Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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February 2003

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD20-BYYH Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.7365° W 087.9580° Date Found: 2/1/2003 2:36 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam I-55 northbound lane, SW of Chicago 15.42 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Life in the Fast Lane Again: gotta love those first of the month dashpoints. My initial scoping of the dashpoint showed it square in the northbound (well, NE-bound) lanes of I-55. I-55 is the major highway that travels from its start in downtown Chicago, and (for the most part) follows the path of the old Route 66 southwest through Bloomington/Normal, Springfield, St. Louis, Memphis and through Mississippi before it eventually intersects with I-10 outside New Orleans, Louisiana. Mardi Gras! But this point is only about 20 miles from its Chicago beginnings. This dashpoint was actually only 3 km from the first dashpoint I hit back on Jan 2 2003 (GD19-BYYZ, message 5715). I actually drove past GD19-BYYZ to reach this one. After dropping my wife off for about an hour's work on Saturday, I drove 75th street straight east from Naperville and eventually approached a frontage road north of I-55. I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop along the interstate to get to the closest scoring point, as this was definitely one of the busy sections of this interstate. I scored from the northern frontage roads at about 34 meters, but decided that I might get a better score from the south side. Indeed - I got to 30.5 meters from the southern frontage road.

Groundhog Day: A Day of Cache Maintenance

Hard as PI by Markwell N 41° 36.622 W 088° 10.214 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Fixed: 2/2/2003 Maintenance Guy: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

The second stage for this cache has always been a problem with the local waterway. I went out and replaced the container with a new streamlined version and tethered it to the hiding spot. Hopefully, this will help it last a whole lot longer in its position. While I was in the area, I checked on the cache box. Hidden quite perfectly and still intact!

Liberal Arts by Markwell N 41° 35.788 W 088° 11.023 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Fixed: 2/2/2003 Maintenance Guy: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

When the edict came down from the Will County Forest Preserve District to move the first part of Liberal Arts from the Heron Rookery, I simply moved the box. I didn't take into consideration that moving the box invalidated a set of clues. The clues have been updated and replaced.

Mission 12: Blind Canal by Markwell N 41° 23.329 W 088° 14.780 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Fixed: 2/2/2003 Maintenance Guy: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

This was probably the toughest maintenance physically on my poor aging body. When I placed this monster of a cache box in August of 2001, I was hurting then. When we pulled the APE cache while worrying about Will County in October, it was a monster at that point as well. It was no better now. The toughest part was finding a way in! With all the ice and snow of recent days, the lower parking lot was closed off. Luckily, I found the "upland" trail that met with the upper portion of the trail some 0.16 miles from the cache site. Still lugging it through the forest was really hard on my hands! I also fell on my rump while placing the cache and bruised my - um - dignity. Bottom line, though: the cache is back out and active.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD20-BYWI Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.3195° W 088.1466° Date Found: 2/2/2003 12:58 pm Hunters: Kelly Downtown Wilmington, SW of Chicago 22.76 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Buck Rogers' Retirement A little break from my maintenance for some dashing... Evidently, Wilmington, Illinois, is the Geodashing nexus of my zone. First mentioned as a pass-thru on the way to GD07-03968 (message 2065), then again in GD14-BYVI (message 4427), and again in GD18-BYYN (message 5415). Once again, a dashpoint lies squarely in the old familial hometown where my parents graduated high school in 1950 and 1952. Although this was less eventful than others, landing in a neighborhood with an "Outer" and and "Inner" drive, this was definitely on the "Outer". Probably the most interesting portion of the dashhunt was the name that was on the door of the house. It had a wheelchair ramp running up to the front door and looked like it could have very easily been the home of a retired could. As I reached 16.7 meters, I read the wood-burned sign on the porch: Buck and Judy Rogers. That's right, I've evidently found the retirement home of that space hero from the 1930s and 1940s: Buck Rogers.

