Enchanted Valley Hike (5.19-5.21)

I got a late phone call from Lindsay on Wednesday night.  We talked for a while and she asked me if I wanted to go on a hike with her in the Olympic National Forest.  It was called the Enchanted Valley or Valley of 10,000 Waterfalls.  I said sure but this time I wasn't going to be ill-equipped like I was when we hiked around Mt. St. Helens, almost three years ago.

My mom had Thursday off so we went into town for a few things.  I really needed my own hiking pack.  The one I borrowed last time didn't fit and it was so uncomfortable the entire time, that and the tennis shoes and cotton socks I was wearing.  I had a little extra money from watching a house for a week so I improved on my hiking gear.  I bought a green High Sierra hiking pack for under $70.00, some non-cotton socks and a few batteries for my headlamps.

Friday after work I purchased a down 1.7 pound sleeping bag and a small pad to make sleeping on the ground more comfortable and to keep my pack from being super heavy.  I really need to get a small blow up pad and a bivy tent, like Lindsay has. It would have made my second night out a little more warmer and comfortable.  I need to add them to my list.

I got all of my stuff together and set aside for Sunday.

Sunday approached and I got up around 9:30 not knowing when Lindsay was going to be done with the stuff she needed to do that morning at home and then the short few hours at work.  She did say to meet her in Olympia around one, then it was changed to two.   I had my mom drive me up so I didn't have to leave a car out in Olympia for two days.  We stopped at Safeway to get a few things before she dropped me off at her work.

Some unexpected things happened while Lindsay was finishing up work so I waited in the parking lot.  While I waited I loaded the trail waypoints onto the GPS thinking they may or may not come in handy while out on the trail.

She was finally done and we got the heck out of there.  We stopped at the West Side near Trader Joe's to see if anyone had toilet paper.  No one near there had any.  I had to use the bathroom and ended up going in the Petco.  There, they had several rolls not in the dispenser that I could have taken but it would have looked funny as I left the store.  I grabbed as much as I could off the roll and headed out and back to Lindsay's car.

We were off via Hwy 101/8 towards Aberdeen/Hoquiam.  We talked about several things as we ate the mac&cheese and yogurt she grabbed from work.  Once in Aberdeen, I had to help her navigate through the one-way streets towards Hoquiam.  From Hoquiam, it was an easy shot towards Amanda Park and Lake Quinault.  I had filmed several sections of our trip.  You can see that on my YouTube channel through my link.

http://youtu.be/SR93iTADawc

We got to the lodge and used the restroom.  From there we stopped at the Ranger station to fill out a back country hiking permit to let them know we were out there.  That cost five bucks and an extra two bucks each for the night that we spent out in the valley.  We put it in the drop box and drove seven miles down the long dirt road to Graves Creek Campgrounds.

We got there and saw a sign that said we had to pay a fee except for winter.  There was no indication when winter ended and summer began.  We drove the loop looking for an informational board and found one but it had no information on it.  We ended up asking the lady who was also camping in this campground.  She said that if there wasn't a box for payments then we didn't need to pay.  She also mentioned that the bathrooms weren't open either.  She added usually this place opens around Memorial Day.  Sweet.  We didn't have to pay to be here.  We drove to a spot that we liked and started unpacking the car.  Lindsay started on the tent and I started on the fire.  I had bought hotdogs and chips for dinner.  Carbo loading for our upcoming strain on our bodies.

We got the tent up and the fire was getting hot enough for larger pieces of wood.  Lindsay started unpacking her stuff and setting it up for the night.  I told her the fire was ready and we started making the hotdogs.  We only lost two in the fire.  We cleaned up camp and put the containers inside the car for safe keeping.  We got our beds ready and played some crazy eights before going to sleep.

I woke up several times during the night adjusting how I was laying on the ground.  I was waiting for our alarm to go off but it never did.  Apparently Lindsay didn't set it.  Haha.  I told her it was 7:20 and that we should probably get our stuff packed so we could get going.

We got our stuff all rolled up and packed away.  We re-organized our hiking packs and shoved them in the car and drove off to the trail head.  I turned the GPS on and we made sure every thing was secure and locked in the car.  Away we went.

It was about 8:30 when we walked away from the car and to the trail head.

The first two miles seemed pretty easy.  We took our first break at Pony Bridge.  There were some great views of the river down below.

We moved on.  You could definitely feel an uphill grade as we moved through the trees towards the valley.  The forest got thicker, the plants diversified and the maple tree views were magnificent.  The canopy of trees above made the hike absolutely breathtaking.

