We met Gary Burgan, better known as Indy Diver, in the January issue of Today's Cacher.
Gary has been one of the pioneers of geocaching in Indiana and was approaching his 1000th cache find until Multiple Sclerosis slowed his progress. Time and treatment put Gary back on the trail and his hunt for that elusive 1000 turned into a two-week adventure along the Ohio River.
The quest began with a trip to an abandoned (of the steam engine era) amusement park to visit the Remembering Rose Island cache. Deermark had received requests from some cachers to show the place off and invited Gary and this writer to join.
We were told it was to be "an easy hike" as several of the group were casual hikers, especially this writer. I repeat, we were specifically told it was to be "an easy hike;" I want to make sure we are all clear on that.
The day started with temperatures in the teens and twenties and a nice snowfall. The group gathered at Charlestown State Park on the northern bank of the Ohio River in south-central Indiana and posed for the obligatory "Before" picture. All was bright, light and cheerful as the snow stopped briefly and the trek for Rose Island began.
Gary had little problem with the first half of the hike, as did most of the group. This writer was worried about the choice of footwear but appropriate socks kept his feet warm and an ample supply of Marlboros kept him optimistic. The group visited a variety of caches on their way to The Field of Bunkers where lunch was scheduled.
A long uphill climb to Huff And Puff and another to Nevr B Found kept the Marlboros in my pocket and a few hikers watching from the trail.
Lunch was satisfying for all until this writer realized that while his cache bag contained two ceramic piggy banks, spare Ziploc bags and notebooks, batteries, a poncho, hand warmers and lots of other goodies, it did NOT contain the sandwich that was back at the start of the trail in the cooler with snow on it. Gary dropped a spare sandwich on me as the skies started dropping more snow.
The group proceeded to Rose Island, splashing through creeks, sliding along slopes and tripping over the wintry, hilly Hoosierland. The group made it to Rose Island after a few side trips for some more caches as the afternoon snow lightened to occasional drizzles and gathered for the obligatory "After" photo at the old abandoned swimming pool.
A simple canoe crossing had been planned to finish up the trip and avoid the long hike back to the vehicles. This would have been a pleasant bonus to the voyage had it not been for the ice still covering some of the crossing, the swollen creek and a long, muddy slide to the bank.
Several of the group watched from the ridge above as the Geode Hunters launched and secured the canoe and two people went for a swim. Did I mention that it had just stopped snowing?
Needless to say, not all made the trip but we DID recover all the swimmers. The non-nautical members turned back up the trail for the hike while the canoers toted the boat and the wet ones up the ridge to the comfort of some waiting trucks. Gary walked back while this writer waited at his truck with cold feet and no keys.
By the end of the day Gary had nailed a few new caches but still needed about 25 to get his millennium. A few heads mulled over the best way get him there.
Two weeks later we were back in Jeffersonville for the 2nd Annual Kentuckiana Meet & Eat hosted by WCNut & Tater with a great turnout and a lot of caches planned.
Unbeknownst to Gary, Deermark and others had been burning up the email system planning a big day. Deermark and Daggy chauffeured us all over the area grabbing a huge variety of caches that had been missed on previous visits to the area. The area around Jeffersonville, IN and Louisville, KY is saturated with caches including a lot of treacherous, devious camouflaged micro-caches and the like.
Gary racked up the numbers as we wound all over town (and Deermark and Daggy took and made several cell phone calls).
We finally pulled into Lamping Park for Gary's 1000th but had to park in the secondary lot due to a large gathering in the main lot. Gary was eager to get the coordinates to the cache that Deermark had planned for his "big one." .
Deermark gave Gary the new cache page and waved the crowd of folks over as Gary lowered his head to enter the numbers. By the time Gary looked up, over forty cachers and their families had surrounded him.
(We'll pause now and allow Gary a few moments to get something out of his eye. It got real dusty as several of us had that problem.)
The group followed Gary to the area but stayed below as he went hunting. We cheered as he proudly displayed the cache and gave him a few minutes to fill out the log.
Gary Burgan has walked a lot of trails over the years. The trails and trials have not always been easy and there may be some tougher ones ahead. The trails and paths have carried him over the land and under it. Through the skies and beneath the waters. This trail led him to a small city park in southern Indiana where a few of the friends he'd met on the way gathered to wish him many more happy miles.
