L Frank

Hello MMaru, MOGA 2015 has things to do for every geocacher. As you mentioned, there's the individual competition in the morning and the team competitions in the afternoon. There is also a geo-art power trail, kids caches, poker run, 60 permanent ammo can caches, a special puzzle series of caches to get the clues to open the cryptex pyramid, and there is also a puzzle competition in the afternoon. The vendors will be on hand also. I believe Garmin, GxProxy, Wooden Nickel Geocoins, and Red Hat will be there. On Thursday and Sunday, there are train rides on the Orient Express train, which you can purchase meals if you desire. As far as someone helping you learn more about geocaching, there will be 750 geocachers on hand to answer any question you have. Better yet, all you need to do is go to one of the geocaches. A group will soon arrive, if there isn't one there already, and you can tag along with them and learn as you find. Besides Garmin, there will be GPS and phone experts on staff to help answer any questions you may have. If you have any more questions, send me a personal note through geocaching.com. I very seldom get on the forums.

I have an multi-stage puzzle cache rated a 5/5. Besides going up and down hills, there is no water, I have some steep terrain where I put one of the stages. You do not need a rope, but it would not be a bad idea. From car to car in is approximately 8 miles of walking and driving to complete. If your terrain is fairly flat, then distance would be your only way to achieve a 5 rating. Personally, I do not like tree climbing, simply because limbs get broken and the trees are not mine. If you would like more detail, send me a note. Hope this helps.

Checking the favorites list is always a good idea. Forest Park has a few you may find to your liking. There are some highly favorited caches there as well.

Only the land manager and the cache owner know for sure. If you are that concerned, you should ask them.

You make some good points and concerns, for I hope every cache found in State Parks has some type of permission to be there. In the St. Louis area or the Central Illinois Area, we find that every superintendent has different qualifications. Some allow metal boxes because squirrels eat the plastic ones. Some do not allow PVC pipe and some do. Some allow the container to be painted as long as the bottom is clear to see the contents. The common rule is they all require a permit. I believe each manager of their State Park has been given the flexibility to change the requirements as they would like. Some require a one year permit and others allow them to stay as long as they are properly maintained. The managers, we have talked to, realize the more geocaches they have in their parks, the more visitors they get. The more visitors, the more revenue. In Illinois, revenue is key, so they are flexible with us to put out low maintenance containers.

The website for the St. Louis Area Geocachers Association (SLAGA) is www.slaga.org. You can also try contacting us through SLAGA's Facebook page. New members are always welcome!

If you are going to Mark Twain Lake, the caches you mentioned are must do's. You also should add "Monolith" (GC25Z5Z) to the list. This cache is a secret surprise and only the people who found it during MOGA 2010 know about it. Take your camera. You may also want to treat your clothes with 'Permetherin'(not sure on spelling). The ticks will be out and this is the only thing that kills them. You can find it in the pet section of your store. It is used to spray on your pets bedding to kill fleas and ticks. Do not apply it to your skin, use DEET for that. Spray your clothes and let dry. Your weekend experience will be much better if you take my advise. Have fun! L Frank

It looks like there are about 20 caches along the lake, with enough caches nearby to keep you busy for a weekend. I think you'll find that the area around Carlyle Lake is more "quality" than "quantity."

MOGA'11 (GC2EWFJ), SLAGA's only MEGA Event, is being held at Rend Lake, Illinois on March 25th, 26th, and 27th, 2011. Pirates is our theme so prepare yourself for a fun packed weekend full of "aarrg's" and "hello matey's" when searching for over 100 caches in the Rend Lake area. So mark your calendars and visit the Moga Website at www.mogageo.com for Lodging information.

