DOLT move of Memorial Day weekend

“On Friday evening, Prosecutor, Dr. Atomic, spalpeen and I met for an impromptu overnight campout at Shelter 1 in the southern unit of Kettle Moraine, south of I-94, between Madison and Milwaukee.

It sucked that you have to reserve those shelters and can only reserve one for just one night. (I had reserved it one week ago.) It costs $12 - OH YES AND THEN THERE IS THE RESERVE AMERICA FEE OF $9.50 FOR A WHOPPING GRAND TOTAL OF $21.50. Can you say RIP-OFF???

And then -- I get there and EVERYONE who's a camper must check in at Ottawa Lake Campground (all this after I went a good half an hour out of my way to go to forest headquarters). There they ask me:

1. WHO are you camping with? Give full names please... (ummm... I don't know full names, will Dr. Atomic work??)

2. What makes of vehicles are they driving? (again, like I know!) They wanted to make up these special little hand-written sheets to put on the dashboards of our cars overnight, so rangers wouldn't think some hiker was lost.

Woulda been nice to know BOTH those things would be required before encountering stressed park officials. (I mean, try telling them, "It's people off the Internet.. I don't know their names." LOL)

Anyway, we all got to the shelter by 6-ish. Three of us parked at the Ice Age Trailhead just south of the shelter for maybe a three-quarters mile hike in. (yes, you can haul beer and convenience from home that way... hehee) Prosecutor parked even closer, but was not ticketed, prolly cuz his reputation precedes him. LOL!

A storm moved through and was fun to watch, especially as fog formed in valleys and kept changing. Nice sunset, too. The shelter is on a ridge.

The next morning we all looked for a geocache near the shelter. Prosecutor found it and said he'd had his geocache quota for the year. ;-P

Then everyone went their separate ways. Spalpeen and I did four more geocaches -- and found four.

And --FINALLY-- the dolt move (and you've been waiting sooooooooooo patiently! lol)

We had cached a couple along the Ice Age Trail south of where we parked. One mile away was a cool place called Brady's Rocks. After going through thorns and much frustration, spalpeen found it. Cool, we logged it and left.

We went to the Ottawa Lake visitor's center/campground again and I bought some 25-cent trail guides. I hoped to do Scuppernong Trail, which has springs on it that bubble up through sand, plus two geocaches.

We park the vehicle. I am ready to punch in the cache coordinates...

???!?!?WHERE IS MY GPS????!?!?!?

Soooooooooooo... we go back, park closer on that trail to Brady's Rocks and go look to see if it's there.

Lo and behold, it was sitting on top of the rock above the geocache!!! DOLT!!!! DOLT!!!!
DOLT!!!!!!!!

I suppose it could have been worse: It could have left it **IN** the geocache. Woulda made a nice suprise for someone, LOL!”

“OHHH YEAH--

And I met Dstar on the way out to Kettle Moraine. I see she introduced herself here. Yes, she is REAL and REAL COOL, too!”

“So is Dr. Atomic really atomic?”

“Why Lizs, I didn't know you were a geocaching geek! How refreshing. I've actually been reading about it, and as soon as I find my GPS, and have a spare day, I'm going to go looking for a couple in my area just to say I tried it.”

“Yah ever stop to think we don't want the man to know where we are and that is why we use trail names. You are a newspaper editor, just do a Dan Rather/Jason Blair move and make up a name.

The fog columns after the brief rain shower were really neat from the hill top shelter site.

Give me an hour, and I'll see if I can post some pictures. Anyone want me to post a butt shot of Lizs, or should I save that as blackmail for next week end canoe trip?”

“Okay, I'll bite. Post away.”

“http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/prosecutor104/album?.dir=a69c&.src=ph

No butt shot so long as Lizs is a good girl.”

“That sounds pretty sexist, posecuter.”

“"Lizs Gets Her Rocks Off to Get Geocache."

LOL!”

“Wow Lizs, lucky you caught that in time!

I'm glad you put those pics up Prosecutor... my daughter (who is SO not into BPing anymore) said she'd do that trip, it was the shelter that sold her (I know...kids now-a-days, sheesh!)

Those fog columns sure do look neat.”

“Here are my photos....

http://community.webshots.com/album/356400900kszAJs”

“Is this geocaching thing supposed to be fun and what do you get for doing it?”

“I think it's weird. Just go hike.”

“It is fun. Hey the garmen just sent me an e-mail the other day about this treasure hunt.....using clues it takes you all over the use for awesome prizes like new cars, cruises and cash...”

“is there a place for beginners to start geocaching??...and info about GPS????”

“Glad to see you had some decent weather..enjoyed the pictures and trip report..WHAT! no butt shot! you guys are slipping..LOL...”

“Cars, Cruises, and Cash???

You gotta be kidding me. Who put's up the bucks?

I have heard a little about this Geo-stuff enough, but not CARS, CRUISES, And CASH!

weird.”

“Everything ya want to know is on this website:

http://www.geocaching.com

BWM, GPS makers now sponsor contests. I think Garmin and/or Magellan have caching promotions. Also, for the second summer now, Jeep is also doing a promotion.”

“Totally weird. Neat though.

Not for me though...

Have fun!”

“This trip was a pain, but in the end.. great!

You know what they say:

Shelter reservation: $21.50
Wisconsin out-of-state park sticker: $30.00
Money spent on liquor: $50.80
Watching Prosecutor climb a big oak tree: PRICELESS!”

“Lizs, great pics. Looks like a great trip. But do you think there is something wrong with 4 folks running around in the woods, playing with their GPS's and looking for secret staches complaining about someone with a cellphone ;)


http://community.webshots.com/photo/356416486/356416486fkuqkU”

“lizs has been very very bad.
Post a good ol' butt shot or two. ;-)”

“hyway, but we're not standing in someone's way, in someone's nice photographic shot, being obnoxious on a phone.

Part of the deal with geocaching is to NOT let on to the "muggles" (you can figure it out, LOL) what you're doing.

soooooooooooo.............. THERE! :-)

and Stovey??? YOu just better settle down, boy, S-e-t-t-l-e. You have your own stuff to be concerned about. LOL!!”