With the spring hopefully coming sooner than later, I’d like to try and work on a few things with our site. That includes the forum, again.

Something happened on an upgrade attempt. Even though I had backed it up, something went wacky. I contacted my host and they couldn’t get the backup, either.

So we lost it all.

On one side, we didn’t lose a lot as there wasn’t a lot on there. But, we did lose everybody who registered etc.

I am going to work on tonight putting a new forum up. Hopefully it will work out well.

Registration is going to be through admin OK only. Hopefully, that will stop some of the spam that we were getting.

If you are interested in being a moderator on the forum, let me know.

Once the forum is up, I will switch the link at the forum part at the top of this page. Then people can register and hopefully we can have a semi-active forum discussing caching in our area.

If anyone wants to write something for the main page, send photos or anything like that — let me know. I can set you up an account where you can post to the blog. All I ask if you are doing that is to keep the posts clean and somewhat read-worthy. Same with the photos — keep ‘em clean.

Anything geocaching is fine, if you want to post.

Drop a comment here or contact me through geocaching.com if you are interested.

I am going to speak about this at our upcoming event, too, but wanted to put some things here. I’ll be e-mailing some regular people from the area to check things here.

I want to make this site somewhat useful, which includes the forum. I realize that it won’t be a super-busy spot, but it would be nice for people to be able to check here.

So, I’m planning on going to a full-approval process for this site. That means, all comments left on any of these blog entries will need to be fully approved before being posted.

As far as the forums (I’m in the process of upgrading), it will be a situation where anyone looking to sign up with the forum will have to be fully approved by me first, thus keeping all that spam away. Hopefully we won’t lose people that way, but my plan will be to sign in and check everything at least once a day, so if anyone does sign up or comment, it will be a quick approval.

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Also — as far as the site — we need to make it about the memebers. So, if any of you want to write an article for the front page or become a regular contributor, let me know! I’d love for others to get involved and write things for the site. It can be anything from caching adventures, or rants and raves, or about your favorite caches, how to place or even looking for advice. Anything! Just contact me!

I will post more as it comes.

I have submitted a meet-and-greet event for Dec. 5. Hopefully it will be approved soon.
I am also going to work on getting the forums back up!

For anyone stopping here and going to the forums (which aren’t highly active anyway), I have shut them down for now.

We have had issues with spam on the forums, some being explicit and posting adult photos to the site. I have deleted everything three times now, but because I am not able to do it all the time, I decided at this point to disable the forums until I can figure something out.

If nothing can be done with this software, I might have to get a different message board program or get rid of it all together.

Check back for more information later.

Our annual Hall of Fame Picnic is this Saturday and it’s coming fast! We’ve been hard at work getting everything ready for the event, so I hope to see many, many faces there.

First, we have placed 19 new caches at the park. These will NOT be published UNTIL Saturday afternoon on geocaching.com, so that means those at the event get first dibs at all the new fun. All of these caches will also be worked in with the Scavenger Hunt that the Devil Duckies — Peter and Judy — have worked on. That should be a total blast!

Including the event and the Covered Bridge cache already in the park, that leaves a total of 21 possible smileys to grab for the day.We will have sheets with the coordinates and also, hopefully, have a laptop to help people load the caches into their GPS units, so please bring your cords if you could!

We will release coordinates for the caches at 9:45 a.m. and go over the rules for the scavenger hunt in time for the 10 a.m. sendoff. There are prizes for ALL THREE games that we will be doing for the day, so be ready to go for it!

Everything starts at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Glimmerglass State Park. There is a $7 per carload entry fee for the park, but it is free if you have the Empire Passport.

The schedule is as follows:

9:30 a.m.: Start to check in, get info on new caches, grab a bingo card and information on scavenger hunt. We’ll also have some breakfast items available so you can get the belly full before going on a day of caching and hiking.

9:45 a.m.: Go over rules for scavenger hunt and other games as needed.

10 a.m.: Scavenger hunt officially starts and new caches are available to find!

10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Cache, scavenger hunt, mingle, bingo etc.

1-2 p.m.: We’ll start cooking lunch and there will be plenty of food available beyond 2 p.m. as well.

2 p.m.: All scavenger hunt items must be turned in by this time. Final bingo card must be turned in as well.

2:30 p.m.: Group photo.

2:45 p.m.: Micro toss (prizes!)

3:15 p.m.: Drawing for raffle prizes.

3:30 p.m.: Mingle, cache or whatever else. Thanks for coming!

We look forward to seeing everyone this weekend and let’s hope for good weather! Glimmerglass is an incredible park and hopefully everyone will have the opportunity to discover it.

We will hand these out as part of the package, but if you are interested in checking them out beforehand, you can see the Glimmerglass Trail Map by clicking here.

See everyone Saturday!

For those reading, the Hall of Fame Picnic 2 is getting closer and closer. I wanted to share some updates.

- We have picked out several spots for caches and are hoping to find more. The goal is still to place around 10-20 new caches for the event between Glimmerglass and Betty and Wilber Davis State Park. There are also a decent amount in Cooperstown, but remember that the event will be held Hall of Fame weekend, so it will be very busy in the village! If you are a baseball fan, however, it will be exciting!

- The special surprise for all attendees has been set and now we are just crossing our fingers that it will arrive on time. Once it arrives (hopefully before the event), it will be handed to everyone as they sign in.

- Peter of the Devil Duckies is working hard on the scavenger hunt. This will be one heck of a fun time and from all I’ve heard, it will be one where people will be able to check all the new caches in the park and play the game at the same time!

- We have picked up several sponsors who have donated some wonderful things to the event. Those include Coins and Pins, Pathtags, The Cache Shack, Rite in the Rain and Find Me the movie. I am still holding out hope others will join in and I’ve heard from some people who have said they will be donating prizes.

- If you haven’t posted what you’ll bring for the potluck lunch, please contact me or post it on the event page.

More news as the event gets closer. I hope more and more people will be signing up!

Anyone have any ideas they’d like to give for the upcoming Hall of Fame Picnic?

Or other ideas about the site and how to get the forum more active?

There are some new caches out there — go find them!

There are several of us working out details of a “Stuck in the Middle Challenge.” The challenge will include 10 caches, with a final cache. There will also be a prize to be awarded to those who successfully finish the challenge.

Stay tuned for more details as we are ironing everything out.

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Remember to put aside July 25 for the picnic! It has been posted on geocaching.com (see previous post on the site for the link), so log that will attend if you plan on coming and pass along the date to other cachers. There will be some good surprises at the event!

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Now that the weather is turning, go out and grab some of the caches in our area. There are new ones all over and old ones that might not have been found by you yet! Get out and enjoy an afternoon or two of geocaching!

We are published!

The second Hall of Fame Picnic will be held July 25 at the West Shelter at Glimmerglass State Park in Cooperstown.

For more information, keep coming back to this site as we’ll have more info as it becomes available.

Also, here’s the official geocaching.com page: GC1QWP.

Hey all,

We’ll be holding a Geocaching 101 event at Glimmerglass State Park in Cooperstown on May 2. It will run from Noon-1 p.m. and be broken up into two parts:

Noon-12:30 p.m.: Geocaching basics

12:30-1 p.m.: Geocaching in-depth, including going over the website, planning routes etc.

This is also Glimmerglass’ open house, so there is a lot of things planned for the day. You can make a day out of it. There is only one cache in the park right now, but I’m hoping to get up there and see about another one or two. I have to get up there to get some coordinates, too, for the 101 and the summer event. After that (and after I get all info), I’ll post the 101 event.

Keep an eye here, too, for more information on the open house.