The Desoto Trail - 7/23/2011

I was reading the Mississippi Geocachers Association forums (before their last site crash) and stumbled upon mention of a short series of geocaches that were put out by the Desoto County Tourism Board, in Northwest Mississippi, as a way of bringing geocachers to Desoto County. There are seven caches in this series that are located in small towns throughout the county. I mentioned this series to my caching buddy, jgreer, and he agreed to hunt them with me at some point.

I don't enjoy geocaching in the summer, but since this series looked pretty easy, I made arrangements with jbgreer to hunt them on this particular Saturday. We met up at my place just before 8am, and after having a nice breakfast in Midtown Memphis, set off south for Mississippi.

Our first stop was just across the state line in Southaven, MS. DeSoto Trail #6 - Southaven
by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36H) was at a cemetery we found a cache at once before. It was an easy find and we discovered a really cool logbook and a strip of paper we were supposed to take from each cache the the Desoto County Visitor's Center at the final.

[ A familiar cemetery in Southaven ]

The next stop on our list was DeSoto Trail #2 - Horn Lake by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36B ) in Latimer Park. The cache was a short distance from both parking and a skate park. The cache was easily found and had possibly been muggled as the information strips for this location were no longer in the cache. There were two other caches nearby in the park, but it was so hot that we decided to stay focused on our goal of find all of the Desoto Trail series.

Cache number three took us west to Walls, MS. DeSoto Trail #5 - Walls by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33Q) was at a small cemetery next to a church that was outside of town. This particular cemetery was where Blues artist Memphis Minnie was buried. A roadside plaque nearby told a little about her history and is part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

[ The cemetery where Memphis Minnie is buried ]

Next, we headed south to Hernando, MS for two more caches in the series. The first of the two we hunted was DeSoto Trail #3 by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33H). It was located in the Town Square just outside of the courthouse. There was some sort of farmer's market going on here on this day, so we tried to be stealthy in getting and replacing the cache. After that was done, we went inside to get a drink of water and check out the famous murals that cover the walls inside.

[ One of the half a dozen murals in the Hernando Courthouse ]

After leaving, we drove about a quarter-mile to DeSoto Trail #4 - Hernando by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W33N). This cache was in an old building next to the Desoto County Museum. I wished that we had been able to visit the museum itself, but we are usually single-minded when geocaching.

[ A building spanning several eras next to the museum ]

Next, was a trip to Olive Branch, MS for DeSoto Trail #1 - Olive Branch by SoDeSotoMS (C2W337). I have cached in Olive Branch a number of times, but had never been to this particular area. Again, Olive Branch had some caches nearby that I would have like to have hunted, but will wait for the weather to cool off.

[ The Visitor's Center off in the distance ]

Finally it was off to the Desoto County Visitor's Center and DeSoto Trail #7 - Final Stop
by SoDeSotoMS (GC2W36K). When we arrived, the first thing we noticed is that the Visitor's Center was closed. It turns out that they are only open Monday through Friday. The cache was a short distance away along a paved trail. After signing the final log, we decided to call it a day. It took around 4 hours to hunt all seven caches and we had a great time. I look forward to my next expedition into Mississippi sometime in the Fall.

Caching in Virtue Flats - 6/30/2011

Today, my Dad and I decided to hunt a few caches in the Virtue Flats OHV that is located a few miles to the east of Baker City, OR. I can't stop in Baker City without having breakfast at the Baker Truck Corral. I always enjoy their corned beef hash and eggs and today was no exception.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Baker Interpretive Center to hunt Rest Stop on the Oregon Trail by DocDTA (GC2W8BE) . This cache was not too far from the parking lot area, but required hiking down a windy trail called the "Ascent Trail". Since my Dad doesn't care for hiking, I made the hike alone.

[ Exhibit near the parking area ]

[ Nice scenery along the Ascent Trail ]

[ A covered wagon awaits at the end of the trail ]

The entire length of the trail is only 0.8 miles, and there is an old covered wagon to visit for those who make the entire hike. Unfortunately, I only had time to hunt the cache, and since my Dad was waiting for me at the top of the hill. I made it a quick hunt. The Baker Interpretive Center is a cool place to visit. I've been inside the museum once, many years ago, and hunted a cache on the grounds two years ago.

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I cached in Virtue Flats last year around this same time, so I knew what to expect in terms of terrain. It was at least twenty degrees cooler than the last time I was here. That made a big difference in this desert-like terrain. I didn't have a good map of the area, so I didn't know how close to the main road any of these caches would be. We found a parking area near Broken Valve Stem by rebel502 (GC2FG1B) and I hiked along an ATV trail about a third of a mile to that cache. After that, we drove the main road through the area and would stop as close as we could get to a cache. I would then drink some Gatorade, then set off for the cache. Most were within 1/3 of a mile from the road, and all involved some hill-climbing.

[ It seems to go on forever... ]

[ My dad prefers to wait by the main road ]

[ This would be so much fun on an ATV! ]

I ended up finding 3 of the 4 caches that are available, including An eagles nest view of the Eagle Caps by pete-n-repete (GC1BPQX) and Above the boulders by rebel502 (GC2TYF9). I didn't get the fourth cache in the area, mainly because of the hiking distance. Next time, I am in the area, I'll try to bring an ATV along.

[ more to come including my hunt for the Sawtooth Ridge volcano cache ]