I introduced Geocaching to my Venturing Crew. It was a way to get them out onto the trails, to teach them how to follow a GPS device from a starting point to a specific location. We started off with a simple one, a walking trail out a Lake Jacomo where someone had hidden a couple of nice caches. Then we did a little light bushwacking for the last two caches of the trip. But nothing like what we would encounter at Monkey Mountain.
Monkey Mountain is located outside the Kansas City Metro area, just to the east of Grain Valley Missouri. It is one of several small parks maintained by Jackson County Missouri, and is used not only by horseback riders, but Scout Troops from around the area. For the most part, there are no trails. There is a trail that leads up a steep hill and then back into a rocky area that people use to camp, and there is the horse trail. After that, its bushwacking through open grass areas, groves of trees, and a lot of prickly brush and thorn bushes.
We apparently took on the two hardest of the four caches located at this location. I handed the GPS off to one of the Venturing Crew members and told them to get tracking. The first one was simple enough, just a bit of a climb. It was hidden in the camping area. But the second one was .8 of a mile (direct line) across the park, and we got a good look at all of the bushwacking obstacles this location offered. We crossed creeks, we walked through and around patches of thorn bushes, and through swampy areas in our quest to reach the second cache, and then work our way back out. To make matters even more interesting, rain moved in while we were back deep on the trek, but it never got to be any more than a light rain that didn't bother us while back in the trees.
Overall, we put in just at three miles that afternoon. We went in after all four caches, but after the walk we did to find the first two, and looking at the time, I told my Crew members that we would have to come back and get the other two another day.
Back home, it clearly appears that we had taken on the hard one in our second cache. We went after it from the furthest starting point, the parking lot on the south side of the park. The remaining two, which are on our list of places to go, appear to be a lot friendlier terrain, but what does that matter. Venturing is about adventure. Its about challenge, and these two Geocaches taught the crew members a lot about bushwacking.
Geocaches Found:
#1 - GC12D5 - Monkey's Retreat
#2 - GCBFCD - Monkey See, Monkey Do v2
