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Special Interest
Articles:
Spring Caching
New Advisory Board
WIN A CONTEST?
Tech Info
Member Achievements
Tell me a story...
Information you need
Who's who
Funny tag line seen on the forum-
I'd really rather not cache, but I am helpless in the grip
of my compulsion
Funny tag lines seen on the forum-
Oscilating between remarkable brillance and sheer
stupidity with amazing regularity.
Funny tag line seen on the forum...
The farmer gave permission to place the cache in the
field, but the bull charges.
Specal thanks to Rick for allowing me to use him as our
first featured cacher. He did such a great job of
telling me just what I was looking for that I admit I took
his words verbatim.
I don't know about you, but I sure feel like I know him a
bit better after reading that!
Funny tag lines from the forum...
"You can only be young once, but you can always be
immature." Dave Barry
Funny tag lines from the forum...
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?-Steven
Wright
And of course...
Respect Beer!
See you next month and be sure to send those ideas,
stories and don't forget to submit your contest entry!
Deadline for all submissions is the 30th of each
month unless otherwise stated.
We're on the Web!
See us at:
www.geocachingmaine.org
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Special Announcement!
Monday, April 11th, one of our members will make an
announcement on the Geocaching Maine web site which has
the capacity to put Maine Geocaching on the map!
Hot
off the press, check this news out now!
Upcoming Maine
Events
April Events:
GC2PAD7 - The Twin
City CITO II
05/07/2011 9am - 4pm Lewiston ME
Host: Team Norac
Come join the fun!
GC2PPNJ - Mt.
Agamenticus CITO Event 2011
04/30/2011 9:15am - 2pm York ME
Host: Team2Hunt
Don't miss this one if you can help it!
May Events: Coming soon! (Ya, like in the May
Newsletter)
Spring Caching
has sprung!
I am sure that after this long, long snow covered winter
we have all just endured, you are as anxious as we are to
get out on the trails and along the guardrails and do some
caching!
There are some things to keep in mind when going out at
this time of year and although I am sure I won't
remember everything here are a few things that come
to mind right away.
Take extra logs if you have them and maybe even plastic
baggies.
Maine cachers are great at maintaining their caches but
this early in the year some CO's may not have had
time to get out to all their caches yet. If you're
able to replace a wet or damaged log for a CO , I am sure
the cache owners would appreciate the assistance. If
you don't have a spare log handy and are unable to replace
the log be sure to mention it in your online log entry so
the CO will be aware that cache needs attention.
With the snow gone MUD season is upon us, so be careful
out there not to damage landowner's property by driving on
closed roads. A lot of landowners will close those
roads on their land that are prone to get deep muddy ruts.
Lets continue to respect the privileges they have given
us.
And last but not least, let's get some new caches placed
out there. This has been a slow few months for new
caches and we have to do our part to keep Maine Publisher
busy!!
Notes from the
Board
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few
months, I am sure you know we have a new Advisory Board in
place for Geocaching Maine site. Just in case you
HAVE been living under a rock, our new board members are
Brdad
- Dave
Dubord207
- Dan
Mainiac1957
- Brad
Team2hunt
- Gary
Congratulations to all the new members and those that
chose to stay on.
The Board wants you to know that they are working hard and
will try to keep us updated with what they are doing to
improve the website and the State's
Geocaching community. Be sure to check out the forum post
Advisory Board Progress at http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5205
to read up on all the great things they are doing to
accomplish their goals.
Newsletter
Contests
Periodically we will have some contests and or caching
challenges posted here in this section of the
newsletter. This will be every member's chance to
not only gain fame by getting their name published in the
next newsletter contest section but perhaps win a prize
too. If any of the members have an idea for a
challenge or contest, be sure to contact me, JustPJ66
(Pam), through a message on the forum. JustKev
(Kevin) can also be contacted in the chat room (he tends
to lurk there a lot), or through a forum message.
The first contest will be to name this newsletter.
Please submit your ideas for this newsletter name to
either myself (JustPJ66) or Kevin (JustKev). I will
choose four of the best names and then ask the
newly-elected Advisory Board members to pick the
winner. The prize will be...to be announced.
But it will be a good one I promise.
Technical Talk
In this section, we will discuss some of the more high
tech aspects of Geocaching. Don't worry folks this
is not going to be written by the technically challenged
JustPJ66. JustKev will do this section and we will
also feature articles and notes from other geocachers with
tech knowledge. Tell us what you want to hear
about. GSAK, Magellan, Garmin, Delorme PN's, Windows
based Geocaching questions?? What do you need to
know? We will do our best to get the information for
you.
Member
Achievements
Do you know someone who has reached a milestone that
deserves recognition? Did someone do something that
went above and beyond the call of caching duty that you
think should be noted. Did someone get married or
have a baby? Here is the place to sing their
praises and announce the news.
Let us know what they did and we will give them the credit
they are due right here in this section. Contact me,
JustPJ66
(Pam), through a message on the forum.
JustKev
(Kevin) can also be contacted in the chat room, or through
a forum message.
Examples:
Brdad found his 100th cache on 3/24/11. Way to go
Dave.
(he didn't really do this accomplishment but he cries if
we don't put his name in the newsletter )
RCWhitt had found his first FTF (like that is gonna
happen right Bob?)
Hey I had to pick on Bob he is my brother!! (and the
reason I got into geocaching! ) Thanks Bob
And so the story
goes...
Do you have an interesting caching story to tell?
