This topic contains 31 replies, has 14 voices, and was last updated by 
GrouseTales 20 years, 7 months ago.
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Just playing around with my last post. These are the state campgrounds that could accomodate 100-150 of us:
Buckhorn State Park with 3 group sites could accomodate approximately 120 campers.
Devil’s Lake State Park with 6 group sites (capacity of 20-60 per site) would accomodate us.
Governor Dodge has 10 group sites (site capapcity of 20-125) so just one site could work here.
Hartman Creek State Park has 5 group sites, and we know they can accomodate us.
High Cliff State Park with 8 group site (20-60 campers per site) would work too. I camped here as a child & really liked this place!
Kettle Moraine State Forest–Northern Unit
Greenbush has 9 group site. 3 sites could accomodate 180 campers.Kettle Moraine State Forest–Southern Unit
Hickory Wood has 5 group sites. We’d have to use them all for 100 campers.Lake Wissota State Park has 2 very large group sites (each 80-100 occupants).
If we reserved all 7 group sites at Mirror Lake State Park, 140 people could camp.
Nelson Dewey State Park group sites (3 of ’em) will take 120 campers.
New Glarus Woods has 6 group sites. We would 5 of them for 150 campers.
Northern Highland/American Legion State Forest has 2 large group sites (80 campers at each).
Peninsula State Park has 3 group sites and we could get 180 folks in there.
Richard Bong State Park has 6 group sites. Each site accomodates 25-50.
Rock Island State Park is a little on the small side with 2 group sites (40-60 person capacity) but it might work too.
Wildcat Mountain, with 3 group sites has a capacity of 25-75 per site.
Wyalusing State Park has 5 and has room for 20-40 per site.
Yellowstone Lake has 6 group sites with a capacity of 25-50 each.
Doesn’t matter to me where we go — I’ll be there!
Bec
In addition to location and group site capacity, another factor to consider is whether or not the group sites have showers and flush toilets. Personally, those things are not a requirement for me, but I know they are important to some. I know that Greenbush does not have showers and flush toilets. Yellowstone Lake does have them within walking distance of the group sites. Perhaps others can help update the list of parks to indicate “Yes” or “No” on showers and flush toilets at or near the group sites.
Thanks Bec for gathering all the info on available sites. The one thing I wonder is how many of these group sites are seperated from one another? If there is excessive distance between needed sites, it would make using them less feasable.
As for location, it may also be helpful to really determine what the overall goal of the campout is. Is the primary goal to have a larger and larger group each year? Are we interested in attracting those people who have not attended in the past due to the location? Are there volunteers within reasonable traveling distance who have the ability/desire to properly present the idea of a geocaching event to park management?
On another note, how about taking some time out of the weekend to promote CITO or pehaps some other type of volunteer work that the park may find desireable? Events such as this are vital in gaining the respect and involvement of the DNR and other land managers. A weekend of fun is great, but promoting caching and the WGA to those who do not have the same understanding of it that we do would be a valuable asset to us in the future.
For those who are not aware, the Michigan geocachers did not form a relationship with the DNR such as the WGA has. Michigan DNR recently set a $35 permit fee for each cache placement on state land. On top of that, a cache can only be in place for a period of 4 months. Park personnel are said to be actively hunting down and removing all existing caches which have not been registered. To me, this is the closest thing to banning us as they could get.
Let’s do what we can to keep the WI land managers on our side of the fence!
Finished up my presentation and more or less studied for tomorrow’s test — don’t have another presentation until next week, and final exam is a couple more weeks off, so I can do a little resarch on: distance between group sites, distances from potties & showers, if you’d all like. (again, I have no life.)
Love the idea of doing a little volunteer work at the campground during the campout!
Bec
Nice job on rounding up all that info Bec!!
quote:
Originally posted by fishcachers:
Nice job on rounding up all that info Bec!!No problem — I like to sublimate when doing homework!
I like doing research type stuff, just not so much when it’s boring school topics!
Bec
quote:
Originally posted by greyhounder:
No problem — I like to sublimate when doing homework!I like doing research type stuff, just not so much when it’s boring school topics!
Bec
Maybe you’d like to be a paralegal someday.
It’s fun to do fun research. (Hmm. Better go to bed now. That is just *TOO* obvious, lolol!!!)
