Have You Been to McCourtie Park?

I'm sure every Michigan geocacher will say "yes", but have you been to McCourtie Park in Hillsdale County?

In 1924 William Herbert Lee “Herb” McCourtie began to transform his family’s 42-acre farm into a gracious summer home fit for a gentleman and his both illustrious and somewhat shady friends. It was in Somerset Center, and he called it “Aiden’s Lair.” The cost for the renovation and expansion of a simple farmstead into a rich man’s hideaway exceeded $500,000, an impressive amount in those days. [Hillsdale County Historical Society]

The main estate house is gone, but the parklands are amazing. It's dotted with a series of bridges, the country's largest collection of "el trabejo rustico". This is the Mexican folk tradition of sculpting concreate to look like wood.

Yes, these are all made of concrete!

For a geocacher, it's a bit of a paradise. There's a traditional, a county challenge, a Virtual, the Michigan "cache across America", and an adventure lab!

We were there early yesterday morning to finally grab the Historic Caches of Hillsdale County Challenge cache - FINALLY! Checking our logs, we posted our requirements 10 YEARS AGO! I bet you it wasn't as overgrown back then! But one more puzzle/challenge off our list (47% of our "solve list" found!)

If you are ever cruising down US 12 south of Jackson, McCourtie Park is worth a detour.

Geocaching Turns 25 [Detroit Puzzle Series]

What a lovely surprise to wake up on May 12th to discover that STNolan has published 28 puzzles in downtown Detroit for our enjoyment! Creating a geoart in the Detroit River, it was his way to celebrate Geocaching turning 25 this year. 

This series ran the gamut between obviously-so-easy to let-me-come-back-and-think-about-it. I scored 10 FTF's as I competed with HookedOnYou in a race to these finals.

My favorite one is this fiendishly clever #3: GCB47VQ. 

I love how much I learned from this series! If you want to get started, here's #1:  Geocaching Turns 25 #1

Puzzle Happy In Clarkston

No matter how crazy the world is, a little geocaching goes a long way!

TaGeez and I are still working on our "solved but not found" cache list - we're at about 45% found since New Years! Today we knocked off 7 more in the Clarkston area. 

Hard to believe there is such beauty alongside the very busy, very noisy Dixie Highway.

Michigan State Parks GeoTour 2: New Caches have published!

Yesterday was a glorious day! Not only was I off work, but the Michigan State Park GeoTour caches published! It's not one but three geotours spanning upper and lower Michigan!

• MSPGT2 Southern Lower Peninsula Edition (GT4F6)
• MSPGT2 Northern Lower Peninsula Edition (GT4F7)
• MSPGT2 Upper Peninsula Edition (GT4F8)

Complete the series for a Geocoin, geocoin inserts, and virtual souvenirs. But, more importantly, complete the series to see some of the most beautiful views Michigan has to offer!

Official Passport

So, when the caches published, I had hoped for one first-to-find (FTF), but we were able to score three!

MSPGT2-SL: Milliken SP and Harbor GCAPW53

I love downtown Detroit, and I was lucky enough to get FTF on the Detroit cache in the first series. After dropping off TaGeez at work, I headed south for the adventure. 

Ferry, Ambassador Bridge, and Ren Cen

This is the first time all gloomy week the sun was out so I made sure to enjoy my time on the Riverwalk. I'm so glad this series will bring more visitors here. 

The Detroit Riverwalk has been voted the best riverwalk in America by USA Today for the third year in a row.

Detroit Riverwalk

This cache was an easy multi and a nice, well-hidden container at the end. Don't overthink it! This was my first FTF for the day! What a view, eh? 

Lighthouse and Freighter

Afterwards, make sure you visit the nearby harbor, Michigan Outdoor Adventure, carousel, and Belle Isle for a full-day adventure!

