[Team Deejay]

Actually, there are 3 SNAs in Sawyer County: Flambeau River Hardwood Forest (about 5 miles W of Phillips, within Flambeau River State Forest), Lake of the Pines Conifer-Hardwoods (18 miles W of Phillips in the Flambeau River State Forest), and Kissick Alkaline Bog Lake (about 2.5 miles W of Hayward, in Kissick Swamp Wildlife Area). Combined, its around 700 acres of land, although the Kissick Lake looks like all water and marsh. You might check to see if any of your caches happened into one of these areas. As mentioned above, the DNR does a really poor job on marking borders. You basically have to take a topo map and try to guess exactly where someone drew a line on a map.

[Team Deejay]

Not trying to be a stickler here, folks, but this is same topic being discussed here. This cache was specifically singled out (with many others, although this one was listed twice) to be archived by the DNR. Follow link for a more complete explanation.

[Team Deejay]

Beast,
Thanks for your comments and your past efforts on this matter. I was hoping to hear a little about what was considered during the initial discussions. Maybe the board can consider reopening these discussions with the DNR. I think there are obviously places that we need to protect, but blocking access to every marsh, woodlot, and big hill doesn’t seem to be warranted. Maybe we should try a campaign contribution to certain highly placed state officials…….

[Team Deejay]

It would be different if they restricted other activities in these places, but they don’t. Additionally, most of the SNAs (actually ALL the SNAs that we have been to) have no signage or indication that it is an SNA. In many cases, there is either no map (Lodde’s Mill Bluff) or a very poor map with no coordinates, elevations or even section lines to determine where the borders lie. While I am sure the DNR has detailed the exact coordinates of their SNAs in their records, it is a little difficult to comply with the policy if they don’t share those records with us. I was out wandering around Honey Creek wildlife area on Sunday, trying to determine the borders of the SNA. With the information they are giving me (and this area has some of the better maps on the website), I don’t have any way to ensure that caches I place there are outside the boundary.

There is a “new” SNA called Mukwonago River, which has been drawn (at least by my eye on the rather weak map) to include virtually all of Miniwaukan Park, including the Frisbee golf Course, playground equipment, etc., as well as roads, bike trails, power transmission lines, dog walking area, etc. There have been at least two caches (one archived, the other in the “about to be archived for long term disabled” program) in this park in the past few years, and I am not aware of there being any significant problems with them (other than bees!) So what about this area so sensitive as to require protection from us evil geocachers?

[Team Deejay]

@LightningBugs Mum wrote:

My issue is with the current rules as they stand by the DNR. As per their website, geocaching is not allowed, but hunting, fishing, trapping and hiking are – even though there are very few established trails. C’mon – trapping??? That’s somehow better?

I know their concern is the caching trails that can get established and obviously there should be no caching (or other activity) in those “sensitive” areas where things must not get trampled.

I’m wondering if this is something we can revisit with them, now that we have an official DNR policy. Since a request form must be approved, I would think that this would give them the tools to screen out any objectionable placements without banning the entire system. Maybe someone involved in the original discussions could comment??

[Team Deejay]

@WIsearcher wrote:

Option 1: 8 caches in the New Munster Wildlife Area (Creepy Cache, …
I started Creepy Cache one day and got the wrong date on the first stage. I think the owners where going to make sure the right sign was still there. I never went back….

Since you posted your no-find, there have been around 25 finds, including us. The coordinates for the first waypoint put you in the middle of the cemetery instead of at the sign you need to reference. There is also a hint directing you to the correct place. The key is to recognize the word “Established” in the cache description, as the object with the required information has either “established” or “est.” written on it. If you took a date off of a tombstone or a statue or something, you aren’t going to the right place.

[Team Deejay]

Great job, folks. (Roger, are you taking bets for who gets to 500 first?)

[Team Deejay]

Thanks for considering (and immediately dismissing 😆 ) my caches. I would agree, however, that BLC caches are NOT long and hard as you desire, but are exactly the opposite, fun and easy.

Flag is not going to work for you. Since you have already 92 finds, unless you are very good at guessing, you can’t make it your 100th (I suppose you could report your caches out of order, but that is kind of cheating, isn’t it?)

Captain Klutz is one of the more annoying caches we have done, but definitely not long or particularly challenging. You will most definitely get your clothes ripped, but if you want to do it, this is the right time of year. Also, the parking is closed this time of year. If you want to do this one, park north of the cache in the orchard (ask permission and maybe buy a bag of apples!).

