John and I went and checked it out today. We walked the road until we found a trail toward the creek. We took the trail to the creek, which had only 2 inches of water in it. We have three wooden pallets that we will bring to use as a temporary bridge if needed. We will not leave the pallets there, for we will pick them up when we leave. The site had a map along with other information. We plotted the map on Google Earth and have an excellent way in with the least amount of climbing. It looks like we can get to GCMN2W with hardly any climbing at all. From there we can go to GCMN2T with an elevation of approximately 120 feet. From there, we can walk to GCMN2X along the ridge and drop down to the cache. From there, we can take the valley back to the parking lot. No more than 2.65 miles round trip. Compared to the other parking lot entrance, this looks much easier. We will be there, rain, snow, sleet or hail with the pallets. Hope to see everyone else there tomorrow! -Laurie (Denmother) and John (L Frank) From: "Jim Bensman" <junkmailno@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:38:55 -0600 - Sounds like it may be possible to get to it if you can get across the creek. They have the public use ends signs further than the creek. I wish I would have know this when I tried. But there still could be issues crossing the creek and staying on the South side of the creek until you get to the valley to head up. With this info maybe someone could go check it out and see if the water is low enough to cross the creek and follow it to the valley. I would volunteer but I am going on the caching trip tomorrow. (Quad Cities could get 8 inches of snow tomorrow so I suspect we will be going to Evansville.) -----Original Message----- From: Joel Porath [mailto:Joel.Porath@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 2:23 PM To: jbensman1@xxxxxxxxxxx; Ken Drenon Cc: John Vogel Subject: Re: MDC WEB COMMENT - General Mr. Bensman, In order to access the area, you will need to go south from the parking lot across the creek, then follow the south side of the creek upstream until you get to a valley or another location to go up the hill. You are correct in that there is a small strip of land from the parking lot south, and although the map might be a little misleading, the property line is actually the south side of LaBarque Creek, therefore the actuall creek is in private ownership. We are working on building a trail on the area this winter, perhaps with a foot bridge across the creek. Once this trail is complete, access will be made easier. Hope you get a chance soon to get out to this area again and enjoy it because you are correct, it is a neat place. If you have further questions, feel free to contact either myself or the Area Manager, John Vogel, at 636-441-4554. Thanks. joel Joel W. Porath Wildlife Regional Supervisor Missouri Department of Conservation St. Louis Regional Office 2360 Highway D St. Charles MO 63304 phone (636) 300-1953 ext. 226 fax (636) 926-9125 joel.porath@xxxxxxxxxx >>> <jbensman1@xxxxxxxxxxx> 12/23/2007 11:28 PM >>> Topic: General LaBarque Creek CA Sounded like a really neat place. I found the parking lot. The map shows everything south of the road as public property. But there were signs saying end of public use area on both sides of a 50 foot wide stip. The strip went up the steep hill/cliff. I was wanting to follow the LaBarque Creek to the first valley and then head up it. The map shows you can do this, but the signs said end of public use area. So I gave up. What's the deal and how to you access the area? Thanks. _________________________________________________________________ Share life as it happens with the new Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_122007