Wolf River Wildlife Corridor - 11/27/2010

For the 6th anniversary of jbgreer and I discovering the joys of geocaching, we naturally celebrated by hunting more caches. Because of the cool temperatures and relative dry weather, I suggested that we hunt a few caches in the Wolf River Wildlife Corridor in Collierville, TN. We met up at jbgreer's house around 8:15am.

We have hunted caches in this area at least three different times and under varying seasons and conditions, and knew that this could be a tough area to traverse. Most of the caches were way off of the main trail, and depending on the time of year, many caches could involve wading in swamps.

As we were approaching our destination, I noticed a cache that must be fairly new, because I didn't know it was in the area. We stopped and hunted The Life and History of Toys and Games by ItchyScratchyBumpy (GC2AKGP). It was a nicely-stocked cache and easy to find. I like starting the day with at least one easy cache.

[ nice place for the first cache of the day ]

After a minor routing error caused by old mapping data, we made it to the parking area on the northwest end of the Wildlife Corridor. Hopefully the county will make a better parking area there, but it was fine for our purposes. We had both brought tall rubber boots, but decided at the last moment to no use them. All of the caches we went after in this area were created by peanutpapa.

The first cache we went after was Beaver Falls Cache (GC1WGTW). During our previous trips to the area, this one always got left off of our list. Mostly because we were exhausted from hunting other caches. We took an interesting path to this cache, and at times couldn't see our feet. We found the cache and then spent some time observing the handiwork of the beavers.

[ no beavers in sight today ]

Next on the list was Slough Cache West (GC24H48). It was a short distance to the southeast and we encountered no difficulties reaching it. After finding it, we used a provided waypoint to lead us south to the main trail.

[ the dry sloughs made hiking from cache to cache very easy ]

From the main trail, we used another provided waypoint to lead us to the entry point for Old Logging Road Cache by peanutpapa (GC24CVR). We saw were the logging road started, but it was easy to lose track of where it went on the way to the cache. It was the lowest rated of the caches we found, but on this day it seemed no easier than any of the others. Once back on the main trail, we hiked east until we found an entry point to go for Slough Cache (GC1PP10). This was one we hunted on two other occasions only to be stopped by high water. On this day, it was a simple walk in the park. This cache was maybe 20 feet north of its posted coordinates, which might have been another reason we didn't find it before, but on this day it was easy to spot.

Our final cache of the morning was Cotton Farm Cache (GC1W34K). This area gets deep during the rainy time of the year. This day was definitely a good day to hunt it.

[ most of the caches in this area are obviously subject to flooding ]

After finding the cache, we headed north to the cotton fields and took the trail back to were we had started.

[ north of the cotton fields and an easy hike back to the truck ]

We got back to the truck around 11:30am and since we were going to move the truck to a different area for our next group of caches, we decided to grab lunch in Collierville first. We had many delicious options and finally settled on a fast lunch at Lenny's Sub Shop.

[ In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday - a big turkey sandwich ]

After lunch, we decided we had just enough time to tackle three caches in W.C. Johnson Park. This park is just to the south of the area we hunted in the morning and on the other side of the Wolf River. These were the only three caches we had left in this park to find, and they were deep in the wetlands.

[ W.C. Johnson Park wetlands feature nice boardwalks ]

We took the boardwalk from the parking area all the way north to the Wolf River before cutting west and paralleling the river. All of the caches we went after here were created by peanutpapa.

Our first find was South Beach Cache (GC1PY9F). It wasn't too far off of the boardwalk and was an easy and dry hike.

[ This possum seemed oblivious to our presence ]

Slough Cache South by peanutpapa (GC1Q1VB) was next and was another great cache and hike. The most difficult cache of the afternoon was Weir #3 Cache by peanutpapa (GC1PYBM). The terrain was tough in spots and could have been a nightmare if there had been any water around. From here, it was a 0.83 mile hike back to the boardwalk. Just before reaching the boardwalk, we spotted a trail that we didn't notice on the way into the woods.

[ spotted on the way out of the woods ]

Before leaving the park, I took one more picture from the boardwalk. This picture is more representative of what the area normally looks like.

[ near the entrance of the wetlands - the most water we saw today ]

We were very impressed by the quality of the wetland caches we found on this day. All were in water-tight containers and were tethered to their locations to prevent them from floating away during the times the area is flooded. There were a few that were exposed due to lack of available natural covering. Some could be spotted from a good distance away at this time of the year. I don't know if hunting game is allowed in the area, so I imagine that not too many people wander this far off of the main trail system.

Lucius C. Burch Natural Area - 11/20/2010

[ this web was created by a spider who was afraid of heights ]

I got together with my caching buddy, jbgreer, around 8am to go geocaching in the Lucius C. Birch Natural Area. Most of the caches we went after on this day were to the south and southwest of the Agricenter. We started the morning with two easy caches by drew274. Both were near the newly paved parking area at the southeast corner of the Natural Area. Something Fun, Something Dark (GC2D6TG) , a nice magnetic keyholder was our first find. Something is Rotten in Denmark (GC2D6TW) was our second find. This one was in a little rougher terrain and was nicely stocked and well-hidden.

