Hike With Me: Gifford Lake Unit
The cache is not at these coordinates But, this is a year-round parking area for you.
** If you park at these coordinates, please be careful crossing the 41 **
This geocache has a higher Terrain rating because there may not be an optimal time of year to hike the Gifford Spur portion of this hike. Some things to keep in mind:
- In winter, the gate to the SW portion of the refuge (off the 41) will typically be locked and the dirt road beyond not plowed. However, in winter, the trails and the Gifford Spur will be much more visible/accessible due to the snow mobiles. You would be hiking on non-packed snow trails.
- In summer, you could park much closer to Stage 1, but the Gifford Spur is rarely maintained in the Summer which could be a pretty solid bushwhack for that one mile-ish portion.
Sounds like you can choose your own adventure.
This is the next of Hike/Bike 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. These trails also allow snowmobiles.
Totally, this hike will be about 6 miles (from posted coordinates) and will be a lollipop hike which will showcase Gifford Lake. 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 location near a local park in Chaska.
As for the stages ...
Stage 1 (Public Water Access) – On the list of unlawful activities, how many time is geocaching mentioned? Consider this A.
Stage 2 (Blue Signs) – Above the 10-C, how may words are listed? Consider this B.
Stage 3 (Yellow Sign) – How many letters are in the second word (under stay)? Consider this C.
Stage 4 (Blue Signs 2) – On these signs, find the T-word. How many letters are in the word? Consider this D.
Stage 5 (Mileage Sign) – Find the second letter of this sign, and convert to number (ie, A=1)? Consider this E.
Then:
N44 47.BAB W093 3C.EDD
Hope you had a great hike.
Earn the 75 and 150 mile Pathtag!
So far there have been 37 of these Hike/Bike/Run With Me Multi-caches - if you were to complete them all, you would have travelled more than 210 miles. Currently (August 2023), there are 32 active geocaches totaling 185 miles (This includes three Hike With Me Adventure Labs). I wanted to give something to the geocachers who have "put a big dent" in trying to find these. So I created two pathtags for all cachers who completed at least 75 and 150 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 20-mile mountain 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 or 150 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.