Last of Three ND Camping and Caching Adventures

The third goal of our trip to North Dakota was to complete the five Adventure Labs that are currently in the Fargo Moorhead area. Unlike most of the Adventure Lab caches we have placed and have completed, these ALs had 10 stops each, so there was some overlapping between the Fargo Moorhead Geo Tour and stops on the Adventure Lab caches. As is most often the case with geocaching, we see things we would not ordinarily see, and learn something we did not know prior to the adventure.

The first set of photos are from the three Adventure Labs in Moorhead.

butterflies were visiting the flowers at the MB Johnson Park

cabin was rebuilt to its original size through the efforts of his grandson

an early settler and opportunist

Hjemkomst Center (museum)

"Hopperstad Stave Church is a historic parish church of the Church of Norway in Vik Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Vikøyri. It was once the church for the Hopperstad parish in the Diocese of Bjørgvin. The brown, wooden stave church was built during the 12th century. The church seats about 30 people."

"The stave church is assumed to have been built around the year 1130 and still stands at its original location." (in Norway)

one of the four ornate doors to the church

campus was rather quiet during our visit, some students were returning

lots of rose bushes on the campus

And finally, the two Adventure Lab caches that took us around the downtown area of Fargo. The focus was art by local artists...murals, sculptures, walls, alleys, electrical boxes, skywalks, etc. These two were walking tours.

a wet plate of Greta Thunberg from her visit to 

the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation

colorful bison 

And that ends another camping caching adventure from this summer. We have one more planned for September. In the meantime, there is time spent with the grandkids before they return to school and some day long road trips for geocaching. 

Two of Three ND Camping and Caching Adventures

 This was the second of three adventures: it was a two in one day adventure and a two day adventure. We wanted to be in Fargo on Sunday to attend a geocaching event as we have not attended one in ND. We also wanted to work on the Fargo Moorhead Geo Tour, a set of 24 geocaches, twelve in each community. When completed the geocacher earns a virtual souvenir and a special geo coin. (We did a geo-tour in Norfolk NE last April. Click here. And here. It was two blog posts.)

We started with two geocaches north of the communities. Let's just say the two containers and hides got our attention and let us know we were in for some FUN geocaching.

the LARGEST ammo can we have found

so cool!!!

large enough to walk in

log sheet is the tablet on the wall

well-built, clean & dry

then across the road at a historic working farm...

another ammo can

beer kegs turned into containers for ammo cans

there were several of those!

looks fairly innocent

hint said to read & follow directions

created by Trycacheus

get the key, insert the key, set the odometer, turn the wheel, 

and the hidden compartment opens and reveals the log book

some of the 24 caches were very easy to find and open

some took us to interesting places

I got distracted by the gardens & outdoor living spaces on the top of the buildings

alley art needed for a FMGT multi cache

this was the second stage at the train station

open the lock and elevator buttons appeared

and so did the cache container

another Trycacheus creation

several were bird houses holding decorated ammo cans

we took a break at noon to attend the event

we visited with a Sioux Falls geocacher

another Trycacheus field puzzle bird house

we went back to Fargo Moorhead on Tuesday to complete 

the geo tour because some of the businesses were not open

on the weekend, like the library

we ended Sunday at a brewery

another ammo can in a beer keg

but located at a former train station

this section is a private residence

they kept the huge arch doorways

this section the brewery

truly a beautiful historic building with good beer!

the final find was at the Visitor's Center

the virtual souvenir

the geo coins had to be reordered and will be mailed to us

this is the geo coin from the FMGT

two adventures in one day

one adventure covering two days to complete

Adventure Two complete; one to go...

One of Three ND Camping and Caching Adventures

Last week we spent some time camping and caching in North Dakota and Minnesota. We had three specific goals for the trip. After spending some time celebrating my Mom's 91st birthday with my brothers and her brothers, we headed farther north and east.

