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We have enjoyed adding caching to our vacations. For us, it is a great activity for the family on long car rides to look up caches coming up and trying to find some worth stopping for. I usually bring my laptop so we can get 5 pq’s from the hotel each night. We have two PDA’s and several GPSr’s. So, as we drive along two people can be reading the PDA’s and trying to find caches that are worth the stop. You can learn about the areas you’re driving through, make stops that are worthwhile, and share funny or interesting logs with the rest of the car.
On our trip out West a couple of years back, we had out driven our PQ without realizing it and pulled into Souix Falls (the actual falls in the city). It was such a pretty spot I couldn’t believe there were no caches in the area. So, there we were in the parking lot digging our laptop out of the back of the van. Folks walking past gave us a few looks as we’re hooking up cords to the GPSr and downloading a new PQ. Sure enough, fired it up and we were 400 feet from a cache. 😉
There is a danger of not making progress because of caching. We are now over any sort of numbers thing and have no problem driving past dozens of mundane caches. But, the first few days of our West trip we didn’t make much progress because we were stopping at every rest area with a cache. It wasn’t too hard to give that up though.
This would probably be out of your way, and it would require you to travel Hwy 550 (featured on TV just the other night on “World’s Most Dangerous Highways), but it is probably our favorite cache of all time. Look it over carefully though, because it has very few finds in October- it may be too late in the year to get to this one. It seems the findable window is pretty much June, July, August, and September.
Thanks for the advice. I’d never heard of JDMcox software so I’ll be sure to look into that.
Spent some time on the Delorme site and it looks like you have to pay an annual 30 dollar fee to download aerial photos? Is that correct or am I misunderstanding? It does look good, but it it’s twice as much to purchase and has an annual fee I would probably stick with the Expert GPS program for the amount of use I would need.
It’s so cold the kids had to out and put long johns on the snowman… 😯
The Venture Crew has experience with geocaching as we’ve set up temporary caches as an afternoon activity before. But, I think they would volunteer to help pick up trash as a service project. If it were me, I would not focus on temps for geocachers coming to the CITO- if you’re coming to do public service you may as well concentrate on public service. You might however, get more exposure by having temps set up to do a little Geocaching 101 for folks as well as the CITO. Then have folks ready to help show others what caching is all about, how to use their GPSr (trust me there are a LOT of GPSr’s out there sitting in closets because folks gave up trying to figure them out). It would be best to have temps for that purpose because you wouldn’t want to compromise actual caches.
So it’s something to think about anyway. Geocachers plan to clean up the parks and if you’d like to know more about geocaching, or how to use your GPSr, stop in on such and such a date…
Depending on how the weekend chosen would fit with our scouting schedule (pretty heavily involved with scouting) the OPS team would be willing to help with this event. We’ve done one CITO event and it was a worthwhile way to spend a day that helps both the local parks and the perception of geocaching both in the community and park department. There is a pretty good chance that our Venture Crew may be interested in participating.
At first I was thinking that most of the area parks are really clean and it would be hard to find one that needs help- but then I remembered our last trip to Riverside Park in Wausau. It could use a lot of help.
Hey Team Everest,
I have to compliment you on hiding some of my favorite caches in the area. You folks hide my kind of cache- long hikes into the most wild areas in central Wisconsin. Lone Pine was my first trip to the middle of 9 Mile and Sandhill Wetland a hike with the first spring frogs creating a symphony of wild while I hiked in through water and ice (and I would have NEVER visited that spot without a cache there). I am big fan of young people spending time outdoors and not sitting at the mall texting one another between stores. And I’m pleased after watching the YouTube video of you hiding one of the new ones that you put out an ammo can- ’cause those Folgers cans don’t last long out in the wild.
But it would be better if cache owners were around to take care of maintenance issues rather than depending on the other cachers in the area to pick up their archived caches, add logbooks, check on missing caches, etc. Even if you couldn’t get around to taking care of stuff quickly it would help if you would at least answer email or check the listing once in a while and post a note that you won’t get around to checking stuff for a while and could somebody help out. It’s sad that Lone Pine is again just the remains of a cache container hanging in a tree with no log. It’s too good of a cache and deserves better. You can’t deny that you folks tend to hide some new caches during winter break, and then disappear for the rest of the year (or couple of years). And yeah, I can understand with college and all- and I suspect I would have been much the same way if there had been geocaching when I was in college, or even GPSr’s, or laptop computers, or cell phones,…(I’ll stop before it gets even more depressing for me and amusing for you…).