I bought one about 2 months ago to replace my Meridian Platinum for geocaching. Keep in mind, although it has great maps of the entire USA already embedded in the unit, it will not do a street route. It is designed for geocaching only. I would say, it performs like a Garmin Oregon without the touch screen, but I do not think it will out perform a 60csx for geocaching. Some of the great advantages is it will hold up to 10,000 geocaches in it's memory. That includes everything you see on the cache page. It has a color screen that shows city parks in green and cemeteries in red. It has an antenna similar in performance to the 60csx, but one of the big drawbacks is it does not do well in heavy canopy conditions where the 60csx is at it's best. I like it because I have everything I need to know about a cache hide at my fingertips. It will do a projection and you can make an additional 500 separate waypoints. It allows you to make a log of your finds to download to geocaching.com, but it uses a joystick to maneuver over each letter of a keyboard, which makes it slow and cumbersome. To load in the caches, you can do it from geocaching.com directly, or using the free software "Vantagepoint", you can load all 10,000 caches from a gpx file from GSAK. I paid $200.00 for it and I believe I got my money's worth. L Frank

Hello FamilyDigger007, I will put your request on our SLAGA forums and see if one of our Granite City members gets in contact with you. If not, just let us know and the St. Louis Area Geocachers Assoc. will take care of the cache for you. L Frank SLAGA President

If you want to see a wide variety of cache containers and hiding styles, Grant's Trail is the right place to go! We cached the trail back when we were newbies, and it was definitely a learning experience. One of our favorites was Ulysses' Micro, which won a "Best Of" Award in 2007 from the St. Louis Area Geocachers Association (SLAGA). You can check out SLAGA's website at http://www.slaga.org.

The Schedule of Events for MOGA 2010 has been posted at GC1TF5K. Pre-registration ends March 22, 2010. Can't wait for MOGA!

In addition to a unique event coin for sale at this year's MOGA mega event (GC1TF5K) in Missouri, competitors will have a chance to win a custom-made gold, silver, or bronze MOGA 2010 trackable award geocoin. These coins will be presented to the winners in each age group for both the individual and team competitions. And guess what? As of the end of February, we have no one signed up for the women's individual competition in the "Under 30" or "50 and Over" age divisions. Ladies, I can see the wheels turning in your heads now -- this means, for $5, you can sign up for the individual competition and automatically receive an award coin if no more than 3 women compete in your age division. Hmmm, something to think about! For those of you casual cachers who still have a competitive streak, MOGA 2010 award coins will also be presented to the first-, second-, and third-place winners of the Poker Run event. Anyone with a valid MOGA 2010 registration (available for free!) is eligible to participate in the Poker Run. Starting Saturday morning, April 10, you will be able to hunt permanent Poker Run caches, all with a terrain rating of 1.5. Each Poker Run cache will contain a unique playing piece for you to collect. Each playing piece will be marked with a discount that can be used at local businesses, and certain playing pieces will allow you to draw playing cards (up to 5 cards and 1 bonus card) at the Poker Run Command Center. You won't know which playing pieces you need until you present them at the Command Center. The registered cacher who has the best poker hand by Sunday, April 11, at 1:00 pm will win a gold MOGA 2010 award geocoin! The second-best poker hand will receive the silver geocoin, and the third-best poker hand will receive the bronze geocoin. We know some people may have to leave early, but don't worry, you don't have to be present to win. Besides the staff version, we are minting only enough MOGA 2010 award geocoins to present to the first-, second-, and third-place winners in the competitions and the Poker Run. You cannot buy these coins -- you must compete for them! Come on out to Mark Twain Lake on April 9-11, and show us you've got the right stuff!

If you're travelling in April, plan to stop by Monroe City, Missouri, for the Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure (MOGA). This mega event will take place at Mark Twain Lake, where there are 200+ existing caches, with 100+ more that will be released for the 2010 event. You can geocache at your own pace, or you can enter the individual or team competitions for a chance to win a custom-made gold, silver, or bronze trackable geocoin. Check out GC1TF5K.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is now taking camping reservations for MOGA 2010. Event participants will enjoy half-price camping (April 9 - 11) in the Night Hawk campground loop in Indian Creek Recreation Area. Prices are as follows: Electric-only site - $9.00. Full-hook-up sites - $12.00 (Full hook-ups are limited and weather dependent.) Reservations can be made by calling the Lake Office at 573-735-4097. They cannot guarantee you a specific site, but they can guarantee that a site will be available. Sites are first come/first picked on your arrival. Night Hawk will open on Friday, April 11, 2010 at 8:00 am. For early birds, Sentry Ridge campground loop (in Indian Creek) will be open, but normal camping fee rates will apply.

