Good morning everyone. Did you know there are 26 Earthcaches in North Dakota? The oldest is 'Horizon's Gift of Glaciers' GCZDAX, published in November, 2006. The newest is 'Kettle Lake Earthcache' GC6RFFW, published in September, 2016. Manitoba has 64 Earthcaches. The oldest is 'Dunes Day' GC12902, published in April, 2007. The newest is 'The Oxbow of the Red' GC81PQP, published in December, 2018.
It's Sunday morning. Day number four of my North Dakota adventure and the wind up to the caching and camping event. Today was a simple pancake breakfast event before everyone scatters in different directions. Some made plans to go see the Medora musical in nearby Medora, North Dakota. I had my own plans that included making my way to Grand Forks for the night and adding more counties to my list. Before that all happens, I need to pack up and check out. I'm fairly confident that I was the last one to show up for the pancake breakfast. I enjoyed a yummy breakfast, chatted with those who were still there, including the awesome hosts before I started my journey East along I-94. I did have specific caches I wanted to get along with any other that would give me that particular county.
It's Sunday morning. Day number four of my North Dakota adventure and the wind up to the caching and camping event. Today was a simple pancake breakfast event before everyone scatters in different directions. Some made plans to go see the Medora musical in nearby Medora, North Dakota. I had my own plans that included making my way to Grand Forks for the night and adding more counties to my list. Before that all happens, I need to pack up and check out. I'm fairly confident that I was the last one to show up for the pancake breakfast. I enjoyed a yummy breakfast, chatted with those who were still there, including the awesome hosts before I started my journey East along I-94. I did have specific caches I wanted to get along with any other that would give me that particular county.
One of my stops would be in New Salem, home of Salem Sue. You can't miss Salem Sue. As I was getting closer to New Salem, you can see the large cow on top of a hill. I also had read about Salem Sue not that long ago in GeoJangie's blog > Salem Sue
Salem Sue is a slight detour off the interstate, but well worth the stop to stretch the legs. The view of the landscape is also worth the time to stop and check things out.
One of the people I had talked to at the pancake breakfast was gloworm77. I had asked her about any particular caches that I should look for, if I have time, in the Bismarck/Mandan area. I already had a couple on my list that I absolutely had to find, so any additional ones would be nice. She was able to provide a few suggestions, including an ammo can that she owns at the library. That would be good to drop off trackables that I've had with me for far too long. One cache that I found just I was entering the Mandan area was downhill from where I was parked at the side of the road. This happens to all of us every now and then. No pen to sign the log sheet. I forgot mine in the car. Logging etiquette states that you must sign the log sheet. I didn't feel like going back up the hill to my car for a pen, signing, back downhill to replace and back uphill to my car. I did what other geocachers have done. I got creative and left a mark on the logsheet somehow. In my case, it was a blade of grass and I smudged in a square. I made note of that in my log that the green smudge was me.
One of the places that was a must stop for me was the Whispering Giant sculpture in Mandan. I became aware of this series of sculptures a few years ago. Artist Peter Toth has created at least one for every State, and has two in Canada, including the one that's North of Winnipeg in the town of Winnipeg Beach. You can read more about this amazing series here > Whispering Giants. There was no cache hidden here last year, but after a conversation with gloworm77 and her mom Butterfly_77 at last year's camping and caching event, Butterfly_77 has since placed a cache here. It was a tricky one but I did find it. Another stop I wanted to make was for a puzzle that I had solved. A quick park and grab in a skirt of a light pole.
Another of my must stops was 'The Buck Stops Here' GC551. Hidden in March, 2001, it is the oldest active geocache in North Dakota. I can now claim as found the oldest active caches in Manitoba and North Dakota. It was an easy find on this day. Reading past logs, you see stories of swampy conditions around GZ, and lots of mosquitoes.
