Back in 2006, the league was re-aligned and Forks became one of the schools who moved into our league. Instead of what I was use to, Rainier now played in the northern half of the Evergreen/Tri-Co Division. The Evergreen Divison included: Elma, Forks, Montesano, Rainier, Rochester, Tenino and Hoquiam. The Tri-Co Division included: Castle Rock, Columbia, Ilwaco, Kalama, La Center, Stevenson, Toledo and Woodland.
I told him we would be there on Friday evening. He was looking forward to it.
I worked that day but had everything pretty much packed up for three days. Work was pretty much routine and I had some food, went home and grabbed my stuff and headed up to Lacey and parked the car in the parking lot of Derek's complex. I put my stuff in his car, got situated and were on our way to Forks, via Hwy 101.
We stopped a few times to grab a few caches along the way. One of our stops was near Amanda Park and Lake Quinault at the world's largest spruce tree.
We did the virtual, Sitka Surprise, which were just a few questions about the sign near the tree. We took a few pictures and walked back to the car. It was pretty chilly.
We got a little further up Hwy 101 and stopped once more for a cache called, Mount Olympus View Point, which was archived at the end of May 2013. Not sure why it was archived. Didn't want to take care of it anymore? It took us a little bit to find it because we had to bush whack. Eventually I saw the lock n' lock hidden away in the brush. We signed it, put it back and didn't stop again until we got to Forks.
We arrived a little early and in the dark, we had to wait until Willmarth was done with practice, so we went and got one more cache, near the candy store, called The Sweetest Spot in Forks. It was closed, so we didn't really have to worry about the store owner coming out and wondering what we were doing, if they didn't know about the cache. We found it near the front of the store.
After we signed and put the cache back we went over towards the school. It's hidden behind some buildings to the east of Hwy 101. It's actually really easy to miss. I've been here a couple times, once for a softball game that I coached, but the games were not played at the school but at the nearby park, Tilicum. And the other time it was just driving through to go to La Push for the day.
Willmarth met us in the parking lot, I knew we were in the correct area because I recognized his truck. We said our hi's and I gave him a hug. He was very glad to see me. He doesn't get many visitors so it was nice for him to see a familiar face. He took us inside the school for the tour. It was recently remodeled because it was old and really needed it. They received a grant to do so. He showed us his high tech classroom, the library (where he taught some of his classes), the library, the commons and the gym (his second home.) We were there for about an hour wandering the hallways.
Everyone was getting hungry at this point so we followed him over to Home Slice Take n' Bake. He told us it was the best pizza in town. We went in and he ordered two pizzas. Kids from the high school worked there so he knew most of them. They chatted as they made our pizzas.
We followed Willmarth to his house and parked in the mini parking lot. This was the first time I was seeing this place since the internet page he showed me last July. It was small but cozy enough for one person or maybe two. We brought our bags and sleeping stuff in because I knew we would be on the floor. Luckily he had a sleeping pad for us to use.
We sat around, ate pizza and watched some Sportscenter for a while. Willmarth said he had a Netflix account and that some new movies came in the mail. He made all of us a huge bowl of air pop popcorn and watched Reel Steel. It was an interesting movie. Probably one I may or may not watch again. We all went to bed shortly after.
The next morning we all got up, had some breakfast and Derek and I explored the town while Willmarth got ready for his game against Elma this afternoon. We had to be done before three so we could meet him at the school to let us in.
It was a pretty nice day and we hoped it stayed that way.
We had some snacks with us so we didn't have to stop anywhere and buy lunch. We were trying to save money when we went out and cached. We started at the south end of town at the visitor's center. We stopped in and talked to the guy who was manning the front desk. We really weren't Twilight fans but the guy seemed interested in sharing it with us anyway. He did tell us that the visitor's population since 2008 has skyrocketed since the franchise began. The town has made some serious money since. He even had a graphic chart on the wall. We thanked him for the information and decided to start caching since we had a deadline for the day.
We started at Bygone Era (GCC0Y1), a magnetic cache hidden inside some old logging equipment. We found it easily inside the lip of the metal façade. We took a few pictures and started the ten waypoint Twilight multi cache, which began at Bella's pick-up truck in front of the visitor's center.
I kid you not, I actually said this out loud before we left the center. "Since this cache begins here, wouldn't it be funny if this multi took us all over Forks and La Push and ended here?" We got the first waypoint and moved on to the next cache and waypoint according to our map. Forks Geocache (GC628F), was the next one on the list. It took us up the hill to the DNR building. We parked the car and walked out to the viewpoint near some picnic tables. It was hidden in the tree in a large bucket. You had to avoid stepping in elk poopies. It had a bunch of toys inside.
After a short drive down the road, we came across a cache called Mill Creek (GC1RBYJ). We parked the car at a the beginning of the old logging road and walked the rest of the way. It was a short walk and I picked up cans along the way. We came to the cache and found it within a few minutes. It was soaked but we managed to get our names on it before we put it back.
Before we left Forks and headed towards La Push, we gathered a few more waypoints. One took us to City Hall, another to the Hospital, Forks High School, the Cullen's House, Swan's House, to the Police Station and eventually we made our way to La Push's beach, where we gathered our last waypoint. And what do ya know? The final took us to the visitor's center like I said before we started the multi.
We enjoyed the landscape for a while. The last time I was here it was foggy and I couldn't see the landforms off in the distance. We decided to grab a cache in town before driving back to Forks for the final and to meet up at the high school for the basketball game. Quiloot (GC2HFA0), is still my furthest cache west from the Prime Meridian. It was placed with permission by the Quileute Tribal Council to be placed on the Indian Reservation. It was hidden underneath a structure that was part of the Oceanside RV Park.
We drove back to Forks and made it to the visitor's center again. We put the cache coordinates on the GPS for a better accuracy and walked behind the center on the small nature trail loop. It wasn't far from the first waypoint, just about a quarter of a mile on a well kept trail among very large rain forest trees. I saw the area before he did and started taking the bark and tree debris off a very huge ammo can. It had everything Twilight inside. We signed the book, looked at the swag and took a picture. Like I said before, I am not a Twilight fan but the cache owner did a great job on this cache. I gave it a favorite point.
We had timed this perfectly. After we were done with the Twilight Cache (GC1N9H4), we made it over to the high school and watched Forks lose to Elma. It was a pretty good game but they fell short. Willmarth said in the next few years they would be competitive again, that's if they decide to keep him as a teacher and a coach due to the first year probation clause. We ate some popcorn while we watched the game. Afterwards, we went back to Willmarth's house and had some dinner and watched Moneyball. We went to bed fairly early since we had a small excursion planned the next day up to Neah Bay to get some of our DeLorme squares out of the way plus I had never been there before.
Next Adventure: Neah Bay and Sekiu
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