The Amazing Crosswinds Marsh

It's been a long Winter so an adventure was needed! Off to beautiful Crosswinds Marsh with TaGeez and ShelleyJean. I've written about Crosswinds before. It's an amazing "1,050 acre mitigated wetland consisting of open marsh, wet meadows, forested wetlands, and upland forests" with a very active volunteer community including geocachers.

The Crosswinds Cache Crew (Stan & Ruth, Hooked On U, The Seed Spreaders and the Walkabouts) have made this geocaching heaven: a variety of well-maintained, well-stocked quality containers spread throughout the park. These caches are regularly turned over during various events throughout the year. Which means you can keep going back and going back...

How's this for a welcome party? We spied him across the lake, and I captured this photo with Shelley's 70x zoom! Wow!

ShelleyJean, TaGeez and I arrived around 9 am and started with the inner loop. Through the woods, along the marsh, and down the boardwalks. You can see the icy crust on the water below - we passed by several hours later, and it looked totally different!

No filter!

With the recent thaw plus some rain, some areas of the back trails were still under water or mud. You can see it didn't deter TaGeez. 

Around 11 am we connected with two of TaGeez's sisters and took on more of the trail. The temperatures kept creeping up (as well as the steps on Shelley's pedometer - 13,000 steps!). 

So much wildlife here! We saw 2 eagles, swans, ducks and (we think) a beaver. There was a lot of evidence of beaver inhabitants - trees halved along the boardwalk - and TaGeez & Shelley saw something in the water near the pavilion.

Another ShelleyJean masterpiece

Ok, we're tired, and it's time to go eat. Amazing adventure and a perfect geocaching park.

The day ended at 50 degrees and sunny! We found 24 caches - clearing out the center of the park - and are already planning our trip back!

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Update! I just heard there's a new Crosswinds Cache Crew 2019 from The Seed Spreaders:

This year we have a couple new groups helping out there.  For 2019, it is Stan & Ruth, Golddogs, QX56, gjamison3, and myself (the seed spreaders).  I hope that the 2019 team can live up to expectations and the reputation that we have created so far.  

I have no doubt you will :)

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!