Team Markwell's GPS Adventures
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First Quarter 2010

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GDAD-CADO Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.6156° W 087.8725° State: Illinois Date Found: 1/3/2010 12:14 pm Hunters: Kelly, Wags Temperature: 3°F/-16°C Closest Distance: 55.0 meters Orland Park, northeast of Homer Glen, SW of Chicago 18.45 miles from home

Dashpoint Name: Sign of the Times First dashpoint of the year for me, and brrrr - 'twas cold. This was an easy drive-by about 20 miles (30km) due east of home, but travel might have added a couple of miles due to no straight road going that way. While access to the 100 meter circle was obtained from a little deadend road in the subdivision to the east, the point lies in the truck loading area of a now empty warehouse/distribution facility. Evidently the economic times had hit this plant. The front sign outside the building (with many parking spots that are unplowed from any recent snowfall) is nothing more than a concrete slab devoid of any brand name. Pictures uploaded. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Geovexilla Icon to see the Map VX41-SOPE Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.7398° W 088.1855° State: Illinois Date Found: 1/28/2010 6:02 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 6°F/-14°C Closest Distance: 88.8 meters Flag: Turks and Caicos Islands Book Road 7.08 miles from home

Geovexilla Name: On the Way Home from Work Seeker: Markwell Nice easy score on Book Road on the south side of Naperville, Illinois. Book Road disects Dragon Lake Preserve (also known as Spring Valley Forest Preserve). The specific location was accessed on a dip between a hill to the north that was shaded with trees from this prairie preserve (hills to the east of the road) and a small creek to the south, only visible in the evening moonshine as a guard rail on the low bridge. In fact, this location was the parking area for a cache (Tick Terror - GC57E4) that has one of my favorite logs from a fellow cacher. In talking about this section of Book Road: “Here, there's miles of lonely tall grass rolling away in all directions, virtually empty of human activity except for the constant traffic jam crammed onto Book Road which bisects the forsaken, vast grasslands like the g-string of a giant’s bikini. The contrast between the peaceful, rolling meadows and the frantic highway is absolutely intriguing...” Turks and Caicos Islands Flag for Markwell

Smiley Cache by GeoMay01 N 41° 37.868 W 088° 11.803 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 1/31/2010 Hunters: Kelly, Grainger

Grainger Helped

"Drochia, Moldova" Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug

2008 Groundspeak Volunteer Geocoin - Markwell 08

Strolled out on a day with Grainger, our Cardigan Welsh Corgi, to learn some manners and also find a cache. I was able to leave the GPS behind thanks to some good recon work with Google Earth ahead of time.

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GDAE-BYZA Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.6381° W 088.3452° State: Illinois Date Found: 2/2/2010 7:23 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 25°F/-4°C Closest Distance: 52.6 meters Oswego, Illinois, WSW of Chicago 6.04 miles from home

Dashpoint Name: Reservation Road and Waa Kee Sha This dashpoint was less than 10 km from home and not that far out of the way, but it took until Groundhog Day for me to get it (I had thought about going out on Jan 31 before midnight, but I like my sleep). Waa Kee Sha Park is just a little to the west, and was home to my final stage of my Liberal Arts Geocache (GC9A69) which had some chemistry, basic trigonometry, morse code and triangulation formulas to be able to find the cache. The dashpoint itself is just to the west of a corner in Reservation Road. I was able to scrore the point by driving north on Reservation Road and looking into the barren corn stubble field to the east. So - Waa Kee Sha…Waa Kee Sha Park In the Treaty of 1829 signed at Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, the U.S. Government granted reserves of land to two Indians then living in Kendall County. The larger Waish Kee Shaw Reserve went to the Indian wife of fur trader and businessman David Laughton and to her son, Joseph. The other reserve was granted to an individual named Mo-Ah-Way, of whom little else is known. Reservation Road bisects the two reserves, thus the road's name. And the Oswegoland Park District's Waa Kee Sha Park was named after Waish Kee Shaw. Source 3 February points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GDAE-CAFH Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.9244° W 087.9002° State: Illinois Date Found: 2/16/2010 1:42 pm Hunters: Kelly Temperature: 31°F/-1°C Closest Distance: 46.2 meters Fullerton and Wolf, Northlake, IL, West of Chicago 25.77 miles from home

