It’s time to play!!!

Left: Abigail sprawled out on the pavement, exhausted from walking on the Leaf River Trail on Saturday, April 21.

Right: Marcus and Alivia holding the final stage of the LaSalle Recreation Geocache on Sunday, April 22.

By Allan Olson

This past weekend we finally got time to play in the great outdoors, and the conditions were perfect. I didn’t have to fit “much” snow, no mosquitoes, no ticks and it wasn’t 90 above or below zero – it was just right, and it proved what a difference a week makes.

The sun was shinning for the majority of the week last week here in our part of the state, and while it was still cool at night, the warmer daytime temps started making a difference in the amount of snow and in the ice conditions on the lakes. As for me, I was excited that I could finally head outside and play once more.

About midweek I started making plans for a geocaching adventure on Friday that would add four miles to my feet by trekking across the ice to MossGrips to get that lonely geocache with a couple friends. The one in our group traveling the furthest went into work early so he could leave early to join us. I got a message at about 10:30 a.m. that he was leaving; about an hour later I got another message stating that he was back at home. It turned out that his new GPS was giving him issues and he was trying to get it worked out with tech support and wouldn’t make it here on Friday. 

I ended up canceling the trip across the ice because at this point, I was a little concerned about walking across the glare ice and how long that would take, even with cleats on my boots. I was more concerned if he was going to make it on Saturday, as my plans were to clean up the town of Wadena with him after we were done ditch picking and walking the Leaf River Trail.

My concerns were dissolved on Saturday morning when he texted saying he was heading out. Abigail and I had breakfast and then hit the open road on a beautiful spring morning. Our first destination was cleaning ditches along Highway 71 north of Menahga. We stopped at a big hardware store in Park Rapids to get gloves, then again to get coffee for me and a smoothie for Abigail, and then continued on our path. Once the group was assembled, we all started grabbing trash. There were enough of us there to work both sides of the road at the same time, and it didn’t take long to get it done. With some of the group already departed for a big geocaching adventure in South Dakota, it was time for the rest of us to go our separate ways, too. In the end there were only five of us together for the next part of the trip.

Our goal was to complete the approximate three miles of the Leaf River Trail and then break for lunch before continuing on with the rest of our day. In order to do this effectively, we staged vehicles at each end and the middle so we wouldn’t have to backtrack. We started at the park at the south end of the trail in Wadena, found a couple in the park and then proceeded down the trail. A few hours later – the trail was completed and we were tired – but not done. We headed back into town for a bite to eat at a pizza joint, then headed back to the park for a couple more caches still to find there. That was the last of the group caching; we went our separate ways at that point, leaving just my friend from Roseau, Abigail and myself for the rest of the day.

The three of us managed to clean up more caches in the city of Wadena and a few stragglers before I called it a day at 6 p.m. and was ready to head home, tired but happy for the fresh air and fun. In the end, I logged 49 finds for the day and walked over nine miles (over 22,000 steps). At home, I sat in my chair, logged my finds and tried keeping my feet up because they were tired.

The next morning, my wife had to go get some things done at work (it’s prom season) and I wanted to get going on the newly published “Minnesota State Park Geocaches,” starting with Lake Bemidji. Marcus and I dropped my wife and Alivia at work before heading to the park. We walked to all the stages and solved the necessary information to get into the lock box for the log book, but I couldn’t get the dumb lock open. I was getting annoyed and even tried finding a ranger to help, but no luck. Then another couple of local geocachers arrived, I told them that I had done all the work to find it, but couldn’t get the lock open. It turns out that they were much more skilled in that department and soon I was putting my name in the logbook.

A couple hours later I was headed back toward town again, this time with all the kids. This time we were headed to Itasca State Park, where we walked down to the Headwaters to get the first stage of the coordinates, and also tried going down Wilderness Drive (no go – too early). We did find the geocache, which was pretty easy.

We made a couple of stops in Lake George for another couple caches before heading to LaSalle Recreation area. In the last DNR series, this one was simple, but not this time. Marcus and Alivia joined me on this quest while the others waited, and waited… and waited. It took way longer than I anticipated, and if Marcus’ eagle eyes hadn’t spotted the second stage of the coordinates, I wouldn’t have found it at all. After a long hike up hill (seemingly both ways), we finally made the discovery and got the added thrill of being the first to find. I will say, because of this geocache, I discovered there’s a lot more to this park than I ever realized. It is very nice, and it just might be a place to camp for a weekend sometime.

I was very thankful for the warm weather and the fun times that I had with my kids, and I can’t wait until our next big adventure. However, it won’t be this weekend, because I’m scheduled to take a senior photo on Saturday and on Sunday I’m scheduled for company to work on my nephew’s graduation invites. It’s a safe bet that I won’t log over 13 miles on my feet this weekend, which is probably okay – they need a break.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be 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.