[Jeremy]

@Decrepit wrote:

Total is back! 😀

It must have been the little elves that come out late at night and make small improvements to the WGA site while we’re sleeping. 🙂 Looks like they also added a sorting mechanism to the list as well. Industrious little devils!

[Jeremy]

@K0rpl wrote:

I will send the link to the Geocaching page as soon as it is setup.

I suggest you name the event “Setting The Story Straight (In The Fox Valley)”.

[Jeremy]

@Vegas Gamblers wrote:

I don’t show any finds on the WGA site just the GC site. Is there a way to transfer the logs from GC site to the WGA or do I have to go through and log all of my finds one by one on the WGA?

If you want your “Recent Logs” to show in your user profile on the WGA site, you need to provide us with a link to your geocaching.com profile. You can do this by clicking on “Your Account” in the Main Menu block, clicking on the Member Info tab, and then entering the right link/URL in the box next to Geocaching.com Profile Link… then press Update. (To find out what the link is, go to geocaching.com, click on My Account, click on the stat bar image on the left hand side that says View my profile… then cut and paste the link/URL of the profile page that appears.)

While it is optional, I recommend that everyone provide their gc.com profile link as it also enables some other mildly cool stuff (like an icon linking to your gc.com profile, ability to pick up your out of state logs, etc.)… most members have done this, but some seem to be resisting. 😉

Also note that we only keep and show the logs you have made on geocaching.com for two weeks. This is really just a convienence feature on the WGA site… geocaching.com is the official keeper of the logs and where all logs need to be entered.

If you are talking about logging your milestones or the states or counties in which you have cached, then yes, entering this information is currently a manual process on the WGA site. There is a multiple entry form to allow you to enter many states or counties in one shot though.

Send me a private message or email if you are still having trouble.

[Jeremy]

Here is the final attendance list based on who has posted here:

– Coastiegirl04
– Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu
– Digital Dan
– Lostby7
– jvechinski
– Piwko Kurczak
– benny7210
– marc_54140
– Astro-D Team?
– Team Hemisphere Dancer
– Black Belts
– Zuma!

If something comes up (car trouble, family emergency, or you chicken out :)) and you aren’t going to make it, please get in touch with somebody so we don’t sit around waiting for you all morning. I will be staying near Lil Otter’s Den so I should be at the parking area well before 9am. You can call me on my cell phone, (414) 975-1509 if issues arise.

Also, it seems some people have not been given the location of Lil Otter’s Den. I know she is sensitive about giving out her address, so please try to contact her first. If you have nothing by Thursday night, I will (hesitantly) provide you with this information if you email me. I will not be checking email on Friday, so you would need to call if you want this info then. Also, if you want to Trudy camp (stay in a hotel), I have information about the official Trudy campground for the event.

[Jeremy]

@Team Honeybunnies wrote:

We’re interested in meeting up around the campfire Saturday night (work calls or I’d come join the fun), but haven’t been able to contact Lil Otter. Anyone who can help out with some coords? Thanks!

Seth, I just sent you a PM. Are you just going to stop by on Saturday night? We might not be back until later if we go out to eat after The Gauntlet (and some folks may be going straight home after… and others may be going straight to the hospital 8O). You (and any others who want to join in the socializing) would have a better chance of meeting people on Friday night if you can make it then.

[Jeremy]

@EnergySaver wrote:

Jeremy … your flow chart is leaving out the most important consideration, which should be first in the chart …

Does the plant have colorful flowers?
No, continue down the chart.
Yes, pull them out of the ground.

Ron, maybe it should have been the inverse.

Does the plant have colorful flowers? If yes, then it is POISON IVY… do not touch! 😀

[Jeremy]

@Trudy & the beast wrote:

I read the article and reread it. The writer is only relating what the alderman said. hearsay!

In the author’s defense, more than one source was used when writing the article… he talked to the Parks and Recreation Director who said there was geocaching going on in the parks but it wasn’t causing a problem. Also it is OK to publish a quote from somebody without substantiation, even if they are accusing someone or if the quote has factual errors.

But what the author did wrong was not try to get the other side of the story… which would have meant contacting and interviewing a geocacher (ideally the cache owner). So basically the article is one sided and has been passed off as “news” while it really just the speculation of a single individual.

If you look at the previous articles that this guy has written, many involve the Common Council and some have quotes from Kalata. It was probably a slow news day, the author got a call from acquaintance Kalata about his garden problems, and this gem was produced… hey, everyone has a bad day. 🙂

[Jeremy]

Now it looks like today the Post-Crescent has totally redeemed themselves by publishing an introduction to geocaching type article:

Article: Technology, outdoors meet in scavenger hunt called geocaching

Fox Valley folks, is this a new article or one that was published in the past that they reprinted due to the interest/response generated by what they printed yesterday?

[edit]I think I just answered my own question. I think it is the same article mentioned in this WGA forum topic as being published in July 2005. I thought it sounded awfully familiar…[/edit]

[Jeremy]

@Lostby7 wrote:

Are these new rules retroactive?

@EnergySaver wrote:

I’ve submitted the forms for my 2 caches to my local ranger contact and have updated the cache listing text to indicated so.

These rules apply only to new caches placed on state land. There is no requirement that you fill out the form for existing caches, although it would be great if you did.

