Root River State Trail

After almost a two-week break from geocaching, we jumped back on the horse with a really big day. One of my favorite parts of the state is the southeast – this is the home of the Driftless Area, lots of Amish people, and is the route to Luther College – so overall I know it quite well.

We set off by 9 am in order to maximize the day and headed down Highway 52 to Highway 16 after Preston, MN; by noon we were at our first stop: the Root River State Trail. This is actually the only trail that is included in the Avian Geocaches series – overall there are 24 state trails in Minnesota. They are really awesome and great for rollerblading, biking, walking, and all kinds of winter activities as well. Here is the description from the website:

"This paved, 42-mile state trail begins in Fountain and runs through the quaint and picturesque rural communities of Lanesboro, Whalan, Peterson, Rushford and Houston. Constructed on an abandoned railroad, the trail is generally level and wheelchair accessible."

Here is a sign we came across along the trails in the State Park showing the Root River in the southeastern "Driftless Area" of Minnesota. The Driftless Area was not covered by glaciers during the last ice age (the Wisconsin glaciation), and so it has much more topography (hills/valleys) than most other ("flatlander") parts of the state.

Here is a map of the Root River in Minnesota (courtesy of Wikipedia). It shows most of the major rivers in Minnesota.

Our initial coordinates brought us to the Isinours area of the trail – pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They made the first stop pretty easy to find.

See the big white sheet on the right side of the sign.

We entered in the next set of coordinates, and they were pretty far, so we decided that we would drive to see if we could get a bit closer. This was also right about the time that the Marcus-saurus woke up from his nap (that is never the best time of the day!).

Since it was a Sunday the trails were actually pretty busy, so we saw a lot of bikers.

The path was really nice and in really good condition. It was the perfect for "strolling" along.

Here is a map of the trail system

It was about a 0.4 mile hike to the second location – there was even a clue on this one: it said "go to where the trails meet." The good news is that the GPS brought us right there. We looked over the signs, and there were no more directions, so we guessed that we will looking for the final cache right there.

Marcus looking for the cache.

We all spent some time looking in the woods, and finally I spotted it. It was at the bottom of a small hill full of weeds and branches, and the boys nominated me to go in after it!