I originally thought we were going to do southwest Washington but we went up 101 along the peninsula instead. Which was totally fine with me. I was excited to explore a new area of Washington. I got all of my stuff ready the night before. It was suppose to be a nice day but you never know along the water. Earlier I got the map printed so we can visually see as we went, which was very helpful on our mini trip.
My alarm went off at 6:30 and I got ready. I got to sleep in an hour more than I usually do on Fridays so that was nice. I gathered all of my stuff and headed out the door. They were waiting for me in the drive way. I threw my stuff in and jumped into the back seat. We drove towards Lacey. I guess we were going to Denny's before we headed out.
They both got the $4 Grand Slam and they asked for only one pancake and they did it wrong so I got the extra pancakes, part of an egg and a piece of bacon. We saw Pa from Da2Svedes sitting in another section of the restaurant with some buddies. We used the bathroom, paid for our food and talked to Pa for a few minutes. Then we headed to our first state park, Jarrell Cove, near Shelton off of Hwy 3 towards Belfair and Bremerton. It was one of the three multi caches we would do today.
I have never been to Jarrell Cove State Park. We found a place to park and went to the first waypoint. We grabbed the necessary information from the first waypoint and we were pretty sure we did it right. A camper nearby thought we were doing a survey for the government and that we were getting grant money to do something that easy. We told him it was a game used with a GPS. We don't think he understood. We found the trail and walked towards the cache. I saw it before everyone else. I pointed Bob to the right direction while I took video and some pictures.
Before we got in the car and moved on to the next state park, Bev talked to the hosts for a few minutes. The next one was decided on a whim. I told Bob that we could make a circle and end back on Hwy 101 and we would get two park caches along the way. He agreed even though we had no idea how long these next two caches would take.
We got into Belfair and grabbed the state park multi just outside of town. We didn't know what we were in for. After reading the other logs we kinda got worried. We found wp1 on the ground and put it back where it was suppose to go. Wp2 was out in the open so we put a piece of bark over the top of it to conceal it better and wp3 was hidden well inside a metal water well. The final coords put us in a campsite near the bridge. We looked for a while and didn't find a container so we went and talked to the Ranger and one of the workers. The worker told us where he thought it was and bam there it was. It blended in really well but we were 149 feet off with the coords. The Ranger we talked to knew that there was a geocache in the park but this was the first time he saw the location. We made a note of our misfortune in our logs.
We drove back through Belfair and onto Twanoh State Park, off of the 106. I have never been to this state park either. We found a place to park and realized the park was packed with people. There were some kids here for a field trip so there were frisbee's and footballs flying around. We had no trouble with the first few waypoints. We walked over towards the water and found out there was a kayaking event and lots of people in the water learning what to do if you tip over. The last waypoint before the final kinda had us scratching our heads. We looked for about ten minutes then I had an idea. What a great idea it was. We grabbed what we needed and off to the final we went. We tried to be really sneaky because there were lots of muggles were driving by looking for a place to park. We jumped in the car and headed to the next state park, Potlatch.
We made it to a fork in the trail and decided to go down the stairs. Bob walked past the cache and I saw something unusual and there it was. Our fourth state park cache of the day. We took a few pictures and wandered back towards the car. That was one of the hardest walks so far.
Just up the road was a small state park called Triton Cove. I've driven past this place several times and didn't realize it was a state park. It was nice to finally grab a cache that was very quick and easy. It was basically a pull up and grab without leaving your car. Especially after all the crazy multis and hilly walks. We put it back as we found it.
A little bit more north up Highway 101 was Dosewallips State Park. We took the wrong entrance after we found out the cache was not even close to where we were. We found the correct road and found the trail that lead to the beach area. We took the short walk down the trail and passed two men who had been clamming. They had a bunch in their buckets. We got out to the clearing and noticed the platform. There were a couple of people up there with painting supplies. I don't even think they saw us. I found where the cache was, took it down from the bottom of the platform and brought it over to Bob and Bev, who were sitting on the bench. We signed it, stamped our passports and then I got back underneath and put it back better than I found it. We walked back to the car.
The next state park was quite a few miles away so we picked up a few along the way that we all haven't gotten yet. We ended up east of Quilcene at a cache that wasn't there, so the detour we took was a waste of time. We got back onto 101 and found our junction, near Discovery Bay on SR 20. We went towards Anderson Lake State Park. It was going to be another walk according to the description. When we got there, the lake was pretty gross. There were signs up telling people not to go in the lake because it was infested with a invasive species so it was closed until further notice. We found a place to park and Bob and I walked down the trail. It got muddier and muddier as we got closer to the cache. There were tons of black slugs and orange caterpillars. A horse had been through here recently, we could see the horseshoes in the mud. We had no problem finding the cache. We signed the log and stamped our passport. And now the trek back to the car, where Bev was waiting for us.