We made it past a few short steep climbs between some awesome views of the river.  There were many backcountry campsites right off the trail with river access.

We approached a small creek called Fire Creek.  We took a small pack/picture break.  There was just so much to look at.

As we walked, very large old trees lined the pathway.  They all reminded me of old men with beards.  The ground was covered in moss, fallen decaying logs and lots of clovers, ferns and bunchberries (a form of dogwood).

Then we walked a moderately steep climb to  O'Neil Creek/Camp Spur, which is roughly halfway between Graves Creek Trail Head and Enchantment Valley.  We stopped to take some pictures, go potty and to relieve our bodies from our packs.  We were approximately at 1,286 feet in elevation.

Just a short half a mile from O'Neil Creek, we meet another creek side channel called No Name Creek.  Here, we took another short pack/picture break.  We were about 8.2 into our hike and the weather was awesome.

About a mile more into our walk we stopped along the river for a picture opportunity and to take our packs off for a few minutes. As we walked towards Pyrite, I noticed a black blob in the distance along the river.  Oh my gosh Lindsay, there's a BEAR!  We stopped and admired.  We both have never seen a bear in real life.  A small wave of fear hit me.  What if he came after us?  That soon faded as we talked to other hikers about it.

We approached the west end of Pyrites Campground.  There were more old maples and along the trail edge and alders that stood cluttered along the river banks.  It was so pretty in this section of the trail.  This small meadow soon turned into a much larger meadow.  We approached several pairs of people along the way.  Some just said hi as we passed and others stopped and spent a couple of minutes sharing tidbits of information on their experience.  There were a few sections of campsites along this portion of the river and I saw my very first anti-bear food hangers in a tree.  The sign along the trail called them bear wires.

We got to Pyrites Creek and the bridge here was definitely damaged.  Either another hiker or ranger put together a passable bridge with rocks and logs.  The creek had a not of tree damage across it but it wasn't too hard to pass.  When we got to the other side, we noticed several campsites along the river.  We were about four miles from our destination and it was getting close to late afternoon.

Along the trail, we saw a lot of large trees that had literally exploded when they fell.  Some of them have been there a while and others looked like they had recently dropped due to windstorms and or snow weight.  There were several spots on the trail we had to climb across, step over or walk around tree debris.

We walked past two guys and a kid just outside the Pyrites area who said they saw three bears up ahead in the meadow.  They said they were about 40 yards away from the trail munching on plants.  They added that the bears could care less when they walked by.  We noted that in our heads and kept walking along.  We went around the corner and saw them.  There they are!  The bears are right there!  We got a few pictures of them and tip toed up the trail.

We hit some places where we walked up short steep spots on the trail.  I was already wiped out.  Back at mile nine, my feet were starting to get angry with me.  They weren't used to the extra weight I was carrying.  They were to the point where they were achy and tired.  That made the last mile and a half hard.  We walked past Lamata Creek, which had a melting snow pack on it.  We really had to be careful where we stepped.  One wrong step and we would fall through and into the freezing creek below.

We rounded the corner and there was a bridge.  It was called the Long Bridge over the Quinault River.  Neither Lindsay or I were afraid of heights so this wasn't a problem.  She crossed it first as I took pictures.  Then I walked across as she took pictures.  The water below was so clear!  I have never seen such clear water.

We followed the path towards the chalet.  The area was beautiful.  If the clouds weren't there it would have been much prettier.  You could see tons of waterfalls cascading down the hillside.  There were trees everywhere and lots of downed trees along and in the river.  The plain had definitely suffered the wrath of the last winter.  A huge part of the trail was missing because the bank gave way into the river.  Not sure when this occurred but it made it harder to pass through.

I needed to sit on a log and let my feet rest.  At this point it was hard to walk on them because it was so painful.  Lindsay took a few pictures while I hung out and took in the view.  It took us about eight hours to get here with all the pack and picture breaks.

The chalet, about 2,004 feet in elevation, was in view so we headed over to go explore the area.  We got closer and we noticed a kid wandering around.  We said hi and asked for some information on where to camp.  He said where ever we wanted and he added that he did see some bears out to the northeast near the river bank.  There goes that wave of fear again.  This time it was stronger because I knew we had to spend the night outside with the bears.  Then the kid wandered away.  We started looking for a place to set up camp and eat.  We did notice that the area had really primitive bathrooms.

