Midwest GeoBash 2022

 

Speaking of photos left unshared, TaGeez and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Midwest GeoBash 2022 - Feather Road!

Earlier in the week we realized we had an extra day off so we booked a second night in our hotel and set off to Bash Thursday morning. Lucky us because the Feather Road Geotour published! We were standing on the doorstep of the Quilt Foundry in Maumee when we realized the closest geotour cache had published 15 miles away. Trying to act all nonchalant, I tried to act indifferent, but TaGeez made a deep sigh and said, "It's just this far away on the map!"

FTF at FRGT - #13 - Pigeon

Do you know how long it takes to drive 15 miles through the small towns of Ohio? FOREVER! But we made it for our first FTF on a geotour! Being a steamy day and some distance between all the other caches, we decided to spend our first day on Bash driving stop to stop to earn our geotour coin and souvenir!

We made it! MWGB22!

Day #2 found us on the Poker Run, where we joyously ran into friends while terrorizing the Fulton County Fairground burbs!

Have you had Outlook Smokehouse in Napoleon? Outlook had a food truck that would stop at Bash every year - we are addicted to their barbeque baked potato. AND THEY OPENED A RESTAURANT! Truly impossible to go home hungry, and we kept running into friends dropping in for the goodness!

Before it got too late we had to head back to the Fairgrounds to turn in our Poker Run cards and our Silent Auction donations. We've enjoyed Bash for over a decade, and I've felt guilty about not donating sooner so this year I made two travel pouches.

Each one contained a 2.5" unactivated geocoin, my personal pathtag, some geoswag and a handmade thank you card. I have to admit I couldn't bare the suspense. What if nobody bid on it? I stayed away during active bidding, but I hung out (embarrassing to admit) when winners picked up their bids. Two ladies told me my bid sheets were full, and one said she had to give up bidding because it got too high!

I have no idea what they went for, but I was so happy to see that my friend, JSTEEL, was one of the winners!

Friday and Saturday afternoons found us caching the fairgrounds and working on a ton of Adventure Labs. 85 AL stops on and around the fairgrounds and even back across the Michigan border.

Never too old for a good Treasure Hunt - we didn't win anything but trackables this year, but it's always one of my favorite events over the weekend.

Have you been to Archbold? We had to stop at Mom's Diner in downtown for lunch and came across this very cool Multicache using this mural. Final adventure while racing through the raindrops is the quilt shop at Sauders Village (our third quilt shop of the weekend).

It was exactly the tonic we needed during a summer of double shifts, house buying, and doctor appointments. It was also great reconnecting with friends - hopefully something we can continue at Haunted Halmich in October!

See you next year at MWGB 2023!

MSPCGT: It's a Centennial Wrap!

To complete the Michigan State Park CENTENNIAL GeoTour during the CENTENNIAL year, TaGeez, ShelleyJean and I made two last cache runs in December.

But first... we needed to dress appropriately. This is what every geocacher is wearing this season.

Early December found us at Fort Custer and Lake Hudson State Parks for a letterbox and two more Traditionals. The ground is hard and the ponds almost frozen over. We spied 3 Tundra swans overhead.

 *** This post is riddled with spoilers! ***

Fort Custer - Letterbox

Fort Custer - Gadget Cache

The water looks so frigid but the seagulls and one excitable Golden Retriever thought this was heaven.

Fort Custer Lake

With a late start and an early sunset, we had to end our adventure early and leave the remaining 4 parks for another day.  We were anxious to get out of the woods as the roads were lined with Hunter's trucks and that wind off the lake numbed our toes. Ah, caching in Michigan.

Lake Hudson

One week later we headed out in snow flurries to tackle.. er... enjoy the last four parks! FOUR LEFT!

First stop of the day, and we faced snow flurries when leaving the Detroit area. Luckily, this was the shortest walk today. Quick find and sign & then we continued down the path to see the frozen lake. 

WJ Hayes State Park

Afterwards, since we were in the Irish Hills, we stopped to see the trabejo rustico at St Joseph’s Cemetery.

