Butler County Donut Trail and GeoTour

Wednesday in Cincinnati started at 4:30 AM...on purpose. Hubby and I were meeting friends Jon & Sherry who were camping about 30 miles away. The four of us planned to complete the Butler County Donut Trail and the Butler County GeoTour.

The 80 mile round trip involved stopping at 12 specific donut shops in communities in Butler County, north of Cincinnati. The Butler County GeoTour involved finding 15 geocaches in the same communities. Most times, the geocaches were near the donut shops. The reward for completing the Donut Trail was a free T-shirt. The reward for completing the GeoTour was a free geocoin. And the best reward was spending time with great friends!

The donut shops have been part of the challenge for a couple of years, so it is not something new. The donut shops were also prepared for the possible surge of geocachers this week. However, the rule for donut shops is when the donuts are sold out, they close for the day. To earn the T-shirt, we had to physically go into each donut shop and have them stamp our passport. Rumor was, some shops were sold out and closed by 10 AM on Tuesday. So the pressure was on to try to find the 15 geocaches and visit all 12 donut shops as quickly as possible, and a close to 10 AM as possible, so we would not have to come back a second day.

the first stop

amount of donuts at 7:15

notice empty trays

shops opened at 6

some shops had cute bags

no requirement to purchase donuts

but we did, sometimes, and shared, most of the time

most shops were 'famous' for a specific donut

this one was called the Ugly, it was tasty

Butler County LOVES their donuts

To make the most of our time, each of us had a job to do. Jon was the driver, Hubby & Sherry looked for the caches, and I ran (not literally) into each donut shop and stood in line to have our four passports stamped.

driver & navigator, Jon

and sometimes photographer

and sometimes donut buyer

lots of laughs and giggles

Jupiter Coffee & Donuts had the geocachers donut, a frosted raised donut frosted with candy rocks! So appropriate, we had to buy 2!

At the final geocaching stop...

the last geocache

And inside the Butler County Visitor's Center...

all sorts of donut themed items

we thought about buying this for you, Bill R.!

dressed in out earned Donut Trail T-shirts

mission accomplished at 11:00 AM

and the coveted Donut Trail Geocoin!

A great long and tiring day!

But so worth the 4:30 AM wake-up!!!

(additional photos from Sherry & Jon)