I've heard Wisconsin is a beautiful state. I've also heard that the town of West Bend is a bit of a geocaching destination, because not only is it home to the annual West Bend Cache Ba$h, but it's also got some great geocaches. Sometime in early July I decided I was going to the mid-August mega event. According to Google Maps, it was 12 hours from Blacksburg, where I would be leaving from, and 14 hours back to Fredericksburg. Would I be up to a trip that long by myself?
Last fall I found a challenge cache that required you to find a cache in five states in one day. Driving from Virginia to Wisconsin would certainly put me in five different states (West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin), so part of my trip planning consisted of choosing which caches I would stop for. I picked caches that looked like they would be easy to get to from the highway and easy to find once I got there. I also chose a "backup" for each state in case I couldn't find the primary one. I think I only had to use my backup cache once. At the end of the long drive I got to log cache finds in SIX states, because I could finally claim the Virginia challenge cache.
(At the end of a long day of driving, I was welcomed by this beautiful Wisconsin scene.)
I booked an Airbnb in Kewaskum, just north of West Bend. It was a room above a garage, of a home that sat on farmland that the owners were restoring to native prairie. It was a beautiful setting! The first day after arriving, I went for a run on the nearby Ice Age Trail, which snakes through Wisconsin for over 1,000 miles. The area was once covered in glaciers, and when they receded they left many hills ("kames"), ridges ("eskers"), and "kettles," which are dips in the earth, many of which are now ponds and lakes. (How do I know those names? From an Earhtcache I visited on my run. I had to figure out what kind of glacial feature I was standing on --it was an esker--and how many kames I could see.) During my moring run I climbed to the top of a tall kame, where there was a view of Kewaskum and a geocache. I spent the rest of the day driving around the area finding geocaches, including several that are part of the West Bend Geotour. Later that evening there was an event, where I talked to a few locals who were able to recommend some caches to visit.
(A mundane cache in a guardrail, but a beautiful spot!)
(Lots of whimsical artwork around West Bend!)
The next day, Friday, I left early and headed to a CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event in West bend. I had my grabbers and was given a small trash bag. As I was wandering around this park looking for trash (there was hardly any! Either people don't litter in West Bend or someone had just given it a good cleanup) I started chatting with a gentleman with the caching name Habenero Don who had driven 14 hours from New York for the festivities. I was glad to finally meet someone who drove as far as I did! During the event I found a few caches and spent the rest of the day--you guessed it--geocaching! The best part of the day was finding Wisconsin's oldest geocache. I also found and signed a challenge cache for the oldest cache in ten states. (I've found the oldest in three including Wisconsin. I need to find the oldest in seven more states in order to claim the find. I've got quite a bit of work to do.) That evening there was another event, a paper airplane contest. My paper airplane didn't get very far, but I was able to catch up with a new caching friend from North Dakota who I know from my geocaching book club, and had met in person at Mingo Madness. I wish I had taken photos at that event! Needless to say, I slept very welll that night.
(There is an observation tower near this cache with sweeping views of the surrounding area.)
Saturday was the main event in Regner Park. Most of the attendees had come with friends, and were competing in various contests associated with the event. I didn't partake in any of the contests but after picking up my packet in the morning, I bought a couple of raffle tickets for drawings they were having. I also bought a very cool geocaching shirt and chatted with a lady from the Ice Age Trail Association. I then drove about 30 minutes to the town of Port Washington, where I did the Adventure Lab and found a handful of caches. (There is a "webcam cache" there too, which are rare. Those generally require you to capture an image of yourself on a webcam and upload it when you log your find. I've tried unsuccessfully to get two webcam caches, one in Port Washington and one on Mount Washington. They are a huge pain. Maybe if I look for one that doesn't involve the name "Washington" I'll have better luck. I'm pretty sure there isn't one in Washington DC, thank goodness!) After attending church in West Bend, I returned to Regner Park for the drawings and the group photo. I caught up with my New York friend Habenero Don, and talked to him for a bit about our various adventures. Neither one of us won anything.
(Signal the Frog is the official mascot of Geocaching!)
The next morning I left Wisconsin for the long drive home. On the way I would be passing near the Michigan border, and of course I had to cross over for a Michigan cache! I ended up getting a virtual cache, in a park that honors fallen local servicemen, and commemorates the heroic deeds of Chief Wahbememe of the Potawatomi tribe who in about 1830 is believed to have saved a white selltement from a planned raid. Here's what it says on the historical marker:
"According to legend, while attending a gathering of chiefs in Detroit, Wahbememe heard of a plot to attack the settlement that later became known as White Pigeon. The story states that he immediatelhy set out on foot, running nearly 150 miles across the state without stopping for food or rest to alert the village. After warning of the impending danger, he collapsed from exhaustion and soon died."
That sounds very much like the story of Phiedippedes running from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce the victory over the Persians (after having run 150 miles from Athens to Sparta to help gather troops for battle) and dropping dead. (Check out this article by Dean Karnazes in Runner's World. ) This story is the origin of the modern-day marathon!
If I go to the West Bend Cache Ba$h again (there are cash prizes, hence the dollar sign), I probably will go with at least one other geocacher, or at least make arrangements to hang out with a group of geo-friends once arriving. I didn't mind the long solo drive; in fact I had a bunch of audiobooks loaded on my phone and listened to them along the way. It made the trip go faster and was much more pleasant. I had a nice time in West Bend, but honestly Mingo Madness was more fun, mostly because I had people to connect with.
I had set a goal in 2021 to attend a geocaching mega event, and I went to two! Already I have my eye on several for 2022... Hopefully I'll get to at least one of them!
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