[MikeB]

I grew up in Chicago, so feel like I need to do a little defense here.

Like most major American cities, there are parts of Chicago that suck — if you are headed there, I can help point you in the right direction (or more precisely, away from the WRONG directions). Most of the territory in Chicago IS safe, and is populated by surprisingly nice, friendly, salt of the earth people. Stop at a hot dog shack, have a polish or a combo, and meet some locals.

Not sure of the caches opp’s along the route, but there is a great bike tour in Chicago starts and ends at the Midway Plaisance, and runs around the boulevards that link the city’s major parks; the ride finishes along the lakefront, going through Lincoln, Grant, and Jackson Parks. Can’t think of a better way of seeing the town. This years ride will be Sept 3 — check out http://www.boulevardtour.org for details

The reality is the only time I felt like I was being stalked by a pervert while geocaching was around a month ago in Estabrook Park (Milwaukee). The guys behavior was eerily similar to what was described by the OP. I mentioned the experience in the logs, so hopefully future seekers are aware.

[MikeB]

Nothing lame about 100 finds…congrats on your milestone!

[MikeB]

I believe there is an ideal that may be more important than “Leave No Trace”. It is the land ethic of Aldo Leopold. The notion that our land and lakes, and the creatures that inhabit these places, deserve consideration when we make plans involving land or water use.

I think that some “Leave No Trace” die-hards are actually folks who would rather NOT have people visit these wild places at all. They love to be the only person for miles around and cringe when they see the caravan of cars driving through places like Yellowstone. They are as greedy as the oil companies that want to drill in ANWAAR. My thinking is that these wild places are more likely to survive and be treated with respect if more experienced these places.

(Should, for instance, ANWAAR be saved? Some would have you believe that ANWAAR is the last Eden, others a barren waste. Few have visited, so how would the average citizen know which it is. If your only exposure to nature is a country club, my guess is that most of the natural world looks like a barren waste.)

Geocaching is a net positive if for no other reason than it gets a lot of people out into wild places, even if it is just an overgrown corner of a city park, and it gets them out year round so that they can appreciate the changes of the seasons, the eternal cycle that we are all apart of. They also get a sense how apart their everyday lives are from the natural world.

[MikeB]

I think the most important thing we can do is to stick to existing trails as much as possible; wonton bushwhacking and going cross-country should be discouraged.

Some soils and terrains can handle the abuse, but most can’t. I have seen geotrails gully out, within months after a hide. Even a rocky outcrop can suffer — there was a cache up in Forest County where you could see where folks had walked across and worn off swaths of lichen growing on the red granite.

I understand that on a well-used trail, off setting the cache from the trail often is the only way to keep the cache from being muggled. My point is that folks hiding caches should keep caches close to trails. Seekers need to be a tad more patient. Most hiders make their hides surprisingly accessible (remember, they will visit a cache multiple times whereas most seekers will visit only once).

[MikeB]

Closest one to me (SE Wisconsin) looks like downtown Chicago. If I can’t do it with my eTrex Legend (ol’ Blue), looks like I will have to imagine all the fun everyone else is having 🙄

[MikeB]

@furfool wrote:

It was confirmed yesterday that the cougar shot by police in Chicago, was in deed the same cat that was seen in Wisconsin.

Wonder how they figgered that one out? Maybe the tell-tale cheese stuck between his teeth…or the “Number 4” poodle sweater in his gut. 😯

[MikeB]

Are we talking “precision” or “accuracy”? (All the math and science teachers out there — I hear you giggling!) There was a month or so last summer where my receiver was very precise — almost no wandering at all and the “accuracy” was typically under 15 feet. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the receiver was not good — I was consistently 50-60 feet west. Not sure why — after a while, things returned to “normal”.

I have no illusions about my eTrex Legend (ol’ Blue) … you are better off putting it away once you are within 40-50 feet of GZ. Lots of time the pointer will point in the opposite direction or march you around in ever widening circles, especially with lots of leafy cover overhead. There are times where it has zero’d out and I was standing on top of the cache container, but pretty sure that was dumb luck.

[MikeB]

Do you mean to say the coriolis effect influence the readings on my handheld? 😯 That would explain a lot of DNF’s!

[MikeB]

@Cachelovskys wrote:

I LOVE my eXplorist 210! It has all the features that I need…including the most important…IT FINDS CACHES! It is cheap, durable, and very easy to use.

You can have your color screens and what not!

Amen! Save the money for batteries and gasoline!

[MikeB]

Using a Garmin eTrex Legend — it has its flakiness, and I no longer have a serial port on my computer so hard to download to, but it’s paid for, and seems to work OK. Got it for $120 at Target

[MikeB]

Saw that on the news — apparently the cat was walking around Roscoe Village, a very densely populated part of the city on the NW side. If there are any big-cat experts in the house, I would like your opinion. I have my own but not necessarily the best informed.

Ideally, they would have darted the bugger and moved him “up north”. I suspect that noone wanted to deal with a cougar in their backyard. Worse, if he had become accustomed to an urban setting, he would have just moved back to another city or town.

Somehow I suspect that this is another cat. It is a LONG way from Rock County to Chicago. My guess is that this guy has been hanging out in the Cook County Forest Preserves along the DesPlaines River. Maybe migrating along the Illinois/Desplaines River from the south and west

The beast weighed 150 pounds, so clearly it hadn’t missed too many meals. Solitary predatars like cougars probably wouldn’t attack an adult –we are too big a risk, but small children and pets indeed would have been on the menu.

[MikeB]

I would put a cache nowhere near those plants until I had the local cops check it out. It might be somebody moving their “indoor gardening” project out of the basement. They might not be happy with people frequenting their “project”. Just wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.

We had a similar issue with a local cache and it had to be shut down. (Vagrants had a weed garden behind the Milwaukee Public Schools Headquarters. The garden and the vagrants have been removed, so don’t go looking for them! Get your glaucoma meds from a legit source.)

[MikeB]

Look awesome — Until re-employed, I will have to just watch and admire! Just saw your Chat Geocoin on your web store — Beatles fan, perchance?

[MikeB]

Not much of a “Trudy camper” myself, but if you are looking for posh and perhaps a round or two of golf, the House on the Rock Resort down the road in Spring Green seemed nice (met up with my mother-in-law there after our family was camping at Gov Dodge and she was doing her annual “fishing trip” with her sisters). Spring Green is a cool locale for non-caching spouses to hang out and shop.

[MikeB]

Four of my great grandparents came over from Slovakia (listed on manifests as Hungary) between 1905-7. It was very moving to walk in there shoes at Ellis Island. Statue of Liberty is of course spectacular.

Made a recent trip to the St. Louis Arch, and that is worth the trip — the ride up is … interesting…and the museum has lots of Louis and Clark stuff.

[Author]

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