This topic contains 30 replies, has 17 voices, and was last updated by 
Paul 18 years, 10 months ago.
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I have read the posts and comments on this thread. However I am a little taken back about requesting a person to go out and spend alot of time doing research, talking to land managers and so forth.
I agree that if you want to have a WGA event held further North of Eau Claire that you need to provide some details however what is the likely hood that after lots of time and energy that it would be looked at as a real location?
The idea of this event is to get as many WI as well IL and MN geocachers to attend. Of course WGA has this in mind while selecting a location as they should. If it is too far for a far amount of the people that would normally attend and WGA and volunteers spend countless man hours and the turn out is dismal what sort of incentive do they have to, first do it again in this area or ever do it again. The payout vs. the payback may not be close to equal.
Personally I don’t mind driving 3 hours for an event. Beyond that it takes a fair amount out of your schedule and enjoyment time. Especially if you have small children.
The WGA event is statewide. Why would it not be possible for local Geocachers to hold Regional events sponsored in part by WGA? WGA could provide help in the areas of politics, experience and advertising. The local group obviously has the burden to scout the location talk to the land managers, coordinate a group of volunteers, detailed logistics and such. At least this way these local groups / individuals know that there time and effort of prescouting is not a waste of time.The location for events seems to be the subject of perennial debate. The complaints we hear from our far northern cousins are not new. JT did a geographic study a couple of years ago comparing the center of WGA population and the center of WGA sponsored activities. The activities seemed to be rather fairly distributed based on this. It has been the position of the WGA BOD that it is more fun to get out of town for these activities and has never had a problem taking the show to the road. A couple of hours to or from a site has never been a problem, three hours is OK, but 4 or 5 starts to drain our resources. And that is just for setting-up such an event. a 4-5 hour drive for a family with small children can be a real test if we are talking about a week-end event. I realize that our far northern cousins have families with small children as well. That is why we need to consider the greater good for our efforts. Is it better to disappoint a dozen cachers or a hundred cachers?
We who are trapped in an urban existence sincerely envy those who might be able to survive in our north woods. But we also realize that your idyllic environment means that you will have to accept a longer commute to participate in the activities of the masses. How far would you have to drive to go to a rock concert or to the opera?
My personal feeling is that I would like to go back to Hartman Creek. That seemed to be one of the most central locations we have visited. No matter where we go for these events, we must consider the limitations of the staff that will support the effort and the wishes of the greatest number of our members. ~tb
Well, since this thread is titled “Sugest a new place for an event” I nominate Rocky Arbor State Park in Wisconsin Dells.
The views are simply fantastic, and there is overnight camping. It seemed like there was almost no one there in that park when we were there durring the busiest time of the season.
@tyedyeskyguy wrote:
Well, since this thread is titled “Sugest a new place for an event” I nominate Rocky Arbor State Park in Wisconsin Dells.
Jay, just playing devil’s advocate on your idea:
Pluses: Central location, great scenery, proximity to lots of permanent caches, proximity to other lodging/activities
Minuses: No group camping, kinda small (250 acres and only 2 miles of trails, Peninsula is around 3200 acres), South of Eau Claire 😛Maybe this might work for the picnic, but probably too small for the campout. On the other hand, I think it would be great for a local event.
It’s hard to believe it’s only 2 miles of trails, it sure seemed like more in that heat!
The campsites are meant for single families true. They are spread out pretty far. It is a small park, but WOW, what a park!
No need to be the event, just a event.
Politicians campaign throughout the state to get voters to “join” them. If they don’t, they don’t “win”.
While I am fully aware that 2/3 of the population of Wisconsin lives in the bottom 1/3 of the state, I still don’t think that any one person has more value than any other. Therefore, is it really fair to say that the northern cousins be abandoned when it comes to an official event because such an event won’t produce the required attendance to make it a profitable event?
I am fully aware of the fact that the parks up here are more limited than the parks closer to Madison but I don’t think that stopped the WGA from having an event at Lake Wissota State Park and I don’t think, if you’re only having a picnic event, that that truly matters!
Willow River State Park has a GREAT day use area, the manager is welcome to geocaching in the park and is even interested in it! Willow River S.P. is close to MN so we would get a drove of MN cachers into the event and since it would only be a picnic event, those who had to travel more than 3 hours could get a camp site!
Bobcat
There are basic list of things we require when hosting our event at any campground:
- Large group campsites- Group sites must be able to accomadate a group of our size. Not all State Parks have sufficient group camp sites. There is a very short list of qualifying parks.
- Manpower – Sometimes the most important item. We need a core group of people that live close to the selected campground. We need members in close proximity to recon the park, organize the hiding, and be available to make multiple trips to the park in preperation for the event. If we don’t have area members to help, the park is out of the question. It’s not reasonable to have planners driving more then 2 hrs each way to scope out the park. We NEED local help!
