(Thwarted by) Nerstrand Big Woods State Park – Part Deux!

Avian Adventures Deciduous Biome

Clues at the park.

At Nerstrand Big Woods State Park

—Northfield, MN—

(a.k.a. Nerstrand Part Deux)

Last week, when we completed the Deciduous Biome, we were really excited to knock this one off.  In order to complete this biome we had to visit 25 states parks, state recreation areas, and state trail.  So it was more work than the first "biome" we knocked off (the so-called Tallgrass Aspen Parkland biome).  We had visited Nerstrand State Park before (Marcus, mom, and dad first, then Luke solo later to try to finish the biome), so we already had the clues needed to determine what the actual coordinates were.  We actually completed them on the drive home from our southeastern trip last week, so we were ready to roll.

Answers to to the clues.

                                                                                                  

On a funny note we would not have been able to solve these clues if we had not visited all of the parks (although Luke almost pulled it off before the rain and dark stopped him from checking all the possibilities he came up with weeks ago).  The last park we saw, Carley State Park, actually had the answer to 2 of the clues... glad we did not try to skip that park!

Kyle making dinner and Marcus watching.

We had talked to some friends from Northfield (the Willkomm family) about giving them a call when we were finally ready to visit this geocache and geocaching it with them.  We made our plans and headed down to meet them for a fun dinner grill-out and geocache hunt at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park (they live pretty close by).  The road we always take to get here is really crazy and there is no direct way at all from Fairbault.  They showed us a much better route up to Northfield on our way home later on.  Also, when Luke was here by himself trying to finish the biome on a late Sunday night he got a flat tire (a bad weld fell off somebody's vehicle/trailer/something and impaled the front tire), making getting home to the Cities rather interesting.

When we finally got through traffic and got to Nerstrand their family was already there and waiting.  Amy and Kyle are good friends of mine from college, and they have an AWESOME family with 5 girls (Anna, Lucia, Darby, Lizzy, and Vivi).  We always know we are going to have a good time when they are around.  Marcus is also a huge fan of the girls.

The adults prepared dinner while Marcus and the girls ran off and played at the playground.  These kids are great with Marcus, and it was really nice to get a chance to visit with Amy and Kyle for a while.  Darby even took Marcus over to the swings and pushed him around for awhile.

"Weeeee!"

 The park was pretty quiet (our usual experience here), and we had a lot of fun just hanging out and eating – between us we brought enough food to feed far more than our families (but doesn't that always happen).  The cutest comment of the meal was made by Vivi.  She whispered to me, "Is is true that Lizzy is your favorite?"  I told her no, that we liked them all, but Lizzy was our godchild.  Super-cute moment!

Lizzy holding her pet grasshopper.

Running off to play.

 After we finished up dinner we were off to geocache... we were all so excited.  The girls have done this before so they are experienced.  Darby actually held onto the GPS and lead the way.  Vivi held Marcus's had so he would not get lost.

We went into the woods, and it was not far until we found the spot that put us really close to the final cache.  Since this was a puzzle cache, we did not have to do multiple stops along the way.

It was BUGGY in the woods!

Our geocaching team looked high... we looked low... we looked everywhere.  Eventually Amy took the younger girls and Marcus out of the forest and away from the bugs, but a few of us stayed behind to continue searching.  I read the logs, and it said it was a hard find and was a smaller container, but people had eventually found it.  We double-checked our coordinates to make sure I entered them right (I did) and even looked over the questions to make sure I did not make a stupid mistake (I didn't).  With ten of us searching (for a long time) we were seriously stumped and for the first time we gave up.  The ranger station was closed, so there was no one to ask about it (sometimes "muggles" find them and destroy/move the caches).

The coordinates put us right near this here sign.  Can you see the final cache?

We hiked back to the main entrance (it was already closed) and met back up with the group.  This is the first time we have been defeated by a cache!  Even though we didn't find the cache it was a really great night, and we loved hanging out with the Willkomm family!

Part of Team Avian Geocache 2014: Anna, Vivi, Marcus (founding member), Lizzy, Lucia, and Darby.

Time to go!

On Wednesday morning I called the park and spoke with an employee – the first thing I did was verify the coordinates to make sure we had answered the questions correctly and found out we were right about the coordinates.  Next I described where we were looking in the park, and he also said that was correct.  He took down my information and said a ranger would call me back after they checked to make sure it was still here.  A few days later I got a call and IT WAS MISSING!!!!  They planned on putting a replacement cache out in a few days.  I have to admit that made me feel a little bit better, but it still makes me crabby that we have to head back or we will be one card short!

Here are few last pictures of our evening at Nerstrand!

Pretty basswood tree!  With poison ivy all around the base of it...

A few of the girls show Marcus how to make noise by jumping on the well covers...  Boy, can they teach him a lot!  He had a really good time.