The MOGA Registration site is now open. Go to www.mogageo.com . All you have to do is create a MOGA login account and then login. Please read everything carefully because we are using a completely new system this year. After you have registered, browse around and look at the gallery and go to the forums and tell us what you think. Have fun!

Dear MOGA Friends, I can finally announce that the MOGA 2010 Cache Hide will be on Oct 24-25 2009 at the Indian Creek Recreation Area at Mark Twain Lake. For you new members, MOGA is the Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure. It is Missouri's only MEGA event and you can find the cache page at GC1TF5K. If you would like to join us and volunteer to help hide over 100 ammo boxes, just send me an e-mail at lwatermann@hotmail.com and we will put you on the list. If you want to camp just let me know and we will have a slot reserved for you at the Indian Creek Recreation Area. If you want to stay at a nice hotel close to the site, we are all staying at the Monroe City Inn, (N 39* 39.520 W 091* 43.245) which is 13.5 miles from MOGA 2010. Call Victor at 573-735-4200 and tell him you are with the MOGA HIDE group and he will give you a 25% discount on the rate (about $52.00 plus tax). They have free wifi and an indoor pool. Each room has a refrigerator, a microwave, and cable TV. If you are just planning to come up for the day, we are meeting at (N 39* 31.150 W 091* 43.000) at 9:30am on Oct. 24th. When you get to the guard shack, just tell them you are geocaching and they will give you a pass for the day. You should see the SLAGA trailer on your right. So come on out and join us for a fun filled day on Saturday or stay the night and make it a great weekend trip. John and Laurie Elfrank (L Frank and Denmother) Moga 2010 Directors

Welcome! And thank you for taking the time to do a little research. We're really not all that scary once you get to know us!

If you're interested in Wherigo caches, St. Louis has three: GC1AA0B, GC1BQ4V, GC1MQ17.

Hello Midwest, The MOGA 2010 cache page (GC1TL5K) is published and we are again a MEGA Event. The event will be April 9-11, 2010 and we are planning many new and exciting changes like a Poker Run, and GOLD, SILVER, and BRONZE Competition Award Geocoins instead of trophies. We plan to be under a BIG TOP circus tent on asphalt so rain will not be a factor. Check us out and plan to attend another MOGA MOGA MOGA! L Frank and Denmother

We were in Kansas City over the Fourth of July weekend. Stick to the virtuals and the Fountain Tour caches, and your friend will have plenty of photo opps!

I forgot, also make sure your MAP DATUM is set for WGS84 L Frank

Dear Cache4Stash, Press the MENU button on your Magellan. Push the down arrow to the topic SETUP. press enter and then down arrow to the topic COORD SYSTEM. Press enter and it will show primary/secondary. Press enter on Primary. The topic Lat/Lon should be highlighted. Press enter. Press the arrow buttons until DEG/MIN.MMM are highlighted. Press Enter. You are now ready to have a lot of fun. L Frank

http:// http://www.geostl.com SLAGA is comprised of geocachers who live in an area around St. Louis, Missouri. Many of our members live in the city limits, or in counties in Illinois and Missouri that surround the city. SLAGA Territory is an arbitrary boundary that encapsulates much of the area where our members live and spend their time hunting for caches. It is an imaginary region, eminating from an area southwest of St. Louis for 100 miles in all directions. The SLAGA web site is a central point of information regarding upcoming SLAGA events. You can get access to multi-media files (audio, still images, videos) that document past events. This is where you find out about the activities and milestone of our members, as well as sign up to become a member. We present general news stories, useful information and internet links related to the geocaching hobby. The web site also provides access to the SLAGA newsgroup, which is where you will find most of the online chatter about all things geocaching-related in the area. New members are always welcome!