Trick or Treat!

My 2007 Halloween pumpkin!


Self Portrait?

We had a total of 5 trick or treaters this year. I think last year we had 2.

Woodstove in action!

Here is the new woodstove in action.

It sure puts out the heat.

Tricachealon October 20, 2007

I’ve wanted to do this geocache ever since it was posted, but just did not have the time. It was looking like it would have to wait until next summer until a group of friends said that they wanted to come out to Roy Lake in October for a fall vacation. I was more than happy to have them come out. I enjoy their company and sure like the help pulling the boat and the solid steel 1950’s sectional dock out of the water for the season. I mentioned the tricachealon to them and they were excited to join the Roy Lake team.

The main team consisted of Ed, Jeff, Penny, Hayden and I. Our support team was Jayna, Jo and little Reese. The adventure turned out to be a 12-hour day.

We left for Bemidji at 9:30 am and began the adventure. We got to the first staging area and quickly found the first geosign. The geosign gave us the cords for the parking area of the “The Bike.” We drove to the parking location to begin (of course) the biking portion of the tricachealon to find the numbers to release the red seal. Some of us had been to this place before to find a cache earlier in the summer and to our good fortune there were no muggles in the lot. I think that this can be a very busy area in the summer.

The after punching in the numbers into the GPS we were quickly on our way to find the geosigns. I have wanted to bike here for a few years and now I got my chance. With the leaves down you get a real open view into the woods which must be a very different look from when the leaves are still on the trees in the summer.

We headed out with the wind pushing us to the next geosign. We found all of the bike geosigns with last one giving us the cords for “The Boot.” On the trip back down the path we faced a cool wind off the lake. Wish I had brought a cap along. After our 12 miles of biking, we loaded up the bikes and the support team picked up Hayden and took him for lunch. Ed, Jeff, Penny and I made a quick trip to McDonalds and then drove out to the next parking area to start the hike. I had been out to this area before to find a couple of caches this summer.

We arrived at “The Boot” portion of the cache and after putting on our blaze orange we set out to find the numbers to the green seal. This was not as easy as the biking portion. I think that there is some kind of secret gps jamming device hidden in the woods. My gps was bouncing quite a bit during the hike. It actually made the search a bit more fun.

We would stop and start searching and then the gps would point us 50 feet north, then 30 feet west, then 45 feet north. This was quite the hike up and down and over the water. We ran into an ATVer who said that a week ago it was all dry and now he could not make some of the trails because of the recent rain. The water areas were easy to walk around on foot, although Penny almost made a splash. These trails went up and down and the gps would point into the woods. Jeff wanted to take off bushwhacking, but I told him to trust the trails and I’m glad we did. The only wildlife we saw was a deer and a woodpecker.

After finding all the geosigns, we made it back to the parking area and met up with our support team. Fall was a perfect time to do this cache, “no bugs.” Jo said that she and Hayden had started walking down one of the paths to see if they could see us coming, but she thought that see saw bear poo and changed her mind.

Part of the support Team!

We picked up a canoe and headed out for the boat portion of the tricachealon to locate the numbers for the blue seal. I had been by this area before during the summer to find a cache. The tenth geosign took about 10 minutes of looking. I loaded the cords in the gps and then we unloaded the canoe. There was only room for three of the team so Ed, Hayden and I headed into the wind looking for remaining boat geosigns. It seemed like it was taking forever to get to the next geosign, but once we got closer to the other shore the wind went away and it was smoother paddling. The cords were right on and we paddled right up to the geosign. After loading the cords we paddled around an island and found another geosign. This was getting easy, I loaded the cords and was thinking that the next geosign would be a piece of cake.

As we paddled the gps was pointing us to a beaver structure, I said “hey this is going to be easy.” Once we pulled up I was proven wrong. Those darn beavers decided to move back in. We paddled around and looked and looked. Lots of fresh mud, weeds, sticks and logs packed around the structure. Hayden thought that I should step out and look on the structure and of course I always take the advice of a 6 year old, so I did. Man those beavers can build. I poked around and looked, but the beavers had buried or hid the unlucky 13th geosign on us. As I was doing the beaver house shuffle a thought came into my head, maybe we could send someone into town and buy a metal detector. Then Ed mentioned something about dynamite.