The trees really didn't cooperate with us.  We needed two trees in a fairly flat area to make our tent work.  We thought our hiking poles would do the trick.  They weren't stable enough.  We found an area that would work, we hoped.  We got to working on it.  When we finished we started working on boiling water for our dinner.  A few minutes later, I didn't actually see how it happened, but Lindsay was using a cloth to grab the hot container and it started burning.  She pulled away and the whole thing tipped over on to her book and maps.  We grabbed things as quick as we could.  We had to come up with another plan.

Near the chalet, we noticed two guys trying to get into the building.  It must have been the ranger.  We continued doing what we were doing for the next couple minutes.  We ran out of water so we had to go filter some more.  We walked down to the river and filtered some more water.  Lindsay found an issue with her filter and we continued to fill up the nalgene.  It tasted like glacier.  We walked back up to our camp area and were intercepted by the ranger and his buddy, Barefoot Jake.  They had the walkie talkie radio on trying to figure out the weather situation.  There was suppose to be a lot of overnight rain.  Jake noticed how primitive our tent was and offered help.  The ranger chimed in and offered the emergency shelter because of our tent situation and the weather.  I smiled on the inside.  I was not happy about the rain or the bears roaming around nearby.

We rushed over to our campsite and starting taking down and packing it up to move it to the chalet.  So many things I was stressed about at that moment went away.  We were safe, indoors, away from the bears and the rain.

Inside the chalet, we set up our beds, found the food we were going to make.  We sat outside on the steps waiting for our water to boil and attempting to dry out the book and the maps that got wet in the accident.

Once our food was done, we enjoyed it thoroughly.  I was starving.  I must have lost five pounds walking out there.  We walked back down to the river to fill up our pack bladders and our nalgenes so we didn't have to do it the next day.

It was about 8 p.m. by the time we were done with everything and headed back in to get ready for bed.  That's where we found the mouse running around.  We really hoped that it didn't get into our food.  We played cards for a little while and talked about stuff.  Then it was time for some shut eye.  We were both really exhausted.

I got relaxed and almost to sleep when I heard it.  It sounded like a mouse inside my pack.  I moved and shrugged it off.  A few minutes later I heard the sound again and I got paranoid.  I jumped up, grabbed my flashlight and started digging through my pack.  I didn't see a mouse but I did see it ate a hole though my peanut bag.  I took that out, my MRE's, my gum and my assorted snacks I brought.  I found my sleeping bag cover and crammed all of it inside that and hung it on the wall.  Our garbage from our dinner and stuck it in the corner away from us, thinking maybe the mouse would stay over there.  Lindsay woke up and I told her what was going on.  She kinda got paranoid too and she added her food to the bag on the wall.  The mouse ran across our bags several other times during the course of the night and we saw mouse poopies. I was out in the open and Lindsay was in her bivy.  Oh how I wish I had one of those at that point.  I moved my head to the middle of the room away from the walls.  Maybe it will leave me alone.

I slept with my head lamp on just in case.

It bothered me multiple times throughout the night up until about 3 a.m.

My alarm went off at 6:30 and I felt like crap.  I got no substantial amount of sleep and I knew my body had another hard work out ahead of it.  We ate a light breakfast, got our stuff packed up, used the bathroom and we were on our way at about 7:30.  There were elk off in the distance of the valley.  That was our first time seeing elk on the entire trip.  I was hoping the way back would be easier because we would be going slightly down hill back to the trail head.

It was a little rainy so we wore our rain gear.  We decided not to take pictures on the way back just because of the wet conditions.  I really didn't want to ruin my camera so I packed it away.

We started on our walk back.  The first four miles went by pretty fast and we were all still okay.  Slightly after the sixth mile we saw more elk and our feet started to get tired.  We tried not to take too many breaks just so we could get back to the car.  Lindsay made a goal for us.  She wanted to get back by about 2:15.  That would give us about six hours out on the trail.

We tried to get to the O'Neil Creek/Camp Spur without stopping, that would be half way back.  We had to stop at No Name Creek to take a break because we just could not make it to O'Neil.  We got back on the trail.  It's amazing where and what your mind drifts to.  I started fantasizing about taking my pack and shoes off and sitting in the car.  The warmth of the shower, sitting in my room with my feet in my small foot spa with Epsom salt mixed in with it.  My mind switched gears to thinking about greasy burgers and fries, Safeway maple bars and a bottle of Pepsi.  I imagined my warm soft bed and how nice it would be to pass out inside of it.

