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
July 2003
| Ebony and Onyx #4 by camp637 N 41° 52.410 W 088° 18.060 Difficulty:   Terrain:  Date Found: 7/5/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| I was out placing my picnic cache (far away from as many of the existing caches as I could) and I found this one on my way back. It was right where I expected it, even though it still took me about 5-6 minutes of searching. I love these winding paths through the woods. |  |  |
| How the Mighty Have Fallen by Markwell N 41° 52.569 W 088° 17.953 Difficulty: Terrain:  Date Hidden: 7/5/2003 Date Released to the Public: 7/12/2003 Hider: Kelly |
Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
While I delegated the 2003 Chicagoland Picnic cache hiding to Spyderuser, I really wanted to be able to place at least one cache for the picnic. This was my chance. I popped in the material and headed over to the woods armed only with the knowledge of the existing caches. There were 30 some NEW caches on hold being released at the picnic as mine would be. I would have no idea if my cache overlapped the 0.10 mile regulation. I found a great spot, and second guessed it. Then placed it in a nearby location and gave the cache a new name (see above).Originally, the hiding spot would have been along a babbling brook (great little rippling water with rocks to make the sound). The tree that I found had some vertical slits and it looked like the center of the tree was being eaten by carpenter ants or termites. There were two vertical entrances to a cavity in the center of the tree. My rubbermaid container would have fit just fine - but I worried that something may sleep there at other times and I wouldn't want someone's hand bitten for a cache. The placement I found was much better.I also got to do something on the cache page that I've wanted to do for a long time.
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| Chicagoland 2003 Annual Picnic by Chicago Geocachers N 41° 52.242 W 088° 18.287 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Held: 7/12/2003 Coordinators: Markwell, Spyderuser, Greenback |
 It's a Small World DC Cab |
 Lassie Come Home |
Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Where: Fabyan Forest Preserve
What a gorgeous day for a picnic. I arrived shortly after Spyderuser and started setting up with him right away. A large Geocaching sign (3ftx3ft) and a couple of moved picnic tables, and we were in business. Dad from Dad and the Dynamic Duo had held the pavillion for us, and Genius Loci and Spyderuser (along with myself) had versions of EasyGPS and ExpertGPS to load coordinates of the 39 new caches in the area. We had Geo-Bingo and Krispy Kremes. And it was even fun with the CLTV news crew out. Anne Marie was a really good sport, and her cameraman got a GREAT workout as we hiked through the forest. I picked up a brace of Travel Bugs from different sources. I had grabbed the DC Cab from the Travel Bug race box, but it turns out that the bug is not eligible for the race. I also grabbed It's a Small World from Little Otter at the end of the picnic, and will be placing it in the cub scout cache to be released on July 26. Last - but by no means least - I released my own Travel Bug for the Travel Bug Race: Lassie Come Home. Below are the finds (and not finds) for the day. | |
| Lady In Red by camp637 N 41° 52.411 W 088° 18.314 Difficulty: Unknown Terrain: Unknown Date Found: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, CLTV News Crew | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Found it, but only by the fact that that I got a clue that the coordinates were off by 83 feet, and the fact that I saw other cachers rummaging through the area. The reporters from CLTV followed me on the first three hunts of the day, including this one, Temp1 and Geogeek #1. It was actually very comical to watch the cameraman trying not only to keep up with us carrying his 40 pound camera, but he would constantly try to run ahead to get a better shot, stand still with the camera as we passed by, and then repeat the process. I now know I don't want to be a cameraman! | | |
| Temp1 (If It Looks Like a Duck) by Genius Loci N 41° 52.412 W 088° 18.440 Difficulty: Unknown Terrain: Unknown Date Found: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, CLTV News Crew, many other cachers | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| What a great hide. It's almost a shame that so many other cachers were there to find it for me. I know that Genius Loci didn't name this cache anything more than Temp1, but the subtitle "If It Looks Like a Duck" was just too good to pass up. For those that don't know, this temporary cache for the picnic was placed to the bottom of a decoy duck hidden on the Fox River. Neat stuff! | | |
| Picnic Cache: Geogeek#1 by Geogeek65 N 41° 52.319 W 088° 18.351 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, CLTV News Crew and many other cachers | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
My only  for the day. I must have looked in every crevace of every tree for a peanut butter jar, but couldn't find it. Ah well, it pays to show them the reality of NOT finding a cache too. |  | |
