President

Emily Accipiter Stewart, eaccipi 

Emily first joined the GeocacheAlaska! Board as a member-at-large, later serving as Vice-President. She chairs the Membership and KMTA Geotrail committees. You can reach her at eaccipi.

 

Vice President

Wes Skinner, NorthWes

Previously serving 10 years as President, Wes is now Vice-President, with a focus on leading the advocacy, education, and nominations committees. You can reach him at NorthWes.

 

Treasurer

Lisa Williams, wocm

Lisa is a new Board member this year, and we are so excited to have her! Lisa is also the Fundraising committee Chair. You can reach her at wocm.

 

Secretary

Sarah Pace, RSPace

Sarah continues to keep us organized and is responsible for the GeocacheAlaska! Newsletter. She also chairs the recently revived CACHE committee, which recognizes our members and their accomplishments. You can reach her at RSPace .

 

Webmaster

Scott Aleckson, SSO.JOAT

Scott continues to serve as webmaster, working on new projects for updating our website, membership management,  and newsletter process. He is also chair of the Communications committee. You can reach him at SSO JOAT

 

Member At Large

Bill VanCouwenberghe, AlaskaVans

Bill is serving his second term as a Member At Large. You can reach him at  AlaskaVans.

 

Member At Large

Blake Stewart, JackCat14

Blake is serving his second term as a Member At Large. You can reach him at  JackCat14.

 

Member At Large

Trish Fredieu, AKLoisAndClark

Trish is returning to our board as a Member At Large. She chairs the events committee. You can reach her at AKLoisAndClark.

 

Member At Large

Susan Bartel, getatm

Newly elected, Susan is joining our board as a Member At Large. You can reach her at getatm.

 

Committees

Got ideas, but no time to join the board? We would love to invite our members to join the committees of GeocacheAlaska! And make your voices heard! Below are the committees for GeocacheAlaska! And their general purpose. Please reach out to the committee chairs to get involved.

• Advocacy Committee – handles blanket permits and works to improve outdoor access
• Education Committee – supporting geocaching and outdoor education with the youth
• Events Committee – Plans engaging and educational events for the geocaching community
• Fundraising Committee – Finds creative ways to fund our organization
• Communications Committee – Monthly Newsletter and Social Media
• KMTA GeoTrail Committee – supports our GeoTrail on the Kenai Peninsula
• Membership Committee – grow our membership and find what adds value
• Nominations Committee – prepares for the annual election
• CACHE Committee – recognizing our members and their accomplishments

Upcoming Events

May 2 – GCB39FR A Toast to Davidaknz! Event Cache (Juneau)

The GeocacheAlaska! events committee had a fantastic meeting this past week, filled with amazing event ideas! Look for lots new events publishing soon, and get ready for a very busy summer Event Cache season!

 

Upcoming Souvenirs:

Cache In Trash Out, Season 1: March 1–May 31
       (Log a CITO event to qualify)

Geocache in your Pajamas Day: April 16
      (log any geocache or event to qualify. Don’t forget to wear your bunny slippers!)

Blue Switch Day: May 2
      (“Finder” Souvenir: Log any geocache, event, or adventure lab stop to qualify)

      (“Hider” Souvenir: Hide any non-event geocache, having it published between May 1 and May 31 to qualify)

 

By Emily Accipiter Stewart (eaccipi)

 

April is just around the corner as I belatedly write this for our GeocacheAlaska! Members; I hope you’ll forgive me for the delayed timeline – sometimes life gets really busy and it’s hard to do everything that needs to be done.

It’s also hard to find time to fit the things we love in our lives together when time is limited and the to-do’s are piling up. So, I’ve been trying to work on ways to combine things that need to get done with the things I want to do.

 

For example, the weather has been so nice and sunny, and I’ve been wanting to spend more time outside. When a co-worker asked me if we could meet to go over some of the details about an event we had coming up, I asked if we could take the meeting on a walk. Since we didn’t need laptops, we just brought our phones and made notes as we talked, doing a 30 minute lap on the trails around our office. We got 2 miles under our feet, fresh air, and finalized the plan for the event. Three birds, one stone!

 

We’ve now started making daily walks a part of our workflow. But, I feel like I’d been neglecting geocaching, which I wanted to do – especially with the new Treasures released! Looking at my geocaching.com map, I noticed the route we’d been taking had 5 caches along the route, and there were another half-dozen if we made slight modifications. So, on one of our walks this week I asked the group (which has now grown to 4!) if they would mind if we stopped and found one geocache on our walks each day. They were game to see what it is I’m always talking about, and helped me make the find – a multi-cache I had attempted alone previously during a snowy winter and had never gone back for. With their help, I was able to find the cache, introduce my favourite activity to them, and add a smiley to the map.

