Brian Brown Memorial Greenway - 3/20/2010

[ This is an excerpt from a trip where I cached in a triangle bounded by Humboldt, Dresden, and Martin, TN.]

I arrived in Martin, TN in the early afternoon and immediately starting hunting caches while looking around for a place to have lunch. I struck out on my first three caches, so I headed for the Brian Brown Memorial Greenway. I had read enough of the cache pages to know where to park, and there was plenty of parking available.

[ Just east of the entrance ]

It was sunny and around 70 degrees. Perfect weather for a long hike. I estimated the length of the greenway as about one mile. I went after Brian Brown Greenway Cache #1 (a 2-stage multi) first, and for some reason could not find it.

Brian Brown Greenway Cache #2 by PharmD93 and pcsenn (GC218N8) was an easy find, but could be tough after a rain. There were walkers on the path ahead of me, so I needed to be careful about going after the caches along the path.


Greenway Micro by pcsenn & PharmD93 (GC21922) was another easy find. I was worried because it was a micro, but the cache area made it easy to spot.

[ What used to be here? ]

Brian Brown Greenway #3 by pcsenn & PharmD93 (GC2192T) was next on the list. Another 2-stage multi, the first stage took me towards the east end of the greenway. Since I was near the end, I kept walking to see what was at the end. It was a basketball goal and some kids playing.

After reading the sign at the end of the trail, I hiked back to short distance to the first stage of BBG 3. The coords were dead on, but it was a tough hunt. When I got the container open, the stage two coordinates were blurred, but readable. They kindly led me back west to a nice spot where the cache was easily found.

As I headed back towards the greenway entrance, I decided to give Brian Brown Greenway Cache #1 by PharmD93 and pcsenn (GC218KM) one more chance. I found the first stage easily this time, but the second stage coords told me I'd be rehiking most of the greenway again! First, though, I walked back to my car for a drink.

It was a peaceful walk back along the greenway. I think about a lot of things when I'm hiking on trails like this. On this day, I was thinking about my nephew Jay. He was supposed to start school at the nearby UT-Martin last fall. He unexpectedly died one month before his 18th birthday and just a few short weeks before fall classes started.

Anyways, I found the second stage and was happy that I had managed to find all four caches along this pleasant greenway. I'd say "beautiful greenway", but I imagine it looks nicer when the trees have more leaves and the flowers bloom.

I left the greenway around 3:30. My immediate needs were food and gas. I got gas at the nearby Shell station, but I ended up putting off eating until sunset.

I found a few more neat caches in Martin, including John by Skyhawk13 (GC115MN) and Sally by Skyhawk13 (GC115MV). I also avenged two DNF's - Taylor's Treasure by PharmD93 (GCYHVX) and Goal Find by Sherlock121 (GC107QY) before heading south towards Jackson.