Bells, TN - Dyersburg, TN - 12/29/2009

I decided that today I would pick up a string of caches between Bells, TN to the east and Dyersburg, TN to the north. I left the house around 6:15am and made it to the Pilot Truck Stop (40 miles east of Memphis) for my first "break" around 7am.

My first cache stop was Nathaniel Williams Cemetery by vettebabe5 (GCQMM0), just east of Bells. I had struck out on this cache twice before more than 4 years ago, so it was a trip down memory lane to come back to this area. I found the cache quickly and believe that its coordinates have been changed over the years.

Most of the caches I found were along Hwy 412 with a diversion here and there. A majority of the caches on this route were put out by JimmyLogan and Bashful of JAG. After finding a couple of these caches with torn or missing bags for the logs, I dug around in my bag and found a couple of good small ziplock bags to replace the next two bad baggies I came across.

Some of the noteworthy caches I found were:
Ishteiodo (ish-tee-oh-doe) by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1474F) - I DNF'ed on this when it was put out just prior to the Ice Cream Social by jimmylogan & B@shful (GC12CPM). On this day, I walked right up to it. Anti-climactic, but it had been on my mind since the summer of 2007 so I was glad to get it off my list.


Where Friends Lie Resting by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GCYAF2) - Nicely tucked away, I almost gave up on it. When I found it, I saw the log was unbagged. I bagged it so that my signature would remain unsmeared - the log was damp.


Up hill where the water runs by Midsouth Runners (GC1V2M3) - not really hidden, but it was in an interesting spot - I took a ingot coin from here to move on.

Cemetery Walk by Bashful and Jimmylogan (GCYD16) - I found a lot of cemetery caches today. This one was interesting because a puppy from across the road came over to help me find the cache. I nicknamed him "Titansfan" because he kept getting in my way. The church had a time capsule that I was going to take a picture of before I left, but the dog had distracted me, so I had to spend effort making sure I didn't run over him as I was leaving.

Boondocks by tnicemgr & M@verick (GCRPE8)- This is an older cache (2005) which sparked much discussion on the GOWT forums when it first came out. There were two other caches in this immediate area, but I was focused on this one.


I found a couple more caches, including find #3100 - Little Bitty by tnicemgr (GCTNJM) before gassing up and heading west on I-155 across the river to Missouri. I still had a little bit of daylight left so I headed to Blytheville, AR to pick up a cache I missed on my last trip through.

My last cache find of the day was Walking the Line by kjw0169 (GC1W9M7) - a pretty interesting sight at the border between Missouri and Arkansas on Hwy 61.


I had only minutes of daylight left so I headed to Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA). I was reasonably sure I stood no chance of solving the physical puzzle involved, but I at least wanted to give it a try. I spent at least 20 minutes on it before moving on - defeated.


The above object is "Grandpa's Challenge", an example of a monkey puzzle.

Blytheville was a good as place as any to eat dinner so I ended up stopping at Perkins restaurant for a meal before heading the rest of the way to Memphis.

Blytheville, AR, Hayti, MO, Dyersburg, TN - 12/27/2009

I had been to Blytheville once before, so I was somewhat familiar with the layout of the land. My goal here was mainly to got after the four caches in the "Blytheville 4" series as well as avenge a DNF or two from my previous trip. I left early and arrived in Blytheville around 7am.

My first stop was at Wal-Mart to take a bathroom break and hunt the nearby cache - CAA I55 - Wally Pole by Doug&Di (GC14YQ0). Security was patrolling the area so I had to leave and save that cache for later. I headed east to pick up a few outside of town and only managed to get to Sleeping in the Carr by Doug&Di (GC14Z6X).

I avenged a DNF on Dead Center Field by Doug&Di (GC14Z2K). This was made possible by the fact there were no muggles playing baseball on this cold winter day. In fact, the entire park was empty.

The B'Ville 4 - #4 by Doug&Di (GC16JV9)
This required finding three caches in the series and writing down tow letter-number pairs from each one to be used in completing the coordinates for #4.

[ ammo can ? ]

The B'Ville 4 - #1 by Doug&Di (GC16JWT) was at a cemetery in an ammo can about the size of my thumb. Nice!
The B'Ville 4 - #2 by Doug&Di (GC16JWN) was a bust because even though I had solved the associated puzzle, I just could not find the nano.
The B'Ville 4 - #3 by Doug&Di (GC16JWV) was an easy find near the local YMCA - abandoned on this day.

