to do that for you has found issue with it, let us know. We’ll be glad to help you out!
Also, hide as many as you want, it is your class after all. Though last year may have gone one way, this is a completely different group and you have no idea what will happen here.
As for the types of hides…while a virtual used to be something cool to see, they are only part of waymarking now and don’t even need to be part of your geo class if you’re going for the “norm”…but as I said before, it’s your class, do it your way.
I have to think that with all the publicity the sport has gotten over the last year, that the mindset of people going to your class will be a little different than in previous years. So…have fun and we’ll be there with grins and GPSR’s on ready to help in whatever you need.
MajorBrat
ps…Commander Bob says 12 on two paths would be good so the class can be split. But whatever you want.
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