The miles started seeming longer as we got closer and closer to the trail head and the car.  Lindsay said when we get to Pony Bridge we'll only be two miles away.

We got to Pony Bridge and we talked to a few hiker we had passed on our way to Enchanted Valley.  It was nice to take that pack break.  Only two more miles.  Those were the hardest miles yet.  There was this really steep set of rock stairs that I had totally forgotten about.  Those just about did me in.  Once we got over those it was downhill and flat from there.  My feet were screaming.  With a little less than a mile away, we started walking faster and that quickly turned into a jog.  I could not wait to get back to the car.  We saw the trail head bridge in view and I sprinted to the car.  I immediately took off my pack and my shoes and socks.  So happy to be back to the car.

We rearranged the car and put our packs and dirty stuff in the trunk.  I sat down in the front seat and enjoyed being off of my feet.  We started back down the long dirt road back to Hwy 101.  We had planned to stop at the Safeway in Aberdeen.  I was so getting a maple bar and a bottle of Pepsi.

We went into the Safeway, used the restroom and grabbed the stuff to eat in the car.  It was heavenly as I took that first bite into my maple bar.

We drove home and took Hwy 12 through Oakville and Rochester.  For some reason Lindsay said she had never been on this road before and loved the new shortcut she learned.  I told her we've been on this road several times to and from basketball, track and fastpitch games.

We got home around 5:30 and Lindsay dropped me off.  She helped me bring in my gear.

I took a shower and it was the most amazing shower I had ever had.  It felt great to be clean!  I put all of my stuff away and then hit the bed hard.  I didn't wake up until 11 am the next morning.

More information about the hike:

 http://www.olympicpeninsulawaterfalltrail.com/enchanted-valley

Next Adventure:  TBA

7,000th Cache Milestone and Kent, Wash.

Today I hit my 7,000th cache milestone.  I wanted it to be something cool but an event in Kent came first. So I had to work around that.  I didn't want it to be a traditional because most of my milestones are traditionals except for an earthcache at my 500th.

We talked about the plan the night before and they came and got me at around 7 a.m.  I took a blueberry bagel and some oj with me for the car ride.  I was exhausted.  We had a list of caches written out of ones we didn't have in the area.  We weren't sure how the weather would hold up for the amount we had written down.

The drive up wasn't bad, no rain yet.

We started out where we left off last time we were here, in the downtown area.  We did all of the work for a cache called Kent Station but it was missing back in December.  We had to come back because some guy was power washing the area.  We got one near the ShoWare Center....I remember being there about two years ago and not finding it.  I think this is a newer series.  We walked over to a small park nearby and looked for one I had previously found, I couldn't remember where it was so we didn't find it.  We went back to Kent Station and found the cache right where we thought it would be, sweet.

We worked on a historical tour of Kent, a multi done by Mc3Cats.  The waypoints and gathering information was easy but the find, took us a while.  We had to phone a friend and he told us right where it was and that is where we all looked at least three times.  I ended up pulling it out of its hiding spot.

We found three others just down up the road from downtown, one took us in to the forest and made us climb back up a wicked hill, another was a guardrail cache and the other was at a local Top Foods and I'm glad someone grabbed this spot because it was screaming for a cache.  We didn't PANic!  Haha.

We went to a few small parks, nestled in various neighborhoods.  You really had to be on the look out for them or you would drive by them, they were that small.  The one we thought was someone's back yard, nope just a tiny park with two picnic tables.

We went to another one just down the road at a rock wall.  It was near a church and the parking lot was closed so we parked on the street and walked over to it.  Bob found it quickly.

 

The next three caches we went after took us near the event site.  This was a busy part of Kent.  One was a key holder hiding near a restaurant, one was a bolt near a car part store/pet supply shop and the other was near a grocery store next to a rock and a hard place. 

We drove eastward to a park called Morrill Meadows.  We parked and Bev was intrigued by the Cottonwood tree fluff and how much of it was in the parking lot.

The first cache took us around the short trail and we had to slightly bush whack to the spot.  We read the hints because the GPS bounced around a lot.  Bob and I found the make-shift stump it was hidden in.  We walked to the next cache, which was at a dog park at the east end.  Bev and I stopped to get a picture.  I thought it was a cool spot.

Bob got a head start looking for the dog park one while we caught up to him.  He had looked in many places already but came up with nothing.  I looked and Bev looked in the same places and came up with the same result.  Then Bev had an idea and wandered away.  She came back a few seconds later holding the cache.  Bob and I were like, where did you find that at?  She told us there was another gate it was hidden on.  We signed our names and put it back.  We walked back to the car and drove to the next cache down the road.

