Caching in central Illinois

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:38 pm

We're going to be heading south within the next month, and we wondered if those of you who have cached in or on the way to/through central Illinois have some suggestions for a few memorable caches.

We will be traveling I-39 south to Bloomington, I-74 east to Champaign, and I-57 south to about the Mattoon/Charleston area.

We're not looking for numbers or major outings, just a "glad we did this cache" experience or two or a few more. Thanks.

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:32 pm

We travelled that route to Indiana at Easter but only stopped at the rest stops. Easy off, easy on stops. We didn't travel off the highways though.
these were all fairly nice hides. On the way down it was lots of fun trekking through the snow. Shouldn't see that problem now though.
I guess it all depends on how much time you have to get where you are going.

have a safe trip.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:15 pm

Thanks for the tips, labrat--just got back from our trip to Illinois and tried some of the rest stops, on your advice. The snow wasn't a problem, but the shoulder-high grasses/weeds/etc. weren't too pleasant in a couple of them. Made for some nice geotrails, though.

Did some caches where we were staying in Champaign and more where we visited in Charleston. We liked those better because we could take our time with them. One we had researched before we left and figured would be a good one was GC17XYJ, the Charleston mural multi. that combined exploring the area, gathering information, and looking for a regular final cache. Took some time, but was very enjoyable.

It seems that Illinois geocachers have a fascination with yew bushes. If the cache wasn't hidden in one, it was close enough so that we found ourselves looking through the yew bushes. Even the one where we had put in slightly off coordinates led us to---yew bushes!

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:35 pm

The Yew must be the Illinois version of the pine tree Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:11 pm

I think yew are right!