Enjoying the Outdoors – with my girls

My Crazy girls. The time spent with them all day Saturday geocaching was nothing less than enjoyable.

Enjoying the Outdoors – with my girls

By Allan Olson

By March standards it was a spectacularly warm weekend, for that matter even for June standards it was a pretty decent weekend. The temperatures here in the northern sticks of Minnesota touched in the low 60’s on Saturday and even dipped into 70 on Sunday – thankfully those temperatures were above the donut.

My plans for the weekend at least Saturday was to go geocaching, the weather was right and there was also an event on Saturday in Walker to attend – a pi event for 3.14. The number has no bearing on geocaching but just gave us another excuse to have fun as a group and perhaps do some geocaching afterwards.

Earlier in the week I decided that while I was willing to go caching without the family, it would be more fun with company. I asked the kids who wanted to go with on Saturday, I emphasized that we would be gone most of the day and it would be all day outside. Abigail was the first to enthusiastically express her intent on going, Alivia wasn’t much further behind in expressing her interest – so it pretty much seemed settled as I had stated I was only taking two. Nikolai wanted to stay home and Marcus was torn but in the end mom convinced him to stay home. If pushed I would’ve taken all three but a third child could’ve led to more arguing during the course of the day.

The girls and I took off bright and early Saturday morning, we set our course – west, (yes I know Walker is South) there was a geocache puzzle near Bemidji that I had solved and I really wanted to finally get find it. The cache was in the Movil Maze park near Turtle River and I was hoping the girls and I would be able to find it really quick and get back on the road and maybe find some caches around Walker before the event. As we approached the area the cache was supposed to be in, I kept looking for an alternate route as the hill in front of us, while small looked steep and I knew that it was going to be a struggle getting up the incline at least for me.

The girls weren’t intimidated at all and just tackled the hill like it was a flat surface; I wasn’t doing as well trying to get up the hill without a handhold was a struggle. I watched one of the girls walking by the edge of the hill near the trees and grab a small sapling to give that extra boost to get up the hill. I was amazed at my own lack of intelligence as I should’ve thought of that. So I mimicked my daughter, just not as well and used a sapling to pull myself up the rest of the way when I was near the top, of course it took a little more effort to pull my weight up the rest of the hill. Once we were finally at the top we began the search, we searched high and low and all around and finally after nearly 45 minutes of searching we gave up since we had only an hour to get to our event. On the way back to the van Abigail started walking on the ice, I figured it was just a small puddle and it didn’t matter, except she broke through and when she got back to the van I learned that she had her winter boots soaking wet along with her socks of course. Thankfully, I listened to my wise wife and brought along the water boots and extra socks or it would’ve been a short geocaching day trip. We headed to Bemidji and grabbed some coffee for dad and swag/trade items for the girls and some water for all of us and then to Cass Lake.

Once in town I had two quick stops to make and by the clock that meant we should be in Walker with 10 minutes to spare, but I didn’t account for the infamous Cass Lake train, that delayed us for 15 minutes – never fails when you’re in a hurry something slows you down.

We finally made it to the restaurant about 30 minutes late and I ordered the girls some breakfast and since I had breakfast I ordered a piece of French Silk Pie – for pi day. The girls wanted some pie too but I said, since I had to buy them breakfast I wasn’t buying them pie.

After the event, the girls and I along with five others headed towards the Longville area to do some geocaching. This was an area that most of us had only a few caches in so it was a good neutral location.

I can finally say that after years of hearing about Woman Lake, I’ve been there. Along with several other little lakes I didn’t know existed. The girls and I parted way with the rest of the group just before Longville after finding 11 eleven caches and striking out on two. I decided that the best way home for us was through Federal Dam rather than backtracking through Walker and this route enabled us to get a couple more caches. At the next stop I found the cache and the girls ran barefoot through the grass, or rather Abigail was barefoot and Alivia had left her socks on. At the next stop was a store for a “break” and I decided a treat for the girls was in order, they had been great sports all day and the only minor arguing was who could use the tablet for how long while we were traveling.

I had a few more caches that I wanted to find en-route to home and the girls were willing, at the next stop we searched and searched and the girls had given up and as I was admitting defeat again, I spotted the container. I shouted to the girls that I had found it and Abigail, en-route to running back slipped in the wet trail and found a puddle to fall in and was soaked. She headed to the van and Alivia and I examined the cache, replaced it and headed to the van at a slower pace as to not repeat Abigail’s misadventure. I had one more geocache that I had hoped to get, the cache hasn’t been logged in three years but I pulled onto the forest road with the van and looked at my map I was still a mile away. With no cell service and no idea on the condition of the road, I wasn’t risking it. The girls suggested walking, I reminded them of Abigail’s wet condition, she suggested waiting in the van, but I wasn’t leaving my little girl in the van in the woods for an unforeseen amount of time – so we set the course north and headed home.

On Sunday – with the help of my wife, Marcus, Alivia and nephew Mike (who had arrived at our us while we were gone Saturday) we located the geocache in Turtle River we couldn’t find earlier. We had also called upon the cache owner for assistance whom once he arrived on scene was certain that due to the new construction it was gone. I was digging along one side of the tree and my nephew the other and he’s the one who made the find.

That evening – we watched a movie with the kids and enjoyed some time relaxing.

In all it was a great weekend, and an awesome time spent with my girls. I’m already looking forward to my next geocaching adventure – perhaps this time the whole family will go.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.