So, since I needed six digits to complete the coordinates for B4 and I only had 4, I had to move on. Hopefully I won't lose the data I collected from #1 and #3.

I decided to skip past Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA) on this trip and missed Walking the Line by kjw0169 (GC1W9M7) due to an incorrect approach. So at this point I was northward bound.

I crossed the border into Missouri and picked up a couple in the tiny town of Cooter. Next, I visited Steele, and found gateway to fun by cheapthrl (GC1ZQPQ) in a nice park with a veteran's memorial (and a bathroom).

My next stop was Hayti, MO where I picked up 8 nice caches; most done by Midsouth Runners whom I met outside of Home Is Where The Heart Is by Midsouth Runners (GC1REX7).

[ The owners were watching me ]

My favorite hides here were History Class by Midsouth Runners (GC1RVFC) and Reflections of Vacations Present by MightyDee (maintained by MidSouth Runners) (GC1ZKC8).

[ History Class ]

My next stop was a KOA park where I found Sleepless Nights by Midsouth Runners (GC1WE36). I got my feet wet here as well which made the rest of the cold day somewhat more miserable.

I took the back roads north to Portageville, MO - finding a cache or two along the way. At the cemetery I picked up a TFTC geocoin that I later dropped off at a cache in Collierville, TN.

Since it was still early and only 15 miles out of my way, I went after What's Shaking? - New Madrid, MO by CUSEC (GC1DRVR) next. This was a nice cache outside of a museum and gift shop that is open 7 days a week normally. When I got there the place was closed due to storm damage. So much for warming up...

[ Museum and Gift Shop ]

[ Looking out over the Mississippi River ]

What to do with so much time left in the day?? It was time to turn back south . I headed for Carruthersville, MO where I found two more veterans-themed caches and took I-155 across the Mississippi River into Tennessee. I picked up a few caches along the Great River Road before heading into Dyersburg.

[ A view from a cache ]

--
Two caches that stood out in the Dyersburg area were:
1) Huck Fin---ley by Midsouth Runners (GC1WJNZ) - a guard rail cache that had a large dead dog next to it. It was laid out in such a way that I didn't see it until I got to the cache site.

and 2) Gone for a swim by Midsouth Runners (GC1W1CT) - This was at Okeena Park, a place I hadn't visited since the "Ice Cream Social" hosted by JAG in July 2007.
--
Leaving Dyersburg, I headed south on Hwy 51 and picked up two more caches. The first was Flowers from the Storm by Bashful & JimmyLogan (GC1474X) in Halls where I had a DNF previously) and the second was in Gates. I finished the last cache as it was getting dark so I continued south towards home.

When I got to Atoka, TN, I decided to catch a movie at the Cineplanet 16. I arrived just minutes before the start of Sherlock Holmes. I liked the movie, but I was so cold it was tough to stay focused. I made it home around 9pm.

Marianna-Helena-Tunica - 12/6/2009

Not being able to hold off any longer, today was the day I would attempt to hit 3000 finds. I'm not sure why, but the closer I get to a major "milestone", the more restless I become. I only needed 29 caches and I had become accustomed to making that many finds in a day. I decided that I wanted my milestone to be in Arkansas. This would mean that I hit a big milestone in three different states: Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

It was just after sunrise and 27 degrees outside when I headed for West Memphis, Arkansas. I had 9 caches marked out and I made 9 finds - all park and grabs. The coolest find of those was Location, Location, Location by Abiectio (GC1X6BR) - mainly because of (and getting to) the location.


My last stop in West Memphis was at the Welcome Center on the way out of town. It gave me another chance to use the restroom as well as warm up a bit before hitting the road.

My next stop was Crowley's Ridge Rest Area by kingmedic (GC20R0X), just outside of Forrest City. I then picked up a handful of new caches in Forrest City, including one at the local Wal-Mart - Forrest City Tram Law by kingmedic (GC20ZMC). This one had worker muggles in the general area, so I went inside and bought a few DVDs. There were still worker muggles when I came out so I had to reach around and feel for the cache.

After cleaning up most of Forrest City I headed south to Marianna, new territory for me, and found 4 nice caches.

[ Delta Heritage Trail ]

[ West Helena Fallen Firefighters ]

Helena was probably the most interesting town I stopped at. Most of its caches were history-related. Cache find number 3000 came at Helena #1 by grzz51 (GCYD0C).


