CITO and #800

Yesterday I woke early, dressed in some old clothes (including my favorite long sleeved shirt), and drove out a little past Jackson, TN to Natchez Trace State Park. The park is the largest state park in TN and home to several lakes, lots of trails of the equestrian and hiking kind, several campsites and less rustic places to stay. It was also the site of the first Jackson Area Geocachers CITO event, which was the reason for my visit. The 2 hour drive was uneventful except for the threat of rain and the chance encounter (!) of cgeek and Mackheath making their way to Jackson for a day of caching. I, on the otherhand, encountered a couple of turkeys on the road into the park, and was followed closely by the event organizer, BigDaddyD, and his wife Mrs. T. We were joined shortly thereafter by LilLuckyClover, Dalls, and Yogi. With various implements of destruction in hand we traversed a couple of the local trails and removed encroaching plantlife and trash. Along the way I picked up a couple of caches. After completing one trail, LLC and I hitched a ride and were driven to a couple of cache sites in the park; it's always handy to be riding with the cache maintainer, and BDD is also on the board of the 'Friends' association of the park. After lunch Yogi led/followed me as I picked up 5 more caches. A low total for the day perhaps (10), but just enough to bring my total number of finds to 800, which was my other goal for the day. I still have plenty of caches to find in the park, and what I've learned about the amenities is enough to convince my wife that she and I need to plan a visit during the summer.