Lair

Last March I had some time off work and had just gotten back from MOGA. You'd think I had my fill of the wood's and hiking for at least a week, but nope. Two day's after getting back home I made a call to Hunt & Peck about this cache up just above the Iowa border in Minnesota called Lair. (GC5D2D)

I had spotted this once while looking around for a neat cache to go and do and this one caught my eye. Why?? I'm not sure but there was over 100 picture's on the cache page at the time. So after coming threw some of those and reading the cache description I knew I had to check this one out. So it went on my watchlist.

After getting back from Moga and having the rest of the week off I called up a buddy and we met in Cascade and got into one car and headed off north. The car ride was fun up there. As we got further north and more towards the river these are area's I've never been too or have been since I was a kid. So the road trip was a lot of fun and a lot of neat stuff to see.

Once we hit the border though it was like we where two kid's planning a snowball attack or something. We had parking cord's and there was specified instructions of where to go to park. When we where a mile or so away we looked up and I think H&P said to me I think there is where we are going.

Now there is talk on the cache page about a possible cougar being seen in the area. We had chuckled about we both wouldn't have to out run the cougar just the slowest person in the group. We found the parking but couldn't get the car to it due to the wet and muddy road's so we parked it roadside and hiked in from there. At first we felt like we where trespassing as there was no trespassing sign's all over on the side's of the road. This was just the farmer trying to keep people off his land and on the road. But once we reached the top of the road and looked down into the valley where the "enchanted forest" was we saw that State DNR sign. One think less to worry about.

We where headed down the trail and cut off and bushwhacked our way to the river that looked, like it could over flow at anytime. LOL. If you go you'll get that. But after crossing that stone by stone and a leap of faith we came to the "enchanted forest". A small pine forest. Making our way threw on some game trails we came to the base of "the mountain" (if one would call it that). This is where we kind of split up a bit, trying to make the climb easier on both of us.

A few hundred feet later we could hold the excitement in anymore and the climbing went a lot faster heading towards the Lair. Once up top you could turn back and see this amazing view that you just don't see anywhere. But the neat part was the Lair was waiting right there to explore. Out come the flashlight's and we where hoping we had the right cave and didn't have to climb to the very top. Well, I won't give what you have to do away, but we pulled out this nice and rusty box that looked like some sort of miner had left behind 50 year's ago. Cracked that baby open to find us a log book and some SWAG and a few trackable's.

Well, we had come prepared and brought sack lunches. What better way to spend a day of vacation than sitting up top this large "hill" at the mouth of a cave, eating a sandwich chatting away with a buddy and just enjoying this very unique place with a heck of a view, this cache owner had found. This place is something to see and I highly recommend taking a camera.

It was kind of sad when we started to head back. I had been wanting to do that cache for a least 6 month's and our adventure was over. We made way back to the car and headed out but first a stop by an additonal waypoint the cache owner had marked. A trip to Miami. You'll have to figure that one out for yourself.

On the way home I had spotted a special groundspeak volunteer geo-coin in a cache near Decorah. Well, I wanted to see it. So some how or another we took a very long way home and picked that coin up to discover and move along. We did a couple of Geo's and Terra's while near Decorah along the way. Not very many but they where in some neat spot's that are worth taking extra 70 mile on our roadtrip.

I would highly recommend any one to do this cache. It's a very unique place to see and really the picture's don't do it any justice. If anyone want's a "tour guide" contact me. I'd love to tag along to this one again.

Hunting season from a caching prospective

Hunting season. Those are two words that make any geocacher a bit nervous. I've really paid attention this year to the hunting season's and have personally tried to stay out of the hunting area's while shotgun season is going on. I've made sure to blaze it by wearing bright orange stocking cap or a brightly colored shirt. If I see a car in the parking lot of a hunting area I'll skip it and come back at a later date.

Well this year going with this thinking, I'd figure I wouldn't have any scary hunting incidents. Nope. Today I was looking for a couple of roadside caches which aren't really my favorite kind of cache to do but better that and still get out then sit at home or have a slug go threw your leg or worse. I was down in the ditch looking threw this pine tree and spied that ammo can. I grabbed it and got it down in front of me and opened it up and went for the log book. All of a sudden I hear a KABOOM. I signed it real quick and put it back and headed for the car. when I got back up onto the road I looked into the corn field across the road and spied 5 or 6 hunter's in orange vest's. I was able to see what they where shooting at. There was two deer in the field.

Now I'm not a hunter by any means but you would think these people would pay attention to what's on the other side of what they are shooting at. Yeah there where a couple of deer there but beyond those deer was the interstate. And I sure didn't see those deer dropping to the ground. In fact I saw and heard at least a dozen gunshot's and yes they where aimed right at the interstate.