Matchhead is certainly not “in the woods”, but it is definitely challenging (not long however). To find this cache make sure you don’t pick a day with a north or northeast wind unless you want to get soaked. You probably should also pick a day where the temp is above 50°. Also, I would recommend against doing this cache by yourself.

So, what WOULD we recommend?

Option 1: 8 caches in the New Munster Wildlife Area (Creepy Cache, , Kenosha County Kettle Moraine View, Cache of the Day, and the 5 High Brass caches). You will get your hard terrain on the first 3 and then your distance/history with the series. I can’t recommend these caches enough. If one of these is disabled when you want to go, you can substitute “The Happy Wanderer” (also good, just don’t bushwack all the way from the waypoint to the final like we did).

Option 2: The 5 caches of Along the Milky Way. If you walk the entire way, you will have around a 4 mile hike in a beautiful river area. This is NOT an urban series by any means. Unfortunately, a few of the coordinates might be a little “creative”, so read the logs carefully if you don’t want to be disappointed.

Option 3: You could, of course, do The Gauntlet. Definitely bring a friend.

[Team Deejay]

@PCFrog wrote:

While I understand your point of view, I also see why, if they didn’t send an email. The cache was a violation and GC.com or whom ever does not need to talk to anyone prior to archiving caches that are violating the rules or laws.

I can only imagine the number of violations GC.com has to take care of on any given day and then to expect them to contact and converse with cache owners who are in violation prior to disable it would be overwhelming.

I just find it hard to be upset when the owner put in the listing that it was a State Natural Area. I would hope that if there were just a problem that GC.com would send an email but a blatant violation has no call for one.

Note that this cache was placed in 2002, which I believe was before the prohibition on geocaching in SNAs was instituted. While I can agree that the owners were not very sneaky, that would also imply that they would not be resistant to archiving the cache themselves.

Also, I have not seen any other cases in the US where Groundspeak actually archived a cache themselves since the establishment of local reviewers. If you look back to some of the very old caches in the state, you will see the archive notes coming from Groundspeak, but this was back in the early days before the present system. I don’t believe this is a regular activity there (Thank goodness!), so I really wonder why it was done this way in this case.

[Team Deejay]

Here you go!

http://wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?set_albumName=member_28&id=travelbug_image&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

[Team Deejay]

@Cheesehead Dave wrote:

At a recent event, I saw a set of four geocoins which were shaped like puzzle pieces. They were four different colors and were designed to fit together if you had the whole set.

While I wouldn’t want to copy the puzzle piece idea, I think something similar would be fun:

Square coins, one for each season. One side would have a picture representative of that season in Wisconsin, the other side would have a quarter of a larger picture. Once all four are released (in four batches throughout the year) if you collected them all and put them together, you’d have a four-pane picture on one side, or flip them over to see the big picture.

So the Winter coin would just be painted solid white? 😆

[Team Deejay]

Woohoo!!!!!! I bet you can make 2000 by year end!

[Team Deejay]

A deer tick is not bad, but I’m thinking we should have a coin with the state bird – The Mosquito!

[Team Deejay]

With SA 2006, you need to purchase the Palm version to use it on your Palm, as well as the PC version. SA 2007 appears to include all the necessary software in one package, but I don’t own it. (I don’t use this, as my Palm is an old M100 I bought for $7 on Ebay, and it can barely hold all the cache descriptions I carry with me.) As far as I can tell, S&T does NOT work with the Palm OS, only Pocket PC.

If I were you, I would find someone already using the SA 2007 before I bought it. While the Delorme maps are pretty good, the software in version 2006 is a little awkward to use and not very “export” friendly. The good news is that learning to use this software effectively will make you a GPSBabel expert!

[Team Deejay]

I use SA 2006 for several purposes. It does a good job of creating routes with multiple stops (or manual route decision). It is also good for creating files of coordinates “spots marked on the map”. (I typically do this with highway exits.)

That said, I don’t think it is a requirement unless you are a fairly advanced user. It will not accept GPX or LOC files, so you have to use another program to create files for SA. (GpsBabel works fine for this.) It will send waypoints (or routes) to your GPS, but you don’t have a lot of control. Other people use Streets and Trips, which I have to believe is better and easier to use, but I don’t have any significant experience with that.

For waypoint management and route visualization, I highly recommend GSAK, which is a full featured geocaching database. You can use this to map individual points on a wide variety of mapping sites or a set of points in Google Earth or Google Maps. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it, you won’t be satisfied with anything else. It is shareware, and if you like it, the cost is only $20.

[Author]

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