Benchmark's Big Bad Bushwhack! Multi-cache

Keller springs Park is an undocumented park in the City of Dallas. It is 11.7 acres of completely undeveloped land that the city seems to have more or less forgotten about. This has to be one of the worst parks in the city. It's listed as a park, but you wouldn't know it's a park by looking at it, that's for sure. I bet the average 7-11 has more money in the till at midnight than the city spends annually on maintaining this park! Don't misunderstand me - Dallas has some awesome parks. This just isn't one of them.

So where is Keller Springs Park exactly? That's your problem. Figuring out how to get there and how to get around is pretty much the whole point of this cache.

This is a two stage cache. Stage 1 - Tarzan Land - is a place where my kids used to play. There used to be an enormous tree with a huge rope to swing on - hence the name. The tree has fallen over, removing a good deal of the charm from this area. It appears that teenagers sometimes still use it as a place to party, though. Stage 1 is a camouflaged match container holding a popsicle stick that has the coordinates to stage 2. Stage 1 terrain isn't too bad. You shouldn't have too much difficulty getting to it. If you have trouble finding it, the hint is really explicit. The terrain is difficult, but not too bad.

This brings us to stage 2. Stage 2 is a 50 cal. ammo can. It is in the main portion of the park. There are no trails in this part of the park. To say it could use some CITO would be an understatement - it's kind of a dump - beer cans (lots of beer cans), the occasional old stove, refuse from 1000 4 wheeling rednecks who've visited the park before you. The overgrowth varies from moderate to bad - it's not the worst I've seen though. There's thorns, and there's poison ivy on some of the trees. (In the summer I am sure some of these PI growths are absolutely terrifying - they should be avoidable though.) Stage 2 is hard to access. If you pick the correct approach, it's difficult, if you pick the wrong approach, it's more difficult than the terrain rating implies. Once you get close to the cache the terrain is pretty flat, but getting to the flat part is not so easy.

Initial Contents of the Cache:

Your Vehicle:
Your vehicle may well turn out to be kind of a liability during this cache. If you decide to use it to get as close as possible to stage 1, it had better have high ground clearance. If not, you'd better park it, but that's not easy either. If you somehow decide to try to use it for stage 2, you'd better have four wheel drive, and know how to use it. I set the "mud" alert on this cache not because you need to worry about getting dirty. (You do.) No, the mud on one approach to stage 2 is more of the "I need to call a tow truck now" variety. If it's rained within the past month, this area is liable to be muddy. If it's rained within the last week, you may get stuck even with 4WD. In that case, walking is a much better choice. (If you are experienced at dealing with mud, you'll probably enjoy this part!)

Your Kids:
You probably do not want to bring your little ones on this cache. Stage 1 is not too bad - but it's a little rough. They will not enjoy stage 2. If you can get to the flat part - it's badly overgrown, there's lots of dead wood to step over, and it's basically a dump. Don't do it.

This cache is intended to be pretty challenging. The terrain is not easy, and the cache area is wild and forgotten. It's not easy to access, and the options for parking your vehicle are quite poor. This cache is a whole lot less mellow than my other two hides. It's definitely not for everyone.

My goodness that's a lot of disclaimers! Having said all of that, I have enjoyed walking around this area and exploring it. The difficulty rating of this cache is mostly due to solving the problems of how to get access to the stages. I like solving these kinds of problems, and hope that you will enjoy this as well.

I think this will prove challenging for many, although some of you are pretty amazing, so I figure I'll get a couple of folks telling me they completed the cache in 20 minutes, at night. (By the way, don't even think about night caching this one - it would be a very poor idea!)

Best of luck on your hunt, and I hope you find this to be an enjoyable adventure!