Lost Grove Lake

 The other day I was looking for a terracache or two to do and this one peaked my interest.  It's called Lost Grove Lake.  By reading the description this is a lake that is currently being built.  I've been to many man made lake, so seeing how one was being built, well I really wanted to see it.

As of right now you can see where they have cut down trees and "sunk" them to the bottom.  And how they are putting rock all the way around the edges.  It was pretty cool to see.  I'll take the discription of the cache here to kind of tell more about it.

" Lost Grove Lake is a man-made lake in the development stage. Lost Grove Lake in rural Scott County could be described as a future top recreational attraction in the Quad-Cities. The 350-acre fishing lake stretches across 1,200 acres of state land that is located eight miles north of Davenport and four miles west of Princeton.

It is estimated the dam construction will take up to two years to complete and it will be another two years for the lake to fill with water. Design of the dam has delayed the lake project. The new design will take into consideration revised federal rules which changed since the first was completed 19 years ago. The area around the future lake has been seeded with native grass seedlings. When finished, there will be wild flowers and five species of mixed native grasslands to attract the bird population. A three to four mile trail will wind around the area."

The area is big enough I didn't explore the whole thing, and there was a few hunters out in the area but I can't wait to see how this project comes along.   Here's a few pictures of the area.

 This is just a general photo of the area.  I wish I could of gotten up much higher to get a better view and photo.

Here's the other side of the road and how it's coming along.  You can see the rock they are putting in along the edges of the lake, and the different depths they are making it.

 I must say a huge thanks for WUGOII for placing a terracache here.  It was pretty cool to see this before it's filled up and put into public use.

Tape worm \m/

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

I saw this terracache get published and knowing the area, I thought, I know just where that would be, and couldn't help myself from laughing.  It was a very evil laugh, knowing just what the area does, and seeing who owned the cache I knew it would be a good one.

The area the cache is in is called the Coralville Res. It's a man-made "lake" that depth is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Right here is looking down the old highway that was taken out of use many many years ago after the Interstate was build nearby and the Res was created.  Some of that old highway is still there.  Many times during the year parts of it are underwater.  I had done a geocache near hear a while back, but at that time the old highway was underwater and I had to take a very long route cause you couldn't go straight to the cache you first had to walk about a quarter mile or so back deeper into the woods to find dry land to cross.

But this time I was on an epic journey and got to see and follow the old highway, I have seen for years from driving by on the interstate.  I had always wanted to go down when the water levels where down, and check it out, but just never got around to it.

These where just some of the sites in the area I got to look at as I walked down the old highway.  This whole area is really neat to walk along and see.  I even noticed across on the other side of the bank a couple of people fishing.

I kept moving on watching out for those helicopters, and snipers off in the trees hearing some rounds being fired off.  I had to make my journey a quick one and try to sneak in and out unnoticed or face an untimely death.

I was moving along and getting closer and closer to the cache when all of a sudden my path was blocked.  Which left me with the decision of making a swim for it, or trying to find yet another way around to the cache location.

I'm not the smartest one in the bunch but I've got this problem when it comes to terrain.  Getting wet, so what, sore legs from steep hills, child's play,  hanging on to a tree over the edge of a bluff, fun.  But it was kind of early in the year yet, and that water was going to be cold.  I debated swimming across, or looking for another route around.  Normally, I would have just dropped my gear and went the wet route, but I spotted what looked to be a much longer way around but doing so without having to swim.

I found one of the unlucky ones that didn't survive the journey and was picked off.  I had been spotted and was on the run but made it threw the heavy fire fight with very minor wounds.

I even noticed some spent rounds when I got to a spot I could get out of sight.

I finally made it around and even went as far to see the other side of where the water stopped me dead in my tracks.

After a short search, I hit pay dirt!!!  Which once I found it, all I could do was laugh again.  The perfect spot for a Terracache.  I signed my name to the log, and recorded my journey in the log.  I grabbed the cc code and then was on my way back to the car.

