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).

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.

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.

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.

"The General" - 8/30/2011

The General by ace61502, badcooky81 (GC33209) is the third geocache placed in Forrest Park near Downtown Memphis over the years. The first cache - Forrest Park by ArkansasBugman (GCEAF2) - was the first cache I found by myself back in 2004. I found that cache by using a map and the cache hint to figure out where it was. That cache was archived.

The second cache -That Devil Forrest by Chasseur (GCWJAW) -was hidden in one of the small trees that surrounded the monument. Those trees were later cut down, I believe to discourage the people who liked to sleep next to the monument.

The newest cache was approved only a few days ago and has had a couple of visitors. Since it is located not far from where I work, I decided to go after it after work.

[ Run Forrest, run... ]

As with the previous caches here, I used satellite imagery to gauge where I should look. When I got near the statue, I saw a gentleman planted on the bench near the search area, as well as three visitors to the statue itself. I decided to go have dinner and then come back.

After dinner, the park was empty. It was about 90 minutes before the park's closing time and the sun was still up. The cache wasn't tough to find, but I did find several objects before finding the cache container. I found two empty vodka bottles and a pair of rusty vice grips. The cache was bigger than any in the area before and held several trade items.

[ This bench near "The General" frequently hosts "day residents" of the park ]

International Geocaching Day - 8/20/2011

I had discovered only a few days beforehand that Saturday, August 20 was being declared the first International Geocaching Day. I read that people who attended an event or found a geocache on this day would get a "special" souvenir on their geocaching.com profile. Since my local geocaching organization chose not the host an event on this auspicious occasion, I figured I'd step out and hunt a single cache. When jbgreer called me and said he wanted to hunt a few caches, I made plans to hunt three or four caches with him, and then go with him to Millington where he could hunt a couple of neat caches I had found the weekend before.

When Saturday came, we met for a delicious breakfast before beginning the hunt.

Our first find of the day was Rueda Vieja by thefamilybush (GC2N34E). It had a nice wet log for us to sign. Camino y Árbol by thefamilybush (GC2VA3Q) was nearby and we found it in good order. Since it was so hot out, and I wanted to make sure we had time to head up to Millington, TN, we skipped over some caches, stopping only for ones I thought would be out of sight of muggles.

Plantation Park by aschrack (GC2WDMR) was on our way and was in a nice new park in the Davies Plantation area. After finding the cache near the parking area. I climbed a small hill to survey the rest of the park.

[ There was a winding walking trail around the lake ]

She hates nature by kasitay (GC2TB9M) was in I. H. Managerial Park in Lakeland, TN. I have been after this cache twice before. New coordinates made this trip out there a success. The cache was 30 feet or so west of the area I searched before. It made a big difference.

[ Only two people out fishing today... ]

Wisteria Gift Attic & Tea Room by magicrock (GC22539) was our next goal. Both jbgreer and I always enjoy magicrock's caches and this one was no exception. The coordinates were a little rough, but I finally found the unique camo on this nanocache.

After finding the last cache, I was ready to head to Millington and Edmund Orgill Park. I was certain the jbgreer would find the two caches there as interesting as I did. It was getting very cloudy as we approached Edmund Orgill Park - George Washington was here??? by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2THX2). This was a tough hide, but jbgreer walked right up to it. As he signed the log, I noticed nearby fishermen gathering up their stuff. The wind was starting to pick up and rain was on the way. We decided to go ahead and try the last cache on the list - Edmund Orgill Park Working Out the Numbers. by poetintenn and Alex Layne (GC2VXHK). This cache had been moved by the owner due to muggles and someone (probably the owner) had written additional clues on the container that made it too easy to get into. Still, jbgreer had trouble with the container just as jackthebear, peanutpapa and I had the week before. The rain didn't help. Fortunately, he got to the log, signed it and then we got back to the car as quick as we could. We had lots of rain and even some small hail as we were leaving the area.

The rain cleared out by the time we got back to Memphis. I had a great time as always and a few days later saw an "International Geocaching Day" souvenir show up on my geocaching profile.

Mid-South Fairgrounds - 8/14/2011

It was a beautiful Sunday and I had some time to kill before having to be somewhere. I knew there were four new caches on the property of the old Mid-South Fairgrounds I could get. Since that area is not far from where I run in the evenings, I had originally planned to hunt them one afternoon after work. One of the caches, though, was at the Children's Museum of Memphis. I knew they closed at 5pm, so I decided that if I went today, I could get all four caches.

I entered the Fairgrounds from the north entrance. I drove to the site of the new Kroc Center, where Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) was hidden, but the presence of a parked car near the hide spot forced me to move on.

The first cache I would end up getting was Mid-South Fair Grounds: Present by Nvisible (GC30PBZ). It was near a new fountain that is part of that area's transformation into "Tiger Lane". The area was mostly empty on this day, but it seemed like wherever I went, there was one car parked within sight of me. I hadn't seen "Tiger Lane" before, so I took a few pictures. It is basically a tailgating area for University of Memphis football games.

[ Nice clean fountain ]

Next, I went after Mid-South Fair Grounds: Past by Nvisible (GC30J50). It was in an area that once was home to Libertyland, a theme park at the southwest end of the fairgrounds. I drove around the area looking for close parking, but ended up having to walk a few hundred feet. The cache, itself, was easily found. I thought the camouflage was exceptional, though.

[ The Mid-South Coliseum as seen from where I parked ]

[ This area once held a big roller coaster called the "Revolution"]

I headed back north to Mid-South Fair Grounds: Future by Nvisible (GC30PQK) and saw that the guy parked in the lot was still there, although he had moved a bit. He was parked about 50 yards north of the cache. I got out of my car and took a few pictures of the Kroc Center construction site across from the cache and noticed that I could grab the cache without being spotted.

[ Is this what they mean by building "green"? ]

As I left the fairgrounds, I decided to check and see if the nearby Children's Museum of Memphis was open. There was a fairly new cache on the grounds and I figured I'd make a sweep. It turns out that it was open and while busy, the crowds were sparse enough so that I had no problem getting to SPARK an imagination by LMuseW (GC30HQ6) and singing the log. 4 for 4, I called it a day and headed home.

[ Interesting music playing outside of the building ]