I'm ready for Spring!

During the 2008 Geocaching year, I changed my tactic somewhat doing after more difficult terrain caches including caches requiring a watercraft of some type. I purchased a inflatable kayak and did find a cache using the two-person boat. However, I found the kayak is not designed for what I really want; in that I want the caches on Lake Graham, Wolf River and Cumberland River. Last year I missed the Ghost River event due to schedule problems and lack of a boat. The Cumberland River event fit my schedule but didn't want to arrive needing a ride (or float). A recent visit to Gander Mountain in Jackson, TN; I found exactly a kayak that will suit me. It's a one person, Pelican Pursuit 100. I had a few gift cards and the 10% military discount aided me greatly.

Now, I look forward to a warm Saturday and go after the Lake Graham caches. Also on my radar screen are the two 5-star terrain caches on Lake Barkley.

Great Chase

Had a trip to Chattanooga this weekend and while researching the geocaches in the city, I thought that finding the virtual geocache The Great Chase #3, would be the most interesting. I would not be disappointed. The geocache is in reference to the Great Locomotive Chase a daring raid to cut Confederate communications between Atlanta and Chattanooga. The virtual is placed within the Chattanooga National Cemetery. Upon reaching the posted coordinates I saw that some of the Union men were buried near the monument and after later research, couple of the soldiers were the first recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. All the men, that included two civilians whom are buried near the monument were executed by the Confederate government as spies, since none were wearing uniforms.

Columbus-Belmont State Park

As a teenager, I visited Columbus-Belmont State Park but didn't really grasp the history at the time. When I took up geocaching in 2005, I wondered if my geocaching adventure will take me to the park again. The Columbus Bluff Earthcache was established and on October 25, 2008, I took my girls to the park before winter set in to see the park and do the earthcache. We had a great time that day and didn't find many caches. My girls took advantage of seeing the bluffs and I explained how the position was good for defensive warfare and why Gen. Grant chose an easier target of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Thus with the later capture of Fort Donelson, the position at Columbus has to be abandoned by Confederate forces. We toured the little museum and took a picture with a Confederate Battleflag over looking the Mississippi River. The earthcache was my youngest daughter's 300th geocache find. We spend the reminder of the day, watching my youngest daughter playing.

Now that my blog is reaching a far larger audience with it imported to Facebook, some my notice some geocaching pictures using the CSA battleflag. My personal opinion, the flag does not represent hate or oppression but a symbol of southern heritage. I am a member of the Camp 323 Col. Jeffery Forrest Camp Sons of Confederate Veterans and we are proud of my ancestor, Pvt. John Hudson Goodwyn's service to the Confederate Army.

The Charge

When I developed this blog I didn't have the intentions of writing about my own geocaches. However, in the last couple of months I have become very involved in facebook and found out very recently that I can import my blog notes onto my facebook profile and see that many non-geocachers from my home county are also reading my notes.

On a trip to western Kentucky, I passed through Dukedom, Tennessee and noticed the roadside structure had been rebuilt. I stopped to few the remodeled job and took some pictures and also jotted down contact information. I have wanted to place a geocache here to link Mayfield and Dresden and most of all due to its interesting location. I called one of the phone numbers that I found and spoke to the commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans camp of Mayfield. I told the commander that I am also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 323 (Col. Jeffery Forrest) in Dresden. We spoke about geocaching and that having a geocache at the building will draw visitors. The commander gave me the go-ahead and I immediatly set out for Dukedom to place the geocache.

The geocache (The Charge) is placed and been found by two geocachers. I don't figure to get a lot of hits due to the remote location, but anticipate when western Kentucky digs out of the recent ice storm, the Kentucky geocachers will descend upon it.