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Hi all,
Sorry that I missed the spring event yesterday, as I had to stay home to take care of my wife’s dog. Staying home though, did leave me to think up new ideas and surf the interweb, and I came up with an idea for a series of Adventure Labs for the Yellowstone Trail across Wisconsin. I am hoping that the WGA board can support this idea, which I think would increase the chances of Groundspeak approving it.
I will cut and paste my email to Groundspeak in the next post.
z
Hi,I did several of the Lincoln Highway Adventure Labs while in Nevada and look forward to doing more of them in the future, as this is a great addition to geocaching. I am looking forward to doing the RT 66 Adventure Labs as well. I got your name as a contact from the people working on Rt 66.I am wondering if something like this can be done with the Yellowstone Trail?Here is some basic information on the Yellowstone Trail, since it is not as well known as the others, despite being the first transcontinental automobile highway through the upper tier of states in the United States, established in May 1912. There are still signs across for most of the trail through Wisconsin, though other states are no longer promoting the historical route. I have traveled the entire route in Wisconsin several times, and it remains promoted in most of Wisconsin, and with good signage. I have also traveled the route of the Yellowstone Trail in Minnesota, and relics of the past still exist, including old bridges and gas stations, but it would be harder to promote outside of Wisconsin, due to the lack of signage and promotion by tourism officials. In Wisconsin, the tourist officials in several areas promote the trail for tourist interest.In the past, I placed a series of physical caches all across the state of Wisconsin from Racine to Hudson on the route of the Yellowstone Trail. Over half of them are now archived, mostly because of the difficulty of maintaining physical caches over such a large area. About 25 to 30 of my YST caches are still present and I will give you a sample of the ones still out there. Many of the best locations have been archived, so I see a lot of benefit to bringing people to the Yellowstone Trail by Adventure Labs.https://coord.info/GC154BB Milwaukee Brews
https://coord.info/GCXVDQ Addison Speakeasy and Brothelhttps://coord.info/GCYNPX Oshkosh Bridgehttps://coord.info/GCR2EH Butte des Mortes’ Hardware
https://coord.info/GCQC8M Marshfield’s Round Barn
https://coord.info/GCY0JV Thorp Al Capone PitstopThe trail is promoted some in SD, and I saw this cache near the center of the trail, a now archived cache that I got in 2011.https://coord.info/GC1HQ3PThe Yellowstone Trail is 406 miles long in Wisconsin. From my experience in the Reno area, a 10 stage adventure lab is best done following the trail in 30 to 50 mile increments. So I would propose about 10 adventure labs with 10 waypoints each for a Yellowstone Trail Adventure Lab series in Wisconsin.I would not be able to do this alone like I did with the physical caches in 2006 – 2008. My plan would be do this as a team of people and the labs would be owned by the Wisconsin Geocaching Association. I will reach out to the WGA to see if there is interest in doing this, and will get back to you when I find out if the WGA is interested. The WGA does have active members all along the Yellowstone Trail and I am fairly certain that it would not be hard to find 6 – 10 people to help me with this project.Thank youRalph Edwards/zuma!Hi all,
In case you are not aware of the Lincoln Highway series of Adventure Labs and the Rt 66 series of Adventure Labs, more info is here: https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/topic/358415-3389-mile-adventure-lab/
z
I like the idea of this series, but I’m not sure that it should fall to the WGA BOD to own it. Even if this Board has the resources to maintain it, the next may not. Good idea though. I only learned about this a few months back when finding one of your caches.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
I did get a response from Groundspeak this morning. Here is the cut and paste:
Hello Ralph,
I am very interested in talking more about this project once you have confirmed that the WGA would be interested in helping to manage and own the Adventure Labs.Please let me know if you have any questions.Regards,JeffHi Ralph! I think this is an awesome idea. Speaking for myself, I would be happy to help organize and support it in any way possible. It would be really cool for the history and for our state . As for WGA ownership, this will be something that we can discuss at our next board meeting in June. I know as a group we have a couple of big projects ongoing and it may not be the best time to add another right now.
Please note: my comments are mine alone and may not necessarily reflect an official stance of the WGA Board of Directors.
What goes into the management of an Adventure Lab series? Having completed a few, I’ve found them entertaining and worthwhile, but the long term maintenance seems very minimal from the outside. I’d be interested in lending a hand getting this rolling.
What goes into the management of an Adventure Lab series? Having completed a few, I’ve found them entertaining and worthwhile, but the long term maintenance seems very minimal from the outside. I’d be interested in lending a hand getting this rolling.
Hi, Good to hear from you after a long hiatus! Getting back into the game? Awesome!
Anyway, you are correct, if wpts are chosen well, Adventure Labs need very little maintenance. I have 2 Adventure Labs and neither has had any issues with the wpts. The one in Arcadia has very permanent markers, so I am sure it will stand the test of time. I have revisited both of the bonus caches twice, but that was just to refresh the swag, not because there was any problem.
I have seen some Adventure Labs have issues with wpts that the Adventure Lab builders had expected to stay in place. For example, when I did one of the RT 66 adventure Labs (Solsby’s Shell Station in Mount Olive, Il.) The gas pump from the front of the station had been removed, so we had to Google the answer. So problems cam come up with Adventure Lab wpts.
And some of the wpts on my original YST series have disappeared. For example, in Hammond I highlighted the historic hotel there, which they tore down, and but up a sports bar, with a mural on the exterior of the historic hotel. So even the best chosen wpts, can have issues over time.
Also, my proposal would call for 10 Bonus caches, and those can go missing at any time, which is one of the reasons that I was seeking a team of people to work on this project.
The feedback that I have gotten from the BOD is that they may support this proposal some time in the future, but they have other bigger irons in the fire, and asked me to postpone it for now. I am a team player, so have moved the idea to the back burner for now, and continue to research it. Good to know that there are lots of members that would help with this idea, and I appreciate your offer. I will keep you in the loop when the time comes to move forward.
z
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