Then I went along a bit further down the road and stopped for another cache. I saw one of the most disgusting site's I've ever seen while out caching. There was a poor dog that had gotten loss or just dropped off and it had looked like he died from exposure. I was so glad my son wasn't with me to see that. He was laying with his belly up and at first I thought it was a deer carcass someone had dumped over the bridge. Poor dog.

I found this cache pretty quickly and was going to sign it and again KABOOM. I tossed it back in it's hiding place and made way back up to the road to the car. That was enough for me. I have no idea anymore other than sticking to nothing but urban placed caches till shotgun season is over. The weather is really nice so it would be prime to head out into a wooded area looking for a cache but with the hunter's it's just not worth it.
I have no idea why I'm writing this other than maybe someone will run across it before heading out looking for a cache and maybe this will make them think about grabbing a orange vest or something so they are spotted easily.

Be safe cacher's. The last thing I want to see is a article in a newspaper that a fellow cacher was involved in a hunting accident. You can visit http://www.iowadnr.com/ for a pdf file for this year's hunting season's. I've uploaded some photo's I took of the hunter's, sorry about the bad photo's but that wasn't as important as getting out of there without any more hole's in me. There is one to three hunter's in every photo too.

Nine Inch Nails: Light's in the Sky

Well I waited a week before talking about this show that was in Cedar Rapid's at the U.S. Cellular Center. Right after I had paid a small fortune to see NIN in Detroit they announced they would be right there in Cedar Rapids. Once again the only disappointing thing is they didn't destroy their instruments at the end of the show. For a person that's seen them live and seen them do this, well they are about the only one's that would understand why.

I had gotten my ticket threw the presale's via their fanclub and got a nice surprise when I got my ticket. Instead of the normal printed out ticket this one is in Color and is quite fancy. Plus it's got my name on it. Quite the keepsake item. I got to enter the front door and didn't have to wait in the long line outside like normal when going to a show there. Another little perk of buying from their fanclub as well as a reduced priced ticket.

The opening band was BORIS. I had never heard of them but had found out they where a Japanese band that had flown over to go on this leg of the tour with NIN. They played loud and their drummer was decent. But for the most part this wasn't a good opener for NIN. Just lack the energy of band that would open for Trent Reznor. I know he loves to get the lesser known just starting out bands the chance to open for a large audience and get the word out about them but they well, should be opening for more of the likes of a pop metal band.

But in the waiting for them to start I was looking for the best spot I could on the floor to hold out for NIN, and spotted one of my youngin's that used to work with me. It was great to visit with him and his girl friend. And to finally find out he got up enough nerve to FINALLY get that tattoo he's wanted for a very long time.

I also was able to run into my little cousin and her boyfriend in this crowd that was so to be a large mosh pit. She had just ran a marathon a few week's before and really wasn't up for what was about to become one heck of a mosh pit and wild crowd. I think at one point when I had ran out to get a drink of water then when back for more, I ran into them again and she was pretty much squished in place. I wiggled my way around her and the guy in front of her had been pushing back on her pretty bad. So I planted both feet, squatted down and pushed as hard as I could and cleared her out a nice sized spot even if it only lasted a few minutes.

When NIN took the stage it's an amazing sight to see and hear. The thing's that go on behind the scene's and the technology that make up the whole show are amazing to read about and you really can't image they do all this on the fly.

When I saw them in Detroit and then compare this to this show the big difference is the crowd. I don't know if I'm just used to the Iowa crowd's and grew up with them or what. They are full of energy and I have yet to see a show out of state that has such "crazy, who care's about what we are going to feel like in the morning" folk's. It's awesome. I've heard lot's of bands say that Iowa has the most energetic crowd's and some of the baddest mosh pit's around. Well, so far I'll have to agree with that.

And the funny thing is I had to sign a wavier when I was in Detroit to enter the mosh pit there.



These three led screen are just amazing. One in the back ground, one in the middle and one up near the front of the stage. The one in the middle and the one up front are hung up high but are lowered down for part's of the show. They are fully interactive with the band member's and they are able to control them while playing using some laser's and some motion based technology.



Some of the thing's shown on the screen in the background are on feeds from camera's placed around the venue. And yes the police where on camera live arresting someone that didn't look like they were cooperating and had a bit too much to drink. But this was show in one of the "security type screen's" in a ground of eight screen from the live feeds. This was done while they where playing "Survivalism".