Like the Beast said, we always seek volunteers from local members to help out. With a few exceptions, the helpers keep coming from S/E Wisconsin. We definately want to be able to skip around to different parts of the state to include as many members as possible. We need to get more local support then in the past.
For almost every event, I’ve personally made about 3 trips to the park to scope things out and get things lined up. I’m able to drive a few hours to do that, but 4+ hour drive is out of my range. We would need a lot of local support to do the brunt of the recon missions.
A lot of scouting and preperation goes into selecting the locations. Our scouting trips have always included campsite surveys, shelter facilities, available area for caching, parking arrangements, and testing FRS repeater coverage. Once a site is selected, we need to pay for the site reservation, and shelter reservations, then make another trip to plan temp caches, and possibly another trip to hide them.
We would need a core of hard working volunteers that are local to the area and would be willing to check things out for us. Otherwise it will be hard for the WGA Board to get out there and check for ourselves. We need photos and field reports before we can make an informed decision. More then 100 people will be counting on us to get things right for them.
“There are two kinds of hunting: ordinary hunting and grouse hunting.”
-Aldo Leopold, A sand county AlmanacBrian
WGA President
Grousetales at wi-geocaching dot com
KC9GMW[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 11-29-2004).]
Referencing the parks that can accomodate a large bunch, here is the extra info:
Buckhorn State Park
Three group camping sites (B1, B2 and B3)on the park’s east side have room for 120 people, Water, vault toilets, no electricity. Tents, RVs and pop-up units welcomedvon the gravel, short trail leads to the Wisconsin River portion of the flowage, access to boating, canoeing and fishing, group camp area has volleyball, horseshoe pit. (Horseshoes and volleyballs checked out free of charge.) No showers noted.Devil’s Lake
Pit & flush toilets, as well as showers & water available. Sites 7-9 are rustic.Governor Dodge
Each group site has a large tent area, picnic tables, a large fire ring, and a set of pit toilets. Drinking water is provided at group road intersections. I don’t see any info on showers…High Cliff
Not sure based on map — will check this out more. http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/highcliff/highcliffpark.pdfKettle Moraine North
One wheeled camper allowed per site in parking area, Sites located near Greenbush Trail, hiking or biking, shelter house, hand pumps, pit toilets nearby. Don’t see any showers.Kettle Moraine South
Pine Woods Group Camp offers four large sites that accommodate up to 40 people per site, Hickory Woods (Whitewater Lake)has five sites that can accommodate up to 20 people per site, drinking water, pit toilets, One wheeled camper is also allowed per site in parking area. There is a shower at Pine Woods, but not real close — don’t see one for Hickory Woods.Lake Wissota
pit toilets, shelter, water, no showers, one site has electricity, but it looks to be just tent camping.Mirror Lake
no immediate info on this one….Nelson Dewey
All group sites have electricity and allow wheeled campers. That’s all I’ve got at this time.New Glarus
Some group sites allow RVs, water fountain & toilet building, apparently no showers.Northern Highland
tents only, drinking water, pit toilets, no showers.Penninsula State Park
three group campsites: Lakeshore, Orchard and Meadow, Only tent camping, Pit toilets, water fountain located centrally. closest hot water, shower, flush toilet about a mile away. Motor vehicles only in parking lots, One motorhome or camper may be set up in the parking lot restricted to storage, cooking, personal bathroom and shower only.Rock Island
Need to take ferry to this one! Cars and even bikes are not allowed on the 912-acre island, Pit toilets, picnic tables, and fire rings are provided; there is drinking water near the dock and boathouse. Don’t see a shower here either.Bong State Park
pit toilets & water nearby, showers at the larger, family camping area.Wildcat Mountain
three reservable group sites half-mile east of park office, up to 75 people each, vault toilets, picnic tables, fire rings, shelter house. Water obtained at the shower building (not particularly close). Wheeled campers okay at site 3.Wyalusing
looks like there are pit toilets and a shower nearby.Yellowstone Lake
some sites have electricity, A new flush toilet and shower building, completed in 2002, provides campers with excellent accommodations (but I can’t tell where they are in relation to the group sites)Bec
More information on Group Sites can be found at: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/reservation/group.html
quote:
Originally posted by greyhounder:
Referencing the parks that can accomodate a large bunch, here is the extra info:Governor Dodge
Each group site has a large tent area, picnic tables, a large fire ring, and a set of pit toilets. Drinking water is provided at group road intersections. I don’t see any info on showers…Bec
Governor Dodge has recently built a great shower facility at the intersection of the roads leading to the Hickory Ridge Group Campsites.
