Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
Non omnes vagi perditi sunt
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August 2006

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD62-CAAN Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.4488° W 088.0796° State: Illinois Date Found: 8/5/2006 5:12 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry Temperature: 85°F/29°C Closest Distance: 37.3 meters South of Joliet, Illinois on Route 53 15.50 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Jackhammers and the Raceway Both this year and last, our Council for the Boy Scouts of America has hosted a pair of nights at the local minor league baseball team, the Joliet Jackhammers. The family can come out for a night of baseball, and then after exiting the stadium and returning with a special wristband, the scouts can camp on the outfield while watching a movie on the big jumbo-tron display. This year, we took just a little extra time getting to the stadium and traveled the four miles south on the old Route 66 - now Illinois Route 53 - south to this dashpoint. The point also landed a couple miles south of the Joliet Speedway, and indeed - baseball was not the only professional sport happening in Joliet this weekend. We scored the point by pulling in to the driveway of the brown brick house right on the corner of 53 and Millsdale Road, and turned around heading back into Joliet. Halfway through the 5th inning, my youngest (pictured in the uploaded photo with the cotton candy) asked where we would be setting up the tents. I explained and talked about the fact that the tent couldn't be staked due to the grass, when I suddenly realized I had forgotten the spines for the tent. EEK. So I hustled the 13 miles home listening to the game all the way on the local station, and made it back to the parking area with the spine of the tent JUST as the game was letting out. We camped, and all was good. One photo uploaded of my sons and I in our scouting uniforms, and a second photo photo of the field full of tents. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD62-BYVU Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.8837° W 088.6403° State: Illinois Date Found: 8/7/2006 10:16 am Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam Temperature: 84°F/29°C Closest Distance: 6.8 meters North of Hinckley, Far West of Chicago 26.92 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Memories of Past Dashes: Buffalo Ranch With not much to tell on this point, I'll make it a point to say that I had an AWFUL lot of fun driving with my boys on this hunt. I knew the area well, having been out this way in the past. In fact, we passed the same buffalo ranch mention in my April 5, 2003, dashpoint hunt for GD22-BYRY: "Of note, I took the backroads home, and stumbled across a Buffalo Ranch at 41.85045, -88.59586 - complete with a grazing herd in the back.". But alas, no buffalo were roaming today. The point is again middle of the flat farmlands of Illinois, complete with corn to the west and beans to the east. The road housing the dashpoint travels south to Hinckley, mentioned many previous dashpoints as the town in which the Harlem Globetrotters first played. Just a couple kilometers to the north (maybe even less than 1) the road passes over Interstate 88, the most expensive portion of tollway in Illinois - $2 for people without the magical I-Pass electronic paying device. Ouch. Pictures of the radio transmission tower to the southeast have been uploaded, as well as a photo of an oddly shaped windmill we found on the way - extremely aerodynamic, looking like an airplane. The REALLY strange part was that this technologically advanced windmill was resting on the property of a farmhouse that looked like it hadn't been lived in for 6 or 7 years. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

That's One Ugly Tree! by G.O. John and Carol N 41° 45.212 W 088° 16.134 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 8/16/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam, Sherry, Pack 13 Cub Scouts

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Had a great time finding some caches with the Cub Scouts of Pack 13 on an afternoon hike - we traded out the whole container. I replaced it back better hidden than before, but it appears that subsequently, the cache was taken. Grrrr... Good hike, nasty bugs.

2 CBR's 1000th by JBGeo N 41° 45.181 W 088° 16.019 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Revisited: 8/16/2006 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry, Drew, Sam and Pack 13

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found this one as the second of two. Found a MUCH nicer way in and out than the last time I tried and found this cache back in April. Good hike, nasty bugs.

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Last Updated:
October 30 2006