My primary goal was the three new(ish) park and grabs in W.C. Johnson Park. I knew that they were in heavily muggled areas and since they were just replaced - now was the time for them.
My first mistake of the weekend was to forget to bring home my most recent pocket query for the area. This meant that I missed three brand new caches.
My first stop was at Weeds by Doug Wilson, CPA (GC1KX87), a cache near a neighborhood. I parked at the end of a cove and ducked back into the woods. I ran across a possum near the location of the cache (within 40 feet). It freaked me out how it didn't move until I got close enough to take the below picture. My first DNF of the day, but the possum(s) made up for it.
[ Playing possum? ]My second stop was at Collierville High School to hunt Leonarda Two by LeonardaDaArtsi (GC1NF70). This cache is near the greenbelt. There was a school team practising something on the upper field, leaving me alone to hunt the cache below. I got my feet a little wet near the cache, but it was a quick find. Afterwards, I climbed the small hill behind the cache looking for a drier way out and discovered a nice lake. The way out was not drier, however a fallen tree made a nice bridge.
[ Lake / pond near GC1NF70 ]Next stop - W.C. Johnson Park - home of a number of great wetlands caches. My first stop here was Rest Here by MorWoods (GC1YG9Q). Not many folks in the area today, but a passing runner was disappointed by the non-working water fountain. I walked east to Ripstick Rampage by MorWoods (GC1Y15H) which while not far off of the walking trail, proved to be a little more difficult terrain-wise. It was hard to avoid muggles and the sign that said "no climbing on the banks" made me feel a little awkward.
Onward, though. I walked west to get the last of the PnGs in the park - Shadey by MorWoods (GC1YFY8). Nice clearly labeled containers were a pleasure to see.After leaving the park, I hunted 3 more caches before stopping by Marvin Poole, an adventurous grandpa by MP5171 (GC14D29). This was a 4.5/5 rated cache with a lot of recent DNFs. The logs said the container was 100 feet off, and I found a suitable container with a slip of paper in it exactly 100 feet SW of the cache 1st stage coordinates. The paper appeared blank and if it had any writing on it, it would have taken some advanced forensic techniques to recover it. I didn't waster a lot of time here, but it would have been nice to get at least the coords to the final.
Lunchtime! A chicken club at Zaxby's - not as good as the ones I had in Marion, AR, but passable. The last cache I hunted on this day was Halle New Year! by fayfinders (GC189ZK). This was a nice two-stage multicache at Halle Park. I bumped my head getting the coordinates to the final, but that is par for the course for me. No blood this time, though. The final stage was a tough one for me, even though I found it uncovered. I had been suffering from some stiffness in my left hip all morning and for some reason when I stood up and backed out of the wooded area where the cache was, I couldn't straighten up. When I finally could stand up, I couldn't walk without severe pain. I managed to limp slowly to a nearby bench where I painfully managed to sit down. I rested for a while, looking out over a nice lake until the pain subsided enough for me to walk slowly back to the other side of the lake to my car. Getting back to my car was tough as was the drive home. I went straight home missing my planned after-cache treat at Dairy Queen.
[ A relaxing view before going home ]All-in-all, I had a great day (except for the end). I look foward to returning to hunt the remaining wetland caches - hopefully while it is still cold outside. My hip is doing much better today (the day after).
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