Hello WGA!

I hope everyone got a taste of geocaching during the drought of '12. With winter and road construction as the 2 official Wisconsin seasons, the "dry heat" added a new dimension to the fun!

Congratulations to jjcool719 for submitting the winning design for the WGA 10th Anniversary geocoin. The coin was made available during the West Bend Cache Ba$h and more than 100 were sold! You can order your 2012 WGA Geocoing in antique silver or antique gold finish from the WGA Store!

Are you ready for a picnic? Pike Lake near Hartford is the location for the WGA GeoPicnic. This will close out the 10th anniversary celebration of the WGA. You wouldn't want to miss the dessert, would you?

For those that are looking to 2013, we have been in contact with the Minnesota Geocaching Association to co-host the Campout in northwest Wisconsin next year. That should make for an interesting T-shirt design!

It was good to see many of you stop by the WGA Booth at the West Bend Cache Ba$h. A big thank you to all 9 Board Members for their time helping and the other member volunteers that assisteded during the 3 day Mega Event. Your purchases of WGA merchandise helps support this great organization, as does eating pancakes and sausage on Sunday morning!

The football season is upon us. If your favorite team isn't playing up to par, grab the GPS and do something productive! The score will be the same, whether your watching or not!

See you in the woods!

On your marks!!!

The WGA Picnic committee will be hosting the very first WGA Travelbug Race. This race will start at the 2012 WGA Fall Picnic at Pike Lake on September 22, and continue for a full year; ending at the 2013 picnic event. The travel bug that travels the most miles during that time will be the winner.

Get Set!!!

The details are still being worked out, but the basic rules are as follows:
1. All travel bugs must be present at the 2012 WGA Picnic event. Travel Bug tags will be available for sale at the event if needed.
2. The first stop for your traveler should be the picnic event. You can either take it with you to place in a cache of your choice, or leave it with the event staff to be dropped in one of several undisclosed caches around the state.
3. Only the FIRST move by a single cacher will be counted for miles. (No "dipping" for miles.)
4. The main reason for this race is to have fun. Please don't spoil it by trying to find a way to "beat the system".
5. Bragging in the WGA website forums is allowed and encouraged.

The race will be tracked on tb-run.com. This is not a public race, so check the forums for the link and password. Registration is required, but it's easy and free.

Watch for more details in the Fall Picnic threads in the WGA Forums. (Click Here)

Another WGA Campout event is in the books! We brought the event back to the location of the very first WGA Geo-Campout, held in 2001 at Governor Dodge State Park. More than 170 geocachers checked in during the weekend. Dozens of campers took advantage of the whole Geo-Campout experience and joined the fun at the group campsites. There was a lot of chatting, trash talking and storytelling as the campfires burned late into the night. Several more cachers camped in the more comfortable (but less fun) individual campsites on the other end of the park.

With everything that the campout committee had planned for the weekend, the weather couldn't have been better. The fish were not being very cooperative for the fishing contest, but nobody complained since a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work (or school)! The CITO event was was very well attended and got a lot of cachers back out on the trails for a couple of hours. The park staff now knows where all of their benches are.

Young cachers were treated to a treasure hunt, complete with an authentic looking treasure map. Finding the map was the hardest part for a few kids, but what could be better than finding a real treasure chest filled with candy and swag?

The "pig guy" showed up Saturday morning and started preparing the feast for the pig roast. WGA board members served up plates of pork, beans and potato salad to a bunch of hungry geocachers. Our sincere apologies to anyone that missed out.

It looked like the night caches were going to be a non-event, but Team Kauai showed up at the last minute and set up a great cache with sound, motion sensors, lights and an angler fish. They are already planning to have several night caches set up at the 2013 campout event.

The Sunday morning pancake breakfast is a long standing tradition at the WGA campout events, and is still going strong. Some old pros and a few rookies served up pancakes and sausages while cachers from across the state took advantage of the opportunity for a little more chatting and goodbyes.

Planning is well under way for the next WGA campout event. A potential site has been picked, and something special is in the works. Keep an eye out for more details and make your own plans to attend the 2013 WGA Campout event!

GC3DN3M

Saturday, April 14 2012 approximately 25 cachers got together along a 2 mile stretch of US Hwy 10 between Reedsville and Brillion to clean up litter. In just over an hour the work was completed, and the full garbage bags piled up near a stop sign.

This springs clean up seemed relatively light compared to past years, this may be do to the milder than normal winter we have experienced this year.

 
The Spring 2012 Highway Cleanup Crew

 
The final count of bags

Thank you to everyone that came out Saturday to help clean up our 2 mile stretch of Hwy 10, and a big thank you to Cheeto (Shane) for setting up the highway clean up and getting everything organized.

Hello WGA!

As I sit at my desk, glancing at the snow flakes floating down, I'm reminiscing about the first 2 WGA Events that were held in February at the Visitors Center in Horicon. Two different Events, planned by different members, supported by the WGA. This is the strength of the organization...our volunteers! It takes many hours of planning to pull off a successful Event, and our membership has a great deal of diversity in the many talents needed to plan these gatherings. WELL DONE!

Your new Board of Directors met on Sunday the 25th of February for 5 hours of WGA business. This is our required BOD meeting according to the WGA By-laws. We assigned our Committee heads and the roster is open for team mates to plan another year of development of this young organization. Please let us know if you would like to serve on any of the committees!

Soon there will be the smell of spring flowers and rotting winter trash! That means it's CITO TIME!! Watch the Events list for WGA sponsored and locally sponsored CITO Events near you. This is our way of "giving back" to the state of Wisconsin!

This is also the 10th anniversary of the WGA, so the Board has decided to "go retro"! The WGA Campout will be held at the same place the first Campout was held...Governor Dodge State Park. The Fall Picnic will be held at Pike Lake State Park, the starting point for the first picnic in '02. Watch for some very special things to happen at these Events!

Lastly, it was never my goal to serve as the President of the WGA, but it was my goal to give back to the organization that has provided many opportunities over the last 4 years to explore the secret and magical places that this great state has to offer. I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President. Just as you should leave a cache better than you found it, I hope I receive a passing grade from the members during my term on the BOD

Jim Bliefnick

WGA President