Saturday, December 31, 2011

356 Cubic Inches

Still exhausted after a long day of hiking and caching with jbgreer, I was surprised to get a call from him Friday night asking if I wanted to hunt 346 Cubic Inches by bitbrain (GC2Q6HD) on Saturday morning.

We met up at 9 am Saturday morning and decided to forgo our usual breakfast in order to get out to the Wolf River Wildlife Area. We parked at the Bethany Road entrance on the northwest side of the wildlife area and began the hike towards the Wolf River. The trail was wet from recent rains and it was often easier to walk along side of it. It was also wind-y and caused us at one point to take a shortcut across a gully or two.

[ One of many views we had of the Wolf River ]

[ A bamboo thicket ]

Not far from the 1st stage, we ran across geocachers peanutpapa and shandrum who were also hunting this cache. They had just finished the second stage and were heading to the final. They decided to tag along with us a bit to watch us tackle the first two stages. Since this is a mystery cache, I have to leave out a lot of interesting details and pictures. While hiking around, we discussed the trials and tribulations of tackling the 5/5 cache -
Purple Heart by Tiger130 (GC38YDJ) at Herb Parsons Lake.

[ heading into the unknown ]


[ Thorns were a theme at the final stage. ]

After everyone had the pleasure of locating the final stage, we took turns signing the log. We then all hiked back to the parking area where we parted ways.

[ Mission Accomplished ]

Queen of the Confederacy - 12/30/2011

This weekend, jbgreer and I were looking for a couple of good caches to hunt as he quickly approaches his 1000th logged cache find. I had a few already selected when I sorted my pocket query by difficulty and spotted Queen of the Confederacy by kailuasquid (GC1W51Q) a multistage cache in La Grange, TN. At our breakfast meeting on Saturday morning, we decided that this would be a great cache to go after.

It was a long drive that was mostly on two-lane highway to La Grange. Speed traps abound, so we were careful not to speed.

The first stage was near the house former residence of Lucy Holcombe Pickens AKA "The Queen of the Confederacy." The stages had not been found in a long time, and the first stage was largely hidden by mud. We did find it, though, and cleaned it off to get the information needed to get to the second stage.

The second stage was tricky and there were a few people in the area that noticed us poking about. We did finally find the stage and used the coordinates to take us to the final location.

[ La Grange General Store ]

When we got to the appropriate parking area, we ran into three hunters about to enter the area. They had killed a deer earlier, and had returned to collect it. We all walked together for a ways, with jbgreer explaining what we were doing out there. We split up about 500 feet from the cache and after they got out of sight, went into the woods and found the final ammo can. We left the woods the way we came in and left town.

[ We forgot our orange vests. ]

On our way back to Memphis, we decided stop in Collierville to try and finish
FTF All Star #5: Along The Creek by rungeek (GC121CJ). This was a three stage multicache with a puzzle at each stage. We had attempted the first stage earlier with no luck. It turned out, however, that it was just well-hidden, so we were able to continue on this day with stage two. Stage two required some terrain crossing and we were lucky in that it hadn't rained in a while. We found the container with a big hole in the side and filled with a watery sludge. Inside was a laminated slip of paper with information needed to help get to the third stage. It was almost unreadable, but what we needed, we got.

[ Nonconnah Greenbelt ]

The third stage required solving a puzzle to get information to go with what we got from the second stage. The puzzle looked daunting, so we started to drive off. As we were leaving, I had an insight that allowed me to solve the puzzle and derive the final coordinates needed. After another terrain obstacle, we found the final stage - intact. We breathed a sigh of relief, signed the log and moved on.

We only found two caches on this day, but they were both memorable.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

A Christmas Flash Mob - 12/25/2011

Normally, Christmas Day would be a bit too busy too do anything geocaching-related, but Holiday Flash..err...Twinkle Mob by Abiectio (GC393JE) was only 4 miles from where I live, so I decided to head over there before going off to visit family. The event started at 11am, so I got to Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis about 45 minutes early, so that I could relax and watch the barges on the Mississippi River.

[ My vantage point while waiting for the event to start. ]

At around 10:58, I realized that I would be late to the 11am start, but headed over anyways, and was 3 minutes late. There were five people there, which was a fair amount considering the day and how far some of them drove to be there. We all enjoyed some cupcakes that the host, Abiectio brought along before going our separate ways.