Did you have something funny happen to you on the way to
an event?
Do you have a good story to tell your fellow
cachers? Maybe it is a "don't do this while out
caching" story? Maybe you got chased by a bear and want to
be sure no one else wears a pork chop necklace out caching
like you did?
Whatever the story, we want to hear it. Send your
funny or scary or just plain good stories to us and get
your name in lights. Okay, it's just the newsletter - but
hey, it's something isn't it?
Wealth of
Information...
Has every one taken a moment or two to check out all
the great information available on the website lately?
There is so much available on there that you could spend
days or weeks sifting through it all. Well not to
worry folks, every month we will try to highlight one area
in the articles section of the forums or at least one
aspect of that article. We will provide you with a
basic idea of what is available and then if you need more
information about that topic we will give you the URL of
that specific article so that you can go straight to the
source and learn more. What a deal huh?
And to begin...
This month we will be highlighting the article on adding
the geocachingmaine.org logo on your cache pages or
homepage.
Our man about the forums, Brdad, has written an excellent
article about how to put the logo onto your personal
homepage or onto your cache pages.
What a great way to promote the geocachingmaine.org
website to all those new cachers out there. Dave
(aka Brdad) has made it so simple for us. He has
included the html code for several renditions of our
logo. Once in place a newbie cacher only has
to click the logo pictured on your cache page and they are
instantly taken to our website, where they can have access
to a wealth of information and help from seasoned cachers
such as yourself.
"That's too complicated," you might be thinking. Not
at all... if you can cut and paste you can add this great
feature to your cache pages. If you would like to
know how to add this feature to your caches go to http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4295
And check it out.
You will be glad you did.
Last but not least... Getting
to know you
Occasionally we will feature one geocacher to give you a
chance to learn a bit more about them. Don't worry
we wont be disclosing home addresses and social security
numbers, but we will give other cachers a chance to get to
know you a bit better.
If you should be contacted to be our feature cacher, you
can give as much or as little information as you would
like or even decline all together if you don't wish to
participate.
This month we thought we would start with the site owner
Attroll (Rick Towle)(aka Blazing Troll)
"I bought a gps unit to use on my snowmobile. One day I
was reading a friend's profile on Yahoo and it said they
liked to geocache. When I asked them what it was, they
explained and told me about www.geocaching.com. I was
sitting around with nothing to do on 06/05/2003 and me and
the ex-wife thought we would give it a whirl. We loaded
one cache into the GPS and went searching for it. We did
not find it because by the time we gotten to the area
where the cache was it was getting dark. We went back the
next day and found it. We did eight more caches that
month. We also attended our first geocaching event. I
believe it was the second geocaching event ever held in
Maine at that time. Prior to the event there was a
Geocaching Maine group on Yahoo and the forum they were
using was a pain to deal with, it was not user friendly at
all. I own my own web server and while at the event I
asked a group of people there what they thought about me
putting together a forum that would be a lot better then
the Yahoo forums. They all agreed that any forum would
most likely be an improvement of the Yahoo forums. Within
a couple of days I had www.geocachingmaine.org up and
running, the rest is history.'
"The geocaching community is a very friendly tight knit
community. The people you meet are some of the friendliest
and nicest people you could meet. I have found that when
you have problems or issues in life that I have had
friends in the geocaching community come through for me
and help me out. I don't know any other group of
individuals that would do that. Those are my experiences."
"The best part about geocaching is the people you meet. I
have not yet met a geocaching face to face that I did not
like. What I don't care about the sport is the people that
are all about the numbers and have to brag about how many
they have found. To me it is not about the numbers but
about the people you meet and the experiences.
My favorite cache to date is one that is no longer active,
"Old Grist Mill Cache". I liked this cache for two
reasons. The first being, I like history and when you
walked to this cache down an old tote road there were
remnants of old houses and a cemetery. The second reason
was because it was the day after my wedding to my ex-wife
and we were both doing something we enjoying doing
together at that point in our lives."
I really do not have a least favorite cache that comes to
mind right now. If I had to pick any it would be a micro
or a nano. I am not fond of doing those types of caches
alone. I love doing them with someone else because it is a
second set of eyes that can help me out. Normally I will
not do them alone because I get to frustrated and feel
uncomfortable looking for items like these in public
areas.
We Want You!
Every month we will feature a poll in our
newsletter. This will give you a chance to
have your voice heard. Sometimes it will be just for
fun and sometimes it will be more serious issues, but no
matter the topic one click will take you to the poll and
we want to hear from YOU! Go to the April
Newsletter Poll to pick your answer!
April Poll is;
When you cache do you:
1. Cache alone
2. Cache with spouse
3. Cache with geowonderdog
4. Cache with friends
5. Cache with whomever I can it doesn't
matter
About Our
Organization...
Geocaching Maine's goal is to serve as a forum for
communication between Maine geocachers, the general
public, and land management officials, in a cooperative
effort to promote the sport of geocaching, an appreciation
of the outdoors, and good stewardship of the land and
environment."
We are not an official governing body. We are not rule
makers or enforcers. We are not the geocaching gurus of
Maine. We ARE a group of fun-loving, outdoor-minded people
who like to geocache and want to help others do the same.
The primary purpose of Geocaching Maine is to act as a
forum for discussion and communication about geocaching in
the state of Maine. We want to share our interest in using
modern technology (GPS and the internet) to encourage and
foster an appreciation of the outdoors, and to promote
good stewardship of the land and environment that we all
enjoy.
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