Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
In chronological order
Back Home
Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
In chronological order
Back Home
March 2003
| Travelin’ Man (Kendall Style) by bspeng N 41° 42.219 W 088° 26.915 Difficulty:  Terrain:  Date Found: 3/1/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Found this one on the way to visit the dashpoint GD21-BYOJ. After having found another one of Bspeng's caches I didn't even have to think twice about this location. Great little historical site.Interestingly enough, while the Mrs and the kids were parked in the car a pickup truck pulled up with Iowa plates and the guy just seemed to be pulling over to smoke a cigarette. Found it interesting that this place was still being used as a rest stop. After we visited BYOJ in Paw Paw, we came back this direction for the best Cheeseburgers on the planet, and saw a Hostess Devliery Truck in the parking lot as well.BTW - my wife thinks these are the yummiest Cheeseburgers on the planet as well! |  |  |
 Click on Dash Icon to see the MapGD21-BYOJ Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6860° W 088.9812° Date Found: 3/1/2003 12:14 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry Far west of Chicago, halfway across the state 38.92 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Paw Paw, 61353Our first dash of March - we decided to head really far west first. This was a neat dashpoint!Paw Paw, Illinois (population 850) is a real throw-back to the early farming communities of the 1970s and 1980s. It has a quaint old-town district and not much else. There is a state bank and a Casey's General Store (local gas station chain). The dashpoint is south of the main strip, five meters off of a secondary road. We were able to score without leaving the car.We explored the town a little more, and found that it was on an historical stagecoach trail, and that there's a local service station that had a couple of classic cars in the showroom. Directly across from the service station was the old State Bank, which has since been converted to a restaurant and inn. However, the old Buglar Alarm - a large light, and presumably a bell - is still visible from the street.Check out the composite picture I loaded to the Game 21 photo section. |  |
Paw Paw, Illinois| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD21-BYYP Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 42.0885° W 087.9864° Date Found: 3/8/2003 11:16 am Hunters: Kelly, Sam Arlington Heights, NW of Chicago 33.22 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Off to the RacesI delayed on reporting this dashpoint in case Cheesehead Dave or anyone else from the area wanted to score the three points, but I visited this on Saturday, March 8th, and marked the closest waypoint (7.45 meters) at 11:16.In Arlington Heights, Illinois is the Arlington International Racecourse - famous throughout Illinois for the Arlington Million and a few other big horse races. The racecourse is a little less than 1 mile to the west of this dashpoint. The point itself is on the front lawn of a house at the corner of Euclid and Chestnut - a rather large house with what appears to be guest quarters to the north end. From my best guess while in my car, the dashpoint is very close to the driveway, near a flagpole on the lawn. Definitely a drive-by, but the composite picture I'll be uploading shows that this is a very scenic neighborhood.Three points for Markwell and Trailblazers, please. | |
Composite of pictures from Arlington, IL| Cachiversary 2: Chasing Bitterman by Markwell N 41° 18.272 W 088° 07.420 Difficulty:  Terrain:  Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hider: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 1: Bitterman's Pasture My cache placements are becoming more traditional and fewer in numbers. I have all I can do to maintain the cache placements I have, so I'm much more selective.Forsythe Woods was on the list of approved caches in Will County Forest Preserves (in fact, it was first on the list), and there's a family history connection as well (as found on the cache page). I wasn't as pleased with this placement as I was for Cachiversary 1: Forget-Me-Nots, but it's still a nice cache. |  |
| Erin's Cache by Team WO9LF N 41° 32.112 W 088° 01.383 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
Cachiversary II - Part 2: Canis Familiarus
 I'm a tree lover, through and through. I stop almost all of my caching hunts whenever I see a great tree, fallen or standing. I've even been known to point them out along the path when I'm with other cachers. Most of the time, they think I'm nuts.
 This is one of those caches that I got excited when I spotted the likely hiding spot. The potential was perfect for a cache hiding spot, and I could just imagine Erin (Team WO9LF's canine component) having a fabulous time sniffing all around the cache area. Logged the cache at 11:15 and quickly departed.
