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New guy on the block here!
Forgive me if I pull a “done that, don’t work” comment. I will echo but expand on some key points I’ve experienced or see.
1. Getting young members involved. Lets come up with programs to get geocaching in the schools. If not for GizFinder and his class I took in Appleton 2 summers ago, this teacher would still be behind the curve. Workshops for educators, donated GPS units to schools, local workshops. When I brought in my GPS units to my class and the kids started using them, it was great! I created more geocachers that have now taken the hobby home. It’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start.2. Local law enforcement has to be educated. I’ve been working with police for almost 30 years in EMS yet even I felt like a second class citizen when I got pulled over by a police officer near Wausau after finding and signing a cache. Even after I explained what I was doing, showed him the GPS and cache, he still ran my license and plates.
3. The Lonely Cache page and Cache of the Month are WINNERS! I love the regions and plan on seeking out those winners when I travel those areas. I tend to place caches in out of the way places and The Lonely Cache Page puts those hides back on peoples radar. I realize why the regions are broken down the way they are but is there a better way? Should a geographical distance be considered?
4. A WGA sponsored event in each geographical area is a win-win situation for everyone! How about a session on how to run an event! Even small groups getting together more times in more locations throughout the state can be a plus. Sessions on the technology which is changing faster than I type are needed. Look at the posts, people need questions answered on how to utilize it. I’m going to get to my regions events as a member or board member (unless the ferry boats not running…)!
Tom Hokkanen
@sandman4182 wrote:
Our goals
2. cache in Mich.
If your heading to Michigan, here’s some interesting and fun goals.
1. Hurley, Ironwood and Bessmer have some great caches related to early mining.
2. Fishing? Lake Gogebic. Few caches but great fishing!
3. Marathon run? The Mandan Road in the Keweenaw Peninsula. ONLY open in the NON-SNOW months. Can you say rural?I’m just starting to reach in to the U.P. and I haven’t been disappointed yet.
My goals? More caches waaaay off the beaten path. Slow to collect but fun to find.
If your even close to Eau Claire, you have to try these places to eat. Eau Claire has had many wonderful restaurant over the years yet these are two that have existed since the 70’s or earlier even though they aren’t at their original location. Having grown up in Eau Claire Wisconsin, these are two places I ALWAYS stop and eat at when I visit my sister at the old family home.
Olympic Flame, 2920 London Road, Eau Claire, WI 54701
(715) 835-7771 (Small restaurant, The best gyros by far of any I have tried anywhere!)Ray’s Place, 838 Water Street, Eau Claire, WI 54703-5637
(715) 832-3991 (Tavern, Out of this world hot ham or beef sandwiches as well as wonderful soup!)Well Big Jim, first thing I have to say is I envy you! A teacher like me and you’ve been a geocacher for a month or so less than myself, and your cache total is double mine! Have to say that my home location is in Northeast Wisconsin but I built a cottage in Price County and spend every chance I can up there during the summer. Have scored just about every cache in that vicinity and there are some great ones. A lot of them take you into the forests so they don’t get hit as often as a lot of others in the state. They take time and planning often.
A big part of my non-caching “things to do” include great hunting and fishing. There are restaurants to try and I have so many more to go. The fall festivals are wonderful and they are located in numerous places. Other places and activities I’ve enjoyed are the Fishing Hall of Fame, Madeline Island, the great small cities and all their wonderful shops, (There’s not a Big Box store on every corner!) and I’m still discovering more. Things on the “haven’t done list” include ATV trails, canoeing the rivers, snowmobiling, X-C skiing, bike trails, and many more.
I admit that what I enjoy the most may bore others, but it involves taking my GPS, heading down a trail in the National Forest, and seeing where it takes me.
I’m wondering just how high the total votes for “favorite” can go on an individual cache.
Instead of shoveling snow today on a day off, I’m checking caches for a favorite vote for a short trip after Christmas. I’m really enjoying the link that allows you to go to the finders comments.