Now just for the record, there really is no firefight to avoid, it all just seemed fitting given the title of the cache.  Also I've done a few tricks in the blog and was very selective in the photos as not to give away a few surprises.  But they are quite funny.  the only way you'll know is, by making the journey yourself.  And yes, it's worth it.  A well done cache!!

The SS Minnow

The SS Minnow

After talking all summer long about going and hunting this Terra-cache called the S.S. Minnow, we finally where able to get the plans made for the hunt.

The S.S. Minnow was a cache placed by mmdals over two years ago and had only been found twice since it was placed. It was hidden on an island out in the Mississippi near the town of Cassville, WI. Wugo II was able to put together a boat trip and 8nut's provided the boat and some great driving as well. We where joined by leaderdog as well. The four of us met up at a boat ramp in Cassville. 8nut's had his boat in the water all ready to go when I got there.

It was quite a journey to the island. With the floods we have over the summer we didn't even know if the boat (the minnow) would still be there. It was just over 4 and a half miles from the boat ramp to the cache. It had rained a bit on my drive up to Cassville but had stopped by the time I got there. The weather other than the rain was perfect.

The trip along the Mississippi in the boat was a lot of fun. We got to see some barge's and one full of coal that was on the bank being unloaded by a crane. There's a car ferry there as well that will transport your vehicle across to Iowa if you didn't want to make the drive around. I'm sure this cuts a lot of travel time down. But I got to see a car on board the ferry.

As we neared the island I could tell all of us where getting anxious to see if we could find this one. We drug the boat ashore about a quarter mile away from our destination. From there we found some nice ground to hike in the rest of the way in. As we walked along very shortly after pulling the boat in I heard Wugo say there it is. I could feel the excitement growing but still couldn't see it.

Sure enough we got there and there she was. This was just amazing to find. I can't image how someone found this abonaded boat on the island. It was about ten feet long and about 4 foot deep. currently with the water level being down the boat was on land but as some of the picture's on the cache page indicate it does float when the water level comes up.

The wooded boat had about two inches of dirt and plant's growing in it. The hull of the boat was in pretty bad shape and a lot of the wood was roting away. We spent some time there at the "Minnow" talking about this and that and enjoying the day. This was quite a fun trip. I was glad to share this with the other's. It was great to have some great company along the journey. But as all things do this cache hunt was at it's end.

We all left the "Minnow" and headed back to our boat. We got rained on just a little on our way back but really it could have poured and I don't think anyone would have cared. We pasted a couple of other boats on the river on our way towards the dock where just a couple of hours earlier our journey had started. We spotted a couple of Bald Eagles flying over the river as well.

Once we docked we sat around for a little while and visited a bit about our other caching adventure's. This will be yet another one that will be talked about for quite some time to come.

It was great to meet the famous 8nut's who I seen the name but had never meet in person. And as always is was great to join Wugo and leaderdog for a cache hunt.

Now that the S.S. Minnow has been found I don't know what will be the next great adventure. I guess I need to hit the web-site's to see what else it out there waiting for us.

Hawkeye Area Council Geocaches

Hawkeye Area Council

2010 was a very busy year for me.  I put out a lot of geocaches for the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scout program.  The whole idea was to introduce scouts to geocaching.  With the way we set it up the majority of the caches were named after merit badges and had the requirements of the badge on the cache page.  There was also a cache named after each rank that a scout could reach which turned out to be a series inside of a series.  You have to find the 11 ranks to get all the information to help you find the H.A.C. -Eagle Scout cache.

In all there was:  3 events
                          6 puzzle caches
                          20 multi-caches
                          71 traditional caches

You can find the bookmark list here.  This list has all of the geocaches and event on it.

We the whole idea was first brought to me by WindChill.  I thought the idea was great and instantly thought of putting one cache out for each year of the scouting program.  There was a few certain caches the would have to be placed like the 12 "cache to eagle caches" and the 5 "treasure of scouting caches" and then a C.I.T.O event which Borky00 hosted.