BONUS!!! In February of 2002, I visited Fox's Lair. At the time, I didn't have anything left to trade, so I grabbed a character tie out of my trunk. I hadn't worn it in months, so it was time to get rid of it. In July of 2002, I found the cache Trackside, and what did I see in it, but the same tie. I knew it was mine, but I left it there.I just saw the tie again in this cache! | | |
| Crossroads by cachepig1 N 41° 31.034 W 087° 59.761 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 3: Glad I Had My Bike We had passed this cache area back on Feb 17 driving about 65mph, so I pretty much knew what to expect. What I didn't expect was to have a whole lot of trouble finding proper parking for the bike trail. I originally pulled behind the K-Mart just off of the Route 30 and I-80 exits and got to within 250 feet from behind the store, but it was obviously not a legal entrance. So I headed west on 30, and eventually came to a church on Gougar Road that wasn't too far from an entrance to the bike path.I was definitely glad I had my bike on this long straight trail. It made what would have been a 30-40 minute hike into about 15 minutes car door to car door. Click here for satellite image of what I did where.Found the cache pretty quickly, and then coasted the downhill path back to my car. | | |
| Autograph Session by Radakovitz-Family N 41° 37.207 W 087° 47.275 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 4: Again - The Bike Made All the Difference
From the cache page: In the box there are the usual goodies,a logbook and a baseball. After filling the logbook I'm asking that you sign your geocache name on the baseball with the ball point pen I have included.I started off in a church parking lot to the south of the Lord Of The Rings parking, and went in the trail. It took a strange turn to the east that I didn't expect, which eventually took me under Route 43. I knew that I would probably be doing this eventually, but didn't expect it. So I just took the path where it lead me - within 300 feet of the cache. There was some decent bushwacking with my bike in tow, but I found the cache fairly quickly and signed the baseball. Neat idea for a cache! | | |
| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD21-CAAJ Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6209° W 087.7884° Date Found: 3/13/2003 12:58 pm Hunters: Kelly SE of Chicago, Cook County Forest Preserve near Orland Park 22.83 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 5: Two for OneDashpoint Name: If you find GCC102 in March, you've scored! Wow! I knew that when we missed this cache in February that I'd be back sometime, but when the March Dashpoints showed up and this caches was within the 100 meter tolerance for scoring a dashpoint, I HAD to make this part of my second cachiversary. This is the first time in my area that ANY dashpoint was placed so that by finding a nearby cache, one could actually score the dashpoint. I've had several that have been within a half-mile or sometimes less, but never within the scoring range. Check out Autograph Session to see more about this cache. I had taken my bike on this day of caching and dashing because I knew that some of the areas were going to be long hikes. I was actually able ride on a bike path from my parked car to within 350 feet of the dashpoint. I went to the cache first and marked a waypoint at 98.2 meters, but I wanted to try to zero out as best I could. I bushwacked through some pretty dense forest (even without leaves it was dense) and finally came to a clearing and a path that would have gotten me closer to the cache than my original path, AND lead me closer to the dashpoint (isn't that ALWAYS the way?). With the clearing in front of me, I got as close as I could - 22 meters - before running in to a six to seven foot tall mass of thorn bushes more dense than those I through which had just bushwacked. I marked the waypoint and called the point scored and then went on my merry way of caching and dashing, celebrating my second anniversary of GPS related activies. | |
LostOutdoors.com Satellite Image showing proximity of cache and dash| Suburban Jungle by Clan Ferguson N 41° 37.377 W 087° 48.064 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 5: Out in the OpenGetting from Autograph Session to here was interesting. I found a horse path off of the regular bike path that went a little to the north, so I took it. Yucky light brown clay all the way, but it got me to the open greenway that lies underneath the powerline right-of-way. I crossed over into the woods and picked up the trail that leads to the cache.I know that Clan Ferguson hides caches better than the way that I found this cache - sitting out in the open on some grassland, as if it had been rolled to that spot, so this was somewhat of a disappointment. However - I was now on to the cache that I really wanted to try for the day!!! | | |
| Shelob’s Lair (Two Towers) by Greenback N 41° 37.329 W 087° 48.190 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
Cachiversary II - Part 6: The Stairs of Cirith Ungol
