MikeB3542

Fels Naptha soap is the "tried and true" for fabrics contaminated with poison ivy and poison oak. Shave about 1/3 bar into a laundry load with a knife or old cheese grater.

So I'm looking at the empty boots with smoke coming out and I'm thinking, "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year, it's just not really widely reported" Sorry 'bout the boots -- even if they were Wal Mart specials, you still need something ony your feet to get home.

Ditto the trick with newspapers. Other things I have pondered but not tried: --silica-gel dessicant packs --super-absorbent diapers or incontinence products --super-absorbent female hygeine products Assuming this works, if I have a choice between dry feet and not embarassing myself in front of buddies, I would gladly choose getting caught stuffing Depends and Stayfree in my boots. Having to finish out a long hike in soaking wet footware is miserable, and not to mention bad for your feet.

Life Scout and OA Brotherhood -- parent of Tenderfoot (soon to be Second Class) Scout. Owasippe Scout Reservation Lives!

I took a wilderness survival class and one of the exercises involved breaking us into teams to build shelters. Each team found more than enough materials on the ground to build a shelter. No need to chop down saplings. The only time we need a knife was to cut the string we used to lash stuff together. In the northern winter, when snow covers the ground, you might have to cut branches from living trees. When I hiked and x-c skied up there I always carried something that would cut small branches. YMMV. Jim I was going to say something about "Leave no trace" but I changed my mind.

I live in Milwaukee, so I am within an hour of Gander Mountain, Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop and REI. They all have their pros and cons. For car camping, I like Gander Mountain for tents, sleeping bags, and camp kitchen gear. For backpacking, REI has excellent gear, and their house brand packs and tents are very reasonable and good quality. REI is a coop, so you do get discounts if you are a member, along with a dividend at the end of the year. Fishing gear mostly comes from WalMart or Farm & Fleet. Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's are great for the show, but find I rarely buy from there (Exception: I got a great dealthis fall on an OT Canoe at Cabela's.) We also have a place in town called Sherpers that has Army surplus and all the other stuff you will ever need.

I saw from your profile that you are a student -- see if your school is organizing a trip.

You need to act fast -- access to the BWCA is limited. My recommendation is to go online (www.bwca.com) and check out the various outfitters. They can help with permits, plus fix you up with the right gear, help you with routes and even provide a guide if you wish. Many weeks "fill up" early, so you need to be flexible with your travel plans. There are several "jumping off" spots for the BWCA. The big one is Ely, MN, as it has a central location. There are also a number of outfitters out of Grand Marais/Gunflint Trail which serves the east end of the park. I have done both -- and it's all pretty nice. The outfitter will often be situated in the Superior National Forest, and may have cabins or campgrounds. Showers and a hot meal are nice, so consider a place with cabins, lodge, etc. If you camp backcountry, you MUST camp at a designated campground. Campgrounds will have a fire grate and a pit toilet (words fail me here -- I could try to describe, but that would ruin it for you!) Be aware that a lot of the eastern part of the BWCA suffered a massive blowdown event on 7/4/99. My guess is that you will be steered away from these areas -- all that dead fallen timber has created the makings of what the USFS calls an "extreme fire event". You will need passports and arrange time and route to go through customs if entering Canada. I strongly recommend leaving your canoe gear at home.The BWCA has a few large lakes (Basswood and Saganaga come to mind) but a lot more smaller lakes -- most trips will involve some portaging. The outfitter will set you up with canoes that are light and have Boundary Waters yokes. Also, strongly recommend not winging the route. Work closely with your outfitter. They will get you to lakes with great fishing, fewer people, and fewer bear issues. They can arrange for canoes to be towed or trailered. The BWCA is a very big place, and you need an expert to help focus things. It is more than you can get in a guide book (any honest guide book will recommend that you work with an outfitter.) Camping gear: The outfitter can set you up, but no reason that you can't bring your own tents, sleeping bags, etc. For carrying your gear, rent Duluth packs from the outfitter. These monsters also defy description. Food: you can buy provisions from the outfitter, but not necessary. Just remember, absolutely no cans or bottles, and you are expected to pack out your garbage. Food must be hung to avoid bear issues. Water: thirty years ago, we drank straight from the lakes. Not sure I would do that now. Plan on boiling water or using a filter. Skeeters: Three words -- Minnesota-state-bird. Root Beer: Alas, Dorothy passed away awhile back, so you'll just have to take my word for this one -- she lived for years out on an island on Knife Lake and sold root beer to folks who tied up to her dock. (www.rootbeerlady.com) I wish you well -- the BWCA is truly God's country.