This puzzle cache was one I had looked at online a few months back just in case we were in Kent at some point.  It was located at the spot it said but you had to figure out the lock combination.  It was in a church parking lot and was put there by a elementary school class.  The combo was knowing three of the books of the Bible and the order in which they came in.  Bev was all over it with the help of the internet.  Yay smart phones!  We got out and put the numbers into the lock and was denied.  We must have done it wrong.  Sure enough we didn't turn the combo all the way around.  We tried it again and it opened.  We cheered and did a little victory dance.  I didn't realize at the time but this was my 7,000th cache and I should have taken a picture with it.  Oh well.

We got to twenty caches before we had to go over to the event.  One took us to someone's front yard near a random erratic rock, it was a sprinkler head, another took us to a swampy area, supposedly there is a llama farm, we didn't see any llamas but the cache really made me miss Hostess cupcakes.

The other cache in the area, was near a church and we went the hard way to it.  Bob is not one to read the directions before we go.  We grabbed it, signed it and ran back because it was raining.  We got in the car, went around the corner to the church and parked in the parking place to get the squirrel snacker one.  Then we tried to get one at the 360 Skate Park and that one was missing.  One other reason to read the cache page before you walk over to it and find out it's not there.

It was about 12:30 and we needed to get to the event, of course it stopped raining knowing we were now going to be indoors.  Everyone was getting tired of having pizza parties so Mc3Cats booked us a meal at the Golden Steak and Steer Rib House.  We got there and were shown where we needed to go.  We signed in, paid, got our tickets and found a seat.  We chatted with some people, discovered trackables, told stories, ate our food.  The food was sandwiches, salad, chili, fruit and macaroni salad.  I had everything but the macaroni salad.  I think I had way too many sandwiches because I paid for it about an hour later.

We did the raffle a half hour before we decided to leave.  He drew my number and I picked one of the geocaching triad geocoins.  I was so excited.  I thought why not have one of these since I have completed the triad.

We said our goodbyes and headed out the door.  Bob wanted to find a few more before we went home.  We got one at a park, which was a quick easy grab, one at the museum down the hill that opened at noon, this was one I had intended to get two other times but it wasn't open, and grabbed one more multi down by a baseball field that was owned by one of the cachers at the event.

For some reason I was exhausted.  The last thing I remember was getting off of Hwy 512 at the Pacific Ave exit and then the next thing I remember is waking up at the gas station in Rainier.  That's a good 35 minutes between the two.  I must have passed out hard.  They dropped me off at home and I started getting ready for my hiking trip with Lindsay.

Next Adventure:  Enchanted Valley, Olympic National Forest.

Effing Hot!

Remember that one time the state of Washington was hotter than the rest of the country?  I do and it was awesome.

Longview II

Another one of those early morning cache adventures with Bob and Bev.

This time we came prepared with our boats.  We had planned to grab the island cache in Sacajawea Lake.

My alarm went off at 6 and I had to scramble to put my clothes on, use the bathroom and made sure I had my food and drinks in my lunchbox.  I did my query last night so I wouldn't be rushed in the morning and accidentally put in the wrong town or something weird like that.

I heard the truck rumble down the driveway.  I hoisted myself up in the back and we were on our way.  It was going to be a beautiful day.

We stopped at the Denny's in Chehalis off of the 13th Street exit.  I had eaten my Captain Crunch so I wasn't too terribly hungry.  Bob and Bev shared some of their food with me since it was more than they could eat.  It was very nice of them to share.

We continued down I-5 and stopped at the Toutle Lake Rest Area to use the facilities.

We turned the GPS's on and found the first one on Bob's list.  Aaand, we drove past the exit again...

We found the next exit and grabbed the ones in that area before we returned to Longview.  We were just a little north of Kalama near Kress Lake.

We got one near Camp Kalama, it took us a little while since the coords were off by at least 65 feet.

Next we took a small hike around Kress Lake.  It was a great hike and all five of the caches were there.  Tons of people showed up to fish off the bank side.

We then drove north up Old Highway 99, as we paralleled I-5, looking for the next caches on our list.  There were two we had our eyes on.  The first one was off of a large pull out near the Jesus signs and a Lions Club newspaper recycle bin.  It was underneath the bin.  There also were some local people selling flower baskets, Bob bought two of them.   We found one more at the park and ride in a nook of a tree.  One, that Bob and Bev got to take off their DNF list.

