In this exciting issue of the newsletter you will find a cache highlight, CITO, Cacher Profile and much more. It has been a busy few weeks, but we always seem to find time for a cache or two. Check out the events section and head out to an event. They are great fun and you get to meet some of the strangest people in the world. Okay, not all of us are strange, but come on, we run out at all hours of the day and night to be the first to find a film canister. That is pretty strange to “normal” people.

Again we have lots of milestones being reached over the past three weeks. The NVG, LyleVB, Tweety & Mickey, and Iowa Copper all hit the 1000 find mark. Some cachers like IowaBeaver and Tweety & Mickey hit two milestones during the past few weeks. Congrats to all who have hit a milestone.

I wanted to throw in a little editorial this week. I was in Omaha last week and did 25 or so caches. Most were micros or small caches along bike trails. The caches were in the normal places for caches (under bike bridges and stuck with magnets to signs), but seemed less creative than most of those you find in most Iowa areas. While it was nice to get 25 finds in about 3 hours of caching, it was not nearly as fun as finding a cache camouflaged to look like a tree stump or a slug. Thanks to all of you who work so hard at creating interesting caches to find.

And finally (as always) profiles, highlights, funny stories , yada, yada, yada… Send them to “newsletter at iowageocachers.org”. I only have one profile left, so I need some more if we want to keep this newsletter running. There are 550 members and only 15 have completed a profile (Guilt, Guilt).

Whodunnit (GCZ0PF)

Did you like to play clue as a kid? Or maybe you still like to play clue. Well in the Des Moines area, there is a cache series centered on playing clue. It was placed by The NVG and the final cache is called "Whodunnit?". It is a very fun puzzle cache.

To find the final cache, you must find nine mystery caches (in any order). Each of these well hidden caches contains Clue game pieces. You check off those pieces until you figure out who did it, where it was done and what was used to do it. These will help you find the coordinates for the final cache. That is when the fun begins. It is a very well hidden final cache and a great series by The NVG. It took me three trips to find the final.

So the next time you are in the Des Moines area and have a day for caching, play a game of Clue and find out "Whodunnit?".

GC.Com Username: WildernessMama

Number of Finds/Hides: 429/0, although I'm working on a few to hide.

Occupation? Free-lance writer and full time minister's wife

How you got your username? My son gave it to me when I first signed up for my e-mail account. Wilderness Papa and I are wilderness enthusiasts who enjoy hiking, canoeing, and kayaking so geocaching fits right in with our outdoor activities. We gravitate to the Minnesota Boundary Waters and Lake Superior whenever we get the chance and are looking forward to retiring up there in about 5 years.

How long have you been caching and how did you get started? I am fairly new to this sport. Although we had owned a GPS for about 3 years, we had never learned how to use it until taking a short class last November. When I discovered the geocaching.com website, my new hobby took off, and I've been taking every opportunity to go search for each "treasure". I guess 259 in 3 months isn't too bad!

Favorite cache/why? I like traditional caches and those with a little challenge. I particularly like the ones where you have to find dates or count names on historical monuments, etc. I love learning about the history of an area or other special facts about the place where the cache is hidden. I particularly like the ones in the forests especially those hidden in unique tree trunks.

Least Favorite/why? I'm not a high tech person and get easily frustrated with some of those that require a doctoral degree to decipher. I also have problems with those that are placed out of reach. My "vertically challenged" stature puts limits on my ability to retrieve some of the caches, and I've been known to get them down and not be able to replace them properly. While I prefer the caches in rural areas to those in the cities, the urban caches are great for quick finds or in cold and snowy weather.

Current caching goals? I guess my main goal is to just keep having fun with this hobby. I'm also looking forward to meeting some other geocachers, putting faces to the names that have become familiar in the last few months.

Why I Like Geocaching: First of all, it's great exercise. Sometimes we walk as much as 5-8 miles in on our geocaching trips. It's also something that my hubby and I can enjoy together. It's fun to discover so many places I never knew existed. It also gives me something to do in an unfamiliar area when my husband has an out-of-town meeting or when we're visiting friends or family in another community. And I guess I just enjoy tallying all those finds!

Okay, Batman fans, riddle me this: CITO is: a) the nickname of major league baseball outfielder and manager Clarence Edwin Gaston, b) the initials of the British trade group, Caravan Industry Training Organization, which promotes training and support for trailer campgrounds in the UK, c) a national institute for educational measurement based in the Netherlands, or d) the acronym for “Cache In, Trash Out,” an activity sponsored by environmentally conscious geocachers worldwide?

Well, actually, “all of the above” is the correct answer. Those interesting (?) items were returned by my Google search, but we’re only going to focus on one today, the last item.

Put simply, CITO is picking up litter, debris and other junk that shouldn’t be where it is, packing it up in bags and boxes, and then disposing of it responsibly. To me, it’s a way to help keep the woods we hike and cache in looking like nature, instead of like “civilization.” There’s something special to me about entering the woods on a slightly cool and crisp morning when dew still lingers on the leaves, and the sun’s rays cut through the canopy of the forest. As I walk along, I love the feeling that maybe I’m going somewhere where no one’s been before, some place wild, and then maybe discovering something only known thus far to the birds and deer and other forest inhabitants. Not always, but sometimes, my bubble is burst by seeing a crushed beer can or some wastepaper carelessly strewn, defacing the natural beauty of my temporary refuge. And, when a little trash is left lying there, it seems like others think it is okay to leave more. CITO to the rescue!

April is the popular month for these events, which are part clean-up, part event-cache, part social event and a way for us forest and park lurkers to interface with non-geocachers in a way that shows all that cachers care about preserving and even improving the public areas we use for hiding and finding geocaches. This year, the International CITO Day was April 14th, and it was sponsored by Groundspeak and Jeep. CITO days were held this April in many states, as well as in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, New Zealand, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Historically, the first Cache In, Trash Out days were held in 2003 with nearly 1,200 people participating in 28 states in the U.S. and in five countries. And, CITO can really be an official or non-official as you wish. It can be something that you and your companions do once or twice a year when out caching; it can be an organized group activity with work details, food and prizes; or it can be something that you do all the time, because you enjoy leaving places better than they were when you entered them.

In Iowa, four different events were scheduled for April. One in Cedar Rapids focused on cleaning up an area just off I-380. Another in Brushy Creek State Park near Fort Dodge included not just regular CITO, but something called “equestrian CITO!” I think you would need long arms to reach the ground for that one! Still another event focused its efforts on picking up along the Floyd River in partnership with the Le Mars Parks District with quite a schedule of events – some Geocaching 101, some CITO, a caching Poker Run, and, of course, a potluck! Fort Madison’s Rodeo Park was the site of another event with some CITO, temp caching and food.

So, what’s really important is not so much how you do it, but rather that you do do it. Information is available online on how to organize and hold a CITO event. All of us are familiar with www.geocaching.com, but have you ever seen www.cacheintrashout.org? This is the website that has all you need to know about organizing a successful event. I drew some of the factual info for this article from that site, but only touched the surface of what is available. Good caching in 2007!