[GeoStL] Re: Mina Sauk....Redux
- From: Eric & Dayna East <believer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:46:22 -0600
-
Don't feel bad, it's not as bad as what I did last spring in Southern Illinois.
This one cost
me a lot of money! Here's my log from the Hutchins Creek Cache.
Well, I don't really know where to begin.
I was on a family herping outing & had planned to do some caching also but, the
others in my
group (newbie cachers) aren't as gung ho as me & didn't want to cache in the
dark so, I headed
out on my own. I found Cache with a view while it was still light & then headed
to Inspiration
point. I finished this on in the dark & got a bit turned around but, that's
another story. I
then headed for this cache by way of Hutchins creek road. I DO NOT recommend
this road for
anyone without a 4x4! I was in my moms mini van. I got within .25 miles of the
cache when the
road decided to cross the creek. I stopped & got out to inspect the creek &
decided it wasn't
very deep but, still I was skeptical about trying to cross it. I finally
decided to cross it
after seeing a truck coming from the other direction pass through it easily.
Man was that a
mistake!!! I was nearly across when the van died due to the water being over
the tail pipe.
After about 20 minutes of starting the van moving a couple of inches & then
having it die
again I finally got out. At first the van was running very rough but it soon
smoothed out & I
was on my way back to camp when suddenly I heard the sound of breaking metal &
the engine
died. I had thrown a rod through the oil pan!
I caught a ride back to the camp sight, & had my dad tow the van back with his
truck.
We ended up having to rent a uhaul truck with a trailor to pull the van the 250
miles back
home.
All we wanted was the trailor but, the guy @ uhaul refused to rent it to us
because he didn't
think my dad's gmc pickup could handle the weight. At first the guy was going
to charge us
$211.00 for the truck, $88 for the trailor & then $160 for deposits. But, dad
talked him into
taking $150 total.
On top of that I now have to replace the engine in the van!
Needless to say, we didn't do as many caches or as much herping as we'd planned.
Oh well, I will be back for this one another time!
I hope this makes you feel a little better about your self! LOL
Eric
BottomFeeder wrote:
> -
> H. H'billy,
>
> I think you just might have taken the only pics of the frozen Mina Sauk
> Falls that are likely to be seen this year. I was so intrigued by your pics,
> I thought I'd try the adventure for myself today. An adventure that can only
> be entitled 'Dumb City Boy'.
>
> Loaded a bunch of Ironton area caches into GPXSonar, charged up the GPS,
> loaded TaumSauk area maps into the pda (with caches as 'Markers'), checked
> out the weather forecast, packed up the camera gear, and headed south from
> STL.
>
> The drive all the way down to and thru Ironton was fine. Turned on to CC and
> even it was clear. Proceeded up CC to the fork where you bear right to head
> into TS Mtn S.P. CC is cleared if you stay on it and bear left at the fork
> and head up by the Lookout Tower. The road into the park looks like it
> hasn't seen a plow since winter started. And it looks like they got 4-5" of
> snow Wed nite and Thur when we were only getting an inch here in STL. But it
> looks like several sets of tire tracks are heading up the road into the
> park, so how bad can it be? (Uh-oh...does ya see what's coming? :) )
>
> I stop at the fork and look down the road into the park.......and look
> again...and again. Do I...or don't I? Decision time. Two voices in my head
> telling me 2 different things.......
> - Voice #1, the calm sensible one telling me..."Don't do it. You'll be
> s-o-r-r-y!"
> - Voice #2, the macho 'Dumb City Boy' one telling me..."Oh c'mon...ya just
> drove a hundred miles to get here. Ya gonna let a little snow stop ya now?
> You know you won't get another shot at this."
>
> Keeping in mind that I'm not driving an SUV.....am in a sporty little front
> wheel drive thing, guess which one of the two voices won out? You got
> it....'DCB'. I turn down the road into the park.....mistake #1. But the
> going isn't *too* bad as long as I keep moving, if somewhat slowly. As I
> approach the sign announcing entrance into the park, I see a fairly steep
> hill (given the conditions) ahead of me and get cold feet (figuratively
> speaking, of course :) ). And stop right in front of the sign.
>
> Again faced with 2 choices...try and continue up the hill til I can find a
> 'safe' area to turn around. "But what if I can't get up the hill and start
> sliding back down? Who knows what I'll slide back down into." Not a very
> appealing choice.
>
> But don't worry, there's a worse choice. And I'm in full DCB mode now, and
> choose to try and turn around right where I'm at. Mistake #2! Though the
> road is *mostly* flat where I'm sitting, and the shoulder has only a fairly
> gentle slope to it, there's still the matter of 4-5" of snow sitting on top
> of the pre-existing ice. Needless to say, the end result is not pretty...I
> wind up with my front bumper almost kissing the 'Welcome to TS Mtn S.P.'
> sign. And though I come close to getting out of the jam on my own, 'close is
> no cigar'...as the saying goes.
>
> Anyway, to make a short story long.....I finally hike back up to CC, and
> down it quite a way til I'm able to flag down one of the locals, and with
> his help and a phone call to the local towing service, eventually I get out.
>
> So, as I sit here now all warm and toasty, I appreciate your pics even more.
> Outstanding job of getting them!
>
> I don't know how many of the list members have done the caches in this area,
> but there's certainly enough in the vicinity to make a good group
> cache........when it's warmer and drier. :)
>
> -= Russ =- (aka BottomFeeder, aka Dirty Bartholomew Vane, and
> now....aka 'Dumb City Boy')
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: geocaching-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:geocaching-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Greg Ponder
> Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 06:40
> To: geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [GeoStL] Re: Mina Sauk
>
> The hike is around 3 miles round trip. The trailhead is not at the tower any
> more. It starts at the highest point parking.
>
> The gravel roads in the area were all ready for sled riding (I posted a
> picture of the road into my newest cache GCHM37...blatant plug). Although
> large portions of the trail and all of the rocks at the base of the falls
> were ice-covered, I thought the reward very much outweighed the risk. I
> think I'm disappointed in the pictures because I didn't seem to capture the
> awesome scene...but reducing great views to 5x7 makes capturing the moment
> difficult even with the best equipment. What I really needed on this trip
> was a wide angle.
>
> I'm guessing that a combination of wet and cold weather will cause Mina Sauk
> to freeze fairly often. I've also been told that Rocky Falls can freeze in
> times of extreme cold, but that would take a long, bitter cold stretch. I
> talked to a Rocky Falls local, and he had never seen it frozen and doubted
> if the moving water would freeze...but Mina Sauk shows it very well can.
>
> Greg Ponder...The Hairy Hillbilly
>
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