Geocaching August 2025

The month started with our trip to Minnesota, so we made finds along the way out.

Our first find was in Hancock, Maryland. Old National Pike Mile Marker 96 is a mystery cache that was an easy and quick find, after solving the mystery. Our next stop was the next day in Ohio at one of the rest areas along their turnpike. What Is Your Final Destination? leans into the fact that cachers would only be here because they are on the road to another destination. Nobody jumps on a toll road just to get geocaches. At least, nobody I know. At least, they haven't admitted it. Also at that stop is the multi-cache Turnpike trivia 2 which requires an NFC device and then solving a simple crossword. We walked back to the car and drove away, forgetting it was a multicache. Once the crossword was solved, we got the final coordinates. Hopefully there will be another Minnesota trip in the future and we will remember to stop here?

On our way, we took a short jog off the highway to visit Michigan where we have never cached. I found sarepo.gnitsujda.gnirots, a mystery cache that was easy to solve before we even got there. The other Michigan cache was Oaklawn Shelter at a park with a playground that my children enjoyed. 

Playground at the shelter

We drove on to Janesville, Wisconsin, where I found Circle of Friendship, 50 Below, and Thank You Rogheff from Alex after dinner (so mostly in the dark). 

One of the Janesville parks

The next day we visited UW Madison which has a garden with a cache hidden in it.

Allen Centennial Garden cache

We finally made it to Minnesota. Our first full day there I found Rainbow Colors Challenge (a cache I have been working to qualify for), Stop (at a stop sign, naturally), and MnSQ: Green Lake Cemetery (a multi-cache). The finds were fairly easy though the neighboring grass was pretty high.

Cemetery

Tramping out a trail

In Cambridge (Minnesota), I found Smell Good For Church Pt. 2, which is part of a small series in town. The container made the title make sense.

A church to smell good for

We drove down to Eden Prairie and found a lot caches, including EP Veterans Park: Semper Fidelis, a multi-cache that takes some information off a list of locals who died in service of our country. The final was on a nearby bridge where I pretended to be a maintenance worker.

Veterans Park

Daniel R. Olsen

More of the memorial

Finding the final

"She Blinded Me With Science!" was a favorite of ours, a library cache. The first stage of this multicache was under a lamp post just outside the library. Unfortunately, it was also a wasps' home, so I had to use a lot of spray to make it accessible. The message pointed to a book inside, which we found quickly and safely.

Signing the book

Leaving a Pathtag

We also found a trivia series: Sports Team Trivia #2, #4, #8, #10, #11, and #12. The solutions were tricky, which is why I didn't find the other numbers since I couldn't solve them quickly. Maybe I will work on them for that next trip. A similar challenge limited me to Training Puzzle #2 Alphabet to Numbers, Training Puzzle #4 Google Is Your Friend, and Puzzle to Solve Puzzle to Solve Puzzle. 

In Isanti, Grandpa and I found Wayside Welcome!, Hwy 65 Tour: Cambridge, MARS Evil Lead Scout, and PANDA-ACME : PTG Part 1. Then we got a beer.

Best find ever?

Then we headed home and made some finds along the way. In Wisconsin, I found Guardrail #9 in the rain (thankfully a quick find), then later on in Indiana an earthcache--Richey Woods Nature Preserve Earth Cache, Righty, IndyScan Hide #6 Trucker Sam, and I signed Emilie's 3/4 Challenge, which requires 100 finds with the numerals 3 or 4 in the title (I am at 70, so not too far).

Nature trail

Bus stop in the woods!?!

On the final push home I found I-70 EB Rest Stop Cache in Ohio. Then, to fill out my counties in Maryland, we found a couple in the panhandle that are a long way from home--Mountain Light and Footer's Dye Works. 

The mountain light!

The dye works!

Back in our home area, I found Big City Cacher Challenge X since I made it to ten big cities with an Indianapolis cache. Other mystery/challenge caches filling in my calendar were Fetchez le Vache, A Mystery About Dragons, Falling Snow, and Omnicache. I also found a traditional cache that looks like a mystery: Gur dhvpx Trb-Whfgvpr Ntrag whzcf bire 14 ynml qbt, quite the mouthful! Translated, that's "The quick Geo-Justice Agent jumps over 14 lazy dog"--why no "s" at the end?

We made a quick visit to the Museum of American History in DC and I found The DC Bioretention Cells across the street--an earthcache about rain gardens in the city.

No spoiler photo

The next week had a trip to Baltimore, where I found the garage rooftop cache Light of Baltimore 2 along with Carter's Forgotten Legacy, No Malady Here, MDCT - John Cadbury, Cenosillicaphobia #11, and LoZ Series: Theives' Den Intro. 

