Power Trails

Another power trail was recently created very close to my home caching area. Between Hackensack, MN and Pequot Lakes, MN on the Paul Bunyan trail. The Paul Bunyan Trail is the longest bike trail in Minnesota and now yields a continuously paved trail from Brainerd, MN to Lake Bemidji State Park in Bemidji, MN -- a total of 112 paved miles! The terrain of the Paul Bunyan Trail ranges from flat and open to hilly and scenic.  Along the 112 miles of trail there are many areas to stop and rest and enjoy the beauty of nature in Northern Minnesota.

One of the vehicles used to move our bikes and crew

A small group from the Geocaching Buddies - Facebook group (edit: link changed) who have completed other power trails, got together on a very "unseasonably early" spring day in northern MN. Technically it was still winter since the first day of spring was still 3 days away...

Because of the early spring we had been itching to get out as a group, so the plans for this trail came together real fast, and by the next day all the pieces of the afternoon of power caching were set. It is good to note, that these plans cannot be static as weather can always add an interesting twist to any plans. That was the case for us. We had planned to drop one vehicle on the north starting point and the other on the south, but after battling the wind in our faces for the first 2 hours heading south, we decided that it would be a very difficult day of biking if we kept this up. So we packed up and went to south starting point and headed north. This decision allowed us to average 3-4 minutes per find.

Typical hide along the trail.

Now most of these hides are bison tubes but they blend in really well and most are also winter friendly (meaning that they are at least 2-4 ft above the ground) which is great for anyone wanting to grab a few of these caches in the winter since this trail doubles as a snowmobile trail.

Long story short, I finished the day with 165 finds and 2 DNF's...the rest of the Cach-N' Crazy Crew finished with 172 finds and 2 DNF's (since I had already made a few finds when they were first published). We are now planning on our next adventure along the Heartland Trail from Park Rapids, MN to Walker, MN as this is becoming populated with new hides in the past few weeks.

It has been a great spring so far and I'm really excited for all the new hides that are planned in the area including the GeoNuts 2012 Challenge (edit: link removed).

- See you on the trail!