Back in Cookie Town

Monday, September 28, 2009

 Thanks to Fellow Cachers

We are back at home, what a weekend!  We had an absolute blast up in Michigan.  After finding all of the great caches up there, we realized why we love geocaching so much.  These are sights and areas we would have most likely never visited without the help of geocaching.  Without fellow geocachers placing these caches many many more people, even locals probably would not know about these places.  So, thank you to all of the cachers out there who do the work and put in the time to make this such a rewarding hobby. 

Iron Mine Tour

Today was a totally cache free day, which is fine, because we did the great iron mine tour this morning.  After that it rained the whole way home anyways.  Not that we don't like caching in the rain, but after the long weekend it was nice to just chill out on the way home.  The iron mine tour was only about 40 minutes long, but we learned so many things about the history of iron ore mining.  I could not believe the things these men and boys did so long ago.  If you are ever in the Iron Mountain area, do yourself a favor and visit the Iron Mountain Iron Mine, you will not be disappointed.  Here are a few pictures taken on the tour.

Riding the train over 1/4 mile into the hill.

Here is a diagram of the mine we toured.  On the diagram we were standing at the observation area.  Immediately next to us was a 1,300' deep lake that was formed after mining was done due to ground water filling the void that was formed by removing the ore.  The hole is so large it took 2 years to fill it back level with the water column.

This picture contains a rainbow trout...underground you say?? Yes, to monitor oxygen levels while mining, fish, parakeets and rats were used. If the animals became sluggish or died, the miners knew they had to head to the surface.  This underground stream had rainbow and brook trout in it, with access to the huge underground lake.  It may be hard to see, but you can see the glow of its eyes, it came out real quick when the tour guide tossed in some food.

Milestone not Reached

We ended up not getting our 200th find this weekend, which is totally fine for one main reason.  When we arrived in Iron Mountain and started looking for what caches we wanted to do, we realized we had to focus on quality rather than quantity.  We knew we could not come this far, and be so close to so many quality caches, and then do a quantity run!!  We figured we would be cheating ourselves by driving this far to find a bunch of 1-1 caches.  I am glad we made that decision.  Now that we are home, we will plan a day real soon to find seven more caches, and then the 200th milestone cache.  If you have any recommendations let us know.

2 More Days in Paradise

Sunday, September 27, 2009

After the day of caching we had yesterday I was too tired to make a post so late in the evening.  So I will post some pictures from yesterday and today.  Check out the pictures!  What a blast we have been having.

Saturdays Journeys

 This was a wonderful waterfall right by the cache called Back to the Beginning.  There used to be a hydro-electric dam on this river, but it was removed years ago, now you can barely see the remnants.  Great views.

We did a couple of caches at a very popular spot called Piers Gorge.  There were great hiking trails along this stretch of the Menominee River.  From one of the cache locations you could see rafters go over the rapids.  I was jealous, it looked like a blast.

That was only our favorite two of Saturdays 11 caches, they all were great, just to many to post about.

Sundays Journeys

Here we are(MuddyBottoms), and my parents(OldyWeds) at a cache located at Long Lake Falls.  This one was great for a few reasons.  First off it required some four wheel drive skills just to reach the cache, the hike was pretty easy, and finally the views and falls were spectacular.  We hung out for a while exploring the area.

This cache was called HorseRace Rapids.  Another great waterfall.  I cannot believe how many great waterfalls and rapids are up here.  I only posted pictures of a few, we did many many more and there are countless more that we never even saw.  Geocaching is so great, I love the areas it has brought us to, that otherwise we would have never even knew existed.

Today, Sunday, was a great day, we  found all 14 caches we set out to find. 

Tomorrow we plan on taking a tour of one of the old local iron mines, not sure how much caching we are going to do, but the tour should be really great. 

Yoopers for the weekend!!

Friday, September 25, 2009

This afternoon we arrived in Iron Mountain and we instantly fell in love with the area.  After we got all checked in and settled into our hotel rooms we headed out for a few easier caches right here in town.  We figured we would take it easy after the long day of travel and what not.  We have a nice caching day all laid out for tomorrow, which should prove to be a little more involved, and the scenery should be a step above.  One of the caches we did today took us to a great ski-jump.  It was called "What goes up....must come down".  Here are a few pictures of the ski jump.  Trust me, it is much steeper and more intimidating in person, but the view was breathtaking, almost as breathtaking as the thought of actually skiing down that thing!!

