This being a 3-day weekend, I was thinking about caching on Monday, January 21. The 21st being a federal holiday in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and for me being a Son of a Confederate Veteran, I also observed the 201st anniversary of the birth of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
On Sunday, I had yet decided where to go caching. Most directions (Jackson, Trenton, Paducah, Mayfield) I have made many trips to in the past several weeks. I awoke and saw the clear but cold weather. Thought about Mousetail but images of the freezing wind off the Tennessee River did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. So I thought about Retreat to Ft. Donelson. Hmm.... About 3 miles round trip hiking in one of the best caching places around, the Land Between the Lakes. I made up my mind, it would be the southern part of the LBL today.
Set up my PQ and off I went, leaving the house before 9 am. Stopped for gas, water and snack in Paris and in about 1/2 hour I was at the trail head for the cache. GPS said 1.3 miles and I saw the trail. I decided to go at it alone today. Recently, I have had knee pain after 3-4 miles of hiking. Being alone, I would not have to keep up with anybody and could go at my own pace and take breaks when I wanted to. Took a few rests along the way and studied the Topo map on my Garmin 60csx. Since I climbed the hill I wanted to stay on the ridge line, but when I came within .19 of the cache, I began to get further away, so I made a beeline and ended up climbing another hill, this time a steep one. Found the cache and rested for a bit. Found a trail at the cache and took it in the direction of my truck. One part of LBL caching, it's very wise to mark your parking location. Headed down the hill and came to a clearing. Saw the road about 1/2 mile away and I had enough of hill climbing. Went to the road and a quick trip to the truck.
Next cache was A Trip To Tip Top, by Writergirl. Having met this legendary cacher before I wanted to find one of her caches. Attempted to find this one before, but my software failed to show any of the back roads in the LBL. Today, I was armed with Topo maps on my laptop and with nRoute, I found the right roads and easily found the cache.
With my knee getting tender, I decided to go after just one more cache. Set my sights on Aunt Tinas Lost Cache-Revisted. Again, this was another cache where I couldn't find the parking area. Found a place to park and found the trail. Started up the trail and my GPS told me I was going away from the cache. More bushwhacking and .25 later I was at the cache, an old homestead. Nice area and took some time to make a picture.
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