Caching After Work - July 16, 2008

I had been looking for a place to drop off a geocoin that I had picked up on my last day of my vacation in Oregon. Since I had no geocaching trips planned, I figured that I would drop off this coin in one of the Mud Island caches. It turned out, though, that both caches that I was thinking about had been affected by the river flooding and had been archived.

I saw that their were two nearby new caches that I hadn't found. They were both close enough to where I work that I figured I would head out around 6pm and try them out. Since they were close, I decided to walk.

The first cache I went after, Hunt Phelan by Amie (GC1D54K), was under a mile away from where I work. After looking at the GPSr autorouting, I thought I'd try another way that kept me off Union Avenue. I took Beale Street over from the east end near Shelby State Community College. It is a fairly deserted street from that end. I had never visited the Hunt-Phelan home before and was a little surprised at the surrounding area. As is usual when I am geocaching, I only explored the area between where I entered the grounds and where the geocache was. Like others, I was taken aback by the rat poison container near the cache coordinates. Being so close to the cache, itself, I could imagine people looking it over to see if it is the cache. Bad idea, by the way. When I finally found the container, I was impressed by the labelling and the swag inside. After leaving, I realized it would have been a great place to drop off the geocoin. Oh well, I'll try to get back there soon to drop it off. This cache is part of a series called the "National Great River Road 70th Anniversary Geocaching Event."

I walked into downtown and then headed north to the Marriott area where the next cache was - Phirst Line of Defense/Fort Harris by cavecom (GC1DT79). I had stayed at this hotel before but had never been around to the little park on the northeast side. I read the two historical markers before searching for the cache. I had a little trouble finding this one and was glad that no one was around to see me wander aimlessly. After finally finding the cache and signing the log, I hiked back to work and logged my finds.