Every once in a while, someone surprises me with a terrain that just makes me think: Am I still in Chicago? Cachiversary 1: Forget-Me-Nots is like that. Nature's Bleacher Seat and For Jeepster, or Jacques is a Strapping Lad are also like that. This one is now on that list as well.  As I remember the story from the Lord of the Rings, Shelob's Lair rested at the top of the stairs of Cirith Ungol. There were three towering flights of stairs that lead to a tunnel - a hidden way to get into the evil lands of Mordor. But the tunnel was guarded by - oops, almost gave too much of the next LOTR movie away.No monsters hear, but a definite elevation change that rated the 4.0 this cache so readily deserves.  Couple the steep elevation change with the fact that this was the 'thawing day' in Chicago (40° today, 55° tomorrow and 65° on Saturday), and the trails and slopes were muddy and treacherous. I stood at the precipice eyeing the possible ways down, only to be stumped time and time again by how I could approach the cache and still be able to return to where I would leave my bike.I finally decided on the least of all evils, and made my way to the bottom, only landing on my rump once on the way down. Once conquering the elevation, I quickly found the cache and got the necessary information for Helm's Deep, returned to my staring point to retrieve my bike, and started my way to Flotsam and Jetsam to gather the other necessary information. | | |
| Flotsam and Jetsam (Two Towers) by Greenback N 41° 37.605 W 087° 48.177 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
Cachiversary II - Part 7: The Folly of Saruman Dang. I thought after conquering Shelob's Lair, this one would be a piece of cake. Nope.I spent a full 45 minutes looking in every conceivable nook and cranny for this cache. The GPS kept leading me back to a logical place, but I could not find anything there.Without the necessary information from this cache, I couldn't continue on an find Helm's Deep as I had intended. Ah, well. The great thing about caching is that there's always another time. I'll be back - and probably with my bike again. Those hills are fun! |  | |
| In The Belly of a Giant by Team WO9LF N 41° 36.087 W 088° 02.833 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/13/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Cachiversary II - Part 7: Squish, Squish, Squish, SquishMud. More Mud. And even MORE Mud. I could not BELIEVE that one area could get SOOOO muddy. What is this place - a swamp?!?The path in was a rather short one, but with the title 'In the Belly of a Giant', I was watching the trees for a giant tree. I found one - still 300 feet from the cache (for those interested, you can see another giant on the way in at N 41° 36.047 W 088° 02.878). Picture included. But this was not my giant.The coordinates took me to a likely spot. DANG!!! I put my boot literally up to the knee into a hidden sink-hole while about 75 feet from the cache. Sheesh. Thank goodness for Gortex.But what's this? The giant has a hiding spot, but there's nothing there. The coordinates keep leading me back to the same spot. The clues indicate that the muddy terrain might make retrieval difficult. That fits too. But no cache. Ten minutes later - I give up. I guess I'll be 5/7 today. One last shot of trying the other giant, even though the coordinates show it 60 feet away from the desired location.Sure enough, there it is. Glad I didn't give up. The cache is in surprisingly good condition. I'd be interested to see what it looks like after the first REALLY HARD FLOOD of the season. | | |
 |
 Snowman Remnants |
 Another Giant on the Trail. Note the GPS sitting on the side to give some idea of scale. |
 Looking in the wrong spot, but it was a really cool picture. |
 I love nifty bridges almost as much as big, old, cool looking trees. |
 |
| Old Railroads Never Die by bspeng N 41° 42.848 W 088° 16.542 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/15/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
I missed this cache on the Cheeseburger in Paradise Event back in February, but it has been on my closest proximity list as only 5.53 miles from home. So when I had about an hour to kill with the wife finishing some college work on the first 60°F day in the spring, I took this opportunity to go hiking with my boys. The mud was out in full force. This old railroad bed has never been paved over, and the layer of dirt was now about 3 inches of wet, gooey mud. Each step on the path left a slorshy sound as we approached the cache. The final hiding spot was one quite worthy of the rest of the caches from the Cheeseburger event. The boys were also pleased to have about 5 minutes of swing time at the end of the hike, and my oldest son got a kick out of what happens to railroads when they go into disservice. A great cache, and almost definitely going to become part of my Top 10% list. | | For Mud |
| An Edge of Urban Sprawl (sorta) by jason.murray N 41° 42.564 W 088° 16.296 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/16/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Another gorgeous day! We had found Old Railroads Never Die yesterday, so we parked in the same spot, and walked past that cache location, the rest of the 0.39 miles to this cache. There may have been closer places to park, but what the heck. It's 68° and the boys need a good mile of walking today.Found the cache by my scoping out the area while leaving the fam on the trail. I was starting to walk back to them when I spotted a likely position, and asked them to check it out. My oldest boy Drew was the first to spot it. Traded things out - placing the compass we used in it so that others can benefit (I've got another, this was a spare) and the kids got a mini-skateboard and the calculator key-chain.My younger son Sam, in an act of altruism I'd never have expected from a 3 year old, left the toy monster truck we had just gotten from Wendy's for lunch. It's brand new and pretty cool. | | For Mud |