After retrieving my shoe that got sucked into the beaver house muck, I got back into the canoe (without falling in) and we headed back to shore. The trip back was with the wind to our backs, but the paddling didn’t seem any easier. It was starting to get dark. When we reached the landing the rest of the team was bummed out that we could not find the geosign. Luckily I had the tricachealon emergency hotline number.

The Boat.

Jo and I had been to the three geosign caches earlier in the summer before they had held geosigns. We had paid a visit to Paul’s Pocket the day before to get the number and the support team had paid a visit to Cache-R-Us while we were on our hike. Reese and Hayden also got their picture taken in pirate garb.

Our next stop was to pay a visit to a giving tree for another geosign. While we were looking in the dark for the giving tree, Jo made a call to the hotline and got the numbers from the missing geosign. Hayden was quick to find the cache and we now had the numbers to the yellow seal. We now made our way towards the final geosign.

As we approached the final parking area we were greeted by a very friendly half bear half dog. I believe it is the guardian of babe. We gave the guardian a hug and we were allowed to pass. I loaded the final cords and we made the last part of the journey. We found a path that led us to the Egyptian Urn and Babes ashes. It was dark so we had to unlock the seals by flashlight. I was laughing at myself, because I did not bring my reading glasses and it was a challenge for me to open the seals. I managed to get three opened and had to let the Ed opened the last seal. We carefully lifted the top and retrieved the log.

Wow, what a sight! The ashes of Babe! We are now among the lucky few who can say that they saw the ashes of a true legend! We were very excited to say the least! The Third to find prize was awesome. The “cache me if you can” coins are incredible. As Hayden said “Sweet.” The T-shirts will be worn with pride.

Jo and Penny volunteered to sign the log as Ed and I went back to the truck for some geoswag. I can’t believe that I didn’t have any swag in my pockets. As I dug through my truck I could not find any geoswag. After about 10 minutes of frantic searching, Jayna, waiting in the van, said “are you looking for a bag of stuff?” She opened the van door and pulled out a bag of swag. Ed and I quickly made the trip back to the cache with my million candlelight powered flood light (which ran out of juice after 5 minutes). We let Hayden pick a piece of swag from the cache and he wanted the compass, so that is what we took. We left two lapel pins--a Lewis and Clark and a North Dakota.

At the ashes of Babe!

Wow! This is the best conceived and placed cache that I have seen. During the day we all came to appreciate the amount of thought, time and work that had to go into placing the Tricachealon cache. Our hats are off to Netinator and Fargnot! Thanks!!

The Day After at Roy Lake.

A tired Geocacher!

All rested up the day after!

New Fire Place

Sept 30 fire place project. After over 30 years I'm putting a new fireplace in at the lake. I like the old one, but it was starting to fall apart. I'll post some pictures once it is completed.




Ed taking 5.






The old fireplace.

Peterson Coulee Hare Scramble 2007

Peterson Coulee Hare Scramble 2007

September 23rd, 2007

Went up to Langdon, ND for the first annual Peterson Coulee Hare Scramble.

Hayden was making his racing debute. His dad and 2 uncles were also in the race.

Hayden making his 2nd lap with his dad following.

Getting ready for lap 3.

Off he goes!

Look close and you can see Hayden coming down the hill.

Hayden relaxing after the race with Marcus.

Jo checking on the boys.

Reese and Jo checking out the action.

Look! First Place!!!

Ed making another round in his race.

It turned out to be a hot day at the races. Over 60 racers showed up for the races. Not bad for the first year.

Summer Update

From June 29 to July 15 we spent our vacation over the Fourth of July holiday at the lake.

The vacation started off with a geocaching trip to the Bemidji area on July 1st. We concentrated on the area north of Bemidji. Check out my piece of art from one of Kelly Arts caches. It's now hanging in my kitchen.

On one of our stops I asked Jo to wait by the side of the road so that I could run into the woods and find a quick geocache. As Jo was patiently waiting on the side of the road in the pickup she watched as some sheriff and State Trooper cars wiz down the highway. One soon turned around and drove over to pay Jo a visit. The Trooper was wondering if she was ok. She said that she was just waiting for someone. He told her that there had been a trouble call in the area and was wondering if she was the one in trouble.

July 3rd we made a trip to Detroit Lakes and found a couple of geocaches.

Visit from the boys (Ed and Jayna Too)!