 

As I write this, I find myself in Los Angeles for work. I’m not too far from the airport, but I’m seeing a fair amount of caches that I could make a 15 minute or less walk to go get (which is my plan, after I finish this off and get it to our Newsletter Editor!). I’m excited because it’s the perfect way for me to explore when I’m on a work trip and get out of a hotel or conference space.

 

I know there’s not an easy way to add geocaching to every activity in a busy life – sometimes there is only an opportunity to do the priority task and move on, but if you’ve been in a bit of a busy season, I hope you take the time to take a deep breath and find a chance to do something for yourself. It can be geocaching, taking a walk, finding 10 minutes a night to make progress on a book, or even one DuoLingo lesson a day (hey, those international geocaches don’t always have an english translation!) – Take the time for you!

 

Let’s cross our fingers for a beautiful Spring that gets us all outside! I know the Events Committee has some great ideas in the works – I hope to see you out there!

 

See you on the trails,

Emily Accipiter Stewart
President, GeocacheAlaska!

eaccipi

By Louise Kempker (freeweez)

 

Eklutna-based State Park Rangers will be enforcing the full set of guidelines outlined in GCAK’s park user permit, having recently reported finding caches that are in violation of the permit and are not being maintained annually.

If you will be caching along the Eklutna Trail this year, and discovering all those smileys along the power trail —-we kindly ask your assistance! When you sign the log on each Eklutna Cache, please write that the cache has been inspected and is in compliance with the Alaska State Park Geocaching Permit! Sometimes the Cache Owners aren’t able to get to Eklutna each year to make a note on the physical cache log….so if you would help out…it will be most appreciated!

If you have questions, please contact any of the GCAK board members.
Thank you.

 

By Sarah Pace (RSPace)

We’re incredibly lucky as Alaskans to have the Alaska State Park system as part of our game board. Over 120 separate park units and a total of almost 3.5 million acres gives us the biggest state park playground in the US! We even have State Park units that are bigger than whole states! As Geocachers, we have an obligation to help protect our parks by being responsible owners, hiders, and finders of the geocaches hidden on State Park lands. GeocacheAlaska! will be talking a lot this summer about how we can do this!

 

If you own a geocache, or if you’re considering hiding a new geocache within the boundaries of the Alaska State Parks system, be sure to read the full set of guidelines outlined in our park user permit. Alaska State Park Rangers have recently reported finding caches that are in violation of the permit, and we want to be the best parks users that we can be! Remember, these are the rules that you’re agreeing to as a cache owner:: https://gcak.org/documents/2021_AK_State_Park_Permit_GCAK.pdf

 

Responsibilities for individual cache owners and (cache finders) include:

1. Standard caches must be at least 10 feet away from any trail, road, structure, or sign. Caches must be at least 100 feet from any public use cabin.
2. Caches must be bear proof/resistant and may NOT contain any food, edible items, or items with an odor. Remember: never use food or candy as swag!
3. Cache may not contain any profanity, offensive material, or anything that would otherwise be inappropriate for young children. This includes swag!
4. Caches must have a waterproof log and container.
5. All caches must be marked in permanent marker Alaska State Parks Permit/Geocache AK.
6. Cache must be placed in a durable, sealable, watertight, non-biodegradable container that is not bigger than a standard 50 caliber ammo can, in a color that blends in with its surroundings. The cache must be kept clean, dry, and serviceable.
7. The cache should not hinder, deter, or affect the park aesthetics to the visiting public.
8. No natural resources are to be damaged or disturbed in hiding the cache. No live vegetation is to be cut or disturbed.
9. Caches cannot be placed in any location that could damage, disturb, or otherwise impact a historic site, building, or artifact. No caches can be placed in areas that are intentionally fenced, signed, or otherwise marked has hazardous or closed to the public.
10. The cache owner shall visit the cache annually (yes, annually), to ensure that the cache is in compliance with permit regulations, signing the log to indicate that it’s been inspected.
11. State Parks staff (as well as the GeocacheAlaska! Board of Directors) may, without notice, remove any cache that is in violation of our permit regulations. Several wet caches and caches containing food or garbage have already been removed.