Geocaching in Eagan
April 9, 2006

 

Today we set out to find all 26 geocaches in the 'Alphabet Soup' series in Eagan. We'd been anticipating doing this series for some time, but were waiting for the perfect day to go for all 26 letters and the final "bowl of soup." We began our adventure at 7:00am in the morning, with the intent of finding each of the letters in order from A to Z. Eleven and a half hours and 151 miles later we found the final cache at 6:35pm, reaching a personal milestone of 900 total caches found.

It is a great series!
 
Relevant links: Eagan, Minnesota
 

 
Jonas getting dressed for cache "A" at 7:00am in Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

Julia's long shadow waves while waiting for Jonas to finally be ready.

Julia all bundled up. It was quite chilly this early in the morning!

Jonas just after scoring the find for "A."

Julia doing a little bird watching at Cedar Pond Park while heading toward cache "B."

An early morning view of Cedar Pond Park. It was very cool and peaceful.

A red-winged blackbird up in a tree.

Julia heading down the hill toward cache "C" in Schwanz Lake Park. It was still really cold out!

Jonas demonstrating how many caches we have found so far.

Jonas heading back up the hill toward where we parked.

Julia looking for cache "D" in Moonshine Park.

Still looking. This one was tricky!

Still looking!?!

Julia heading toward stage 1 of cache "E" near Eagan's historic town hall.

Julia heading toward stage 2.

A little duck out on the lake.

A little robin minding its own business in the grass.

Another little robin minding its own business sunning itself on a rock.

Julia looking for cache "F" in Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

April in the woods.

Julia near ground zero for cache "G" in Meadowland Park.

Julia signing the log for cache "H" in Mueller Farm Park.

Jonas putting the cache back in its hiding spot.

Jonas posing after we triumphantly found "H," the most difficult one so far!

A pair of Canada geese hanging out on the water, minding their own business.

Heading down the path to cache "K" in Burr Oaks Park.

This is the trailhead for Burr Oaks Park.

While looking for cache "L" in Kettle Park, we ran into another family of geocachers! Finding this cache was a cooperative effort.

We spotted this chickadee in Captain Dodd Park while on our way to cache "M."

Nearby we also spotted this downy woodpecker.

Here he is again.

Jonas opens and inspects the cache.

Some of the landscape we crossed over while heading to cache "R" in Barbara Currey Park.

Another view of Barbara Currey Park. Of all the caches we found today, this one had the toughest terrain to traverse.

Jonas in Blackhawk Park, on his way to cache "S."

Jonas heading up cache "U," hidden near a watertower.

A gorgeous cardinal hanging out in a tree, minding its own business.

Julia heading back to the car after a successful find at cache "X."

At cache "Y" in Wescott Station Park, Jonas gesticulates the fact that we have only ONE cache left to find to complete the alphabet.

Jonas descends the staircase to the final cache: the bowl of alphabet soup. With this last find, we set a new personal record of finding 27 geocaches in one day. Exhausted, sweaty and dirty, we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at El Loro.