- Shelter – Need an adequate shelter, preferably with electricity, to host the registration, caching activities, and pancake breakfast.
Like I’ve said in the past, if you suggest a park, please make sure it meets these requiremtents. If it does, then it can be considered.
Wissota would not have been possible without the help of Ruth (BNB), and the team of helpers she organized. The preperation started early with Ruth snowshoeing into the campsites to take pictures for the Board to see.
Often a physical visit to the group sites is needed so we can select the appropriate sites and reserve them.
Cheesehead,
It is Your Board of Directors. Elected by members of the WGA. There is no clause in the bylaws that states representation must be distributed by geographical area. So what’s your point?My point is that they Represent ALL of Wisconsin. So if a suitable location was nominated near Superior or the northern most location in Wisconsin as Port Wing, it should be considered. But from posts in general, the only place for an event should be within a 2 hour trip from the 3M’s. And yes, I realize that Most of the Members are from the southeastern part of the State. But how do you get more people from the northern part interested in this sport? I would think holding an event up here.
I agree with cheezehead that if a location is suitable, it should be considered as a possible location for an event.
Again, we would need STRONG local support for the event. That means helpers that are willing to do most of the leg work.
I’d question if a private campground would be able to accomodate our group, but there could be exceptions. I personally feel we should hold our events at State Parks. Our State Parks are top notch and very clean!
@pcfrog wrote:
I don’t recall a way to suggest a place for a WGA event so I will just make this post.
For the upcoming year, it would be nice if the Flambeau River State Forest be considered for the next picnic or campout.
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/ORG/land/forestry/StateForests/SF%2DFlambeau/flambmap.pdf
This loaction was brought up at the begining of the topic.
There are other Federal and State campgrounds in this are in the Clam Lake-Cable areas, which are not that far from each other. The Sawyer County Fish Hatchery Park would be a great place to hold an event.There are ski loops and the Birkie Trail right there. YOu are within 10 min drive to a vast amount caches and other trails. Yes this would not be a good place for the BIG Event. But I would Love to hold some kind of event uo here. I’m sure I could get other locals envolved if this could happen. There are some great. great caches near here.
Again, I was not trying to attack anyone, just trying to make a point that the WGA needs to look at the WHOLE STATE when choosing a place for an event. I ‘ll try to get any information the board will need.
IF I was to try to hold event up here, Just what kind of support would I get from the WGA? Yes, I am fairly new at the whole sport and have never attended an event, but would do my damndest to get the ball rolling to host an event up/near here-in this area.
If an event was held up here, I’d bet you would get cacher’s from both Minn. & Mich. attending cuz it’s just about an hour drive from Duluth,1.5 hours from Ironwood, and 3 hours from the Twin Cities.
I took a look at the Chequamagon campsites, and most of them look too small. The area itself is great, but there doesn’t seem to be enough room for camping. There is one farther east in the “Nicolet Side” (Boulder Lake) which might work. Now you COULD make an argument that the campout is going to be spread over 4 or 5 of these little campgrounds, but I doubt that many people would consider that a good idea. Maybe this area would be better for the Picnic.
That said, before you start planning an event, maybe you should try to attend a WGA event to get a feel for what this is all about. I, for one, was stunned at just how many people attend these things and how much effort is required to pull it off.
Also, as I look at past events, the last four WGA events were held in 3 of the 4 quadrants of the state: NW (Lake Wissota), NE (Peninsula), and 2 in the SE (K-M South and North). It would seem that the SW quadrant people have more to complain about. But in the prior 3 years, 3 of the 6 events were in the SW quadrant.
Depending on when it is, the Two lakes campground is real nice and should be open in the fall. Another one could be the Chippewa Campgrounds near Medford. The campsites near Clam Lake are nice too, but yes are spread out a bit. I guess I know that truly it would be hard to hold the BIG event up here. But I would like to try to hold some sort event up here. There options up here, and the area would be fantastic but I do understand the logistic side of things too.
I just needed to to get on my tree stump and gripe a tad. I respect all the board members and their opinions. I just kinda wanted to open their eyes some. If there is somehow, someway to hold an event “UP North”, I’d like to be involved is all.
In the spring, one of the teachers is going to take her class geocaching. I told her to call me to help. What do I need to do here for help? As in setting up Temp. caches? The School has a 40 acres with a nice loop in it.
I have been trying to get in contact with the Supt. about placing a cache there, but this might be my chance to help out that way. I guess I just hi–jacked my own thread.I’m not trying to sound sarcastic, but you really need to have attended one of our campouts, in order to have a good feel for what is needed.
We are talking about 100+ people camping on a one or two large “group” campsites. Maybe another 50 making their own camping arrangements at individual campsites, plus some who prefer hotels.
Most campgrounds have a limit on how many people can camp on any particular site. “Groupsites” are established for larger groups, such as ours.
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