Well here it was finally, the oft put off, long awaited passage through the panhandle which after completion, would take us most of the way to finishing the Nebraska 93 County challenge. We were ready for it, Vic had finished summer school and I had taken 8 working days off. We would be tent camping. The van was packed to the gills with tent, chairs, air mattress, clothing, cookware, cacheware, food and other necessities and niceties for travel.

   We head out along I-80, bypassing 6 counties south of there, which we would pick up at a later date and since we had cached along this route before we didn't cache along the way. Arriving at our first nights camp spot, Johnson Lake, we setup our tent, a screen house and got the raised queen size air mattress blown up. May as well camp in comfort! Then it's off to find a few caches and collect our first 2 counties of the trip with a short drive around the lake. One cache near a marina looked on the map to be in the lake but turned out to be on a finger of land that jutted out into the lake. After finding that and getting back in the van I noticed we were getting a wi-fi signal. Telling Vic to stay put, I needed to check email, which can be quite a slow process for us at times, but I had submitted 2 EarthCaches a day or 2 before we left and wanted to see if they had been published yet. Nope, so I pop onto the forums, when Vic notices that she indignantly tells me we're not just sitting here while I count cheese in off topic, cause she is hungry and we need to get back to camp and cook dinner. Spoilsport!

    We've tried to think everything through ahead of time and be as efficient as possible in camp so we had more road time. We were using a propane stove, with tried and true camping meals, not only quick and easy to cook but minimal cleanup as well. We would eat and enjoy outdoor time in the relatively insect free screenhouse.  We had gotten an electrical site and had brought 2 fans to keep Vic cool and non grumpy and a coffee maker to keep me caffeinated and there was one other item we would be using for the first time, a bucket privy.

   It proved its worth the first time it saved Vic a hike in the dark to the facilities several hundred yards away, what didn't live up to expectations was the air mattress, we had used it before and was quite comfortable, but between then and now it had developed a slow leak, so if either of us got out of bed to use the bucket the other would get bounced around and towards morning time it had leaked enough air that when one got up the other fell down to hit the ground. Not a great experience but this was the only day of the trip when Vic didn't want to linger in bed until late morning, not that I let her do that of course!

   Popping out the plug and letting the remaining air out I strip off the bedding and start to empty the tent, while Vic starts cooking breakfast, ziplock omelets!! They were ready about the time I had the tent rolled and back in its bag. After breakfast we threw our trash (not much, ziplocks and 2 paper plates, plastic flatware) into the bucket and changed out the liner and added new kitty litter. Then came the fun of trying to fold up the screenhouse, it was the first time we had used it and we hadn't figured the best way to fold it yet. It did end up back in its bag, but we still haven't figured it out. Once that was done all we had to do was toss the bags in the van, head for the showers and hit the road, eager for our first full day chasing the challenge. Later in the day we made sure to buy two twin raised air mattresses when we finally found a Walmart.

   This trip I would truly be the navigator, choosing caches and routes to most efficiently achieve our goal of a cache in every county in the western 2/3 of Nebraska. If we DNF a cache, I had to get us to another one in the county and set us up for the next county. We discussed much of it and some particular caches or locations were on again off again and we didn't really know where we would go next till we found the previous one. The only exception to this was Hayes County; there was only one cache in the entire 713 square miles of this county. It was a "Do or Die" cache, find it or fail. Down some minimum maintenance roads where we spot a red fox crossing warily about 20 yards in front of us, he watched us from the roadside until we turned the corner. Pulling into a lake area, I'm sent off to find the cache and follow a turkey into the wooded area. His gps must have been reading different satellites than mine so our paths diverged. I came up with the cache but don't know if the turkey found what he was looking for. When I came out of the trees, Vic had our sandwiches made and chairs set up facing the tree bordered sedimentary exposure across the lake. After a pleasant lunch, we scratched off Hayes from the list and drove towards the next county.

