Nerstrand Big Woods State Park...

So this morning, I had Lukie make us some sandwiches and pack some snacks into a bag.  Both Lukie and Lex grabbed some water bottles (though we found out later that Lukie filled his up, but it did get to the car...good thing I had extra) and we took off...

I didn't bother to tell either one what was up until about ten minutes down the road...I said we were off to Nerstrand Big Woods State Park near Northfield.  Lukie responded with a 'NO!!!' but there was nothing he could do (Big Woods is one of the three parks that Lukie and I completed the hiking club trail alone) and he figured we could geocache at the park too...

Our first step at the park was the hiking club trail...we were off (with Lukie in the lead, followed by Lex and me at the end like usual)...

It didn't take us too long to find the password...Lex was happy...Lukie still was not that pleased that Lex was getting closer to his total (she's now just 5.5 miles behind Lukie), but he got over it...

Not long after finding the password, Lukie started talking about the 'Decepticon tree' that he remembered (he'll have to tell you why he calls it the Decepticon tree) at the park from a couple of years ago...as he described the tree, I remembered it, but wasn't sure which park it was at...he was confident it was at Big Woods, so we kept our eyes open...here was Lukie and the tree in June 2017...

And sure enough...fifteen minutes later we find it...though the cross beam had fallen out, but Lukie just placed it right back...

Lex had to get in on the picture too...

The park is one of three localities of the dwarf trout lily, so some areas of the park are really protected, but it makes the walking easy...

It is a nice park to visit, deep ravines with flowing water...during the most recent glaciation, the ice margin was 20-30 miles to the west and meltwater flowed east, carving these ravines...

After lunch, it was time to geocache...

We had already stumbled into two of the waypoints during our first hike, so we had an idea where we were going...

And quickly found the next waypoint...

It took us right past Hidden Falls, where Prairie Creek flows over resistant limestone creating a nice waterfall in southeastern Minnesota...

Whoops...we must've found another one...

If they don't argue over the GPS unit, they take turns holding it...if they argue over it, I hold it...we all held the GPS on this one...

There were seven total waypoints on this geocache, it was probably a two-mile hike to find it (though ironically, the cache was about 1,000 feet away from where we parked)...

We had no intention of taking a picture at the sign (we've done that before), but the next-to-last waypoint was located very near the sign, plus there are solar panels with a nice informational text to read, so they took off for the sign...

After walking right past the car, we found the cache...

They got their Aquatic Quest card, this one was an American Toad and we're happy...

It was a good start to the day...