10/25/07: After years
of dealing with low quality cachers stealing, breaking,
plundering, and misplacing my caches, I'm exhausted. I have
tried to provide quality, creative, and original caches for
over six years, costing me a good amount of time and money.
Sometimes the only reward is yet another cut n' paste log
from a numbers-obsessed cacher. Coupled with the ongoing
damage at my caches, it just ain't worth it and it's not fun.
I will continue my normal maintenance visits but I am now
archiving all my caches if they are again ruined by LQCs (or
if the cache is controversial in any way). This process may
be quick or long depending on the cachers that come here. For
the enjoyment of future cachers, please take care of this
cache just as indicated below to help preserve this hide. I
do send a BIG thanks to all the high quality cachers who have
helped support me and my caches through the years. Much
appreciated! -CoolCache
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If you've been to the great "St. Louis Arch Virtual" cache and my
Old St. Lou cache, you've seen some of the
fascinating history of the city and the westward expansion.
These are wonderful essential parts to a visit to St. Louis.
But this cache will bring you face to face with another driving
force behind St. Louis's greatness: The Mighty Mississippi River.
This is the economic engine that helped fuel the westward advance
and to this day pumps millions into the local economy with the
activities you will see.
Searching for this cache will remove you from most of the
tourist crowds and take you to surprisingly nearby kind of ugly
industrial area. Here you will see the River's industry still in
full swing: railroads transporting goods above you, tugboats
pushing grain barges to mills upriver, smokestacks across the river
at the mill, and a nearby dredging operator doing business nearby.
So much industry and you'll have a front row seat.
The cache is located amongst a hardened concrete slurry area
that almost looks like a lava flow. It seems this was is a excess
concrete discharge area for local concrete operations (maybe the
park area)... it actually helps stabilize the riverbank although in
an unsightly way. No climbing of fences is necessary and CC
recommends looking for the cache is daytime only, late afternoon
ideally. Also careful footing will prevent an ankle twist.
Please sign the log small and legibly and no stickers
please!
>>>> 03/05: Cache replaced as the first one got
swept away with the rising river I suspect. New container is
slightly re-located and anchored now.
>>>> 11/12/05: It appears Mr. Marmot is gone. So
sad. I think the homeless folks ate him.
>>>> 01/07: Cache upgraded and replaced to avoid most
of the homeless encampments. One is still nearby but can be avoided
by staying on "mid slag." I met with this homeless dude and he
knows some 'scavenger' hunters will come by once in awhile. I never
though this real estate would be contested which is why I chose it.
Nevertheless the Mighty Miss holds her ground; she was here first.
>>>> 03/13/07: Bad news, good news: the custom
container has already disappeared. But awesome cacher "cds231" who
gave me the pictures and report replaced it for me with a quality
container. My replacement efforts HAVE come back to me...cool! Big
thanks to cds231!
>>>> 06/01/07: Container again upgraded to totally
camouflaged model, specific for the site.
Searching is now in view of the nearby business barge, please
use STEALTH to not compromise the hide.
I don't even live in St Louis... I'm hundreds and hundreds of
miles away! But this town needed some geo-action bad, so I took a
stand here and I work hard in ensuring the quality and durability
of these hides for your visit. All of CoolCache's St Louis hides
shown below:
Please write legibly but small on every line of the logs so I
can read your name. I have to do log verifications because of
geospammers.
Another CoolCache original hide.