Good morning everyone. How many countries have you found a cache in while travelling? Top Canadian for most countries is K-Romers from Nova Scotia with 97 countries on six continents. Top American is Hid Pro Quo with 112 countries on six continents. I have 2 countries on one continent, and I've done that in one day. LOL.
This year, I booked three weeks off for summer vacation. I've never taken this many weeks in a row before. I usually take two in the summer and spread the other three out over the course of the year (I get five weeks in total). This year, I have my boys for two weeks so I know there won't be much geocaching done then. So, I took an extra week for myself just to do all the geocaching I could. I have to submit my vacation request by the end of February. The original plan was to do a whirlwind tour through North Dakota and South Dakota in a span of six days. I would go down to Sioux Falls, SD, find some caches owned by SoDakZak, head West to Mt. Rushmore, then head back home, via Williston, ND, and add some Jangie caches to my list. As I was planning out which caches I should be going after, I came across an interesting cache listing from SoDakZak. 'My Little Jar of Unicorn Farts' GC7DYWD This looked like a must get cache. When I found out that GeoJangie was heading that way in March, I pointed that cache out to her and she did find it.
Like any plan, finances dictates if you can go, how far and for how long. Doing a whirlwind tour was out of the question. A couple of goals I had set for myself at the start of the year was: reach 4,500 caches found, have 100 caches found in North Dakota & 100 in Minnesota, and find a cache in a province or state that I haven't found one in. I started looking at camping in Minnesota. I reached 4,500 and 100 finds in North Dakota during the NDGCA Camping and Caching event in June. Now I'm going to complete the other half of that goal by finding enough caches in Minnesota to get me to 100 (I needed 55). Of course, finances were rearing their ugly head. Camping at a KOA in Bemidji was slowly decreasing by the number of nights I would be staying. Then some good fortune finally shone my way. That good fortune came in the form of ND cacher WhiskeySowers. I had originally met WhiskeySowers at a CITO event here in Winnipeg, and again at the NDGCA Camping and Caching event. I had an opportunity to pitch my tent in WhiskeySowers backyard in Grand Forks, ND. I brought everything I would need as if I was camping, so I wouldn't impose or be an inconvenience to her. With this in place, I can now come up with a plan of attack on how I was going to get 55 caches in Minnesota.
My trip down was more or less, uneventful. I found a handful of geocaches in Pembina, ND, just across the Canada/US border. These caches are part of the Pembina/Walsh Historical Trail. You can read more about this trail here > http://geocachingjangie.com/2018/07/06/pembina-walsh-historic-geocaching-trail/ I arrived in Grand Forks around dinner time, proceeded to jump over to East Grand Forks on the Minnesota side of the Red River for five quick finds to get things rolling. Now to set up camp and get ready for my onslaught of caches in Minnesota the next day.
What seems like the norm of late is me being very slow moving in the morning. By the time I got going, it was already mid-morning. The big plan for the day was to drive to Bemidji, Minnesota, finding caches along the way. It's about a two hour drive from Grand Forks to Bemidji, but since I would be making frequent stops, that two hour drive will become more like four or five hours. A quick stop in Fisher, Minnesota for a park and grab (even though there was two semi trucks parked very close to GZ) before moving on to Crookston for eight finds. In my travels during the day, I would come across a few of these markers. I really liked the message and that it was in multiple languages.
An Earthcache was my next stop before grabbing a couple more traditionals. At this point, I wanted to put my phone on my portable charger. That's when it occured to me that I had the portable battery pack, but I forgot to grab the cord. Oh no! As luck would have it, my next stop would be outside of a bargain store in Erskine. Inside I go to buy a cord, walk across the parking lot for a LPC and carry on my way. Before leaving Erskine, there is one more cache. I see it's on private property. I'm not too keen on entering private yards in the event the coordinates are off and you end up searching in the wrong yard. I have had that happen. This would be a very quick find, but before I could finish signing and replacing, I was greeted by the yard owner. Turns out, it's also the cache owners; mick22 and mrb61016. We had a pleasant chat before I carried on my way.
To speed things up, I opted to leave any caches on the North side of the highway for the return trip home. It was straight to Bemidji now. One of the first few caches I would find was a really good camouflage hide. The coordinates were slightly off, but a worthy cache for a favourite point.
There was also an adventure as well. I was avoiding really difficult caches as today was about numbers. This particular cache wasn't too far of a walk from another cache that I got, so what the heck, lets go. 'Zeke the Plumber' GC3QXRN. I didn't look at all of the description, but the part of being more difficult if you're short got my attention. When I arrived at GZ, I soon found out that it didn't matter how short or tall you were, this one was way up a tree. I normally avoid tree climbing caches as I have this thing about falling. At my age, you don't bounce back as quickly when you fall. The branches were low enough to the ground and seemed sturdy enough to support my big butt, so I gave it a try. As soon as I started my climb, I noticed that the tree is infested with ants and they were quick to get on me. I persevered and I climbed and got my hands on that cache. Getting down wasn't too bad either.
Onward to more caches and to a roadside attraction of American Folklore. Before I get to the roadside attraction, I grab one more cache. I noticed it was found earlier that day. That's always a good sign. I didn't take note of who had found it until I opened up the log sheet. Kurt B and PitterPatR, a couple of geocachers from Winnipeg who just happen to be in Bemidji as well, unbeknownst to each other. I shot off a message to Kurt to say I was in Bemidji as well. Our paths never did meet up. On to the statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.