After signing the log, I thought about celebrating by having dinner at the Mexican restaurant next to the station. I still had a few more caches listed on my map, though, and since I probably wouldn't be back this way, I decided to finish up the remaining caches.

Fans of Confederate Civil War history would appreciate the cache at the Helena Confederate Cemetery - Remembering the Past by kjw0169 (GC1W4M6).



My last find before leaving Arkansas was Coffee with Us by tm007 (GCVW9K) - another rest stop. I arrived too late for the free coffee. After crossing the bridge into Mississippi, I found two nice caches before heading north on Hwy 61.

My last stop of the day was the Tunica Museum. There were two caches on the property and I managed to find both just as the sun was setting.

Caching in Jackson, TN - 12/20/2009

[I'm writing this blog entry several weeks after this hunt so my memories are a bit foggy. I'll flesh it out a bit more as I get time.]

I left early on Sunday. Not as early as I would like, but early enough. My goal was to hunt a bunch of caches just west of Jackson, then see what I could get to in town.

My first find of the morning was Welcome to Denmark, TN by dalls (GC1PDR2). This cache is actually behind the cemetery, but my autorouting took me to the entrance road to the cemetery.

[ A new cemetery cache in Tennessee? In 2009? ]

I found two of the three caches in this area before moving on eastward.

Upon my arrival in Jackson, I noticed the traffic was lighter than expected so I headed north instead of south as I had planned. I hunted a few caches along Hwy 45 West before ending the morning at Ole #382 by Bluff Boys (GC216FG). This was in Casey Jones Village not far from one of the first caches I hunted in Jackson nearly 4 years ago. After finding the cache I met hdrider55, a husband and wife caching team from Memphis that had been quietly watching me find it. I decided to have lunch at the country buffet nearby.

After a nice meal, I headed east, picking up a few caches on my way to Kate Campbell Memorial Park.

I made a quick detour to Large Oak Tree by dalls (GC1AK23) which was near the Old Salem Cemetery and found a cool guard rail cache.

[ Large Oak Tree ]

Kate Campbell Memorial Park has a lot of caches and on this day no muggles, so imagine my distress upon find next to nothing here.

I did find Tornado Alley by TurndAround (GC10ZCG) after almost giving up so that was some comfort.

I decided to leave and approach Otter Crossing by dalls (GC192AP) from the east side of the park. I parked at a golf course and found the boardwalk that takes you to within feet of the cache. The growth here was thick and I barely had room to climb in. Somehow, I slipped and busted open my forehead on a fallen tree. I looked around for the cache, but the bleeding was a major distraction. I ended up abandoning the hunt and heading back to the car to clean up.

[ Otter Crossing - its in there somewhere...]

After leaving the park, my luck improved and I found a few caches to the south before heading downtown.

I hunted a few caches downtown including General Grant Headquarters by Bluff Boys (GC1Z24V) and Jackson Pioneers Are Nearby by dalls (GC18BPD). I struck out on Mystery of a Legend by Bluff Boys (GC1YAPA) partly because of the line of homeless across the street from where the cache should have been.

[ Near a mural with information needed to find a cache.]

At the fairgrounds I made quick work of At The Fair by dalls (GC1C1B8). I struck out at a nearby cache and made a stop at the nearby train museum to hunt an earthcache nearby.

I took this picture at Jackson Artesian Well Earthcache by dalls (GC17RPJ). After looking at the picture on the camera, I noticed my wound had reopened. [I failed to get the rest of the information necessary to log this cache.] At this point, although I was hungry and daylight was fading, I headed out of town to the westbound rest stop on I-40. Once there, I cleaned up my forehead and hands, applied a nice big bandage and hit the road for home.

I had a high number of DNF's here (almost 25%). I'm not sure if it is because the hides were so good, I just couldn't find them, or if some of them were missing, or even some may have been inappropriate hides. Some of them hadn't been found since the georace, so I'll monitor them and when they start getting found, maybe I'll go back.

What Happened to the Iphone Geocoin?

Back in August, I posted about a trip to Osceola, AR where I dropped off a cool Iphone geocoin that I had picked up in Nebraska. I had jokingly mentioned that I didn't want a JAG or GOWT member picking up the coin because it might "disappear".


JAG members jimmylogan and b@shful jumped on the coin and eventually took it to the JAG georace where they got a good laugh about how they acquired the coin. It then got passed to GOWT member tiger130 who held onto it for a while before giving it to GOWT member prontopup who held onto it for a while before finally passing it off to GOWT member abiectio, who took it across the country to ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE by TEAM 360 (GCGV0P) in Oregon.