With that out of the way, I continued East on I-94, finding more traditionals, an Earth cache at a rest stop, and one of only two virtuals that I haven't found yet in North Dakota. There was also Sandy the Sandhill Crane. I wasn't able to find the cache that's located here. It has since been disabled by the owner as they plan on replacing the missing cache. Fortunately, there was another cache not far away and I was able to find that one and claim a new county. You'll never know what you can find when you get off the beaten path, or in this case, the interstate. I believe this plane is in the town of Finley. There is no geocache hidden here, but there should be.
Time to get myself to Grand Forks before it gets dark and check in to my next cheap hotel. The one I had booked in Grand Forks wasn't far from the visitor information centre near Interstate 29. When I first pulled up, I wondered what I had just booked myself. It was a single level motel style building. It didn't look like much on the outside. There is that old saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover". That applied here. The staff was friendly and the room was very nice. This would be the nicest of the three cheap hotels I would stay in on this trip. I would definitely stay at this one again.
I'm going to include day five in this blog as the remainder of my trip home was uneventful for the most part. Instead of heading up I-29 for home, I opted to go West for a stretch and grab another new county or two. I would head North from there and cross at a lesser used port of entry into Canada. One of my stops was in the town of Michigan. I was able to find the cache easily enough, signed, replaced and returned to my car. As I sat there figuring out where I'm going to go next, I heard a loud siren go off. The kind of siren you would hear when there's a tornado in the area. Being from a larger Canadian city, I'm not use to this. My immediate reaction was "what the...…?" A quick look around and all I could see was the sun shinning, blue sky with some clouds. I also noticed the time. It was noon. Maybe this thing goes off everyday at noon? It brought back a memory of attending an event in Pembina, North Dakota a few years ago. As we were about to leave, we heard that loud siren. Oh no! We can't leave. There's a tornado in the area. The locals that were sitting at the bar never flinched and informed us that the siren goes off every day at that time (10:30pm).
I made it as far as Devil's Lake before turning North for home. I crossed just North of Langdon, back into the safe confines of Manitoba with no incident at all. I hit up a small portion of a power trail just outside of Morden to boost my numbers. It was at this time that I concluded that I no longer like doing power trails alone. Even though it was only thirty or so caches, it was too much. It was straight home from there. I had to make one more stop, to see my boys. I had received text messages from my ex-wife while at the pancake breakfast about the possible addition to the family. I got to meet that addition when I stopped at the house. Introducing Lilo, the boys new geo-pup. A year and a half old Husky who is a handful, but very loving. She did bark non-stop at me when I first arrived, but once she warmed up to me, she is happy when I stop by and can't wait to get some loving from me.
To recap the past two days in terms of goals; I added 20 more caches found in North Dakota, bringing my total to 221, exceeding my goal of 200 finds in North Dakota. I added eight more counties to my list, for a total of 17 new counties from this trip. That exceeds my goal of nine new counties. It also gives me 26 of 53 counties for the county challenge. The pancake breakfast was my fourth event in North Dakota this year, passing my goal of attending three events. I did find three more caches the next day after getting home, the last caches I would find for the month of June, and the last I would find for a couple of weeks (geocaching burnout or geocaching coma). With those three, my final count for June is 266 caches found, passing my goal of 250. Still not my absolute best month, but my best for sure for June. I passed my goal of reaching my 600th mystery cache and currently sit at 656. I passed my 5,500th cache found (currently at 5,626, I found one cache in July so far). I added Montana to my map of where I found a cache. My five day total for the trip is 141 caches found. No wonder I feel burnt out. LOL.
That concludes my trip down to North Dakota for their annual camping and caching event. Next year's camping and caching event will be in the Minot area. Keep the weekend of June 26-28 open on your calendar and come out for a fun weekend. I hope I'll be able to make it. My oldest boy, d-2002 is graduating next year, so I'll have to wait and see how that schedules out. Until next week be happy, be safe, hug your loved ones, enjoy life, and most of all, have fun. Peace out.
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