I know the WGA has been to Governor Dodge before, but this is one of my favorites in the state!
~Kevin
I’ve personally recon’d several of these parks. Several parks are out based on past surveys.
OUT:
[*]Bong- Sites are too small and parking is bad
[*]Greenbush- not so good.
[*]Devil’s Lake – Group sites are for organized groups such as boyscouts/girlscouts. Dont think the WGA would meet criteria.
[*]Buckhorn – caching opportunities are inadequate.Adequate:
[*]Gov Dodge (beautiful park, site of 1st campout).
[*]High Cliff – Nice sites and great parking. (site of 2nd campout)
[*]Hartman Creek – nice park (site of 3rd Geo-campout).Our focus is on group sites that hold at least 50 people each. We need to plan for about 100 people. It would probably be cost prohibitive to reserve a bunch of smaller sites.
Wissota sounds nice, but again, might be too far away for the organizers to make the multiple trips to the park.
[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 11-30-2004).]
I have attended the 2003 picnic at Devil’s Lake (for which I made the preliminary temp hide trip) and the 2004 campout. I would have attended the 2004 picnic but had a conflict.
While Lake Wissota is amazingly convenient for me, personally I wouldn’t mind if the campout were further away because I don’t mind driving further for an overnight. For me, the picnic is more of a hassle because it is at a busy time of year and often a long drive away.
However, I wanted add my two cents regarding some comments made in this thread. I realize that most of the WGA membership is in the S/SE region of this state. I would suggest that there are two reasons for this. The majority of the general population of Wisconsin is in that region (see jthorson map). But the second reason could be that the geocachers elsewhere find it too difficult to be involved in something that seems to mostly support the S/SE portion of the state. T&TB commented that new people won’t want to drive 5-6 hours to camp with people they’ve never met. If that’s true, that could be why most of the WGA membership is where it is and will continue to stay that way.
I understand that it is the volunteers that make these events happen. Since I don’t have the spare time in my life to completely run something like this I can’t complain too much about the location. It just seems that limiting the location based on current WGA membership does nothing to extend that membership.
Last summer I went to Lake Wissota to talk to the ranger about placing a cache there. The person I needed to talk to wasn’t there and I have not had a chance to get back since. At that time I was told to contact the Park Superintendent Allen Middendorp (715-382-4574). PWB, if you know of a better or different contact, please let me know. If the WGA desires contact to be made with Lake Wissota, I will do it. Additionally, I will do any pre-prep that I can, but I cannot test repeaters and I do not have the imagination to place temp hides of the quality level I experienced at the WGA events I attended. I would certainly place some, but additional temp hiders would be necessary. I suspect that I could get some help from some local geocachers, but I cannot commit for them without asking.
BnB
quote:
Originally posted by bnb:
I suspect that I could get some help from some local geocachers, but I cannot commit for them without askingBnB’s message prompted me to get my thoughts together.
The following are the considerations I’ll use when voting for a campsite.
Consideration #1.
All the current board members live in what is being called SE Wisconsin. I will vote for a campsite outside of that area if there is an identified volunteer committee that will handle the bulk of the visits, hides and arrangements at the site. Without this committee, responsibility falls on the board and the logistics would be near impossible having a site outside of the south.Note that board elections are coming in January. Up-North candidates need to nominated and voted for. This could go a long way to solving this problem.
Consideration #2.
Basic accommodations and sufficient camp spots.Consideration #3.
I’ll favor a new place over a previous camp/picnic location.The board wants to find a location ASAP.
I would be willing to help out with Lake Wissota also. Like BNB said I would not want to be the lone ranger working on this.
I would be able to find a spot for the WGA repeater and find places for temp hides. I will talk to the person I know that works there to see who would have to be contacted.
Paul
PWB – Comet Cache Chasers
http://www.cachechasers.com
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