Once again Trent is a man of few word's but makes the most out of what he says. They come play, play, play, say thanks, play, play, play, a little chat but very short, play, play, end. But at one point in the middle of "March of the pig's" he brought his hands up to his brow trying to block out the light to see something in the crowd. Then just stopped singing and said what does that sign say?? Then a few remarks about "the plate girl" (you had to be there) and they just right back into the song like he hadn't missed a beat. It's on you-tube if you care to see it as it will be a famous moment in NIN history. I can't repeat it in this blog cause it's not the cleanest thing in the world but it was funny.

This is the third time I've seen NIN live. And once again I almost got an item they tossed out into the crowd. A tambernine. But a fellow about 5 people away from me was the lucky person to get this. Still the drumstick that hit my arm was the closed thing I almost had from them.

Josh Freeze was still on tour with them. I've personally seen Josh play with three different band's and that man is talented. I've seen him play 5 different times. He's the second best drummer that I know of. Sorry Josh, but I have to give my fav out to Danny Carney.

I still have to wonder what the show was like I missed when they played in Iowa City year's ago when I was 16, that I might add my mom wouldn't let me go to. Sorry mom but I haven't forgotten that one. Yes it was on a school night but I should have been there. That was the prime of The Downward Spiral and they had Manson opening for them. That was when Manson was just getting going and the circus was going strong.

Two hour's after the show had started it was over. I headed off to the car, my ear's ringing, my feet hurting, and this totally satisfied feeling in my gut. I so hope Trent keeps his sobriety that has been helping him put out new material faster. It's not quite the same as the older NIN song's but it still has all the passion in it. He is a very talented man and his story about how he got where he is today is just amazing.



I still remember when I was in High School and had some NIN sticker's on some thing's and most people had never heard of NIN. This was way before they became mainstream. And the other amazing part is he's made his band what it is without the press or MTV. Something only a handful of band's have accomplished. In fact a majority of NIN's video's cannot be played on MTV. I still find it funny two year's ago they wanted Trent to play one song for the video awards and he said yes but I want to show my video that I show in my concert's. This had a scene of Bush and his wife ball room dancing in between shot's of some of the news footage from some of the victim's and their injury's that have been caused from this war on terror. MTV said no, so Trent said that I don't preform, and MTV tried to bring him down by saying well you just won't be willing to show you video where he may see it. The rest of the tour NIN was on, Bush had ticket's waiting for him at the will-call desk paid for by Trent and this was announced in Trent's response to MTV.

Searryl's Cave Cache

I've been looking around for a memorable cache to land my 2000th GC find on. This one I've looked at before and never knew just why I hadn't gone after it yet. Well, I thought this looked like a fun one to make my 2000th find. Searryl's cave cache was quite a fun cache. The parking cords are listed on the cache page and it's a good thing. This little preserve in Iowa is well hidden away back behind a corn field. When you pull up there nothing more than a gate with a sign on it saying it's a preserve.

At first you start walking along a trail that goes threw a corn field. As I walked along I spotted a group of about 8 large turkey's. I tried to get a good picture of them but as I got closer they started running off so I took a few photo's. When I got close to the cache I started wondering around a bit. I stumbled upon a benchmark survey disc. This was kind of neat so I took some picture's of it and marked the cords. Then I started looking around for the cache. This cache had been nearly a year since it was last found and I was surprised to see it was by two people in the past couple of days.



Once there the cave was still about 600 feet away. I should of paid more attention to the trail but I never stick to those anyways. So I started following the fence line till I was getting further away. I noticed that no getting to the cave was going to be quite a trick. Since it was snow out and the ground wasn't froze yet it was very slippery out. So walking around the bluffs really took some careful walking. But I was able to get around and work my way back up to the cave.



The cave is closed this time of year to protect the bat's hibernating this time of year. But I was able to get up to the cave opening. I took some picture's of the cave and some of the view's of the area. It was really neat with the snow coming down. You could really hear the nearby stream water flowing. After check out the cave I found the easy way out. I took the trail all the way back.



This was quite a fun hike out today. I wish I could have explored the cave but really didn't want to come face to face with a bunch of bat's. This is one I'm all ready planning on taking the boy back to after the cave is open to the public again after April 1st. And it was find number 2000. This was a really neat place tucked away in behind some corn fields. I also found another benchmark survey disc near the parking area. Both of the one's I found today don't show up on GC.com. I'm not all that familiar with how those work but I thought it was pretty neat to stumble upon them.

Anyone who hasn't done this cache I highly recommend doing it and don't short change yourself and take the little further walk down to the cave. It's really neat to see.

A elephant hidden in a haystack

Here a little while ago I was working this two stage geo-cache near the Cedar Rapids, Ia area. The first stage took me down a nice hike along a biking/walking trail. It was a very nice hike. It was one of those evening's where I should of had my flashlight with me but I really thought I'd be able to find this and get back to the car before it got dark.

