Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
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August 2005

Moonbow- 20th Anniversary Cache by ChurchCampDave, Wifemate and Murasaki N 36° 50.524 W 084° 20.557 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 8/3/2005 Hunters: Kelly

White Jeep, Esmund

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

This was an odd one. Back in July when I started scoping out caches that might be in the Cumberland Falls State Resort, I contacted ChurchCampDave to ask about this cache. He said it was disabled because it had been taken, and that he probably wouldn't be out by the first week in August to get it back up. Dang - that's the only do-able cache in the park. So, I took White Jeep Esmund along on the trip just in case. No luck in the cache, but I took a picture of the historical sign, just to show that I had indeed been there with the bug. No find, not even a try, just "Making a Note".

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD50-BYVI Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.9324° W 088.6028° State: Illinois Date Found: 8/28/2005 2:15 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Wags Temperature: 85°F/29°C Farmland North of Maple Park, IL, Far West of Chicago 27.82 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: On the way to Sycamore? A lot of unnecessary history... When I was growing up in Plainfield, Illinois, our school belonged to the "Little Seven" Conference, most likely a poke at the "Big 10" of University of Illinois. The seven schools were Plainfield, Waubonsee Valley, Minooka, Morris, Geneva, Batavia and Sycamore - teams that our High School sports team played on a regular basis. The schools were more or less the same size, although ability changed throughout the years. Since those days 20 years ago (eek), my hometown has exploded in population. What was a quaint little town of 2,000 is now a burgeoning metropolis of over 20,000+, and still growing. The high school that boasted an enrollment of around 1,100 now is divided among 3 high schools (Central, North and South), and they are ALL about 1,000 students each. Many of those same schools have growth as well, but not on the scale that our town has felt. As I drove out to this dashpoint, I noticed that even though it was 28 miles (45KM) from home, it was close, but STILL not all the way to Sycamore, one of the schools in the Little Seven Conference. And now, Streets and Trips confirmed it - we used to drive 50 miles to play a school in our conference. Now there's probably 50 schools with in 20 miles that COULD be a matchup size-wise. My how times have changed. Now for the dashpoint. The point itself is on County Line Road, lying just on the DeKalb side of the DeKalb/Kane County borders, and just south of Union Ditch, which is - as one would expect - a ditch. The land to the west is a cornfield, and I had to take Wags out of the car to, um, stretch her legs, and walk about 10 feet into the corn to reach 93 meters. To the east was a bean field. Both seemed parched, but nothing compared to the earlier summer heat. I still believe these crops are ruined, however. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers with Sam and Wags in tow

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD50-CAAN Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.5274° W 087.9347° State: Illinois Date Found: 8/28/2005 4:02 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Wags Temperature: 85°F/29°C New Lenox, Illinois, SW of Chicago 17.13 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Latnern Lane and Francis Field McMeanderer had visited this location back on August 2 (much to my surprise), and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get out and visit it. The first week in August, I was in Bend, Kentucky, with my church's youth group at the Redbird Mission for a week of helping out others. Following that week was a week of getting the boys ready for school, and taking my older boy on a Webelos Resident Camp for Boy Scouts (3 days of the first heavy rains we had had all summer). The following weekend was our Cub Scout Pack's Kickoff Event, so another weekend disappeared. Throw in the fact that the Markwell Family Handbell Choir (a group of 8 or 9 of my siblings, mom and various nieces and nephews) had two performances, and this has been a BUSY August. So, after hitting GD50-BYVI, I decided that I would continue my journey, on to New Lenox and score the additional 2 points for my team. Just to quote some of McMeanderer's points... It looked like large chunks of farmland had been sold off to any interested developer who promptly developed it according to whichever commercial interest contracted them. It looked like the buildings were erected atop of wasteland, leaving a distinctly unpleasant landscape. Add to this an immense amount of construction around the area, which seemed to be primarily the widening of roads to accommodate and/or ease the increased traffic. I believe it was the town of Mokena, but I’m not certain. It did get better as I got closer to CAAN, which is at the very end of the one-lane “no outlet” of Lantern Lane in New Lenox, Illinois. The house at the very end, number 1044, built of a reddish wood with forest green trim, had a matching shed. The dashpoint is behind this shed. To the west north of the point is a new road that looks like it is the early stages of a new development. Kudos to the Lantern Lane folks, though: whether by there choice or some other reason, this new road dead-ends just feet away from where it would otherwise intersect with their road. From my report on GD50-BYVI, you can see that urban sprawl of the worst kind is encroaching everywhere in this area. I'll add to his report that I didn't approach any closer than 53 meters - not entering the driveway of 1044 Lantern Lane, but admiring it, and the horse trailer in the driveway, from a distance. The kudos to the Latern Lane folks may be mis-directed kudos, however. It looks like that poor planning was taken to the extreme. The newly constructed road that threatens to demolish the heavily forested area was created on a slight incline, which gave the road a hill as it approached Latern Lane. Where this newly constructed road stops, there is a good meter drop from the end of the road, to the level of the road at the perpendicular Lantern Lane. Unless the construction owners completely seal off Lantern Lane, this road is NOT continuing. Poor planning indeed. Two more quick tidbits: This dashpoint is less than one kilometer from Francis Field Community Building, where my parents take their dachshund for Agility Training (obstacle courses for dogs) every Sunday, and According to my trip odometer, I travelled 146.2 miles just for dashing today - car gets about 20mpg, local cost of gas is 2.70$US/gal, so in gas alone, I spent about 19.73$US for these two points. Not a bad way to spend it. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers with Sam and Wags in tow Picture of the Bedecked Sign for Lantern Lane has been uploaded

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Last Updated:
August 30 2005 13:00 CDT