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.

Shake,Rattle,Roll-Repeat If Necessary

Shake, Rattle,Roll-Repeat If Necessary (GC2B48V)

This was a neat find.  This cache is just down a gravel road and just a few feet from the edge.  Not hard to find at all.  But once you get it, you'll have one small problem.  Getting to the log sheet.  As you can see by the picture there is a padlock on one end, preventing you from removing the end cap.  You'll also notice when you pick it up something is rattling around inside of it.  Sure enough it's the key.

The goal of this one is to get the key from inside of the container so you can unlock the padlock and then you will find a pill bottle inside of it that holds the log sheet.  You must do at the title suggests.  Shake it, roll it, and keep trying till your arms get sore.  The little tube at the bottom is where the key will fall out when you have wiggled the whole container correctly.  This doesn't sound like a hard task, but it took a bit to finally have the key fall out.  I was a bit worried the key would fly out and get lost in the grass, but thankfully it didn't.

I just thought this container was really neat and it was pretty cleaver.  If your in the area check it out!!!

Abby's Treasure Island

Abby's Treasure Island -GC21D1

I was sitting at home search geocaching.com for a cache to do.  I had noticed that this cache had been found the day before by three guys.  I'm still not up for any kind of ruff terrain after having spinal surgery.  This one I remember is all flat land but a decent walk to get to, and you have to cross the river.  Knowing that it had been pretty cold out, I figured I'd take a shot at it.  I got ready and asked Rusty if he wanted to go along, which his ears perked up and ran right to the door.

Once we got to the parking area it is about 3/4 of a mile as the crow flies to the cache.  So off we headed.  We crossed on the bridge and walked along the river back till we could see the island.  The snow wasn't very deep at all and it made for a nice walk.  At I was looking at the island planning the river crossing I notice at the tops of the trees, there was a bunch of bald eagles.  It was starting to get dark out, so I wasn't able to get a good close picture of them.  I was wondering if they hung out here waiting for people to try to come to their island and fail, so they could pick at their bones.

We found a spot that seemed very solid and tied the rope to a tree.  Then we started the hairy part.  Crossing the river.  We went slow and steady across finally made it to the island.  So far we hadn't seen any signs of the fellows that had been here the day before.  As we made our way to the cache location, we finally saw their footprints.  Once we found the container, we sat and relaxed for a bit on a log.  It was really starting to get dark and I figured we better get back across the river before I had to break out the flashlight.

We followed the same path that we took to the island and where relived once we made it back to solid ground.  As we headed back we left the edge of the river so we could swing by another cache in this area.  Somehow we found some ice again but didn't realize it till I was laying flat on my back.  Ouch!!!! 

This was a fun cache hunt.  I really would like to visit this one during the summer by floating down stream on a tube.