Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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Third Quarter 2009

Click on Geovexilla Icon to see the Map VX37-NIGA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.6462° W 088.3528° State: Illinois Date Found: 7/7/2009 7:11 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam Temperature: 76°F/24°C Closest Distance: 13.8 meters Flag: Argentina Near Reservation and Grove, Owsego 6.44 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is Geovexilla point.

Geovexilla Name: Buena Vista near Oswego A short little drive from home during the off week between productions got me within scoring distance of this flag (which is only about 6 miles from home). The point is in a new subdivision off of Old Reservation Road, which is actually newer than the nearby Reservation Road. The point lies in the side yard of a brick brown brick house - in which the family was out on the lawn enjoying a cool summer evening.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD97-BYXU Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.0903° W 088.6225° State: Illinois Date Found: 7/18/2009 9:28 am Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Sherry Temperature: 67°F/19°C Closest Distance: 63.5 meters Budd, Illinois, Northern Part of Central Illinois 43.25 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: The Town That Is No More We were driving down to Bloomington/Normal to Illinois State University to pick up my oldest son from a week of playing Tuba at Band Camp. Looking on the map, there's a town called Budd. It's on the east-west road Route 17 west of Interstate 55 and East of Interstate 39, close to where the north-south road Route 23 intersects Route 17. But the town of Budd seemlingly now consists of a massive church that is no longer in use. The church rivals the size of my own familial church, which can seat 300-400 people when packed full, and this church is at least as big. The parsonage for use by the clergy was at some distant point in the past converted to actually be attached to the church so that the staff wouldn't have to brave the elements in getting to church on Sunday. Also on the property, there's a two story community building with approximately 20 windows from the north to south layout of the building. I would guess that each window would be about two rooms. All of this appears to be abandoned. The church has ivy growing over the doors. The driveway while having a fairly new looking vehicle in the driveway is mostly overgrown. The community building's roof is collapsing, and through the many broken windows, rafters and skylight can be seen streaming onto the second floor. Most assuredly the building is unsafe to approach or stroll in. This community building and church can easily be seen from the dashpoint, which lies in the cornfield to the southeast of the intersection of Route 17 and County Road 1600. I'll upload pictures in the next couple days. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD97-BYVI Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 40.6187° W 088.8270° State: Illinois Date Found: 7/18/2009 10:50 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Sherry Temperature: 67°F/19°C Closest Distance: 18.6 meters Farmland Near Lexington, IL - north of Bloomington 77.24 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Gravel Access to Gas We were driving down to Bloomington/Normal to Illinois State University to pick up my oldest son from a week of playing Tuba at Band Camp. After scoring GD97-BYXU, we hopped back on to Interstate 55, and exited at Lexington, Illinois, just two interchanges north of Normal. After crossing old Route 66, and vertically crossing the interstate via bridge, we came to the point where I knew this point would be interesting. The recon maps showed that there was indeed some type of road that went from the main county road to a dead end directly to the south that would get us almost on top of the dashpoint. When we were directly north, I found that the maps were right. Evidently a major natural gas line runs underground through this area, and gravel road access paths through the cornfields are spaced at regular intervals. Access to the dashpoint could be gained through one of the paths. We carefully looked for No Trespassing signs, and seeing none, drove down the access path until we scored at 18.78 meters, then turned around and exited - with no confrontations or questions from any onlookers. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD98-BYYR Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.9833° W 088.1755° State: Illinois Date Found: 8/8/2009 11:58 am Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 86°F/30°C Closest Distance: 36.8 meters Bartlett, Illinois, West of WNW of Chicago 23.69 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Busy Errands and a Landscaping Day Today was a day full of errands: Department of Motor Vehicles for the annual sticker, oil change, etc, etc, and there was a drive-by dashpoint for the month. Coincidentally, it's also near the current church at which of one of my best friends currently serves as pastor (Good Shepherd United Methodist in Bartlett). So I ambled up north of Bartlett, Illinois and up the aptly named County Farm Road to the quaint neighborhood where the dashpoint lies. It seems that today being the first day above 30°C for about a month, today is the day to fix up the landscaping. I found the dashpoint in a little turn-around court in the front yard of a white two story house (address 515) with a well-worn basketball hoop indicating that it has survived several dunking sessions. The neighbors to the south and the southwest have intricate landscaping that was quite enjoyable. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GD99-CABA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.6334° W 087.9796° State: Illinois Date Found: 9/5/2009 2:49 pm Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Sam Temperature: 77°F/25°C Closest Distance: 9.3 meters Lockport/Homer Glen, SW of Chicago 12.85 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is dashpoint.

Dashpoint Name: Harry Potter and the Drive By Dashpoint So the boys and I went out to the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago with the express desire to see the Harry Potter exhibit, complete with wands, costumes and other props. It was quite interesting to see how excited the staff was - speaking the mock British accents and playing trivia while waiting in line. We also looked around the rest of the museum, but it just isn't quite as cool as I remembered it from when I was a kid. After finishing up, we traveled the interstate home and dropped off on the southbound interstate 355. The new extension that takes the interstate south of its previous termination at I-55 12.5 miles (20 km) to Interstate 80 has opened a new corridor in the Chicago metropolitan area, and made it that much easier to get to the dashpoint. It was almost exactly 2.6 km east of one of the interchanges, and 600 meters north of 143rd street. The point was on King Road right near the driveway of a house to the east, but it was the light brown house to the northwest - just barely within the scroing circle - that caught my eye. I snagged three pics on my cell phone and will post them momentarily. The neighborhood is wooded and has a combination of new and older homes and, rare for Illinois, some hills on some of the main streets. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

GONIL's Annual Picnic - 2009 by Geocachers of Northeastern Illinois N 41° 42.784 W 087° 57.615 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/12/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Rest of GONIL

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

I had almost forgotten about the annual picnic until Kerry Stockton posted something on facebook about it. I asked the Mrs and she graciously allowed me to head on over to Waterfall Glen sometime before noon with the idea that I'd be back after visiting and finding a few caches in the area. Good times, good caches and a great park.