Our next cache ACME-3025 by giardia_boy (GC2473T), was close by, but we decided to move the truck and come at it and the others from a different location. I had looked for this one once before, and it took some work to find it. The hint was technically inaccurate unless you are a giant. The next cache was an interesting one - The horse eats no cucumber-salad by Abiectio (GC2DV8E). The accompanying puzzle wasn't that difficult, but neither jbgreer nor myself could get evince to confirm our coordinates. We ended up using the coordinates I had come up with - which put us right on it.

We only had one more cache on the list: ACME-Oh Brother Not Another by giardia_boy (GC2DX2E). Since we knew it had a lot of stages, we decided to take a break and get some breakfast at the nearby Chick-Fil-A. Once back at the starting point for the cache, we hunted stage after stage. Most stages were quickly found and all stages used interesting hide techniques. The final had a special surprise! This cache may have been my favorite multicache of the year (for those anxiously awaiting my picks for cache of the year). I met giarda_boy and an event in Collierville last May and have enjoyed the many caches of his I have found.

With this cache done and no more on my list for the area, jbgreer and I drove back to his house and parted ways. Since it was still early in the afternoon, I decided to hunt three more nearby caches that were basically park and grabs before going home.

Bye, Bye, Boneyards???

I noticed the other day that FTF Pirate #1: Boneyards by Chance Encounter (GCYX0Z) has been disabled as mostly likely a prelude to archival. This 3-stage multicache is set in three of Memphis' grittiest cemeteries and hasn't been found in almost three years.

[ from Chance Encounter's geocaching.com profile ]

It would be simple to say that this cache was disabled because some noob filed a "Needs Maintenance" log on a cache he had never visited, but the truth is that this cache along with many others was abandoned by its owner years ago. I, myself, tackled this cache back in March only to get to the final stage and not be able to find it. The coords placed it near a stream of sorts. Maybe it washed away, or maybe it is simply buried under a ton of brush in the area. It would be nice if the cache could be saved, if only because it represents a time before we were flooded by pointless Park and Grabs.

If this cache ends up archived, I will post the pictures I took at the various stages.

Tunica RiverPark - 11/7/2010

It was a beautiful and cool Sunday morning and thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I woke up bright and early. My plan for the morning was to head south into Mississippi and visit Tunica RiverPark to hike and hunt caches. This park was where GOWT hosted a geocaching event last month, so I knew that there were 11 new geocaches there.

As a warm-up, I picked up three caches in Whitehaven before leaving Memphis. Read between the signs by jamey1 (GC2BQP0) was across the street from what used to be the Whitehaven Public Library.

[ Whitehaven Public Library ]

Since I was at the Whitehaven Plaza shopping center, I decided to drive around and see if any of the stores I remembered were still there. It turned out to be mostly empty and boarded up.

[ Whitehaven Plaza - this building was last a Dillard's and before that Shainberg's ]

Im loving it by jamey1 (GC2BQP5) was behind a nearby McDonald's.

My third find was the social network by F Tom (itcomagic) (GC2DHVK). I had solved the puzzle for this one the day before. It was in a nice area and I relaxed a bit here. Afterwards, I thought about exploring the neighborhood (where my grandparents had lived, and I had covered extensively by bike as a kid), but I was kind of depressed by how much it had changed. Maybe next time.

The trip to the RiverPark was uneventful. Traffic was light and the day was great. I got to the park entrance around 9:30am and found my first cache: Welcome to Tunica RiverPark! by Tunica RiverPark (GC2FC3P). As I was about to leave, a man pulled up in a truck, got out and waked over to the sign and asked if I was a geocacher. He then asked if I had found the cache. I said, "Yes", took a picture at the sign and moved on.


I continued on into the park and parked in a nearly-empty lot and set out on the hunt. I found all of the caches along the ecotrail (to the south) and came back to hunt the ones around the parking area. The eco-trail was 1.9 miles long and parts were paved, parts were boardwalk, and parts were dirt. I spent some time watching boats out on the river and spotted deer in the woods. The last cache I found near the museum was on the dock for the Tunica Queen - a paddle boat.

[ heading south to the ecotrail ]

[ turning east and into the woods ]

[ the boardwalk ]

[ the other side (east) of the boardwalk ]

[ one of the three deer I saw ]

[ the Tunica Queen ]

I think I was in the park for maybe 2.5 hours. Sunday mornings are a great time to visit this park if you enjoy peace and quiet. I didn't attempt to go in the museum itself because - there were no caches in there!

Once I had left the park, my main goal was to find a place to eat lunch. I stopped at a tiny KFC and had some chicken before hitting the road again. I wished I had done some research on restaurants, so I could have picked a better place.

After lunch, I continued north on Hwy 61 into Southaven where I found The Dollar Jar by krosnit (GC27X86) in back of a Dollar General store on the western end of town. Normally, I would have cut over to I-55 at this point and headed back into Memphis, but today was such a nice day, I decided on another course of action.

Coming north on Hwy 61 into Memphis, I made a last minute decision to go after Weaver Park by dguyusnavy (GC2A0PJ). Weaver Park is in a neighborhood I lived in 40 years ago. In fact, I passed within 1000 feet or so of my old house while on my way to the park. Of course, the area is so different now, there is no way I could have recognized my neighborhood. I found the park just to the west of Mitchell High School (which appears to be fairly new). Since it was early afternoon, I figured I'd have to deal with muggles. The only kids around were practicing with band equipment and I'm pretty sure they weren't paying much attention to me.

With 16 caches found, I decided to head on in to work. It ended up a pretty good day with no DNFs and few muggles.