April 18, 2009: Mount Horeb, Wisconsin

In the autumn of 2007 I visited Stewart County Park on the northern fringe of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. There are 2 geocaches located there, but at that time I was only able to locate one. The lake at that time also had been drained down to get rid of carp and restock with game fish. I always meant to return and get that other geocache since then.

Headed out shortly after 9am, got there around 10am. I remembered my last trip here fairly well, so I turned on my GPS receiver and put in my pocket as I set out to where I remembered looking last time. I was met immediately by the same muddy quagmire on the trail as the last trip here.



That was a bit of a mistake. Apparently when I tried this the last time I had bad coordinates on my old GPS receiver because when I walked past all this mud and finally checked my location, I discovered that I had walked well past the cache site. I had to backtrack through the mud and located the side trail I needed to take.



Now climbing the hill slope, getting closer now.



Here's the hiding spot. Over 250 feet from where I was searching in 2007, and up on a dry hillside instead of down in a swampy drainage area. I really wonder what went wrong that other time.







I dropped in the travel bug I retrieved on my last geocache find (which I did not bother to blog about since it was so quick and uneventful, back in March). I grabbed another travel bug from this one and it will get moved when I have my next outing. The view is rather nice from here.



That took well under 1 mile of walking to get here, but there is several miles of trail to explore. I remember only taking about 2/3 of the trail last time, this time I'm taking all the marked trail. Missed this feature the last time





This park is loaded with birdwatching opportunity. I did not have a telephoto lens along the last time here, this time I do. I stalked down this shy cardinal.



There were also several robins out hunting up food.



Had a turkey vulture out looking for an easy meal too.



While I was taking these photos a golden-retriever and his owner came walking by. The dog went right for my water bottle sticking out of my pants pocket and licked/slobbered on the spout before I realized where he was. No more water for me on this trail. Had to wait until I got back to the parking area, where I had more water with me.



Some early-blooming spring flowers.



Can see pretty far from up on this hilltop.



A little waterfall.



Checking out a trail that was bypassed the last visit. Turns out this is more interesting than most of the park except for the lake.





Just up the hill from that last photo and down a side-trail is a hobo shelter. Looks like it has been occupied fairly recently too.





A nice, tidy campfire area too. Usually these places are all littered up. Even the empty beer cans were in bags.







Finally on the return leg. I remember walking along the rocky ledge across the way last time here, but I did not get over there this time.





That part of this expedition had me walking close to 4.5 miles. Here's the path I walked.



That is not the only place I went to today. After a brief pitstop at the local Kwik-Trip I continued north on highway 78 to visit a geocache that is supposed to be at a cemetery. On the local access road to get there I passed this marker.



Then I drove to this cemetery.



As I walked through, it quickly became obvious that I was searching the wrong place. I was being guided another 1/4 mile away. Back into my trusty Jeep and drove a little farther down the road...



It wasn't too easy to find, but it's finally the right place to stop and begin walking.

Had to walk about 750 feet down a grass-covered access path.



This is the cemetery. Well, at least the marker. The graves must be here yet, but the individual locations lost. Not uncommon I suppose since wood markers were the norm in rural areas during the 19th century.









The geocache coordinates were not very good, so I resorted to reading the clue to find the hiding spot. It was about 70 feet away from where my gps receiver said to look.



Pretty good sized hole in the base of a tree to hold a full-sized geocache container.



All hidden again. Didn't grab anything from this box, but left behind some tattoos that I pulled out of a box of cereal.





Now walking back down that access trail.



This side trip brought my walking total over 5 miles for the day.



The overview of this leg of my walking. The current church is visible on the lower-right corner, up near the top of the hill.



The clouds were getting thicker, and rain is in the air for today. I did still make one more stop less than 2 miles away. There are a pair of geocaches hidden in a public fishing/hunting area. However, the description says you have to cross a creek to get at them.



Well, I really was just doing some reconnaissance this time. I tested out a couple of the deadfall trees that bridged the water, but they were a little too flimsy to support my weight. I will need some wading boots to cross this water that goes up to my knees with a muddy bottom. I'm about spent for today anyhow. I went home.