Cachiversary 1: Forget-Me-Nots by Markwell N 41° 17.327 W 089° 01.509 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Fixed: 2/2/2003 Maintenance Guy: Kelly

BugBait (no official picture)

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I didn't remember this being this long of a hike or drive. Holy cow. The park was pretty empty, but there had been two successive reports of the cache turning up missing. I took the opportunity my wife gave me to head out and check up on the cache, with the idea of also dropping off BugBait. It was a long walk out to the site while walking on the icy trail. I was a little unsteady even with my hiking boots on. I scared up four or five deer, and one lumbering possum who slowly watched me with his crossed eyes as I went by. When I got to the site, brewer and knot_lost were there signing the log book. Knot_lost asked if there was a Travel Bug in the container, to which I said "Not yet" and tossed him BugBait. They mulled it over for a while and Knot_lost pocketed it for transport. Brewer and knot_lost were heading back to the south entrance, and I to the north. But on the way out, Knot_lost offerred to watch over the cache if there were ever anymore problems. Cool! I stopped by the smiling rock dude for a tribute and to verify that he was indeed due north from the offset coordinates (he was), and headed back out of the park. Man - my legs are tired.

A Good Turn by QBall&WillyH N 41° 20.207 W 088° 51.868 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/2/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found it. I've noticed this virtual for quite a while, and with my son in Tiger Cubs (first grade boy scouts) I wanted to head over some time and check this out. I was not disappointed. The history on this monument is quite enlightening and meaningful for those who are scouts or have been scouts. A very nice virtual cache indeed.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD01-A176 Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.3838° W 088.4925° Date Visited: 2/2/2003 Hunters: Kelly 22.50 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Revisit of Message 22 Did you read that subject line correctly? Yes. GDA-176 followup. I know that dashpoint reports for old games count for no points. This is for my own reasons. Long has this dashpoint lingered in my mind. I vowed that if I had a day to cover some territory to the west, I would attempt a revisit and clear my mind. No points, just the satisfaction that I gave it my all. Back in message 22 I reported my trip (incorrectly assuming a score at 0.15 miles). It was the first ever attempted dashpoint, and a failure due to the fact that I couldn't read the rules stating "within 100 meters." Since I was doing a check on Cachiversary 1, I decided to hit this on the way back and see how close I could get. The field that was corn in the panorama shot would now be turned under and frozen, ready for planting in the spring. As I drove westward on I- 80 toward the cache, I visually took reference of landmarks in the field that were due north - in other words, those landmarks that would lie at the dashpoint. This looked promising. Heading back east after the cache maintenance, I exited I-80 and drove along the old Route 6 to Pioneer Road. I crossed over the interstate and could see the dashpoint. It was a wide open field that had been corn. There was a property line or crop dividing line of trees and prairie grass that was a 20-30 meters south of the dashpoint. As I drove due north on Pioneer Road, I was 500 meters west when the GPS said 90°. This was the closest I could get on the road. I looked toward the farmhouse to the north, the obvious owners, and to my dismay every telephone pole marking the western edge of the field was posted "No Trespassing, Keep Out." A quick drive up to the farmhouse, and a knock on the door, but no one was home. I had tried my best. My failure to reach this expired dashpoint was not due to my foolishness of not reading the rules. It was due to No Trespassing signs and a lack of a land owner to seek permission. No points for anyone. There. I feel better.

For Mud

Quasimodo’s Quandary by Markwell N 41° 36.455 W 088° 12.221 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Fixed: 2/3/2003 Maintenance Guy: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Had to carry this little bit of maintenance into the following day. The final destination of the cache was just too far out of the way from all of the other caches I was hitting on Sunday. So, out I went to place the final cache box today - on a very foggy afternoon. Cache is now replaced, and the clues reworked for the new (but still close to original) final hiding spot. All my caches are now active!