MSPGT2-SL: Maybury SP GCAPW50

I picked up TaGeez from work, and I told him I was itching for an adventure. It's the beginning of a holiday weekend, and I feel like I had been working all my week off. He suggested a nice leisurely stroll through Maybury State Park as that cache had been unfound to date. 

Turns out it was a lovely day, and the park wasn't very busy. We parked close to the trailhead, and we decided (FTF or not) that we were going to take our time and enjoy the experience. Now, we did a similar puzzle like this before - with these very same signs in this very park - so we knew what to expect. It was a pleasant walk with passerbies smiling at us, birds making a racket, and squirrels darting underfoot. It wasn't long before we had the final solution in hand. Then, an easy walk to the final.

Second FTF for the day!

MSPGT2-SL: Highland RA GCAPW4P

"Hey, did you know that Highland hasn't been found yet?" We're assuming it's because many of our friends are either vacationing out of town or at GeoWoodstock.

We detoured this way (OMG! The traffic!), and we were resigned to the idea that someone most definitely will get here before we can reach the park. We pulled in, though, and the park was very quiet & peaceful. I spied Sandhill Cranes, nuthatches, Bluejays, ducks, and Canadian Geese. 

I was enjoying its bucolic beauty as we strolled to the cache (engulfed by the amazing smell of the Autumn Olive bushes) until TaGeez exclaimed, "Oh, look! A 🐍!” Then I stepped up my game to this fabulous cache.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it is this type of care in cache creation that sets this geotour apart from many others we completed. LOVED this container! Even better? The clean log inside that made for our third FTF for the day!

☼

Thank you to everyone who had a hand at the creation of the cache and the MSPGT2 series - we really look forward to all the future finds!

Spring CITO Season

With all the pain and strife in the world, geocaching is the perfect escapism. And, as Mr Rogers said, "Always look for the volunteers." So TaGeez and I took CITO season as the perfect opportunity to get out and give back. We not only did one but four! 

Spring Pool Party 2025 GCB2Y1W

Ah, the annual pool party outside of Kensington Metropark. It was a park & ride that had a pretty rough winter. Beforehand, we headed to the Nature Center and spent some fabulous reprieve watching the swans and herons.

CITO Great Lakes National Cemetery Stone Cleaning GCB4Z76

This was a unique experience! GLC hosted a CITO at the Great Lakes National Cemetery outside Holly where we went to clean headstones! How humbling cleaning headstones in Section 4! I was so impressed with the number of volunteers! After we earned our volunteer patches, we headed over towards Independence Township for a challenge cache trail.

NOMAG spring CITO 2025 GCB4Y1D

You can always count on Syfun to host a fun event. This one was a roadside clean-up that spanned about a mile and a half outside of Pine Knob. For as often as we cache it, it was time to show it some love. As with all the CITO spots, there was so much winter debris.

Belle Isle Spring CITO GCB525M

We attended the last one today, and, for the first time, we had rain. We have been so lucky with weather these last 2 weeks! As per usual, TaGeez and I trekked several miles down the backroad behind the Nature Center. Collectively, we filled 6 bags, mostly of bottles versus trash. 

It was so great seeing old friends and getting fresh air after this long winter! Now that we've cleaned up our gameboard, time to get back to working on our puzzle lists! We have found 25% of our solved puzzles since the new year!

The Wormholes have Published!

April 1st is big in Southeastern Michigan! The annual wormhole puzzle caches published promptly at 8am! 

Wormhole Cache List

The first generation of wormhole caches were published in 2010, the series started with three caches. Fast forward to now, and a tradition continues to carry on. We hope you enjoy this April Fool's Day prank!

Basically, it is a variety of puzzle caches that span our little corner of the mitten. Each one contains a picture that, when you click it, will navigate you to the next one in the series.

Check it out! I always make mine easily solvable to attract newer caches. 🔍

I headed out early yesterday and scored 3 first-to-finds! ❤️

Treasure Hunt

Anyone hunting for treasure? The new geocaching.com game-in-a-game? It is kind of fun getting back to basics. We've completed the first collection but low difficulty caches are running a little scarce around here.

