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Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I’ll save the big kudos for after that pesky last 100 caches. But glad to see that milestone on the horizon. It’s been a great year sharing the trails so many times. Congratulations.
Ahhh…. 😀 . A tip of our bunny ears to The Leading Light of Western Wisconsin Geocaching. I’m trying to get that trademarked, heh, heh. A big, big congratulations my friend. You’ve earned it.
Nice write-up Robin. Congrats!
We made the pilgrimage recently to meet the Man in Black. Congratulations!
Maybe it’s time to bring up the Gauntlet t-shirt again? I’d wear mine with pride 😀 . I’ll admit to a bit of a crispy feeling when I opened the log book, but I went on to have a beautiful day of caching in the Dells, one of the prettiest places in Wisconsin if you get away from the waterslides and amphibious assault rides. We stopped by to share the campfire with everyone after another big Gauntlet day and that was one of our best experiences with the geocaching community to date. We all laughed and laughed and talked ’til the wee hours. Obviously we all enjoyed it.
It’s too bad others couldn’t take it in the spirit of things. They took away something we could all share. I always told people that four stars means no special gear and that it was doable. Not tipping my hand, but encouraging the intimidated to try at least.
Thank you Lorrie. It was fun while it lasted 8) .
Congratulations! We’re going to have to cross paths again soon. Maybe at one of Marc’s meet n’ greets.
Ordered ours, we’ll see if we made the cutoff. My grandfather had severe diabetes, my grandmother too, and my mother manages without injections. Hope we get one.
More thumbs up from the Honeybunnies. We really do have to meet on the trails one of these days. Congratulations on a real milestone!
Finally pulled a 34 hour last night. Some breathing room! Six done and one waiting, with a long weekend ahead. Woo hoo!
Heh. I got the lucky clover for low average picks on the cases, but I can’t cache fast enough to take advantage of it. More night caches!
Well, chalk this up to being a newbie to the game. We’ve pulled great times: 4 hour start, 4 hour first cache, 10 hour second. Buuuut, I chose an area on Saturday that fit none of the requirements. Go figure. We’ll catch up, but I see that someone already has six.
First, I want to apologize to Digital Dan. Dan, you took a very public shellacking for standing up for what you believed in while I stood by and watched rather than speak my voice. This is not exactly the same topic, but it is relevant.
Secondly, to all of you who have worked with the DNR to protect geocaching in Wisconsin, thank you. This is not directed against you, and I feel you have made the best of what I increasingly see as a bad situation. I feel that geocachers are being singled out because our online and physical logs identify and quantify our use of these areas.
I have no illusion that my humble opinion on a small forum is going to affect public policy, but do feel the need to vent my spleen as I see what I deem the heart of Wisconsin geocaching being ripped out. My intention is to analyze several of these sites in detail, including how they are used, my personal knowledge of the area, and of the caches that were placed there. My use of some of these areas extends back many years before geocaching existed, and I can still visit all of them as long as I’m not geocaching. As a matter of fact, parking lots and signage tacitly imply that use is encouraged. Groomed trails take that point one step further.
Sooo….
Devil’s Lake Revisited – A crushing loss, and the gem of all the caches at Devil’s Lake. Placed in the talus field, impacts at the cache site are nearly impossible to quantify, as there is no soil or erodable surfaces, and no vegetation. Impacts from the trails at the top and base of the cliffs include soil compaction and erosion, at the top from the marked hiking trail, and at the base from social trails used mostly by climbers. I spent at least 200 days at Devil’s Lake while I was actively climbing, and I can say that I personally caused more impact during that period than all of the visitors to the cache combined, and I was very conscious of the need to preserve this resource. While the cache is not on the West Bluff, that bluff’s parking lot has been paved and doubled in size, implying that MORE visits are encouraged.
Gibraltar Rock – Another area that I climbed, at least 25 days, until climbing was banned by Columbia County, as they did not wish to foot further bills after one climber rescue. I won’t go into that issue as it’s a tangent. Gibraltar Rock sees heavy local use compared to potential cacher traffic. It suffers the same issues of soil compaction and erosion, and the cedars at the edge of the cliff have seen a lot of abuse from people stripping branches for fires at the cliff top. Broken glass and refuse are big problems here, once including an armload of porn tossed off of the cliff. Not an area used reverently by a few in the know.
Parfrey’s Glen – A virtual cache that can be done without ever leaving the trail. The parking lot is full to the point of cars overflowing onto the road on busy days, and this area sees more users in one day than logged the cache in the last year. The trail until it gets to the glen proper is graded gravel and large enough to drive down if it weren’t gated.
Roche-A-Cri – There have been few if any more responsible or proactive geoachers than Lil Otter. Not only did she seek permission and work hand-in-hand with the park manager to resolve their concerns, she also changed one physical cache to a virtual after fear of impacts and held a CITO event. All the virtuals can be done while on trails or in established use areas. No additional impacts and an affront to all the hard work that Lori put in for us.
Two Creeks Buried Forest – A virtual Earthcache that can be done from the parking lot and the adjacent mowed area.
Powers Bluff – A classic woods cache accessible from a nearby trail
Castle Mound – A virtual that takes you to the top of the rock formation on a stairs and platform bolted to the rock. All information can be gathered from this viewing area after using trails that bring you directly to this spot.
Pewit’s Small Falls – This one has been covered by others in detail.
Lone Rock – I saved this one for last as it was a personal favorite and hurts the most. This area has seen a tornado, a forest fire and logging of the remains. It is no longer a pristine area. With some work, someday it will be again. When we visited the logging road was a jagged, muddy gash pointing directly at the bluff. There are many, many names gouged in the rock face, but other than that a pretty remote area with minimal impacts. This one is the hardest to refute, but again, about 50 geocachers over a few years seeking an ammo can in a rock crevice seems the least of their concerns.
The other areas on the list I can’t speak of in detail.
As I said before, I feel that geocachers are being singled out because of the ability to track our activities. I can go to any of these areas and use or misuse them as I see fit without any oversight as long as I’m not a geocacher. I can’t shake the feeling that this is only the beginning. I am not some kind of wise-use lunatic who believes we should be able to use and access all land in the ways we see fit as long as we’re “careful”. While only related, I believe in the Wilderness Act and the government’s right to set aside land for protection. I see a disparity in what activities are going to be allowed in these areas. I do not see any reason why the DNR could not some day arbitrarily change their minds, despite all our efforts to cooperate, and we would be left waving our permission forms like flags of surrender.
SNAs should be protected. I will not argue that point, but there does need to be some review of the impacts we are truly having and an understanding of what they are allowing on these lands.
Lastly, because it shouldn’t be forgotten, the approvers did the right thing in archiving these caches when expected to. This is unquestionable. We just need to seek clarification from the DNR as to why we’re considered differently, and work to have some of these caches reinstated.
@tyedyeskyguy wrote:
I had one of those coins. It traveled 27 miles before it got stolen.
Ouch! Sent one to England with Zuma. 3,000 miles and counting 8) .
Big ups from the Honeybunnies, E.T! You and the Echoes are tearing up the trails. See ya next time.
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