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD20-BYUR Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.9595° W 088.3137° Date Found: 2/8/2003 1:17 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry North of St. Charles, Illinois - west of Chicago 22.29 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Fox River Dash Not too far out of the way for us. We had stopped in West Chicago at the second (and much larger) Boy Scout shop to peruse their stuff, and I incorporated this dash into the trip. We had driven north out of West Chicago on Kirk Road, which eventually intersected with Army Trail Road, and then turned west for about a mile. As we slowly approached the Fox River (a major waterway through Illinois, which eventually joins with the Illinois River and then to the Mississippi) the homes were getting larger and larger - with horse pastures in the front yards. We hit Route 25, the route that parallels the eastern side of the Fox River and crossed to the land between the road and the river (there's another road - Route 31 that parallels the west side of the river as well). We got into the neighborhood that would put us in scoring range, and were surprised that it was full of much smaller houses than the $1million+ homes we had just passed. These were more in the range of $100K or less, but they owned riverfront property. We pulled up to one such house and the GPS read 96 meters. Good enough to score. The owner of the house was coming out to walk his little poodle in a sweater, so I think we could have gotten closer and actually gone to the river bank to get closer. The dashpoint itself is actually on the river - which is mostly frozen this time of the year. But rather than take the time to figure everything out, we just decided to call it scored (calculations now show we were at 95.92 meters).

Cacheopoly 1 -- No Trespassing by m2orris N 41° 46.471 W 088° 03.444 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/9/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I've heard a lot of positive comments on the Cacheopoly Series of caches. So I decided that I had an itch, and suited up with my 7yo Drew. We parked at the coordinates, but I don't think we took the intended path. It was obvious that we weren't trespassing, but we still had to cross a frozen creek which will definitely increase the terrain rating come summer. Found everything in short order. Coords were smack on. With the information found in the pill bottle, we moved on to Cacheopoly 2.

Cacheopoly 2 -- Watch Out For High Tide by m2orris N 41° 47.526 W 088° 02.224 or N 41° 47.557 W 088° 00.679 or N 41° 47.482 W 088° 00.199 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/9/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is approximate cache position.

The premise of these Cacheopoly caches is that when you find the first one, you find a monopoly playing piece. On the next cache in the sequence, there are three possible coordinates given. The piece that you find in the previous cache tells you which set of coordinates to use. For example, if I had found a boot in the first cache, the page for the second cache would have had a boot, a dog and a top hat. The coordinates next to the boot would have been correct (these are examples!!! not the actual pieces). Having found the token (or picture of the token) in the first cache, we had the coordintates for the second in the series. Quickly found it. Again the waterway mentioned in the logs is going to give this a raised terrain rating once the spring thaw occurs.

Cacheopoly 3 -- Three Ton Tessy by m2orris N 41° 40.687 W 088° 06.417 or N 41° 40.724 W 088° 05.178 or N 41° 40.785 W 088° 06.854 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/9/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is approximate position of cache.

Probably the easiest of the first four of these caches. My son and I walked right up to it and found it in less than 7 minutes of searching. I have had some experience with similar caches, and this helped extremely in this situation. From here, I needed to make a decision. I had only planned on finding the first three stages, but time was on my side. I cell-phoned SWMBO and asked her opinion. She said to go for it and helped me out with the coordinates for the fourth site. I told her that if it looked too dangerous for the 7yo, I would abort for the day.

Cacheopoly 4 -- Go Vertical by m2orris N 41° 40.613 W 088° 02.247 or N 41° 40.610 W 088° 02.283 or N 41° 40.607 W 088° 02.268 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 2/9/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is approximate position of cache.

Wow. I hate brown lines. Well, it's actually a love-hate. Don't know what I'm talking about? Topographical maps show changes in elevation as brown lines. The closer the brown lines are to each other, the more drastic the elevation change is (steepness). To see the three possible locations for this cache mapped on a topo map click here. See all those brown lines? This cache has now made it to my most rugged cache in the area. That being said, I wouldn't change it for anything. It's nice having a physically challenging cache in the area. We aborted this one because Drew was tired and cold of just standing on the top of the cliff while his dad scrambled around trying to find a little pill bottle. I'll have to come back with someone equally as insane as me.

Everdon Cache by Dr Spyro N 41° 37.844 W 087° 46.230 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/17/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

What is it with the Cook County Preserves? My wife and I went out to tackle a potential of 10 caches (possibly 11) and here we began our problems with parking. The suggested parking coordinates led us right to the place Dr Spyro would have wanted us to go - but the lot was closed off. But Sherry and I were determined to visit this cache. We ended up parking in the parking lot to the Forest Preserve to the south - closest to Crow T. Robot cache and bushwacking the half-mile to the site. After arriving, we searched for a very short while before my instincts told me where it probably was. What a fascinating historic site. Read more about the cemetery on this page or this page.