| Picnic Cache - Lipton by Chicagocomputerchick (3C) N 41° 52.627 W 088° 18.442 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Genius Loci (& Mrs.), Greenback | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Found this one as a really fast dash as the parking was dubious. We left Greenback's SUV running in a private parking spot to make this one work. I think I found it first, but we were all right there. | |  |
| Bonus Coin by Spyderuser N 41° 51.684 W 088° 18.440 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Greenback, Genius Loci (& Mrs.) and a ton of other cachers | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Well, this WOULD be a sandals footwear cache if you could just FIND this thing. Neat container, but we rummaged the hillside for a good 45 minutes with no luck. I even got my war-wound for the day here. A HUGE bruise and a gaping gashing about 2cm across from a metal stick protuding from a downed telephone pole. Great fun, this caching! | |  |
| Skeletons Abound or Green Teadrinkers Folly by Greenback N 41° 50.426 W 088° 18.592 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 7/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Genius Loci (& Mrs.) and Greenback | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| OK - it's not really fair that we had Greenback along on this hunt, but it was still a lot of fun. It was neat to see Greenback's expression as someone (Genius Loci) walked right up to the cache and found it - especially since Greenback had tried to make it much harder. Still - a great cache, and very innovative placement. | | |
| Tucked Away in Burlington by Three Blind Mice (ga peach and Rainbow Dads) N 41° 46.700 W 088° 10.068 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 7/25/2003 Hunters: Kelly | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| Ah - another nice lunchtime dash. Even though it's in a DuPage County Preserve, I still enjoy hunting these caches. As so many have abbreviated in their logs with YAPIDKABC: "Yet Another Park I Didn't Know About Before Caching"This is a great preserve/park and I had a very nice walk on a sunny day. I probably could have gotten to the cache easier, except Geomuggles were present in the grove that would get me closest to the cache. So I circled around from the wrong way, and approached very easily. I did get a little turned around on my way out, and ended up VERY close to the railway line. I eventually found my way back, and didn't even scare the couple (Geomuggles) in the park having a relaxing lunch hour in the shade. | | |
| The Griffin by Pack13 N 41° 26.995 W 088° 15.305 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Hidden: 7/26/2003 Hiders: Den 4, Pack 13 |
It's a Small World |
My First Geocoin! |
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Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| The circle is now complete. The young Geocachers, who had found EAST MEETS WEST or you can’t get there from here, the first part of Up The I&M Canal Without a Paddle, Erin’s Cache and the Shabbona Hollow Cache, have now placed their first cache.My son's den has been corresponding for the past year with an Eagle Scout, now in the military. We had sent TC: Den 4 Tigers the Travel Bug to head out to where he's stationed for his training (even though he's not going to make it by the time he leaves). For his Eagle Scout project, our pen pal had made something in Lion's Park for community service. The coordinates for this cache lead you directly to the project. From there, to find the cache, you need to be something of a boy scout, because you need to go 75 feet at 195° (using your compass).It was a fun placement. To make the deal sweeter for the first finder, there's a Geocoin and a Travel Bug in the cache. | |
| The Natives Were Restless by Team QBall N 41° 32.361 W 088° 51.375 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 7/26/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache. |
| We were driving from placing The Griffin cache in Minooka, Illinois to checking on The Phoenix cache in Shabbona, and this cache popped up on the radar. We were able to drive to within a VERY short walking distance, so I found the cache quickly. | | |
 Click on Dash Icon to see the MapGD25-BYYP Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.5659° W 088.1328° Date Found: 7/27/2003 5:15 am Hunters: Kelly North Side of Joliet, Illinois 7.30 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Caton Farm SunriseA bright and early start to a long day of dashing. I rolled out of the driveway about 4:55 a.m. headed for a spot that I could probably find in my sleep. The dashpoint was on the intersection of Caton Farm Road and Circle Drive. Circle Drive had a fresh coat of oil for paving, so there was a warning sign to "Travel At Your Own Risk."There's a bunch of suburban houses, with the one to the east having some antlers above the door. The sun was just rising at 5:15 when I marked the waypoint, and I took a glorious photo of the first rays of red (uploaded when the system will allow).3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers |  |
Street Sign at Intersection
