Hidden
:
Saturday, November 19, 2011
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Up for a walk in the woods? Come out and join us for a crash coarse in orienteering and a hike on a (hopefully) beautiful Fall day! We'll start at the fire tower at 10:00 a.m. Hope to see you there!
Get Oriented!
N 39° 02.093 W 086° 19.281
(Note: These numbers are for the fire tower. You can NOT park in the fire tower. Park in the nearby lot.)
AW CRUD!... My apologies to all. It was not until AFTER I had this event set up that I noticed we'll be hiking by several very cool geocaches. I hope that will not be a problem. We'll be stopping along the way to check our maps, and may just stumble across a few of them. Please bear with me if that is the case. Anyway, on to the "long description"...
Where would we all be if not for our handy Global Positioning Satellite receivers (GPSr)? Probably NOT geocaching! Fortunately for us and our hobby, we can pinpoint our location, and the locations of any number of interesting caches anywhere on the planet, by simply looking at the screen of our handy little gizmos.
So how the heck did people keep from getting lost before affordable GPS receivers became common? By knowing how to read one of the oldest navigational aids there are: the compass! No one knows for sure when and where the compass was invented, or who first noticed that a magnetic needle, if set up so as to be able to swing freely, will unerringly swing to point North. Okay, that's cool, but how exactly does that keep one from getting lost in the woods? Want to find out?
Come on out to the scenic Hoosier National Forest for a crash course in navigating by use of a compass and a chart (orienteering). The historic Hickory Ridge fire tower will be our jumping off point (no pun intended) for a hike of approximately seven miles. Before setting out, we'll have a brief course on how to read a compass, how to orient ourselves using a topographic map, how to avoid walking off a cliff using the map's elevation markings, how the compass “rose” (printed on the map) works, how to shoot a course, how to triangulate using geographic features, how to find north using the sun and a wrist watch, how to use a sewing needle, a leaf, a rock and a cup of water to improvise a working compass, and a few other things that could help keep your next trip into the woods from leaving you lost in the wilderness. (Those AA batteries do seem to give out at the worst times!)
The leaves should be off the trees by the date of the event, so a trip to the top of the fire tower will give us a scenic view of the surrounding landscape, and help bring our topo map to life. Our hike will take us by various features, including old homestead ponds, the Terrell Cemetery, the very cool remains of the Axsom hunting lodge, and a very remote National Geological Survey bench mark I stumbled upon years ago.
Don't have a compass or a chart? No problem. These will be provided. (I’m planning on having an assortment of inexpensive but fairly accurate compasses to donate… surely we won’t have THAT many cachers show up! And you do get to keep the compass!) There will be drawings for some other navigational prizes, too!
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates. Do keep an eye on the weather reports and dress accordingly. You’ll want to bring enough water to last the trip, as well as something to munch on when we take our lunch break. Surely the ticks and chiggers will have died a miserable frosty (well deserved) death by then, so the bug spray can stay home. Shoes or boots fit to hike in are always a good idea. (We’ve had some very stylish but totally impractical footwear show up on this trail before.) Most of the hike will be along trails, but there will be some bushwhacking. Nothing you can’t handle.
Oh yeah, Sam the Wonder Dog was reading this over my shoulder and has now invited himself along. He promised not to do the “big sad dog eyes” thing to mooch snacks, so try to resist.
Note: Swell... now Sally the wander dog wants to go. She's been behaving on the trail, so I GUESS so...
Having been out scouting the route I've added a couple of attributes. HUNTING: Yeah, there are a few hunters out there. Being in a group should make us hard to mistake for a deer. If you do wear a splash of color it can't hurt. GOOD FOR KIDS: Maybe not infants, but the terrain isn't all that bad the way I'm thinking of going. We'll be stopping along the way, so it shouldn't be too brutal for most kids. (Just bring enough food so we don't end up eating the young!)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur svefg gevpx vf svaqvat gur sver gbjre. Jr'yy gel abg gb ybfr lbh sebz gurer!