This topic contains 12 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by 
Trekkin and Birdin 17 years, 5 months ago.
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Zuma has a swell bookmark set up of all the caches along the bike trail. It is about 30 miles each way and has about 50 caches on it. Does anyone have an interest in grabbing these (preferably in one day).
It would be a long day and you’d need a good bike and a pack for food and spare gear (bike repair stuff)…and LOTS of water.
We’d probably skip the multis unless they were VERY EASY.
I’d like to get a group of at least four together (sorry no kids) two cars means one on each end so the bike ride back could be a car ride instead…plus more eyes for finding caches is a good thing.
It would be best if one group could come from the north and one from the south so car pooling from each direction would be possible and there would still be two vehicles there.
The trail head is downtown Eau Claire, and goes out into the country about 30 miles. There are caches all along the trail, about 50 caches in total. Here is a link to caches along the Chippewa River Trail
http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=a86e39cd-79e9-4d36-8219-33695ac5955d
If the weekend works out with my schedule, I would love to do this. Is the trail best ridden on a road bike or a mountain bike?
@elfdoctors wrote:
If the weekend works out with my schedule, I would love to do this. Is the trail best ridden on a road bike or a mountain bike?
I’m hoping Zuma will chime in on the trail type; I’m assuming crushed gravel. I plan to ride my trusty Trek8000 mtn bike. Tentatively I have open May 10 (lots of Flash Mob events that day), 24 June 14 July 5, 12 and 26 open.
@elfdoctors wrote:
If the weekend works out with my schedule, I would love to do this. Is the trail best ridden on a road bike or a mountain bike?
The trail is paved from the trail head in Eau Claire to about 12 miles out, nearly to Caryville, as recollection serves. There is also a paved section near the other end in Durand. The part in between is crushed limestone and is a good riding surface so a road bike would be OK on this surface. I have used both a mountain bike and a road bike, and either is fine.
There are a couple of them that are the Lonely Cache Game list, which I know are there because I checked them, so be sure to do those ones for the extra points.. The ones not on the Lonely Cache Game list I have not checked since last sumer, but people are finding them so I assume they are there in good condition. I do hope to get out and start checking them soon though.
There are also 3 puzzles in the mix. 1 of the puzzles is quite easy (Skunk), one is medium (Iron Bridge) and one is difficult (Tick). All 3 are close to the trail so if ya work the puzzles out ahead of time, that will give you 3 more.
Try not to skip to many of the multi’s cuz, those are the ones that I like the best. Most are pretty easy. (White Pine is not easy though, so if on a time constraint, that would be the one to skip. Robin made me put on top of the hill overlooking the bike trail.)
Also, do look at the D/T ratings, as I try to be accurate. If it says it is a 1/1 it is probably in a tree 2 feet from the trail. A 2/2 is going to be further off the trail. And a 3/3 is gonna take some effort.)
Hope this helps.
zuma
Yep that helps. The main reason for wanting to skip multis is I don’t want to back track. I want to keep heading towards Durand.
…and pulling this off in one day will be hard I’m guessing. But I so love a challenge….then again I have done MANY centuries on my bike…it’s the stopping every 600 feet that will take all the time.
Hi again,
Regarding backtracking, if going from EC to Durand:
Black Willow, Turkey, Red Maple, Red Birch, Stumped, Hangin Town go the right direction for no backtracking.
Elms, Cashew Too, Kaiser, Tyrone, White Pine, Porterville all go the opposite way, but not far. Of those, Tyrone and White Pine are the furthest off the trail, and the others are quick ones. Tyrone has some cool history though, and I like it a lot, though the final is nothing special.
Mary Dean’s Ghost goes .75 miles the wrong way.
I should also mention that the bigger issue is that some of the caches take longer than ya might wish for if doing em all, because they are not as close to the trail as you might expect, as the DNR right of way is quite wide along here in most places and it gave me a lot of room to work with.