Sunrise| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-CAAV Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.3653° W 087.6207° Date Found: 7/27/2003 6:10 am Hunters: Kelly South of Chicago on Route 1 36.89 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Foggy Freeway to Flooded FieldThe fog has rolled in.I was listening to the WGN Radio station (Chicago's Superstation), and they were talking about low-lying fog in outlying areas. I must have been lying low in an outlying area, because I hit DENSE fog. The road east bound on Manhatten-Monee Road made for pea-soup, and south-bound on Route 1 was even worse.The dashpoint itself was uneventful: a cornfield just 80 meters east of Route 1 south of Chicago, but the recent rains had flooded the area nearest the dash. I pulled along side the road, snapped a photo and went on my way, picking up US Route 41 in Indiana to continue my trek.3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
Wet field along highway 1
Foggy Morning drive| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-CADO Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 40.5658° W 087.4255° Date Found: 7/27/2003 7:45 am Hunters: Kelly Indiana/Illinois Border, Along Route 41 85.40 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: You Lost?Trolling back and forth on the county road in Indiana, I am reasonably sure that the farm house I see with the dogs is the one that contained this point. On the second pass, I pull in to the driveway as an elderly woman hushes the dogs:
"You lost?" "Nope. I think I found what I'm looking for." Insert quick definition of Geodashing and show dash note. "What company did you say you were with?" "I'm not with a company. This is something I do for fun." "I dunno. I'll have to get Max out to figure this out." The lady of the house summons Max, the gentleman of the house. He listens politely to my spiel and looks closely at the satellite image I have in hand. "I guess you can go back there. Take your car to the lane on the east side of the main property here and park by the back gate. Go ahead and go through the gate, but make sure it's closed properly. There's another gate that will take you out to that red dot. Just make sure you close those gates."So I go to the back, getting wet hiking boots (as Max warned me I would). I passed his corn crib and made my way to the back corner of the maintained property. From there I was 80 meters from the point, and saw no need to bother with the second gate to stand in the middle of more-than-head-high corn. Scored, and on to the next. 3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
From the closest point to the dash (80 meters) looking back at farm
The gate that must be relocked| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-CAAX Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 40.2347° W 087.6185° Date Found: 7/27/2003 8:42 am Hunters: Kelly North of Danville, Illinois near Indiana/Illinois Border 102.34 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: The Barn Mailbox and the WoodsA quick jaunt down Route 41 and back across the Illinois border took me through State Line City (aptly named except for the "city" part). From there, I picked up side roads through towns until I reached the target area. The dashpoint was only 16 meters south of the road, and there's a red mailbox shaped like a barn just to the north of the road at the closest point. The area to the south is wooded land, apparently owned by someone, but I could not see any entrance.I'm now noticing a pattern in my planning. Evidently, my recently purchased 2004 version of MS Streets and Trips over-estimates my driving time. I'm getting farther and farther behind schedule with each dashpoint. 3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
Mailbox| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-CACA Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 39.7805° W 087.5464° Date Found: 7/27/2003 9:53 am Hunters: Kelly 133.52 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Cock-a-Doodle Doo and Moo Near Historic Route 36I pop down through Danville, stopping for my first fillup of gasoline since leaving home (and a package of Ding-Dongs for replenishing my energy). The path is going to take me down to Route 36, the most awfully straight and flat-boring road in the state of Illinois. It cuts straight east and west and goes from the Indiana border to Missouri through Springfield. However, as I turn off 36 to the gravel country road, I notice a historical marker - gotta check that out on the return.I pull up to the farmhouse, knowing that I would need to seek permission. As I pull along the land nearest to the pickup where an older couple is loading up some produce, I glance at my GPS: 114 meters. I exit the car and walk up to ask permission. Before I get there, it reads 95 meters. I click the mark.To make my explanation visit shorter, I show them the map and ask what the name of the gravel road that I'm on is. They tell me (correctly), and I get back into my vehicle after taking a photo. As I snapped the shot, a rooster crowed in the distance (Get it? CACA and Cock-a-Doodle Doo? - sad pun, but it IS true).Back to the historical marker (uploaded photo) I read more about Route 36 than I new, and had a great time looking at the cows across Route 36. They were sitting in the shade of a tree with several calves. I walked over to take a better photo, gave the obligatory MOOO, with no response, and took my photo and turned back to the car. In the height of humor and timing, only when I turned my back and took 3 steps did I hear the echoing MOOO from behind me. 3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
