O'Hare

[+Slytherin]

We have a five hour layover at ORD when we fly back to the UK in April.

 

Are there any caches handy for that area that could be done without having to rent a car.

 

Thanks

Alex.

[+parkrrrr]

The closest cache to O'Hare seems to be over 4 miles away, so it would appear that what you need to look for is a cache that's near an El stop or somewhere where you can easily get there and back again by taxi.

 

You might be able to walk to one of the closer caches if you walk quickly, but I wouldn't advise trying to walk in or out of O'Hare; the traffic is fierce and sidewalks are scarce. An alternative might be to take a parking shuttle to an outlying long-term parking lot and walk from there, but with all the freeways and rail lines that surround O'Hare, it will still be a much longer walk than the straight-line mileage might suggest. If you do this, note that the long-term parking is mostly on the east side of the airport, so you'll actually be starting further away from the first cache you see listed (but much closer to the fourth one.) Remember, too, that if you leave the terminal you'll want to leave at least an hour or perhaps longer to get back in, especially to the International terminal.

 

The search below, if it works, is for coordinates somewhere in the middle of the parking structure in the center of the domestic terminal building.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?origin_lat=41.9796&origin_long=-87.90446

[+SteveOr]

There are three in a cluster in Busse Woods which is a modest cab ride away. But you would obviously have to have the cab stay for awhile or arrange to return later (a bit of a risk in my opinion-US cabbies aren't nearly as professional as those in London). But there is one cache there I'm sure many in the Chicago area would highly recommend: Row, Row, Row Your Boat http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=4583 . This one requires you to rent a canoe or row boat to get to the area of the cache ($8 for an hour if I remember correctly). I'm not sure if boat rental will be available yet but if you are interested I can make a few phone calls and find out. Also there is a payphone there if you want to call a cab to pick you up.

 

Another option is to see if any local Geocachers would like to adopt you for a few hours.

[+Slytherin]

quote:

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Originally posted by SteveOr:

Another option is to see if any local Geocachers would like to adopt you for a few hours.

---

 

That would be great if there's anyone who has a couple of hours spare on the afternoon of Thursday 11th April. We arrive at ORD at 1:15pm from Minneapolis and don't depart for Manchester until 6:30pm.

 

I'm going to place a cache within walking distance (probably about 1 mile away) from our local airport and also see if I can get people interested in creating a series of "caches for travellers" that are possible to do for people who have stopovers or time to spare when travelling by plane (or train for that matter).

 

Anyone interested in doing one near O'Hare before the 11th April?

 

Cheers

Alex (UK)

[luxy]

I just found this web site yesterday and plan on getting a GPS real soon. I'm new to this, but live on the NW side of Chicago, so maybe I will try to see what I can do. I need a little more experience, like finding my first one. Like the other guy said, going to El stops is the best bet or the parking garages. Walking out is like walking on an interstate highway for quite a while. You technically can't even bike into O'Hare. There is a lot of open area around O'Hare. The question is placing one outside the airport that you can walk to and access.

[+Markwell]

Sure hope y'all are coming to the 2002 Chicagoland Geocaching Picnic...

 

Markwell

My Geocaching Page

[luxy]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kimrobin:

We have a five hour layover at ORD when we fly back to the UK in April.

 

Are there any caches handy for that area that could be done without having to rent a car.

---

 

I've got some good small urban geocache containers set up. I may go to O'Hare Monday evening and plant one at O'Hare. Otherwise, I have another one about 2 blocks from the Washington L station (or Clark/Lake) downtown, the Blues Brothers geocache, which is the closest non-virtual geocache to downtown Chicago. I think it may be hard to find given the density of people (and I'll have to check if its still there), and it is hard to get a good GPS reading close to downtown. That's quite a ways from the airport at under 2 hours of total travelling, but it only costs about $2.00 with a transfer and the L goes right into the airport and right to downtown. If you want to monitor geocaches near O'Hare, a zip code of Rosemont is 60018, since the way out of O'Hare is normally on the east side by the interstate access route. A downtown zip code is 60602.

 

I just checked the weather and rain on Monday and Tuesday, so maybe I'll put that off until later in the week.

 

Blues Brothers geocache

 

If anyone looked for this, but thinks it is too hard to find, let me know. I think the hints may be a bit sketchy, but otherwise, I'd practically have to give away the location.