Ed, Jayna, Hayden and Reese visited from July 3 to 8 with us.

We checked out the fireworks on the fourth at the Shooting Star. Later on in the week we took a boat trip out at night to check out the Roy Lake Association fireworks. Jo stayed in the cabin with Reese and watched from the front window.


On July 5 we headed to Walker and had pizza at Benson’s. Ed and I biked the Heartland Trail from Walker to Nevis, which is about 16 miles. Hayden joined us for about 10 miles of the trip and then Jo and Ed biked the 5 miles from Nevis to Dorset. As you can see Reese had fun at the parks along the route.

On the way home we stopped at the Rapid River Logging Camp for supper. It includes a museum of logging history of the area. It is a great dining spot with meals served family style in the logging camp mess hall and best of all it’s all you can eat.

Heartland Trail info: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/heartland/index.html

Hayden, Reese and Jayna with Paul at Akley.

We made the mandatory trip to Itasca State park. The boys enjoyed the headwaters and the ice cream at the Mary Gibbs Visitor Center afterwards. Ed, Hayden and I then made the bike trip from the Headwaters to Douglas Lodge. Hayden pumped the pedals hard and made it up the hills. After visiting Douglas Lodge, Ed and I made the trip back to the swimming beach and met up with the rest.

We then headed back to the cabin for supper.

Good ice cream!

Hayden and Reese relaxing at the cabin.

Just Jo and Me.

On July 10 Jo and I headed into Park Rapids for a little shopping. Had lunch at Companeros and checked our email at Sister Wolf Books using there free WIFI: http://www.sisterwolfbooks.com/

Jo went back to Grand Forks for a meeting on Wednesday, July 11, and then headed up to Langdon to help Jayna with a Rummage Sale for a couple of days before coming back to the lake on Friday night. My mom came out on Friday and spent the weekend with us.

Visit with the Horn's

From July 19 to the 23 we were at the lake with friends from Bismarck.

We arrived at the lake on Thursday night about 30 minutes before our guests from Bismarck Rick, Lynnette and their kids Ashton, Alexis and Austin (aka Oscar) spent 4 days visiting. On Friday we went to Itasca State Park and went to all the sites. We started at the headwaters and made our way around the loop. We made the mandatory stop at the fire tower before heading home.

On Saturday we headed out to Park Rapids and spent a couple of hours at the World of Christmas. The kids had a great time on the bumper boats and go carts. We then headed to Dorset to have supper at Companeros http://www.companerosofdorset.com/
After a great Mexican meal we headed back to the lake for a campfire and smores.

On Sunday we hung around the cabin. Rick went over to Elk Horn Resort to visit his Aunt and Uncle.

If you look you can see Austin from the top of the fire tower.

The Girls at the top.

Self Portrait at the top!

A view from the top.

On the 23rd the company went back to Bismarck and Jo and I headed towards Bemidji to do some geocaching and eating. We stopped by Alida and Moose Lake on the way to Bemidji and found some caches. We found lots of caches in Bemidji.

We stopped by Dave’s Pizza in Bemidji to eat supper. Dave’s has awesome pizza!! http://www.davespizza.biz/

It was hotter than heck out. When we got back to the lake it was 88 degrees in the cabin. We worked up a sweat packing up and headed back to Grand Forks.

Blueberry Bummer

From July 27 evening to the 29th we were at the lake. We hung around the cabin and contemplated going to the Blueberry festival in Lake George. Ended up just loafing around the cabin. The neighbors went and were disappointed. They didn’t have any blueberry brats! Good thing we decided to just hang around the cabin.

Choke Cherry Drive

Aug 3rd evening to the 5th we were at the lake.

We did some geocaching north of Fosston on the way to the cabin. On Saturday we hung around the cabin and relaxed. We caught a few fish off the dock. Caught one keeper bass and lost a small Johnson’s Silver Minnow to a mystery lunker. We ate supper at Pinehurst. The Saturday night special is prime rib and boy was it tasty. http://www.pinehurstlodge.net/

On Sunday we spent 6 hours driving and never got more than 10 miles from the cabin. We picked about 2 gallons of choke cherries and placed a geocache. Stopped by the Shooting Star on the way home and made a donation.

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm way late on updating this blog. Sorry folks.

