Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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November 2002

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD17-BYXU Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.8325° W 088.1265° Date Found: 11/1/2002 12:25 pm Hunters: Kelly Warrenville, Illinois - Due West of Chicago 14.12 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Herrick Lake Coincidence Last night Chicago had its first dip into the 22°F marks (-5°C). This frigidly cold temperature for November 1, coupled with strong gusty winds this morning had the trees shedding their fall accoutrements in a veritable downpour this morning. By the time I ventured out for this dashpoint at lunch, many of the trees in the neighborhood were barren and the ground was blanketed in yellow and orange. Autumn and the falling leaves apparently came and went in a matter of hours. The general location is quite coincidental, as I have been working with the DuPage County Forest Preserve District on placing an authorized Geocache since July of 2001 when they banned all Geocaching in their parks system. I have penultimate approval (final approval tomorrow?) for placing a cache in the forest preserve that sits directly to the south of this dashpoint. In fact, the expected cache will be almost halfway between my office and the dashpoint - a span of about 1.5 miles. The dashpoint itself (being the closest ever to my office) lies in a subdivision of moderate to upscale homes, and rests squarely in the living room of one of these abodes. Nothing very spectacular to report other than the carpet of freshly fallen foliage. But a nice diversion for lunchtime. I was still able to head over to the Chili's for a crowded lunch before heading back to the office with 20 minutes to spare.

Released into EAST MEETS WEST or you can’t get there from here. at N 41° 42.246 W 088° 08.870 (kinda) on 11/3/2002 Mission: To make it down to the cache closest to Goose Creek, SC and then return. This bug is a product of my son's BSA Tiger Den - Den 4. We are corresponding with an Eagle Scout that has gone into the military and is currently stationed at the Charleston Naval Base in Goose Creek, SC. The Tiger Den had a great time placing the bug in the East Meets West cache, and are really looking forward to monitoring the travels.

	Starting the Hike	Crowd	Crowd	Boys and the Cache
	Booty Nuggets	Bye to TC	Groups shot at end	Dog Doo Sign
	Crowd	Ground line	Black Dog	Skier
	Yellow Dog	No Horse	Group	Sam
	Caterpillar	Foliage	Ladder on Log	Crowd Shot

Mystery Pill Bottle # 10 by Spyderuser N 41° 48.716 W 087° 58.199 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 11/15/2002 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found the coordinates. Not the cache. Tried on my lunch hour, but the coordinates led me straight to the middle of a parking lot. Greenback agreed with me over the next day, but actually had an encounter with the police, who indicated that this spot had been the center of several burglaries. I think I'll take a pass on this cache, even though it was placed with permission.

Group Caching

DryDock by Spyderuser N 41° 49.764 W 088° 12.748 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/23/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Dad and the Dynamic Uno and Fallenfaery

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A great warm-up cache for the day. Ample parking, easy walk through great terrain and forests, and an ingenious hiding spot. I believe George Sr. was the first to spot it, with George Jr. close behind. I was number 3 (and it was where my instincts should have lead me), and Fallenfaery finally found it in the end. The Mosey Raider travel bug, which I had found in August, had made its way from to DryDock in 3 months (in craigd1965's hands), only to be spotted by me again. Since I had already had the bug, I decided not to grab it, and instead encouraged Fallenfaery to take her first Travel Bug. We all logged the cache in short order and had conquered the first of seven planned caches. Falleyfaery had intended this to be a learning experience for her, but (as usual) I ended up learning something on all of these caches: *Caching with other people who are obsessed as I am can be a whole lot of fun. *Trust your instincts for where caches are hidden. They usually are right.

Accelerator by Bryan N 41° 49.965 W 088° 13.180 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 5/12/2001 Hunters: Kelly, Dad and the Dynamic Uno and Fallen Faery

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

One year, six months, and eleven days. From my first tick experience at Accelerator back in May of 2001 to this find, a whole lot has happened. There's slightly tighter security on Fermilab since 9/11, and that made for a much longer walk. Also the different time of the year made for a very different hunt. We got to the grove and zeroed out pretty close to the cache, but spent a GREAT deal of time rummaging around. George Sr. found it first, then Fallenfaery, then George Jr. and me. It was a great hunt, and a much longer walk than I expected and planned for. Although Fallenfaery learned a great lesson about getting whapped in the face with a branch (and the subsequent “First Blood” of her caching career), I still think I learned the valuable lessons here... Revisiting a cache after 560 days means that... A) The cache is probably not hidden in the same manner B) You'll likely forget exactly where it was hidden, and C) The foliage will look completely different.

Revisit

OZ CACHES IN or barking up the wrong tree. by Eagle Son N 41° 42.676 W 088° 07.241 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/23/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Dad and the Dynamic Uno and FallenFaery

Going No Where - FAST!

