End of the year caching

gael75 sent me an email if I were interested in hiking the Shawnee National Forest.  Knowing that I had a Vigin Falls hike upcoming, I felt it was a good idea to make the trip, to make some attempt to get into shape.  I forwared the email to pcsenn and make arrangements for the cache run.

We met in Fulton, KY and headed towards Paducah to cross the Ohio River.  We stopped at a new rest area cache and a few minutes later met with gael75.  Went went into the forest were we had a local guide.  We learned much about the Shawnee National Forest and how it was settled by the homestead acts.

Caches of interest:

Lou Dean's Lookout, a very scenic overlook.

Late Night Talk, cache is located near a rock that looks like Jay Leno.  Area is popular with rock climbers.

Zealot for Bluffs, rough hiking area, very scenic area.

Mission Failure

Caches that require going up trees or up heights have never been my style.  Cache owner of Vertical Madness and Purple Heart wanted me to attempt his caches.  Made the plans and brought two people with me.  I did observe that since my retirement from the National Guard, I am out of shape and too heavy for this type of caching.  Generally speaking, I have not completed many hiking type caches in the past few months.  Currently, I have my doubts that I will try to go after these two vertical caches again.

I did have enjoyment watching others complete the mission and did grab two caches, Purple Heart Gotcha?? and a rest area cache, Taking a Break.

There have been other distractions of late.  Since I have over 30% VA disabilty from wartime service, I am eligble for the Tennessee Sportsmans License (Lifetime) for $10.  Usually the prices for my age group is around $1,800.  I have utilized the license and with purchase of the Type 167 doe permit, I have bagged two female deer this season.  First one, using an AR-15 and dropping the deer with one shot from 160 yards.  Bear in mind, I don't have telescopic sights on my rifle.  I have also enjoyed going on my first ever duck hunt.  This spring, I look forward to frog gigging and turkey season.

Arkansas run

Not have a lot of goals for this caching year, I have recently focused on coloring in counties that are within 120 miles from home.  Made a quick run, almost all were the P&G type through Poinsett and Craighead counties. Next year, I will made attempts for a couple of other counties in Arkansas and 3 in Mississippi.

Light run though Crittendon and Hardin counties

Yesterday was a very nice day, where minnie mouse and myself hit the road to grab some caches in other counties.  Wanted to find caches in Hardin County, IL and Crittendon County, KY.  Day began with 3 DNF's in a row and that would frustrate me throughout the day.  But in the end, we did some good caches and also crossed the Ohio River on a ferry that minnie mouse really enjoyed.

Cache find for Crittendon County as Have gun will travel, cache is located at a gun shop.  Not in the market right now for any new weapons, I am happy to carry a Glock 17 when caching.

We crossed the river and found a great earthcache, Carerne dans Le Roc.  We spent some time at this state park taking a lot of pictures so that Minnie Mouse could use as a Science project.

Another interesting find was Tower Rock, it was a rough climb to the top but glad we came after this cache.  Location had some awesome views.

Re-crossed the river on the ferry and found FERRY 4 IT.  I was very concerned that we would not find it due to the high number of recent DNF's, but I continued to feel around and spotted the nano.

Our last find was River View, a quiet park with a nice view of the Ohio River.

Run through southern IL

Continued my efforts for the 5-state Travelers Challenge.  Began the day needing 9 finds and an icon for the state of IL and would accomplish that mission.  Drove to Vienna, IL, a location that I attempted to make finds when I made visits to the VA center in Marion, IL.  Back then I had no luck making any finds.  Today, it was much easier, first find a light pole.  Second find was an interesting park at Vienna Old Depot, learned that this site was part of the Trail of Tears.  Left Vienna and went after the cache I really wanted, Wildcat Cemetery Rd..  GPS took me to an isolated area to a small cemetery.  There were a few Union Civil War veterans buired here.  Later, as I visited more cemeteries, I would find many more Union veterans.  Finding the puzzle cache gave me my 5th icon for the state of IL.

Spent the rest of the day making easy finds.  Will note that my stop at Kingston was a little different.  GPS took me to a cedar tree and the geo-trail was very worn.  Called a friend of mine and re-directed to another location.  Searched that location and came up empty.  Gave up on the cache and walked around the cemetery and over 100 feet from post coordinates I found the container with many bite makes.  Small animals had found the cache and had moved it.  I replaced the cache where the PAF told me to look.

Night caching with friends

Tiger130 posted that she intended to find Will o' the Wisp to coloring in her 366 day geo-calender.  I knew my schedule would be tight with family activites coming up that weekend.  Got ahead of the curve with home front work and cleared my Friday to set out for Shelby County.  Since I was traveling the longest distance, I posted that I would be at Huey's in Collierville prior to the cache run for dinner.  Five cachers joined me for a nice dinner and fellowship.  We also chatted about what direction to take for next year's cachepedition.

During dinner, I was informed that we would be near Mission Improbable and advised that I should complete this mission.  After dinner, I followed bitbrain and Tiger130 to the first stage of Mission Improbable.  We separated on the highway going towards Will o' the Wisp and was one of the to arrive.  My autorouting was not working for me and I had to guess, which road to take to the parking area.  Arrival at the parking area, it was pitch black and it was hard for me to make out who was who in the crowd.  While standing around, I gave Tiger130 one of my combat shirts that was issued to me during my deployment in 2010.

We set out for the cache with Tiger130 in the lead.  After some hiking we arrived at the reference point.  This night cache was not the typical follow reflectors but was very innovative.  After a long search the cache was found and signed by everyone.  We hiked back to the parking area and I found the micro at that location.

Getting late, I went to the final state of Mission Improbable and started this cache alone.  Found first couple of sets of reflectors and then saw the cache is in need of work with some reflectors mission.  Cache ownered joined me and I finished the cache.

Saw where I had a specific mission of having my photo taken at a playground slide, that that was unusual, I guess I had a log of a cache in a playground that brought up some interest.  It would be a few days before I had my photo taken at a slide and later uploaded onto the cache page.

GOWT/RVG Social

An event that was orginally planned in August was re-scheduled in September.  I hosted the GOWT/RVG Social at the disc golf course in Martin, TN.  It was a very fun event with cachers visiting from many different locations, even one from Australia, CPWanderer.  Later we divided into 4 teams where team captains were the ones experienced in this game.  My team did come in second place and I was pleased with the score.