Did you? Or were you in that category that I was in about that time, that’s were mom and dad wanted to go so therefore, so go I…
Many of the posts I’ve read make good arguments about the negative possibility of the “favorite” feature. Yet in another post I commented on the fact that it helps a cacher identify a “special” cache they may want to locate for a milestone, or other reason. (When you have bored kids along, individuals that are tired of the park and grab, the list goes on)
This feature, if you look at some of the individuals who posted it as a “favorite”, can direct you to that persons log where you can find more valuable information and/or comments. I’ll give you a perfect example:
There is a cache in Door County I found a while back that brought you down a trail in a small park that went through a swampy wooded area. The walk was pleasant enough yet I can see a young child possibly being bored by the fact that “mom and dad are making them see more nature again.” When I got to the ammo can cache, I opened it up, and I have yet to see another cache so chocked full of goodies. Imagine the look now on that young kids face… I commented in my log how this is the best kid friendly stocked cache I have found. I think this makes the tool valuable for a cacher in that situation that reads my log. The Door County Challenge became a personal goal after I read the “logs” prior to the favorite feature being in place. As of today, it has a tally of four votes.
@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:
I’ve been told that story is not so much a Menominee story as it is a white man’s rendering. That’s not direct commentary, but from reasonably informed folks.
When I made my stop at this virtual, the fact that there were the “tobacco offerings” at this site made me realize that there was significance to this site.
With the sign gone, some kind of response to the significance of the tobacco. Or the “why” is there tobacco here.
Just went on-line to find the name. It has one review from 2008, and they thought it stunk…
Ding-A-Ling Supper Club
1711 W US Highway 51, Mercer, WI 54547-9156Boy this is a site I’m going to watch! I’m always looking for a great place to stop in and try when I’m up north at the cottage.
My sister and I did find a good one this summer with some of the best walleye I’ve ever had at a restaurant. I’m sorry I can’t remember the name, but it’s right on the corner of the highway intersection of HWY 182 and HWY 51, just out of Manitowish. If you turn off 51 south to soon onto 182, you’ll drive on to their lawn…
(Not to be a snob, but I live on an island and can get “fresh” fish if I go down to the dock when the fish tugs are in. So I look for the best tasting!)
Traveling from point A to point B (Home to Cottage up north), A short hike is no more than a few tenths of a mile from the road I travel on. When I’m in an area for a purpose, the short hike moves into the distance of about a mile one way.
Maybe there’s need for a different category other than a park and grab. That’s why I’m always checking my GPS to see “distance to” a cache as I travel.
As a teacher for many years, and a geocacher for not yet 2 years, this is an activity I wish I had discovered much earlier. I have incorporated this into my curriculum and am glad to see other teachers doing the same.
The applications to so many different subjects makes the activity a valuable asset and tool for any teacher out there.
I look forward to the day when mom and dad sit down around the dinner table and ask the kid(s) what they learned today in school and the discussion turns to Geocaching and the multitude of its various life skills that they are learning, such as coordinates, earthcaches, geography, history, ________, (fill in the blank with your own answer)…
A big THANK YOU to all of you who place those wonderful caches!
@The Pirate Monkies wrote:
Anybody know what a Snow Panker is???
C’mon us southerners gotta’ work together…
Looks like a lawn roller on steroids…
@benny7210 wrote:
Their has been a new trend
as of late. Where new cache owners are not using the cache page attributes at all. If they would it sure would help the people like me who cache 12 months a year…. SO, I’m asking if you can please take the time to use the attributes. Especially the winter friendly one. Thanks for letting me vent!!All very interestng and valid points, but after re-reading benny7210’s post, I even jumped past another point he makes in his post. That being how often individuals who create caches, frequently don’t even bother with the attributes.
They were present when I placed a cache on November 28th. In fact I included them on another one of my caches at that time. Anything to get those cachers out during the winter months into a beautiful area!
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