The weekend started with an impromptu camping trip to the Ellis Oasis near Carlyle Lake, Illinois. All was good despite having to set-up in the rain Friday night, and lightning chasing us out of the lake on Saturday. There was a HUGE gully-washer shortly after getting back to the campground from the lake! I think Moses must've lowered his staff because it rained so hard I thought for a brief moment the walls of the Red Sea were coming in on us. We weren't upset though, we have needed the rain for quite some time! Anyway, the weekend was a good weekend. Spike, Slick and I left the girls at home for a 'Boys Weekend Out' and had a really nice time! Got to work on a possible breakthrough for our new business adventure, rode bikes with the boys, went swimming, ate waaaay too much...it was all good! Today, on our way home from the campground, we decided to do a little exploring, and see if we could find a cache. The boys were completely game; especially when I further explained 'caching' to them as one great big, worldwide, TREASURE HUNT! Game On!! I knew there were some caches around Carlyle, Illinois, but, of course, had no idea where. GPS is really COOL! No need to tell most cachers that, but in the 4 years I have been using my StreetPilot III, and the year and half I have had the Garmin V, I had not used them for more than simple navigation. I think...no, I KNOW we're going to enjoy this whole GeoCaching thing! Anyway, we found our way to within about 1000 feet of the cache with no where else to drive. It was hiking time! In front of us was the largest manmade lake in Illinois, behind us was the road we came in on, to the left was more lake, and the right a path to triumph. We chose the path. Soon after taking the beaten path, we discovered we were going to have to go all terrain...down the banks, over the rocks, through the thicket, around the lagoon, up the hill, through the spider vines, and finally reached the point where the trusty Garmin V told us to stop. Nothing. Didn't see a thing. Not discouraged, I told the boys to leave no stone unturned and every hollowed out tree trunk searched. We looked around for about 5 minutes when I started my climb up the muddy wall of terror. (it really wasn't that bad, but after yesterday's downpour and me only wearing slip on sandals, it looked a little more daunting than usual.) The climb proved successful! Tucked near the base of a fallen tree was a small, half water logged, plastic ice cream container with the goods...
Chipmunk Cache was OURS!!! I don't know who was more excited, the boys or me. No sooner had I yelled out a victory cry and the boys were clambering up the side of the muddy slope to see what was inside the treasure. Slick had brought his digital camera, to document our adventure, and a flashlight to leave as our offering to the cache. Although the flashlight is small, it was a pretty big item in the eyes of Slick...it was a flashlight awarded to him by his Cubmaster for a fishing derby he was in this spring. After draining the water from the cache and looking though it to see what we could trade for, we discovered that the cherished flashlight was just a teensy bit too big to fit in the container. We searched our pockets and had nothing but a pen we brought with us to sign the log book...that would have to do. It is a nice pen, not just one of those 'stolen' pens from a hotel. This pen is a steel barreled click pen that I have had for several years. Surely it won't mean as much to anyone else, but it does have value in my mind. We made the exchange, signed the log book, safely tucked the container under the fallen tree where we found it, and slip-sledded our way back through the spider vines, down the hill, around the lagoon, through the thicket, over the rocks, up the hill, and back to the Excursion. Again, VICTORY!!! Life is good. Carpe cache, 'Rhino' P.S. Be sure to check out the pictures from our adventure in our Photo Journal! P.P.S. Spike picked out a Purple Frog Clicker Necklace to replace the pen that
we left as our offering. |
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