It turned out to be a better day than I had expected, but I didn't hunt anymore caches during the day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

It Started With Some Puzzles - 11/26/2011

Saturday didn't look like it would be a good day for caching because of rain, but when my buddy jbgreer asked if I was interested, I immediately put together a list of caches to hunt.

We met up as usual for a nice breakfast and discussion of the day's plans. I picked out a couple of puzzle caches to start with - ones that we had both solved months ago. Depending on how much time we had, I selected a few in Shelby Farms to finish out the morning. The first two caches turned out to be in different locations in the same park. Since these were puzzle caches, I'll leave it to the curious reader to deduce which park that might be. After finding suitable parking, we flipped a coin and decided to go after Phillip Duffy Tolerates A Crazy Transient adopted by Tinksdad ( GC19QK3) first. The hike started out easy and before too long, we were fighting our way through some interesting terrain that included some brush and thorny vines. The hide spot was perfect and didn't take long to find once we were in the area. We were surprised to find two cache containers in the same spot, both with logbooks. We signed the one that everyone else signed and packed everything back up.

[ An early test of coordination ]

[ The fields are beautiful this time of year. ]

Next up was Say What? by mndvs737 (GC1RJ9). It was in an area more likely to be damp, so we were very fortunate not to run into much water on the route we chose. It wasn't until we got to the cache itself, that the ground was damp. The container, however, was a nice, dry ammo can. After signing the log, we made our way back to where we parked with little difficulty.

[ A break from bushwhacking ]

With two good puzzle caches off of our list, we decided to drive to Shelby Farms to pick up a few easier caches to end the morning. Shelby Farms has a lot of activity going on around this time of the years with their Starry Nights exhibit and a Thanksgiving Day 4 mile race. We decided to park near the Woodland Discovery Center to start our hunt.

First on the list was
Water and Electricity Don't Mix! by BrunoFam3 (GC2ZNV1). This area could at times be very popular with park visitors, but this morning, we swooped in and jbgreer made the find quickly. After we both had signed the log, a gust of wind came up and jbgreer got a little exercise chasing down the log.

Next was
Yeti's Path by thefamilybush (GC2WWQ2). I had done this one during the heat of the summer, but thought it would be a fun one for jbgreer to find. The trails in this area are really nice, and I hadn't known about them until I hunted the caches in the area.



He found the cache quickly enough, and I kept an eye out for people while he signed the log. The area is popular with bikers.

The next two caches we wanted to hunt were
I'd rather be fishing! by Balls2thefloorgeocacher ( GC37YEN) and Quit Horsing Around by ProudMother06 (GC37YEM). Both caches were near a lake and the first spot (near a pier) had two people standing around so we decided to get the other one (GC37YEM) first. As we were walking towards the area, we saw a man in front of us wearing camo clothes. When he stopped at the area we wanted to search, jbgreer started to ask him if he was a geocacher. I recognized at that point that we had run into jaybirder. We decided to search together and after some effort, found the cache.


[ jbgreer and jaybirder ]

We decided to hunt (
GC37YEN) together and by the time we got to the pier, we people had left. It was a pretty good hide with lots of potential spots, but eventually I spotted it. We all signed the log and were lucky that wind the wind that we didn't lose anything in the water.

At this point, we parted ways with jaybirder to hunt a few more caches.
On the way back to the truck, we stopped at a pavilion to get rid of some trash and found a log smoldering in a concrete firepit. It could have easily gotten more serious, but fortunately, someone had left a water bottle nearby with enough left in it to put out the log.

[ a little tough to see the top end of the log is still burning ]

We headed to the east end of the park to hunt Kidz Kache by polikkronos (GC2MENF). I had hunted this one before without reading the note that said it was moved away from the place described in the hint. Since I had later realized where it was moved to, it was an easy find today. It was in a cool container that was covered with small ants. Nice!

After leaving Shelby Farms, we picked up two more caches to end the day. Lapizero
by thefamilybush (GC2VAFX) was a good find marred only by the fact I lost (or realized I lost) my reading glasses. I've lost a total of four pairs of reading glasses over the years, but had had this pair for a while. Oh, well.

The final cache we found was Sotobosque by thefamilybush (GC2VWDD). It was in an interesting area complete with honey locust thorns. I got poked reaching in a hole for the cache. I signed the log and left a little blood mark on the page. All-in-all, it was a pretty good morning with 8 caches found and no DNFs.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Blytheville, AR - 11/24/2011

I had a 4-day weekend to do whatever I wanted, so I planned out a few possible geocaching trips. I was invited to have Thanksgiving dinner of Thursday and when I found out it wasn't until 3pm. I selected from my list a trip up I-55 to Blytheville, AR. I figured that if I got up early enough (a hard thing to do these days), I could hit Blytheville, AR and head north into Missouri before coming back down into Tennessee and to my family's house via Hwy 51.

