I put the bike rack on the car and loaded the bikes. I mapped out an area spanning from Fir Tree Road all the way to Chambers Lake Park. We had ten caches to look for...if they were all still there. We parked in the Fir Tree road lot and made our way north. Our first cache, I'm not a Nano (GC2D2VK). We parked the bikes to the side of the trail but hid them enough so no one would ride away with them. We carefully stepped around the brush and mom found the ammo can.
We put it back as we found it and jumped back onto the bikes. We continued towards Lacey and stopped at the next one, Out For a Sunday Walk (GC2D2W1), which we spent about ten minutes looking and finally gave up. I never found it and it was archived a few months later. The next one, Swag City (GC12KG3), was just on the other side of the trustle. It was buried underneath a bunch of sticks next to a tree.
We got back on the bikes and pedaled our way to Nano Mania Part #7 (GC2C2H2). It took us to a tree with a lot of overgrown sticker bushes and nettles. I really didn't want to cut myself up or get stung so I went to find a stick to whack them down with. I managed to make a small trail and luckily found the cache. It could have taken me a while to find this but it just looked out of place.
The next one was at the bridge over the Yelm Highway. I've been here before to look for this one but came up empty. No Trolls Here? (GC1D3TG) was right where the hint told us it would be. I can't believe I missed it last time.
The Ghost Railroad (GCG2XV) was a little further north up the trail...it was about 50 feet off the trail covered in brush. It was one of the very few old ones left around this area. This was placed back in June 2003.
The next three were a series called For the Love of CWT (GC2V4MJ), (GC2NVTQ) and (GC2NVTT). CWT #1 was my 1000th cache. I can't believe I got to 1000 before my first caching anniversary...which would be July 30th. I made a sign that I took with me just for this occasion. I had no idea I would be doing this more often as I reached another milestone.
This was a big milestone for me, especially since my first 50 caches found were without a GPS.
We finished up our mini bike ride with a cache called Chambers Lake Overlook (GCJ4MG), another older cache in the area...placed April 2004. That one was found underneath the bench of the dock, a place people could rest and take in the view.
We rode a little further, to 14th Ave, to pick up a few a few more waypoints to a multi cache called Got Bike, Let's Ride (GCXPTD). I had picked up a few others a few months back towards the Rainier area. Some how I knew it would be halfway between the first and last waypoint. We grabbed the necessary letter and corresponding number and started making our way back to Fir Tree.
It took us less than an hour to get back to Fir Tree. We loaded up the bikes and drove back into town. We picked up a few things for dinner at QFC. When we got home, dad asked me to go over to the rental to mow the lawn. When I was done, I went home for dinner, relaxed and logged my caches.
Here's to the next 1000!
Next Adventure: TBA