We went over the freeway and finally made it on to Tally way for three other caches.  The one was pretty cool.  It was taped behind the sign underneath some velcro.

Then we went for a long walk along the Cowlitz River.  The cache page did not really tell us really where to go.  There were lots of no tresspassing and private property signs all over the place.  We did the best we could with the logs from previous finders.  It hasn't been found it a while because no one wanted to make the trek out here.  Also, the log book was kinda gross according to the last finder.  We saw some fishermen about half way there.

I didn't actually hear how they were doing fish-wise.  The trail we were one was very well used and there were a couple of spots where the river had eroded the path away.  Some of the trees we saw fell victim to beavers.  We reached the cache zone and the coords were off by about 30 feet.  I started looking at all of the trees in the area and I eventually found the cache.  Indeed, the log book was mush so we changed it.

On our walk back it started getting warmer and once we got back to the truck I had to shed my tall socks, hiking shoes and sweatshirt.  Bob and Bev made some changes in their wardrobe as well.  We drove into Longview and got ready for our boat cache in Lake Sacajawea.  I was really excited.

We got to where we needed to be, parked the truck, grabbed the boats and made our way down to the bank, while runners and walkers watched us wondering.

We put our boats in the water and I got in safely, Bob on the other hand almost fell in.  His foot got caught on the contractor's foam we lined the bottoms of our boats with, to give them more stability.  We paddled the less than 500 feet to the small island and managed to get out of our boats, without falling in, and onto shore.

The cache was not far from where we landed.  In fact it was less than 30 feet from where we pulled the boats onto shore.  Bob pulled it out of the trees and gave it to me to open and sign.  We posed for Bev, who was taking pictures from the other side of the shore.  We closed it, put it back, got in our boats and went back to shore.  Bev took more pictures as we got out of our boats.  We pulled them out of the water and put them back in the truck.  On to Lake Bank cache, one Kyle had replaced.

Once again we could not find it.  Was it taken again or hidden really well?  We spent a few minutes looking and gave up.  We looked for one more at a nearby corner grocery store and Bob made the find.  It was finally lunch time and Bev wanted to go to Taco Time.  However, it was back in Kelso, so we had to backtrack.  We all got some crispy tacos, used the bathroom and figured out where to go next.  We even had time to email Kyle to see if he would tell us where the cache was or meet us out there.  He never got back to us.

We went to the next one on the list.  That took us back into Longview and down Hwy 4 towards the west end of town.  There we grabbed FS Kids (where Bev got to meet one of the neighbors), a park cache in a really nice looking park, and a creepy spider glued to a micro stuck inside a guardrail.

We followed the road grabbing the ones Bob and Bev hadn't found yet.  A few of them were near the Mint Valley Golf course along the dike trail.  We found three of them there and saw a bunch of wild duck swimming in the dike.  I threw rocks at them, not to actually hit them but to make them swim around.

The hot was starting to affect everyone.  We went to one we didn't end up finding but it was at a small convenience store.  I went in and grabbed a cold drink.  Later on when I logged my caches this one was actually missing.

Then we went up the hill into several housing developments and grabbed three of them.  One was a snail on a guardrail, we actually met the property owners (the CO was their daughter), one was on blackberry trail, Bob and I got cut up a bit and the last one was on a guardrail being guarded by a bee.  Bob almost got stung.

We found one on a bridge to nowhere and took a lot of time on one called Honeycomb Rocks.  We felt dumb when we actually found it.  We made it harder than it needed to be.

From there, we drove down to Willow Grove Road along the Columbia River, we noticed a huge group of them in the area.  The first two were on guardrails, one was easy to find and one was a little bit more challenging if you haven't seen one like it.  We have so we took care of it quickly.  This was the view from the clever cache.

We found one more at an anchor and then we made our way over to Willow Grove Park.  There were tons of people there.  Not surprising since it was almost 90 degrees outside!

We parked the truck and Bob needed to use the restroom so Bev and I walked over to the first one.  Uh, more caches buried inside rocks.  It hadn't been found in a while.  We gave it a good half hour before moving on to the next few of them.  Bev and I walked to them.  Bob grabbed the truck and met us at the second to last one.  All of them were there.

We walked back to the truck and headed home.  We stopped for one more on Dike Road near a farm.  We found it quickly.  We were all hot, exhausted and ready to be at home.  I came home with 37 and Bob and Bev came home with 35.  Not bad of a day.  We got home about 7ish that evening.  Until the next adventure!