Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
In chronological order

Back Home

January 2006

Short Stop by ChicagoGeoTracker N 41° 47.465 W 088° 04.736 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 1/6/2006 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I was up in Downers Grove for a doctor's visit. I looked closely at another cache, but since the police were sitting within feet of it, I decided not to even search. But this one was on the way home as well, and only a short walk from parking. It was a nice ammo box with spot-on coordinates, even though it's not really a terrain. The hiding location had evidently had some moisture that frozen, melted and then froze again, as the container was stuck tight, but a good stiff tug removed it and I was signing the log book in no time. I need to start planning a big caching day...

Turn Around by Solitarian N 41° 48.532 W 088° 13.229 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 1/17/2006 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Ferry Road used to be (like Heggs/Eola) a back country road that got me from one very populated area to another by going through unpopulated territory. Alas, those days are no more. Ferry Road was detoured from the train crossing and made into a major east-west passageway between Eola and Warrenville Roads. One of the side-affects is that an area of road is still there, and there is still remnants of when there was a School Bus turn around that needed warnings to other drivers. Nifty little quick cache.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD55-CAAD Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.8026° W 088.2540° State: Illinois Date Found: 1/17/2006 1:12 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 37°F/3°C Just north of Interstate 88, Wheaton, Illinois, West of Chicago 11.10 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Illinois Prairie Path, Big Woods and a Canoe Landing As a Cub Scout leader, I work pretty hard to get the pack nights ready for an exciting meeting, and the third Tuesday of the month is a pack night. I had taken this afternoon off to finish up some projects that I was working on - as we had a guest coming for this pack night: Cold Blooded Creature (coldbloodedcreatures.com). But this point was calling as well, so on the way home, I checked on one of my nearby caches (GCN4H1) that had been reported missing - it was not. I parked at the trail head for the Illinois Prairie Path, a converted railway line. You can see a map here: http://www.ipp.org/GUI/index.html - and where the red dotted line of the path crosses I-88 in the far southwest corner of the map is where this dashpoint lies. The Illinois Prairie Path is a one lane 61-mile hard-packed gravel trail along the old rail lines that used to make up the Chicago-Aurora-and-Elgin rail line. The rail line discontinue use of these tracks in 1957, and the path was the first U.S. rail-to-trail conversion in the nation in the 1960's. The point itself lies just west of the Prairie Path in DuPage County's Big Woods Forest Preserve, which is kind of a misnomer. I've been to the Shawnee National Forest. I've been hiking on the Cumberland Trail from Signal Point on Signal Mountain, TN to Edwards Point. Those are Big Woods. This may be a Big Woods for DuPage County, but it is NOT a "Big Woods". This north-south spur of the path led me straight to an east-west opening in the tree line bordering the gravel lane - one that was made for the electrical wires to pass east-west. Following this now grassy trail, I reached the magic circle just feet off of the Prairie Path, but having studied the Google Earth version of this point extensively, I knew I could zero out. The trail led straight to a retention pond set up for run off water for the interstate roaring 250 meters to the south. At the edge of the water, the trail led straight in, as if some amphibious vehicle drove up to the shore and continued on into the water - but I took it instead as a canoe or boat launching location. Ground Zero was just in the brush to the south of this boat launch. The last time I had walked this path was almost exactly a two years ago, when on Jan 23 2004, I found GCHDFY, a now archived cache that used to rest only 113 meters from this point. Thanks for bringing me back! 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Geocache by Lily Cache Creek by cldisme N 41° 34.229 W 088° 11.183 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 1/27/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Sam

Dopey

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Back in June of 2001 I placed the final cache of Hard as Pi only about 100 feet from this location. While I love this placement, and the great container, I am concerned that it won't last long into the soccer season. Great excuse to get out and drop off the Dopey Travel Bug that I've had since September's gathering.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD55-BYTU Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 42.1801° W 089.0200° State: Illinois Date Tried: 1/28/2006 9:15 am Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry, About 26 other members of my church youth group Temperature: 45°F/7°C Along the Interstate, South of Rockford 55.04 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: On the way to the Kalahari My church does an annual "get away" with the high school students: some going to Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin for skiing and the rest to the Kalahari indoor waterpark in Wisconsin Dells (Baraboo), Wisconsin. This year I offered to go along as a chaperone for the trip. The interstate biscecting the state of Illinois to the northern and southern borders is I-39, and it passes along the eastern edge of the city of Rockford, Illinois. Before veering east to wrap around the city, the highway crosses the Kishwaukee River. This bridge was just about my closest approach to the point while traveling north at about 68 mph (109 kph). I got a decent look at the valley surrounding the point and saw that the river is quite wide and deep here - about 40-50 meters across. If time had allowed, I would have loved to take out the hiking boots and explore this area fully, as it looks quite rustic and wooded. But alas, it was not to be, as my young traveling companions were on a tight schedule. So no points, but a wistful glance at a dashpoint Markwell et al for the Trailblazers

Back to December 2005
On to February 2006

Last Updated:
February 15 2006 19:30 CST