A short time later, it was declared missing. Nice.

Night Caches in Cameron Brown Park - 12/1/2009

I don't like to cache in groups, but when I saw a post on the GOWT forums regarding a group hunt for night caches, I decided to go. I even bought a new flashlight for the occasion. I laughed when I saw a post that suggested that my old friend dalls from JAG would be coming.

I am seasoned enough to know that it would be impractical to hunt all 4 caches on the proposed list in one night, so I was glad that we were starting with the two short ones in Cameron Brown Park.

Because I don't like to drive in rush hour traffic, I left work early on the day of the hunt and headed out to Germantown. I hunted three caches in or near Shelby Farms Park before having dinner at Chick-Fil-A. I still managed to get to the arranged meeting spot in Cameron Brown Park an hour early. I used the extra time to walk laps around the lake while taking a few pictures.

As it got close to 5:30, I was beginning to think that no one would show up. Jackthebear arrived just before 5:30, but stayed in his truck. Jeffbouldin arrived right on time. We made the introductions and waited for more people to show up. When no one else did (including my old friend dalls), we began the hunt - sometime around 5:45pm. The weather had been nice lately and there were only a few spots of water on the ground. I avoided the water I saw, and only hit a few of the wet spots - enough to cool my feet.

Our first cache to hunt was Bats-R-Up by ProntoPup (GC1MGVK). This was a relatively straight forward cache - until the end. The light of the nearby tennis courts didn't do us any favors.

Cameron Brown Park's Easy Night Cache by bitbrain & pippin98 (GC1M3MF) proved to be a little more difficult. At one point, we had a great deal of trouble spotting the next set of tacks. Once we did, however, all was good. After finding the cache, we walked with jeffbouldin to find Decay by Canadian Bear adopted by Tiger130 (GCKE0X). That cache had one of the National Treasure keys in it.

Since it took us two hours just to find these caches, we decided to call it a night.

As we walked back to our cars, we tentatively made plans to do more night caches in January. I look forward to it. Maybe dalls will show up.

Harrisburg-Wynne, AR - 11/22/2009

The plan on this day was to cache in a few small towns in northeast Arkansas and visit a couple of State Parks as well.

My first stop of the morning was Marion, AR. There was a cluster of recently placed caches that were easy hunting on a Sunday morning. While in town, I got the car gassed up, scraped off the bugs from the last trip, and got some liquid refreshment for the trip.

Heading north, I made a stop at Hampson Archeological State Park in Wilson, AR. The was the place that I had two DNF's and a nicely cut finger the last time I was here. This time my visit was short and sweet. Two finds. One had bad coords - Hampson Archeological Museum ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1CFDK), but the logs told me this information ahead of time.

[ small state park]

While in the area, I detoured to 120 miles out of the way by fluffy&itchy (GC109YD). This cache has been here for a while, and today was a great day to go after it - dry dirt roads. The cache, itself, was in the only area that had mosquitoes. While here I also saw a big pumpkin lying on the ground.


My next destination was Lake Poinsett State Park, but on the way I stopped at The Painted House by Lambertstudios (GC1P962). A local tourist attraction and the setting for a John Gresham novel, on this day it was just a scenic stop on the way to more caches. Since I was there, I decided to walk around and take pictures of the house and barn. A sign on the front said admission was $10 for Adults. Wow.

[ The Painted House ]

Lake Poinsett State Park was a nice park. The only muggles I saw were near the fishing area. One cache - Lake Poinsett ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1DR1D) - was part of the State Park Challenge. I think I've been to 4 of the 53 state parks now. The second was near an empty picnic area. Good thing it was empty, as it took me forever to find the cache.

I hunted a few more caches before heading into Harrisburg, a tiny town northwest of the park. I picked up four caches here.

Next, I headed south to Wynne. Most of the caches I found there were new "Red Man" caches. I found a couple of neat cemetery caches as well.

Since I had a little bit of daylight left, I headed after Stars and City Lights by LuckyoneinAR (GCXKGA) - a cache at the north end of Village Creek State Park that I had missed before. I tried taking the roads instead of going through the park and hiking the horse trails. Big mistake - the map doesn't show these roads as private (or mud and rocks). No muggles, no worries though, I found the cache and made it out before sunset. I headed back to Marion, picked up a cache I missed earlier and had a nice dinner at Zaxby's before heading home.

