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Just out of curiousity – is there a specific date being looked at yet? Amy and I really want to come but we’re pretty tight on summer weekends right now… (and I just bought a better pancake flipper…)
As far as locations… Buckhorn State Park is a centralized location with a variety of terrain available. Located on a peninsula on Castle Rock Lake (4th largest lake in Wisconsin…)
Perhaps the Kettle Moraine?
I love the idea of Wyalusing! The confluence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi? That’s “Mecca” for paddlers!
Another idea is the Flambeau River State Forest. Talk about a slice of heaven… but a long drive if you’re coming from Milwaukee…
So many places – so many ideas. Any help on the date would be much appreciated!
Jeff
Since the campout, we found 2 live ticks and 4 dead ticks near where our dog sleeps. Thank goodness for Frontline flea and tick stuff! Dead ticks are a lot less disgusting than the living kind.
Curious that neither Jeff nor I found any on us the entire weekend. But I still wish they could make Frontline for people!
Amy from Green Bay Paddlers
The water isn’t as bad in Green Bay, but the NWS has warned boaters to stay off of the river. Swift current because they’ve got the dams wide open from Appleton on down.
As for us, our basement flooded yesterday. Sump pump went POOF… ARGH!!! Thank goodness it happened while we were home and were able to catch it before too much damage was done!
Hang in there Wisconsin… Summer is coming!
No prob… I sent them in three emails – but I think I forgot to put a subject on one of them! Sorry….
Hope you enjoy. Can’t wait to see the DVD!!!
Jeff
I had read an article about geocaching in a Chicago newspaper a number of years ago. My buddies and I all have had GPS units for years and have loved using them to mark fishing spots, hunting spots, etc… General Navigation. One day in January 2003 I was messing around on the web and looked up the geocaching page. I quickly got excited when I realized this was an organized hobby with rules, enforcement, etc… I also thought it would be a great way to teach my students about latitude and longitude. I forwarded the web address to my friends and we all agreed to meet out at Pamperin Park one snowy January day and try this thing…
Our first cache was a “no find”. However, our second cache was “Pamperin Park” by Tenner. We were hooked! Found our first travel bug that day as well.
My buddies and I were all under one team name “Johnny U-Boat” (don’t ask, I’m just a World War II buff). After awhile, I really got hooked into the hobby and got my wife involved. Now Amy loves it even more than I do! My friends went off with their families and created their own team names: (CHAOS4U and TEAM SALMON). I switched our team name to “Green Bay Paddlers” in order to incorporate Amy’s and my love of canoeing!
We’ve gotten my parents into the hobby and bit. Almost close enough to where they will buy their own GPS. Amy’s parents tried it once – not sure it will take there!
Fun thread – good stuff!
Jeff
I frequent a lot of hunting/fishing forums and the one thing that everyone agrees about is that we all need to stick together. Anti-hunters have time and time again taken advantage of the divide between sportsmen in the past. Hunters disagree with trapping. Catch-and-release fishermen disagree with those who choose to keep a fish supper. Deer hunters can be subdivided into at least five different groups who all disagree with other. Baiting being the number one issue.
Geocachers are in the same boat. We, as an organization, need to stick together and identify the major threats to our hobby.
1. Educate the public as to what geocaching is all about.
2. Enforcement of rules that we can all live by. One twelve year old gets killed by a train while hunting for a cache and it’s game over for all of us in the press!
3. Maintaining the environment. Cache in – Trash Out, removing caches with well-worn trails to their spots creating a negative impact on the environment and getting those old, soggy tupperware containers (abandoned caches) out of our wilderness! I read a book on mountain biking years ago that required the reader to agree to “only leave behind waffle prints…”. The environmental issues are the most important. Low-impact wilderness experience is critical!
The way I see it, we are at a crucial junction in our hobby. We need to stick together and allow geocaching to flourish. I’ve been a member (and leader) of far too many clubs where in-fighting just causes everyone to lose.
Healthy debate is good… but let’s keep focused on the end goal. The public is really starting to respond to caching. Articles are being published and word of mouth is spreading. Everything I read on the net tells me that the WGA is a major leader in the COUNTRY in the area of geocaching. (Once again Wisconsin needs to carry the progressive label for the country!) Let’s rally and keep spreading the news about this GREAT hobby!…
(Okay… I’m off my soapbox now and putting my pom poms down….)
Jeff
This is just like the reunion of the missing car keys and their owner at the pancake breakfast. My eyes are welling up!!!! You see folks – it’s true! Geocaching DOES bring the world together!!!
I feel a song coming on….
“I’d like to buy the world a home…and furnish it with love…”
Good stuff people.
Can you tell how far behind I am with technology???
(I think I speak for Amy – but she’s the boss so I better let her decide for me…)
Agree wholeheartedly with Tony and Carole. As I stated on another post, some days we’re up for the long hike in the woods (Navarino Bob, Lord of the Rings series in Chicago, Wilderness Loop in Green Bay, etc…) and other days it’s fun to do the quick hop out of the car (P.C. Junction, Preble Yell, Tenner’s Bug Motel, etc…). All depends on what the particular day brings.
I have also been pretty vocal about locationless/virtual caches. I love them as well. Fun stuff and it’s something for everyone.
However, GrouseTales stated something beautifully. I hate looking like a stalker or an odd person in some locations, such as urban caches, Chicago Forest Preserves, etc… There hasn’t been enough education of the public yet about geocaching and there are some caches that are a little too public. Make it so the process of finding/logging a cache can at least be somewhat discrete!
I agree with Carole too about the friendships made and beautiful areas found. Caching is a great hobby and we truly would have never met as many great people (at the campout, on the trail, etc…) nor would we have found so many great little hiking nooks around Wisconsin/Illinois had it not been for a GPS and some great websites (geocaching.com/wi-geocaching.com).
Great thread Tony (and GREAT meeting you this past weekend….)
Jeff
Uh oh… has geocaching “jumped the shark”?
Not quite yet…
We’ve done a couple trips to different parts of the state (or Chicago) just to “cache out” a certain area. It’s fun but gets to be tiring. Personally, our take on caching is to just knock out a couple in an area if we’re there on vacation, visiting, etc… If we get them then we get them… if we don’t then oh well.
We’re taking the “baby steps” approach up to #100. It’s been a year and a half since we started caching and we haven’t even hit 80 yet. We’ve seen some beautiful areas and met some great people through this hobby. Caching is something that is there in the background and something that we can do on a Sunday or on a vacation if we have some spare time.
Fun, fun, fun. Good stuff… Great thread House of Brew!
Jeff
Great meeting you this weekend Otter. Congrats again!
Your humble servant…
Jeff
IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!
HA HA!!! Lot’s of fun. Cooking pancakes for the people. Hotdog – Thanks for running a tight ship! That kitchen was running like well-oiled machine!
Fun times and good vittles!
Jeff
I’ll be filming all of it… from the moment we pull into the state park! (maybe even before – at McDonald’s in Seymour…)
Cords are packed. It’s all pretty standardized. We should be able to dump the footage quickly on Sunday a.m.
Jeff
Anyone else still up packing? Finishing up a load of laundry and getting the final spices in the kitchen Rubbermaid. 8 hour of work tomorrow and then off we go…
Jeff
This should be the final weather report… Still looks good to me!
Friday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers before 7pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 36. North northwest wind between 11 and 14 mph becoming calm. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Saturday: Partly cloudy, with a high around 62. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 5 and 8 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 42. South southwest wind between 8 and 11 mph.
Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Chance for precipitation is 30%. Partly cloudy, with a high around 66.
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