Farmhouse
Route 36 historical marker
Cows| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-BYYH Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 39.7878° W 088.2307° Date Found: 7/27/2003 10:42 am Hunters: Kelly Just off the Tuscola, Illinois Exit of I-57 (Center of the State) 128.15 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Tuscola Stone Company and Some GasThe GPS said straight west on 36 until Interstate 57. Almost exactly 36 miles later, I started seeing the waypoint on my screen. But looking in the distance I also saw a very large hill. That's something of an oddity in flat-flat-flat Illinois. My curiosity was &qoutpeaked&qout (pardon the pun) as both the dashpoint and the hill approached simultaneously. Could Scout's amazing altitude algorithm have found this mound?Alas, it was not. The dashpoint was just south of Route 36 in a field of corn to the east of the county road, and I scored by reaching 93 meters due west. To the west of the road, just out of scoring range, was access to the Panhandle Eastern Nautral Gas Pipeline (photo and another photo showing the hill in the distance). It turns out that the hill is the left-overs from Tuscola Stone Company's excavations nearby. In flat-flat-flat Illinois, when you take dirt out of the ground and put it somewhere else, it makes a hill.3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
Sign on the gas pipeline access
Mound in the background with pipeline access in foreground| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-BYVU Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 40.3422° W 088.4883° Date Found: 7/27/2003 11:43 am Hunters: Kelly Central Illinois, North of Route 136 between Empire and Rantoul 90.89 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Caldona School (1870-1947)North on I-57, West on I-74, and north on a country road. Quick easy directions to this drive-by dashpoint. The point was apparently in a bean field and set about 250 meters back from the main road. However, looking at the satellite image, I knew that driving back on the driveway to seek permission from the landowner would mean that I would come within about 40 meters of the dashpoint. So I did, and then turned around (closest approach was 31 meters). On the way back out, I noticed that at the intersection of roads directly to the east of the dashpoint, there was another historical marker of sorts. A road-side wooden plaque indicated that the farmland (now all beans as far as the eye could see) had once been the site of the Caldona School from 1870 to 1947. You couldn't tell from looking at the crop field that any structure had ever existed there.3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
School Marker| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-BYUX Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 40.6612° W 088.5194° Date Found: 7/27/2003 12:29 pm Hunters: Kelly Central Illinois Farmland between Fairbury and Cropsey 69.50 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: The Plainfield ConnectionAfter travelling on the interstates, this set of point-to-point driving instructions was more direct and more "Robert Frost-ish." The path was straight north from the last dashpoint. When I finally approached the land, it was evident that this would be a hike into a farm's crop, and I knew that I would need to seek permission. There was a farmhouse almost directly south of the point across the street, so I started there.Mr. Harms informed me that he was not the farmer owning the field, but he gave me convoluted instructions in how to get there: up the road to the T, turn right, go across the bridge, turn left next to the cemetery, drive through the timbers and the house is on the left. The family name was Ambrose. Hmmm. Coincidence, as I live on Ambrose Road. Guess I'll remember it.Turns out that the farmer lived a good 1.5km from the dashpoint. I pulled into the driveway and went to the door to knock. A very pleasant woman favoring her leg answered the door. I apologized for making her get up (she had apparently injured her foot recently and was recouperating.Then I saw her shirt. Plainfield Wildcats, my alma mater and home town school. I was taken aback. After a brief look of astonishment and explanation, I found out that Mrs. Ambrose's son teaches in Plainfield, 70 miles away. I did another brief explanation of Geodashing, and she gladly granted me permission to walk her bean field.On the way back to the spot, I noticed that the little bridge by the T intersection had an interesting plaque on it, mentioning that this tiny bridge was named Phelps Bridge, and was designed by the Illinois Division of Highways in 1922 (photo to follow).I parked the car, and hoofed it the 150 meters due north into the beans, and marked the waypoint at 99 meters.Upon returning to the car, I looked at my watch and woefully at my schedule. I had a LOT of miles to go, and I surely wouldn't get all of the dashpoints I had originally intended. I was already about an hour behind schedule. I determined as I drove US 24 west past I-55 and over to I-39 that I would drop stops #11 and #12 from my original goal. I would not match Bob!!'s 11 in one day or surpass it, but this was turning out to be a REALLY fun day of dashing.3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