Return to Searcy - 11/15/2009

I decided to make one more trip to Searcy and pick up a bunch of caches I missed last week. I arrived early on Sunday morning to find Searcy enveloped in fog! I had three objectives in mind:

1) cache a 3-mile loop around the airport,

2) pick up some straggler caches in downtown, and

3) cache a series south of Searcy called "The Loop".

I accomplished all three objectives in order, stopping for lunch after item 2.

This trip was much different than my last one. No long hikes around town! I needed to find at least 53 caches and I would not rest until my goal was accomplished. No rest, except for lunch!

[ Discovered somewhere along the way... ]

My 2900th find was The Loop-Ki Ke Acres by woodwalker (GC1XP47). After making this find around 3:30pm, it was time to head home. I picked up three more caches (to make a total of 56) after I left Searcy, in part, to make sure I had reached my milestone.

My last find was in Parkin - Parkin ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1D41T). The container had recently been replaced and the area was swarming with mosquitoes. The only ones I had run across all day.

Caching in Searcy, AR - 11/7-8, 2009

Wow! A whole week without rain. I had to do a two-day cache run. I was looking forward to another trip to Searcy and when I saw a lunchtime event posted for Saturday, I made up my plans to go.

I got up early on Saturday and made a bee-line for Searcy, with no stops along the way (ok, maybe one). Upon my arrival, I was subjected to cache overload. That happens when your GPSr shows you more caches than your mind can process, and you have to refocus on starting where you planned to start. The southern part of Searcy was rural and empty and I made a big loop, finding 19 caches before heading to the event at 11am at Ryan's Buffet downtown.

I made it to the event - A Fond Farewell by woodwalker9 (GC1ZJYT) right on time. After paying for the meal, I headed to the party room, where the cachers were gathering. The event was hosted by woodwalker, and it was great to see him again. I met lots of really friendly cachers, including the guests of honor, while enjoying an excellent meal. The event marked my 2800th cache find.

[ A Fond Farewell to the ShadowCachers family ]

To be continued...

Jonesboro, AR - 11/1/2009

This was the first really nice weekend in quite a while! Saturday, I participated in Race for the Cure. I was going to hunt a few caches while in the area of the race, but the traffic was too bad afterwards.

Sunday morning I got up bright and early and headed to Jonesboro for a day of caching. My main goal was to hit a cluster of caches in the downtown area and then proceed south to hike around in Craighead Forest Park.

The last time I was out this way was with prontopup in January of 2007. There was a snowstorm on that day so the time we spent in Craighead Forest Park was numbingly cold. This day would prove to be much better!

I made three stops on the way to Jonesboro. One notable stop was The Walkway by golfpt (GCVJZ7). I had been here with prontopup and it was so bitterly cold that we ended up giving up the hunt. Lots of folks DNF this one. One of the online logs (by netinator) gave me the hint I needed to search the correct area. I made the find after several minutes of feeling around.

[ The Walkway ]

It was a great hide - one of the best of the day.

Next stop, Jonesboro....

I picked up three caches on the east end of town and then made my way to the downtown cluster. There were seven caches in a cluster and my plan was to park roughly in the middle and walk around to each one. My parking plan was made a little difficult by the fact that churches were in session - lots of full parking lots. I did find a spot, though and began my walk. Most of them were quick park and grabs, but there were two notable caches in this group.

Downtown Waterfall by golfpt (GCVHGW) was one I DNF'ed one in 2007. It was much less of a problem this time. I was helped by the lack of muggles around.

[ the waterfall ]

The building behind it in the picture is a BBQ shop under renovation. The other interesting cache in this group was City Cemetery by tech_guy and the missus (GC14PM1). It was in a great spot and took a great deal of effort to retrieve from its hiding spot.

[ City Cemetery ]

After this, I basically drove all over north Jonesboro picking up easy finds. My last find of the morning was Tram Law Parker by cajenkins81 (GC1KXA1). It was at a Wal-Mart and I did a little shopping and walked to a nearby KFC for a really quick lunch. By the time I stopped for lunch I already had twenty finds.

---


I entered Craighead Forest Park from the west and parked near Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Loop the Lake by Mark S. from AR (GCWYTA) - This cache was a DNF the last time I was here plus I lost a glove. Today it was a quick find. I hiked around the entire park in a clockwise direction and found 12 caches. I also got a chance to visit the Nature Center.

