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

Back Home

March 2002

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD9-04024 Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.9016° W 087.9103° Date Found: 3/1/2002 Hunters: Kelly Stone Park, Illinois, Near West Suburb 21.89 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Title: Chemical Failure This one was a drive-up on my lunch hour, but I was a little wary when I saw the satellite photos from lostoutdoors.com and mapquest.com showing trucks and a railroad. Usually that means that the area is a loading area, but I thought I would have a go. The actual facility was for Sun Chemicals just SW of the intersection of I-290 and I-294. Unfortunately, the entrance to the back lot was clearly marked “NO UNREGISTERED VISITORS BEYOND THIS POINT.” Somehow, I doubt in the days of post 9/11 they'd buy the fact that I'm just coming around to take some innocuous pictures while my GPS zeros out. I thought I had some luck when the facility next door had a road going back to a parking lot running back to the general vicinity. I travelled south toward the back lot, running parallel to a 8 foot chain-link fence with barbed-wire across the top. At the end of the parking lot, I was due west of the cache and about 5 meters from the fence. Unfortunately, the dashpoint was 135 meters beyond the fence. I took a picture and posted it, and their appeared to be a beige 4x4/MiniVan/SUV vehicle sitting directly on the dashpoint. But I could get no closer without approaching the management. So, for the first time since my own stupidity foiled me on the first dash hunt ever (back in June), I have actually NOT been able to score a point I went out on. If some of the other lurkers in the Chicago area want to try to catch this point by consulting “the powers that be” at Sun Chemical, more power to you. Otherwise, this dashpoint is going to have to be considered out-of-bounds. Zero points for Markwell Zero points for Team Trailblazers

Team Markwell’s Cachiversary Celebration
Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Friday, March 9, 2001: I registered at Geocaching.com

Sunday, March 11, 2001: I go to the local Sportsmart and buy my little yellow etrex.

Tuesday, March 13, 2001: I go out to Plano, Illinois, to renew my driver's license and on the way back find Dr Spryo's Challenge (cache now archived).

I'm hooked.

How do I feel about Geocaching after a year?
Here's the answer.

And how best to celebrate?
Five caches + Two dashes + One placement = Cachiversary 1

---

In the Woods by bspeng N 41° 21.363 W 088° 26.148 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found this one first thing in the morning on my Cachiversary, 9:00 a.m. It was a brisk morning and my hands were a little chilled while I undid the cache container. [ROT13 encrypted for spoiler] V znqr n zvfgnxr gung v'z fher whfg nobhg rirel pnpure qbrf ba guvf bar - fgnegvat bss ba gur jebat fvqr bs gur jngre. Oapr gung jnf pbeerpgrq, [/encryption] I found it in short time. Pics below.

---

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD9-03955 Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.3654° W 088.7287° Date Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly East of Ottawa, Illinois 32.20 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Title: Nobody Home I started scoping this area out and had my suscipcions that it was on farm land, so I drove around the entire area first. Oddly enough, the farmland appeared to either be going to seed (for 10 years based on the trees) or this was possibly some type of preserve. Even stranger were the No Trespassing signs I kept encountering. The main road was only 500 meters from the point, so I was so close I could spit at it. I stopped at the house on the main road to ask who owned the property and if I could get permission to go back and see what was there. A dog barked as I knocked, but no one at home. There was another driveway just to the west that looked more promising. It did say "private drive" but not "no admittance" so I went down this LLOONNGG dirt road, inching (centimetering?) my way to the dashpoint. The road finally emptied out to a property that looked extremely run-down. There was a pickup out front and a B/W cat sitting in the window. I parked the car - I was only 125 meters from ground zero. I knocked - another barking dog, but no owner. I decided to get back in the car, feign turning around in their large open area that led to the quansit hut where they kept there tractors - and - sure enough - scored the point from the turn-around. 89 meters! On to the cache placement, and knowing that there was one more dash-hunt coming up.

My Eighth Cache! Not counting the Photographer’s Caches Cachiversary 1: Forget-Me-Nots by Markwell N 41° 17.327 W 089° 01.509 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hider: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Words cannot adequately describe the joy I felt in placing this cache. I researched the area, knew about it ahead of time, knew what to expect and still was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked out. I was even able to do some extra hiking and put a “bonus” cache up. This one will be a Geocaching treasure for quite some time.

in plain sight by bspeng N 41° 26.456 W 088° 41.546 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

It really is in plain sight. No doubt about it. Interesting that this would be out in the middle of nowhere. No one's going to find this memorial unless they're told to go look for it. Also - an odd memorial.

What no Fiords? by bspeng N 41° 27.448 W 088° 40.422 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

OK - I guess you can put a memorial up in the middle of nowhere, and if a Geocacher is told there is something there with the proper coordinates, he'll go. Evidenced by me. Interesting, but not all that difficult.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD9-03948 Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6506° W 088.7997° Date Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly North of Leland, Illinois 29.51 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Title: On the Road Again Out in the middle of nowhere - just along side of a straight north-south road. North of the tiny town of Leland. Farm stuff, hay carts to the west. Pulled over to the east side of the road and got my GPS to zero out. Pretty much uneventful.

Sannauk’s Simple Treasures by Team Cachebarr N 41° 38.079 W 088° 39.200 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I probably did the worst mistake one could imagine - I walked a straight line to the cache with no worrying about following the trail. I knew this was wrong, but I was running late on my schedule after spending an extra 45 minutes in placing my cache. This was a simple find, right where I expected it to be. Cool sledding hill at the parking area!