The first and top priority for the trip was to find geocaches in some specific counties in those two states. We wanted contiguous geocached counties from Canada to Mexico. Getting just a couple more in MN or 3 more in ND would complete the challenge. (We had originally planned to do that when we thought we would be spending August traveling to Seattle, stopping at Glacier National Park and traveling home through the Canadian provinces along the US border then coming home through those needed counties. That trip hopefully will happen August 2021.)

We camped in the community of Hillsboro, about half-way between Fargo and Grand Forks. Quiet. Not many campers. Perfect location. Great price. Great WiFi. It met our needs. Monday morning we set out to complete the first of three goals on this trip.

we crossed the Red River of the North

one of several murals in Hallock

I realized on the way that a set of 5 new caches called an Adventure Lab had recently been released in Hallock. We took the time to walk the downtown area and complete the AL, but we also needed to find at least one physical cache in the town as there were not very many in the county. Adventure Labs do not count towards county geocache finds.

MN counties prior to the trip

green means we have found at least 1 geocache in that county

then back across the Red River of the North

the two circled counties were added to our count on Saturday on our drive to Hillsboro

originally we started the trip at 13 ND counties

Hubby had the roads/highways selected to make the most of our road trip. He had researched some geocaches, but as is typical with our road trips, I look as we travel and we make changes to the original plan. This was one of the changes. 

Last January or February a geocacher from ND and a friend of his from Manitoba attended one of my monthly geocaching events in Apache Junction. Hubby spent time visiting with them, and the cacher from North Dakota gave out some promotional geocaching SWAG. I remembered his name when geocachers here in Sioux Falls planned to drive to Gilby ND to attend one of his events last month. Then our friends Jon & Sherry talked about stopping in Gilby ND to find his caches because his unique, creative, puzzle geocaches were featured in several youtube geocaching videos. Trycacheus has been a geocacher since 2008, but recently has received some national attention. And for good reason.

memorial to a couple of local bootleggers

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where the cache container could possibly be located based on the hint, the information in the description, and information from previous geocachers. (Hubby was at another headstone in the cemetery.) After more time than I like to admit, a light bulb came on, after thinking about what looks different. After removing the metal plate, I found the container. Very clever and the first of this kind of find! (Trycacheus had permission to place the cache and was working with the county historical society in two counties, promoting historical oddities.)

a water fountain erected by the local 

Women's Christian Temperance Union

"The cache is at one of the few remaining water fountains constructed in the late 1800 and early 1900's by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, an organization founded in an effort to persuade states to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages. According to Wikipedia, at the 1874 organizing convention of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the members were urged to erect drinking fountains in their towns so that men could get a drink of water without entering saloons and staying for stronger drinks. Often the drinking fountains that were erected offered a place for horses to drink, another place for dogs, and of course, a place for people to drink.  The fountain in Park River is one of several still in existence in 28 states and Australia."

placed in maybe 1884???

we found the log sheet

another Trycacheus geocache

We ended the day in Grand Forks where two Adventure Labs were located. We really enjoy the AL caches because we learn about interesting aspects of a community we probably would not otherwise know. Sometimes we can walk to all the 5 stages like at the Grand Forks AFB Airpark. 

After we got home, I learned the geocacher who created this Adventure Lab was a classmate of our son's and is a 2000 WHS grad. Small world.

just an interesting name for a pub in downtown Grand Forks

Then it was off to learn about the 1997 Grand Forks Flood. We had to drive to the 5 cache locations along the Red River of the North on the ND side.

a sculpture depicting the flood recovery efforts

a marker showing the Red River flood levels from 1897 to 1997

we also learned how devastating the 96-97 winter was in this area

and how it impacted the March flooding

notice the geocacher who created this Adventure Lab

I think the Painted Lady butterflies have started their migration

we saw LOTS of them in the gardens

our ND map after the road trip

21 ND counties

our MN map of 44 counties after the road trip

a line (several lines) of contiguous counties from Canada to Mexico

but we REALLY needed the ND or MN counties to complete the challenge

One of Three, Fun and Done

More to come...