And the Summer of 2014 Begins now.....Fort Snelling State Park

STATE PARK AVIAN GEOCACHE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!

So the current plan for the summer is to take a little time off and actually enjoy a little bit of life.  I have a goal – and it is a big one – and we kicked it off today.  Luke and I have been doing some geocaching for years , but we never really did a ton of it.  There is a program that the Minnesota DNR is putting on at all of the state parks where each park has a multi-site geocache and I want to do them all.

There are a total of 81 sites: 76 parks and recreation areas and one state trail, 4 biomes (these are in a state park), and one final site that you can access only when you have visited the first 80!  This sure sounds like a huge challenge and a lot of fun.  There is one added challenge – this entire program ends in October 2014 so we had better get to it!

If you want more information on the program follow this link: MN DNR Avian Geocache website link.

So we started today.  The day started like this.  Marcus, wanted to go outside NOW!  So I figured it was a good day to start.

Marcus in the morning: take me outside NOW!

We decided that we wanted to test one park just so we could find out..... What are they like?  Are they winter-friendly?  Does our GPS equipment work?  To start a big challenge I like to set things up and understand as many future problems as possible.

So off we went....

Fort Snelling State Park

The weather was a little chilly and since the the park is low (down by the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers) there is still a lot of snow left on the ground.  So Luke, Marcus, and I arrived at the park and found our first site.  Since these are all multicache sites, the first one will always direct you to the next location.  

This is what the Geocache box looks like.

The bird for the Avian Geocache

We also took some time to walk around the visitor center.  Marcus LOVED the stuffed beaver and the fish tank.  While Luke and Marcus looked around, I tried to figure out how to add the second location into my iPhone GPS app – epic fail, and I never figured it out!  (However, I just figured it out for the future with the help of Google tonight!).  Good thing we had our old school, yellow eTrex GPS with us, so we were able to move on the second cache – just a bit down the trail.

Cache # 2

Marcus LOVED walking on the trail, but because the ice was uneven he was not able to walk very well.  He was so independent and he kept refusing to hold our hands.  He wanted to walk by himself.  It was pretty darn cute!

Marcus standing on the path

"Look at me on my own"

At this point we figured out at this point that it was going to be a long walk back to the car (even though it was not far – 0.3 miles when Marcus is walking can take a LONG time).  So Marcus and I trudged onward to the third cache.

Cache # 3

Coordinates to Cache # 4

We met up and drove towards the last site.  The ground was not very even and super slippery, so it was a long 0.15 miles from the car and then back.  It was pretty darn cute watching our independent little guy!

Marcus

Marcus

Marcus and Luke

  Watching Marcus walk across the ice was pretty amusing!

We walked and walked and we finally got there!

So you may be wondering what Marcus is holding right now.  This is the prize for getting to the final cache – it is a card that gives details about a native Minnesota bird – in this case a Warbler.

This was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do the next 80 of them!

One last video of Marcus walking about across the ice!

This is going to be a great summer!