I've been through Blytheville at least twice before, so there were only about a dozen caches for me to go after.

By a miracle, my alarm got me out of bed on time Thursday morning. The weather was cool and a little damp, but I wasn't expecting any rain so all was good. I was on the road by 7 am and traffic was very light. I had a few caches on my list to pick up on the way north to Blytheville but made a last minute decision to skip them for times sake.

My first find of the morning was Ring....Ring....Ring by Lancent | GC266F5 at the southern end of Blytheville near the point that I got off of the interstate. This place was the former site of a convenience store and I really wished it had been open as I needed some gas.

[ Ring...Ring... ]

Gas would have to wait until I got into town. I found Champion Trees of AR: MS County: Willow Oak by zcoach (GC2MPVR) without paying any attention to the tree (I think it was across the road). The cache was near a car lot that was thankfully closed on this day.

One cache I found near the center of town was Fountain in the park by flame897 (GC2FMJQ). The little park had some interesting monuments including one to the founder of Blytheville. This park was also near the town's Greyhound bus terminal.

[ Rev Henry Thomas Blythe ]

[ Go Greyhound! ]

Just good clean fun! by flame897 (GC2FNRV) was an interesting cache at an appropriate place. I had figured it would be at a car wash, but instead it was outside of a community center for young people called "Clean Fun Club". I made one more stop before heading west out of town. P&G Special by flame897 (GC2FNT6) was outside of a church. I stayed in the lot for a bit updating my paper map with my finds so far.


Next, I picked up four caches at the old Eaker AFB. I had been here before and am pretty sure that the first cache I found was near a spot I had found another cache two visits ago. It is an interesting area as some of it has been repurposed and still has activity.

Cold War Relic-The Terminal by zcoach (GC2HNWE) was an interesting spot with a hide that suprised me given what I had been finding most of the morning.


Cold War Relic-The Memorial by zcoach | (GC2HNW4) was near a memorial to the crew of a B-52 shot down over Hanoi in 1972.


Heading northeast towards the interstate I decided to skip Grandpa's Challenge by Doug&Di (GC1ARRA) and hit Leonarda 3 by LeonardaDaArtsi (GC2EAZQ) before leaving town. I had to cross a muddy area to get to the cache, but the mud was just dry enough that I didn't sink in it.



After leaving town, I headed north into Missouri for more caching fun!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Night Caching in Nesbit Park - 11/14/2011

I don't get many opportunities to go night caching with a group, so when I heard about a plan to hunt Night Time Squirrel Hunt by Tuck Sackett, Hoot Owl, Gibbenator (GCR91D) organized by jeffbouldin, I immediately signed on to go. Even though I've been on this hunt twice before, I figured it would be a fun way to spend an evening. After signing up, I checked the weather forecast for Monday - 70% chance of rain.

I checked the weather forecast at several points on Monday and each time I checked, the rain had been pushed off until later in the evening. By the end of the work day, I knew we'd be clear of rain chances, so I went home and packed my gear and relaxed before heading out to Nesbit Park.

I arrived at the parking area around 8pm, about 30 minutes early. I paced around in the dark until nelms3 pulled up. The others (jeffbouldin, giardia_boy, and shandrum) all arrrived just before 8:30pm. My understanding for our late start was that we were waiting for bitbrain to get off of work, but it turned out that he couldn't make it, so just after 8:30pm, we set off into the woods.

[ heading into the unknown ]

I figured that since I have found the cache before, I'd hang out in the back and watch the others spot the tacks. I was prepared though, with Gatorade, a hand-held flashlight, a headlamp, and a small LED flashlight. It had been a few years since my last visit and it seemed like there were a few more ditches and gulleys than I remembered. The temperature was moderate - around 68 degrees, and there were few bugs out (other than spiders).

[ nelms3 lights up one of the many spiders we came across ]

Since there had been no rain, the terrain challenges were minimized. Still, stumbling around in the dark has its risks. I had no memory of how many sets of tacks we passed or how many trails we crossed - only a rough time estimate of how long it should take.

[ some of the gulleys were deep ]

Finally after about 50 minutes of hiking, I heard the sound of an ammo can being opened. I looked over and saw the jeffbouldin had discovered the cache. He signed the log, replaced it, and stood back to let the others eventually find it. It took some a bit longer, but eventually everyone found the cache and signed the log.


