Extreme Geocaching!

Okay, so it's not Mount Everest or the Amazon Rainforest - but for the Midwest, this is some pretty tough caching. We arrived at Bjornson Educational Center, near Menominie, Wisconsin yesterday armed with nothing more than our GPSr. Only after returning home did I get the clever idea to look at the topo map. Duh! This is some very challenging caching! (Click on the picture for more detail. The smiley faces are caches that we found.)

The creek floods regularly. Even during average rain events, you're not crossing that thing. The steep hills, some rising 250 feet from the valley floor, prevent any type of decent GPS reception. And with the slightest snowfall, those hills would be impossible without crampons.

While searching for one cache, our GPSr pointed straight up a hill. So like good geocachers, we followed it. And followed it. And followed it. When we reached the top, we got new satellites, and the arrow pointed us back down the hill. The cache wasn't far from where we had started. Brutal!

Now let me climb down off my rant. The Bjornson Educational Center is a wonderful place to hike, geocache, or just to enjoy nature. While there, we saw wild turkeys, white tailed deer, and the spring fed creek was brimming with trout. Overhead we saw a barred owl, a red tailed hawk, ravens, and a bald eagle riding the thermals.

Many thanks to mama kat, who placed all these great caches! If ever in this part of Wisconsin, Bjornson is a must see. But if you are geocaching, bring your lunch... and a topo map!