A weekend on the trail

Three of my four crazy kids at our second-to-the-last geocache of the day on Saturday, April 29.

By Allan Olson

Eight miles, 13 hours and 35 geocaches later, the kids and I completed a very long day on the Paul Bunyan Trail – geocaching with about 15 others on Saturday, April 29. We started the day along Highway 71 between Park Rapids and Menahga, conducting our bi-annual ditch-picking event with a large group. This spring’s group was the largest turnout we’ve had of all the previous such events that I’ve attended over the last five years, and as a result, we had the full two miles of ditches cleaned in just over an hour.

We re-grouped back at the parking spot, visited a bit longer, and then some parted ways. This year it was decided that for those who wanted to participate in a group caching event, the destination would be the bike trail between Pine River and Jenkins a length of 5.7 miles from where we started to where we ended. We headed for Pine River.

The group consisted mostly of adults, along with three of my four kids (Nikolai was out of town) and two other kids. We all met at the rest area along the trail and plotted our course, which included staging vehicles at the halfway point. 

Alivia somehow conned one of the geocachers out of their GPS, and after a little instruction, set off on the course to find the geocaches. She often was the first on the location of the geocaches and quite often made the find, especially on the first leg of the trip it was the kids doing most of the finds. 

We approached the halfway point, and I was ready for the kids to rebel and tell me they were done. I was already making plans to go get my vehicle when other members of the group left, figuring it was time to change shoes and grab more water and hopefully continue on the path towards Jenkins. I didn’t hear any rebelling when I commented that we were going to stay geocaching with the rest of the group. 

In fact, for Alivia it was quite the opposite, when she heard I was going to get the vehicle she thought we were done. When informed the opposite, she was quite okay with that. I soon learned that she had conned someone else out of their GPS, because the individual whose unit she was first using was now leaving. Since this unit was slightly different, she again needed a little instruction, and then was back on the hunt. 

A few times I would sneak up on her and try get in front of her to find the geocache before her, but she would have none of it. The one time we arrived at the spot at the same time, she discovered it mere seconds before I did, shouting out her claim on the spotting the container on the tree. All I could do was humbly accept defeat.

Abigail took turns running and walking along, and never really cared if she found one. At one point she was starting to get annoyed that she hadn’t found any, so I gave her my phone and sent her ahead while we were looking for another one. Somehow, she managed to lose track of the one I sent her to, and by the time I caught up to her she had walked 300 feet further than necessary, so I helped her get to the next one in line instead and she made that find.

I did manage to find a couple of caches on the trail, but at the very last cache on the trail, I was the first to arrive at ground zero and I was looking and looking before Marcus walked up and basically went right to it. Even when he said he had found it, I still didn’t see the container until he pointed at it.

At that point, we parted ways with the rest of the group. I bought the kids a treat at the gas station – they deserved it – and we set a course for home. We stopped for one more geocache in Pine River, and one in Backus. If I had looked at my map a little closer I would have discovered there was one more in Pine River to grab that wasn’t on the trail, but since I didn’t see it, I’m sure it will be there another day.

We certainly couldn’t have asked for better weather on Saturday; it was a great day to be hanging out with friends. The rest of the evening was spent doing little and I finally made the kids shut down for the night sometime after 11:30 p.m. I couldn’t be too hard on them as they were great for me all day.

I picked Nikolai up from school on Sunday after he competed at the Minnesota History Day event. After that, I largely spent most of the day at home – working. I really should’ve spent some time in the yard doing some cleanup but quite honestly, my legs – especially my calves hurt from doing so much walking on Saturday.

We don’t have a lot planned for this weekend. On Sunday, we will attend the Upward Bound registration for Nikolai, the BSU program where he will spend six weeks this summer. It should be a great experience for him.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.