So like me to bring a knife to a gun fight...wait this thread was supposed to BE about knives. Silly me! Anyhow, the only knife I own that qualifies even remotely as a BFK is a pre-war (WW2) German hunting knife (the blade is maybe 4-1/2 inches long). You can get an amazing edge on it, but it dulls in a hurry. That one stays home umless I am trying to impress someone. No jungles up here in Wisconsin, so no need for machetes and knifes that appear to be making up for their owner's shortcomings. Actually, my Leatherman is my go-to knife -- the knife blade is crazy sharp (had a razor sharp edge right out of the box and has held it -- I will rue the day it needs to be sharpened, because you know that steel is pretty tough!), and is pretty decent size. It isn't very photogenic. Rather have a small sharp knife that i can fold up and drop in my pocket, than some monster flopping along on my belt loop the whole hike.

Fair enough Well, thanks all for the great exchange. The whole gun issue gets the hackles up and good to see folks were overall pretty thoughtful. That, in itself a relief. I might not be thrilled with the change in policy, but it doesn't change any travel plans we had. Good to know that most of the folks carrying are serious people (a lot of the pro- and anti- arguements would lead you to believe otherwise!) Anyhow, my wishes to all for a happy, safe and free 2009 in this country's wild places.

This is the wrong question completely and is part of our current problems in this country. We are a free nation and should never ask why some one should be allowed to do something instead we should always ask why they shouldn't. It is enough in a free nation that you desire to do something. As long as there is no valid, legal, and constitutional justification for not doing it then you should never need to justify doing it. There is no valid constitutional reason why your gun rights should end at the park borders. We spend way to much time worrying about what other people are doing in this country. Just continuing to probe...trying to make this a dialog rather than a smack-down. As I think about this more, CCW is entirely about personal defense against other people -- animals don't decide whether or not to attack based on whether they think you are packing or not. Open-carry is sufficient for protection against animals. Looking at the animal-attack anecdotes, it is not clear that a gun would have changed the outcome in most. (At least one instance involved the deceased near the body of the animal that died from a GSW after mauling the shooter! Others involved being stalked -- sorry, but you probably won't KNOW you are being stalked until the bugger has is claws on you!) Setting the Constitution aside (I really don't want anyone to take your guns away, anyway), let's talk about the personal choice. When you walk out the door in the morning, what decision-making goes into dropping a pistol in your pocket? If you are in a National Park, or any other public place that currently prohibits CCW, do you truly feel that unsafe? Without CCW, the National Parks have been extremely safe places to go. In 2006, there were nearly 300 million visitors, and only 11 homicides/manslaughters. Now, 11 is 11 too many, but that is a remarkably small number. You are way more likely to get killed or injured in a car wreck getting there. The current ban against conceal, which was based on a Reagan-era presidential order, had no real legal challenges--the lifting of the ban is purely a political parting shot from the W-admin. If it was that important to W, he would have lifted the ban in 2001, and dealt with public discussion and debate.

"Nearly everywhere" is the key phrase. There are a LOT of things that you can do "nearly everywhere" that just don't work so good in the NP's. This drives some folks nuts, and they avoid the NP's because they don't like the crowds and they don't like being told what to do. I get it. So let me re-phrase my question(s): what are the arguements FOR allowing conceal-carry in the NP's? It occurs to me that this has more to do with the NRA flexing its political muscles and a lame-duck administration trying to get it's two cents in before being shown the door, and less to do with any meaningful gun-owner rights. By the way, I'm a resident of Wisconsin, so I have no direct experience with conceal-carry.

By the way, Criminal, listening to that Sonny Boy Williamson vid clip done this Chicago boy a world of good. Real music indeed!

Please understand, I am neither a gun control advocate nor am I a gun owner. I am a citizen who enjoys the parks, and not sure (more) guns in the National Parks = good thing. Can someone offer a coherent arguement why the change in policy is necessary? NPS is not just any old federal public land (USFS, BLM.) Do we really have a problem with wildlife attacking people in the National Parks-- specifically, do we have a problem that would be resolved with a firearm? By arming visitors, are we encouraging them to blunder into encounters that are best managed by avoidance? Do we really have a problem with the criminal element attacking visitors? Again, is this a problem that can be resolved by arming visitors? My back country experiences in the NP's is that very few folks, including criminals, are back there. Criminals generally focus on public spaces with concentrations of people and stuff. That means armed encounters in parking lots and campgrounds. Is this what we want? Is this something that can be better managed by larger numbers of rangers patrolling parking lots and campgrounds? Finally, how meaningful is allowing extending state conceal carry regs to the NP's when the vast majority of the visitors are from out-of-state and may not have conceal/carry priveleges?

