From the UTAG Committee to all our fellow cachers we wish you a Happy Holiday season. This is the second bi-monthly newsletter and the last for the 2004 year. It has been another great couple of months with many things happening around the state.
On October 30th several UTAG members hosted a Geo-gadget event at the Salt Lake City library. LagoonFreek, Larobley, and Mazellan_trailblazer demonstrated how to use various software programs to help you cache more efficiently. They discussed GPX Sonar for the Pocket PC, CacheMate for the PalmPilot, and the GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) software for your Personal Computer. Over 20 geocachers attended and everyone came away having learned something new.
At the same time, VeltKamp Brats held an event just outside of St George. Another 40 geocachers attended there and enjoyed good food and good conversation. Events are a great way to meet new and old geocachers alike. There always seems to be someone there who has never come to an event before.
There are currently several other events scheduled around the state as well. You can always see upcoming events by going to the Utah state page on Geocaching.com: http://www.geocaching.com/local/default.aspx?state_id=45 . There has been some discussion that members felt that any locally hosted events had to be a big production along the lines of the semi-annual events hosted by UTAG. This really isn’t the case. A successful event is one where any cachers get together even for a few minutes to enjoy each others company. Success isn’t measured by the number of attendees. Several of the CITO events sponsored this last year each had only a few cachers, but still made a difference, and those who came all enjoyed the time at the event.
One thing that is helpful is to remember to plan far enough ahead so geocachers can arrange their schedules to attend. Since Utah is such a big state, we hope other UTAG members will feel they can host local events as they feel inclined throughout the year. If you have any questions, or concerns, feel free to start a topic in our Forums or email a member of the UTAG Committee. We have also set up a UTAG login (UTAG #1) on Geocaching.com. If anyone would like the UTAG #1 user to host an event for them just send an email to geocommittee@utahgeocachers.com.
The Cache valley geocachers just completed a successful event with Sub-for-Santa donations going to the wives of our service men. If you’d like to read all the comments of those who attended go to this link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=154ae44e-84a2-4d0b-a1ea-79cb86840eba
There is at least one more Sub-for-Santa event that will happen in Utah Valley again this year. Although currently all the requested items have been spoken for, you can still come to the breakfast on Dec 18th at the Springville IHOP. Anyone who didn’t get a chance to sign up for one of the gifts can bring non-perishable food items. We’ll drop them off at the Provo Food Bank after the event. For more details see this link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=38cf639f-0566-4234-a29e-e3fcd719ce6c
Last, but not least, the 3rd Annual Farmington Flats Snow Shoeing XC Skiing event has been scheduled by AimHigh. Those who went last year enjoyed a beautiful day above the haze and inversion and had a great time snow shoeing/skiing before being treated to great homemade soup at Utah Jean’s house. If you love to cross country ski or snowshoe, or if you’ve always wanted to try either, this is a good event to attend. Again for details go to this url: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7f015e9f-f6bc-46b8-9094-3d82f892a621
As we close this year and look back, we also want to note the passing of two of our friends and Utah geocachers. Geo*guy (Gary Guest) passed away in mid August of this year. A&N Carlson (Arnold Carlson) passed away on Nov 23rd. Both of them will be missed by those who knew them. A tribute event has been set up this Saturday to go to one of A& N Carlson’s caches. Anyone interested in coming can see the details here: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3b210adc-5273-4683-b4e9-3f8956dd8868
At the same time we mourn with the families of those that have passed, we rejoice with LagoonFreek and his wife as they announced the arrival of their first child Timothy Edward (aka LagoonFreek Jr) on the UTAG forums: http://www.utahgeocachers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=967. The proud dad can’t wait to get his son out to his first cache.
Finally, we’d like to point everyones attention to the great UTAG Magazine with its fifth issue recently released. All of the content comes from geocachers in Utah. SirGerald does a great job of being the Editor/Designer of this magazine. Each one is filled with interesting photos and stories. If you haven’t taken time to read them, then you are really missing out. All five issues can be found from the main UTAG website page: http://www.utahgeocachers.com/ .
Once again, we’d like to thank everyone for the time, effort, and interest you put into UTAG. Hopefully, you’ll find this email informative and useful. Please let us know how we can better serve you. You can send any of us a private message from the forums, or you can send a message to the full committee at geocommittee@utahgeocachers.com.
Happy Holidays,
(JeeperDad) Jeffry J Simpson
(SirGerald) Jerry Hansen
(DeViDe) Dewayne Dean
(Scout Master) Matty Ross
(JJAC) Jody Carlson