Had a nice long weekend at the lake. Left GF on Friday morning. Stopped at Chicog Wildlife Area and conducted a successful geocache search. It started to rain, so we cut short on the geocaching hunt. Stopped by Bergeson Nursery outside of Fertile to buy some flowers for the lake. Bergesons is a third generation family run business and has a fantastic garden (http://www.bergesonnursery.com/). We usually stop in once per year to pick up our lake stuff. As usual they had free coffee and donuts and everyone was friendly as ever. After the nursery visit we headed out for the lake. Had to make a pit stop at the Shooting Star and arrived at the lake after our 5 hour trip from GF.

Saturday it rained the whole day and Jo did not venture from the cabin. I managed to bring my coffee for a walk over to the neighbors for a while. Spent the day working on my fishing reels and loafing. I think Jo read a book or two and started to work on a puzzle.











On Sunday we made a trip into Bemidji and did some geocaching on the way. Here is a geocache from Coffee Pot Landing on the Mississippi River. I have the 411 phone a friend geocoin in my hand.

We also made a stop to Gander Mountain for fishing line and license.

On Monday we hung around the cabin and planted our flowers.

In the evening we drove over to the Shooting Star for my Birthday Supper. Left with more money in my pocket than I came with, so that was a good birthday visit. When we got back to the cabin we had some birthday cake (Yum! Yum!).

Tuesday we cleaned up and headed back to GF. stopped by the Star on the way home and gave back some of my winnings.

Here's the finished puzzle. It turned out to be a bit of a bugger.

Nice Weekend At the Lake

Well, despite the forecast, it turned out to be a nice weekend at the lake. Got the water pump installed without much trouble (Knock on Wood). No mice in the shed! (Knock on Wood again). Spent much of my time chipping the wood debris that the power co-op left after they cut the right away. Talked to B and G. They are here for the rest of the summer. The ice must have gone out sometime during the week. Not much activity on the lake yet. A few people were out for the weekend. There was one boat out on Saturday. The boat landing is a bit out of whack due to the ice heaving. Hopefully it will flatten back down. Went to the Shooting Star on Saturday night for prime rib and the buffet. I came out ahead and Jo dropped a few nickels and pennies.



It's amazing how a big pile of branches and be reduced down to a small pile of mulch. I'll have to plant some more trees so that I can use my mulch.

We also did some geocaching over the weekend. Stopped in Erskine and found one on Friday night and on Sunday we headed over to the Bagley area and found three more.


Jo found this one below. The GPS signal was bouncing all over, but Jo said that she thought that she saw it and of course she was right. And of course Jo also found a tick.

Abby Update

Abby is still with us! One of the neighbors emailed today with the following:

B&G were back up from Florida and had a message on their phone that someone in Minneapolis thought that they had Abby. Seems like they were staying at the Lake and Abby showed up at their door and they took her in. They couldn't find her owners, so they took her home for the winter. So it looks like we should see Abby soon.

Spring trip to the Lake

Made it to the lake! This is our first trip since January. On the trip out we did a bit of geocaching. Found 2 out of the three we looked for. If you’re interested in finding out about geocaching you can check out http://www.geocaching.com/ or you can go to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching I have been geocaching since January.

I mentioned below that I dislike mice, well I just hate mice. Opened the shed and 4 of my five traps held a mouse and the 5th held a shrew. I put on the rubber gloves and emptied the vermin into a bag and reset the traps for the next crop.

There was no snow left. I was worried about water this year, but my gutters and dirt moving did the trick and there were no wet floors to greet me this year. The power company had been out and cut down some trees on the power line right-a-way. I was bummed out when Jo pointed out that the best producing choke cherry tree had been cut down.

A woodpecker had been pecking a hole in my nice pine in front of the cabin. I will have to check out how to keep the woodpecker at bay.

Opened H’s cabin and took a quick look, everything was okie dokie inside. There was a broken down spout that I put back up. The outhouse was ready for use (no rodents).

The Boats made it through the winter with the tarps intact. The last 2 years my pontoon tarp has ripped under the weight of the ice and snow. Here's a picture from last winter.

The neighbors to the north were back from Arizona and B & G are in Florida. Stopped at the Shooting Star and left with more money than we came with so that was good. The drive home from Erskine to GF was pretty foggy. I had to drive about 50 mph on hwy 2.

Here's the view of the lake from the deck. A bit foggy on the ice.

Another view of the cutting.