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I don’t know if I should be tyring to influence the voting with an opinion here (aw, heck, it’s not exactly a life-or-death issue so here goes)

If we want an updated logo (which I am in favor of), we shouldn’t shackle the designer’s creativity by saying we want just a “touch up” because then it’s questionable as to what a “touch up” really means. We should either create a new logo or stick with old. If we decide we want a new logo and designers want to submit designs that contain elements of the old, that’s fine. They’re free to do so.

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Thanks, Chuck. It turns out my co-worker is making plans for sometime in October, not this weekend, but she said the link you provided is exactly what she was looking for.

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Here are two of my favorite historical (therefore potential trivia question answer) sites in Iowa:
American Gothic (mine) – ( http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=cfc4142c-9bf9-4af5-a58f-eedc92331b03 )
Buddy Holly crash site – ( http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=654c666a-5840-4078-94f8-6f482432bbfb )

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@RangerBoy wrote:

Wasn’t there a cache in Wisconsin that asked you to hike any section of the Ice Age Trail and for your log you would put the starting and finishing coords for the section you hiked?

I can’t remember what it was called but it had tons of usefull logs for getting I.A.T. waypoints. I remember it was located near Hartman Creek State Park.

Right, RangerBoy. It was a locationless cache and I think it was called Ice Age Trail.

On waymarking.com there’s a waymark type for Ice Age Trail, with a few listings: http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=70746aee-4296-430b-aafc-dee849f5f652&lat=43.5237&lon=-88.214&t=6&exp=True

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@Doc. wrote:

Horses and bikes are a very dangerous combination, particularly if you add narrow/dangerous trails. Horses tend to spook at the sound and reflections off of bike spokes. Which means panic, whirl and run. Trail etiquette dictates a biker or hiker stops, steps back off the trail, and horses are allowed to pass to ensure the safety of the rider. This trail may not allow room for error.

Agreed. That’s why I asked the question — to see if there are mountain bike trails there.

Mountain bikers tend to spook at the sound and reflections off horse teeth and hooves. 😆

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@EnergySaver wrote:

@Jeremy wrote:

Not sure Ken. Maybe they are allowed on the horse trails?

I don’t think Ken will have a problem with his recent face-lift …

Aw, at first I thought you were going to be nice by complimenting me on my mountain biking skills.

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On the map at the DNR site, I don’t see any trails marked for mountain bikes. Do you know if any trails are open to mountain bikes?

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@Team B Squared wrote:

@kbraband wrote:

@Team Deejay wrote:

I, too, am constantly surprised to find Park and Ride / Guardrail / Lamppost caches getting 10-100 times more visits than the many excellent caches in the state. I think this is a result of the focus people put on find statistics. I have come to the conclusion that a majority of geocachers actually prefer spending time in parking lots to spending time in the woods, prairies and marshes around the state. That’s OK, though. It just leaves more space in the woods for us!

As the oldest oldtimer geocacher in the WGA, I thought I was one of the few who held this “outdated” perception of what geocaching is all about. Thanks for posting this viewpoint.

This must make it much more difficult to be a reviewer than if you enjoyed park and grabs and other similar caches. I know I would have a hard time approving a wal-mart parking lot cache myself, but I guess you don’t really have much choice in the matter right now.

You’re right. Sometimes when I review a lampost cache (as I did just a few minutes ago), I hold my nose and click on “publish.” As to Team DeeJay comment that a cache was “in our way” so they had to find it — I never think like that. If I don’t like a cache type or location, I don’t look for it and it doesn’t bother me. Period.

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@Team Deejay wrote:

I, too, am constantly surprised to find Park and Ride / Guardrail / Lamppost caches getting 10-100 times more visits than the many excellent caches in the state. I think this is a result of the focus people put on find statistics. I have come to the conclusion that a majority of geocachers actually prefer spending time in parking lots to spending time in the woods, prairies and marshes around the state. That’s OK, though. It just leaves more space in the woods for us!

As the oldest oldtimer geocacher in the WGA, I thought I was one of the few who held this “outdated” perception of what geocaching is all about. Thanks for posting this viewpoint.

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Nice. And very informative. I helped our local middle school science class with a geocaching activity a few years ago. It was interesting how some kids got into it while others either watched or giggled.

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Thanks, zuma, for saying it in a more diplomatic manner than I did. I have revised my post.

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Wow, this topic brings back memories of the first year of geocaching in Wisconsin (2001) because I called a couple of geocachers that year — including jthorson, I think — when I was somewhere out in the woods and couldn’t find a cache. There were only about a dozen Wisconsin geocachers at that time, so we all pretty much knew each other even if we hadn’t met in person. I haven’t made a field call since then, but like thraxman said, I don’t see any harm in asking for help.

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---

Forwarded Message —-
From: “Rebecca D. Stanfield, Environment Illinois State Director”
Subject: BREAKING: EPA sides with BP on toxic dumping in Lake Mich.

In a story today in the Chicago Tribune, it has been reported that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson sees “nothing wrong with the permit Indiana regulators awarded in June to BP, the first company in years allowed to increase the amount of toxic chemicals pumped into the Great Lakes.”