Crow T. Robot by Radakovitz-Family N 41° 37.588 W 087° 46.337 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/17/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Having been near here while searching for Everdon, we decided to just "go for it" and find this cache. It was a very nice hide, and quite interesting due to the fact that once we got within 250 feet of the cache, I looked up and said "That's where it is." I was right. Cool trinkets in the legos. We took some home for each boy, and deposited some of our own things, including a Glow-In-The-Dark brontosaurus that we captured on a caching adventure in August of 2001 at the cache Shine, Little Glow Worm by David April. The torso of the behemoth can be seen on David's page for this cache (with cool special effects).

Deer beds on the trail

Pawprints in the snow

Jeepster thought it was here

Happy hunter

Lord Of The Rings by Greenback Rivendell (LOTR) by Greenback Fields Of Rohan (LOTR) by Greenback The Forbidden Pool (LOTR) by Greenback The Road To Isengard (LOTR) by Greenback Helm’s Deep (Two Towers) by Greenback Flotsam and Jetsam (Two Towers) by Greenback Shelob’s Lair (Two Towers) by Greenback N 41° 37.036 W 087° 48.102 Difficulty: Various Terrain: Various Date Tried: 2/17/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot are the rough approximation of the caches.

This was a major disappointment. After having eaten our lunch at Portillos, my wife was psyched up for finding these caches (well - as psyched up as she can get about caches - I was way more psyched than she was). The proposed parking for these caches was roped off like Everdon had been, and we circled the entire park looking for any entrance. I guess we'll just come back and try these caches another day when the Cook County Forest Preserves are actually open for business.

Nature’s Bleacher Seat by Southside_Glen N 41° 40.653 W 087° 51.497 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/17/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Wow. Drew, Sam and I had been in this general vicinity when we went searching for GD14-BYYP back in August of 2002. I had seen the toboggan slides and marked them with my GPS at the time, little suspecting that I'd be back out here eventually finding a cache (even though this cache was here at the time). Swallow Cliffs is a great little preserve in Cook County, fully worth taking a look at. We were a little pressed for time, so the wife let me hoof ahead of her while she made her way up after me. Great hike on a great day. Found the cache dead on with the description. The GPS said 70 feet from the coordinates, which would be almost exactly 35 paces. Cool. The lack of parking for the day severly truncated our finding experience, but we still enjoyed our time. I'll definitely be back in the area again as the weather warms.

Smudged Lens

Signing the logbook

Working Public by Harley Dave N 41° 51.468 W 088° 04.740 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/19/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Devil Ball Bug (no official picture)

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I was going to save cache find #150 for Saturday's Cheeseburgers in Paradise event, but snarfing a bug this close to work on such a nice day was irresistable. This is a very nicely done multi-cache in the middle of suburbia. The only problem I had was that I didn't bring anything for my feet except my work shoes, which got a little muddy on the trail. Devil Ball Bug will be coming with me to grab a Cheeseburger. Don't know exactly how I'm going to pass this off to a deserving cacher, but something will happen.

Batter Up by Luca Brasi (Greenback) N 41° 49.200 W 088° 07.318 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/20/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

50°F How could I pass this up?!? Man, did I do this the wrong way. I parked over at the DuPage County Preserve's main administrative building and hiked from there. Somehow I missed the part where the cache page says, "Flat and mostly mowed." So I hiked on this gorgeous day, exploring the territory and having a grand time communing with nature. Similar to my experience with the Hidden Lake cache (Near a Catalog giant), had I gone to the intended parking, I would have missed so much. An OK cache, even though it's not too far into the preserve.

Cheeseburger In Paradise Hosted by Bspeng and TwoCampers Click for theme music for the event!

