Oleta River State park

Happy Friday all!  Last week, I had a chance to get out and visit a local start park. We decided to pick up some mountain bikes to go out Geocaching, and then rent some canoes. We headed out to Oleta River State Park . There were a few Geocaches on some islands that were near the park that we wanted to try to find. Here are some pics of our day.
We started out at Blue Moon. We rented two canoes and headed out into the mangroves.

 Here are some of the friends that we brought along for the day. They are new to Geocaching, and they were sucked in pretty quickly. It was a beautiful day out!

 Here is me at the first island. It took a while to get there with my hubby and his friends steering the canoe.  Let's just say we went in a lot of circles at first.

 The first cache that we hit was called The Stone Crab. We laughed when we got there because as we unloaded our canoe, we actually found a crab in our boat.

 This is the view from the first island. It was so pretty. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get there.

 The hubby and I at the first island.

On the second island, we came across this really cool "stick" bug. I've seen these before in pics, but never in real life. They are so cool looking.

 This is me on the way back from the second island, heading into a rainstorm.

 Here is our rainstorm, not fun, but we still had a great time!

 That's me at the end of our paddle. My arms were tired!

 Here is Craig getting ready for the biking mission. We went and found like 7 or 8 caches.

 I can't remember the last time I was on a a bike. Oh yeah I do. I was ten years ago, when I flipped off a small hill on one. Good times...

 Taking a small break and grabbing a drink.

 This is one of the small lakes at the park on the trail.

 All packed up and ready to go!

Enjoy!

Crazy caches!

I have been Geocaching like crazy lately.  Crazy. I've also been making my own personal caches too. That is why my blogging has gone under, big time.  Hey, what can a girl do? My first love is always baking, but right now it's summer, and I don't want to be cooped in a hot kitchen. I would rather be outside, in the heat, surrounded by forests, spiders, and whatever else is in the hole that I keep sticking my hand into. That being said, we have been finding some really neat caches!  Normally they are little containers with logs inside. My fellow cachers, however, have really been using their creative noggins. These are some of the ones that we have come across.
This was a really hard one that my hubby was lucky enough to find. There were a million rocks in this area, and he happened to be standing on the one that the log was in. Unbelievable.

Container with log. That was his find of the day. He had a pretty big head for the rest of the day. I can't blame him.

 ABC gum? Ewwwww. Yeah, it's out there folks. It's just waiting to be touched...

 I found this little guy under some leaves behind a pole. Knew it was a fake. Don't get me wrong, I rustled a few things around, and blew on it to see if it would move first, hahaha.

 What's up doc? A carrot container?

 Some of the crew playing on a tree. Didn't find this one, will have to go back later.

 One of the great things about Geocaching is what they called CITO. It stands for Cache in, trash out.  Not only are you supposed to be checking out nature while you are out there, you are supposed to keep it clean and preserved. This cache was perfect for that. This can was sitting at the bottom of a tree, all smashed up. When we picked it up, we found the cache.

 Tricky tricky.

Gather up your friends, get out there, and go caching. We've found so many amazing parks and sights that we have never seen before, and there all in the city that we have lived in for years.  Go have some fun!

"Wounded Warriers" Part 4 of the Chicagocache fun!

Okay, so the last one for the day is a real kicker. We decided to do one last run. It was a little tougher than the last ones because the battery on my phone was dying, and that is where I was getting my geo information. So, I could only look, and read the info a few seconds at a time. We headed off to an old military housing district. There were all kinds of swirvy roads in and around it. My GPS took me by a little park. We decided to get out and walk it. At this point, our boots and jeans were already starting to be soaked through. What can I say, when I want something, I want it, and I didn't care if I had a small lake forming in my boots. We read the info again as quick as could. We read over some really important info about parking, and some other tracking information. We started out across the park, and made our way to a hill. I said okay, we need to get down this hill, but not cross this little ravine. We had about three places it could be, but we weren't sure which one it was. Again, no phone, battery was super low. My sister said "I think I see stairs across the way." Off we began, down the way to find the "stairs." There were no stairs. Sigh. Back to the other side we went. I said "I am going in!" Off I headed down the hill. This is hill I was not supposed to go down.