Shabbona Hollow Cache by Gary & Isabelle N 41° 44.925 W 088° 51.137 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/13/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I got to Shabbona with time to spare. GD6-03903 from back in December 2001 Geodashing was in Shabbona at the entrance, so I knew a little about the area. I made the same mistake as many did, I'm sure: [ROT13 encrypted for spoiler] V fgnegrq bss va gur znva frpgvba bs gur cnex naq tbg gb guerr-dhnegref bs n zvyr sebz gur jrfg fvqr. V gura rkvgrq gur cnex naq qebir nebhaq gur crevzrgre svanyyl svaqvat gur vagraqrq ragenapr.[/encryption]. It should be noted that hunting this cache during deer hunting season could be EXTREMELY hazardous to your health.

Kankakee Cache by Ascender02 N 41° 13.496 W 088° 03.220 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/19/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Rachi

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

With Sammy home sick (kind of), I decided to go out on a dash-hunt that promised to be a drive-by (see next entry). But with the acquisition of a new cable and EasyGPS, I was able to download all the coordinates for all the local caches in a very short time. So when we drove by the entrance to this cache, we couldn't pass it by. The cache was fairly easy to get to in the Kankakee River State Park and we only parked 300 feet from the cache. Quick in and out, and on to the dashpoint.

---

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD9-04016 Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.1337° W 088.0377° Date Found: 3/19/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Rachi Northwest of Kankakee - Farmland 36.51 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Title: Grid of Gravel The dashpoint is in the strictest definition of farm country you could have. Once I passed the Kankakee River on Interstate 55, it was straight east and then straight south. I followed the grid of gravel roads until I reached the point on the east-west gravel road 159 meters due south. I hopped out of the car - dashed the 60 necessary meters into a stubbled cornfield all the way to 41.13284, -88.03783 (I made the mark) to score the points (98 meters away) and then spent the fairly long drive back home. Illinois is flat, flat, flat, flat farmland.

---

Patrick’s Pot Of Gold by apsmith N 41° 31.648 W 088° 11.523 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/19/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Rachi

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Driving home from the unexpected cache and the planned dash - I passed another cache. I knew this one was here, but wasn't planning on hitting it. I also knew that it was virgin caching, as no one else had logged it. We decided to do it on the spur of the moment. Mind you, I'm still in dress pants and sneakers. The hike was much longer than I expected. We took several wrong turns on the trails, but finally reached the riverbed area. Once there, the GPS was giving me fits, and this area has no foliage yet. I can't imagine what it's going to be like in full leaf season. The thorn bushes finally got the best of the boys and I plopped them down on a log about 35 feet from the zero mark and strolled around for 3 more minutes looking for the cache. Finally found it, but Yak Man had made it there ahead of my. D'oh!! But it was a good hike, nonetheless.

---

Military March by Blaster N 41° 47.182 W 088° 26.444 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/23/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry, Rachi

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

We had a great time with this one. A nice unexpected 55°F day in March and a cache only 14˝ miles from home. We parked at precisely the right spot (only 0.20 miles from the cache) and walked almost right there. Once the path disappeared, it became a little harder. The wife held the GPS and finally got it to “zero out”, but there was no sign of the cache anywhere within a 30-40 foot radius. We did find an awful lot of scrap metal and some metal rusted out 3 foot fence posts that had old barbed wire on it - but still no cache. We finally decided to use “the force” and look for some obvious spots, and eventually found it after about 10 minutes. It was a great hiding spot, but my GPS indicated it was around 105-115 feet from the location given. No worries, as we still found it anyway. This was our 11-year-old dog's first woodsy cache hunt. As I write this the day following, she is still dragging her behind as if it were filled with lead. However, last night she had many dreams about chasing squirrels and smelling woodsy smells. She will come with us again, after we start her Frontline® application.

A boy and his dog.

Starting Off.

Sammy shows his exhuberance for Geocaching.

Tick Check before getting in car.

Spoiler Photo, but a great shot of me and the boys by the cache.

---

Easter Egg Hunt by Eagle Son N 41° 42.640 W 088° 08.145 Difficulty: Terrain: Found: 3/28/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

An absolute GREAT hunt. The first part was a short distance from where my wife and son had stopped many times, but I had no idea the forest went this far back into the woods. Once crossing the bridge, this cache was a great find, albeit muddy. I decided to teach my oldest the ways of "The Force." The reference is to the old forums as the new forums didn't translate that thread. We stopped about 150 feet from the cache... Drew? Yea, Daddy? Where do we usually find caches? {deleted text for spoiler} Do you see anything like that around here? Right over there! Why don't you go look and see if it's there? Found it! We took two of the slips for the Easter Eggs (#11 and #12) and went on the extended hunt - which was actually MUCH tougher than the original. These containers were much smaller and better camo'd. A great fun day of caching!

for mud

First Hurdle

Rest on the Trek

Sam's New Fav'rite Toy

Two Good Eggs

---

March 2002 Statistics

	This Month	Cummulative
Tried Caches	8	72
Found Caches	8	61	subtracted one in the claiming of the APE cache as my own
Dashes	4	23	one that was inaccessible
Placed Caches	1	13
Hitchhikers Released	0	7
Caches Inherited	5	5

Back to February 2002
On To April 2002

Last Updated: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 14:00 CDT