|
 Sammy waiting for us to find the cache. |
 Drew looking for the cache |
 Two brothers waiting in the woods. |
|
|
 Sammy figuring out his trade |
 Sammy and Sherry talking about leaving the monster truck |
|
| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD21-CADA Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6430° W 087.4401° Date Found: 3/23/2003 3:45 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam East Chicago, IL - right by the Gary, Indiana Airport 40.76 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Gambling on Steel and the Lake63°F and Sunny. My wife needs to do her collegiate studies on the computer again. I guess that means that me and the boys go dashing! I knew that of the two next closest unvisited dashpoints to my home town (GD21-CADA and GD21-BYTY) CADA would be the driveby. BYTY is about 400 meters from a farmhouse, and I'd have to seek permission and go about 300 meters into the farmers backyard with my two kids in tow. No thanks.So I headed east on Interstate 80, crossing the state line into Indiana, and getting south of Gary, Indiana and East Chicago. We headed north on 912 past the Gary Airport and toward the lake. The dashpoint was just to the west of the major road 912, but not within scoring range. As I drove past the point, the next exit took me off to the land of the weathy and the blue collar people. We could see Lake Michigan from the side road, and passed by the Trump Casino yacht and the Harrah's Casino Yacht, all staying within a mile of the dashpoint. The other major industry in this vicinity is the US Steel plant (pictures of casinos and steel plant uploaded).Links? Tour of the Historic Gary Steel Works History of the Gary Steel Works Listing of Hotels and Casinos in East ChicagoOnce I visited all of these hotels and casinos while driving through the area, I then had to go to the other side of the road. It was night and day. Gary and East Chicago have always been known for urban districts with tenament houses and urban housing developments. This area was definitely not one I would venture to with my young boys had it not been a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight. The dashpoint was on the road right next to a vacant lot. We marked the waypoint and headed back our 40+ miles to home. | |
Composite of pictures from Gary, Indiana| Up The I&M Canal Without a Paddle by Team WO9LF N 41° 31.812 W 088° 00.521 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 3/29/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry, Pack 13 |
 |
Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
ser·en·dip·i·ty n.1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.3. An instance of making such a discovery. Definitely a case of serendipity on this hunt. The local boy scout pack (13) was slated to take a nature hike from 12:00 - 3:00 in Pilcher Park. I was intrigued as we would be starting at the Nature Center, very close to Erin's Cache (see below). But as we turned our sites on the Flowing Well, we were headed in the wrong direction. After reaching the well, we started toward the Greenhouse and my trusty GPS76S said "Hey! There's something over there."It was the first stage of the I&M Canal without a Paddle Cache. This was many of of the boys' first caching experience, and they were a little saddened by the fact that there weren't any trinkets, but they all thought it fascinating. So much so that after we got back to the Nature Center, a group of us went on to find Erin's Cache. No claim for a find yet, as I haven't completed all the stages. I'll be back!!! |  | |
| Erin’s Cache by Team WO9LF N 41° 32.112 W 088° 01.383 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Revisited: 3/29/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry, Drew, Sam and Pack 13 | | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
 After finding the first stage to Up the I&M Canal without a Paddle, several of the boys in the scout troop wanted to hit Erin's Cache, which was much closer to the Nature Center. I handed over the GPS to one of the other leaders and gave him some quick verbal coaching.The boys got to the general vicinity and two of the older ones started scrambling all over the area. My son looked at me with the straightest of faces and handed me his hiking stick. In a very deep and serious tone he said, "Dad, I'm goin' in." Just about the same time, one of the older boys found the booty box. My son was a little disappointed, but still enheartened by the loot.My wife laughed uproariously and my wayward tie - still embedded in the cache. We all signed the book and took great joy at the camera and the prospect of our pictures being taken.I think we have some converts.
|  | |
| This Month | Cumulative | ||
| Tried Caches | 12 | 250 | |
| Found Caches | 9 | 180 | |
| Dashes | 4 | 83 | |
| Placed Caches | 1 | 23 | |
| Hitchhikers Released | 0 | 10 | |
| Hitchhikers Transported | 0 | 10 |
Back to February 2003
On To April 2003
Last Updated:
Monday, March 31, 2003 14:30 CST