[Jeremy]

Stupid question Dave, but I assume this is for a geocaching event right?

I would hope that the griddle would be made available to any WGA member hosting a geocaching event anywhere in the state.

There are some other things that the WGA owns like a large banner, signs, the eggplant box, miscellaneous GPS cables, etc. that could be useful to those hosting events… maybe a list should be published and a system/rules established for loaning these out to members?

[Jeremy]

Most Garmin units are rated to IPX7/IP67, for accidental immersion in water up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. Because it is only for accidental exposure, they probably don’t actually test it in operation underwater (i.e. by pressing buttons as Ron said). I know when we water test IP67 modules where I work we have the units powered up but are not plugging/unplugging connectors, opening covers, etc. That being said I’ve used many a Garmin unit in some really bad rainy and snowy conditions and never had a problem (knock on wood).

Waterproof units are not completely sealed and have a vent covered with a membrane (like Goretex) that allows gases to pass through but keeps water out… so even if a little water made its way in it could leave as water vapor. Heating the unit a little (with a hair drier? or Ron’s wood stove? :)) may speed the drying process.

http://www.gore.com/MungoBlobs/1004/348/membrane_vents_BPC.pdf

Ron, when I saw your eMap and yellow duck cover at the event I almost commented to you about it definitely not being waterproof. Glad it survived the downpour! I nearly killed an eMap using it on a motorcycle in rainstorm, but as in your case it recovered after it dried out for a day.

[Jeremy]

Congrats Alan. With the scattered nature of your remaining pages grabbing them all in a couple weeks is almost as impressive as zuma’s run.

I’m hoping for a break at work around Halloween so I can finally put the “nail in the coffin” on this blasted Challenge too…

[Jeremy]

Nope, there is no easy way of viewing the newest photos uploaded to the photo album using the normal web interface. But if you have a RSS reader, you can look at the RSS feed (click the orange RSS icon) for the photo album to see the 10? latest additions to the album. If you have no idea what an RSS feed is, then disregard this suggestion. 🙂

It looks like Gallery 2.0 has the ability to display new/updated items, so if we upgraded the photo album software we are using to this new revision we’d probably pick up this functionality.

Anyway, this is a good suggestion Ken (as was the idea for photo album guestbooks from tyedyeskyguy), and both have been added to the Upcoming Enhancements list.

[Jeremy]

Make up your mind guys! 😀 For now, I’ve got two votes to leave it alone and one to change it.

Having it not open in a new window by default may be preferable since there are ways to force the browser to open it in a new window/tab if this is what is desired… if we force it to open in a new window by default, this will happen for everyone and there is no way to stop it from happening.

[Jeremy]

I’ve contacted this member to see what they would like to change their username to.

For future reference, username changes on the WGA website can only be performed by a webmaster (similar to the policy on geocaching.com). It is a manual process for me to change someone’s username, and the degree of difficulty depends on what “systems” on the site they have touched. But normally it is not a big deal, so if anyone else needs a username change, please contact me directly or send your request to web wi geocaching com.

[Jeremy]

@tyedyeskyguy wrote:

Would it be possible to put a guest book in our Photo Albums? I just went to look at something in mine and noticed that it had nearly 20 new hits since I looked a week ago.

Would this be something where people could optionally leave you public notes, comments, or questions? You can already add comments to individual photos but not to a whole album.

Or would you want the ability to “spy” on all visits to your photo album, getting a listing of everyone who clicked into it? This would sort of be like the feature on geocaching.com where the owner can see all visits to a members only cache page. This would be tougher to implement than a simple public guestbook, and I’m not sure if people would like their actions tracked…

[Jeremy]

@EnergySaver wrote:

This would appear true everywhere … if you call corporate they indicate the item is selling for $69.99 Now if I could figure out an excuse why a guy that caches as little as I do needs 3 GPSrs.

