First, let me say that I am honored to have been nominated to join this group.

Next, let me do my best to fill you in on a little bit about me, Labrat_wr.

For those who do know me, you know where the caching alias comes from. For those who don’t, my profession is Medical Technologist and the wr comes from my location. While my job has moved toward Information Technology, the nickname will not change. Much too tedious to do that.

I currently sit on another BOD, the one for CWA or Central Wisconsin Adventures. This organizations mission is basically to build up and support kids. The adventure race we hold each spring pulls together co-ed teams of 4 junior and high school students along with an adult mentor and challenger them physically and sometimes mentally by providing several events to participate in that foster the need for teamwork and reliance on the other members of the team. Bicycling, trekking, canoeing are a few challenges that all teams must compete in, other events, including rock climbing and geocaching have been incorporated into the challenges. The appointment to this BOD has been fulfilling as you see the kids succeed in challenges that they never thought they could succeed in.

Additionally, I am a father of 4 children, 20,18,10 and 2. Thus far, only my 10 year old daughter has shown sustained interest in caching with me. I think that my 2 year old son will enjoy it soon. My wife has only been with me for one or two finds but the 2 year old tends to require lots of attention. Maybe the better half will get out with me more now the baby is a bit bigger too.

I have always enjoyed the outdoors and geocaching has only fueled the desire to be out there. Snowshoeing, trail biking and kayaking were some of the firsts for me while caching in 2008. The pursuit in the Lonely Cache Game has offered these challenges and the competition tends to force the issues to get out there. This has been something additional that has made the geocaching experience fun and exciting.

While time constraints have kept me closer to home caching the mid-line of the state primarily, I hope to get to the northwoods to not only find a few caches but to meet some of the cachers in that region. While I tend to go solo on many of my trips, I am hoping to team up on a couple trips when the snow goes away. The couple of trips to the West Bend area with Sagasu were good ones but they were cold/rainy ones too.

I hope this brief entry has given you some insight. Many other ideas will come out in the answers to the other posts. I look forward to the chance to serve.