MnGCA

andrewmcc · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 29 Jul 2007 Posts: 979

I recently met with the State Park Geocache team. As some of you had found out from last year some parks wanted a lot of help and some parks wanted no help and a bunch in between. Well the situation is the same this year except we know it.

From the list of volunteer cachers below could you please let me know if you would like to continue with working with your park or not. Even if it is just a consulting role. Also a note about your experience would be great.
There are a few parks that they would like to have the geocacher be the sole maintainer of the cache.
The State Parks are still going to be the owners of the cache but I am working on getting our group better recognition for our work
.
I personally got great satisfaction working with the park but I have been using State Parks for many years.

Unfortunately the parks want their coordinates for the caches done by January 9th. That just came up because the Biology and archeology people want to do a more through inspection of the impact areas. There are also new hide requirements that you can get from your park.
For the parks that will not have volunteers I will open them up to the rest of the membership.
Go right ahead and contact your park to see if there is anything you can do ASAP, Please contact me via PM or on this thread ASAP. It would be easier than for me to contact all of you.

Thanks
Andy (andrewmcc)

Afton (metro) by 15Tango
Fort Snelling (metro) by EPMinnesota
Interstate (metro) by Bus&Betty
Lake Maria (metro) by jambro
Minnesota Valley Rec. Area (metro) by dachebo
Wild River (metro) by elfdoctors
William O'Brien (metro) by andrewmcc

Banning (NE) by Gone Astray
Bear Head Lake (NE) by Froggy Baby 123
Cascade River (NE) by PassingWind and DLHCacher
Cuyuna Country Rec. Area (NE) by marbleyes
Father Hennepin (NE) by Gone Astray
Franz Jevne (NE) by weldor, handezman, and merkman
George H. Crosby Manitou (NE) by PassingWind and DLHCacher
Gooseberry Falls (NE) by DLHCacher and PassingWind
Grand Portage (NE) by PassingWind and DLHCacher
Hill Annex Mine (NE) by AerosmithPA
Jay Cooke (NE) by EskoClimber
Judge C.R. Magney (NE) by DLHCacher and PassingWind
McCarthy Beach (NE) by joboo
Moose Lake (NE) by Pear Head
St. Croix (NE) by bigred_librarian
Savanna Portage (NE) by ghost640
Scenic (NE) by Cushman Rider
Schoolcraft (NE) by uffda320
Soudan Underground Mine (NE) by Proton
Split Rock Lighthouse (NE) by PassingWind and DLHCacher
Temperance River (NE) by DLHCacher and PassingWind
Tettegouche (NE) by DLHCacher and PassingWind

Big Bog SRA (NW) by weldor, handezman, and merkman
Buffalo River (NW) adopted by former hawkeye
Charles A. Lindbergh (NW) by Kurt Franke & beagleboo
Crow Wing (NW) by beagleboo & Kurt Franke
Garden Island SRA (NW) by weldor, handezman, and merkman
Glacial Lakes (NW) by woolychaps2
Glendalough (NW) by onionpond
Hayes Lake (NW) by fargnot
Itasca (NW) by Not Yet
Lake Bemidji (NW) by Momandson2006
Lake Bronson (NW) by roylake
Lake Carlos (NW) by onionpond
Maplewood (NW) by onionpond
Mille Lacs Kathio (NW) by herrwald
Old Mill (NW) by roylake
Red River SRA (NW) by GEO06
Zippel Bay (NW) by weldor, handezman, and merkman

Beaver Creek Valley (S) by lagrac
Big Stone Lake (S) by Red_Devil35
Blue Mounds (S) by 4egg07
Camden (S) by M&TCacheSeekers
Carley (S) by altura
Flandrau (S) by Red_Devil35
Forestville/Mystery Cave (S) by lizs
Fort Ridgely (S) by princessB
Frontenac (S) by zuma!
Great River Bluffs (S) by bflentje
John A. Latsch (S) by lagrac
Kilen Woods (S) by speedysk1
Lac qui Parle (S) by loneeagle_24
Lake Louise (S) by accordiongal
Lake Shetek (S) by k2geokids
Minneopa (S) by minnesotabrad
Monson Lake (S) by msrubble
Myre - Big Island (S) by princessB
Nerstrand Big Woods (S) by TheCollector
Rice Lake (S) by rrgoinpostal
Sakatah Lake (S) by KBayNPapaBear & bflentje
Sibley (S) by msrubble
Split Rock Creek (S) by m&tcacheseekers
Upper Sioux Agency (S) by loneeagle_24
Whitewater (S) by ArcherDragoon
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Dinnae fash yersel (don't worry yourself)

joboo · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:51 pm Post subject:

McCarthy Beach (NE) by joboo

i'm still in to do my part, what little it was Laughing

.
i do have to say........ i had a great time with Dave, my st. prk contact!!!

contacted my/our park, and we'll do something after the 1st.

Peace,
Joboo
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Don't be Bitter, Reconsider!!