On the rooftop

Fun sign at a local coffee shop where I got a drink

The Cenosillicaphobia Location

I finished out the month with the multicache Calculate & Dismantle, The Maryland Virtual Challenge II, 365 Challenge, and MDCT - Domenico Ghiradelli. The MDCT is the Maryland Chocolate Trail, a series that has been mostly archived, so I won't find many more. We did stop in at the local chocolate shop and got some truffles to go. We also did the Adventure Lab: Tour of Catonsville which started near the chocolate shop. 

Random picnic bench near the 365 cache

Box of chocolates (sort of)

The month ends with 57 finds in August 2025 and a grand total of 2029 finds. 

Saint Paul the Apostle, Norwalk, Ohio

On our way home from Minnesota, we went to Sunday Mass at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in Norwalk, Ohio. The church wasn't too far from the highway and it has lovely exteriors and interiors.

Saint Paul the Apostle Church

The main altar of the church is flanked by statues of Mary and Joseph, a typical design well executed. I liked the ceiling too. Maybe not so much the crucifix above the altar.

View from nave

The main altar

Our Lady's niche

Saint Joseph

Just below Our Lady is a large baptismal font that looks about big enough for immersion.

Baptismal font

The church's patron is modestly memorialized with a nearby statue.

The Apostle Paul

The Stations of the Cross are quite nice and stand out.

Station IV--Jesus Meets His Mother

The church has some other good works of art, including the Hail Mary in carved wood and the Creed on a cross.

This looked more impressive in real life

The creed

The only odd bit is on the exterior, left side. A covered bit of the driveway looks like a drive-thru to me. Maybe a wedding couple can make a quick getaway through the side exit?

An extra awning 

Geocaching in Ohio 2019

Our summer vacation this year started with a road trip to our travel destination, Minnesota. On the way, we stopped in Maumee, Ohio. The main attraction was its location--about half way to where we wanted to go. We had a fine drive with little napping, so everyone but me was zonked out after we ate dinner. While everyone else went to bed, I went out to find some geocaches near the hotel.

With the end of June comes plenty of evening sunshine in Ohio. We were in the western end of the Eastern Time Zone, so the sun seemed to be up even later. America does daylight savings time, so the clock is shifted to have more evening sunshine. I was able to find five geocaches in a little over an hour and still get home before sunset.

Still plenty of sunlight left

The first find was Telecom MMXII, which was a small cache I expected to be in one spot but was in different location. The cache's write up warns of high muggle activity in the area. Geocachers call non-geocachers "muggles," and hope not to be discovered by the uninitiated. Or worse, to be reported to the authorities for suspicious activity. Geocaching does often lead to poking around in odd spots, I can see how the activity looks questionable. At any rate, things were fairly quiet on a Saturday evening.

I always hang out around power boxes, don't you?

The second discovery was While in the area IV - Long horn, which is clearly part of a series. This cache looked like it would have more muggle trouble. It's situated between two sit-down restaurants, which were fairly busy on a Saturday night. Luckily, that section of the parking lot didn't have too many people wandering around. I've found caches hidden like this before, so I had a quick find when I discovered ground zero was in the middle of the lot.

More cars means more exposure

The log book in the cache was cool--micro-pages connected with a small bolt. Finding the next empty page was easy!

A cool log book

The third cache was Dem Bones. This hide was also right by a parking lot for a busy restaurant, so I used some stealth. Again, the location was a classic that I have run into before, so it seemed pretty obvious where to look. The find actually does have some cover from muggle eyes.

Good cover from muggles

The fourth cache was a bit further away in a business-park area, so no worries about muggles. Second or Sixth - it's all in how you look at it. is nicely hidden in a spot that would be exposed to prying eyes during the work week. All the parking lots around me were empty, so no muggles to cause struggles.

Items in question

The fifth and final cache was Indianwood. Whoever designed the business park was nice enough to leave a fairly big wooded park in the middle. A couple of trails lead into the park, I think I found the spookiest looking entrance.

Good design, poor maintenance?

After wandering around the trails and wondering if the daylight would hold out, I wound my way to the right spot. The cache was fun to find but I was a little concerned about the vegetation growing around it. I was in short pants and thus exposed to any poison ivy or other potentially harmful plant. Nothing had grown too high yet, so I was okay.

Innocuous-seeming trail

A tough choice made easier by following my GPS

The park really did have a creepy atmosphere at twilight. I kept expecting some creature to leap out of the trees at me, hopefully only a deer or some such benign being. I found a gazebo that the forest was slowly reclaiming. Yeah, this area could definitely be the setting for a quality low-budget horror film.

Just the place to take a date...with whom you want to break up!

The worst of the critters I encountered were flying and biting insects. I made my way out of the woods by trying more trails. Happily, I made it out okay.

A fork in the path

My exit is not very visible

This was a fun area for geocaching and it was nice to get an hour or so of walking in after a day of driving in the car.