Geocaching in the mist

Most people would describe the weather on Tuesday as unpleasant.  There was a thick fog all day and misted from time to time.  I really like this kind of weather and all day at work I was excited to get out.  Erin and I had planned to go geocaching with Krisann in Kindred and then grab supper at the bar. When I checked the Kindred caches I noticed 5 new caches Southwest of town that had just been added on some brand new trails. When I got home and told Erin about the new caches she was excited, and when Krisann picked us up we convinced her to give them a try.

It was starting to get dark as we drove. The parking area was a bit hard to spot, but we found it.  Immediately after leaving the car we had to hop a barb wire fence at a crossing and then we were off on the trail.  We brought along a couple of headlamps and a couple of flashlights which gave us enough light to follow the trail.  When we approached the first cache the Garmin's had us in the middle of a grassy area.  Krisann wandered near the treeline, where a mouse caught her attention. It was fortunate, because that was the tree with the cache. We signed the log and began to search for the trail to the next cache.  We went the wrong way before discovering that the trail was partially hidden in the trees.  A local boy scout troop had recently constructed a bridge over a small creek.  Stopping and listening to the water flow was very peaceful on this dark misty night.  We followed the trail until we hit a road, fortunately we found where the trail picked up again on the other side.  At this point the trail was between a raving where the creek was flowing and a corn field.  Soon we came across the next cache.  The Garmin's were a bit off on this one as well, but we were able to find it. From there we had to cross another fence and continued uphill for a while to the third cache, which we found as well.  It was hard to believe we were 3 for 3 in the dark.  Finding the trail after the third cache was a little bit tricky, but we managed.  The trail then looped around to the North where we found our fourth cache of the night.  Even though the Garmin's took us to the right tree this one took us awhile to find. From there we continued to follow the trail until we came to a fork.  Based on the description of the cache we chose the red trail and set out. The trail was narrower and steeper than what we had previously been on. After a bit the trail turned away from where the cache was.  The closest we came was about 500 feet to the cache. We didn't want to walk that far in the woods for fear we'd get lost, or stumble and get hurt in the rugged terrain, so we turned around and walked back to the car. The night was warm enough that we all felt overdressed. On the way back we stopped on the bridge again and turned off the lights and enjoyed the calm of the night.  When we got back to the car we decided to dry driving to where the fifth cache was.  The GPS took us to the edge of a field with no good places to hide a cache. We guessed that the coordinates were off for this cache and headed home.

The next day our suspicions were confirmed as the cache coordinates were updated, and I received an email with updated coordinates. I'm excited to get back out there and find the last cache, but I doubt it will be as magical as the first time we went out there.