BOD members who talked to the DNR, did it seem like they would ever require permission for existing caches sometime in the future (I’m guessing not)?

(And Ron, if I had any caches on land managed by that scary Krueger guy, I would have submitted a form right away too. ;))

[Jeremy]

@bnb wrote:

While we’re worrying about plants that we encounter, don’t forget about Wild Parsnip.

Good reminder on this bad plant Ruth. I have been burned a couple times and (worse) had the brown “scars” for many months afterwards. The article linked to above has good information on wild parsnip but not much on identifying the plant, so here are a couple more:

Wild Parsnip – PA Invasive Plant Tutorial
Pastinaca sativa L., Wisconsin Flora Site

Some random notes on wild parsnip:

– It only grows in full sunlight and likes “marginal” soils in disturbed areas. Places I normally see it are in old farm fields, old railroad beds, and former logging roads (in non-shaded areas).

– You need to get a decent quantity the parsnip “juice” on you before you get burned. Just accidentally brushing up against a plant one time probably won’t do it, unlike poison ivy. The plant needs to be damaged in order to expose the juice; it does not normally seep out onto the leaves, etc.

– If you are caching in a parsnip area, you may want to walk out a different way than you came in to avoid touching a plant you trampled on the way in. Also walking on a deer trail when bushwhacking through a field may be easier than busting your own trail, but could expose you to the damaged parsnip plants. My two worse burn incidents were from a) using a deer trail through an old farm field and b) walking on an overgrown railroad bed turned unofficial hiking trail where the plants were being pushed against and stepped on. In both cases it was late summer/early fall, so the plants lacked the characteristic umbrella of small yellow flowers (at least I don’t remember seeing them).

– If you think you are exposed, you can always just keep the area out of the sun by putting on a jacket or long pants. (Of course this may be out of the question if it is 90+ degrees out. :))

[Jeremy]

@marc_54140 wrote:

The cache is gone, and the owner has contacted both the post crescent and the parks deprtment.

Glad to hear someone is taking this seriously. Marc, based on where this was cache was placed, is there any way geocachers could have been accidentally trampling the flowers or digging for anything? (And how is the population of deer and other animals in the downtown area… they may be munching on the flowers and causing this damage?)

If the newspaper refuses to print a rebuttal story or “correction” of these accusations, I’d suggest writing a letter to the editor (which I’m guessing would get published in a small town paper like this) mentioning how caches are not buried, how geocachers respect the environment, CITO, the fact that this activity goes on in many, many other parks without any damage, etc. If you need a hand with drafting or proofing this letter, let me know.

Also found this doing a Google search Blog Entry: Walter Kalata

[Jeremy]

Thanks for pointing this out Randy. We knew this was coming, but we were kind of “playing chicken” with the DNR waiting for them to post this information on their site before we made some sort of official announcement on the WGA site.

They basically copied our Hiding A Cache page (with our permission), throwing in some of the nice geocaching pictures provided by our members. (They also threw in a couple nice spelling mistakes, like “Geochaching” and “Associatio”. :))

Note that the geocache notification form you need to submit to the DNR is available from both the Hiding A Cache page here and from the WDNR geocaching page.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I’m assuming our WI cache approvers are going to require proof that the DNR was notified for all new caches placed on state owned land? I would assume you would do this via a reviewer note, indicating who which land manager approved the placement?

[Jeremy]

@zuma wrote:

if there is room for a late addition, i would like to join the group tackling the gauntlet next weekend….

I’m sure I speak for the group when I say that we’d LOVE to have another experienced cacher like you join us on the hunt. I’m assuming you are just coming for the day? If so, be at the parking area at 9 sharp and don’t forget all your gear.

Note that there have also been rumors of some IL individuals coming north of the cheese curtain to join the group… but I haven’t heard back for sure yet. Hopefully these people will come better equipped than their fellow statesmen (Genius Loci, Hutt) who scored a DNF on The Gauntlet last weekend, and then later returned for a second try.

[Jeremy]

@PCFrog wrote:

I suggest that everyone wait at a distance tell all get there and go as a group to the 1st waypoint. If someone gets there early they need to wait. It will be tempting for them to just go look for it but like I said it’s far better in a group.

I’d say that anyone that starts the cache on their own has to finish it on their own without any help from the rest of the group. If one individual or small group starts the cache and then gets stuck at a waypoint, runs into impassible terrain because they don’t have the right gear, etc. I’m not going to help them… heck, even if they have some sort of medical emergency I would be tempted to just leave them out in the bush. 😈

Speaking of group management, we will probably end up splitting into two or more “teams” again to tackle this one. This is where the FRS radios are such a valuable tool because they provide communication to keep everyone on the same page… so definitely bring them if have them. Last time, there were times that the two teams were out of radio contact, so if people have more powerful radio equipment (GMRS, commercial band, ham stuff, etc.) we could probably make use of it.

[Jeremy]

@greyhounder wrote:

Any chance of Mac compatibility?

Since it is written in C# for the .NET framework, the answer is that it would be difficult to port it to another operating system.

If I ever get the “My Finds” pocket query parser for the WGA site done/working, you will be able to get some of the same statistics that the CacheStats program provides from basically any web browser. Not sure if stuff like the goal projection calculator will be replicated on the site, but it would be easy to provide the basic stuff like rates, history, milestone dates, etc.

[Author]

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