UMR Stonehenge Benchmark Geocoin

As we moved from the "Spinning a Yarn: Codka" to this next one in the series, ClickChik read the part of the description about parking, and since we had the earlier issue with getting locked in the section across the road, I didn't want to take any chances. It was a good thing too, since the ranger who had just let us out of the other area was still in this section. We decided that it was just as easy to head straight to the cache from our parking, and we found it rather easily, although we exited the grass by the shorter route (through the taller grass). The cache container was a nicely done camo, almost as nice as the "Fishin' Hole" hide, and I think a little better than the "Codka" one.

We (OK, I) had mostly recovered from being locked in the forest preserve when we decided to go look for this cache in the same general area. It was a short walk there, and was we approached ClickChik told me it was a "pill bottle" and to "expect the unexpected". As we approached the coordinates, she was looking in an area while I found the cache in the fork of a nearby tree. I saw the container and thought to myself "some pill bottle, I wouldn't mind some of those pills right now myself..." I just stood there and got a big grin on my face so she knew I had found the cache, so she came by and saw it too. We liked the major item in the cache, and left it for another to trade for.

Well, I was still getting over the "locked in the forest preserve" incident when we headed on to this cache. I was uncertain how the ranger would take it if he saw us stopped along the road side after he just let us out of a forest preserve where we didn't have the proper permits, without giving us a ticket. We decided to do the roadside flashers trick and it worked. Logged the cache quickly and got back in the car before anyone seemed to see us there. From comments by other cachers, we had kinda hoped to meet the cache owners to discuss dogs...

When we approached this cache, ClickChik reminded me that this was a "pill bottle in the woods" and to "keep my eyes open, it could be hidden anywhere". As we approached the cache location, I was in the lead, and I saw the part of the cache with little or no camo, and had to start chuckling. ClickChik didn't understand until I made her take a few more steps forward and she could see for herself.

After signing the log and heading out to go on for our next cache, we were in for a surprise as we approached the gate to leave the forest preserve. The gate was closed and locked! We had to call the Lake County Sheriff's office (non emergency number 847-549-5200 I think it was) and have them, send a forest preserve ranger over to let us out. The ranger arrived much quicker than we had imagined, and he was very understanding when he explained to us that this area required special permissions to drive into. Anyone can walk into it, but driving in required special permissions, and the people who left the gate open should not have done that. He was very nice, and we figured that we weren't the first geocachers that had this happen. As we left, both ClickChik and I thought we recognized him from somewhere, but we weren't sure where.

After finding "Baldwin" ClickChik and I decided to go for "On The Border". I asked if we should head back to the car first and head out from there, or if we should head straight there from where we were. We decided to try to go straight there. As you all know, you can't go in a straight line in the woods, and we ended-up crossing back over our inbound track more than once. We found a small stream or brook in our path and made a crossing on what looked like stones that had been placed there for just this purpose. We found the cache fairly quickly and started heading for the next cache, and the last one in this section of the forest preserve, "Spinning a Yarn: Fishin Hole"...

On our way there, we saw a small clearing nearby, and we could see picnic tables there, so we decided that we had done enough bushwhacking and went for a short break at a picnic table. From there, we followed the trail out and had a dirt bridge (with a culvert through it) for our brook crossing.