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Flash Intro-"Geocaching"
6 minute Movie-"Searching for a cache"
Basic Info
- Buy or borrow a Global Positioning System receiver. A basic unit is the Garmin eTrex GPS or Magellan GPS 315. Both cost about $100 and can be found at stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy or online at http://www.amazon.com
- Find a cache near you at <http://www.geocaching.com> Enter a ZIP code and the site will list nearby caches. Select a cache, such as "Geocache by Ray" or "Arboretum One" and click on its "details" button. Write down the cache's coordinates and print out the description. Use the online mapping site link at the bottom of the page to get driving directions to the location.
- While still at home, enter into your GPS receiver the coordinates of the cache as they are listed on the Web site. Coordinates -- such as N 39 degrees 24.661; W degrees 094 14.86 -- describe the latitude and longitude of the site.
- Follow the driving directions until you can drive no closer to the cache and park your car. Follow the arrow on your GPS receiver as it leads you to the cache. Be aware that heavy tree cover can block the GPS signal. Once you leave your car, it could take anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes to find the cache.
- The GPS signal will fluctuate once you are within 100 feet of the cache, so from that point on, you're on your own. Check around stumps and under rock and leaf piles. Remember that almost all caches are placed above ground, so no digging!
- Congratulations! You've found the cache. Take an item, leave an item and record your experience in the logbook. Reseal the cache and put it back exactly the way you found it.
When you get home, e-mail the person who hid the cache and let him know you found it. Also, post a description of your experience on the cache's online page at <http://www.geocaching.com>
Have Fun !GPS info ... Minnesota Geocaching Association ... Geocaching videos
Attachment: etrex.jpg
Tonight, on KARE 11 6:00 news. I think the main story is John Moriarty and Ramsey County Parks, but geocaching is involved.
Thats cool-but yet another school function tonight that I cannot miss- It would be neat to tape the shows back to back and when you have a full hour -bring them to one of the get togethers :)
then we can also see if they say the same things about it or contradict themselves over the many times they have covered and aired the subject :)
Ian!! We saw youz!!!
They actually did a good job with it.
I thought so too. They not only explained what geocaching is in a clear manner, they also brought the concerns about it and what it might do to natural resources in an informative manner.
Damn it! I asked my wife to tape it for me and she couldn't figure it out. All she had to do was hit record. I then asked my 5 year old and my wife screwed it up so much that she couldn't do it either. Geeze! How 'untechnical' can it get? I'm glad it was a good piece though. Wish I could see it.
Hello. I'm doing research for an upcoming History Channel television program called Tactical to Practical. The main focus of the series is how military technology has transferred to everyday living for civilians. One of the shows will be focused on GPS. I was looking on the Geocaching web site and saw that you were an accomplished Geocacher. If I understand correctly Geocaching is heavy in the use of GPS. If so, I'd love to be in communication and perhaps you will be available to answer some of my questions.
Thank you,
Aaron
Very way cooler, Ian!
Ken Speakes wanted to do a story on Geocaching and happened to call the day I was giving a talk to the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association Conf. They taped my entire talk (45 minutes). I would say that 98% of it was positive, 2% cautionary, none negative. I have not seen piece, but have asked Ken to send me a copy.
I would like to talk with cachers about some possible changes in our policies for next year. The main change would be the registering of sites with us. This would be done to control the number of sites in a park and to headoff any problems of placing caches in sensitive areas. This is currently being done in Cleveland Metroparks with positive results.
One quick comment on the cautionary side: Our parks close at sunset. Caching at 11:00 pm is not advisable and technically illegal.
Thanks,
John Moriarty
_________________
John Moriarty
Natural Resources Specialist
Ramsey County Parks
Ian - I think the whole piece was positive. The issues that John brought up is part of what his job is about. I think this relatively new activity is going to become more and more popular. It's so way cooooler that you're involved at the ground level!
I saw a GPS like CM's in yesterdays cool Best Buy add - go there to buy it so Ares stock will go UP! No price was given in the ad.
