WE COMPLETED THE MICHIGAN STAR!

It’s Monday, and I’m still sore.  But it’s a good sore.  Ratspazum said we walked 6.56 miles, but I think his pedometer lied.  On Saturday, WE COMPLETED THE MICHIGAN STAR!  50 puzzle caches and a large, traditional center!  Woot!

With an early pickup time, Ratspazum (Steve and Mary), met myself and AFishOutOfWater (Paula) at my house, and we headed to Columbiaville, MI for the Michigan Star Kickoff event GC52GA9 hosted by the Auto City Cachers.  Yes, that’s right.  Two rats and a fish traveling with this cat!  We even saw an upside-down rainbow – anarchy!

Paula, Elisa, Fire, Steve and Mary

It was a beautiful drive.  We were blessed with perfect weather – blue skies, mid-60’s, and a slight breeze.  We took our time, and along our route stopped for several SQ’s up near Davison on M-15.

SQ - Four Little Angels GC4KR6Q

The meet was a Curly’s Lakehouse Grill in Columbiaville – I enjoyed eggs and hash compliments of Mrs. YellowJeeperman because I was the 200^th person to “Like” their ACC Facebook page (thanks, Jenn!).

During breakfast, Caching Fire made the rounds, and there was a lot of path tag trading (Fire has enough for a new necklace). 

Hot Sauce! 

Around 10am, as the caches began to publish, the ACC volunteers explained our goal – to solve 50 simple puzzles and grab 1 traditional that make the star.

We had a slow start as wifi was intermittent.  As Steve worked on the computer, Paula and I manually corrected the 50 puzzle coordinates in my GeoSphere app – luckily I was able to export the file so they could load their GPSr units with the revised coordinates.

Unlike many of our peers, we elected to walk the beautiful Southern Links Trailway – thank you to Pee-Paw for dropping us off at the far end.  We claimed shared FTF’s on Stars 1, 2, and 3!

First to Find! Star #1 and Trailhead!

Nice crowd at Star #3

Geoconsumer and Crew

The Man with the Pen

Mr and Mrs YellowJeeperman

Mary found a hard one

Paula got into the act

The view from one of the last stars

It took us about 5 hours to walk the 5.5 mile trail. After grabbing the 51 star caches and several other trail caches, we loaded up into the geo-Explorer and headed towards Saginaw for a very special cache.  Along the way we visited two Virtuals (About the Town and In Honor and Memory) plus several SQ’s.

Vasser, Michigan

Near a Saginaw Virtual

I had seen SQ-Mausoleum Style GC53CJ0 mentioned on Facebook, and I was hooked. You had to solve 2 onsite puzzles to gather letterbox-style clues for the final in the darkened basement of a mausoleum! 

Oakwood Mausoleum

From the cache page:

Today we will be taking you through a tour of the mausoleum. The coordinates will take you just outside the front entrance to the mausoleum. Begin by making your way through the doorway and into the first room. You will notice as you walk in, immediately there are crypt spaces in the first section of the mausoleum and you can stop here. There are eight specific names we will be looking for. There is a story behind these eight names. Back when this mausoleum was built, eight men decided to buy spaces for themselves and their family. The way it was designed was in the same position they all sat at the table when playing cards. To this day they carry the tradition, even in there grave.

It took several attempts, a few misadventures, a lot of walking in circles, but we found it!  You can read most of the adventure in my log. There were a few things I had to omit J

Entranceway

Entering the first crypt

Crypt Window

Lovely stained glass throughout

After grabbing another virtual (Poet’s Resting Place) and several SQ’s nearby, we headed over to a surprisingly-delicious victory dinner at Beef O’Brady’s, a pub & sports bar down the road.  I can recommend the fried pickle chips and the BBQ bacon burger with fries.

SQ - Heroes GC17B33

Near SQ-Acorns and Granite GCQFGF

The adventure ended around 10pm as Ratspazum dropped us off to a waiting TaGeez.  On a personal note, our group was together for 15 hours straight but, except for the sore feet, it didn’t feel that long – we laughed and chatted the entire time.  I truly enjoyed the time spent in Mary, Steve, and Paula’s company.

Our stats for the day:

• Milestones: Today was day #800 on my streak and one of the star caches was my #4200 find
• Finds: 67 Finds including 9 SQ’s, 51 star caches, 3 FTF’s, 3 Virtuals and 1 Mausoleum
• Cache Types: 52 Puzzles, 10 Traditionals, 3 Virtuals, 1 Event and 1 Multi.
• Critters: turkeys, hawks, yellow finches, woodpeckers, redwing blackbirds, a bunny, cows, a horse-drawn carriage, turquoise bugs, a giant German Shepherd with a Boston access, and two moving mops (funny dogs that looked and moved like Roombas with fur).