[ Nature Center entrance from Craighead Forest Park ]

One highlight of the Nature Center was displays like in the above picture. You press a button and it plays audio of the wildlife.

[ View of boardwalk from above ]

I think I spent over four hours hiking the park and I was happy to get back to my car since I didn't bother to take water with me. I didn't really need it since the weather was pleasantly cool.

I won't go into much detail, because I don't want to spoil any of the hides, but my favorite caches in the park were (in order):

Touche' WoodWalker! by Mark S from AR (GC1YYD4) - for the overall work put into making it challenging.

Here, There, Everywhere - Loop the Lake by Mark S. from AR (GC110RK) - for the camo job.

Sing me a Sad Song - Loop the Lake by Mark S. from AR (GC110RY) - for the camo job.

What A View! by forayer (GC1XYE5) - for the view, of course!

---

I picked up two more caches east of the park before heading to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I got Off Your Rocker in Jonesboro by tech_guy and the missus (GC149WR) before heading inside for dinner. I had meatloaf, okra, and mashed potatoes for dinner followed by blackberry cobbler and ice cream for dessert. It was dark by the time I left the restaurant, so I picked up one more cache on the way out of town and headed home.

---
I found 35 caches for the day.
The Cracker Barrel cache was my 500th Arkansas cache.

[ Update: 11/16/2009 - I managed to recover my pictures from the trip and inserted some into this entry. ]

Upcoming Anniversary

11 days from today marks an important anniversary in the history of GOWT. On November 11, 2007, GOWT shut down its discussion forums as it attempted to reorganize into a newer, better organization.

The reorganization committee voted to shut down the forums just prior to WWFM - Disorganized Flash: Collierville, TN by The Disorganization of MidSouth Geocachers (GC16WDF). We chose to do it on that day because WWFM events were simultaneously being held all over and some members of the committee wanted to catch the JAG members of GOWT off-guard. Yeah, more unnecessary drama.

Anyways, the Bluff Boys were very active on the GOWT forums on that last day. I was quietly awaiting the shutdown, however a few members of the Executive Committee of GOWT couldn't resist subtle taunting of the Bluff Boys on a thread related to the local WWFM event.

And then it went silent....

I was reminded of this thread when I was reading another (more recent thread) where JAG buffoon TurndAround announced his "return" to GOWT and its forums.

---

Incidentally, I noticed that while there are WWFM VI events being held all over the country on November 14 including 2 in Tennessee, there are no WWFM events organized for West Tennessee this year. GOWT has a 5 member leadership committee plus an advisory committee that doesn't appear to do anything. What's up with that?

Village Creek State Park - 10/18/2009

[more pictures coming soon - and maybe a few more details]

This past weekend had some excellent weather so on Sunday, I took advantage of the cool temps and clear sky to do some hiking in the woods.

Village Creek State Park is roughly between Forrest City, AR and Wynne, AR, so I decided to make a loop from Memphis. I made it to Forrest City around 9am. This was later than I had planned, but not a big deal. There was no traffic to speak of in the the town. I parked across the street from the Chamber of Commerce and walked to An Old-Fashioned Rest by kjw0169 (GC1AKY5) and The Shepherd. by Jason_Paul_Ring (GC1PMKJ). These were both caches I DNF'd the last time I passed through. Both were easy finds on this day in part because of a change in approach. I hunted and found 5 other caches before leaving town. My favorite of those 5 was Between Classes by fcdiva (GC1WQ63). Sunday is a good day for hunting that one.

---

It was a short drive up Hwy 284 to Village Creek State Park. Photo Op! by LuckyoneinAR (GC19RAK) was at the entrance of the park and was a good opportunity to get a close up look at a rather intricate entrance sign.


I picked up another cache - We(l)come to Village Creek! by GABBY01 (GCX7FK) before parking at the Visitor's Center. My plan for the day involved hiking around the park while caching, then coming back to the Visitor's Center.

I hiked the length of the Big Ben trail, finding Big Ben by LuckyoneinAR (GCX7FW) along the way. This trail was my first indication of how steep the trails were.

[ Big Ben Trail ]

Show Time at the Creek by LuckyoneinAR & Gabby01 (GCX7G4) was a short distance from the Visitor's Center and an easy find.