Hi everyone,
The next meeting of the Minnesota Geocaching Association will be held on Wednesday, December 11 at 7:00 PM. Sorry it is another weeknight, but we thought that all weekends in December are booked due to the holidays. Location is still up in the air - I'll keep you posted.
At this meeting we will have our first officer elections. We will be voting on President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer and board members (no more than 6 board members in addition to the named officers). We are still trying to figure out a way to have absentee ballots or proxy voting.
Please pass along any ideas on ways to give non-metro folks a chance to vote. Since the numbers are small maybe paper ballots could be mailed out to everyone interested then sent back or some sort of electronic voting. . .remember though that Jill and I are still trying to just get the new web site and forum up as fast as we can, much less figuring out some sort of web voting mechanism.
One thing I would like feedback on is this: is voting privacy important to those of you who can't make it to the meeting? If not you could email an appointed person with your votes - easy.
A final note on elections. Sorry that this thing is consuming our time right now. What I don't want is for people to feel left out because we limited the nominating/voting to just those that can make the meeting. It would be very easy to criticize the whole group based on that. (Not our intention to make this thing boring or process-oriented)
In the next week we (Rob, Jon and I) hope to figure out the details of the election and start the nomination process.
The web site is coming along. The domain is registered and the hosting arrangement has been made. Jillibean and I have got a start on the format of the site and I've begun researching the forum setup process. We will let you know when we get something worthwhile up on the site. URL: www.mngca.org
Finally, Rob or I will send the minutes of the first meeting to this email group in the next couple of days.
Please send this to any interested Minnesota cacher and forward their email address on to me so I can add them to the list. Really want to include more non-metro cachers.
Thanks for the help all,
Chad Towle (towlebooth)
Found my second cache tonight. Well, my brother did anyway. Pretty fun and easy for the whole family.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cachelog_details.asp?ID=133495&L=766958
Oh Ian- you are handsome!
...on another note....are you related to Judy Garland at all? you have her nose.
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intID=37596175
Elections:
We received overwhelmingly positive response to the idea of an 8 person board for MnGCA. We will go ahead and hold the election for these board members at Wednesday's meeting. At a later date those 8 board members will appoint 2 co-chairs from among themselves and assign other responsibilities to board members as they see fit as a group.
In order to be elected to the board you will need to be nominated by someone and then you will have to accept that nomination. Finally, if there are more than 8 accepted nominations we will have an election at the meeting. Nominations and the accepting of a nomination can be done at the meeting or beforehand. If you will not be able to attend the meeting and want to nominate someone or accept a nomination, please do so by "Reply All" to this email group to ensure that it is public. The cutoff for email nominations/acceptions is 5:00 PM on Wednesday, Dec. 11, two hours before the meeting. Please include your real name and the city you live in when you accept. To be eligible for nomination you must be at least 18 years of age.
Web site:
Jillibean and I have the majority of the site complete. c k and Calisota have volunteered to create a logo and color scheme and help the two of us do final tweaks on the layout. This should be complete this week. More on this at the meeting. Web address: www.mngca.org
Mission Statement:
Bobhiker has assembled a draft of our mission statement based on input from Centris, Perrine and others. This will be read at the meeting, changed if necessary, and approved by the meeting attendees. Here is the draft statement from Bobhiker:
"The Minnesota Geocaching Association (MnGCA) is a group of Minnesota geocachers who are committed to promoting safe, responsible, and environmentally friendly geocaching. We welcome the involvement and cooperation of park management and government to work with us to develop this activity to benefit both geocachers and parks.
  The MnGCA also provides a way for people to come together to organize regional activities and events that will promote the credibility of the sport and bring families together in nature."
If you have suggestions or comments on the mission statement please email this list or Bobhiker (Bobhiker22931518@cs.com).
Please forward this to any interested MN cachers and invite them to the meeting.
See you on Wednesday,
Chad Towle (towlebooth)
chad@towlebooth.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Chad Towle
Next meeting of the Minnesota Geocaching Association (MnGCA):
7:00 PM
Wednesday, December 11
Roseville Library
2180 North Hamline
Roseville MN 55113
651-628-6803
Map: here
WoW! are you gonna be on the board Ian?-
;) 169
No.