If I could find the dang things, I would buy one (even though that would be like GPS number #8 or #9… I lost count). 🙂 I love my Foretrex and would like a mate for it, but I went to three Aldi’s in the Milwaukee area and they were all gone. I think people are buying them and then selling them for a profit on eBay…

[Jeremy]

Glad you are interested in going old school. The oldest still-active cache in the state is Pike Powder Hike (GC3B1) which was hidden in March 2001. There was even an article of the month written about it:

Pike Powder Hike – Oldest Active Wisconsin Cache

You can find old caches by running a Pocket Query for the area you are interested in, bringing it into GSAK, and sorting by placed date. Anything with only 3 digits (not 4) after the GC in the waypoint code is going to be from July 2001 or earlier.

Unofficially, this is the top ten list of the oldest caches in WI (I may have missed some… I’m sure you guys will let me know where I messed up ;)):

Pike Powder Hike (GC3B1)
Door County cache (GC4C4)
Wild Goose Chase (GC515)
Family Bicycling Virtual Cache (GC610)
River Cache (GC611)
Black River SF Cache (GC615)
Snake Den (GC644)
Magnolia Bluff (GC65B)
Ice Age Vista (GC684)
Monches Redemption (GC69E)

I’ve found all but one of these… I’d say that you would not be disappointed by any one of them on the list, and some of my all time favorite geocaches (Pike Powder Hike, River Cache, Black River SF Cache) are listed.

[Jeremy]

@Team Hemisphere Dancer wrote:

Did you also have a program for counting counties too?

Download and install the following program that Doug of the abcdmCachers put together (this assumes you have Windows):

http://www.logicweave.com/CountyCountSetup.msi

Someday (:roll:) the WGA website may count counties, states, and DeLorme pages and then update your stats automatically using your My Finds pocket query. I’m not sure if Dave plans on adding any county counting functionality to the DeLorme calculator…

[Jeremy]

Super achievement Anne! Looks like you’re closing in on an impressive 1000 finds since the start of this year. Now if you could only count all the caches you hid this year (remember seeing eggs in your dreams prior to Eggstravaganza, plus all the temp caches for the Up Nord event) you would be ahead of Dan…

[Jeremy]

As far as a location for next year’s campout, I’ve heard from a number (more than 2 :)) of members who would like to see it return to Governor Dodge State Park. We know the group campsites there will work for our event, and there are numerous reservable shelters. The park has tons of land and trails so the cache hides can be spread out, plus a lot of “brown lines” (Arn’s terminology :)) or terrain changes to make things interesting. It is an easy drive for Madison folks, and it is not too bad for SE and central Wisconsin folks either.

Other suggestions I’ve heard include Wyalusing (great park but too far away for most people IMHO), Wildcat Mountain (smaller group campsites, a longer drive for most folks, but would still probably be a good choice), and New Glarus Woods (has group sites, but not enough land and trails).

[Jeremy]

@Bushwhacking Queen wrote:

Actually Professor was in a cap and gown.

Oops, I guess I missed that. 😳 But in my defense, his cap and gown blend nicely into the background and the angel outfit is so very distracting. 🙂

Link To Ecorangers Photo In Question

[Jeremy]

@EnergySaver wrote:

Some well know cachers will be on the 9pm Channel 6 / Milwaukee news tonight with Vince. They don’t seem to be spilling the beans, so I’m doing it for them.[/img]

Thanks for the heads up Ron. The world famous cachers were of course the Ecorangers, and they did a good job giving tips and pointers to Vince C. as they hunted the Royal Oaks Park (GCVBYF) cache. There is also a new cache that the Ecorangers placed in honor of Vince in the same park (GCYJD2).

The only weird thing was the family photo shown at the beginning of the segment with Tami in the Earth Angel costume. Why wasn’t the Professor in some sort of graduation cap and gown? Or in a suit with a bowtie smoking a pipe in front of a blackboard? 😀

I was also pleasantly surprised to see Tami pulling out a compass when she got close to the cache (back to my rant about geocachers not using compasses from last week). The compass pointed them right to the cache, or at least that’s what they made it look like on TV…

[Jeremy]

Thanks for planning this event Justin and Lindsey, and congratulations again on your milestones. Great people, a great setting, great weather, and great food (especially Marc’s extraordinary chocolate cake :)) made this an event to remember.

Those of you who took pictures at the event can upload them to this subalbum in the WGA photo album:

K0RPL & Coastiegirl04’s 500 Event

[Author]

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