If you have the time and the tools, Marc’s brand of wizardry really does help. Pre-planning can really make things easier. We’ve had many successful trips that relied on a GSAK Usort list and a few good Streets and Trips maps.
Auto-routing can make a huge difference, especially down in coulee country where the road you think is heading right to it can suddenly be a mile away and parallel. No more driving around a country block until you find the right way in.
More often than not these days, I just don’t have as much time to plan meticulously, and just choose an area we’d like to see and go for it. We pretty much always plan on hitting at least 20 caches in a day, even with long, difficult ones peppered in. We point the car and stop at everything, unless we just got off a three-mile walk, and the next one is five… 😯 . Usually there are enough park’n’logs everywhere these days to mix it up with the hikes, even in the country.
Don’t limit yourself to city runs either. Down by you we’ve had some really good numbers days in Tomah and points south (thanks Shrek & Fiona 😉 ), and in the Portage, Dells and Baraboo area(more thanks to Sloughfoot and others). Winona is another good one near you, with plenty of other opportunities up and down the river. The Mayville-Waupun-Horicon triangle is packed with caches and would fit in well with you birding. All these are more our style too, just wandering the countryside at will.
As you see some more areas, you’ll get a feel for where you’ll get good numbers and sometimes not. Being close to LaCrosse, you’ve probably found that the hides are getting tougher, with lots of nanos on big metal objects and some caches with “challenging” coords. Jackson county has fantastic caches, every one a summit it seems like, with long walks and great vistas, but definitely not a numbers destination. Other areas seem effortless.
Most important, pick ones that look fun, because if you’re bored, the numbers won’t fill the void. It’s a big, beautiful world.
