Midtown Memphis - 6/12/2010

It is getting to be the time of the year where I take a break from hunting area caches and do other things. I was surprised however, when I looked for local (to me) caches and found that a bunch have been published recently. Three of these new caches were within a mile or so of my residence.

I decided to tackle them after work on Friday and because they didn't get on my most recent PQ, I had to print out the cache pages. Around 5pm, I picked up my GPSr and cache information and set out on a little hike. It was blistering hot (like most of this weekend is supposed to be).

My first stop was The Golden Arches by dguyusnavy (GC29W6B). The immediate area of the cache was guarded by muggles parked in the two adjacent handicap spaces. Not to be too judgemental, but I think their primary handicap was eating at McDonald's. I had to skip this one for now and move on to Buc Lap Series - #2 by dguyusnavy (GC2A0TB)

I pass by this place all of the time when I am out on a run, so it was cool to find a cache there. I was also surprised to be the "FTF" on this cache. I'm not an FTF hound, so this was probably my first in three or four years.

Not far to the south was walk in the park by crownjewel (GC29Y59). I took Hollywood Street south to this one because there was less traffic. First, I passed by the local BSA building just to the north.

Approaching the park, I spotted where I thought the cache was and headed straight for it. It was where I expected, but nicely hidden. I also noticed my GPSr coords were off because I had entered an 8 where I should have had a 3. This is an interesting stretch of land to the west of Tobey Park. It is park-like, but it only apparent purpose is as "extra" parking for events.

["Tailgate" Park]

Many times, the more interesting spots are actually across the street from a cache. In this case, the more interesting spot is the Children's Museum of Memphis.

[ CMOM]

Now, back to The Golden Arches... It was an easy PnG that had personal relevance to the cache owner, but there are many more interesting cache-free spots nearby. Below is an example.

[ Barksdale Mounted Police Station ]

Barksdale Mounted Police Station has an interesting history associated with it. It was where George "Machine Gun" Kelly was temporarily housed after being captured by Memphis Police Officers on September 26, 1933. Kelly was actually born in Memphis.

When I first discovered this place, I wanted to create a "virtual" cache. I even had a detailed description of the history of the building. "Virtual" caches were disallowed before I could get around to it... I thought about submitting this place as a "Waymark", but decided to let someone else interested do it instead. If you were lame, you could do a lightpole cache at the Walgreens next door.

Shelby Farms Greenline

Here is one of the first pictures taken of the near-completed 7 mile stretch of the Shelby Farms Greenline that runs between Shelby Farms Park and Midtown Memphis.

This picture was taken from Waring and faces east towards Shelby Farms. They currently have paved a 1.8 mile strip. After visiting the Delta Heritage Trail, I'm not sure I like this trail being paved, but I imagine it is better for strollers and rollerblades.

The paved section goes from Waring (west) to Podesta Street (east). Podesta Street is where geocachers typically entered the trail/tracks to approach to wooded part of NW Shelby Farms.