Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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Second Quarter 2008

Moving On by cluehunter N 41° 38.221 W 088° 14.133 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 4/6/2008 Hunters: Kelly, Drew Cache Find Number 380

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found this one on a four-mile bike ride. First cache I've ever found just using bike power, but it helps that I only live 851 straight-meters away. Unfortunately, the cache was in bad shape - soggy log book, drenched contents, and sitting visible to almost everyone. If anyone does a cleanup of the area, this will be mistaken for trash.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD82-CAGO Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.8378° W 087.6644° Dash Hunt Number 290 State: Illinois Date Found: 4/15/2008 11:34 am Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Temperature: 54°F/12°C Closest Distance: 50.9 meters Archer Avenue near Chinatown, Chicago 32.03 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Urban Blockbuster, and hit from the Stevenson In a location that was just over a half-mile from GD48-CAGA, I was able to score this one on the way to downtown Chicago for a hospital visit of a friend. All is well with the friend, and the dashpoint rests in the aisles of a Blockbuster Video store in a little strip mall. Not far from here is Chinatown, an area in Chicago known for its local population and cuisine. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD82-BYZO Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.9077° W 088.2163° Dash Hunt Number 291 State: Illinois Date Found: 4/24/2008 2:22 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 75°F/24°C Closest Distance: 48.8 meters West Chicago, IL (West of Chicago - Go Figure) 18.33 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Hawthorne is closed by the Airport Picking up our rental radios for our annual conference, I was able to snag this quick dashpoint on my errands. North Avenue (64) is one of the major routes that heads out of downtown Chicago to Rockford, and passes through some great spots - not the least of which is the Cascade Drive-In Theater and the DuPage County Airport (where my Aero-Dashing adventures start off. My planned access road of Hawthorne was closed, necessitating a long detour, but I got there. The dashpoint lies in the side yard of two new houses, one biege (1331 Sandcherry) and one white brick. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Geovexilla Icon to see the Map VX17-GIUK Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.5300° W 088.2095° Geovexilla Hunt Number 13 State: Illinois Date Found: 5/26/2008 2:40 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 84°F/29°C Closest Distance: 5.1 meters Flag: Bolivia Shorewood, IL - Just west of Route 59 7.83 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is Geovexilla point.

Geovexilla Name: Shorewood Brick House Heading down Route 59 to pick up I-55 in Shorewood, I was able to sneak off the main road and into the neighborhood to the west. At first glance of the maps, I wasn't sure if this would be a drive-by or not, but the Google Maps showed a promising look of “development” in the area, and I was lucky. The coordinates pointed to a newly built red-brick house with a pile of gravel in the front driveway. Easily scored from the car.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD83-BYZA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.2074° W 088.3657° Dash Hunt Number 292 State: Illinois Date Found: 5/26/2008 3:27 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 84°F/29°C Closest Distance: 94.0 meters Just west of Gardner, IL near the old Route 66 30.87 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Summer is Finally Here Temperatures have been all over the place for the last couple of weeks. It seems that winter doesn't want to loose its grip on the Chicago area, and just this past Friday, we watched the opening game of the local minor league baseball team in temperatures hovering at 50°F/10°C. So it was with great relief that I saw the termometer top the 80°F/27°C point on the forecast. After participating in the Memorial Day Parade with the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts, I needed some space, and I hadn't been out dashing since April 24. So since Wadcutter hit the one to the north I decided to go for the extra point that will put Trailblazers over the top this month (yea, right). The dashpoint lies in freshly sprouted corn fields to the northwest of the Gardner, Illinois exit of Interstate 55, which is the old Route 66. Just 2.75 miles (4½ km) off of the interchange I came upon the closest approach via road, which was just to the north of a farm house that was hosting a massive shin-dig of a party, complete with rented tents (plural) and about 25-30 cars in the front yard. I exited the vehicle and walked about 50 meters to the north, being careful not to trod on the freshly growing corn, scored, and retreated to the car with nary a soul to witness my excursion. 3 Summertime points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD84-CACA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.1782° W 088.1393° Dash Hunt Number 293 State: Illinois Date Found: 6/15/2008 2:15 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sherry Temperature: 82°F/28°C Closest Distance: 11.5 meters Essex, Illinois, SW of Chicago 32.38 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Barker's Art; The Old Grey Mare My 76S has bitten the dust. Sometime about 10 days ago, I turned on the GPS to see a screen that resembled a bar-code scanner - (sigh). So my Father's Day gift turned out to be a new GPS. Unfortunately, the shipping was delayed due to storms in Salina, Kansas - so it didn't make it here for the original ship date of last Friday. Checking the UPS tracking, it should arrive tomorrow. But when the wife asks what I want to do for Father's Day - how could I say anything different. So I pulled out my trusty old little yellow eTrex and manually entered the coordinates and we were off. The drive about 50km south was pretty uneventful - driving past Wilmington (my parents' home town, mentioned many times before), and ending up on the old Route 66 again. We drove through Braidwood and saw a HUGE high school, and then landed on Essex Road, which took us to the small town of Essex. Just before we got to the less-than-two-kilometers area, we saw a very cool outdoor-front-yard gallery of a folk artist named Jack Barker that used scrap metal and bumpers and many other cast-off items as his medium. Wish I had the camera to show some of the cool stuff, but I did find mention of Mr. Barker on two websites: il66authority.com and americanpopularculture.com - and one of the sites had a great picture that I've copied an uploaded (with a close-up of one piece of art). The point itself is about 2 miles east of Essex, and lies on the side yard between a mustard yellow house and a mobile home, and there is a petroleum pipeline underground that crosses the east-west road where we scored (with a marker of 1744 for the position on the pipeline. 3 Father's Day points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Geovexilla Icon to see the Map VX17-FONA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.6039° W 088.1232° Geovexilla Hunt Number 14 State: Illinois Date Found: 6/19/2008 8:15 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam Temperature: 76°F/24°C Closest Distance: 10.4 meters Flag: Antigua and Barbuda Romeoville, IL - Weber Road near Renwick 6.05 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is Geovexilla point.