Bean field I had to cross
Bridge plaque near point| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-BYOP Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 40.9377° W 089.1473° Date Tried: 7/27/2003 2:09 pm Hunters: Kelly North Central Illinois, I-39 north of Bloomington 68.16 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Tall Oaks - Three Strikes and You're OutAs Scout mentioned previously, "it's close to the South Branch of Crow Creek. According to the topo map, it's in the Tall Oaks Country Club. But according to the LostOutdoors aerial photo, it looks like it missed the golf course and is in the corn field." The Tall Oaks notation on the Topo Map is an indication of the area in general, and the spot is indeed farmland. I knew I would have a 200 meter straight-line walk once I had permission. So I started with the Country Club.No luck. Neither the bartender nor any of the duffers sitting in the bar for their 19th hole had any idea who tended the land. I tried the house north-east, and was greeted by a pleasant woman who indicated that she wasn't the homeowner and had no idea who managed the land. Last stop was the house directly to the south of the point. A young mother with a very young sleeping infant answered the door (I felt very bad for making her come to the door, and apologized profusely). She also had no idea who managed the land.It would have been possible to park the car at the members-only Country Club and walk the edge of the creek to the dashpoint, but I felt very uneasy not securing permission when crops are as ripe as they are here in Illinois. So I decided that I would take the no-score on this one, getting only within 305 meters on the bridge to the east of the point.0 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
The creek from the closest approach
Tall Oaks Country Club Sign| Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD25-BYRO Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.3268° W 088.9096° Date Found: 7/27/2003 4:15 pm Hunters: Kelly Central Illinois - Buffalo Rock State Park (Near Starved Rock) 41.44 miles from home | Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint. |
| Dashpoint Name: Buffalo Rock OverlookI'm going to ask Scout for a little indulgence in the Geodashing Photo Album on this point. There are just too many good pictures for this point not to post them. I've weeded them down to six, and some are VERY small - so that the total hit on the site will only be 439K.What can I say about this dashpoint? The dashpoint fell at the main grove for Buffalo Rock State Park, and (to my knowledge) the second time a dashpoint has fallen in a state park around Illinois. I have been to Starved Rock many times, and Matthessien State Park (just south) to place one of my favorite caches, but this was my first visit here.Everyone should definitely read the website for the park, as I missed many of the features http://www.dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks/I&M/EAST/BUFFALO/Home.htm The dashpoint was squarely in the grove (photo) just east of the parking area, and I was able zero out my GPS (photo). The GPS underlying map was off a little, as the dark area on the photo will show that I was supposedly in the river.The view from the River Bluff trail (photo) is truly serene as one watches the gentle flow of the dammed Illinois River. This day, there was a boat just downstream that was towing a youth in an inner tube. Back at the grove, I went to use the restroom, and saw - I believe - the strangest warning sign I have yet seen on a bathroom: "No Water Balloons or Water Guns Allowed in Restrooms." I can only imagine how these projectiles and liquid cannons were being used that prompted the land managers to place that sign.The final two photos show the entrance to the park, and some of the geologic features of the area: the dells. It really is quite magnificent, and quite a change from the norms of Illinois. Thanks, Scout, for bringing me here.3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers  Trail sign GPS showing that I'm in water River View Bathroom Sign prohibiting peculiar use of water guns Rock FormationsTried Dashpoints: 10 Scored Dashpoints: 9 Somewhere in this MadDash, I had my 100th Try for a dashpoint Total Points: 27 for both Markwell and Team Trailblazers | |
| This Month | Cumulative | |
| Tried Caches | 8 | 296 |
| Found Caches | 7 | 211 |
| Dashes | 10 | 104 |
| Placed Caches | 1 | 26 |
| Hitchhikers Released | 1 | 12 |
| Events Coordinated | 1 | 3 |
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Last Updated:
Friday, August 2, 2003 6:45 CDT