Backstory:
WSGA (Washington State Geocaching Association) teamed up with Washington State Parks so...
1.) we can have caches in state parks...
2.) more people will frequent the state parks (camp, picnic, party, etc)...
3.) due to budget cuts, state parks will get money from people purchasing campsites and Discovery Passes. (www.discoverpass.wa.gov)...
4.) everyone wins!
There are probably more reasons but these are the main ones said to me by the park ranger. Oh yeah, I volunteered to have one of the caches. Mine is in Millersylvania State Park, roughly 15 miles from my house. I was asked by Abby (hydnsek), WSGA President, if I would take over one since the guy who originally volunteered went MIA. I met her at the park, completed the paperwork with the ranger and went and hid it. All 104 of them published on Friday, June 7 at 9 a.m. Throughout Washington each region had their own kick off celebration and I attended the South Sound one at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, north of Enumclaw.
After my 5K and hurrying home to change and gather our stuff, Bob and Bev rolled up in the driveway. We put our stuff in the trunk since it was going to be a tight squeeze in the back between my mom and Grandma Karen. We chose to go the back way to Enumclaw, out past Lake Kapowsin, past Orting and through South Prairie. Then through Buckley and out to Enumclaw and then the state park. According to Nuvi, we would get there just before one. Bob took a wrong turn so we toured the camping area before getting onto the right road and to the picnic area. We found a parking spot and made our way over to the commotion. We said hi to a few people and Bob started doing the antsy caching dance.
The food wasn't quite ready yet so our group, plus another guy, Adammack75, from the Spanaway area, walked to the closest one that wasn't on the other side of the river. It was put out during the 2004 WSGA Campout. At first we took the wrong trail but managed to figure it out. It took us along a trail next to the Green River. We found it quickly and hustled back because the food was probably done.
It was. We grabbed our plates and whatever food we wanted. There was definitely plenty to go around. I ended up talking to another cacher for 15 min about the ET Highway. Then they started the GSAK presentation. I went and grabbed some food, went to the grill and got a hamburger and then sat at the picnic tables and talked more about the ET Highway with some other cachers. We finished our food and waited patiently for the raffle. There was another presentation going on about how to efficiently cammo your containers so we had to wait until that was over. I went over and talked to Chris, who was running the GeoTours booth.
After my chat with Chris, we all decided to use the bathroom before the raffle. Everyone congregated around the booth and they got the box of tickets ready. He called the kids over to pick the numbers. About 5 or 6 tickets in, he called my number. YES! I walked over to the table and grabbed my prize. It was a pink pony tag. I thought it would go well with my sister's My Little Pony she gave me to use with my Travel Bug. Bob also won a swag item.
Then we did the Discovery Pass raffle. This was only for people who didn't have one or for people who have one and will expire in the next month. There were about twenty tickets inside the box so I had a pretty good chance of winning it. Plus grandma and mom put their names in. The box had gotten worn out so Chris ended up putting it inside a WSGA hat. Psykokiwi, the host, picked a number. I held my ticket out in front of me hoping they would call out my numbers. In my head I knew it was really far fetched that she would actually call my numbers. She read them and I could not believe it, they were MY numbers! I threw my hands up and yelled, I WON! Everyone turned around and grumbled. I went to the table and picked up my pass. Now I didn't have to spend $30 on one.
We grabbed our stuff and headed to the car. We were going to grab a few of the state park caches on the way home. We drove down the park road to our first one. It was a short walk down a dirt trail. We just kinda followed everyone else since everyone from the event was going to be here at some point. We found the cache zone, I climbed up the small hill and grabbed the cache from the other cacher who pulled it out of its hiding spot. She told me where it went back to so she could leave. We stamped our passports, signed our names and wrote down some of the TB codes. I told the next group of cachers where it went back to. We walked back to the car and realized we lost Grandma. I went back and found her. She started walking back the wrong way. Haha.
We all decided since we were up here to grab the Nolte State Park cache and the Flaming Geyser State Park caches. The Nolte cache took us along the east side of the lake and the cache was next to one of the trees. We ran into a cacher named Tubatad who lived in Des Moines. He talked to us for a while. He has been using his phone as a GPS and realized it was time to get a real GPS. He was a nice guy caching with his kid. We moved onto Flaming Geyser State Park, a place I've always wanted to stop and see.
We plugged it into the GPS and away we went.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Geyser_State_Park)
We saw the state park sign and made our way to the parking area. We stopped and did the virtual first, Flaming Gas. We took pictures, found out what info we needed to log it and then moved onto the state park cache across the river and up the hill. The creek had a really poor make-shift bridge across it, we had to help Grandma over it and Bev decided to stay behind. Mom, Bob, Grandma and I went up the hill to the cache. Bob found the cache while mom and Grandma checked out the bubbling geyser just down the hill. We stamped our passports and signed the cache and then joined them. It was kinda disappointing. No bubbling but very smelly gray water. We walked back down to the water, crossed it and went back to the car.
Bev was hungry so on the way back we stopped in Bonney Lake at the Taco Time because there is always time for tacos. We got home and relaxed. I logged my caches and looked at the next bunch we needed to go get.
Next Adventure: Olympic Penninsula State Parks GeoTour
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