Cheeseburger in Paradise by TwoCampers and Bspeng N 41° 38.513 W 088° 26.815 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, All Other Area Geocachers

Devil Ball Bug (no official picture)

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

What a fabulous event! Great food, great caches and to top it all off, a food drive. This was an extremely well thought out event and kudos to Bspeng for the cache placement and TwoCampers for the implementation. This also allowed me a chance to log a whole bunch of caches in the area, while revisiting some old ones. Those accounts, follow. The plan for the day was to meet at Little Joe's at the above coordinates. From there, cachers would get a list of caches, including the 20 new ones. In 8 of the 20 new ones, first finder cards were placed for the taking. The lucky finders would come back and claim door prizes. Other door prizes would be drawn by lottery. David April and I teamed up. But first was some bad news... Team WO9LF had possession of Wonder Woman and were all set to place her in her final destination The Hall of Justice II. But she would be denied, as the cache was plundered. A quick trip out with David to the location revealed that indeed the cache was gone. Well, on the bright side, this gives me a chance to replace it properly with permission from the IDNR.

Don't Throw Stones(micro) by bspeng N 41° 38.008 W 088° 32.116 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, David April

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Now we were in earnest trying for a new cache, and possibly first finder status. Unfortunately, we were following someone else's footprints the whole time. Even so, it took us FAR too long to find this micro. We tried trusting our instincts, we tried using our brains on the title, but we didn't trust our GPS enough. Coordinates were dead on. Finally found it and logged it discretely while other cachers approached.

Ol' Fox River Road by bspeng N 41° 37.591 W 088° 32.523 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, David April

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

David and I pressed on to the next likely location. I knew approximately where this cache was based on the description. Coordinates in hand we rummaged through the area while Eagle Son parked his car and approached. I spotted it first, but rather than let the others keep searching, I decided to whistle and call them to it. Again, we were not first. We needed a new strategy. I knew the Waish Kee Shaw cache area from a stage placement for a multi-cache. I knew it was far enough away from the main area that no one would have likely tried it. I also know that Bspeng really liked the placement, so I figured he would probably put a marker in this one. We decided to drive the 5.7 miles and try it out. While driving Fox Street through Silver Springs, a herd of deer decided to cross the road. Must have been between 7 and 8 of them. Very nice.

Waish Kee Shaw by bspeng N 41° 37.734 W 088° 20.919 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, David April

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

The strategy paid off. First finders! Wow - that was one long, cold hike from the closed entrance to the cache site. Once we were in the park it was a piece of cake, but that first stretch is long and cold. Knowing the area so well, I got David and myself to the zone very quickly, but the hide was pretty good. I spotted the cache first, but David spotted the card inside. Ah, well. Back to Yorkville proper for some much needed nourishment. These ARE the best burgers I've had in a REALLY long time.

Forever Young by Ron Schmars N 41° 38.029 W 088° 24.764 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Originally Found: 12/15/2002 Revisited: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Centaur

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Centaur and I teamed up after the burgers to clean out Robert Young Preserve. This cache was one we almost walked past since Centaur had his radar trained on a distant one - not looking at the map. I didn't have its coords in the GPS since I had already found the cache. About a hundred feet from the box, I suggested he switch it over to map, and he found the cache pretty quickly. On to an unchartered one.

I tawt I taw a Bobcat by Smith and Smith N 41° 38.290 W 088° 25.005 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Centaur

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

AAAAHHH!! I hadn't remembered this as a multi-stage. Little matter, I pretty much knew the lay of the land. The park was easy walking once we got to the first marker. Before then after Forever Young, we kept bouncing (on my lead) back and forth across the creek running through the preserve. Finally, we let Centaur's instincts take over. I think I spotted the Green Wire first, but he definitely had the final spot pegged. Score one more.

Young Lyon by Two Campers & Bspeng N 41° 38.345 W 088° 24.941 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Originally Found: 1/26/2002 Revisited: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Centaur

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A nice easy walk from Bobcat, and we kept hearing radio chatter from other cachers in the area. That was kinda neat. The trails were a little muddy from the thaw, but not too bad. This is my kind of caching, too. I also got to show off my great caching memory by quoting the exact date I had visited this cache before with the boys. This was verified by my log. :-)

Just out of reach by Smith N 41° 38.469 W 088° 25.047 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/22/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Centaur and Paul & Co.