Piney Adventures with TaGeez

It's in there somewhere! Keep looking!

We Like Pi! A Pi Day Adventure

 

March 14th was Pi Day, and Team-Gates hosted an event in St Claire Shores. Looking for some escapism and sunlight, TaGeez and I trekked across southeast Michigan to see our friends!

Have you ever been to Wahby Park? We've passed it for decades without knowing its name. It's on Jefferson, just off Lake St Clair, and very busy with post-work activity.

Typically, Team-Gates went all out. He released an Adventure Lab, several FTF puzzles, and handed out pies! Good turnout on a Friday evening.

Credit: Team-Gates

Still in the thralls of freedom from work, TaGeez and I couldn't head home. Instead, we solved some of paldog0603's newly-published puzzles and headed off to Moross for 2 new FTF's! 

Have you seen the art work on Moross? Great place to explore in Spring.

With victory in hand, we headed off to Pat O'Briens Tavern for a Lenten fish dinner during St Patrick's Day weekend. The place was booming!

Happy Pi Day!

Walking Around Milwaukee - Our Birthday Adventure

 A little-known fact: in non-Leap Years, TaGeez and I celebrate our birthda ys two days apart! This year we decided to celebrate our birthday adventure in Milwaukee! ShelleyJean and I enjoyed exploring Milwaukee last year, and I knew it was TaGeez's kind of town.

You know we love a good road trip!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAGEEZ!

Michigan to Indiana and Illinois to Wisconsin. Traffic was so bad in Chicago that Waze detoured us to Chinatown in Chicago! What a cool energy! We will spend more time here on our summer visit to Chicago.

And we detoured ourselves to downtown Highland Park. It's nothing like the one back home. Here's another area to explore during the daytime - there are so many restaurants!

HAPPY SATURDAY!

Saturday morning found us explore Lakeshore Drive in Milwaukee. What is it about Lake Michigan and our birthday adventures? Not really much ice on the lake after an unusually warm day the day before, but this morning the wind was brisk! Perfect day to visit a historic cemetery, water tower, lakeside park, and lighthouse. 

And part of the charm of this adventure is our antics in front of THREE webcams! Again, that wind was harsh, but we love a road trip! 

Milwaukee webcams

We are cold and hungry so it's time to turn inland and head for some food. No trip to the area is complete without a stop at the Tardis cache! It deserves the 1100+ favorite points!

We found out later that our good friend from back home, GeoConsumer, visited this cache just a few hours earlier!

Hey, TaGeez, I think it's time to head out for some food. Any idea where the spy bar is? 

This door looks promising!

The Safe House is definitely a place to spend the afternoon exploring! Check out this 1,000+ Fave point geocache, watch the magician at the bar, and visit all the rooms, reading the walls. Happy Birthday to us!

The Covert Cache

Afterwards, we explored the ladybug building, the Milwaukee Riverwalk, drove by the yacht-shaped art museum, sought the Pabst Mansion, and visit the Lego Store on release day!

One last sweet cache before we headed to our temporary home with some takeout.

Story Time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCRAPCAT!

We are starting early heading home so we can make many stops along the way. First stops were different travel bug hotels to drop off our birthday trackables. Then we found the Frank Lloyd Wright houses on the Burnham Block before heading to the Third Ward neighborhood for the Milwaukee Public Market!

We picked up vegetarian samosas and birthday cupcakes for a picnic lakeside before heading home.

TaGeez loved Wind Point Lighthouse in Racine - we had the place to ourselves! Too bad too cold for a quick dip!

We stopped in Portage, IN for caching and then dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube! We wrapped our caching adventure at sunset by grabbing Adventure Labs and puzzle finals at the Pure Michigan rest stop across the Michigan border.

What a glorious weekend! We drove 1,000 miles, sang in the car, enjoyed good food & great experiences. What more can you ask for?