The EPA has said repeatedly that its goal is to “virtually eliminate” pollution in the Great Lakes, but it approved this increase even as it spends hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars cleaning up polluted sites.

So now the EPA is saying they are not going to stand up for the citizens of Illinois and all those in the Great Lakes region and protect our lake from increased pollution — even though such increased pollution violates everything the Clean Water Act stands for.

Because the EPA has decided to abdicate their responsibility to protect Lake Michigan, our campaign now moves into a new phase. We at Environment Illinois and our allies around the region are taking on BP directly, and bringing our message to where they live and work.

BP’s North American headquarters are located in Warrenville, just outside Chicago. We want to run a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune, calling on BP to withdraw its plan to increase toxic dumping and come up with a solution that preserves our lake – the kind of solution they can surely find if they’re serious about being ‘Beyond Petroleum.’

Sending such a powerful message doesn’t come cheap. It will cost $20,000 to place the ad in the Tribune. To BP such an expense would be a drop in the bucket. Being the world’s fourth largest corporation, it’s been easy for them to spend money hand over fist in past few weeks, buying ads all over the Great Lakes trying to muddy the water on their toxic dumping plan. For us to fight back, we need your help.

You can make a donation today of $25, $35, $50, $100 or more to make sure that BP can see in black and white that their plan to increase dumping must stop. To fight back against BP’s plan to pollute our lake, click on the link below or copy and paste it into your browser:

https://www.environmentillinois.org/action/protect-lake-michigan/stop-bp-spin?id4=ES

Sincerely,

Rebecca D. Stanfield
Environment Illinois State Director
[email protected]
http://www.environmentillinois.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

[kbraband]

A message fron Illinois’ environmental director:

---

I’ve received letters from many of you who were outraged to read this
headline in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune: “BP GETS BREAK ON DUMPING IN LAKE.”

I want you to know that we’re taking action to protect Lake Michigan from
this needless pollution.

BP’s oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana – located just three miles from the
beaches of Illinois’s Calumet Park – has been granted a permit to dump 1,500 pounds of ammonia and 5,000 pounds of toxic sludge daily into Lake Michigan.

For years, no other company has been allowed to increase dumping in the lake. It’s essential – for the health of the lake as well as 3 million Illinoisans who drink its waters daily – that Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency withdraw this permit immediately.

We’re calling on our Congresspeople to demand that these agencies withdraw BP’s permit. You can help by asking your U.S. Senator and Congressperson to speak out for the Great Lakes.

To take action, click on the link below or paste in into your web browser:

https://www.environmentillinois.org/action/protect-lake-michigan/bp-petition?id4=ES
BACKGROUND

Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has granted a permit to BP’s oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana-located three miles from Chicago’s south suburbs-to dump 1500 pounds of ammonia and nearly 5,000 pounds of toxic sludge into Lake Michigan daily. The ammonia’s nitrogen will increase fish-killing algae blooms, and the sludge contains concentrated mercury, selenium, and other toxic heavy metals.

The agency will also permit BP to create the Lake’s first “mixing zone,” a
dubious practice by which facilities directly discharge their pollution,
dilute it in lake water, and call it cleaned up. Mixing zones are rightly banned on Lake Michigan. This exemption sets a terrible precedent and should not be allowed.

Lake Michigan’s waters near Whiting and Gary are still healing from decades of abuse. Steel mills, a chemical factory, and the refinery-the nation’s fourth largest- formerly enjoyed nearly unregulated dumping. Despite years of clean up, the area remains federally listed as an “Area of Concern” due to waters so degraded that beaches often close, the fish get tumors, and the water has an odor.

Since 2002, BP has used its “Beyond Petroleum” slogan and a new flower logo to sell itself as eco-friendly. Courting the Whiting business community, BP promised to conduct business in accordance with this aspiration: “no damage to the environment.”

But BP is already one of the Great Lakes’ worst polluters. And although a
quarter-acre wastewater treatment plant could mitigate the new ammonia
discharge, BP testified that there’s no room for one at its 1700 acre
refinery.

As the world’s eighth biggest company, recording tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, BP shouldn’t need unique exemptions from laws with which all other companies comply, and which were written to restore our polluted Great Lakes. Northwest Indiana is seeking investment, but BP won’t even invest
enough to avoid poisoning its water.

For the sake of Lake Michigan, for the health of its fragile ecosystem, and
for the benefit of people in the four states that share its waters, BP must be denied its free pass to pollute. IDEM should reverse this decision or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), should step in and stop it. Let’s hold BP to its professed environmental standards.

We’re calling on our representatives in Congress to demand that these
agencies stop BP from despoiling Lake Michigan. You can help by signing a petition to your U.S. Senator and Congressperson urging them speak out for the Great Lakes.

To take action, click on the link below or paste in into your web browser:
https://www.environmentillinois.org/action/protect-lake-michigan/bp-petition?id4=ES

Sincerely,

Rebecca D. Stanfield
Environment Illinois State Director
[email protected]
http://www.environmentillinois.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail
with your family and friends.

[Author]

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