Not to be a scold, but you may want to keep the geocaches to a minimum during the drive. It is a LONG drive and stopping every ten miles will make the drive REAL LONG. Fun for you (maybe), but the kids will rebel somewhere between Joliet and Bloomington. I assume you will stop somewhere along the way for the night (assuming somewhere like Joplin or Tulsa) -- dial in an hour after breakfast to satisfy your caching urges. Since visiting family, keep the caching in TX to a similarly tight schedule so you maximize time with them. This just is wisdom learned the hard way. My experiences driving to and from St. Louis and Hot Springs earlier this year was that cache pickins were mighty slim in most of Illinois and Missouri once you get away from the cities. Get familiar with your route through St Louis -- one of the main interstates has been entirely demolished (it is being re-built, but ZERO lanes were open in either direction).

OK, I'm a moron! The trouble isn't running into intact fences. It is with old abandoned fences where the wire is on the ground and hidden in brush or in snow. Always amusing are the trees that grow up around and engulf barbed wire. And then there are the occasional bundles of barbed wire that are rolled up and forgotten. A lot of our suburban parks are alongside old dairy farms and railroad ROW that have these old fences. Kind of agree -- if you tangle with that nonsense, pretty sure you won't be thinking about which pocket your multi-tool is in. The only thing that I have found the wire-cutters on the Leatherman useful for is dis-arming nuclear bombs (remember, always cut the red wire first!)

I have to admit it...I cache for the numbers. It is the prime motivator to find the next hide. That said, I have always been delighted on the places that I have discovered and the people I have met along the way. Not really too concerned about "cheaters". They are only ruining it for themselves is how I look at. Besides, I suppose there are folks that would not like some of my logging. 1. I have logged temp caches from events, 2. Bonus caches where permitted by CO, 3. Waypoints for multi's where permitted by CO, 4. Archived caches left in place (got coords before hide was archived). 5. Premium cache finds where cache was upgraded to premium and I just have a basic subscription, where allowed by CO 6. Caches where the log/cache was not recoverable (frozen, fallen into hazardous location) 7. Muggled cache where allowed by the CO (I was out of town). If the cache owner ever has a problem (no problems yet), then I would like to think that things can worked out. If that means the log gets deleted and I have to come back, then so be it. If you are not the CO, it really is none of your biz. Of my 1400+ finds, the vast majority were found and logged by the book, but if my numbers bother you, maybe you need to ask yourself why they bother you. . I would hate to see this all become a deal where you get dis'd if you have the wrong motivation, or don't have enough of the "right kind" of finds. There are days when an LPC or a big old ammo box under a pile of sticks is just what the doctor ordered!

My suggestion is to send the cache owner an e-mail. Explain the situation. There are maybe a dozen caches that I have found but didn't sign. Why? 1. Wet log 2. No pencil or pen (it happens) 3. Container won't open/log cannot be extracted from container (unless cache page specifically says "bring tools".) I cxan think of a recent cache where the log was in pvc pipe and the threads had gotten crossed up -- I suppose I could have trashed the container trying to get at the log, but I thought better of it. 4. Cache frozen in block of ice. 5. Container fallen in truly unaccessable/unsafe location. Cache placed up a tree or in a cave wouldn't count, but a cache hung from a string that broke could. In all these cases, the cache was found in good faith. It just is that the log can't be signed. I usually don't carry a camera; the local cache owners are usually just fine if you explain the situation; describe what you saw. They do have the prerogative to delete your log, but it has not happened to me once. The CO's are usually happy to know if there is an issue, so that they can do maintenance, temporarily disable, or archive the hide. In defense of the "Puritans", there are parts of the country where I have heard that the situation has been abused. I have read in the forums complaints from folks who think they have an FTF (empty log) only to go online and see multiple "Found It!" logs. I don't see this much in my neck of the woods (SE Wisconsin), which might explain why the CO's around here are so darn nice!

Keying coords by hand does in a pinch, but better to automate. You can download site by site, or you can search for all caches within a radius of a given location. Check on the caches that seem interesting and download to your computer. I would recommend Easy GPS for loading .loc and .gpx files to your unit. Links to Easy GPS are in the "Getting Started" section of geocaching.com. Right now, your priority needs to be finding your first cache! Pick a few nice regular-sized caches nearby which have a difficulty/terrain rating no higher than say 2/2. This will probably be something like a metal ammo box or plastic food container hidden in a hollow log. Still having a good time? If so, you are probably hooked and nothing will do but to find another, and another, and another... You don't need premium membership to do this. Premium membership will allow you to do pocket queries and searches along a route. Not necessary now though, since just trying to get caches located nearby. For now, stay away from GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). It is a very powerful and useful program, but not necessarily the most user friendly. Do try it and see what you think.