At this point in time, I realize that I'm not going to be even close to my goal unless I speed things up. I found four letterbox caches before moving on to a series of caches that are part of a numeric series. All quick finds. That helped boost up the numbers. I still have some to find on the trip back to Grand Forks. I did manage to get my numbers for caches found in Minnesota close enough that I could manage something the next day or two before returning home. By the time I arrived back at my 'camp site', (about 12 hours after I had left) I needed eight more Minnesota finds.
This year, I booked three weeks off for summer vacation. I've never taken this many weeks in a row before. I usually take two in the summer and spread the other three out over the course of the year (I get five weeks in total). This year, I have my boys for two weeks so I know there won't be much geocaching done then. So, I took an extra week for myself just to do all the geocaching I could. I have to submit my vacation request by the end of February. The original plan was to do a whirlwind tour through North Dakota and South Dakota in a span of six days. I would go down to Sioux Falls, SD, find some caches owned by SoDakZak, head West to Mt. Rushmore, then head back home, via Williston, ND, and add some Jangie caches to my list. As I was planning out which caches I should be going after, I came across an interesting cache listing from SoDakZak. 'My Little Jar of Unicorn Farts' GC7DYWD This looked like a must get cache. When I found out that GeoJangie was heading that way in March, I pointed that cache out to her and she did find it.
Like any plan, finances dictates if you can go, how far and for how long. Doing a whirlwind tour was out of the question. A couple of goals I had set for myself at the start of the year was: reach 4,500 caches found, have 100 caches found in North Dakota & 100 in Minnesota, and find a cache in a province or state that I haven't found one in. I started looking at camping in Minnesota. I reached 4,500 and 100 finds in North Dakota during the NDGCA Camping and Caching event in June. Now I'm going to complete the other half of that goal by finding enough caches in Minnesota to get me to 100 (I needed 55). Of course, finances were rearing their ugly head. Camping at a KOA in Bemidji was slowly decreasing by the number of nights I would be staying. Then some good fortune finally shone my way. That good fortune came in the form of ND cacher WhiskeySowers. I had originally met WhiskeySowers at a CITO event here in Winnipeg, and again at the NDGCA Camping and Caching event. I had an opportunity to pitch my tent in WhiskeySowers backyard in Grand Forks, ND. I brought everything I would need as if I was camping, so I wouldn't impose or be an inconvenience to her. With this in place, I can now come up with a plan of attack on how I was going to get 55 caches in Minnesota.
My trip down was more or less, uneventful. I found a handful of geocaches in Pembina, ND, just across the Canada/US border. These caches are part of the Pembina/Walsh Historical Trail. You can read more about this trail here > http://geocachingjangie.com/2018/07/06/pembina-walsh-historic-geocaching-trail/ I arrived in Grand Forks around dinner time, proceeded to jump over to East Grand Forks on the Minnesota side of the Red River for five quick finds to get things rolling. Now to set up camp and get ready for my onslaught of caches in Minnesota the next day.
What seems like the norm of late is me being very slow moving in the morning. By the time I got going, it was already mid-morning. The big plan for the day was to drive to Bemidji, Minnesota, finding caches along the way. It's about a two hour drive from Grand Forks to Bemidji, but since I would be making frequent stops, that two hour drive will become more like four or five hours. A quick stop in Fisher, Minnesota for a park and grab (even though there was two semi trucks parked very close to GZ) before moving on to Crookston for eight finds. In my travels during the day, I would come across a few of these markers. I really liked the message and that it was in multiple languages.
An Earthcache was my next stop before grabbing a couple more traditionals. At this point, I wanted to put my phone on my portable charger. That's when it occured to me that I had the portable battery pack, but I forgot to grab the cord. Oh no! As luck would have it, my next stop would be outside of a bargain store in Erskine. Inside I go to buy a cord, walk across the parking lot for a LPC and carry on my way. Before leaving Erskine, there is one more cache. I see it's on private property. I'm not too keen on entering private yards in the event the coordinates are off and you end up searching in the wrong yard. I have had that happen. This would be a very quick find, but before I could finish signing and replacing, I was greeted by the yard owner. Turns out, it's also the cache owners; mick22 and mrb61016. We had a pleasant chat before I carried on my way.
To speed things up, I opted to leave any caches on the North side of the highway for the return trip home. It was straight to Bemidji now. One of the first few caches I would find was a really good camouflage hide. The coordinates were slightly off, but a worthy cache for a favourite point.
There was also an adventure as well. I was avoiding really difficult caches as today was about numbers. This particular cache wasn't too far of a walk from another cache that I got, so what the heck, lets go. 'Zeke the Plumber' GC3QXRN. I didn't look at all of the description, but the part of being more difficult if you're short got my attention. When I arrived at GZ, I soon found out that it didn't matter how short or tall you were, this one was way up a tree. I normally avoid tree climbing caches as I have this thing about falling. At my age, you don't bounce back as quickly when you fall. The branches were low enough to the ground and seemed sturdy enough to support my big butt, so I gave it a try. As soon as I started my climb, I noticed that the tree is infested with ants and they were quick to get on me. I persevered and I climbed and got my hands on that cache. Getting down wasn't too bad either.
(see the plunger way up in the tree?)
At this point in time, I realize that I'm not going to be even close to my goal unless I speed things up. I found four letterbox caches before moving on to a series of caches that are part of a numeric series. All quick finds. That helped boost up the numbers. I still have some to find on the trip back to Grand Forks. I did manage to get my numbers for caches found in Minnesota close enough that I could manage something the next day or two before returning home. By the time I arrived back at my 'camp site', (about 12 hours after I had left) I needed eight more Minnesota finds.
(view from GZ, GC14WTR)
That was my big day for caching finds. 42 in total. It was a long day, so a day of rest was in order for the next day. That will be next week as I conclude my mini vacation to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Until then, be safe, enjoy, peace out, and have fun.
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