Here is the jump from the bottom.....there happened to be a group of teenagers shooting some sort of video as we were there.

A view looking out from a platform equal with the base of the jump....the longest jump at this hill happens to be 468 feet....wow!

Stay tuned each day for updates and pictures of our journeys.  Tommorrow we are checking out Piers Gorge and a few other really great waterfalls.

Friday can't come soon enough!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Well, our plans have changed back to our original plan for this weekend.  We will be heading up to the U.P. for a four day all cache weekend.  This decision was made by the hotel, as they would not let us cancel our rooms.  We were not too happy about that, but we were not too upset either(wink).  So, if we are going to pay for the rooms regardless, we might as well head up there.  We are getting very exited for this, and cannot wait to get up there.  We will be hitting our 200th cache milestone while up there, so we are trying to find the perfect cache for that find.  If you have cached in the Iron Mountain area, let us know if you have a cache you would recommend.

Glad to see new cachers joining the game!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

While there are always places to go to find caches, it is nice to see some new cachers in the central Wisconsin area joining in and not only finding those caches that have been waiting for more visitors but placing some real quality caches! It has been some time that my closest to home caches to find were 20-25 miles away, now several have popped up less than 10 miles away. In this area that is just a hop, skip and a jump away. So, I would like to thank Muddy Bottoms, BakRdz, Codejunkie, CamoQueen and Geolivestrong for joining in the finding and hiding game. I know there are others starting out that have some questions about the game so, please don't be shy. Ask away! Check out www.wi-geocaching.com (Wisconsin Geocaching Association) for some good advice, thought provoking questions, or just some good ol' fashioned banter.

In a slump

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

     We are definitely in a caching slump...we have not logged a find since the 5th.  Its amazing how busy you can get with work and other things.  We are hoping to mix in some caching with working in the shop this weekend.

Our saving grace is knowing that we have a four day, all caching weekend coming up in a week. 

     Not only are we patiently waiting until we can find a few, we also have a few caches that we want to place when we have the time.  We just recently placed the "Ripon Parks Tour", which it seems people have been enjoying.  Hiding to us, is just as much fun as finding.  We have a few more caches planned out for here in Ripon, so stay tuned for those. 

 

Not every day is for caching

Saturday, September 12, 2009

As I sit here looking out the window and a great Saturday morning, I wish I was able to go caching.  Today I have to work in the woodshop to get a few time sensitive projects done.  After that we are heading the Marshfield area for a birthday party.  Tomorrow it is back in the woodshop as well.
     Caching to us, is a highly addictive hobby, and at times it is hard to get other things done when you know there are caches out there just waiting to be found.  When we first started, we would be looking every minute we could.  Now that all of the local caches have been found, more planning and time is needed to get the caches that are farther from home.  Since we are headed up north tonight, I am sure we will find a few easier ones along the way.
     We are learning how to budget our time to make sure we still have time for the other things in life.  We were planning to head up the the U.P. in a few weeks to do a cache only trip, but we realized it just will not work financially.  So, we are still going to to take the time off, but just make day trips from home.  We are hoping to have a couple of 50 cache days, mixed in with some very high quality caches. Right now we are at 160 finds, and we will find our 200th cache during that vacation.  So, I am searching for a perfect cache to make #200!  Stay tuned!

A few recent arcticles about geocaching.

The Basics & Quotes from Cachers

We've Been Muggled!

Hello From Ripon WI

Friday, September 11, 2009

Hello everybody.  We are MuddyBottoms, a geocaching team from Ripon WI.  We love to both find and hide geocaches.  We wanted to start a blog for geocachers that wanted a place to share stories and socialize with fellow cachers.  This site was designed to have many contributors, not just one. If you are interested in contributing any content, just shoot us up in the chat box.  Geocaching is all about finding great caches, and enjoying the whole process, so don't be afraid to share.   We will also be adding links to geocaching news all around the area.   Each month we will post a poll that is relevant to caching, and the results will be posted at the end of the month.  Please use the chatbox for live discussions, no more e-mailing back and forth.  If you need to talk to someone, just invite them over to our blog and hop on the chat.  If you have any ideas for the blog, please feel free to pass it on, and we will add it for you.  Thanks for checking out the blog, tell your friends and fellow cachers to stop in.  Don't forget to become a follower of this blog!

Thanks again,
Team MuddyBottoms.