   At Lake McConaughy we drove over the dam and around a bit to get to the little lake in front of the dam, the big lake being on the other side of the dam. Dam, that word comes up a lot here! As we approached the coordinates for the cache there is a flock of 14 buzzards just ahead of us and we get close enough I don't need my cheat sheet to tell they are not regal eagles. They took off as we tried to get some more pics of them. I wonder what the collective noun for buzzards is. I know that it's a murder of crows, a wedge of geese, and a bevy of doves. Ok, I gotta know, and googling tells me it is a wake of buzzards, makes sense to me.  After locating and signing the cache log, we spot some distant pelicans and do our best to get some good pics of those impressive birds. I won't worry about the pelican collective since they weren't grouped together...<Jeopardy theme>..Hmmmm, Google says... a pod or a scoop of pelicans; curiosity got the better of me.

 

   One place Vic had wanted to see was the corner of the panhandle and the virtual cache located there but it was a bit of a detour. No problem, we're here to see the sites. The monument was quite interesting with plaques and benchmarks in each corner, 3 for Nebraska and one for Colorado. Vic really wanted her pic taken in Colorado; we discussed picking up a cache in Colorado before the trip, but decided it was too long of a detour. What??? Okaaay, yes, I will..... Vic says "show em the pic! Oh, wait you can't, you deleted those pics!" looks like she's still a bit miffed about that. We were taking a lot of pics and I started to worry about running out of room on the 64k XD card. So I started downloading the pics each night and deleting the images from the card. I missed downloading a few before deleting and when she realized it, I wasn't allowed to delete anymore until she had gone over the pics each day. Anyway it was a neat place and I wish I could show you the pics. "Yes dear, I told them it was my fault."

   Taking a drive around the campgrounds at Minitare State park, we scout out a good site. The first area we drive through is kinda swampy and we continue on only to find out that is the only electrical camp area. A beautiful lake with cliffs and wooded areas and even its own lighthouse and the camping pads are only 5 feet above water less than 10 feet away. Oh well, we decided to stop at the lighthouse before setting up camp and I climbed to the top while Vic stayed in the parking area. The lighthouse is really an observation tower, there isn't a light in the top and being only 55 feet tall, the spiral stairs were built rather narrow to keep the proportions looking right. There are several little benches set into the central wall as you go up but those are more to allow someone coming down to pass another coming up as there is no way to fit two on the steps. But it was a nice view. Back to camp, get everything set up, dinner cooking as we watch a storm start to roll in and it looked to be a nasty one, hmmm maybe there was a need for a lighthouse here? As it turned out the storm blew itself out and we only had light rain for about 20 minutes. Waking the next morning we find we have a young goose we named Alf that has decided it liked us, we tried to feed Alf some popcorn, he didn't seem interested in it but he did like the van's tires. He stayed in the immediate area the whole time as we packed up and got ready to go. Driving off as carefully as we could, not being able to see the silly goose, we make it to the showers, look back and see he appears to be injured. Before we can check him out he waddles off into the water, we certainly hope he his ok, because we would not like to see Alf lack for anything if he was injured.

   We stopped along the roadside on the way to Courthouse and Jailhouse rocks to go after an ammo can, I had read a few of the previous logs and decided to take along our walking sticks, something we rarely use but always have handy on our trips. We went past a small hillside cemetery heading towards some rock outcroppings and I was in the lead as I have a faster walking pace than Vic. I was within 20 feet of where my gps put the ammo can we were seeking, when I heard a dreaded sound, the raspy ratchety shake of a rattlesnake's tail. The rattle was a much softer sound than movies had led me to believe, but still instantly recognizable. Acting on instinct, I jumped back hard enough to land on my butt, then quickly got up and took a look around me to see where it was and spied it slithering off in the brush. Looking back I told Vic to stay back and to get on top of a nearby flat rock. Her reply was "what??" but she quickly realized the situation. Taking a moment to calm down, I started ahead, slowly, swinging my walking stick like a blind persons cane hoping to startle up anything that may be in my path. I made my way to the far side of the large flat rock to find the prize. Poking around with my stick and hooking the can back to where I could safely reach it, signed the log and traded for an angel ornament before replacing the container. Repeating the cane tactic back to where Vic has been anxiously waiting, we make our way to the van.  She said she hadn't heard anything until I told her to stay put, I said" yeah, you can't scream like a girl if your heart is up in your throat!" The angel went right onto the rear view mirror and has stayed there ever since.

