My name is Jim Peterson, but most of you who know me, know me as BigJim60, or just Big Jim. I have been a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America for the past 25 years. I started going by Big Jim when my son (Jim) was a Cub Scout, and one of the leaders asked if it would be OK to call us “Big Jim” and “Little Jim.” Now Little Jim is 31 years old and nearly as big as me.

I started geocaching after being introduced to it at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I had an old Magellan GPS unit that I had never really learned to use, and found my first cache in November 2009. By Christmas time I was ordering a new Etrex and within a year I had found over a thousand caches.

Though I don’t get to travel much, I have completed the Wisconsin DeLorme Challenge (Part deux) and the Wisconsin 72 County Challenge, as well as finding caches in 27 states. My association with the WGA thus far has mostly been as a behind-the-scenes helper at pancake breakfasts and as trail boss for the WGA Geoart, which is just a few miles from my home. Not being a big fan of power trails, it was nice to be able to complete the geoart 10 – 20 caches a day over several weeks.

Although I have been approached to run for a WGA Board position in the past, I was always too busy with Scouts, my position on the Friends of Mead/McMillan Wildlife Areas Board of Directors, and … oh yeah … work. I’ve  stepped down from most of my roles with the Scouts and have resigned from the Friends of Mead Board, so I now have time that I can devote to the WGA. I still have to work, though.