[ nelms3, jeffbouldin, giardia_boy, and shandrum find the cache ]

Invigorated by success, the group decided to hunt a few other caches before leaving the park. We found
CWL003 - Bartlett Stash by CWL (GCG409), Just Off The Yellow Trail
by cgeek (GC1AJ9F), Tango Base Three by ttowery (GCN5R8), and Stanky Creek
by itsmebigd (GC16NMB) - not in that order. It was a good selection of caches, and two of the four caches were among the oldest in the park.

Because it was getting late, we deviated from the Yellow Trail when we got fairly close to the parking area and ended up leaving the park just after 11pm.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Hdrider55 Rides Their Way to 1K - 11/12/2011

When I arrived home from a morning of caching with my friend jbgreer, I noted that I had just enough time to make it to the hdrider55 Rides Their Way to 1K event by nelms3 (GC34GFP) at 2pm. It was about a 30 mile drive to Oakland, TN and I had to be careful not to speed since the area around Oakland enforces the speed laws pretty vigilantly.

[ An object found earlier that reminded me that I had an event to go to. ]

I arrived at the designated place around 1:55pm, right behind brunofam3. There was already a good-sized crowd checking out the various travel bugs and coins that people brought along. I wrote down the tracking number of all of the coins that I could read. One of these days, I will learn to bring a magnifying glass.

[ Some early discussions before mealtime ]

I decided to hurry up and get a seat and let others fill in around me. We seemed to have just enough room for everyone to get a good seat. I had Chicken Parmesan to eat and enjoyed swapping stories with the geocachers around me. There were a lot of newer geocachers around me and I enjoyed their enthusiasm about geocaching.

There was a door prize drawing that had enough items that everyone ended up winning something. I actually ended up winning two items, because they had extra items. I won some reflective tacks (for night caches) and a small geocoin along with a nano cache. I will have a place a cache soon, since over the years I have won just about every size cache container there is.

After the event, I decided to hunt three relatively easy caches in Oakland. I actually ended up following brunofam3 around - which was great, because they did a better job of finding the caches than I did. Caches found, I decided to head back into Memphis and catch a movie before going home.

Horn Lake, MS - 11/12/2011

I met up with my caching buddy, jbgreer at our usual time and had breakfast while discussing the plans for the day's cache hunt. I had chosen Horn Lake, MS as our destination because it looked like there were some interesting caches to find. I also wanted to log a cache for my "Mississippi Blues Trail Challenge" list.

We took Hwy 51 south and made a couple of finds in South Memphis (Whitehaven). The first was The Long Pink Caddies by supersally76 (GC31384) just outside of a restaurant near Graceland. The cache was secured to a sign in the landscaping with a lock. The combination for the lock was near the big pig's nose.

[ The pig van at Marlowe's ]

It was obvious after opening the cache, that it was placed with the owner's approval and was a great cache for our first find of the day. As we were leaving, we saw a pink cadillac parked nearby.

The second cache of the morning was near an interesting sign just north of the stateline. Rock-N-Roll Ghost Town by Scooby-Doo Crew (GC2TVNP) should have been a quick find, but we were led off by possibly faulty coordinates to a wooded area nearby.

[ An odd place to run into other cachers ]

While poking around in the bushes, I looked up and suddenly saw two vehicles parked nearby. It was a virtual horde of cachers. The geocachers among them, I later found out were gfors and
vanlaanfamily. While I eventually looked where the cache was hidden, jbgreer actually made the find.

[ Everyone looking where the cache is not located ]

We met up with these cachers at one of the first caches we found once we got into Mississippi: Rent A Constitution Class Starship by Scooby-Doo Crew (GC2V57M). We found Mississippi Blues Trail: Big Walter Horton by dameetro (GC34KQ3) which I added to my qualifying list for the Mississippi Blues Trail Challenge.

We then headed to a nice park for another cache (and a restroom). Python Loose at the Park
by wilbur8869 (GC2RRF8) was in a nice patch of woods with a disc golf course nearby. The hide spot was definitely worthy of the name.

[ no bushwhacking required ]

The next cache Soccer Ball by DavidandAbby (GC2PV8E) was nearby, but we actually had to leave the park and enter a schools athetic fields. Appropriately, there was a soccer game in progress. I wanted to leave, but jbgreer convinced me that we could just walk around everyone and make to the cache. Turns out he was right and the cache was in an area hidden from the spectators.