   A bit after that we arrived at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. After a quick tour of the visitor center, where a Native American was doing beadwork, we decided to make the walk to the excavation sites. The path was a wide concrete walkway that wound up to a lookout spot and then onto the site. There was a fair grade to it but nothing bad for someone who is in decent shape, so we took our time and made use of the couple of covered benches along the path so thoughtfully provided by our park services. At the beginning of the walk way was the now familiar warning to stay on the path, this is rattlesnake country.  Along the way we heard a rattle rattle SNAP sound and when we first heard it, I froze until I saw what had caused it. Grasshoppers, we were scaring up grasshoppers from the edges of the pavement and they flew off with a sound similar to my earlier snake encounter, only louder. After a few seconds of flight there was invariably a loud snap that sounded like those little paper teardrop snappers that are thrown on the ground to make their distinctive noise on the Fourth of July.  After a few more minutes and several more of the firesnapper grasshoppers Vic noticed that with each snap they changed direction almost as if the sound was them being swatted and sent off in a new direction. At one point along the path there were enough to make us think of a roll of Chinese firecrackers, snapping and jumping and traveling down the line as we walked.

   We met another couple coming down as we went up and exchanged comments on the heat and the tough walk up, but I noticed they fairly bounced off as we started trudging up again. At our last stop before the sites, there were blooming prickly pears for us to photograph and few plants that looked like burnt pineapples. Onto the site which we explore for a bit and take a timer photo of ourselves together. I screwed that up though by having a rock in the frame and the camera focused on it instead of us. Taking some parting shots of the view, with a teeny tiny visitor center lost in the panorama we do our best to change that perspective in a hurry, it was lunch time.

 

   After sandwiches, chips and lots of water, we head for the EarthCache here. It was quite near the entrance, we had passed it on the way to the visitor center. Pulling into the parking area, Vic tells me I'm on my own; she is done in by the last few miles. Grumbling, I tie a cooldanna around my neck and taking along a tripod for the EC pic, shuffle off up the hill. Passing an interesting ripple rock formation I round the bend out of site and soon find a bench and a display behind plexi-glass of the fossilized corkscrew burrows that are the subject of the EC. Taking a pic and making a note, I almost turn back, it is hot and I am tired too, but the gps says it's still a quarter mile away, so I decide to press on and finish the trail. Off in the distance on a flat top bluff I see a silhouette of a pronghorn antelope and try to decide whether it is a plywood cutout (we had seen similar cutouts in other places on this trip) but looking up again after a short walk, I watched it crowhop to the other end of the bluff. Rounding another turn I find the cased daemonalix fossil and set up for the pic and count spirals for the logging requirements. The van looks so far away once it finally comes in to view. I'm exhausted when I get there but not grumpy at all, what I saw was worth the walk in the heat and I was cooled off and ready for more by our next stop.

   Carhenge, sacred tourist trap of Nebraska lived up to its name with a mostly full parking lot and people oohing and aahing at autos painted rock grey and stacked on top of each other in a circular semblance of Stonehenge. Many were saying "I used to have one of those!" as they looked over the variety of vehicles. I was tickled when I spotted an AMC Pacer just like the one my mom used to have. There were other attractions as well with an 'auto'graph where you were asked to sign a car standing on its tail. There was the Conestoga'd station wagon and my favorite sculpture the "Salmon." Near the visitor center was a Subaru Outback with dot painted boomerangs and kangaroos. Making our rounds with an occasional glance at the gps, we narrowed down the search grid until Vic spied the container. It would be difficult to retrieve and sign the cache here without tipping off muggles, but with a loud cry of "Look!  A Pontiac Solstice! Over there!" while waving toward the entrance, Vic was able to grab it. She replaced it after I walked away as all the people kept their eyes on that strange man who carried a tripod and shouted at imaginary cars. Grabbing a cool drink as we waited in line for the single restroom, we fed the sacred tourist trap squished penny machine (4 different images!) You know if there is a squished penny machine, the place is at least revered, if not sacred, in bringing home those tourist dollars! Maybe they should sink a few of those dollars into more plumbing.

   Scotts Bluff, I never expected it to be as big as it is. There is a whole range of massive rock bluffs we gawped at as we drove toward them. We grab a cache or two before checking for our first motel stay of the trip. Catching up on current events and getting a good cool nights sleep, we rollout in the morning a bit later than I had wanted but it ends up we could have tarried a bit longer. Arriving before opening time at Scotts Bluff National Monument we take a little stroll around the parking lot. The visitor center opens and we watch the short film on westward expansion and this landmark, then remark on the stuffed rattler on the desk, "yeah it was about that size, Vic" before buying a hat pin. The gates are open now so we drive up to the summit and enjoy the view. On the way back down we get a few pics of a deer in a grassy area. Wildlife and history and rocks and a view too, what more could we ask for?

