The concept of Earthcaches had caught my interest, and when we saw a new one pop up in a town nearby we decided to go after it. Well, one of us was grumpy and the weather wasn’t quite the best and the other hadn’t explained the logging requirements very well (the longish hike to the second coordinates) so it didn’t get off to a good start. Of course, knowing his place in the world, the non grumpy cacher offered to end the hunt and go home, to which grumpy replied no “we’re here, we’ll finish it” meaning "you owe me!"

We did finish the hike and got a few more caches in town and the mood did improve but I had the feeling our next Earthcache would be when dramatic weather changes occurred in the fiery regions. So imagine my surprise when a week later while planning a cache trip to Sioux Falls and suggested there were two Earthcaches nearby I got the ok! Probably because she had always wanted to see the falls and that was one of the Earthcaches.

The first day of our trip was typical caching in a new place, with tours of neat areas we wouldn’t normally visit or know about intermingled with DNF nano’s and wrong turns following the GPS arrow. Then checking into the motel we settled in, got dinner, then found a few more nearby caches and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and going over our bug/coin/swag haul for the day.

We woke before dawn, well before dawn (we were excited about our plans for the day), checked out and headed for the falls. It was a cold, late October morning and we were shivering as we explored the Falls park and took our pics. Neat place, cool Earthcache. Back into the car to warm up and hop from nearest waypoint to nearest waypoint, making our way towards the state line. We had a bug that wanted its picture taken at “Welcome to___ ( insert state name)” signs and we were going to add our fourth state line of the weekend to its gallery. We snap the pic and find a quick cache to add another state to our stats.

It was getting on into the early afternoon and we had another Earthcache to visit before heading home, “The Rocks of Gitchie Manitou.” From the gallery we knew it was a pretty, special place, but as often is the case we enjoyed many more things about the area.

Following the trail from where we parked we passed the curious sight of a fork stuck into a log and, making the obligatory fork in the road joke, we hiked on to a ruined lodge made from the Sioux Quartzite rock that was abundant here.

Taking what was going to be our last pic before the camera battery died, we head onward over lichen-covered outcroppings of hard red rock to the goal of the pond surrounded by the rocks of Gitchie Manitou. We gazed in wonder at the sight of green water surrounded by red rock with sacred art painted along the cliffs.

As we gazed, we began to hear a bird calling rather insistently, but we couldn’t spot it in the bare tree tops. We heard the bird off and on while we discussed how we might log the cache without the required pic and wrote down the answer to the second part of the logging requirement.

As we started to walk toward the car our curiosity got the best of us since there had been something strange about the birdcall all along and we had commented on that to each other.

Approaching a fallen log near some likely trees in the direction of the sound, we saw the grass move and I thought "Oh great! A snake or a rat is running around here!"

Looking more closely my wife ended up scooping up a little tiny kitten just barely old enough to have its eyes open! So that explains the “not quite” sound of the bird call that had led us here. Looking around for litter-mates or momma cat we saw absolutely none and no indication how this little girl got to be here.

Vic, having a soft spot in her heart for kitties (she’s the cats of Catsnfish) took her with us because we couldn’t leave her to be hawk food and the coming night would be too cold.

Shhh... don’t tell anyone, but I have a soft spot too, so I insisted on naming the cute little kitty “Gitchie Bird” for obvious reasons. Hitting the nearest Wal-Mart we picked up a carrier and some food and took our 'bird ' home after a very enjoyable caching trip.

Oops! Oh No! That soft spot is coming out again so I’ll attach some pics and a bad but heartfelt poem.

By catsnfish

A couple of empty-nesters who caught the caching bug not realizing it was incurable. So if we’re found in the woods waltzing with Garmins, lifting lampskirts while tying our shoe or looking for “gum” underneath benches, be sure to stay away... it’s contagious and the only temporary relief can be found in finding bison’s, ammo’s, nano’s, or passing coins and spreading travel bugs!

Publisher's Note: Catsnfish write the periodic column The Adventures of Catsnfish. Subscribe (free) to The Online Geocacher to get an email alert when a new article is published.

Comments(1):

1. Gitchie Bird

   That is the most heartwarming caching story ever! Good for you for picking her up and giving her a "forever" home. Our caching handles give away the fact that we are cat lovers...we are the Popokis - Iti (small) and Nui (big). It is to do with leg length, at least that is all I will admit to! Pat aka Popoki Iti/popokiiti

   Thursday, June 11, 2009 Patricia