The final cache we found in Mississippi was The Zombie Wasteland by wilbur8869 (GC36F9R). I had selected this cache because of the cool picture I had seen of the container. It was in a wooded area near an apartment complex that used to have a paved walking trail.

[ Nice! ]

The last cache of the morning was Pyradoptics by dameetro (GC2Z9G7) at the northbound I-55 rest stop in Memphis. I had seen this structure many times in passing. It's name is "Pyradoptics" and apparently lights up at night. The cache, itself, was located not far from the "artwork". All-in-all, it was a successful day. 13 caches found, with no DNFs. Several were interesting hides. It was fun to meet cachers from other states as well.

[ "Pyradoptics" ]

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Diabetic Series Mini-Power Trail - 10/30/2011

The Diabetic Series (DS) is a 20 cache Mini-Power Trail by EverywhereActs1:8 that is located a few miles west of Jackson, TN and just north of I-40. The series was created to honor of all those who have diabetes, who had diabetes, and in memory of those who have passed on due to complications from diabetes. All of the cache containers in this series are test strip canisters.

I had been wanting to do this series since it came out, but I was waiting for a nice, cool day. Today was that day. I left Memphis around 8am and made good time getting to the area of the cache trail. My first find was actually a challenge cache located at the point I got off of the interstate: States that Border West TN - CHALLENGE by lookingUPward ( GC2Y5QT). It was one of three challenge caches in the area that I hunted.

This area is cotton country, so I saw a lot of empty cotton fields and other farmland. It was a nice change of pace.

[ The cotton has been harvested. ]

The DSC series started off well. On Diabetic Series Cache (DSC - 2) (GC2QTNH), a nearby property owner came by and asked if I was lost. I explained what I was doing while trying not to look guilty, and they drove off. Not having found this cache, I drove off, planning to hit this spot on my return.

[ Not far from DSC - 2 ]

I didn't run across any other people on the rest of the trail. Most of the caches were along a road running parallel to the interstate.

[ The interstate is off to the right. Love the fall colors. ]

I did cache maintenance on two of the caches. Both were missing their ziplock bags for the logs. There were two caches that I couldn't find on the drive in (DSC -2 and DSC - 10). I found both on the trip out making it 20 for 20 on the power trail. I was done by 10:30am. On the way home, I made a quick stop at a rest area where I found TN I-40 WB 14 Caches IN-A-DAY CHALLENGE* by lookingUPward (GC2YXA5). I found two more caches on the way back to Memphis. I will try to make a trip back this way later in the season to hunt many of the other excellent caches in the area.

It occurred to me as I logged these caches, that this was my biggest caching day of 2011 (25 finds).

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Lakeland, TN - 10/23/2011

I had planned a bigger trip for this day, but the weather and other things changed my plans, so I thought I would tackle the six new caches along the new Canada Road Bike/Walking Trail in Lakeland just south of I-40. There was light rain along the drive out there, but by the time I arrived at the recommended parking area, the rain had stopped. The segment of trail I would be walking along was less than a mile long and was along both sides of Canada Road. All of the caches were placed by dneedham & GeoBender25.

[ Very quiet geese along the edge of a trailer park. ]

The first cache I hunted was Canada Trail - Evergreen (GC3632Q). It was a bison tube and was a great example of one of the hide types I would find.

Canada Trail - Rest (GC362YY) was my next find. It was (as its name suggests) at one of the four benches along the trail (2 on each side of the road). It required a little stealth since the trail runs alongside a road that sees a bit of traffic.

[ No time for resting. Besides, the benches were wet. ]

Canada Trail - Water (GC362ZF) reminded me of a number of Arkansas caches I have found over the past couple of years. It was a quick find that could have taken much longer.

[ Armadillo remains near the edge of the road about 300 feet from the cache. ]

Canada Trail - Sit (GC3630F) was an identical hide to the "Rest" hide.

Canada Trail - Woody (GC36325) proved to be tricky on my old eyes. It involved stepping into the woods. It would have been pretty easy, though, in the winter.

Canada Trail - Troll (GC3631C) was my last find of the day and the last on the trail. It proved to be the hardest to find and the earlier rainfall made the search a little tougher.

