Three years later.....

Finding the geocaching site by accident on the evening of February 16, 2005, I created an account the next day with the intent of finding a few benchmarks, in our hometown of Dresden, Tennessee, for my daughter's 4th grade Science project. Being that there was only one cache within 20 miles I didn't have any intention of being a geocacher. Finding benchmarks proved to a difficult challenge and we struck out. On Sunday, February 21, 2005, my daughter (who later became cacherstalker94) set out for the Big Cypress State Park outside of Greenfield and using an old Garmin GPS 12 found the Big Cypress Cache and our new hobby was born.

Since then I have logged 1,601 finds in 11 states, finding caches in 60 of Tennessee's 95 counties. I have learned much of the history of the Land Between the Lakes region finding about 1/2 of the caches located in that National Forest. I have been to the graves of notable people such as: Legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser, Chicken George (of Roots), Country Music Entertainer Minnie Pearl, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a man claiming to be the sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand, and also important to mention the graves of three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. Geocaching has taken me to many towns in Tennessee that I have never visited before, such as Pulaski where I visited the monument of Confederate hero Sam Davis and the building of significant history that occurred after the Civil War.

Geocaching has also given me the opportunity to find friends that normally would have never met. Meeting cachers along the trail, through email contact, phone contact and notable groups: GOWT, JAG, KTAG, RVG, and MTGC. I have had the honor and privilege of attending many of the events hosted by these groups.

Scary Loop

After I begun caching, I noticed the cache called Scary Loop Cache by Yogi and Dolphin and saw it was in Carroll County. About a year into my job with DCS, I was transferred to the Paris office and worked Carroll County, therefore I had a little knowledge of the area. But I worked Carroll County for just over a year and didn't know about this area. Studied the cache page and learned more about the haunted Palestine Church. I knew I wanted to find this cache.

On July 12, 2005, I ventured off course and found the cache after many back roads. At the time, all I had was a Garmin Legend and a Tennessee Delorme Map. GPSr played tricks on my and wondered if a ghost was haunting the signal. After much searching, I decoded the hint and found the cache. Later, I took the time to look inside the church and the nearby graveyard.

Later, on June 10, 2006; I was in the area again, this time with cannotreadgps, she wanted to see the church. We attended the GOWT BBQ hosted by Yogi & Dolphin earlier in the day and drove to Jackson for Mackheath's 1K event. Afterwards, we got back on I-40 and back towards Carroll County, this time using the Garmin 60cs with auto routing. Routing it did, one turn after another turn for another turn. We were about worn out making all the turns when we arrived at the cache location. Cannotreadgps found the cache and we began to look around, when a truck pulled up, three muggles got out of the truck, the man driving asked what we were doing, I explained to him of geocaching. Turned out, he was the Sheriff of Carroll County! He wanted to know more about GPS and Geocaching. I showed him the cache and the GPS.

We continued to look around and went inside the old church. Technically, this cache is a Park and Grab, not requiring any hiking; the history is all worth the trip. Thankfully, this cache gets regular activity, even with its remote location, I guess since it's not far from I-40. This is a must do cache.

Graham Cracker, another forgotten cache?

Graham Cracker is a cache adopted by BigDaddyD and had been on my list of to do caches since I begun caching in early 2005. But waited nearly a year to complete this cache, for a variety of reasons. My work takes me through the Jackson area several times a month, but the area of Graham Lake is off the main route, the routes being Highland, 45 By-Pass and I-40. Also was intimidated by wooded area caches until the leaves have fallen while using a Garmin Legend. Also, I am not normally dressed for woodland caching. Being that I pass through Jackson on a regular basis I don't find myself making cache runs through that city. On January 2, 2006, having the day off I headed down early to grab Graham Cracker and Just Ducky-Revised. I completed both caches that morning and not finding any others that day. I did have a DNF on a Park and Grab, it was a new cache and was hoping for a First to Find. I realized that when going after caches that require a physical effort, it's best to ignore everything in between. I had a great time hiking for both caches and having to dodge the rain showers too. Just Ducky-Revised was a feat in land navigation. Following the arrow was not enough.

Graham Cracker, which has been on the list of best caches in Madison County has 63 finds in it's nearly 7 years of existence. 2007 has seen an influx of new cachers in West Tennessee, I am disappointed that the cache was found only three times in 2007.

Some could say, "Titansfan you haven't found XXXXXXX hard terrain cache in Madison County". I will say, "you are correct". Titansfan will just have to take a day off and go after:

Raccoon Hideout
Over the Deer
Forked Deer (South Fork)
Frogmore