To open the caches up to try to hit every ones interest I was able to get my hands on a pallet of ammo cans.  This made it so I could put trading items inside the caches for people that like to trade, the containers where large enough so travel bugs could fit in them.  Also with the mix of the types of caches, and some that were drive up caches and hiking caches.  I figured this would open it up to show any scouts just about any combination of hides.

Some of the local cachers did donate some containers/swag/spray paint to the project.  They were WindChill, Welch, DuitTuit.  Also there was some special travel bugs that where put out by the Scout program.  Which they where intented to draw attention to some of the great things about scouting.  Borky00 made some pictures for each one and came up with the idea of attaching keychains to them that would hold those pictures.  They are still floating out there.  Also there was a travel bug that you need to attach to a pinewood derby car that's goal was to reach the location of the big scounting event for the year.  At the moment I can't think of what that event was called though.

But getting back to the caches.  My first task was to try to get permission from a whole lot of parks in the county's that made up the Hawkeye Area Council.   Since I had 7 counties to deal with this ment I had quite alot of people to contact.  I was so relieved to get all of those counties on board without any trouble at all.  Everyone of them thought this was a great way to get people to enjoy their parks and they gave me the green light.

I also had to locate a bunch of Eagle Scout projects to try to hide 12 of the caches by or somehow use the information from the plaques to send a cacher off to where the cache was hidden.  I really found this to be one of the hardest tasks to do.  I have seen tons of project threw the years while out caching but never marked them.  Also once finding one, I had to look and see if there was any caches with 528 feet of it.  If there was I couldn't put a cache at or near the project to keep within the distance guidelines of geocaching.com.  Then I would have to try to make the project a "virtual" waypoint and send the cacher off to a location where I could put a container out.  This took me about 6 months to complete.  These caches had one of the scout law in each of the caches.  When a cacher could tell me what laws were where, they could get a special patch.

The other required project was the 5 "treasures of scouting".  These could go any where though.  I was able to get one place right at the scouting office.  These caches also had cards in them that a cacher could fill out and drop in a box or mail to the office.  Those cards where put in to a monthly drawing for a special geocoin.  WindChill took care of the drawing each month.

As the year went on I found I had to use most of my free time to get these caches place.  At a couple of points I really thought I was going to have to reduce the 100 caches to much less.  But I kept at it and kept at it and finally towards the end of the year I was getting close.  Then I found out I was going to have to have spinal surgery.  At that point I was about 13 caches away.  Since the snow was now hitting the ground it ment I wasn't going to be able to make any more "hiking" caches.  I was really trying to avoid placing many park and grabs.  The whole point was to get people to get out and enjoy the parks and exploring new areas while telling people about the scouting program.  Luckily I still had some decon containers.  I figured if I'm going to make some park and grabs, I wouldn't place a micro container.  I really wanted to stick to making the caches have a few trading items and room for a travel bug.  I did have to convert some of my own caches that I had listed on Terracaching.com.  I really didn't want to do this, but I feel it worked out ok and don't think anyone had a problem with it.

When it came time for my surgery I still had about 6 caches to place.  With the snow on the ground I couldn't do any type of hiking cause I couldn't risk falling on ice.  Luckily I got some help from another cacher.  Dazedandconfused got a container ready and went off to a spot I found that a cache would fit and meet the guidelines.  They got that one placed for me and I was able to finish up with a few more park and grabs.

Once all the caches where placed I almost didn't know what to do with my free time.  This whole project determined where I was going to cache for everyday and I just hadn't had time to venture outside of the areas I was placing caches.  I really think this whole project showed scouts most of the aspect of geocaching.  Which it was very cool they released a geocaching merit badge too.  I still need to get my papers turned in and I'll be a merit badge councilor for the badge.

I think the whole project turned out very well and a lot of people have really enjoyed the whole series.  I also have to give props to IowaAdmin for reviewing all the cache hides.  I'm sure I kept his plate full over the past year.