It gets frustrating for folks when caches are missing or moldy and nobody is around to confirm whether it’s still there, or to change out the logbook, or to share a hint or two. And when there are listings on the cache rescue page- you probably don’t even know what that is (check the link to the left, it’s when an archived cache with an absent owner needs someone to go pick up the pieces so we as geocachers don’t leave trash in the woods) by teams hiding new caches, well…
Most folks around here are a good sort (though ’bout half of ’em have very strange taste in logo design that I can’t understand). But they can get a little tense and terse about caching because they’re really into it.
In any case, thanks for the new caches. I’m sure I’ll get out there and experience another new area soon thanks to you. Try to check on your listings more often, and fix up those good ones when you get a chance. Also, don’t forget that, unlike when you started caching, there are now a lot of caches around to go after- and good out-in-the-woods caches too. Check out any of Mathman’s series in the county forests. You guys would love ’em. Just the kind of headlamp in the night through the deep snow cache that geocaching needs. TBC has a great series in Brokaw too. In fact, check out my snowshoe listing of area caches that make great winter cache destinations. Something to think about anyway.
Good luck at school. I’ve never had crumpets. Good?
That’s another cache I would like to hit some day. It is actually only a few miles from my mom’s cottage. Unfortunaely this time of year it’s sealed up. Esker in the Kettle GC10MGP might be a good snowshoeing cache. I did that one in the summer. I think Timberline Echoes did it in the winter.
That does look like a good one to try. One question though, there’s no way to tell what’s private property and what isn’t from the aerial photos and nobody posted any parking coords. I’m guessing that the best access would be Gensler road to the west? Is it plowed? Any help appreciated.
OPS if you head up here for Eagle Source give us a shout, maybe you will want to warm up with some hot cocoa at our house after.
That would be great! We’ll keep you posted with plans and see if you folks are around when we make it that way.
It turned out to be a rather nice morning to make this hike. But you never know about the weather and there’s no sense making a long drive on an iffy forecast. All three OPS team members enjoyed the hike (two of them made the trip for the first time). Birdin’ got us interested in another good snowshoe cache called Eagle Source. Have already started studying the aerial maps and reading the logs. There’s a good chance that we will make an attempt to find that one in the next few weeks. Perhaps we’ll post an attempt date for that one too and anyone else interested can join in.
Anyway, our kind of cache today. Even if we didn’t get a smiley. 🙂
Looking forward to tomorrow!
Mrs. OPS has two gallons of special-brew apple cider cooling off on the front porch so there will be plenty no matter how many folks show up. Coffee will be instant (hey, I know, but it will still be good when you’re standing in the snowbank), and there’s a bunch of hot chocolate packets. We have cups and spoons so we’re good to go.
I’ve printed off an aerial photo, snowshoes are piled up by the door, and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care (wait, think I’m losing it). I have packed a hammer and a chisel as the last time I hiked all the way back there I couldn’t bust the ammo can out of the ice.
We’re off to go tubing for the evening, see y’all in the morning. I have no idea if the parking area will be plowed but if it’s not we’ll just have to park along the road.
We will be there for sure tomorrow. One kid is probably out (sleep over party) and the other is iffy. Weather forecast for Point from Intellicast:
Snow showers early becoming more scattered later. High 26F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Saturday night: A wintry mix, especially in the overnight hours. Low 23F. Winds E at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 70%.
There will be hot apple cider/ coffee/ hot chocolate as promised from 8:30- 9:00 AM. Last minute hikers are no problem at all. The only problem would be if folks want to borrow snowshoes and we don’t have enough. We have two pair of Quicksilver 25’s we can lend. They are very small shoes for small folks or hard-packed trails. We may also have a pair of Quicksilver 30’s or two that we can lend depending upon whether the kids come or not. None of these snowshoes are great for deep powdery snow, which is what we have right now. But they’re way better than no snowshoes at all.
Then there’s the pair of untested scout-made PVC snowshoes (though I think Mathman has claimed them). I also have a pair of traditional snowshoes that have bindings that never seem to stay on and will likely cause the snowshoes to fall off three or four times on a trip of this length (Hey, the price is right for using them anyway).
Don’t forget some water, and it looks like the wind will be coming off the marsh and it has a LONG way to build up steam. We can always hike on the other side of the pines to buffer the wind but it would be wise to have headgear that can handle cold wind.
Okay,
This time I got it. Those snowshoes are all yours. Everybody is looking forward to seeing you Saturday. Should be a great time. Oh, and as far as you wanting to lead all the way in if I’ll lead on the way out: seems fair enough I guess…
😉
Mathman,
Please resend the email where you ask if you can borrow the scout-made snowshoes in order to go along. Somehow, the other emails haven’t got here yet ❓
Any idea what the road to the parking area is like?
Well, three years ago it was a nice plowed road. Assume it will still be so.
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