On one of its subchannels, my local public television station runs a promo between shows that claims we are all born explorers. I like that idea. Maybe that’s why I like geocaching so much. It gives me a chance to explore.
Back before geocaching was invented, I participated in something called volksmarching. I was first introduced to it during the 1970s after Uncle Sam’s Army sent me to West Germany. Large numbers of people gathered and walked a set route, either 10 kilometers or 20, at their own pace. At the end the walk, participants got an oversized medal.
In the 1980s, I discovered the volksmarching had come to the US, brought back by returning servicemen and women and their families. A local club was formed here in Fort Wayne by couple who had been school teachers at a Department of Defense school in Germany. In the 1990s, when my job changed and I consistently had weekends free, I would travel quite a bit to volksmarch. I have completed walks in New York, all of the New England states, as well as the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri.
In Indiana, walks were frequently scheduled in state parks. One of the state parks that seemed to host them annually was Mounds State Park near Anderson. I had not been to Mounds in probably 20 years. Mounds is named for the earthwork and mound building by the Adena and Hopewell cultures around 160 BC. The park contains 10 mounds and earthworks.
Wednesday, Capt TailWagger and I went to Mounds to hike and maybe find a cache or two. Mounds has four EarthCaches, two traditional caches and a Wherigo cache. I did two of the EarthCaches and a traditional.
The first EarthCache took us to the Great Mound, the largest and best preserved mound in the park. According to the Indiana DNR, the mound was used to track the seasons, the positions of more than 100 of the brightest stars as well as the moon and planets.
From the Great Mound, we hiked along the White River to a second EarthCache. This one looks at seeps and springs.
Along the way, Capt TailWagger decided to get as close to the river as I’d let him. Funny thing is until last summer, he did not like getting near water. Then he walked off the end of a dock at Sylvan Lake and ever since apparently has a new appreciation for water.
Near the seeps and springs EarthCache is a tradition that I decided to skip this time. The cache page warns of a steep hill, and I’ve had Capt TailWagger pull me down a steep hill before, so I decided to skip that cache. We went on and found an ammo can in the woods. I didn’t take a photo of it though.
We finished our hike, had lunch (Capt TailWagger had a couple of banana-flavored dog treats) and made the trek home. Along the way home we saw an American bald eagle flying over the Little River valley near Roanoke, Indiana.
With those finds, I am at 1,962 finds, including 28 EarthCaches. According to Project-GC, I’ll go up a badge level after I find two more EarthCaches.
Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger 
This year, I’m trying to expand my finds to more uncommon caches such as earthcaches, multicaches, and whereigos. It’s a bit of a challenge! I don’t have more than 100 of any of those; some are less than 10.
Congratulations.
LikeLike
I have just two Wherigo finds and five letterbox hybrids. Both are rare in my area.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you look for the whereigos you can do at home, that makes it a little easier. I agree they are rare. I’m lucky someone in Maine took a shine to them and put out a bunch a while back.
LikeLike
Yes, that’s true. There is a Wherigo series in southern Michigan based on Star Wars. I’ve worked out all of them and have the final coordinates. I just need to go up there and find them.
LikeLike