Geovexilla Name: Richardson and Mueller The Mrs was having a Pampered Chef party, so I took the boys out to McDonalds and a playland - the older is ALMOST too old for the equipment, but he's definitely too big. Afterward, we drive south on Weber Road toward Joliet and passed the place where we're doing our classroom training for the Boy Scouts Adult Leader class: Wood Badge (I'm on staff this year). The place is a construction office owned by one of our troop's scoutmasters: Rob Richardson - Richardson and Mueller, and this Geovexilla point and the flag of Antigua and Barbuda is only 296 meters north of that location. While the terra server maps show farmland, this area now has a Walmart, Walgreens, McDonalds and several other stores cropping up on the west side of Weber Road.

CCC-Illini by RetiredDNR&R2 N 41° 19.171 W 088° 42.119 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 6/22/2008 Hunters: Kelly Cache Find Number 381

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

After camping at Illini State Park with Pack 13 two of the families decided to try and find this cache. Having been kept up by the Freedom Ride and Bill Halley's Comets the previous night, the other Markwells had enough nature for a weekend. The other family took one look at the poison ivy on the fringe and decided against tackling this cache at this time. However, I ventured on. Leave it to me to find the rough way in and the easy way out from the cache. I circled around to the west quite unnecessarily and hiked about 500 feet through dense woods, poison ivy and stinging nettles. Found the quick way out that was the obvious intended path, which was not so obvious at this time of the year. Cache is in good condition, although the log book is full on one side of the paper, so I needed to use the other side. Thanks for an awesome round-up to a great weekend!

Nevermore by carleenp N 41° 30.872 W 088° 18.621 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 6/24/2008 Hunters: Kelly, 8 scouts from Pack 13

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

On an afternoon hike with Pack 13. Had some scouts that barely reached above some of the grassy areas, and the mosquitos were very, VERY hungry. Found it and chuckled. Signed the log - a great creative hide

Pikas and Hamsters and Chickens, Oh my! by Stunod N 41° 30.977 W 088° 18.959 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 6/24/2008 Hunters: Kelly, 8 Scouts from Pack 13

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

On an afternoon hike with Pack 13. This must be much easier in the wintertime when this was placed. Ground cover and some considerable poison ivy and thorns on the way, and once there, the mosquitos were so numerous that we held up the bag for all to see, signed the log book and high-tailed it out of there, heading this time on a straight line route back to the path instead of the round-about meandering trying to find some path. This is a great hide and an awesome off-road adventure.

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Last Updated:
July 4 2008