Pacolet Geotrail Geocoin Has Arrived

My Pacolet Geotrail geocoin has arrived!

If you recall on the second day of 2015 I did the Pacolet Geotrail in Pacolet South Carolina, a small town full of interesting history and landscape (adventure covered here).  Completion of that geotrail earned me a geocoin.  It came in the mail today, complete with a hand written card from the mayor of Pacolet.  I've never gotten a hand written card from a mayor before, so that was a nice addition.

Here is the letter:

And here is the front of the coin (It proved tough to capture in my camera, so I went with the Google AutoAwesome view).  It is a solid "gold" coin. The small words at the bottom read "South Carolina".

Thanks Pacolet!  Also thanks to the geocachers who maintain this awesome trail in this fanstastic small town.

The Pacolet Geotrail

Pacolet South Carolina is a quaint small down just south of Spartanburg.  It was home to many textile mills back in the day, and up until 1983 had mills still in operation.

Over the years it has been subject to many events, including a tragic flood in 1903 that washed away a large part of the town, including two mills, and damaging a third.

Today it is home to a really fun geotrail that takes you on a tour of some of the historic parts of this historic town.

On Friday I headed over to Pacolet to tackle this trail, and explore a piece of history.

Pacolet is build along the Pacolet River, pictured thusly:

Given the towns close relationship with the river (it was used to power the mills), it is appropriate that many of the caches are placed at various structures along its banks.  One cache even involved using some of the river water to gain access to the container.

This is one of the walls of Mill #3, the mill that was damaged during the flood of 1903.  It is hard to believe that the river could rise so far - this wall is 30-50ft from the river, and at least 15ft above it - that it could be at risk from a flood.  

This buggy sits outside the towns museum.

I am not exactly sure what this building was used for - I am assuming a warehouse of some kind.

Pacolet is full of old ruins like this one.  It gives the place a certain old charm.  Many times I felt a lot like I was exploring parts of Middle Earth (one of my metrics of a good adventure is when I get Toklkeinesque flashbacks - I got those in spades in Pacolet).

In typical geocaching fashion of taking the hard way in, and the easy way out... we walked from one cache to another, but could not find the trail.  We ended up bushwhacking the last 350ft to the cache.  This is what we found on the way back out.

These bears were seen on a wall in a park.

One of the final scenes I remember from my time in Pacolet is this tiny chapel.  

It only took 4 hours to complete the 16 caches that made up the geotrail. It included a multi, puzzle, WherIGo, as well as many traditionals.  As one completes the caches, they can record information found in each cache - in this case by drawing an image found in the cache - on a passport. Completion of the passport earns one a geocoin.  I have sent my passport in, and hope to get my geocoin in a few weeks.

Pacolet is a cool small town.  I could easily return just to explore all of the rich history, and especially the ruins.  Perhaps someday I will do just that.

The GeoTrails Of Spartanburg South Carolina

Spartanburg South Carolina is home to several geotrails.  I figure it was about time I experienced some of them. Luckily I had a free day thanks to Labour Day.

So with this mission in mind, on Labour Day I left the house at the crack of dark and drove the 2 hours over to Spartanburg SC to see if I could put a dent into some of the geotrails in the area.

If you are not aware, a geotrail is basically a series of caches that revolve around a theme - normally features of an area - and as one finds caches one gathers information and records it into a passport.  When completed, the passport can be traded in for a geocoin.

I started my day doing the Hub City Spartanburg Geotrail.  This is a series of caches that takes one to various parks, walking trails, and cultural centers (art councils and community theaters), all clustered fairly closely around the city.  There are 25 caches on this geotrail, and one needs to complete at least 20 of them to qualify for a geocoin.  I ended up attempting all 25, however I DNFd one.

For this trail one had to collect a code hidden in the geocache and record it in the passport (which is, basically, just a paper with a grid of geocache listings on it).

Some of the geocaches were basic magnetic key holders, bison tubes, and lock'n'lock containers. However a couple were really cool containers like this one:

The majority of the caches along the Hub City Geotrail were in parks of some sort or another. Several were in a large green space in the middle of a city, which featured a series of trails running through some woodland, and along this really pretty lake.

The park also featured some sports fields, including this baseball park for Spartanburg High School (Go Vikings!)

Another cache was near an American Legion, which featured a really nicely done, and nicely placed, civil war monument.

At one of the artsy place (an artists maker space sort of thing I believe, tho don't quote me), a geocache was displayed along with the other sculptures.  So from now on, if anyone gives you grief about geocaching being a silly sport for geeks, you can show em this picture and respond with "It is not just geolocation of tupperware - it is an art unto itself!  You're welcome.

I finished the Hub City Geotrail around lunch time.  After lunch I started work on the Heritage Geotrail. This trail involved a lot more driving around. However it features a lot of places of historical significance to the local county, including this rather rustic looking cabin in the woods.

The Heritage Geotrail took me to a lot of historical signs (some easy to spot, some not so much).  I took some awesome shots of them, however they often contain information needed to complete the trail, so they are not shown to avoid spoilers.

However I also ran across this rather small, but old looking, post office.

I ran out of time before I could complete the Heritage Geotrail, but I got most of it done.  I'll just have to head back to Spartanburg someday to complete it, and tackle some more of the trails in the area.

The geotrails are really well done. I saw a lot of cool things, and learned some great history along the way.  It was a really fun and educational day of geocaching, and isn't that really what its all about?

If you are every in the Spartanburg area, and want to do some geocaching, you can't go wrong by doing one of these geotrails.

Have you completed a Geotrail in your area? Tell me about it in the comments below.