Hunting Season!

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Hunting Season is upon us, Bird Season is in full swing with Deer Season starting the first weekend of November.  Here are a few safety tips I’ve found around the internet (links to those better articles below):

  • Know the Season: It’s important to know what season it is and what is being hunted, for Texas here is a link that can help you find out what it is currently open season for: Texas Seasons
  • Avoid Hunting Areas: Know where hunting locations are, like you should always do while geocaching avoid private property.
  • Wear the right colors: Hunters wear “Blaze orange”, this time of year you can purchase Blaze Orange clothing at many locations such as Academy.  Wearing a shirt, vest, or even a hat will help Hunters see that your a human, not a deer.  Avoid wearing Tan, Brown, Antler hats, etc…
  • Make Distinguishing Noises: Make plenty of noises only humans make, not noises animals Hunters may be hunting make.  For instance I have a habit of whistling like a Bobwhite Quail, don’t do that.
  • Protect your Geopup: Those Blaze Orange vests you can get for you, you can get them for your dogs as well.  Any time your out hiking or Geocaching in the woods, it’s always helpful for your dog to wear distinguishing colors.  Some animals are in season year round such as Wild Hogs, so dogs being able to be seen is ALWAYS a good idea.  Also if they are anything like my old Basset Hound, if they catch a scent and wonder off that orange is much easier to find.
  • Know when Hunters Hunt: Most hunting takes place in the early morning or late evening, there are hunters out in the middle of the day but far fewer than are out just after sun rise and just before sun set.  Those times are when the animals are most active, but it’s also when visibility is not at it’s highest.

Hunters Education courses are available online or in person that hunters must take before they can legally hunt in Texas.  These courses are full of great information for both hunters and non-hunters alike.  Many of these courses you don’t have to pay for until the end of the course to get the needed hunting certificate, so you can go through the whole class for free!  I recently took the one here: Texas Hunter Ed

Protect yourself and you’ll have a better hunting season (Hunting season for geocaches is of course year round)

Letterboxing (and caching) Safely during Hunting Season – Podcacher Podcast

Hiking During Hunting Season, How to Stay Safe – USA Today

Hiking Tips During Hunting Season – Trails.com

Hey look, there’s stuff here again

For a number of years all of my free time had been taken up with other Geocaching sites and organizations.  I’m now back where I can work on things specifically to West Texas, therefore look, the site is back up!

A new newsletter went out yesterday, with Monthly ones on the way again (and can now be read from the newsletter tab on the site).  The events calendar is showing West Texas Events again and I will keep it up to date along with the larger “nearby” (in Texas or at least somewhat close to Texas events) like TXGA’s Texas Challenge in March.

If you have ideas for the site and things we really need to have on here please let me know!

Happy caching!

  • SKnight579 (Travis Gilbert)

WTXGA Newsletter in the works

Starting this evening I’m going to be putting out a monthly newsletter at the beginning of each month with information about geocaching in West Texas and some snippets from all over the State. If you would like to have these click here: http://wtxga.net/portal/?page_id=119 to sign up!

Update 23:00: the first newsletter has gone out! There are a few small mess ups I didn’t know WordPress would do on the mass mailing but hopefully they will be smoothed out in future newsletters. If you have not gotten it, sign up and I will be reseeding it to new users nightly!

Site Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates on the website, things have been alittle busy lately so trying to get caught back up on what I’m supposed to be doing.

I have updated the events now, and I intend to keep these updated.  I’ve set myself up notifications in each of the main cities to try and cache all new event caches.  I also built the link back, log sheets, and cito pages, all of which I will be updating when I get all of my ducks in a row.

New Site!

Welcome to the new WTXGA website!

It is still a work in progress so be patient with me.  If you have any ideas for the site please let me know!

Thanks,

Travis Gilbert (SKnight579)