[ Arborteum Trail ]

I took the Austell trail to Not Useful! by LuckyoneinAR (GC19XD4). It wen in all sorts of directions, so you just have to trust it. This area - where the cache was - appeared to be abandoned or it didn't get much use. I took the road east to within 400 feet of Village Creek ParkCache by Arkansas State Parks (GC1DR3Y) and then headed cross country to the cache. This hike had everything, creeks and steep terrain. This was a tough find because (I believe) the coords are quite a bit off. One I found it, I signed the log and wrote down the numbers (for a puzzle).

After backtracking out of the woods, I started back to the Visitor's Center, but decided once again to cut across country and hunt Village Creek - Cache in with The Natural State by Ark. Parks & Tourism (GC10VKJ). This was a four-stage cache, and once I found the first stage, the rest of the hunt was easy (but long). There were plenty of obstacles to contend with as well.

[Swinging Bridge]

After finding the final and signing the log, I followed the arrows back to the Visitor's Center.

[Lake Austell]

It was roughly a mile hike back to the Visitor's Center, where I bought a drink and relaxed for a bit. I also bought a cap in the Gift Shop.

After finishing my Coke, I realized I didn't have enough time to hike to the remaining 4 caches, so I drove as close as I could to each of the next three caches.

Swing on By by LuckyoneinAR (GC19XC2) was just a short hike across a grassy field to a wooded area. It was a micro that took some time to spot.

Stargazer by itsmebigd (GC1APZW) was near the cabins area. After finding a close psot to park, I hiked the 0.19 miles to the cache. It was a tough hike, but the kicker was when I got to within 50 feet of the cache, it was straight down the side of a steep hill. I'm gld the container was big because moving around on the side of that hill was tough. If I had dropped anything it would have been gone. After signing the log, I had to make the tough climb up the slick hillside.

Sleepy Hollow by LuckyoneinAR (GCXKG4) was in the area of the horse trails. I parked near the entrance of the corral area and hiked 0.13 miles into the cache area. I ran into a curious guy on a horse who asked me if I was hiking. Yeah, just hiking. The ground was very muddy in this area, but the good news is that I was now on the horse trail and was able to hike out via it.

I was only 0.5 miles from Stars and City Lights by LuckyoneinAR (GCXKGA), but it was getting late and I figured since it was close to a main road outside of the park, I'd drive around to it and save some time. Once I left the park, though, my auto-routing screwed me and I ended up just driving north to Wynne.

---

I arrived at Wynne, AR around 5pm. After wasting some time at a caboose cache, I hunted TB Hotel and More by razormarsh (GC1K6NW) and 280 ft... by LuckyoneinAR (GCXRX9). The TB Hotel was outside of a fenced in yard. When I got to the area, there was a vehicle parked next to the cache spot. Normally, I would have driven off - but I took a chance and after finding the cache, the owner's family came out and said hello before driving off. The second cache was outside of a ball field - empty on this day. This turned out to be my last find of the day. I had dinner in an empty KFC before heading home.

Notes about Village Creek State Park:
I had visited the website for the park earlier and had printed maps of the park. They helped a little as most of the caches were along one trail or another. The trails, which included a lot of wooden stairways, were lots of up and down legwork - tough if you aren't in shape. There were benches for resting along the way - if I had started earlier, I would have rested more...

October 18 was a cool day. I carried no water on my hikes and there were practically no bugs!
The south half of the park was almost empty. No people in sight - anywhere - other than the two rangers in the Visitor's Center.

Lichterman Nature Center - 10/3/2009

I did more than just attend an event on this beautiful Saturday. I also hunted caches. I had invited my pal jbgreer to have lunch with me and hunt the caches at the Lichterman Nature Center. We arranged to meet up after the event and headed for a nice lunch at Lenny's Sub Shop.

We arrived at the Nature Center around 1:30 pm and went straight to the Visitor's Center where we paid for admission and got a list of the geocaches in the park. Interestingly, it was 2 for 1 admission day (I don't remember why) so we got in for 3 bucks each.

Once outside, we sat down and entered coordinates for the geocaches into our GPSrs. The park was having a scarecrow exhibition. I tried to make sure I got a good look at each one.

I thought I saw JAG's TurndAround in the park until I got a closer look.

Anyways, the park had five caches with clues that led to a sixth cache.

The picture below was taken at one of the areas I liked the best. One of the caches was located here as well.

For the last couple of caches, we ran into obstacles like the one below, which got to be annoying especially with the mosquitoes chasing us around.

The last cache was the hardest to find, again, especially with the mosquitoes. We were done with the hunt just after 3pm.