Dashpoint Name: Fairview Memorial Park A day off of work early and I was able to score this drive-by dashpoint. Northlake is a typical suburb of Chicago that has been enveloped by the megalopolis of Chicago. Most of Cook County has become contiguous suburbs that cannot be distinguished by gaps between towns, but rather through artificial boundaries like streets or county lines. One can drive from the downtown area of Lincoln Park in Chicago out Route 64 for 21 kilometers and hit Northlake, IL, without any drop in population density or mini-mall count. This little hamlet just 5.5 km south of O'Hare Airport does sport the Fairview Memorial Park, a cemetery just to the west of the dashpoint. Increasingly cemeteries in the area are moving toward this more pristine setting of non-headstone parks for internment. The dashpoint itself lies on the property of #52 Wagner, which has a friendly sea-based sunset painted on the garage door, complete with birds shaped like squashy letter m's. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GDAF-BYYS Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.7622° W 088.6222° State: Illinois Date Found: 3/6/2010 2:51 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Wags, Grainger Temperature: 49°F/9°C Closest Distance: 76.3 meters Hinckley, Illinois - West of Chicago 21.93 miles from home

Dashpoint Name: Buried Fiber Optic Near the Airport and Globtrotters What a gorgeous day! After the winter doldroms had taken their toll, and I was getting restless with our house and being tied to the four walls, it was a refreshing change to have temperatures start to climb into spring weather. My typical “happy” threshold for GPS-based games is a magical number of 50°F/10°C for my comfort zone, and today was the first such day approaching that temperature since before the turn of the calendar year. So, Grainger the Corgi, my younger son and I went on a trek to catch two dashpoints - both almost in a straight line away from our house, with the furthest one only 22 miles (35.4km) from home. We hit the further of the two first: GDAE-BYYS. The dashpoint lies to the south of Hinckley, Illinois, which I first mentioned on my trek for GD06-03903 (Dec 2001) as having “claims on their signs that in 1927, they hosted the very first basketball game of the Harlem Globetrotters”. This town was also home to the airport in which 18 years ago, my father-in-law had a dream come true for his 50th birthday of a glider ride. The point lies to the south-east of the town on Jericho Road, and the closest approach was marked by signs indicating that diggers and farmers needed caution due to the fact that there was a buried Fiber Optic cable crossing that area. The field holding the dashpoint to the south has corn stubble, but it was refreshing to see the sunshine and mud versus clouds and snowdrifts. After hitting GDAE-BYYS, we headed toward home on Jericho Road to hit GDAE-CAAT. 3 points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Click on Dash Icon to see the Map GDAF-CAAT Terra Server Picture Coordinates: N 41.7419° W 088.3356° State: Illinois Date Found: 3/6/2010 3:22 pm Hunters: Kelly, Sam, Wags, Grainger Temperature: 49°F/9°C Closest Distance: 99.3 meters Montgomery, Illinois - south of Aurora, far west of Chicago 8.82 miles from home

Dashpoint Name: One End of Jericho to the Other GDAE-BYYS (the dashpoint from which we started this trek) lies almost at the far western edge of Jericho Road. After hitting GDAE-BYYS, on this wonderfully warm 50°F/10°C day, my younger son, Grainger the Corgi and I traveled the 16 miles (26km) to the far eastern end of Jericho Road, in Montgomery, Illinois. This dashpoint lies on the land of the Fox Valley Park District, in one of its parks. The gates were still locked for the season, but we weren’t the only individuals interested in the public land that day. Luckily, we were able to score the point simply by pulling up to the locked gates about 85 meters from the point. The dashpoint is accessible by the park, but actually lies on the middle of the railroad tracks to the east. This is a spur of tracks that to the north heads up toward the Aurora train station (one of the Metra public rail stations and Amtrack hub) and to the southwest continues out until the town of Plano, Illinois where it then becomes the shadow tracks to the old US Route 34 (Ogden Avenue). As I said, we weren’t going to get any closer than the parking lot if we were to walk out of the car, and we had scored already from the gates - so we ended our hunting today and headed home. 3 more points for Markwell and Trailblazers

Technology Drive Park by Trailhound1 N 37° 04.646 W 088° 40.477 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/27/2010 Hunters: Kelly, Lester

I had almost forgotten to log this cache - we were staying at the Holiday Inn Express (less than a quarter mile from the cache) and found it while walking the dog. Nice find, but tricky.

Paducah Park by Max PDOP N 37° 05.021 W 088° 38.145 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/27/2010 Hunters: Kelly, Grandpa Wallace

So we were staying in Paducah and needed to run the dog. I grabbed my father-in-law and we went out and hit these two caches - this virtual and Technology Drive Park. Pretty easy find, but a good placement.

Riverside Memorial Cache by mjs161 N 40° 11.989 W 088° 23.665 Difficulty: Terrain: Date Found: 3/29/2010 Hunters: Kelly, Sherry, Drew and Sam

Driving on the return from Paducah, we decided that we could last with one more stop at a cache on the way home. Since we normally take 47 up from Champaign to Morris, this was a good stop. Nice cache, although it was a bit wet. Found a Wallace nearby.

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Last Updated:
June 28 2010