Deciduous Forest Biome: Nerstrand redux... Success at Last!

Deciduous Forest Biome Challenge

Nerstrand State Park (again!!)

—Nerstrand, MN—

After finishing the prairie biome last week, it made us really want to complete the Deciduous Biome, as well.  So we are back at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park again, but this time we made sure that we came during Park Ranger hours so we would be pretty much guaranteed success (last time the first biome geocache was muggled).

We have now been to this park so many times that we have learned the best way in: go through Northfield – although the GPS prefers going through Owatonna... or going the past way through the "French-Canadian" City of Faribault.  (We highly recommend the Northfield route.  Seriously, folks.  The other way is really windy and full of rough roads and led to a flat tire once, too.)  We actually beat traffic on this day, so it wasn't that bad of a drive.

We got to the park and quickly parked.  We stopped inside rangers station and told them we were going to find the biome geocache, and they reassured us it was there ready to find. 

We started off down the trail—same as last time—and quickly got to the animal exclosure sign—like last time—and started looking around for the geocache...

It didn't take long for us to find it – but not the final cache that we expected – instead... another clue.  Right on the back of the sign...  It was a good thing we had plenty of daylight and it was a nice afternoon (despite being pretty buggy in the Big Woods at Nerstrand once again).

Fern Gully pic....

This was the key piece of information that we were missing on our last attempt (if the Ranger Station was still open it would have been a different story).  So all the clues we solved with the Forest Biome avian cards simply led to the start of a new multicache series to get to the final biome geocache.  We entered in the new set of coordinates and headed back down the trail... farther into the "Big Woods."  It was a beautiful afternoon out.  The woods were quiet and amazing.  It totally reminded me of the moving Fern Gully (one of my sisters favorite childhood movies).   The pictures don't show it but it did seem enchanted to me...

One of the reasons the woods in this part of the state were left intact and never logged or cut down for agriculture may have been its surprising remoteness.  Even though it is not in a far-flung location, it is still difficult to get here.  Try it some time! :)

One of the cute things about traveling with Marcus is how frequently he changes positions... here he is: (1) in the stroller, (2) walking, (3) on Luke's shoulders, and (4) pushing the stroller – all in about a 1/4-mile hike.  Future parents, be forewarned: Toddlers are restless little creatures!

Marcus pushing the stroller.  Luke supervising.

We finally got close to the next location and quickly found it on the back of a map sign.

After entering the next set of coordinates, we were back on course and one step closer to our end goal.  We looked at the map, and it appeared that we were heading in a loop, so we kept moving forward.  It was almost 0.5 miles to the next stop from this one.

"All these trails look the same... Hmm... I sure hope Mom and Dad know what they are doing..."

 

We quickly sneaked up on it, and it appeared the coordinates were leading us right to this tree... doesn't it look like something is hiding there?  (One needs a keen geocaching eye to spot these sometimes!)

When we got a little closer we could see the camouflaged peanut butter container tucked into the tree.  Marcus was pretty excited but didn't understand why it was not an ammo box!

In the end we stopped by this park FOUR times (Luke came once by himself); lots of time and miles all for this card (and the regular state park avian card).  I am glad it was such a pretty one. 

Now that our prize was in hand we headed back to the car – it was still a bit of a hike.  But it was pretty; although we had to watch out for the poison ivy on the trail.  August really is peak season for poison ivy.  Here are a few pics from the hike out.

And, finally, one look at the state parks covered so far.  After this state park we were on a bit of a break until mid-September for Lake of the Isles.

Looking pretty good!