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!

---

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!

Crosswinds Marsh Meandering - 2016

For the second year in a row, the Crosswinds Crew has hosted the fantastic Crosswinds Marsh Meanderings event during Hobby Days at Crosswinds Marsh in Wayne County.  From the cache page: 

Crosswinds Marsh is one of the largest man-made wetlands in the country. It was built to replace the wetlands that were paved over to expand Wayne County's Detroit Metro Airport (the McNamara terminal). Wayne County, together with Sumpter Township, purchased over 900 acres of farmland that believe it or not, was once wetland that had been converted into farm fields by draining the land...in a process that took over a year.   They flooded former farm fields, planted new wetland plants and transplanted endangered species from metro Airport.

There have been over 240 species of birds identified at the marsh. Additionally there are nesting bald eagles visible thru-out the year. Boardwalks were built to give the visitors an intimate view of life in the wetlands. The marsh offers year-round activities including trails for hiking (over 6 miles), horseback riding and cross-country skiing, and areas for picnicking and fishing.  Admission to Crosswinds Marsh is free!

A stunning location for an event, TaGeez and I couldn't help but notice the heavy dark clouds looming over the picnic shelter. But that didn't stop the fun within!

The Frito Bandito and ProBob

Everybody loves FRECKLES!

The event portion included a potluck, first-to-find raffle (almost everyone a winner - sorry June17!), raffle, event path tags, and 37 new caches! 13 of them LARGES!  It must be the promise of those large caches and the chance to earn a second path tag (complete 12 preselected caches) that drove us out into these ominous skies.

But there was such prettiness all around!

TaGeez and I were lucky enough to team with June17, ProBob and ShelleyJean on the trails. I wish I had more photos to share, but, halfway through the inner trail, the downpour came! A powerful drenching rain! There really was no choice - we were already wet and halfway through our cache list. Might as well continue on then turnaround empty handed. Luckily the constant rain was also cooling which made our squelching shoes and clinging t-shirts more bearable.

TaGeez looking like a hobo as he carries  all our valuables
 in this ultra-sexy, high-tech trash bag!

ShellyJean, it was great fun meeting you. I'm sorry I didn't have a more flattering picture of you as you are quite lovely, but I enjoyed your spirit. Yes, we need to cache together again!

TaGeez and ShelleyJean after the rain stopped

Of course, after turning on our sheets for the reward path tag and going out to find the Wherigo final, we finally had a little sunshine as we headed back to the car. Look at our cheering squad!

I love Crosswinds for its wildlife and am glad we ended the day FINALLY seeing some after the rain. We didn't finish all the day's caches so we will return in the Fall when we can truly enjoy our stroll.

Several hours later TaGeez and I pulled into Famous Dave's BBQ in Taylor because we were too tired and tore up (those dratted thorns at the final) to go home and cook. This was hours later and yet we still squelched as we walked to our table. What odd looks we received as we dripped on the chairs with steam rising from our clothes. If they were geocachers they would've understood.

---

Post Script

A big THANK YOU to YellowJeeperman for recommending this DBPower Universal Waterproof Dry Bag Case from Amazon.com. 

We forgot our wellies, raincoats, and umbrellas, but, for some reason, I remembered to grab this as I left the house. As it poured and every inch of my clothes soaked through, none seeped into this dry bag so I was able to navigate 24 caches plus 1 Wherigo cartridge while taking random pictures. Worked like a charm!

Mission GC Souvenir 2

Earlier this week Premium members received their emails that GC Mission #2 was upon us!

With great excitement we opened the puzzle and OH MY! Now, I've done these before, but, if you get a chance, print this out and give it a go. I will admit I guessed the "code word" based on the first few letters and the last one. TaGeez solved the whole thing.  Plugging in the code word into the official site, our mission file opened. 

Find one Multicache on August 13th or 14th for the next Mission GC souvenir.

The tag line is One Cache is Not Enough. TaGeez and I proved it true. We found a Multicache at the Crosswinds event (see tomorrow's post), but it still hasn't published. So, even though we know it will count when it does, we went out for a second one today. 

Ready for our next mission!