Hike With Me: Wilkie Unit and the Minnesota River
The cache is not at these coordinates.
But, this is where you should start your journey. This hike will probably take a hour or so..
BEWARE: hunting is allowed in this area. Wearing blaze orange is recommended during the hunting season.
This is the next of Hike with Me caches that I have started since moving to MN. Since most of my cache finds are done while exercising, I thought I would offer this delight to others. These caches will not necessarily be hard to find, but you will have to put some miles on the legs for them. So lace em up, grab some water, and come join the fun.
Totally, this hike will be about 2.5 miles. The hike will be an out and back hike, returning to the starting point from the way you came. The waypoints are all on trails, which can be accessed all year long. The final coordinates for the cache are placed in a winter friendly place not too far from the parking lot.
The Wilkie Unit is located predominantly in river bottom, and features three prominent lakes (Blue, Rice, and Fisher) and large areas of associated marsh. There are also extensive areas of bottomland forest, as well as stands of coniferous trees. This trail will also follow the south side of the Minnesota River, with many places for views.
The Wilkie Unit is open from sunrise to sunset, 7 days a week. Trail conditions vary throughout the year. Be prepared, as you may encounter changes in trail conditions while hiking, including periodic flooding, wet or muddy areas, thorny vegetation, and rough ground. Trails are ungroomed in winter and may be snow-packed and icy. Also, please stay on the trail (or to the north). There are many No Trespassing signs on the southside, particularly as it nears the Water Treatment Plant.
As for the stages ...
Unicor – There are two area codes listed on this sticker. They both have the same middle number, ie 2_2. What is the middle number? Consider this B.
The Large Tree – From here, you need to shoot an azimuth of 109 degrees at about 1.5 miles away. What do you see? A vehicle bridge, water tower, grain elevator, or a television antenna? Count the letters in the second word of answer and consider this A.
Then:
N44 47.9AB W093 23.B9A
Hope you had a great hike.
Earn the 75, 150 and 300 mile Pathtag!
So far there have been 52 of these Hike/Bike/Run With Me Multi-caches - if you were to complete them all, you would have travelled more than 317 miles. Currently (March 2026), there are 44 active geocaches totaling 277+ miles (This includes seven Hike With Me Adventure Labs). By the end of the summer of 2026, I will make sure there are 300+ miles of active caches. I wanted to give something to the geocachers who have "put a big dent" in trying to find these. So I created three pathtags for cachers who completed at least 75, 150 and/or 300 miles while trying to get smileys on these caches. On each of the cache pages, I mention how long the travel should be for that cache. They vary from just a couple miles to a 25+ mile bike ride.
Here is a bookmark list of all of the caches.
So, take a look at your finds, add up the miles, and if you are more than 75, 150 and/or 300 miles, let me know. You can either PM me, email me, or just grab me at an event. You do not have to show/prove anything to me about you qualifying. I will give you one if you say you have qualified.