GONIL 2008 Picnic Commemorative Cache by Container provided by GONIL N 41° 42.599 W 087° 57.381 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/12/2009 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Found while at the 2009 Picnic

Lake Lambert Lodge by pascal1947 N 41° 51.351 W 088° 04.590 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/17/2009 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Nice cache near my doctor's office. This is how I remember caching to be: a quick little jaunt in the woods through heavy foliage to find a big ammo can. A very nice cache indeed. Nice foliage indeed! It wasn't until 4 days later that I found that the itching on the back of my right calf wasn't a mosquito bite at all, but instead a fairly large dosage of poison ivy. It took my system almost 4 weeks, two rounds of steriods and much scrubbing and medicinal applications to get this off my skin. I have never had a reaction before, but now I'm doomed for life.

Cache in the Park 2 by ge-trekker5 N 41° 51.858 W 088° 04.234 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 9/17/2009 Hunters: Kelly

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Tried this cache that's REALLY close to my doctor's office, but no luck. The trees looks like they had a specific hiding spot, but it was NOT where I thought it would be.

This is where I dropped my phone. :( by Panther in the Den N 41° 42.064 W 087° 55.072 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 01

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Since the rest of the hunters were up at Beverly, I arrived early at Red Gate and scoped out caches that would be FAR away from the parking area, and not likely to be on our path, and was actually heading for Dynamite Road (GCWNV1, but the trails twisted and turned me away from the cache, so I settled on this one. Nice little find. By the time I fell out of the undergrowth, I was ready to head back to the main parking lot (about 2/3 of a mile) and wait for the crew to arrive).

Humble Homesteads by Coyote Trust N 41° 42.482 W 087° 54.852 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 04

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

This was to be the major effort of the day, along with the Red Gate. We started this one next, but actually found the final last in the day. Quite the trek, and if we had brought along actual maps of the area we would have done a lot better. This is now in my 'favorites' list.

The Manhattan Project by scottpash N 41° 42.437 W 087° 54.631 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Tried: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Our DNF for the day. This is a stage in one of the multis in the area, but is also supposed to be a real cache. We combed all over the location, and no cache.

Slough Down - Horsecollar II by Panther in the Den and Cobra67 N 41° 42.349 W 087° 54.483 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 02

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Our trek was definitely a winding one. We decided rather than backtracking west around the path (which is where we came from) that we would go east, which also meant hitting a cache only 300 feet away (yipee). Nice little cache.

Slough Down - Tomahawk II by Panther in the Den and Cobra67 N 41° 42.205 W 087° 54.189 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 06

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Again - our path around the main area led us to a nearby cache. So another find on a great hike.

Between A Rock and A Hard Spot by TheLoneRanger N 41° 42.111 W 087° 54.846 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 07

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Very nice bushwacking from the previous location. Of course if we had a map we would have seen there was a MUCH better path.

The Red Gate by TheLoneRanger N 41° 42.550 W 087° 55.051 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 05

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Finally! We had done MUCH hiking and trekking all over this park, and the final for the Red Gate was a very nice cache. Higher effort than we all thought it would be, but definitely worth it - especially when combined with Humble Homesteads (GC1GK6D).

Panther in the Den's 1000th by Quintin, KroBro and TheLoneRanger N 41° 42.226 W 087° 54.983 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/18/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Many others

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

On to finishing Humble Homesteads, we nabbed this one on the way. I had looked at the prospect earlier while coming back from 'This is Where I dropped my Phone', but decided to wait. Good bushwacking cache.

Row, row, row your boat... by Stunod & carleenp N 41° 27.288 W 088° 43.539 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/19/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Many others

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

First of three caches found while canoeing down the Fox River with 30 other cachers.

Schtinkin' Shoakin' Stollen by The Guys N 41° 27.292 W 088° 43.992 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 9/19/2009 Hunters: Kelly, Drew, Many others

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is cache.

Second of three caches found while canoeing down the Fox River with 30 other cachers

Click on Geovexilla Icon to see the Map VX38-VIBU Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.7556° W 087.9202° State: Illinois Date Scored with No Points: 9/19/2009 6:22 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 68°F/20°C Closest Distance: 68.9 meters Flag: Togo County Line Road and I55 17.72 miles from home

Green Dot is home. Blue Dot is Geovexilla point.

Geovexilla Name: On the Way to Visit Friends Somehow, I forgot to log this one, so I'll log it late with no score. The flag was at the intersection of County Line Road and I-55. Since I was on my way to Oak Brook and needed to take the southern exit, and was coming from the south, I needed to go through the interchange and do several clover-leaf turns to get to scoring range and then back to where I needed to go.

Back to Second Quarter 2009
On to Fourth Quarter 2009

Last Updated:
Oct 28 2009