Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
In chronological order

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September 2001

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD3-0268 Terra Server Image from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N41.2864° W088.256° Date Found: 9/1/2001 Hunters: Kelly, Drew and Sam

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A new dashpoint. Drive down to Coal City with the boys and drive up to a house near the DQ. Can we get some more interesting dashpoints? Please?

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I&M Canal Cache by grampa N 41° 42.476 W 087° 55.464 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/1/2001 Hunters: Kelly, Drew and Sam

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

After a morning drive to a yawn of a dashpoint, I thought I'd give Sherry some more college time by finding a pretty good Geocache. There are two paths that straddle the old I&M Canal at this location (which is darn close to Schoolhouse, Atomic Age and Fossilized Cache). As with many before us, we took the wrong path, had to backtrack and find it again. Not a bad little hike though, seeing as it's paved 90% of the way. A lot of fun for all of us, and Drew learned a little something about canals. Also, this is another one of grampa's ingenious PVC caches. Where this is hidden, some archeologist is going to find it 500 years from now.

for the last 100 yards

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Hobo's Hideaway by ibnekid and crunch (Cache Archived)
Difficulty: Terrain:
Date Found: 9/8/2001
Hunters: Kelly, Drew and Sam

Another chance for Sherry to work on college. The boys and I headed out late in the afternoon to the Oswego area cache, not too far from our house. I really wanted Sherry to come along, but such is life. Easy find and Drew and Sam had a GREAT time playing on a little mound of dirt in the path near the cache.

for the last 100 yards

The Boys on the Hunt

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A Trip to Peoria
Kelly Travels to Peoria on Business, and takes his GPS with him

GD3-0287 Terra Server Image from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N41.3405° W089.5939° Date Found: 9/19/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

While driving over and down to Peoria for business I decided to forego the usual I-55 to I-74 route in lieu of hitting a dashpoint in the western area of the state. Full report is available at the link above, but suffice it to say I think I've found a new way to get to Peoria.

Pimiteoui's Challenge by rcharlier N 40° 43.517 W 089° 33.293 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/19/2001 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A cache after my own heart! So similar to Hard as Pi, but with a historical background to it. I lived in Peoria for two years and never knew about most of the history - and also had never been to Pimiteoui Point. How gorgeous! Unfortunately, I found all but two of the points, and wasn't sure of the one in the War Memorial Cemetary, so I couldn't finish this cache on this trip. Maybe next year.

It Lays/Plays in Peoria #2 by rcharlier N 40° 45.162 W 089° 34.140 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/20/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Another great Peoria Cache! Starts off at Pimiteoui Point from the Pimiteoui's Challenge, so it was nice to visit it again. The hills were so "up and down" though that I'd suggest hiking boots and an extra oxygen tank. It was rather humid that day, so I was REALLY sweating by the time I got back for dinner at my meeting. Hope no one was offended by sitting next to me. ;-)

At Pimiteoui Point

Cache by the Lake by rcharlier N 40° 42.367 W 089° 16.725 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/21/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

These Peoria area caches are pretty easy, I must say. I quick trip along Route 24 and I was in downtown Eureka, heading for the Cache by the Lake. I was treating this almost as a Cache Frenzy, allowing myself precious little time for analysis, or even looking at the scenery, but it was still a good hunt. Just a little bit of bushwacking to keep it lively.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD3-0286 Terra Server Image from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N40.6217° W089.2811° Date Found: 9/21/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

A John Deere Tractor Parking Lot. Although the abandoned Stucky's nearby did offer some insight to Americana.

A Walk Around the Lake by mdowd N 40° 38.740 W 088° 55.775 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/21/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Again, an area that I spent a great deal of time near (ISU for four years) and still never been out to Lake Bloomington. This is a great cache location, even if it was a little too predictable. Made it kind of nice for finding under time pressure however. Did see one of the neatest "curly trunked" trees I had ever seen. Man, was that HUGE!

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD3-0267 Terra Server Image from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N40.6577° W088.4926° Date Found: 9/21/2001 Hunter: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Drove 80+ mph just to get there and say I was finished. Take a look at the boring pictures - and I created a pseudo topo-map for the occasion.

End of Trip to Peoria

Black Partridge Cache by Lieutenant Dave N 41° 40.968 W 088° 01.685 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/30/2001 Hunters: Kelly and Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

The one common comment to all Geocachers seems to be the phrase, "What a Great Park! I've lived here all my life and never knew this existed." That's exactly what happened here. In Bolingbrook is the Black Patridge Forest Preserve of Cook County, and in one week two new caches appear. Drew and I tackled this one with our mountain boots. There was a GREAT fallen tree (absolutely HUGE) that I was sure was the hiding spot, only to find that it was about 200-250 feet away. Those crafty Neocachers. They don't follow the pattern. The mosquitos were bothering us and we almost went all the way back to the car before we realized that we had the Cutters in the backpack. A quick spray and we found the cache. Then it was off cross-country to Black Partridge Suprise.

For the River

Black Partridge Surprise by Grampa N 41° 41.010 W 088° 01.462 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/30/2001 Hunters: Kelly and Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

At only 0.20 miles away (which is shorter than most of our cache walks from the car) one would think this would have been pretty quick. Getting from the Black Forest Cache to the Surprise was not how everything was intended. We followed a gully for quite a while (which was covered in debris from Forest Preserve visitors) and eventually had to climb up a 45° incline to get to the intended path. Once up, it was a short walk to a very special cache container. Evidentlly, Grampa had been monitoring conversations on the boards only to beat me to a specialized cache container that I had created for one of my caches. Good cache, well anchored. This is where we got "Squishy" the purple frog.

For the River

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Last Updated: Thursday, February 21, 2002 15:00 CST