Wow! That is neither New Age nor BS. My brother in law has recently become something of a gun nut and loves to share the "Armed Citizen" stuff from the NRA mag. For those not familiar, this column chronicles dozens of episodes each month of ordinary citizens blowing away or otherwise backing off bad guys with heat that they are legally packing. They love the stories of 90 year-old grannies holding off a couple of young punks with a pearl-handled 38 until the local cops came to make the arrest. I have no doubt that these stories are true. Read enough of these, and someone like me, who does not own a firearm (and probably never will) feels a little foolish. But I keep suspecting that the folks who get themselves in the fix of having to defend themselves with a firearm perhaps may be subconsciously putting themselves at a higher chance of being in a situation where you would need to defend yourself. I grew up on the south side of Chicago and went to a high school in a rough part of town. You develop a spidey sense -- you become very aware of your surroundings -- you pay attention which side of the street you need to be on -- you carry yourself appropriately. This all becomes second-nature. I suspect that if I was packing heat I would have been more likely to have gotten into a confrontation where guns would have come out, maybe used. I suspect there are more than a few folks who own and carry guns who figure that they can check their street-smarts at the door. They then are more likely to boldly blunder themselves into tough spots. My advice: unless you are hunting or target shooting, leave the GD guns at home. Don't go by yourself. Check with locals if going into terra incognito: they will know where you are at risk from wild beasts and unpleasant people, and then skip those places. Know the REAL risks of being in wilderness and prepare for those. Don't even think about conceal-carry until you have been trained in how to use the gun that you own AND have training in armed self-defense. Lastly and most important, GET OUT AND ENJOY WILD PLACES. Most of the wild places around can be survived and enjoyed by even the most ignorant and incompetent. If you doubt this, google Theodore Roosevelt and check out his get-up when he first arrived in the Dakota's to try his hand at ranching and "become a man." He was scrawny, asthmatic, sporting coke-bottle glasses and dressed in garb more appropriate to the Opry than the Dakota Badlands. Yes, he came armed, but with a couple of the same pearl-handled 38's that the 90 year-old granny used to hold off the punks in the Bronx. I fear that the saddest part of this whole string is that the OP still has not gotten out into the wild and is logging nothing but LPC's.

The original eTrex Legend is an outdstanding unit -- while my signal does get weak in the woods, I usually still can navigate. Fresh batteries help. If you learn nothing else from using a unit like the Legend, it is that it is critical to use all of your senses when approaching the GZ. It helps to have an intuitive sense of direction (or carry a compass) to make your route more efficient. Even the best units are only so accurate -- and who knows what sort of unit the cache owner was using! I find it pretty unusual to find the cache right where the unit zero's out.

We have used our Coleman 14'x14' Family Dome Tent for about 10 years and have been satisfied. The tent is really a 8'x8' with two 5'x8' sides that pull out. There are curtains that separate the pull-outs from the main dome, creating up to 3 rooms. 14x14 Family Tent

Oh yeah -- start on regular sized caches that have difficulty and terrain (D/T) ratings of 1 or 2 stars. You will have plenty of time to work on micro's, multi's, and hides requiring special equipment. Promise this is the last thing -- check out your local geocaching group -- mine (Wisconsin Geocaching Association) has clinics all the time for folks just starting out.

Yup -- just follow the arrow.BUT, don't spend all your time staring at the arrow and watching the numbers get small. First, it's dangerous, you could trip over something (like that dang ammo box I stubbed my toe on -- who is leaving this junk in woods anyway?) Second, you miss a big point of geocaching which is getting in tune with the spirit of the place (genius loci) you are visiting. Third, the gps only gets you close -- you have to use your own sesnses to make the find. There have been a couple of caches that I have found by zero'ing out whilst standing atop, but most of the time, you will have to be observant. Most geocachers have had the experience of walking in ever widening circles near ground zero, following the arrow as the distance slowly decreases then flips around. To combat this maneuver, I have learned to start aquiring my target area about 100 yds out. I start guessing: which tree, which side of the trail/creek. As you close in, keep updating your target list -- places that look likely for hides. Try to get a sense of direction. If I am on a trail, is it running north to south? How about that creek I crossed. Is the sun out, where are the shadows being cast? Once you are 10-15 yds away, focus on investigating the area with eyes and hands. Look up, look down, look behind things. If things are looking bad, walk away maybe 10 yds away, and see if gps is still pointing where you are looking. Don't move around too quickly -- let the numbers settle. Overhead cover -- trees, rocks, buildings -- will do a number on your accuracy, so try zeroing in from different spots, especially where you get better reception. Batteries running on empty can cause things to get flaky.

Not an atheist but definitely a lapsed Catholic. I was waiting for somebody to start this thread after finding the Mason thread and encountering Christians who use caching to prosyletize. Nature is the finest church for me. Being outdoors in all weather and conditions teaches humility (which ought to be the only message of any honest religion.)