[CommanderUSN]

Since you already have posted 66 finds, you should have a good idea of what you want and about how much you would like to pay.

Best thing to do is to go to the primary GPS manufactures pages and do some online shopping. I use a Garmin Montana 650t…but that is a bit out of your price range but Garmin has many other handhelds that are great for caching as well. The other primary site I would go to is the Magellan site as a lot of cachers use Magellan GPS and there is an almost never ending debate on which one is best.

Do your online shopping and if you think you have made a decision but are not real sure…drop me an e-mail and I may be able to help. Good luck.

The Commander

[CommanderUSN]

Lil Otter…how good to hear from you. Hope you get out to an event or to so we can see you again too.

I have already “stuck my neck out” as lab rat puts it with getting the requirements to place a cache in Madison area parks removed. There still are a few places in Madison…that are mentioned in the restrictions portion of this webpage…that ARE off limits but for good reasons. My working with the City Park officials gave me confidence to work with other officials to get onerous restrictions removed or modified.

If I am remembered for getting that done alone I will be pleased. As a member of the BOD and with a bit more time as I plan to fully retire by the end of Summer, I hope to take on Dane, Brown and other counties that have special use fees to place caches in their parks. I have already paid to be using the parks through my real estate taxes and the additional hoops that need to be jumped through should be looked at to be seriously modified and I hope to do that.

Thanks for the question and I hope to see you out on the trails again.

The Commander

[CommanderUSN]

Here it is the end of January and I have only found 2 caches all month. It really has been brutal and I haven’t taken to ‘cold caching’ at all this year. That is not to say that I haven’t gone out before this year it’s just that I now have to drive a fair distance to get to a cache…and it’s been so much nicer to just sit inside a warm house.

Here’s an FTF Log from a few years back that may bring a chuckle.

Quote:

N 43° 09.163 W 089° 25.942
FTF…sorry guys but GrammyB took me out to dinner and “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Fireside (I highly recommend it by the way) and even though we got home late(12:15), I had to check the e-mail and saw this one. Well, I was pretty wired by drinking too much coffee with the meal and dessert so thought I would watch a little TV and go to bed. Didn’t work…that’s when I decided some exercise might help so got out and at 2:40 AM found it…it was only 18 degrees out with the wind blowing about 15-20 knots and little help from the overcast sky…and my 2.5 million candle power piece of crap died on me again(that happened on Wexford Wanderings, my first FTF) and seems to plague me. Thank God, I now always have with me my mini-mag-lite. When I did get back home, I decided I would take a little nap before logging but fell fast asleep. For future cachers the waypoint I am adding to this log is where I parked. Double stamped log and left Chairface TB and a calling card. TFTC

[CommanderUSN]

Maybe a modification to COTM to COTQ to reduce the number of awards to Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter with a COTY for each area that may or may not come from that years COTQs. With the addition of FAVs at Groundspeak, the really cool caches tend to be found by the number of FAVs given.

[CommanderUSN]

I would hope that those members of the board that have already served half of their time would fill the major positions just because they would have the experience on the board. With NO experience with the board at all, I probably would only be qualified to serve as Vice President if push came to shove and a position needed to be filled.

[CommanderUSN]

I think I would plan a day at Devil’s Lake or some other State Park (along with some WSQ’s if there are any in the area). I would make sure I had downloaded the overlay for the high res TOPO as the last time caching there I almost went off trail 90 feet from the cache but the TOPO had the cache 25 feet higher than the trail. I think a good caching day exercises the GPS as much as we would exercise.

[CommanderUSN]

Having cached in all 72 counties the one county that had the caches that I will remember most is Florence County. There are two “falls” caches that are about 2 miles off of Hwy 70 that are accessible by a fire lane…Meyer’s Falls and Bull Falls. That whole part of the state is very interesting and could use even more remote caches. That being said, the caches close by to home that I have enjoyed the most are those around the Stewart tunnel just South of Belleville.

[CommanderUSN]

I should be able to attend depending on weather and time of the day and where exactly the meeting would be held. If it’s in Green Bay, that’s a good two hour drive from Madison and the earliest I could make it would be about 2:00 in the afternoon.

[CommanderUSN]

I started out with a Garmin GPS V (as did Madison Joe) graduated to a Garmin 60Csx and about two years ago jumped whole hog and got a Garmin Montana 650t. I love the 650t but it really is pricey for a lot of folks and I just decided that I really wanted to have the best for the sport I enjoy the most. I also have the Geocaching App from groundspeak on my iPhone…but I have to admit that I haven’t used it yet to actually cache with but I’m certain I will shortly. Both of our cars have factory installed GPS and I have actually got a FTF using just the GPS in my JEEP. The Montana has a motorcycle mode and I have a RAM mount on my Harley that I can easily put the Montana on when I go Harley caching. Long answer but short answer…Garmin.

[CommanderUSN]

Most cachers learn from someone else or just jump in and start on there own. I think some sort of education class at events would be good for newer…and even older cachers. I would especially like to see a presentation on “Caching Etiquette” as I think it is (unfortunately) needed. Another class could be a “how to” class on placing caches and yet another could be a “blue question mark” corner to get hints on some of the devious puzzles out there.

[CommanderUSN]

I think KFH hit the nail on the head. Excellent answer that I don’t have a better response to.

[CommanderUSN]

Leadership…see Naval Career on personal webpage

History…caching since 2005 in over half the states in the U.S.

Connections…I have personally cached with “The Grand High Pobah” in Denver (author of CacherStats webpage), graldrich in Phoenix, AZ and jahoadie and john in San Diego, CA.

I have also visited Geocaching HQ in Seattle.

[CommanderUSN]

I feel that after 9 years geocaching…it’s time for payback with more than just placing some more caches out there.

[CommanderUSN]

I would have to go through and see which caches I have adopted and which ones I have placed. Total caches that I maintain (or have been archived) is 73 and I’m certain that at least 50 of those I have placed on my own.

It’s good that board members have placed caches as it tells the community as a whole that they just don’t go out and find caches but they pay it back as well and provide caching experiences for others.

[CommanderUSN]

Hey…I’m a Navy “N” man. The mission comes first and if I have to do it (and am capable…I don’t do tree climbs anymore) it will get done so the mission will be a success.

I’m certain there will be disagreements between board members about various ideas but I’m open to all ideas that keeps the WGA strong and vibrant. If I have an idea that is “pooh-poohed” it could be a generational thing or just a plain BAD idea. I can accept that but I’m also hoping that if I criticize another idea that I’m probably seeing it from a different angle that should also be taken into account.

[Author]

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