I don't know if I would have been nominated, but I opted to not accept. Ramsey County and Hennepin Parks are making big changes next April, and I'm sure I won't agree with them. It'll be better to 'fight' them as a regular member.
In attendance: towlebooth, CB-GPSERS, kingboreas, 15Tango, Perrine,
 Popeye, Bobhiker, Pam from Lady and Laddy Bugs, Centris, Kleiner, jonsom, Jillibean, berg0449, Lance from Team VE, and John Moriarty from Ramsey County Parks.
The MnGCA will be led by a board of 9 people, with 2 co-chairs selected by the board from among themselves. In order to be elected, a board member must be nominated, accept that nomination,
and be at least 18 years old. They will serve for a 1-year term, but half of them will step down after 6 months so that half of the positions will be up for re-election every 6 months. 9 people were nominated to serve on the board, so it was decided that there would be 9 positions rather than holding elections this time.
The board members are:
Corey Klein "c k" from Mankato
Nola Cutts "Centris" from Anoka
Chad Towle "towlebooth" from Woodbury
Dan Berg "Berg0449" from Maplewood
Rob Sime "Bobhiker" from Richfield
Jon Sommerdorf "jonsom" from Mounds View
Pam Combs "Lady bugs" from Eagan
Matt Mikesell "15Tango" from St. Paul
Chris Brown "CB-GPSERS" from White Bear Lake
Kleiner suggested that half the board members be from the metro area and half from out-state Minnesota, but since we hadn't been able to contact many of the out-state cachers and 8 out of the 9 nominations were for metro area people, we decided to try to recruit more out-state cachers into the organization and in the next elections in 6 months we may have more out-state nominees.
The MnGCA web site is still under development. Jillibean and towlebooth are creating the site structure and c k and Calisota are creating the logo and contributing to the look-and-feel to the site. It should be completed within the next couple weeks.
Towlebooth reported that it will cost $90 per year for the ISP to host the site, and the domain name registration costs $21.50 for 2 years. This can be paid for by donations from cachers, which can be organized once the board has met and appointed someone to act as Treasurer.
Bobhiker, with help from others, had written the proposed mission
 statement, which was approved by everyone in attendance with the addition of "technology" in the last sentence, suggested by Perrine. The ratified statement follows:
"The Minnesota Geocaching Association (MnGCA) is a group of Minnesota
 geocachers who are committed to promoting safe, responsible, and
 environmentally friendly geocaching. We welcome the involvement and
 cooperation of park management and government to work with us to develop
 this activity to benefit both geocachers and parks. The MnGCA also
 provides a way for people to come together to organize regional activities
 and events that will promote the credibility of the sport and bring
 families together in nature and technology."
Potential future caching events include:
In addition, it was mentioned that the Wisconsin and Great Plains groups have caching events coming up in the next year, which Minnesota geocachers could attend. It was also mentioned that we could do a combned regional event with these groups.
MnGCA meetings will be held quarterly, and board member attendance is
 recommended. If possible, this will be combined with caching events. In addition, the board may meet on its own as needed.
John Moriarty, who works with the Ramsey County parks, was very helpful in explaining the perspectives of Ramsey County and other county and state parks, and giving recommendations as to how to put into practice "environmentally friendly geocaching" as per our mission statement. He suggested staying on the trails when possible, respecting and following park rules and not caching in protected natural areas, and not having too many caches concentrated in any one park or area of a park.
He also handed out a draft of the proposed policy for geocaching in Ramsey County parks. Once this is approved, this will be available on the MnGCA web site. The draft includes a list of county parks, and the maximum number of physical caches that will be allowed in each park. Caches in Ramsey county parks will be registered with Mr. Moriarty, and should be spread out within the park. This allows the county to approve the concentration of caches within its parks, and allows us to demonstrate environmentally friendly geocaching practices to Ramsey County, and hopefully, to other county and state parks.
Jon Sommerdorf (jonsom) will be our contact with John Moriarty and Ramsey County parks.
Thanks to everyone in attendance, the organization has begun and I think we're all really excited about promoting responsible geocaching in Minnesota and hosting lots of fun events!