I had a little trouble with finding the first stage. The cords landing right in the middle of the trail, so using the clue's provided on the cache page I was able to narrow down that it was on a fence. But which side. It took some time but I was able to find it. So back down the trail I went looking for the final.

I got to ground zero and there wasn't many spot's to hide a 30 cal ammo can. So I though maybe the cords where off just a bit or I wrote down the wrong one's or something. After looking back at my camera that I had snapped a picture I was able to confirm that I had written down the info correctly.

Well, I had sat down on this log while I looked everything over again. Just then I noticed something. There was a hollow out log, the log I had been sitting on. This was a very nice surprise. I thought to myself wow a container that big and it was hidden so well. You could tell there was some work and planning that really went into this hide.



After swapping some trackable item's I headed back down the trail back to the car. About half way back I found I had some company. there was a little dog out on the trail. I think he belonged to one of the nearby houses. He walked along with me for a bit and then took off. I made it back to the car just as it was dark out.

It was very nice to see this hide. I was so impressed they where able to hide an ammo can so well, and also thinking to myself I should have been able to find it much sooner.

This was a very nicely made cache that I really enjoyed. Again I was just very impressed how this was hidden, a very nice cache to do.

A cache hunt in Decora, Ia

Here recently I was lucky enough to be in Decora, Ia. This is always a neat place and town to explore. Every time I visit there, I find out something new about the history of the town. There's this really cool Ice cave there that I had seen last summer that was cold inside and still had ice in it even though it was 70 degree's outside.

Then there's the spring with the waterfall that is just amazing. I have yet to go up the stair's and explore the source of the spring but hope to yet.

Well, I found myself going after a couple of caches in a park which I think is called Peterson park but don't think I have the name of the park quite right. I know it started with a P. I had to park at the beginning of the park due to the gate's where closed and I'm guessing cause the road in the park are in pretty bad shape.

I crossed path's with a few people out jogging and enjoying the great weather. The terrain in the park I don't know how they where able to jog it but I did noticed they where staying to the road. As I wonder threw the park head towards a cache I noticed that if I stuck to the road this was going to be a very long hike in. There where some bluffs that I'll bet where 120 feet tall. I was looking and was able to find a way to climb up the rock where rain had carved a I guess for lack of anything better to call it a trail. It wasn't a hiking trail by any means, but I was able to climb it.

I kept thinking I'm glad no one was following me cause I was knocking down rocks as I climbed up. Once I reached the top I was just in shock over the view of the town. It was gorgeous. I found a spot where the park had built a neat spot to sit and relax over looking the bluff. I got out my camera and took ton's of pictures of the town. After resting a bit I made my way along the little trail next to the edge of the bluff on ward's to this cache.

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As I zeroed in on the cache I was able to spot it on approach. It was laying out in the open and had fallen from it hiding spot. It was just inches away from taking the plunge over the edge of the cliff. I was able to grab it without knocking it down. I was so worried about hitting it wrong and it going over. I was a bit closer to the edge than I cared to be and found myself laying on the ground to retrieve it.

When I opened it I at first thought I was the next millionaire in Iowa. But after a little closer look it was a gag item. It made for a great laugh.

I signed the log book and took a very close look at the cache page and the hint and was able to figure out where the cache was supposed to be at. It was still a bit closer to the edge than I cared to be but I sucked it up and got it back where it was supposed to be at. And I should note here height's don't bother me very often but when looking down over 100 feet which just a rocky floor below and no kind of safety gear, well it's a bit hairy.

Still thoughts where rolling threw my head about it I dropped it and had to try to climb down to get it and bring it back up. Much more than I was up for that day. Luckily I was able to get it back and got it placed back so there's no way it could pop out of it's spot again with out someone pulling it out.

As I started back I took a little different route. I found the road up top and followed that back for a while. My attention was pulled to one of the trails near the road. There was a fellow on a mountain bike going down one of the trails and he had a leaf blower attached to the handle bar's of his bike. He was going around and blowing the leaves off the mountain bike trails. I thought that's a pretty neat idea.

After watching him for a bit I made my way over to the overlook again. Then down to the spot I had climbed up. It sure didn't look that steep climbing up. So I put everything in my pack again so I had both hands free and climbed back down.

All in all it was about a hour and a half trip but well worth it. I so hope to get back to the area to do some more of the caches in the area and there's an earthcache there that looks really neat. In fact I had been thinking of making one there when I was up in the area last but someone had beat me to it. I'm just glad someone else is able to share this cool area that you just don't find anywhere else in Iowa.

Here's a photo of the bluff from a distance. Yup the cache is on top of there.

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The S.S. 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 vechile 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 abbonaded 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.