Saturday July 17th, Natureland County Park by Whitewater, WI.

I have visited and photographed this nice county park by Whitewater Lake a couple of times before. Up until last year, there had been a single geocache located among the vast trail system with a variety of terrain and habitat. The main feature is an artesian spring which feeds a lake. Surrounding that are 4 main trail loops into some interesting variety of habitats. It shares some features with Indian Lake park that I visited 2 weekends ago, such as a lake (this one is bigger) some hilly terrain (Indian Lakes hills are higher, but Natureland's slopes are a steeper climb) and each has 5+ miles of trail loops.

All the previous visits here were on overcast days, and it rained on me during my first visit. Today was hot, humid, and very sunny. At 9am, I had the park to myself, for a short while anyways.

Some sport-walkers started stretching in the parking area as I took these photos, so I proceeded across the road to the first geocache hide.

I followed the trail going around the hiding spot on 3 sides. The closest distance I measured on my gps was 80 feet off-trail, and the woods were looking pretty thick there. I read my cache description, and the team that hid this one said it was 50 yards east of the trail (150'). I backtracked to about that location, saw the way was much easier to walk through from there, and dove in. Not too bad to find.

After logging that one and getting back to the trail, I continued on. Found a recently-dead rabbit, something got it by the neck. I bet a fox, but I hope it was not my presence that caused the predator to leave this behind. It actually was around 90 feet from that geocache in a straight line.

Some more pleasant views walking along the hill-slopes of this trail loop.

Back across the road, on the hunt for geocache #2. This is another one where I circled the hiding spot along the trail system, never getting closer than 180'. Some sights as I was looking for a likely entrance into the fairly dense woods.

As I picked my way through the woods and approached a small clearing, I looked up slightly and just smiled as I spied the geocache. It was dangling by a rope from a tree. I began to wonder how this was supposed to be retrieved when I also spotted the rope running over the branches and down to a tree-trunk. (visible in my photo I took after circling to the tree-trunk).

I untied and lowered the cache container to the ground.

OK, I admit to considering giving up geocaching based on my great disappointment in the quality of hides over the last year. This was just the antidote to the geocache malaise I had fallen into that I needed. My interest in the sport is reinvigorated now.

There still are 2 more geocaches to find now. These were all placed here during the 2 years since my last visit. The other 2 are along the same trail loop on the opposite end of the park.

First I walked past a pretty impressive log shelter. There are 3 other shelters built in this same area, but this one is the best of them.

Now geocache #3. I was pretty far off trail once again. It was described as a smaller than normal container. My coordinates were jumping around due to interference from the tree canopy. I almost gave up looking for this one when I shined my pocked flashlight into the crotch of 3 trunks of one tree. There was just enough gap to see it in there.

Some young men out fishing on the lake came into my field of view through the brush just as I took this photo, and I had to become extra stealthy as I retrieved and logged the geocache. I did some waiting as they focused their attention on a large fish swimming through, and I retreated back to the trail. Continuing on, I found the 4th geocache on the home leg of the loop.

It was peeking out from the hole in the log, and much closer to the trail than the first 3. I really enjoyed this trip and I'm hoping I successfully find some more geocaches out there just as good as these. I covered 4.3 miles, and didn't even go down the last trail loop where the original geocache I logged 3 years ago is located.

Here's the traditional 2-dimensional overview of my walking path.

And my new-process 3-D view using Google Earth.

Until next time!