MnGCA Forum... Minnesota GeoCachers Association
Hello Ian,
 Thanks to Santa Clause I can now say I am going out one of these days real soon to find one of Your cache's. (Santa gave me a Garmin etrex)
Cooler!
Now Marley will be able to find his way home if he gets lost in the woods again ;-)
What a nice Santa !
I placed a cache here a couple weeks ago. A friend and her son went there early this morning to pick up a travel bug that had been placed there. The spot I found was spooky and creepy, but check out her photos. It was not cloudy or foggy, other photos were fine. These have not been altered. She did not see this until she downloaded the pics.
The spot is a hole that is dug into a hillside, with braced walls, and the remains of a trapdoor.
there's a simple explanation for the foggy pictures: cold camera lens.
Or the breath of the person taking the pictures. But where's the fun in that?
They look cool anyways :-)
Looks like a face towards the bottom right.
Then why did the pictures right before them and the pictures right after them turn out fine?
FLORAL CACHE - 6:30 am
took 3 pictures of P. walking the wood plank - fine
took 2 pictures of travel bugs - fine
took 1 picture of P. logging - fine
YOUR CACHE-- 7:00 am
took 1 picture of the beanie travel bugs in the hole - fine
took 3 pictures of P. with the dosh - all misty
took 2 pictures of the bear travel bug - fine
took 1 picture of P. looking in the hole - misty
took 1 spoiler picture of the cache in the hole - fine
I took all the photos of your cache within the space of 3-4 minutes
Plus I always carry my camera in the inside pocket of my coat -- not cold there
Still thinking about this -- cold lens can't be it
I have taken pictures in snowstorms and in much colder conditions than we had today -- I have never had this problem before.
I am going to do some experimenting around with my camera tonight to see if I can recreate the mistiness.
Still thinking about this, it is really bugging me --- It was not that cold out this morning anyway, nor was it foggy out.
I don't think this is the correct explanation or it would have happened before with this camera on a colder day.
I was thinking about the angle of the photo -- but I don' think that is it either since we also saw the mist in the photo of him looking in the hole that we posted to your cache page. There is mist behind him as well as mist near his head.
I wish we had taken some photos of me at the site as well.
If you really use your imagination -- you can see faces -- it's creepy.
I read somethin recently....I forget where... but if your watching a movie/TV show, and theres a scene where people are outside, and theres snow... its real easy to tell if its a fake snow scene... if you can see the actor/actresses breath(s) then its a real snow scene.. if you cant, then its probably fake.
Cool!!
I see a face in the top right.(small face)
I want to think an indian spirit :)
so, I've called it the "haunted cache". Should it be the "spiritual cache" ?
I want to think an indian spirit :)
I like that thought :) Maybe Spirit Cache?
I think I've seen that spirit before. It's not really a spirit, but the gardener from the Jones estate. The gardener was after the Jones' fortune. Scrappy and Velma figured it all out though.
Our kid just got Scooby Doo from Santa this year. Anybody have a Scooby snack I could buy from you? Ooooh Yeah
Jones Estate? Maybe someone spooky from that "Bates Hotel" house?
Ian
Is Ramsey County's geocaching policy still available online somewhere or are they reworking it for February?
I sent it to you.
Thats Awesome Ian! You're world famous :-)
Thats So Cool Ian you are famous!
Oh Im going to put out my first real soon!
"Paul Wellstone Cache" ( the plane crash is right by our land!)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=82e4d31c-b689-4663-bdb3-8736a07b7e49
I told you its an addiction!!!
you must read this log!!!
Way to go Ian! Nice representation from this 'cold?' state.
Congrats, I knew you had alot of them hidden. Pretty soon you be on the top of the list.
That is soooooo COOL
you have definately earned a place in the COOLER!
where do you find the time?
If you'd like an idea of what geocaching is all about, without registering, check this link:
Sample pages
These are actual caches I've hidden, with comments of people who've found them.
I like your picture from your C&C cache.
Smokin' Joe!
I have to pull what Ramsey County calls "the marijuana cache."
I'll help ya take care of that one. We might bump into Marley out there. hehe