SLAGA 2023 Travel Bug Race September Update
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- Written by Robert Klemme
- Hits: 1633
Here are the current standings in the SLAGA Travel Bug Race:
Bike ‘Across America’ - PaulGracie’s Adventure
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 2604
Many geocachers plan and take caching road trips, but those usually involve a car, at least for the majority of the journey...but not for PaulGracie! Paul depends on his bike to get to and from college classes, work, social events, and geocaches, of course. He loves a good FTF, as well as seeking out other geocaching adventures and events to broaden his caching experiences. In the Fall of 2022, Paul started hatching a plan to bike and cache across part of America, having been introduced to the "Cache Across America" geocaches (a series of geocaches, one in every state with clues leading to a final cache in our nation's Capital), almost 5 years ago. He decided that summer of 2023 was the right time to start an epic adventure to find several of these, but do so by riding his bike. His true challenge was not the geocaching, however, but instead was the experience of a solo biking trip for an extended distance and period of time. His plan A was a roundtrip from St. Louis to the east coast and back, but he soon realized that Plan B, having his parents meet up with him on the east coast for the return trip, was the best option.
With bike, tent, sleeping bag, extra clothes, water, food/snacks, phone and money, Paul left St. Louis on his bike on June 5, 2023. He'd planned his safest biking routes/trails, several caches of interest, and places to stay along his route, which included 13 nights in 'Warm Showers' ($30 lifetime membership) and 'Couchsurfing' hosts' homes, three in hotels, one at his uncle's house, and eight at campsites, some planned and others impromptu. He travelled miles through changing weather. He rode in beautiful sunny 75 to 90 degrees, through several rainshowers, in cooler dusk temperatures, and even some cold 40-degree mornings after waking in his tent. En route, he attended a Makers Magic-Coffee and (Gadget) Cache Event near Columbus, Ohio, and took a day off from riding once just to enjoy the day and take a water trike journey to a cache across the lake at North Bend State Park in West Virginia.
SLAGA Featured on Geocache Adventures
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- Written by Robert Klemme
- Hits: 1748
Shadowdragn1 recently featured our very own SLAGA President and Vice President on her podcast Geocache Adventures.
Be sure to give it a listen by clicking the image below!
SLAGA 2023 Travel Bug Race Update
- Details
- Written by Robert Klemme
- Hits: 1681
Here are the current standings in the SLAGA travel bug race.
IT'S TICK CHECK TIME!
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1791
It's no secret that Missouri and Illinois have many pesky critters! These include nasty mosquitoes, black widow and brown recluse spiders, chiggers, the venomous snakes - copperhead, cottonmouth and timber rattlesnake, stingers like hornets, yellow jackets and wasps (bees are our friends), fire ants, and rarely a black bear, cougar or wolf, but maybe the worst of all -- the TICK! Ticks are blood-sucking parasites related to spiders and mites. They are arachnids, not insects. Missouri and Illinois have a few varieties such as the Lone Star, American Dog, Brown Dog, and Blacklegged (Deer) Ticks. Adults range from 1/4 to 3/8 inch in size and the newly hatched are known as seed ticks and can be as tiny as a pencil 'dot.'
Many ticks carry and transfer different types of diseases. Lyme or lyme-like disease is one many have heard about, but other tick-borne diseases are Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichiosis, Tularemia, Heartland Virus, Bourbon Virus, Southern Tick-associated rash illness, Alpha-gal Syndrome (red-meat allergy) and a newly identified disease in 2023 known as Babesiosis. Anytime temperatures are above freezing (March through November) is an active 'season' for ticks, especially in tall grasses, leaf litter and wooded places, but your own backyard can be a haven as well. As a matter of fact, nearly 75% of reported Lyme disease cases, are from bites that occurred in people's own yards.
A Busy Spring in SLAGA-Land
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- Written by Terri Nealon
- Hits: 1563
Our St. Louis Area Geocachers Association (SLAGA) is a fun and active organization, whose mission is to "improve the family-oriented activity of geocaching while encouraging responsible stewardship of public lands in cooperation with land managers." SLAGA accomplishes its mission by holding a variety of events from social picnics and gatherings, to community land clean up projects, to educational classes and workshops for both members and those just learning about geocaching. The past few weeks have seen SLAGA proudly exercise its mission with two CITO (Cache In Trash Out) events, a Food Truck social, the annual Spring Picnic, and two geocaching classes.
On the cold and windy morning of Saturday April 22, 2023, more than 45 geocachers participated at two clean up events. The CITO at Bellefontaine Cemetery (GCA458T), hosted by LFrank and Denmother (John and Laurie El Frank), involved trash pick up around the perimeter of the cemetery. But LFrank commented that, "the wind was blowing the trash in as fast as we were picking it up," so the 35 attendees literally had their hands full accomplishing their task. Some new geocachers and geocachers from California and Massachusetts were there to help as well. Light refreshments were provided and the attendees received a special gift from the cemetery staff.
While trash bags were being filled at Bellefontaine, about 13 miles away a different kind of clean up was underway. The 2023 CITO - Imperial Crown Pet Cemetery (GCA45WD), an annual spring event, was hosted by Hobbit Taz and CribbageWitch (Mark and Shirley Derr). Due to overlapping times with the other CITO, this clean up started with about 10 active SLAGA members working to raise and level headstones, mulch garden areas, cut and remove hanging and dead branches from trees, and pick up debris, downed limbs and previous cut tree pieces throughout the cemetery. A nice refreshement spread was provided in the warm cemetery office where workers could take a break from the cold and wind. Later in the morning about 5-6 additional members, who'd already cleaned up at Bellefontaine, came to lend a helping hand. Both CITOs were a success and everyone had a good time while providing clean up service.
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