Weekend roadtrip

[Guest scooterj]

I'm going to take a weekend roadtrip in a couple of weeks to try to hit as many caches as I can within a day's drive of Kansas City. That doesn't narrow things down much, I am considering all of MO, KS, IA, and most of NE as the most likely targets but I'm also open to, eastern OK, northeast TX, northern AR, western TN and KY, an parts of IL and IN.

 

Though my goal is to find 6-10 caches each of the two days, I'm more interested in quality than quantity. I'm more interested in ones that make you think or work for the find with interesting scenery than I am in ones where I can see the trampled grass leading to the base of a tree from the parking lot.

 

Since there are literally hundreds of caches to choose from within a day's drive of Kansas City, I'll put the question to all of you. Excluding caches within 60 miles of KC (since I can look for those anytime), what are the best caches you have found that are within a day's drive of KC and what makes them so good? Unless the scenery/payoff is really good I'm probably not interested in anything rating less than a 2 in terrain or difficulty. With your suggestions hopefully I can narrow down a list of my "target caches", and then of course pick up as many of the easy caches that happen to be along my route as I can.

 

Thanks for your advice!

 

 

[This message has been edited by scooterj (edited 19 August 2001).]

[Guest Paul Lamble]

ScooterJ

 

By far the most fun I have ever had on a cache hunt has been the Katy Trail 147 (or similar name). You drive to Rocheport on the Missouri River, rent a bike to ride out on the Katy Trail, then spend an hour climbing rocks looking for the cache. (If I can do it, anyone can.)

 

Scenic (big time), challenging (cleverly done), different from the neighborhood park caches, and not too far from Columbia, MO, which has something like 7 caches now. It would make an excellent day trip.

 

That's my recommendation. In a few weeks, I understand St. Joe is going to have a bunch of cool caches too.

 

Paul Lamble

[Guest guerroloco]

It's Katy Trail 174, and here are the details:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=968

[Guest GeoNeon]

There are two that I can think of (one which I havent had a chance to go to yet) that would probably be ideal.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=2059

 

and

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=1564

 

I know both the areas and think they would be great and fit your criteria.

 

I'll also plug our cache at:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=5431

 

Makes you think a little and takes you around one of our cities parks. But nothing too hard.

[Guest ACotttingham]

We've done three in Columbia -- Hinkson Creek, Stephens Lake and Rockbridge -- Stephens Lake was easy, but the other two were more of a challenge. There is a cache at Finger Lakes park, just north of Columbia, that I seem to remember had a more difficult rating. The great thing about Columbia is it isn't that far away so it leaves plenty of time for hunting!

[Guest scooterj]

Does Katy Trail 174 require rockclimbing experience or is it something any chump with opposable thumbs and a sense of balance can do? I remember that ther are some pretty steep cliffs in that general area.

 

[This message has been edited by scooterj (edited 22 August 2001).]

 

[This message has been edited by scooterj (edited 22 August 2001).]

[Guest guerroloco]

no rock climbing experience required, although there is a bit of steep scrambling involved. -Glenn

[Guest scooterj]

Thanks for all the tips!

 

I've decided to take a southern route, because later on this fall I'll be going to Minnesota and can hit those Iowa caches on the way at that time. I'm going take advantage of Labor Day to make it a 3-day weekend and try to pick up some of the challenging caches in the Ozarks of MO and AR, then grab a few in the St. Louis area, and finally hitting up the Katy Trail one on the way back home.

[Guest GeoForse]

Let me also plug the caches in the Ames, Iowa area. Keep in mind that for the most part, the terrain will be less than 2 or 2-1/2. We have made up for it by designing and hiding some especially devilish multi-virtual caches.

[Guest joshgray]

from around here - plug in zip code 65201, badabing!

 

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JoshGray

eTrex Basic http://joshgray.myip.org

[Guest tecmage]

Hi,

 

To back up Geoforse, we have placed a few caches around Central Iowa (Ames, Boone, Ankeny) and they are varied in difficulty. Ames is a great college town, and there are 11 caches in a 20 mile radius of downtown Ames, plus another two along the way north.

 

Richard