If you are interested in caches that are within 20 feet of the trail and easy to find, you might want to check out the Woodville trail. Only a couple of those are mine, but there must be at least 40 caches there, and it would be very easy to get em all in one day by bike, since the right of way is only about 20 feet on either side of the trail so all the caches are right on the trail. Your numbers would be better doing the Woodville trail; the scenary is better on the Chippewa River Trail.
zuma
@zuma wrote:
If you are interested in caches that are within 20 feet of the trail and easy to find, you might want to check out the Woodville trail. Only a couple of those are mine, but there must be at least 40 caches there, and it would be very easy to get em all in one day by bike, since the right of way is only about 20 feet on either side of the trail so all the caches are right on the trail. Your numbers would be better doing the Woodville trail; the scenary is better on the Chippewa River Trail.
zumaThanks for reminding me of the trail…I was going to go to RiverFalls and do some caching a few weeks from now but I think I will bring up my bike instead and do the woodville trail.
Biking and geocaching-my two favorite activities.
this sounds interesting if it is on a Sunday I am in.shrek
The Woodville aka Wildwood trail is 3 miles from my house. Let me know when you are coming, I’ll ride with ya. Plan on starting in Woodville and riding south. Make sure your pocket query includes the area around Spring Valley as well. It will be fun to meet ya in person.
I have contacted a few people privately and couldn’t work things out for my first outing as I’m under some very tight time constraints. I actually didn’t plan to be on a bike trail so early this year but an unexpected trip is bringing me near Woodville.
I hope to cache along a few more bike trails in the state as time allows but likely this will not happen until winter so perhaps I’ll try to get a trip planned at that time again….with the price of gas what it is I think I will call my current trip it in as far as LONG drives in concerned (for the time being anyway). I hope to get on the trail with a few of you at some point this year.
Just a little note on your planned attempt to complete the entire Chippewa River Trail Series in one day – GOOD LUCK.
I guess I’d have to say it can’t be done in one day without night caching on one end or the other.
If you don’t do’um all and just cherry pick along the way I still don’t believe you can get from Eau Claire to Durand.
I think you would be advised to do the series over the course of a weekend. The work Zuma! put into it deserves more than a park and grab approach to this great list of caches. The Trail itself is also a great experience.
Da Bloodhound
(The first and still the only cacher to complete this series)@Da Bloodhound wrote:
Just a little note on your planned attempt to complete the entire Chippewa River Trail Series in one day – GOOD LUCK.
I guess I’d have to say it can’t be done in one day without night caching on one end or the other.
If you don’t do’um all and just cherry pick along the way I still don’t believe you can get from Eau Claire to Durand.
I think you would be advised to do the series over the course of a weekend. The work Zuma! put into it deserves more than a park and grab approach to this great list of caches. The Trail itself is also a great experience.
Da Bloodhound
(The first and still the only cacher to complete this series)Yep doing it one day would be daunting alright. Not sure if it would be possible or not…I’d sure love to give it a try though. When I did the Woodville trail I began at 5:30am and was done and back in my car by 10am. I could have done it faster (possibly dropping an hour off that time) were it not 35 degrees and raining; wet trails, “river crossings” and extra gear I had to drag along to keep me warm and dry really slowed me down.
As to this being a park and grab approach I disagree that an attempt of this nature would be disrespectful. I can say honestly that I recall vividly about 35 of the 37 I did in Woodville and had a great time taking the trail and caching with brute force. I look forward to giving Chippewa trail a shot…one day is for sure a daunting prospect though.
I think it could be done in two days. We did the first half on a day when we’d started doing hiking caches in Wabasha, heading up the river and picking up a few, stopped at Rock Elm to grab certain ones and only then getting started in Durand later afternoon. We went from Durand to Meridean, riding back to Durand under cover of darkness.
Our second outing started us in Caryville, heading down toward Meridean, then back toward Eau Claire. We got as far as the black willow one that day. We still have to go get the ones that have been re-enabled, plus the rest into Eau Claire, but had we started our first day on the trail, I think we’d have nailed it. Plus I agree. These caches are all unique and creative in their design, and some require some time and exploration.
I’m still wishing I’d had my camera ready to capture Trekkin’s face while searching for the snake one! LOL We’re hoping it won’t be too much longer before we can say we did ’em all, too!
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