May 16, 2009: Avoca, Muscoda, and Gotham, Wisconsin

I began searching for likely geocaches Friday afternoon, and discovered one that had been newly listed the day before. First-to-find for a geocache is an achievement that many 'cachers try to get, to the point of having their Geocaching.com account email them an alert whenever a new geocache is published near them so they can immediately log it. By the time I went to bed Friday night, that new cache still had not been logged. Maybe I can be lucky and get it the next morning? It was over an hour's drive away in Muscoda.

Well, I checked again early the next morning, and 2 people beat me to it. Still, I had a series of caches in the area downloaded to my gps receiver and I set out for a day of activity.

My first stop was on the way, outside of Avoca. A cache I had intended to log a year earlier but I became so engrossed with exploring a different area and taking pictures at my first stop, I ran out of time that day. This one didn't look too difficult, but looks are deceiving. I found the entry point along the Lower Wisconsin Riverway and drove down the gravel road to the parking area nearest the cache.





The cache location was almost directly North, about 0.14 miles indicated. No obvious trail. Scouting a way, I discovered an animal skeleton.



I should have looked closer at the topographical map on my gps, because there was clearly a creek displayed between my location and the geocache. I walked right up the to the water hazard, no good way to cross.

Time to backtrack. I had driven past a fork in the road getting here, so I drove up that other branch. A different parking area, and a bit more obvious trail to follow.



I was hoping there3 was a culvert across the water hazard here. No such thing, but the water is shallower here and not as wide. Give about 15 dry days, I suppose this would just be some mud, but I won't be crossing here today.



I worked my way upstream a little where it got even shallower and more narrow, and picked out a place I could step through without sinking in mud.



I'm now on the correct side of the water, and following an access trail. However all my scouting around could not find a real trail that lead in the direction of the geocache. I would try to follow various game trails and kept running into thick brush full of thorns and poison ivy. Looked like this everywhere I tried to go.





No visible trail from the East of the cache, circling around to the North of the cache also just had dead-end trails. I never got closer than 300-400 feet away. I was not liking this too much, so I just gave up and started walking back out down the access trail. Then I spotted a bit of a game trail that went off in the right direction. It was only visible to me walking out instead of in. It got me closer, but still dead-ended about 200 feet from the cache. OK, time to get serious. I began marking waypoints on my gps to navigate back out, and started into the brush.

The hiding spot was pretty clear when I finally got there.





Normally when I "bushwhack" my way to a cache like this, I'll find the correct trail nearby and take that out. I scouted all around, there was nothing I could call a trail. I had to connect-the-dots with the waypoints I marked on my gps to get back out again. That was a lot of work for a cache with a 1.5/1.5 terrain and difficulty rating. I still had to cross that water hazard again getting back.



OK, time to visit that newly-listed geocache at Muscoda, just about 3-4 miles down the road. This one is on a lake with a pretty remote gravel access road that winds all over the place. Here's the view by the boat launch.





The hiding spot was very nearby. I almost stepped on this critter's carcass though. Looked bigger than a fox, perhaps a coyote.



Then walked past another critter's skeleton. A deer?



The cache was hiding just a couple dozen feet away.





I was the third finder. I guess that makes me the 2nd loser. I traded a travel bug I brought with me for a traveling geocoin.



Getting out of Muscoda was harder than I thought. Streets closed, cars parked everywhere on the streets. There was a morelle mushroom festival going on. I crossed the Wisconsin River and drove around past Gotham to the appropriately named "Batman Cache". I had seen this one listed before, but for some reason I always thought this would be hiding in a cave just reading the name. I failed to notice that it was nearby Gotham, and that lent it it's name.

Parking at another boat launch down a long gravel road on the other side the opposite bank of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway. Some of the views as I walked the 1/3 mile to the hiding spot.











Once again, I chose the wrong approach, and had to work cross-country to get there. At least the going was not as difficult as the first cache location this morning. I did find the hiding spot OK.







The people who placed this cache always seem to have good ones I like to find. This one was a fun theme and was filled with superhero-type trinkets. I didn't take or leave anything because I didn't really have anything appropriate for the theme with me.

I did walk back out following the correct foot path this time. Like I said earlier, I can normally find the correct way after walking in the wrong way.



Getting kind of late, I returned down the road towards home. I had some historical marker caches downloaded that would be along the trip. Some where at waysides that were not yet open for the summer. I did stop for one outside of Spring Green. Didn't even need the gps to find it. I've stopped here a few times in the past just to eat lunch while working in the area.





That was it. I signed the log and put the container back in the bush where I found it. The Jeep was pretty mudded-up from all the driving on gravel roads. As I drove through Waunakee, Wisconsin going home I spotted kids running a fundraiser car-wash. Pulled in and had them wash the mud off.