[elfdoctors]

Our family had a great time at this event! Our kids have learned to hate micros so all the ammo cans were a nice touch. I was amazed at how many people were there as it seemed that we were with cachers at every cache! It was nice to meet many cachers even though I was a little late to the borderline insanity event. It was great getting some caching done after hardly doing any for most of this winter so far! We will be trying to attend more events because of experiences like today. Thanks Doc (and everyone else) for organizing a memorable event.

[elfdoctors]

I have minimal fear of bears. I have run into them fairly often in the woods up here (and have even harvested one). Most of the time they run away (and I often run after them to see if they’ve had cubs). If they don’t run away, they tend to climb a tree. I’ve even reached inside a bear den to touch a hibernating bear.

About the only time I have any concern is if there is a mom with cubs, she has a distinctive growl which tells me to be cautious and to back away.

Over the past decade, Burnett County has had at least two bear attacks on humans and both of them were hunting related – one involved getting bit by a bear when a hunter tried to separate his hunting dog from the bear, and the second one involved a bear attack when the bear was running away from another hunter.

[elfdoctors]

It looks like while my wife is spending the day scrapbooking, the kids and I will be able to attend on Saturday. Is there any way of having the caches’ coordinates posted on this site (or even e-mailed)????

[elfdoctors]

I was only able to cache one weekend for the CVB event last year. I greatly enjoyed it. I’m sorry it will not be happening again this year. It gave me the excuse to make the 2.5 hr drive down there to get more caches.

[elfdoctors]

@3 Hawks wrote:

Geocachers and Nascar?? It just seems like an unholy union.

ditto 😀 I’ll pass on this league. 😉

[elfdoctors]

Unless we get specific instructions from the DOT to remove them, I’d recommend keeping the existing ones because I believe the issue is still in flux. They know that some geocaches are in waysides currently.

I had the opportunity to talk personally to my state representative, Ann Hraychuck, who serves on both the Natural Resources and Transportation committees. I’ve told her that I’d adopted a wayside cache (which had originally been placed by a Burnett County police officer). I believe that she was going to try to get the transportation people to talk with the DNR people.

Hopefully the misguided current policy will be updated.

[elfdoctors]

Sorry to hear about your loss Timberline Echoes.

Burnett County has only had two deaths from blastomycosis in the 16 years that I’ve been here. One was an elderly male who was already ill and undergoing treatment for lung cancer. The other one was a healthy young man around 20 who died within 24 hrs of becoming sick.

Many more dogs are affected. According to a veterinarian friend of mine, the disease clearly has epidemics which tend to be most common during the late summer.

Fortunately, well over 90% of human infections are completely asymptomatic and the great majority of the ones which do make people ill, will go away without treatment. It’s probably not worth losing any sleep over. There are many more important health risks which should be addressed like smoking (or even second hand smoke).

[elfdoctors]

@furfool wrote:

So now do I need to worry about going to the cabin in the north woods in the summer? We get a bat or two inside a couple of times a year.

Most places up here get bats inside occasionally. I only begin to worry if the bat is acting unusually or if a bite or scratch has occurred. Flying around during the daytime (without having been disturbed) is the most common behavior I’ve seen that has concerned me.

I have a bat house hanging in my yard (my “batchelor pad”). I agree that bats are far more beneficial than harmful. [/b]

[elfdoctors]

The health recommendations are pretty specific. Minimal contact with bats qualifies for rabies prophylaxis (partially because their bites tend to be so small that some people don’t even realize they were bitten). There have been extremely rare fatal cases of rabies associated with merely sleeping in a room with a bat flying around.

The only rabid animal of any species identified in Burnett County during the past 16 years (as long as I have been the medical adviser for our county) was a bat (just last year). That animal bit one of my patients and learned to regret it.

While I am aware of these recommendations, I have rescued bats myself (wearing gloves) and have never used prophylaxis for myself as I believe the recommendations are probably too conservative and not particularly realistic to rural living. Otherwise, nearly everyone in this county should have to get vaccinated.

This is also a very unusual time for rabies (which tends to be most common during the late summer).

While I was reading the first post I thought this thread was going to degenerate into a discussion about how to cook a bat! 😆

[elfdoctors]

Here’s two options up in the northwest part of the state.

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway: you can make this into a week long trip along the St. Croix and Namekagon rivers but caches are far apart because of the riverway being owned by the National Park Service. Here’s a few caches which are easily accessible from the water which are associated with usual landings on the river.

GC12WZX
GC12Y76
GC12W18
GC161G6
GC168E2
GCP64Y
GCP5PR

…and for a smaller option – here are 3 caches in Burnett County on Clam Lake and River – I’ve only found 2 of them so far.

GC14ZPH
GCWPNR
GCXQ29

[elfdoctors]

Congrats to Vegas Gamblers as well as to the rest of you!

I thought I might have had an easy season with Ladanain Tomlinson but many of you guys put me in my place (5th)! Thanks for the education! It was fun. I’d be interested in playing again next year.

[elfdoctors]

I had always assumed that I was almost a pure left-brained person but I can only see her going clockwise. I can’t wait to hear what my wife says when I tell her I’m so feeling, imaginative, risk-taking, and appreciative. 😉

[elfdoctors]

I’ll add my name to the ignorant. ….not a lot of fellow cachers up my way.

Can someone back up further and explain what GSAK even stands for? This can be a good thread to explain what it is,why a cacher would want to use it, an how to use it.

I’ve tried to fiddle with cachemate for my pda and geobuddy for my laptop and never really figured out how to use them effectively or if there was any advantage other than saving a tree or two. If there is another program I need to get, this needs to be posted also.

[elfdoctors]

I’m interested in playing.

3 of my caches made the list. All 3 of them should be able to be found even in the snow when you get to ground zero. However two of them (South Bailey Beavers and Fish Lake Scrub Oaks) will likely require a longer walk because they are off unpaved trails which are probably not drivable if there is significant snow on the ground.

[elfdoctors]

Congrats! Finding this one was probably more fun than losing to me in our final round of the WGA FF playoffs! 😀

[Author]

Posts