   Next stop Chimney Rock. We toured the visitor center and discussed walking out to the rock but decided against it because of time (it was a long walk and warm) and warning signs (we would hate to poison a snake by letting it bite us!) There was a nearby cache and we got a nice view and pic of the Chimney from there.

   Pulling into the Fort Robinson State park, we cruise around looking for a place to camp and they are filled to almost capacity. We find a non electric site and go to register at the office. We park, plop, post and pitch and soon our camp is presentable. Vic decided to make use of the post pool to cool off and after driving there we find out it was closed for another hour. Detouring back they way we had come, we stop at an old gymnasium that now houses the Clash of the Mammoths exhibit. These two full mammoths had been found near Crawford Nebraska. The curving tusks had become locked up in a fight and they had gone to their death bound to each other. The display separated the larger mammoth and used it in a standard museum pose. Beyond this big boy was a large flat raised area representing the field where they had been found, lying on their sides. Using the bones of only one mammoth, the two combatants were recreated. Quite a remarkable display.  After a quick look around the gift shop, we head up for an hour of relaxing coolness in the pool. Waking the next morning we quickly break camp, pack the van and go off in search of bison and mushrooms.

   Making our way down gravel and dirt roads we follow the map and gps to a very thoughtfully placed cache at Hudson Meng Bone Bed. It was thoughtfully placed because it was published just before my last pocket query for the trip and allowed us to find the location with our electronics instead of a paper map. Pulling up to the gate, it is locked, but still before the posted opening time, so after collecting an FTF on the thoughtful cache, we wait for the arrival of the gatekeeper. Pulling into the parking area, it was still a quarter mile walk to the building where a portion of the bone bed was displayed and it was dotted with informational signs. We took pics of every sign because I wanted to develop an EarthCache here. Entering the building, we were greeted by a very pleasant woman who would be our tour guide. Asking about the entry fee we were told it was a fee-free weekend. Man we timed this one right, FTF on a five day old cache, fee-free tour and a very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful geologist giving us a tour for the next 45 minutes. During that time I was furiously tapping text into my palm to use on my EC. After getting contact information, our guide invited us to go on a buffalo hunt with an atlatl. My prey was a plywood bison, roughly 20 yards away and my weapon was a five foot long aluminum shaft made from several modern arrow shafts fitted together. This was the "dart" to be thrown with the atlatl, a flat, narrow piece of wood about as long as my forearm with a raised spot that engages the hollow end of the long arrow shaft and a loop on the other end so you don't throw it along with the dart. Using this, the Paleo-Indians were able to throw further and with more force. My first attempt flew a few inches above the back of the silhouette, I over corrected and threw low on my next try, a few more tries that never did bring home the bison bacon and we give our goodbyes and thanks to our guide. Onto Toadstool Park next, we could walk a 3 mile trail from here or drive several more miles roundabout to reach the same place. The scenery was stunning as we drove to the park. There was another thoughtful cache near Toadstool as well, although it had been placed well before our trip and we DNF after a short search.

  There were a cluster of signs under a roofed area, inside of a loop drive.  We took pics of these signs also, for the same reason we did at the Bone Bed. There were a few groups of people coming back as we went through the gate armed with a self-guided tour pamphlet. It was beginning to warm up as we walked armed with walking sticks and a tripod up the slope. At first glance the slope appeared to be a loose gravely material but it was weathered stone underfoot and solid. What a fascinating area! Toadstool formations the size of pickup trucks, rows of stone gazing balls and wrinkles from rivulets running down the soft stone faces. You could easily imagine being back in time with the dinosaurs or on another planet.  Many of the formations had narrow veins of a smoky, grayish crystal and some areas had crystals laying all over the surface. It was heating up with the sun beating down from a nearly cloudless sky and reflecting up from the light colored rock underfoot and I asked Vic if she needed to hurry back to the ac of the van and she said " I wanna look around more" so you know it must have been quite a place. There was so much to see in the short space of a mile hike, this was probably our favorite spot on this trip, although we appreciated each location we visited for what it was.