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Man - that was a long drive. I did not expect the drive from Accelerator to this part of Naperville to take quite so long. Easter Egg Hunt was on my list of next caches, but knowing how long it would take to walk that, and given that we I was insistent upon hitting Ms. Weigand’s Bitter Divorce, we bypassed Easter Egg in favor of this one. We were quickly on the trail, and made a classic blunder. Take a look at the Satellite Photo from Lostoutdoors.com. The red dot is the cache. The blue dot is where we realized we made a trail mistake and took a nice scenic loop. Fallenfaery felt good that we "veterans" made the same mistake that she would have made. Once in the area, Fallenfaery got her lesson in the force. The force has been described by cachers as the inexplicable ability to look at an area where a cache is hidden and walk right up to and find the cache. As George Sr. walked in one direction, I prompted her to use her gut instinct and look in another location of her choosing. She was the first to find it. While we all eventually found it and logged the cache, I had the opportunity to prepare the release of my next Travel Bug, Going No Where - FAST!. He has no particular directional goal, but doesn't like to sit in any one cache or in a cacher's hands for any long period of time. We also looked wistfully at the Anniversary Cache or A river runs through it cache, at only 500 feet from the OZ cache. I even went so far as to run downstream and leave an FRS with the team to scout out if there was any passable way across the stream. Since there wasn't, we decided to abandon that cache as well. Mark off Easter Egg Hunt and the Anniversary Cache. Also, based on the time of this find, and the time necessary to get Dad and the Dynamic Uno back to their car by 3:30, we also had to abandon our search for Putt Putt Geocaching. Lessons I learned: It takes a whole lot longer to drive from Fermilab to the South side of Naperville than I thought Read your satellite images Finding 124 caches does not make you immune from silly mistakes The force is a very strong ally 500 feet can be a very long distance

Ms. Weigand’s Bitter Divorce by Bspeng N 41° 43.412 W 088° 07.905 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/23/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Dad and the Dynamic Uno and FallenFaery

Rad Man

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Time was short. There was a quick mission to accomplish. Rad Man needed my help. To hell with all the pretense of helping people figure things out. I needed to get this cache! Since we were short on time, I didn't let Fallenfaery or Dad and Dynamic Uno make the mistake of the wrong approach. I quickly took them to the better half and lead the way in. We reached the same location that Camp637 and I had paused last August, and I indicated that this was it. George Jr. was almost as excited as I for the approach, but I think all had a great time. George Jr. also found the cache first, with his own force application. We traded out everything (Fallenfaery picked up one of JoGPS's trademark Cache-In/Trash-Out canisters) and I picked up Rad Man. I had contacted Eagle Son earlier and indicated that I would be able to help out with the journey, and he seemed OK with the fact that he may sit for a month on my shelf prior to a huge movement. Lessons I learned: “Men of action are often laughed at.” - bspeng Look very thoroughly. Have the excitement of a youth.

End Group Caching Report

Zoo Invaders! by Laguz the Wise N 41° 50.029 W 087° 50.493 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/24/2002 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A cold, blustery day compared to yesterday's adventure. We were at the zoo to decorate a Christmas tree with my son's Boy Scout pack. We arrived at the zoo around 11:15, and headed toward the south gate and the Zoo Shop. From there, we went out to the Living Coast, spotting some animals and fun on the way. Once we exited the Living Coast, my wife and I each took an FRS and headed separate ways - her with the scout to go back to the tree, and me with the younger to find the cache and explore lesser traveled areas. A nice virtual cache. Nothing too hard about the walk or the final verification, and very interesting portion of the zoo. It was nice to get away from the maddening crowd at the Christmas trees. Found everything in quick order, and returned to the trees for a final look around the zoo before heading home.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD17-BYUJ Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.5954° W 088.4244° Date Found: 11/27/2002 3:37 pm Hunters: Kelly Near Yorkville, Illinois, SW of Chicago 10.60 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: The Sheeps in the Meadow... It's a very brisk day in Chicago 28°F (-3°C) and a crisp air. The grandparents have the kids for the day. I got out of work early. The wife is still at work. Dashpoint! I've been eyeing this dashpoint since the points came out. It's actually closer to my home than my other GD17 point (GD17-BYXU in message 5033), but BYXU was a couple of miles from work. I've only been in this area one time before this month, and we were on a limited schedule that day. Spring Valley farm seems to own most of the land in the neighborhood of this dashpoint. An S and F, with a V coming down between the letters marks the signpost on the approaching area. It is heavily posted that there is NO HUNTING in this area - probably because the deer just love the stubble, and the hunters just love the deer. But the farmer has seen fit to feed his cows in the open farmland. All around the fields near the dashpoint the cows are opening grazing the corn stubble, with truckloads of hay in strategic points. The dashpoint itself is about 30 meters in to one of the open stubble fields. This dash was very reminiscent of GD07-03926 (message 1733). A crisp day in winter on a stubbly corn field. Hopped out, dashed the necessary 38 meters to get within 99 meters (GPS says 98.18 meters), marked a waypoint and came home to report it. That's all for November for me. Sorry I didn't make my self-imposed quota of four, but I'll make up for it in December.

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Last Updated:
Wednesday, November 27, 2002 16:30 CST