Germantown Redux - 10/3/2009

It was a beautiful day for some light caching on Saturday, and as part of the adventure I made a last-minute decision to attend a geocaching event in Cameron Brown Park. Techniques, Tools, and Tips by Geocachers of West Tennessee (GC1XC3T) was intended to (as the name implies) demonstrate some of the techniques and tools popular with geocachers.


I arrived at the coordinates almost exactly at start time (10 am) only to find that the event had been moved to another area - the westernmost ball field area. I knew exactly what to expect in terms of the reception I would get and I wasn't disappointed. ;-) At least the weather was nice.

One thing I missed seeing at this event was the GOWT banner. Titansfan must have it on his bed to help keep his mattress dry.

Prontopup (the host) displayed and discussed a number of useful tools for geocaching. One tool they left out was a"pooper scooper" for picking up Jackson area caches. I enjoyed the demonstration of cache containers, both ordinary as well as the unusual ones.

Bitbrain attempted to demonstrate some rudimentary techniques for solving puzzle caches. This is a difficult concept to try and explain so needless to say I didn't get much out of it.

It was a 2-hour event, and the part I enjoyed the least was sitting on those metal bleachers. They are very uncomfortable for thin people. At the end of the event, a lot of neat door prizes were given out. I didn't get one. I think the door prize drawing was rigged - just like the JAG georace.

Caching in Germantown, TN - 9/26/2009

This was the first weekend in a long while without rain, so I wanted to go on a nice caching trip. Saturday was a bit overcast in the morning so I decided to drive to the WalMart in Cordova and pick up a few of life's necessities and see how the day played out. Before stopping in, I picked up two caches: Ballerina by Berlan Eligab (GC1KCTH) and Just Slick and Tired by mgrommet (GC1W0XM). Both were park and grabs - the first one was behind Ballet Memphis and the second was behind WalMart. Easy grabs, but the WalMart one needed some stealth.

After leaving WalMart, I headed to Shelby Farms and hunted a cache near the dog park: Tour de Wolf by Berlan Eligab (GC1DW55). The cache was in a white container inside a dirty ziplock bag and I thought it was trash at first. I hid it a little better before leaving.

At this point, 11am, it was time to eat so I drove south a bit to Chik-Fil-A. There were a couple of caches near there, but I saved them for later. I decided instead to drive to Cameron Brown Park in Germantown. This is a really nice park with lots of activity going on. I parked on the west side of the park and hunted West Side of Cameron Brown by prontopup (GC1AE27) first. Once I got into the woods, it was a short hike, but the terrain was tough in spots. Not muddy, though, as I thought it would be. The cache was in a nice ammo can tucked in a good spot.

After emerging from the woods, I decided to walk the roughly half a mile to the next cache: East Side of Bob Hailey Complex by Prontopup (GC1AE25).

I found a new baseball just inside the entrance to the woods and tossed it out towards the nearest ball field. The cache was in another slightly rough terrain area, but easy to get to. I don't think I'd recommend the container as it held a little moisture. After leaving the woods and on the way back to the car, I decided to hike on the boardwalk.

It came out at a football field where two kids teams were battling it out. They had a concession stand, so I bought a drink and watched the game for a few minutes.

One notable thing about the previous two caches: The coords were dead on, but my GPSr insisted on leading me in a circular route (counter-clockwise) to both caches. Both caches were also fairly close to the Wolf River.

After driving a short distance east to Grove Park, I headed out to find Grove Park by ProntoPup (GC1BJDZ). Although the paved path takes you pretty close to the cache, I heeded the advice on the cache page and paid attention to all possible entrances to the woods.

This is the correct path into the woods. It is approximately 0.13 miles east of the cache. It winds up and down and around, taking you next to the Wolf River before leaving you just downhill from the cache location.

This area is very thorny for those who do not find the path. The cache had mosquito wipes, which I could have used, but I left them and just signed the log.

After coming out of the woods, I took a short break and sat on a bench facing the water.

My last stop of the day was a nearby Dairy Queen for a Blizzard, but on the way I stopped and found Germantown Greenway #2 by prontopup (GC1AHBX). It was the only spot on the trip where I had to be careful of the damp ground.

I had a great day. It was a little unusual for me to spend so much time relaxing and taking in the sights, though. Part of the reason was that I didn't have my route mapped out so I just hunted whatever I felt like. Another reason was that many of the area caches are puzzle caches and I forgot to bring my list of solved puzzles with me.