Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Meandering to Mackinac, part 1


And it truly is a meandering. I need to be in Mackinaw City Thursday night so that I can start in on my staffing duties on Friday. Our Boy Scout council hosts 1500 people for the weekend, and does this once every two years.

I left at 8:30 this morning (Wednesday.) Straight shot it's about a four hour trip. Would RedhedMary do a straight shot trip? Naaaah. Of course not. I planned out a trip that involved going through 14 Michigan counties that I had never found a cache in (as well as other counties of course.)

Tonight I am in Traverse City - if you think of Michigan as a left-hand mitten, its about where your little finger would be. I've found 29 caches today and can cross six counties off my list.

The day started out drizzly. Never did have a hard rain, but those first few caches were kinda dampish. Started off with a stop at the Denny's off Plainfield in GR, there was a new one just placed and I don't get up that way so often. So made the quick stop. Next a park and ride near Sand Lake, just off 131. A bit disconcerting there, someone had decided they needed the ammo can more than the cache did so took it. They left the swag and log in the ziplock and rehid that. But not before writing an obscene message in the log book. Too bad.

Then 131 to Reed City, then west on 10 to 37 in Baldwin. North on 37 to 115. West on 115 to Frankfort. North on 22 at Frankfort to 72. East on 72 to Traverse City. Memorable caches include one that was in a relocated outhouse in a cemetery (I could tell it had been relocated because the cache was in one of the holes and there was hard ground underneath, not what would have been there if it was once a working outhouse.) Another one, called "America's Finest" was suspended by a rope from a tree. One was hidden opposite from the largest Black Willow tree, at least in Michigan and I think in the US. There was also one near the Betsie Point Lighthouse. By this afternoon it was a lot sunnier than when I left.

I hit Traverse City with about 2 hours of daylight left, cached most of that time, then checked into the Knights Inn. A nice room but it doesn't have a table and chairs! Most do these days, I'm a bit surprised. But the price was good, it has high speed and breakfast in the morning, so we'll call it good.

Tomorrow I plan to head east to Kalkaska, then northwest to Charlevoix and then northeast to Petoskey and on to Mackinaw City. If I have time I will brave the bridge and do some caching in St. Ignace. We'll see.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sweetie.... enjoyed your blog..if you do the bridge your a better man than me.... :)
    Give me a call Sunday PM and I will call you back.
    Hope your mini vacation keeps on being great.
    Love and Hugs, Mom

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