Trip to Middleton

With my 17 years with the state and 8 years of geocaching there are very few places in West Tennesse that I had never been to, Middleton is one of the exceptions.

Made the trip to Middleton by going through Jackson, I stopped in Medon in an area with several ponds for sport fishing.  I had not seen this spot before, despite that I had found a cache less than 1/4 mile.  At the location, I found four caches.  water-water-water-water-WATER!!, an easy find.  Surprised it was there since it was so open.  Top was missing along with all contents.  ...at your own risk!!, didn't want to pass this one up since it was a 3.5 terrain.  Made the find, even with dress shows.  Thankfully, it was not very wet. 
DEATH of "the ponds"? Earthcache, an easy earthcache and parked at the cordinates.  Recently, I have begun using a smartphone and in the past I have rarely taken pictures with a camera phone.  But I left my usual camera at home and had to use the smartphone.  While returning from ....at your own risk!! cache, I figured out my camera and was able to take the pictures required.  Last cache was come & VISIT SANTA!, getting to this cache was difficult with the high amount of thorns and maybe why the cache has not disappeared.  It was a cool display.

Went onto Middleton and after wrapping up business, grabbed a few in the area.  Most were park and grab type, couple of them were on railroad property.  There were two caches that I liked:  WALL OF HONOR, a monument for all veterans from Middleton.  It is located in front of city hall and I assume that the cache owner notified the city officials.  I had no problems and enjoyed the monument.  My last find was number 3,900, IT"S GOING...IT"S GOING...IT"S GONE, my auto-routing was no help since my Nuvi wanted to take me onto a road that was closed.  With the name, I figured it was a park and browsed the streets until I came to a park.  An employee was busy tending to the field, I will remark the field was very green.  Took me a minute to get a bearing of the cache location and to get around the locked gate.  I re-grouped and walked the boundary of the ballfield.  Arrived at the coordinates and spent 15 minutes searching, the coordinates were off by nearly 40 feet.  Found the cache and felt rain drops.  I had left home during a winter storm advisory and concerned I would go home in an ice storm.  I pulled up the weather radar on my phone and decided it was time to go!

Jasmer Challenge

The Jasmer Challnege is to find caches placed each month back to May 2000.  Tiger130 is one the very few to complete the challenge.  In my opinion, the Jasmer Challenge is far more difficult to complete than the Well Rounded Cacher.  Tiger130 and bitbrain made a special trip to Chicago, IL to complete this challenge.  The cache they needed was Berverly.  Thiis cacher applaudes the efforts by this caching team in their efforts.

I have not been active in completion of the Jasmer.  I have colored in all months from January 2001 to last month.  I did make a trip to Mountain, Arkansas to grab a cache placed in year 2000. 

I have toyed with the idea of taking an Amtrak trip from Fulton, KY to Chicago, IL rent a vehicle and go after Berverly and while there, grab caches in Wisconsin and Iowa to add more states to my profile.  At this time, this is only an idea.

Tennessee County Challenge

With trips to the Northeast section of Tennessee, I have been working on the Tennessee County Challenge.  Two trips have colored in 10 counties, leaving me with only three to complete the goal.

Recent counties I have visited, all of which, where my first ever trip into the county;  Washington, Johnson, Carter, Unicoi, Hawkins, Union, Hancock, Grainger, Claiborne and Campbell.  Most of the caches are park and grabs since my time is limited and have a lot of area to cover.

Some interesting finds along the way:

In plain view, quiet little town, relaxing walking track.

Davy Crockett Trilogy- Forefathers, a cool virtual taking me to where Davy's grandparents are buried, whom were massacred by Indians.

Cove Lake Dam, required a good hike on rough terrain.  Hiked into the cold wind and it as snowing.