Do you see that "fencing" in the above and below pictures? They're made of cement! 

"The trabajo rustico (rustic work)—or faux bois (imitation wood) technique used natural elements as inspiration for cement creations."

There is a another magical version of trabajo rustico less then a mile down the road at McCourtie Park.

Next up was Watkins State Park. One thing you need to know about this park... there is no restroom facilities or places of concealment.  Just wanted to point that out. In case you are asking... for a friend.

Fascinating to see the hundreds of Canadian geese on the almost-frozen lake on the way in.  This was the first time I've experienced a Natural Beauty Road in a state park.

This was a lovely, gradual walk up the hill to the cache.  It was worth the cold wind off the slope, and I'm grateful we didn't do this in the direct summer sun.

Watkins Lake State Park

*** DID I MENTION SPOILERS? ***

Do you see it?

How about now? 

Brighton Recreation was unremarkable except for two things: First, we didn't get shot, and, second, it was state park #99. Luckily, as a quicky near home, that gave us plenty of time at Michigan State Park #100: Meridian-Baseline State Park!

You could feel the change in the air, and we knew it was going to be a good party when Signal found a disco ball at the first cache!

Squirrel Night Club GC84JH2

As we were getting down to the single digits, we looked at the remaining caches and decided this would be our final MSPCGT cache to wrap our fabulous 6 month journey! Meridian-Baseline had the highest favorite points among the remaining with a new Virtual as a bonus. This was the right choice.

When we hit ground zero, there was no surprise where the final was hid. Even with the icy slopes and frozen river, we gingerly made our ways down to GZ.... 

... where the monster under the bridge screamed and warned us to go back. What a hoot!

WE DID IT!

Team SST completed the Michigan State Park Centennial GeoTour!

100 Michigan State Parks discovered, explored and enjoyed!

We kept to our mission: To visit and enjoy all the 100 Michigan State Parks on the tour, and we completed it within the Centennial year! 

Honestly, this was like no other experience, and our state is so ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! 

Sand Dunes! So otherworldly! Swamps and coastlines and old-growth forests. Beaches made of Petoskey stones, ankle-breakers, and silty sand. Lighthouses! Flatland and hills and a mountain, to boot. Waterfalls and rapids and lakes in the clouds with ridges that were oh so high! Historic forts, mining towns, logging encampments, and CCC sites, too.

We sagged under the sun, tunneled under trees, cached in the bitter rains and were pelted by ice. We experienced our state in all four seasons (I'm counting 'construction season', too).  Pasties and Danish pastries and a bakery run by monks! American Bald Eagles, Tundra swans, and, oh, so many Sandhill cranes! A coyote!

Gadget caches and birdhouses and that amazing raft at Kitch-iti-kipi! Letterboxes on Lake Michigan, ammo cans along Lake Superior, bugs on Lake Huron, and one lonely cache on Lake Erie. We wandered along sand dunes for wherigos and watched amazing wind surfers and plovers at our Earth Cache.  

    

Thank you to the Michigan DNR and Michigan Geocaching Organization for creating such an amazing adventure!

*

To celebrate this accomplishment, we continued down this path for the new Virtual, Meridian-Baseline State Historical Park GC7B70X.  I think I shared enough spoilers in this post so I'll let the final images do the talking.

And thank you to everyone who followed along on our adventure.

Happy New Year!

Find It in Medina County Geocoin and Pathtag

We have completed several lovely geotours in Ohio, and I find the administrators have been very helpful. The only hardship, unless they are willing to mail (like Butler County), is the difficulty in acquiring the actual coin. Most only have hours Monday - Friday -- not conducive during a weekend road trip.  Luckily, Medina County has an agreement with the Super 8 on Montville Drive. The hotel is cheap but not bad, and they have lots and lots of coins on hand. 

The geocoin is in the shape of the county. 

And the back has the courthouse steeple from downtown Medina. Great souvenir to another successful adventure!