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

As we approached the cache (from the wrong side of the river), we saw Paul from Paul & Co. looking. He had, by his accounts, been looking for about 15 minutes. We zeroed out near where he was and started a search pattern. I ended up back at ground zero and spotted the cache. Normally when I am out caching like this, I'll walk away from the cache and nonchalontly stop looking, allowing the others to find it. But my exhuberance for the day got the better of me, and I screamed "Got it! before I could really get far enough away to make them keep looking. My apologies to the other hunters. Paul was nice enough to give both of us a ride back in his all-too-small car, but that saved us a good 0.61 mile hike back to the other side of the park. What a fabulous day of caching!!!

Lottery Girl Photo by Markwell

Team WO9LF Photo by Markwell

David April Photo by Markwell

Camp637 Photo by Markwell

Various Cachers Photo by Markwell

Various Cachers Photo by Markwell

Centaur Logging Bobcat Photo by Markwell

The Room Photo by Centaur

The Room: Full Photo by Centaur

TwoCampers Photo by Centaur

Group Photo by Centaur

Me Photo by Centaur

The Organizers Photo by Centaur

Me again Photo by Centaur

Me, Spyro and a whole lot more Photo by Centaur

Fallenfaery Photo by Centaur

Spoiler for Bobcat Photo by Centaur

Spoiler for Just out of Reach Photo by Centaur

Me at the end of the day Photo by Centaur

What was eating this? by SpongeRob & David N 41° 49.552 W 088° 19.324 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

The accounting department said, "Kelly, if you don't take Thursday and Friday off of work, you will lose some vacation days." Okay. I'll go caching. I decided on the Fox River because the caches were all so close on a long drive, and the area was close to home for me. This was the first of the day. I had already been to Fish out of Water before, so I knew where to park. The cache was pretty easy - right where I expected it. Found it around 9:10. On to the next.

Fish out of Water by bspeng N 41° 49.512 W 088° 19.233 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Second for the day. Stumped again. Apparently this is a difficult hide. I looked in every logical place. If someone hadn't logged this thing on Feb 26 (the day before) I would have surely said it was gone. Ah, well - I'll be back.

Geese Mocking Me

Every Honk was a Laugh

You Foul Fowl! Quit Laughing!

Privilege and Poverty by Paceteam N 41° 52.207 W 088° 18.707 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Third for the day. Wow. This is a GREAT cache, but I wasn't expecting as long of a hike as this was from the second marker to the third and then fourth. I don't begrudge the walk, but this took a lot longer than I expected for the day. The history behind this spot is incredible - and well researched. This is definitely going on my top 10% list - and I hope to get it on to the Chicago voting page on some category.

Spyders Web by Spyderuser N 41° 49.999 W 088° 18.676 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Fourth for the day. Even though I didn't find it, I enjoyed the challenge. I think I might know where this is based on some of the clues. If I'm right, other clues are just kinda goofy. This is definitely a well hidden cache.

The Iron Giant by Ron Schmars N 41° 44.655 W 088° 19.627 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Fifth for the day. Took me less than 5 minutes - car door to car door. Good cache for a day like today when speed is essential. Parking was dubious as the park that this was in was closed off, but I found nearby parking at a restaurant. With as short of a time as I was there, it didn't really matter to the owners I think.

Fowl Play by BSpeng (placed by King 88) N 41° 44.107 W 088° 19.935 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Sixth for the day.A cache I've been wanting to do ever since it was originally placed by King 88 - since it was so close on my proximity list. I didn't expect this cache to be as nice as it was. This was a very pretty park. I whacked my head more than once on an overhanging stump of a branch. At one time - hard enough that I thought I drew blood. Since I'm still typing - must be that there was no concussion. ;-)

Dam!

If I had nothing to do all day, I certainly wouldn't be parked on a frozen river.

Same caption as the last picture, but a different species.

Guarded Cache by Ron Schmars N 41° 43.214 W 088° 20.619 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Seventh for the day.Wow. Um, yea. I parked on a side street to Route 25 and walked the 80 feet by crossing the road. This is borderline for me, I guess because I don't ride a bike.

Violets are Blue by Ron Schmars N 41° 42.106 W 088° 20.995 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Eighth for the day.Since I had found Hobo's Hideaway back in September of 2001, I knew where the parking would be for this one prior to getting to the park. Nice hide, still. Once again, this cache is perfect for this kind of a day - very quick finds.

