Autumn Geocaching

 We have been out and about in our part of the state doing some geocaching and enjoying the signs of another season, reminding us it is time to head south.

The Hutterites were dropping off assorted pumpkins at a local business where we were looking for a geocache. They grow quite the variety of pumpkins!

Our backyard red oak has been turning colors. I took the photo on one of the days I was harvesting seeds from the annuals (flowers) I had planted this year.

This guy is a reminder of pheasant hunting season. It opens this weekend, I believe.

We stopped at a very small cemetery and learned of this sad story.

Remember: you can click on the photo to get a larger readable version.

one of the readable headstones

very small cemetery

We attended a weekend camping and caching event at a nearby state park. We only spent a few hours there, but certainly enjoyed seeing some of our SD geocaching family. These trees have barely begun to change color. And even more surprising is the green, GREEN color of the grasses for October.

This was one of the more sneaky hides we have found this month.

I was wearing gloves when I reached in to pick it up!

No worries! It's just a geocache in fake goose poop.

We stopped at this marsh to get our needed weekend earth cache for a special virtual souvenir. We needed to pH test a sample of the water. 

This is the other project we have been working on this summer. My goal was to finish it, but that may not happen as our time is running out. We have 3 left to find.

This was our progress before we went back this summer. We added several finds in July 2021 when we learned some of the local cachers were attempting to keep the geo-art alive and active.

The trail contains 188 caches and is approximately 30 miles (50km) long x 4 miles (6km) high. The shortest possible distance to drive the entire trail is 180 miles. The GC Trail is made up of a variety of caches such as Traditional, Multi, Puzzle, Whereigo, Letterbox and an EarthCache.

We completed this much by July 2015. The geo-art was placed in 2011. We found some of the caches in the summer and fall of 2013, but were disappointed because so many were missing and others very hard to retrieve and sign the log. My belief is a geo-art should be caches that MOST geocachers can find and log. In 2013, some were impossible without a tractor and front end loader to reach tree tops. Thankfully, some of those have changed. 

We need to do a long walk on a day that is not 70º+ and we need to bring a ladder under a bridge when the water level is very low. The other is waiting for a replacement. It is doable!