Lake Michigan Circle Tour: Webcams in Milwaukee

It's been a LONG while since I've posted. Life has interfered, and there haven't been too many adventures this year. TaGeez and I did attend Midwest GeoBash, but, due to work commitments, only for the day. But I did just return from a fabulous adventure with ShelleyJean. 

Did you know there are still three active webcams in the Milwaukee area? 

I'm a huge webcam fan! Not only is it figuring out how to find them, use them, get the best photos, but it's the camaraderie when you run into another Cacher there. It's, also, the fun of waving at a camera with passersby clueless why you're acting that way!

Last week ShelleyJean and I did a 5-day circle tour of Lake Michigan - leaving from Detroit, circling the bottom of Lake Michigan, going past Chicago, and heading to the Milwaukee area. There, we lucked out to find 3 working webcams.

Outstanding in Your Field GCE8E9

Posted coordinates take you to the side entrance of a TV studio, but the camera focuses on the shopping plaza completely on the other side and across the street. Not the best of shots - just as the camera clicked (snaps a pic every 15 minutes) - the clouds came out and covered the sun. 

Southeast of Milwaukee in New Berlin

• URL http://weather.weatherbug.com/weather-camera/?cam=WITIT 
• Parking for webcam: N 043° 10.934' W 087° 57.751'
• Webcam snaps pick every 15 minutes (:00, :15, :30, and :45) and saves image for 24 hours

:) Webcam GCPHVN

This one took a little more work. I could see from prior logs that there were multiple camera angles, and most of them seemed to be smudges versus real images. The Brady Street Bridge position, though, seemed the clearest position.

Downtown Milwaukee

• Click on link http://www.lakefrontcam.com/.  If you click the link and the image is blank, don't click random buttons across the top of the webpage. Instead, try a different browser. For me, I can see the image on my iPhone but not on my PC. Another Cacher (Hi Frogmore!), had to switch from Chrome to Firefox.
• Once you click on the blue button in the bottom right corner to take control of the camera. You will have control for 1 minute (don't worry - the camera will stay in place after that 1 minute - it does not revert to its original position - unless another Cacher assumes control).
• Once you have control, a menu appears in the upper right corner, click the menu option and select Brady Street Bridge for the clearest picture.
• Parking is just South of the bridge - about 1/10th of a mile - on North Lincoln Memorial Drive N 043° 02.988' W 087° 53.480'
• Walked to N 043° 03.086' W 087° 53.367' for a clear shot!

Lessons in Modern Cartography #2 Webcam GCH51C

This is a nice little webcam in Port Washington. It's in a park with a lot of birds and scenic views, located next to a sweet downtown port town. I think, however, parking may be an issue during prime tourist season - you may have to park and walk. The hardest part here was determining which direction the camera faced!

Port Washington - North of Milwaukee

• Click the URL http://24.106.61.2:8081/view/viewer_index.shtml?id=349 
• Stand at N 043° 23.233' W 087° 52.056'
• Camera changes position every 15 seconds, so we had about a minute between attempts

43!

So far we've been lucky enough to claim 43 webcam finds! Sadly, though, almost half of them have been archived. A quick pocket query shows there are only 46 remaining active ones in the US for us to find. 

Cacher Frogmore told me about one around a weekend trip away in Kentucky: 

"If you ever find yourself near Evansville IN/Owensboro KY, check it out (GCA4C4). It is in a library that uses the cameras to check for paranormal activity--specifically, the ghost of THE GREY LADY (all caps to make sure you read that in your mind in a frightful voice). The staff enjoys relaying the stories and legends and we ate it right up. Really fun stuff."

How can we say NO to that? I'm trying to convince TaGeez that would be a perfect Halloween getaway!