Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
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October 2002

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD16-BYUT Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.7044° W 088.4687° Date Found: 10/5/2002 8:07 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam West of Chicago, Open Farmland 13.06 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: I Don’t Care Where You Go, Just Take Them Out of the House And with those words, the boys and I were in the car. We have two dashpoints this month within 15 miles of home, one at just over 13 miles west-northwest and the other at 12.85 miles due east. Traffic made the decision for me as my downtown is having a “Harvest Fest” making the roads impassable, so it was 13 miles into the setting sun. It was a pleasant drive near an area that I’m placing a portion of my devilishly hard multi-cache on Wednesday of next week. Plus the countryside was littered with combines shearing down the dried cornstalks in the fields on this gorgeously sunny day in the Midwest. Two wildlife adventures of note: as the sun was setting, we did see four white-tailed deer bound across the road from corn-stubbled field to corn-stubbled field, much to the children’s delight. But to my everlasting delight was the white rat in the middle of the road - no wait! That was an albino squirrel. Seems that losing their genetic pigmentation also zaps some of their synapse, as this squirrel sat in the middle of the road staring at my 5 mph movement as if to say, “Don’t you know in some parts of the world that I am sacred?” We did not hit him, nor was the digital camera sufficiently warmed up for a good shot of him before he hopped into a nearby tree. The dashpoint itself is a drive-by, along East Beecher Road (about a block east of the aptly named West Beecher Road), northwest of the tiny hamlet of Bristol, Illinois. I reached within 52 meters just by the roadside, and the dashpoint was squarely on the property of the Aurora Asphalt company (in some weedy areas). However, the heavily posted “No Tresspassing” signs allowed me to be complacent with the 52 meter mark. On the way home, I did snap a picture of a training facility for harness racing on a farm field nearby. Photos of this and two of the Asphalt company’s grounds will be posted tomorrow morning.

Kay’s Garage Sale or leftover junk by Eagle Son N 41° 38.234 W 088° 04.133 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 10/9/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Janet and Sally

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

The day started off with Janet from the Plainfield Sun showing up around 8:45 in the morning with Sally the Photographer joining us about 10 minutes later. The plan was to find at least one cache, and I had chosen three in close proximity. One of which - Bridge A La Cache - I had found previously in January 2002. That way, I was pretty well assured that if Kay's Garage Sale or Cache Cache was gone, I'd know where a findable cache was. Turns out that my worries were completely unnecessary. The trip in was uneventful except for the illustrative workers at the museum giving tours to the kids while donning period clothes and speaking with mock French accents that brought to mind images of John Cleese standing on a castle wall taunting silly-English Pig-Dogs. We walked up to the general area of the cache, passing a deceased deer that was naught by skeleton left, but were gladdened by the sight of a 3 or 4 point buck and a doe standing guard (within 30 feet) of the cache site. As we approached, the vacated the premises (or so we thought). The picture to the right of the three below show that the deer was still hovering nearby as we rummaged through the cache. We didn't even know that the deer would be in that shot. Pretty cool. The force was strong on this cache hunt. As we approached, I casually mentioned to the women that there were two possibilities for hiding, and we would try the easier to reach of the two first - and indeed, the cache was there. A few quick traded items, a few photos and some log signing and we were off toward the car, with another find under my belt.

Janet signing the log

A professional at work...

...but did she miss something behind her?

Cache Cache by jerr17 N 41° 39.114 W 088° 03.901 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 10/9/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Janet and Sally

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I'll post my log here, because it tells much of the story, but I'll preface it by first commenting that I was unsure on this cache, mostly because of the comments of hiking through 10 foot tall reeds. October 9 by Markwell (123 found) Wow! All I can say is wow! This was quite an undertaking with Janet and Sally from the Plainfield Sun. I was skeptical about hitting this one based on Jeepster's account of the 10 foot tall reeds. The closest parking was about a mile from the cache, but they were undaunted after our find at the nearby Kay's Garage Sale cache. As we hiked in, we crossed a few small streams and saw numerous dead and live wildlife - the occassional garter snake and a bazillion grasshoppers. Finally we got within 0.25 miles of the cache. No path. Can't find Jeepster's broken reeds either. So we just start plowing through. I started off leading, but my legs got pretty tired by the time we got within 0.16 miles. Sally took over leading until we were within 300 feet, then Janet. After Janet plowed about 50 feet she says, “Oh! Here's their path.” We were not amused as we had to do the brunt of the work, while the writer of the crew gets off easily. As we approached the cache coordinates, I tried a lesson in the force. I told them to do some deductive reasoning about possible and probably locations, and told them that from where I stood there were about 3 possibilities - and I could actually SEE it. They wandered a bit, but eventually figured it out. Sally had quite a time rummaging through the contents deciding on their quarry. I had ample trinkets to spare, so I told them to take their fill. The three of us paused on the river bank enjoying the heron and egrets from a distance and marvelling at the beaver marks. We slugged back a good portion of water and munched on the Quaker Oats bars from my backpack (no longer did they scoff at my preparations!). I also put a more sturdy log book in the container - an actual spiral bound one, instead of the loose paper that was being used. Feel free to start using that on the next finders. A short hike distance-wise back as we followed Jeepster's broken-down path instead of ours and we were back on the main path again. On the way in Janet had asked me what the most physically difficult cache was that I had found. I mumbled some story about boulder hopping in Chattanooga on a cache named Hawg, but by the time we came out - I had changed my story. This was it. Back on the main path, we were confronted by some local preservation officials as to our purpose there, and told them of our hike to the river (but not our intentions). He was a little incredulous at the walk, but also indicated that this land is not really open to the public. Therefore I would highly suggest that cachers refrain from trying the land route to this cache, and instead leave it up to a water-based cache. This then should be raised on the terrain to a 4.5 or 5, based on the need for a canoe. With that in mind, this cache should be a perfect little jaunt down (or up) the river. OK, now I can also add that I was a little skeptical of these ladies' ability to keep up in the brush - but I was amazed! They had no qualms about a 0.98 mile hike from 135th street through 10 foot tall reeds and brush for a quarter mile that would turn back even the heartiest of Geocachers. This should be one helluva story! On a side note, Sally continued with me for the day into neighboring towns to place three of the four stages to the Liberal Arts Cache. I give her an extra gold star for the effort that she put in! It was truly an honor to go caching with these wonderful women.

Those reeds really took a lot out of us. Thanks for the munchy-bars!!!

It's nice to see people enjoying their work.

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