Pear Head · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject:

I did Moose Lake. I did the original coordinates for them and assisted them in picking out a spot, and checked on the cache one time since, otherwise they maintained it on their own.

I'm not really interested in continuing into this year due to a limit on my personal free time. Moose Lake is about an hour drive for me (one way) as it is. I'm sure there is no way I'd be able to help them out other than by telephone before the 9th of January, and I doubt I'd be able to make it down there in January at all.

If someone else is willing to step up and take this one that would be great. Again, they were great to work with, I just don't have the time any more.
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Hmm...

minnesotabrad · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:59 pm Post subject:

My experience with Minneopa is that they wanted to do everything themselves. I would not want to help that particular park due to my first experience. I did not do much other than waste a half a day hiking and picking out potential spots, none of what were used.

m&tcacheseekers · Geocacher Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 101

We worked on the history challenge with Camden and Split Rock Creek and we really enjoyed working with both parks. We worked with camden alot for the history challenge, setting up the caches and the design of the different stages notecards, along with doing monthly geocaching demos.
We definitely would like to work with them again on the new cache program.
We have sent emails out to both parks about the new cache program and waiting to hear back from them. You can put us down for being the geocachers assisting those two parks.

just a question!! who all is on the state park geocahing team??
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Got GAS... (geocaching addiction syndrome)

Dances With Beehives · Geocacher Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 671 Location: Chaska

I wouldn’t mind helping again. I’ll contact the local Park Ranger.

It was my experience that they required very little help on the maintaining of the cache at the park level, but the person(s) responsible for the cache page, needed, and never did get help enough to change Minnesota Valley Rec. Area into a regular cache as it was meant to be. (Something I wanted straightened out from day one.)

They thought, since we added Parking and Trailhead waypoints as additional waypoints, that it was a multi-cache. I explained it to the Park Ranger, and later to the person maintaining the page...well it never did get taken care of.

Seems like they could use help editing cache pages.
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...formerly 'dachebo'.

Pear Head · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:28 am Post subject:

andrewmcc · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 29 Jul 2007 Posts: 979

ArcherDragoon · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

15Tango · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:53 am Post subject:

I'm going to be out of the area for what isn't supposed to be more than a year starting in February, so I won't be able to work with Afton again.

They didn't really need much help. I went through before everything kicked off and confirmed the coordinates, told them the ammo can with the goodies should be the final stage instead of one of the intermediate stages, etc. They've done a great job of maintaining their own cache since.
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There comes a time in every young boy's life when he gets an irresistible urge to seek buried treasure.--Mark Twain

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3652

I'd love to help. But I have no interest in wasting umpteen hours of my time finding several perfect spots in two parks only to have them not used. And they weren't used for unknown reasons. It was NOT because of biological or ecological reasons. Go figure. Here's how it went with my park rangers... "find me two to four spots to hide a cache." Once I did that, I got, "oh, BTW, what do you think of my spot?" like it mattered or something.

Sorry, just a bit irritated.

Bus&Betty · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:43 am Post subject:

We are unable to help this time around.

AerosmithPA · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject:

I am not interested in participating this year. I appreciate all who give of their time and efforts however. THANK YOU!

Among other things, this past year I was turned off by the commercialization of the challenge and I was also discouraged the MNGCA did not even get a minor mention on the cache pages.

speedysk1 · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:57 pm Post subject:

I too was disappointing in being told to write up a nice thing for the cache page. I had it typed up and we (the ranger and I) emailed it, electronically, to the DNR office only to find nothing later was used. It had nice history of the park, other interesting tidbits about the park. Where to park your car as you weren't supposed to park in the camping area, as I know most did. I was also put off as it seemed my time was worthless, but their time was priceless. When I offered to compromise on a time to meet the ranger, he wouldn't budge. I had to take a day off work to meet him. I was also disappointed that the MnGCA wasn't listed at all nor was any of the volunteers listed. They could have done something.
In the least, I think they could have given the volunteers a free St. Park Pass or something. I probably wouldn't feel that way had my experience been better with my park. I don't mind volunteering, but a Thank You would have been nice. I felt like I wasted a lot of time for nothing. I felt used as the only thing I was for them was a GPSr. Ultimately, the only thing I did was gather coordinates and waste a day vacation.

I won't be in SW MN before Jan 9th, so I will not be able to help Kilen Woods. This is where I grew up and I have a cache near the park, but this is too short of a time line for me. I do love this park. I've been there many times and have lots of great memories there, but I need more time if they want me to help them. My time isn't worthless and I won't be taken advantage of this time around.
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Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Red_Devil35 · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject:

We went out to Big Stone Lake to help the park attendant hide the cache, but we were told in no uncertain terms that our help was not needed at all after that.
The other park we volunteered for, Flandrau, did not need our help at all, the person there had experience with caching prior to the challenge.
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"We never seek things for themselves-what we seek is the very seeking of things"-Pascal