Sunday, August 13, 2017

Crosswinds Marsh Meanderings 2017



Yesterday was the third annual Crosswind Marsh Meanderings down in Wayne County. Most people think of Wayne County as Urban Detroit and Auto industry, but there's a softer side, too. Crosswinds Marsh is one of the largest man-made wetlands in the country. TaGeez and I had other plans until ShelleyJean reminded us it's our 1-year FRIEND-AVERSERY  so, of course, we came!

TaGeez, ShelleyJean and scrapcat
Happy Friend-aversary!
The event coincides with Hobby Days. Stan&Ruth, Hooked on U, and The Seed Spreaders man a tent and demonstrate the joys of geocaching in the marsh. Afterwards, approximately 50 cachers gather for a potluck, raffle drawing and 35 new geocaches.

Keeper of the cache or greeting committee?
If you find twelve special geocaches, you earn the CMA path tag for this year. Ah, a challenge! Place the opportunity of a bright & shiny in front of us, and we're off! Even if it's 87 degrees and very, very sunny! (Disclaimer: I LOVE the marsh but I REALLY LOVE the shaded boardwalks!)


The raffle was first rate: containers, geocaching t-shirts, geocoins. Several of us won FTF's - you don't have to be the first to claim it - you just have to find it on the day of the event.  I didn't take a photo of it, but the Crosswinds Cache Crew does a fabulous job on the handout. It includes this year's caches, last year's caches, maps, etc. 


After playing "Closest to the Pin" and taking a group photo, we were off! And lost! No, not really. I turned left instead of right so we took a roundabout way to the special caches.

Nothing suspicious here!
It wasn't long until we were back on track and grabbing caches with various groups. It seemed at each cache we ran into a different bunch!

The Frito Bandito and afishoutawater



This was one seriously fabulous groups of finders!
The views are stunning. There are boardwalks over marshland, hard-packed trails in the woods, and horse trails to the South. It was lovely seeing so many non-geocachers on the trails, too.







The potluck venue actually rests in the middle of the Marsh itself

ShelleyJean, scrapcat, and TaGeez


Here was my FTF - the IR Cache GC71G8K

I LOVE THIS MAN!
It was a big day for TaGeez, too. He made his 6.000th find on the trail!


Afterwards, with very sore feet (SJ's fitbit recorded something close to 17,000 steps), ShelleyJean suggested going to Rhapsody in Southgate for dinner. OH MY GOSH! The food in the Hungarian mainstay was AMAZING! Definite trip back is required!


Thank you to the Crosswinds Cache Crew for the fabulous event and for the pathtags. Looking forward already for next year!


1 comment:

  1. ELISA!!! Crosswinds Marsh was one of my favorite places to go birding. Look up, my friend and see the flying things! So you must be the Caching Queen of the Universe by now. Where is your crown? Quilt one?

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