Hobo Returns by bspeng N 41° 42.018 W 088° 20.837 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Ninth for the day.Again - I had found Hobo's Hideaway back in September of 2001, so I knew right where to go. This cache is much better hidden than its predeceding version, but still in the logical spot. The coordinates were about 60 feet off, as many cachers indicated. This is the only one that I've posted additional coordinates to.

Helen of Troy by Ron Schmars N 41° 41.596 W 088° 20.961 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Tenth for the day.Well that's a twist. The last "pill bottle, e-mail contents" cache of the day by Ron Schmars, and who do I see at the parking area, but Ron himself. Turns out he was looking for Nobody's Home. Found it - with a little unintentional help from Ron. As I was still looking, he saw me from a distance right next to the cache and said "Ah, you finally found it." I hadn't, but now I definitely narrowed the search radius. I was able to quote all of the contents to Ron from his previous pill bottle caches and thus save some e-mail time.

Nobody’s Home by bspeng N 41° 41.523 W 088° 20.992 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Eleventh for the day.I've learned how to operate around Bspeng. Glad I had my boots on. A la Ms. Weigand's Bitter Divorce I needed to do some rock hopping. The topo map indicated this, so I don't think I'm doing any kind of spoiler. Ron, however, wasn't prepared for that, so I had to leave him on the shore. Once on the island, I quickly found the ingenious cache.

Hudson Bridge by bspeng N 41° 41.117 W 088° 21.412 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Twelfth for the day. I was a little uncomfortable in rush hour traffic going to where I needed to go. I was actually zeroing on the coordinates, but I didn't want to have to be detained while I explained why I was there. I'll come back sometime when it's less crowded.

Needs Mowing!(virtual) by bspeng N 41° 41.023 W 088° 21.544 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Thirteenth for the day.A nice quick virtual. Rememinds me of this place I know to the north. I didn't see any obvious address to the house as per the request, so I used the Oswego Fire Department reference number. Interesting nostalgia. When we were in elementary school in downtown Plainfield, every noon the Fire Department siren would whistle. If there was a fire, we could count the number of sirens to show how bad of a fire it was. Some time later, Plainfield abandoned that siren. Oswego evidently still uses it, as I had heard it blaring while near the cache. Neato.

North SawWeeKee by Ron Schmars N 41° 40.196 W 088° 23.838 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Fourteenth for the day. A very nice hide in a great park. I found the original Saw Wee Kee back in April of 2001, one of my first. This original cache is still on my favorites list. This cache is just as nice, and still tricky in its own right. I was at the zeroed coordinates for a good 15 minutes before finding the box.

Grand Slam(Micro) by bspeng N 41° 41.698 W 088° 19.572 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Fifteenth for the day. This was a really fun micro. I knew where it was, but the trick was getting to it without arising the suscpicions of the neighbors, who were out fixing their cars. In the end, I used Jeremy's "just picking up the trash" ruse, which made me feel good about where I was. Finally found it and logged it without incident. Reminds me a Dr Spyro's other hides of this nature.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha by bspeng N 41° 41.832 W 088° 19.659 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Sixteenth and last for the day.Parking was difficult, but not impossible. I found the cache with little problems. While I was on the path out, I finally made contact on my cell phone with my wife to give her and update. Somewhere on the trail closer to the cache, that cell phone fell out of my pocket. After I completed the whole cache and got back to the car, I realized that the cell phone was missing. I had to walk 80% of the path back out to the cache to find my cell phone on the ground. Shades of the sunglasses incident from December 2002 on the Cumberland Trail cache.

So many Storeys, So Little Time by bspeng N 41° 52.718 W 087° 38.163 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 2/28/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Since my son had the day off of school, and I needed to use up more of my vacation days, we spent the day riding the train in to Chicago, visiting the Planetarium and taking him on his first trip to the top of the Sears Tower observation. It was an added bonus that we were able to complete a geocache today as well. Thanks to Bspeng for activating this one. As I said in my log, I don't think I've been up here since 1985 (my senior year in High School).

Me holding the GPS

Drew at the Tower

Proof shot for Drew

What a view!

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Last Updated:
Friday, February 28, 2003 21:00 CST