Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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December 2003

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD30-BYYJ Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.6959° W 088.0179° State: Illinois Date Found: 12/4/2003 5:47 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam West of Romeoville, IL, SW of Chicago 11.51 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Follet's Folly You never know what you're going to find on a dash hunt. Such was the case here. From the early recon, I knew that the closest spot to my home would be a driveby in an industrial area near a widely divided road named International Parkway. I also knew that the point was in or near the parking lot of a fairly large building, but of course there was no way to know what that building was. Imagine my surprise to find Follet Educational Resources, distributor and owner of so many of the Follet Bookstores that frequent the midwest (and other area) collegiate campuses. The dashpoint is in the northeast corner of the property, near the entrance drive and probably on the edge of a retention pond. I stopped at 13 meters and the GPS pointed toward some red-stemmed bushes and beyond, but I had scored and decided it was time to head home and pick up some GeoGolf points on the way.

Hawthorne Hill by Stunod N 41° 45.321 W 088° 03.278 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/12/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I really like the setup I'm doing using GPX Pocket Queries from Geocaching.com. I'm able to take all the single stage traditional caches in the Chicago area and divide them into Regulars and Micros, and modify the waypoint image on the GPS. By only loading single stage traditional caches I know that there should be a container at those coordinates, and by modifying the waypoint icon on the GPS, I can tell at a glance if I'm looking for a micro or regular container. This setup allows me to cache "on the fly." I was in the area for some GeoGolfing and came across this cache and the Ramp-Art cache, but I couldn't find suitable parking for either. Finally, I pulled into the church nearest the Hawthorne Hill cache. They were setting up for their live nativity scene and I asked one of the locals where the best place to access the path was. He said the church parking lot was as good as any. Cool. Down the path and across the namesake of the cache, I found it pretty quickly after the GPS settled down. It was so cold out (22°F) that the pen from the cache wouldn't write, and my own pen that I brought was having second thoughts as well. Finally, after nearly scratching the page through trying to scribble out a Markwell, I got the ink flowing and got back to the car at 4:02 (sunset at 4:20). It was a good hunt!

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD30-BYUF Terra Server Picture from LostOutdoors.com Coordinates: N 41.5123° W 088.4121° State: Illinois Date Found: 12/13/2003 3:12 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry Far southwest of Chicago, Farm Country 13.07 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Revisited Farmland I've been here before. Back on GD27-BYUZ (message 7529) I mentioned the bizarre outdoor wheel of barrels, including a picture. This spot was pretty close to that one, taking us out Route 52 west of Minooka. As we approached the north-south dividing road route 47, we stopped at the X point on Route 52 at 185 meters due south. My wife pulled the car off to the side of the road, and I hopped out - and dashed 87 meters into the plowed frozen corn-field, complete with stubble and cobs. When I returned, my wife said, “I bet most of the dashers would look at that flat 85 meters and say - it's over there, and I'm going to call it scored.” I replied that no self-respecting dasher would ever do that. We like getting muddy boots. Had it been raining instead of the chilly 19°F, I'm sure I would have come back with an extra five pounds of mud, but the ground was frozen solid today. 3 points for Markwell and Team Trailblazers

Tarzan the Ape Man by Barcode57 N 41° 33.006 W 088° 09.586 Difficulty: Terrain: First Tried: 12/21/2003 Date Found: 12/26/2003 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I wasn't really sure on this one. It showed the coordinates as being about 140 feet from a Walgreen's parking lot in a clump of trees. I went with the family after delivering packages to a family in Joliet, and had my wife pull in to the Walgreens. I hopped out and scoped the area, but it appears that there is MUCH construction going on, and a lot of crud on the ground. Now that I've read the cache page, I know more where to look, and might be able to find it on another day. However, based on the are and the construction, I don't know how much longer this cache will be there, if it is still there now. Dec 26 Went back to the location on the day after Christmas (we were in the Joliet area anyway). This time I was armed with the clue, and actually spotted the cache from the parking lot.

