Banning State Park

Banning State Park

It is a Memorial Day weekend.  This is a a weekend where we all take the time to reflect on the the price we have paid as a country to have the freedom we enjoy.  It is also the official start to the Minnesota summer.  We had exciting plans this weekend.  We went to Hathaway – one of our friend's family's cabins up on Upper St. Croix Lake, the headwaters of the St. Croix River, in Northern Wisconsin.  This is about 166 miles from our house, so we figured we would pick up a few geocaches on the round trip there and back.

We decided to hit three parks on the way up and one on the way back.  You can see the parks on the above map (I also marked the cabin with a red star).  Our first stop was Banning State Park.  The Kettle River (so named because of the kettles formed in the rocks by small rocks trapped in water eroding out of "kettle" in the rock) runs through it (the Kettle is a tributary of the St. Croix), and it has some of the best kayaking in the state.  The river flows through gorges in the park, and there are some really fantastic views.

We got to the park and the first stop was pretty darn easy (being a really big state park, it was over 3 miles to the first stop).  I jumped out of the car and got the information at the entrance so we could move onward (a map from the ranger station and such).  For this weekend's adventure we had the entire family with – Luke, Vonnie, Marcus, and Sandy.  This makes everything a bit slower getting everyone in and out of the car.  On top of just having the entire family, we had a space issue because we were going up to the cabin, and I wanted to bring the big stroller (it is the easiest to trek through parks with).  In order to make it all fit I put the stroller on the back of the car with the bike rack.  I thought it was pretty ingenious (if I do say so myself) and it worked beautifully except it meant that before Sandy could get out of the car we had to take this down first (adding time to our adventure).

After leaving the Ranger Station we quickly made it down the road to the first geocache location of the day.  This was pretty easy, and we were able to pull in right in front of it. One of the odd things about this geocache is that all of the locations were off by about 25-40 ft. from where the GPS said they were.

Location # 1

We all started on the path to find the second location.  Luke pushed Marcus in the stroller, and I walked with Sandy (honestly it was much closer to him pulling me behind him).

It didn't take very long until we found second location.

It was after this point that we hit the first challenge for the day... MUD!  This would be an ongoing challenge for the entire day and all three parks that we hit.  I tend to wear sandals all summer long – pretty much regardless of the weather, where we are at, or what we are doing.  Luke on the other hand tends to wear much more practical footwear – normally he is wearing tennis shoes, but he has now started taking boots along as well.  We started down the path towards the next location and quickly came upon a muddy path.  Luke looked around and didn't see a way around and decided that he would turn back with Sandy and maybe meet us further up from the road.  Since I had sandals on my feet, I decided to push forward and continue onward; I figured it didn't matter how much mud I walked through.  I also took Marcus with me through the mud and muck.  Pushing the stroller through was a CHALLENGE.

Can you see the mud below? It was much worse-looking in real life!

My feet "Post-Mud"!

Marcus and I continued on until the third location – walking through a few more mud puddles to get to it.  When I got close to the place were location #3 belonged I parked Marcus on the trail and started searching.  This was a really yucky and muddy area, so I wanted him to stay in the stroller to make life easier and cleaner.

Marcus waiting patiently!

I started getting pretty frustrated.  I kept sludging in and out of the mud in order to find the 3rd location.  By this point I figured that this had to be the final cache, so I was busy looking for the ammo box.  I was annoyed and muddy – I texted Luke to make sure my coordinates were right – and they were – and I finally told him that I intended to give up.  Just then I noticed the final geocache box... about 50 feet off of the true coordinates and right on the trail.

We quickly opened the box.  When Marcus saw it he got really excited and started screaming, "Bock Bock," because he knew what was in there.  We grabbed the card and started back.  We were a bit smarter and actually took the road back in order to avoid the mud.

The roughed grouse making his characteristic drumming sound in the woods.