I made it the bottom, and found the ravine that was mentioned in the clue. It said don't cross it, so I didn't.

My mom decided to head down afterwards. Well, halfway down she fell and landed on a tree stump. Ouchies! She was scraped up. This was the first battle wound of the day. I said okay, my phone says it is around this area here, so let's have a look in a few places. The hint was "electric", so we had a few places that we know it had to be. Did we find it, no. My sister said, "There has to be a way to get to the road on the other side of the ravine." I said "I'm going to jump the ravine, it is only like 1/2 foot wide." They yelled and said no. So I made my way back up the hill, to figure out a new plan.
This is the view of the structure from the "right/safe way."

On my way down, I had quickly checked out this metal structure, but didn't think anything of it. It didn't seem to have any electricity, so I ignored it. On the way back up though, I figured I would check it out just in case. I thought to myself, "What about this thing? Could it be in here?" We agreed, no, and I continued up. So, the whole way back up the hill, I had been grabbing and moving little branches out of my way to help me climb. I said to my mom, "Watch out for this barbed wire, there are a few random pieces sticking out in random places." Literally as I said this, I moved one aside, catching it in my hair. My mom and sister yell, "Don't move!" There I was stuck, on a hill, with rusty barbed wire tangled in my head. Battle wound number two. So my mom heads down the hill to save my life....or my hair. I realize as she heads down the hill, that she had already fallen once. What happens if she falls, and hits me, and I am still attached to this wire. I had a this vision of her hanging from my feet, and me hanging from the wire in my hair....awesome. I tried not to panic, or laugh, being that I was still having a blast, even though I was possibly going to need a Tetanus shot later on that evening. We get up the hill, and head back to the car. We drive around the neighborhood, and low and behold, we find a little circle that is the start of a walking trail. As I write this, I am shaking my head, and calling us idiots. We park the car, and begin our mission again.
After about 500 yards or so we come across this power jack. This has to be it.

I climbed the little hill next to it, and pulled up the cover.

The cover flew off to reveal our cache!! Whoo hoo!

Inside was a log, a picture, and a little lapel pin. The pin had two soldiers on it, one was carrying the other. It said "wounded soldier" on it. This was the perfect find for our mission, considering that we had two injuries on this trek.

A couple walking their dog saw us on this hill, playing with the electrical jack. After we assured them we were Geocaching, and not destroying property, they smiled and offered to take our picture. It was an awesome day!

Enjoy!

Family Caching Part three!

We went to a local bike trail that had four or five caches hidden in it. We just did the first one because we had to get home and drop off the non geocachers that were getting bored...

Craig made the find on this one! We had to be careful climbing down the hill because there was a icy lake below us. He looks pleased, doesn't he?

This one had a book with it, one of the two treasures.

Hidden from sight.

This one held a log, and a little eraser. I decided to leave a Rushmore sticker in this one.

All put back in it's place!

Cheese!

So after we dropped off the hubby, we headed back out to do some more damage. We headed off to a local gas station that we had hit a few days earlier. We couldn't get anything though because the snow was so deep. Today was a good day though, because mom found it right away!

Back you go little friend!

Off to another bridge! So we hit a spot that was in a "commuter" series. I was on a mission for this one because I couldn't find it the other day. So without hesitation, I squeezed myself into the snow bank and went under the bridge. Here was my little baby! Only problem was, I couldn't get it out. There was a little drip right over the tube that made it one giant ice block. So I got out an ice scraper, and begin chipping away at it. Nothing was gonna hold me down!

Sweeet success!

We signed another one, and left the Golden Gate bridge sticker.

One more Chicago adventure coming your way! I saved the best story for last!
Enjoy!