We grabbed a few more along SR 20 until we got to the Jefferson County Airport, a webcam I've had on my list for quite sometime. The night before I made sure we could do it from my phone. We parked the car and walked to the given coords. We didn't know how long it would take to refresh and my phone was dying so it went dim. I had a heck of a time trying to see the photo on the screen. I had to put it down my shirt so I could see it. I knew when it refreshed it would have me looking down my shirt. There were two guys washing an airplane nearby and probably have seen other cachers doing what we were doing. Bob got impatient and I told him to wait a few more minutes. I refreshed it again, still nothing. About three minutes later I refreshed it again and there we were! I save about five pictures onto my phone just in case. We went back to the car.
We drove up the road into Fort Townsend, another park none of us have been to. We parked the car, almost fell on my face after tripping over a few roots on our way to to the trail head and walked down the hill. There are lots of hills in these state parks. I'm glad we didn't have to carry Bev up the hill. We found the cache quickly, signed it, stamped our passports, put it back and walked back up the hill, while enjoying the view, across the bay was Port Townsend, and headed to the car.
We got gas at the first gas station we saw. Bev was worried about how low the tank was. A lady inside suggested a pizza place downtown for dinner.
The next state park we went to is so far our favorite one. Fort Worden was pretty awesome. It's northwest of Port Townsend. We drove down towards the camping sites and thought we could walk up the hill from the bottom but there was a landslide and the trail was closed. Then we tried it from the top, we really need to read the cache pages before we get out of the car, Bev stayed in the car as Bob and I trekked up the hill. We passed another cacher, cachedin, who was on this way down. We rounded the corner and we started seeing old cement structures. A guy and his dog spooked a deer as we got closer to the cache site. This place was awesome. We found the cache location and because of where it was, it needed a lock and a combo to get it out of its hole. I read Bob the combo and we had it in our hands seconds later. We took pictures and made our way back down to the car.
We needed some food so we drove back into Port Townsend and found the pizza place the lady was talking about. We parked the car and walked over to it. I vaguely remember being here in 1999 when we came to Discovery Bay for Amber's birthday party and came into town to watch a movie at the old theater. We saw Forces of Nature, starring Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck. We walked up to Waterfront Pizza and found where we were suppose to go. They had a to-go place, where their kitchen was and an upstairs sit down area. Ironically, you could not see the waterfront from where we were located. We colored pictures while we waited for our food. The pizza was delish but there was too much crust. It filled you up really fast.
Our last state park of the day was Fort Flagler, a park I have been to. In 6th grade, we took a field trip with Mr. Garritson's class. We spent a weekend there. Some parents and the DARE cops came with us. We stayed in the northeast corner building near the bunkers and the beach. We beat the boys at baseball and made them cry. It was a fun time a long time ago. We found the cache quickly while Bob sat in the car. We got our passports stamped and logged our names. We walked to the sign and took our pictures in front of it. We drove down to the lighthouse to find the one on the edge of the island. It took us along the beach. We found it quickly. We met up with Bev and drove out of the state park.
While still on Marrowstone Island we picked up others along the way until we reached the bridge to take us back to Port Hadlock/Chimacum. We grabbed nine. We went the back way to Quilcene, that's when it started getting dark. According to the GPS, we would get home around 11. I called my mom to tell her where we were and that we were on our way home. She said that she got bit by something and needed someone to take her to the hospital. I told her I was sorry I wasn't home. When we got to Hoodsport, she called me to tell me to have Bob and Bev drop me off at the hospital so I could drive her home.
We got to Olympia and made our way to the hospital. Bev went in with me and left so they could go home and go to bed. I asked the guy in the front the status of my mom and he told me about a half hour more. I went and sat down in the waiting area. I saw Ryan Thurston, a kid I grew up with, who was working the front. I told him hi. He said hi back and went back to what he was doing. I read some magazines and watched the Disney channel on the tv nearby. She came out about a half hour later and she told me the prognosis and the antibiotics she had to take. We got in the car and got home just before midnight.
Next Adventure: Western Washington Shop Hop and Washington State Parks GeoTour
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