Dec Chicago Geo-Breakfast by ChicagoCachers N 41° 35.302 W 088° 03.491 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly, 49 other cachers

Flyin' Ryan

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Well, I threw this one together at the last minute. Found a place that could host us and serve breakfast at a reasonable cost for the cachers. Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we collected some food to donate to a local food pantry. Hope these become regular.

www.wherespo.com by CCCooperAgency N 41° 35.303 W 088° 03.490 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly, 49 other cachers

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Spyderuser brought this traveling cache to the breakfast. It wasn't hard to see being painted bright yellow. I added an Egyptian Dollar that was left in Hard as Pi when I archived it back in the fall.

Lest We Forget by Tammiejo N 41° 33.284 W 088° 06.175 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

After the breakfast, I drove around trying to decide on the best cache to find. I had been on Theodore Street just on Dec 21 delivering some packages from our church and had seen this cache appear on my radar. I saw it again, and this time pulled over. Nice memorial. I proceeded to the side where the micro-cache was supposed to be, and looked around with all of the garbage. Beer cans, pop cans, beer bottles, McDonald's wrappers, even a wheel from a child's miniature car (the red ones with the yellow roof that the kids sit in). Distgusting. I then heard this voice from across the street: "You looking for a clue?!?" Yes. "It should be right by your knee by the vines." Thanks. "That's supposed to be a monument for all the people wiped out in the holocaust in a little village. Now some IDIOT has put clues there. It's disgraceful!" OK. I didn't want to really get into a discussion about how I've lived in the Plainfield area for 36 years and never known about this monument until somebody put this clue here. I didn't want to point out to this person that this clue that we're all looking for is one small item in the mound of garbage right around the monument - that the local people don't seem to care enough to maintain. So I left without further searching. I may be back with some trash bags and extension grabbers (so I don't cut my hands on anything), and show this local exactly what can happen when some IDIOT places a clue near a monument.

Short Bungee Cord Required by Barcode57 N 41° 32.625 W 088° 09.873 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

My wife and I had looked at this preserve for placing a cache. This was not what we had in mind. Right on the trail, right out in the open. Probably one of the easiest caches I had found to date. Would have been nice to place this cache a little further in than 400 feet. But, a cache is a cache, and I did find it.

Wack a Mole and Win a Prize by Barcode57 N 41° 32.235 W 088° 10.424 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Just in the paragraph above, I said that Short Bungee Cord Required was one of the easiest caches I had found to date. I found that one about 10 minutes before finding this one. This preserve has a trail that is at least 0.75 miles long. Yet this is a micro cache in a tree right by the parking lot. Disappointing. I literally could have left the car running while I grabbed this cache.

FuR’s FuRst Cache by FuR and Fallenfaery N 41° 31.955 W 088° 11.283 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

A great hike. This is what caching is supposed to be like. I marked the car, and took off down the trail I thought would get me closest. On the way, I saw a father and his son and daughter launching a new rocket for the first time. It was exhiliarating. The rocket ended up on the north side of Black Road, but they were having a great time. I hoofed it in through a muddy trail and wound way too far to the west. Eventually, I came across the right spot and had only a little trouble zeroing in on the cache. DANG! I had forgotten the Travel Bug I had picked up at the breakfast. This was the large cache that I would have placed it into. Oh well. I took a more direct route (but still on trail) back. GREAT CACHE. This is what it's supposed to be like.

Foreign Bank Branch by Tammiejo N 41° 31.270 W 088° 09.840 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 12/27/2003 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

OK - this one ticked me off. I searched for about 30-45 minutes at ground zero for this cache and came up empty. Then a few other cachers from the breakfast come by after I've finished and left for home, and find it. It's evidently camo'd quite well, so I'll have to come back with the clue sheet and the decrypted clue.

Geo-Golf Course Completed Course: GGAAFD Course Radius: 14 Center: 41.7257, -88.1803 Total Strokes: 46 12/1/2003 - 12/31/2003 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 second course. I used the same central location as the first, but expanded the radius a little to 14 km. The most interesting part of the course was how many holes fell into forest preserves and parks. I'll highlight those below with Yellow titles.

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Last Updated:
Tuesday, January 1, 2004 12:15 CST