Four of the six caches were nanos. Having read this information ahead of time, I was prepared. I had clipped a paper clip on my shirt pocket and it helped me out a lot. I didn't have any background information on the trail, itself, so I am assuming that it was designed to be used by the adjacent neighborhood for relatively short walks.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Geocaching FUNdamentals Class and Trivia Contest - 10/15/2011

I have been making it a point lately to attend as many local geocaching events as I can. Prontopup of GOWT holds introductory geocaching events several times a year, so when I noticed Geocaching FUNdamentals Class and Trivia Contest by Prontopup (GC3488A) pop up on the event calendar, I signed up. I'm not new to geocaching, so I go to these events to socialize more than anything. I was intrigued by the "trivia" aspect of the event and hoped I could answer some of the questions.


The event was in Germantown, TN at 10am. As usual these days, I slept in until the last possible moment and had to race across town to make it to the event on time. There weren't a lot of people at the pavilion when I arrived. A lot of the "regulars" had other things going on, I guess. There were attendees from Forrest City, AR with books of geocoins to show. We even had an attendee from Germany make it to the event.

The information about the fundamentals of geocaching was interesting and informative and interspersed with trivia questions. I was a little slow on the draw, but one of the questions was tailored so that I would know the answer.

After the event, several of us hunted a cache put out for the event on the western end of the park. I got to the site first, but had a tough hunt before being second to spot the cache. It was a fun morning. I thought about caching some more before heading home, but decided to eat lunch nearby and then go home.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Olive Branch, MS - 9/10/2011

I met up with jbgreer at the usual time on Saturday morning and we had an excellent breakfast before heading out for a morning of caching.

Our first destination was South Ridge Community Park where there were three caches waiting for us. Because of poor routing on my part, we approached the park from the wrong direction and had to backtrack around until we found the entrance. If not for one of the online cache logs, I wouldn't have known that we were looking for the park itself.

[ South Ridge Community Park ]

The park has a paved trail that runs nearly the entire length, so there was little bushwhacking to be done. Our first cache (and primary goal of the morning because of its rating) was Day of fire by fzxfazer & littlebiker (GC1N46R). I had hunted this cache before, approaching from the wrong direction and searched fruitlessly. It turned out that not only were the coordinates roughly 30 feet off, but the correct approach was from the park to the north. Using the updated coordinates found in the online logs, we made a fairly quick find of the cache. Of course, the terrain could have been much worse had it rained recently.

Back in the park, we headed east to the next cache on our list -
South Ridge
by Fairchase (GC1GK0K). What made this one an easy find was the fact that it was laying opened on the trail with its contents scattered around it. After signing the log and putting the contents back in the can, we replaced it a good looking spot at the coordinates.

The third cache was just a bit to the east and possibly outside of the bounds of the park.
Did you take your medicine? by BEAVERSHARK (GC32XP8) was a micro that was placed in a surprising spot. After signing the log, we walked back to the car. We had no problems with muggles here, even though I'm sure this park is well-used.

Our next destination was Olive Branch City Park where we hoped to find
City Park Travel Bug Hotel by jbgrissom (GC2KGB4) because of its unusally high terrain rating (4). We found the approximate spot, but no cache. We then hunted two other caches nearby and only found one - Take a Walk, But Not On The Track by mimi1967 (GC271ZV). This park was teeming with visitors, so I can understand how a cache might get discovered by kids.

[ Some serious erosion took place here... ]

Next up was
Lan Do-Do You by Gooberploch (GC1Q6JV). It was just off of an industrial complex south of the park and across the highway. We got lucky on choosing the right roads to get there and the hike itself was short. Lots of growth to fight through at the entry point, but once in the woods, we got to the coordinates pretty easily. The cache was well camoed and may not have been in its original spot. I found it, though. Exiting the woods was easier than entering.

Our last cache of the day was
OH FRAP!!!! by fzxfazer (GC1MW92). I was originally of the opinion that the cache was accesible from outside of the City Park, but after a few failed attempts to get close, we found that the park had the best access. This was an interesting hunt. We found the right trail to start on, then shortly afterwards ran into a 30-foot stretch of chain-link fence that did little more than block the trail. After walking around that, we discovered a zipline overhead with a couple of platforms for accessing it. A few hundred feet from the cache, we came across an elevated climbing wall with a rope ladder. The rest of the journey was bushwhacking as we saw no discernible trail. I walked right up to the cache, which was a cool hide. The log however, was soaking wet. After leaving the cache, I climbed the rope ladder (harder than it looks), but decided against climbing the wall.

[ Don't fence me in... ]

[ Hmmmm... ]

We had a nice uneventful walk back to the car. No more caches were on my list, so we headed back to Memphis.