MnGCA

[JJnTJ]

My wife and I usually go hiking at Frontenac State Park in the fall. Now that we have started geocaching (and found out how few caches there are in our favorite parks), we thought we might change it up a bit.

What we're after is a day-trip to somewhere with nice forest scenery, some terrain, unpaved trails, and not a lot of traffic. King Boreas placed a bunch of caches in the Hay Creek area south of Red Wing, which looks like it may fit the bill. No puzzles, though.


We'd be grateful any suggestions for good places to hike & cache, preferably within a couple hours' drive of the NW metro. We'd like to spend as much time as possible hiking instead of driving.


We'd also appreciate any suggestions to more efficiently plan a trip like this. I've got map tabs open for GC.com's Google Map and several state park tabs open, plus printed maps all over the place.


Thanks in advance!

[kc9gbo]

Live down by the far southeastern tip in LaCrosse across from Houston county and haven't found a whole lot in this area (although I have a couple areas in mind to place some in the next few weeks.) I do know that in the Reno area there is a state forest with some nice hiking ones that would give you a great view of the Mississipi. If you come down this way the weekend of Oct. 10th you could catch the 10-10-10 event in Brownsville. I'm also considering doing a couple of those caches above Reno that day as the leaves hopefully will be great then.

[bflentje]

The Cannon Falls Wilderness Park in Rice county has exactly what you might be looking for. It's straight west of Redwing and just south of Northfield.

[spinowner]

The Plowline trail series off Winona County Road 23 between Stockton and Minnesota City has been on my to do list for too long. Here's a link to #1 of 12 caches.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gcqmr8&Submit6=Go
_________________
Sig line? I don't need no stinking sig line!

[jrest]

Might try the Snake Creek Unit (State Forest Land), some hills and cool views, south of Wabasha GC130GX.

Oxbow Park (north of Byron), couple puzzles in there and traditionals, GC9CF

Quarry Hill Park - Rochester, traditionals, puzzles, earthcache GC1T557

Sugarloaf - Winona, once you get up (pretty steep) it is a great hike along the ridge line with views of the river and winona, earthcache up there too GCC9B3
_________________
round n' round we go!

[bflentje]

[JJnTJ]

Thanks everyone! Many are a little farther than we're willing to travel this Fall, but I can put them in the queue for next year. We really love the geography of the southeast.

bflentje, do you mean this area? You're right, there's a pretty good variety of D/Ts, puzzles and even letterbox!

Wow, Sugarloaf looks like a hike. I think it's time to ask Santa for some proper hiking gear...

[bflentje]

[JJnTJ]

We've not yet been able to complete a Multi, so that would be fantastic.



We live in Rogers and would like to go somewhere within about 1.5 hours' drive. We don't plan on overnighting, which leaves us with 5 or 6 hours of hiking.

Neither of us is in great shape, but we usually negotiate Frontenac State Park trails (on the side of a bluff) without being completely wiped out. We're not very good at breaking our own trails, but paved trails are not interesting enough. Our hiking equipment consists of decent shoes and one of those butt/backpack things.

If we could wave a magic wand, we'd have Cascade River State Park appear an hour's drive away, full of interesting caches.


Thanks again for your help!

[bflentje]

[Pear Head]

Cascade's not exactly full of easy hikes either...
_________________
Hmm...

[jrest]

About 1.5 hours, well here is somthing a bit closer, and more easterly from your location, but some really good trails (not paved) out toward Sunfish Lake, interesting containers and camo, entrance to park near GCYX5A. Or, a bit south (couple miles) at Lake Elmo Park with even more trails and caches.
_________________
round n' round we go!

[JJnTJ]

Cool! We don't get over to the east metro much, and I've been thinking about doing the Stillwater virtuals. They're close enough we could probably pick them up and do some good hiking to boot. Thanks!


My wife and I hiked Harney Peak in the Black Hills back in '03. That one wore us out pretty good. We really ought to go back there...

[dornole]

Well Senses Census GC26NWB is down Faribaultish which is not too far and it's awesome -- if not currently flooded -- it will hike you around the river for a couple of hours just doing that multi.

Or there are some spectacular bluffs and scenery in Winona (especially good is Hobbits Trail Lair of Smaug GC1F6ZX) but of course that is a little farther. I wish I had spent the whole day down there.

[bflentje]