Michigan's ORB GeoTour

 

Winter was long, and TaGeez & I really missed the Belle Isle Event this year. So, we were really excited to see the Ogemaw-Roscommon Bureau (ORB) GeoTour (GT4D5) released in Michigan in May! TaGeez took off from work, and we headed for the weekend in middle Michigan...

... with a detour in Bay City for Cops & Donuts. Geocachers, POWER UP!

First stop is the kick-off event in West Branch. It was a cold morning, but the chamber supplied coffee and goodies. However, most of it was ignored for the caches in the parking lot, including one of the geotour caches! Woot! We started early!

10 am hit, and the geocaches published! We were off! Funny that there were so many cachers at the kick-off, but we really didn't fun into them at all the fun spots including pretty local parks, the Ogemaw fairgrounds...

stopping at local cemeteries...

... and for taco trucks! Funny, we were on this super rural road - nobody around - when I said, "I'd love a taco right now!" We rounded the corner to find this food truck in the general store's parking lot! The loaded nachos were a FIND!

The parks were beautiful, with a nice mixture of boat launches, Rec areas, woodland, scenic drives, and beaches. Both Roscommon and Ogemaw picked some of the prettiest spots in their counties.

Did you know that Ogemaw is bigfoot country? 

And a natural spring? 

This spot was a little odd. This park contained the grave of George the orphan fawn, a display of taxidermized deer, and a petting zoo. The caretaker, however, was lively and so excited to see so many new visitors!

Of all the memorable spots, I know we will one day return to the Flats. This is a multi-mile birding sanctuary nestled between a highway and major road. 

This beauty, however, was a few miles away along the scenic road (filled with waterways, Eagles and many, many mosquitoes!)

You can't visit Roscommon without visiting the Firemen's Memorial. The cache here was perfect, and it was lovely to see the geocachers respecting the property.

We finished the GeoTour in plenty of time for the closing event so we headed into Kirkland Warbler country for a little bit of birding and a little bit of caching. No luck seeing a warbler, but here we were surrounded by BlueJays and bluebirds. 

SPOILER: Here are some of my favorite cache containers. Many of the West Branch caches were hand-painted by the community.

West Branch Geocaches

The Houghton Lake caches tended more towards the gadget or specialty caches, like the awesome Markey Park Cemetery cache. I awarded so many favorite points on this trip!

Houghton Lake Geocaches

We ended Sunday at the Weekend Wrap-up event, where we collected our coins!

Look what we earned! Closing event

ORB GeoTour Geocoins

This geotour did Michigan proud, and we had such a great time. Print out a passport and go!