Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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November 2003

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD29-BYUX Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6480° W 088.1556° State: Illinois Date Tried: 11/1/2003 8:17 am Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Open Hunting Lands near Interstate-55 in Plainfield 3.83 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: No Hunting Near the Quarry Another VERY close dashpoint, and one that I drive near on the way to work frequently. BYUX is just under 4 miles from my house, almost due east. I knew from pre-dash-planning that this point would either be in the quarry nearby, or a neighboring farmland. I was wrong on both accounts. This is in a hunting preserve. I know that some of my intrepid dash hunters from around the globe would take that as a sign to loosely interpret the word hunting, but since there were also numerous No Trespassing signs around, I had to take it as a given that I would just get as close as possible on the road. To the north of the dashpoint lies 127th street, and 518 meters due north of the dashpoint is a padlocked gate with tire ruts heading due south. Had I been a member of the club, or able to find a member, I probably could have scored this point with a minimal of walking. But as it stands, I received zero points for my efforts.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD29-BYXI Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 42.4293° W 088.0345° State: Illinois Date Found: 11/2/2003 12:46 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Hastings YMCA, FAR northern Illinois, near Illinois Beach State Park 55.24 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: It's Fun to Stay at the... After spending the weekend on a church retreat at Illinois Beach State Park, my wife and I left for home, but not before a slight detour. We had stayed at the park and headed due west for about 9 miles through some beautiful county, repleat with horse farms. This area is also home to the performing Lipizzan stallions where performances can be seen at Tempel Farms. The Lipizzan Horses in Lake County represent the largest stable of its kind outside of Austria. After our leisurely drive, we finally came upon the neighborhood that appeared to get us close to the point, but never could we get any closer than 170 meters. Every house also had a large fence along the back yard. But my satellite image showed some type of man-made field back there. Finally, I stopped and asked, and a friendly gentleman told me it was the Haystings YMCA. With a quick drive back out to the main road and into the YMCA, we pulled alongside the entrance road, and were just over 102 meters from the point. A quick hop out of the car to the easement property along the road, and I was at 99 meters. There was an odd climbing tower of sorts at the YMCA that I took a picture of, which I'll post later.

Forever Cached by Cache-Me-if-You-Can N 42° 25.407 W 087° 59.753 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 11/2/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Hunting on the fly is not the best of methods. I didn't have the time to plan out my visit to this area, except to download the nearest waypoints to the Illinois Beach State Park, and print them off on a map of the area. Typically, I download traditional caches within 50 miles of home, but this one is 55.27 miles out. So all I had were coordinates. In the rain. I zeroed in on the cache's coordinates pretty quickly, but given the pouring rain, I didn't have the time to look around that I wanted. The nearby creek was interesting, but I was relatively sure that I didn't have to cross that hazard (and in reading the logs a day later, I am thoroughly convinced. I'll just chuck this one up to not enough information, and poor finding skills.

Castaldo Cache by Stunod N 41° 45.598 W 088° 03.565 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/3/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

As I said last month: GRRR. It's a beautiful park, but I just don't like micros in woods. Seems kind of over-the-top to me. This is an area that would hold a traditional cache perfectly without any problems. Good news is that after an e-mail from the cacher UNK, I found my sunglasses at the base of the tree with the micro in it. Bad thing is that this micro couldn't be opened for love nor money.

Virgil’s Stache #2 by Ron Schmars N 41° 43.880 W 088° 18.475 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/26/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found the cache in an interesting location. I believe it was intended to be where it is. Nice little hike - although it was only 300 feet from the parking. Found it while in the area for Geo-Golfing.

Virgil’s Stache #1 by Ron Schmars N 41° 43.812 W 088° 18.247 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 11/26/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found this one after #2 and while in the area for Geo-Golfing. The container was out in the open and I spotted it from the trail. I tried to rehide it as best as possible. Nice little trail for a 50°F hike.

Geo-Golf Course Completed Course: GGAAAC Course Radius: 12.1 KM Center: 41.7257, -88.1803 Total Strokes: 33 10/24/2003 - 11/28/2003 GeoGolf is an offshoot of Geodashing, which uses randomly generated points. Geo-Golf utilizes a denser course of 18 "holes" randomly generated around at central point of the player's choosing and within a desired radius. The closer you are to the actual spot, the lower your score. This was my first course generated. I enjoyed it so much, that I'll keep the same central location and expand the radius for the next one from 12.1 KM to 13 KM.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD29-BYIL Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 42.0604° W 089.3440° State: Illinois Date Found: 11/28/2003 12:24 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam Oregon, IL WNW of Chicago (~60 miles) 64.20 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Blackhawk on the Rock River It's wonderful that the states give most of the corporate world Thanksgiving holiday to hit the malls for the Christmas shopping season. Being inundated with phrases like the J.C.Penney ads stating “Get into the Christmas Spirit with our 5 a.m. sale” drove me fast and furious away from any city that had a mall or for that matter two shops next to each other. So I decided on a remote dashpoint and gathered my boys in the car. GD29-BYIL is one of the farther western ones I've hit for just a dashpoint hunt. I remember a trip from when I was young that I took with my Mom and some siblings to Iowa. We stopped along the way to visit a large statue of a Blackhawk Indian overlooking a river. It was one of those memories of early-early childhood with just the vague recollection of the trip. I had gotten off of Interstate 88, then Interstate 39 to Route 64 through the town of Oregon, and turned north on State Route 2 toward the point - when there it was. Just as I had remembered it from my childhood. The statue loomed over the Rock River, and was best visible from the west side (Route 2). I took a picture, and proceeded to the dashpoint 2 miles to the north. There were many businesses like "Blackhawk Inn" and "Rock River Realty" that made reference to both the river and the equally majestic statue. The point itself howver was scorable from Route 2, although it appeared to be 25 meters west of the road, just behind a pair of stone columns guarding what was once a gated driveway. I marked the score on my GPS at 26 meters and headed back into Oregon to cross the river. A short 2-3 mile drive up the east side of the river deposited us in Lowden State Park, home of the Blackhawk Statue. I took some pictures with my boys, and marked the waypoint down for future reference. It really was quite interesting, even though it was pretty frigid out (30°F, -1°C). Thanks for a great trip down memory lane. Pictures of the statue from the west side of the river, and from the base (with my boys for size reference) and a picture of the stone gates have been uploaded. Website References: Blackhawk Statue and Lowden State Park.

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Last Updated:
Saturday, November 29, 2003 15:45 CST