   One of those mornings where you just want to lay in bed a little bit longer, I watched a good sized caterpillar's shadow creep up the tent wall behind a dozing Vic. It got to a bit above where Vic's elbow was when the tent wall suddenly bulged in as a bird picked off the easy meal. All at once, its wings or claws made a bonk, frrt frrt kinda sound against the fabric and Vic bolted out of bed with a wild look. "What was that?" after explaining about the caterpillar we noticed another inch up the tent and again a bird came along to fill its tummy with a tasty tidbit.  "Cool!!" we could see each outspread wing feather distinctly as it beat its wings and rebounded off the tent side. Getting dressed and keeping an eye on another brave climber working its way to the safety of the tent's rain fly summit, we wait until he is safely out of reach from hungry birds before we start our own breakfast. When I took the tent down, I picked the lucky fellow off and set him down at the base of a tree since we didn't want any hitchhikers on our trip.

   While planning this trip we had selected certain things we would both like to see and visit and a few things one of us wanted to see. I was getting frustrated and apologetic for the meandering routes I was taking us along trying to catch up every county and Delorme map page. Meandering? More like gyrating at times. I offered to pass on visiting the Museum of the Fur Trade because of how long I thought it would take to go through its displays. Vic said I had let her go to the handle of the pan so we would visit the trappers. The building was smaller than I had imagined but made excellent use of floor space to exhibit the huge amount of artifacts from the period. There was a colorful temporary display about French voyageurs that included some beautiful assomption sashes, fingerwoven with vivid lightning bolts, chevron stripes or the impressive ceinture' flechee' arrow sash. Someday I will learn to make those. We spent about 45 minutes in the museum but could have spent days among the Hawken rifles, plug tobacco, camp kettles and traps and other such truck needed to hunt beaver,  well not Vic, but I could have. As we left to get back on the road, we searched for a thoughtful cache placed here but call it a dnf after 10 minutes.

   We stopped for the night in a small town and decided to hit the restaurant next door for real, not prepared under the hatch of the van or propane heated food. Soon after we were seated it began to fill up with big hats, big belt buckles and boots as it became apparent folks were making their way in for the Thomas county fair that would be in a few days. Our steak dinner was excellent, around here they know beef.

   Most of our planned visits had been completed and we were on the homebound loops. Two places were on again, off again as I adjusted the route to color territory, Happy Jack Peak and a small town where I have relatives. We had visited the chalk mines at Happy Jack a few years ago when we had vacationed out this way, pre caching. Neat place, the only room and pillar mine  in the U.S. that people can visit, but we didn't have time for the tour and Vic said climbing the peak was a once only thing for her and she wasn't going back up to log a benchmark. I told her there was a cache on the peak too and she growled at me. We did pass that way and collected another cache that was in the parking area and had even gone onto Scotia to refill coffee and soda and to look at another possible EC, a building built of chalk from the Happy Jack mine. Later, just before dusk we pull into a little dam site in my relatives town and search for a keyholder over our heads. Vic really shined here as she made a caduceus of our flexi mirror and flexi light and quick work of eliminating possibilities while finding the decoy. I made the find, purely by luck. No time to visit, a few more counties in the dark and we could at last go home. We had been moving, driving, caching for 16 hours today and traveled well over 700 miles.

   We had earned some rest after that last day and we planned to complete the challenge in a few weeks.  I went back to work on a Wednesday and Vic began to settle into her summer routine. On Thursday, Vic told me," We're gonna finish this!" and once again I ran queries and Vic repacked the van for another overnight trip to collect counties. A few of the biggest highlights of a very enjoyable little trip was a clown nose I found as swag and had made good use of for the rest of the trip, ("All I have is a red clown nose, but it's not for blowing..It's for honking through."), the murals and the country's smallest police station of Friend and the final resting place of Willy Wonka.

   We were close to 1000 finds and after a few in town caches, and a run with Sioneva, we went for #1000 at an EarthCache. We had now become a triple threat with the 93 county challenge, the Nebraska Delorme challenge and a thousand finds. We would sign the official logbooks and receive our Golden Ammo Can at the annual Nebraskache event in Kearney. Cobble gobble, here fritter, fritter!

 

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.

Please login to post your comments.