Tornado!

A EF 1 tornado touched down this morning at 7:45 in the town of Frederickson, roughly 25 miles (a 37 min drive), 20 miles line of sight from my house.  It did $25,000 worth of damage, ruined a few buildings and some resident homes.  We've had some pretty weird weather this year so far.  It's very unusual.

It's been the wettest September on record in Seattle and Olympia, Wash. with 9 inches as of Sept. 30.

Here are the links from various news stations all over the area:

Kiro 7 News:

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/possible-tornado-spotted-pierce-county/nbBZD/

King 5 News:

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Strong-windstorm--Western-Washington-weekend-225716201.html

Q13 Fox News:

http://q13fox.com/2013/09/30/funnel-cloud-spotted-in-pierce-county-reportedly-overturns-trailers-damages-building/#axzz2gS6yHCNa

ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/winter-weight-storm-slaps-northwest-september-20420764

NWCN:

http://www.nwcn.com/news/washington/Strong-windstorm--Western-Washington-weekend-225716201.html

KOMO News 4:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Possible-tornado-damages-buildings-in-Frederickson-225810071.html

Kyle's Special Heart Dinner and Auction

After the 5k we ran in June, there was still talk about having another event sometime in the fall.  Rossmaier and Belinda took that event on.  Rossmaier created a Facebook event just to see who all was interested and how much food was needed to be donated.  It would be a lasagna dinner and it would cost everyone $10.  All the money raised would be donated to the Lindemann family for the day to day and medical costs for baby Kyle.  If you can't attend but wanted to donate an item, Ross would gladly arrange it.

I was watching Shauna's house while she and Jen were gone in Mexico.   That Saturday was sure busy.  There was also a game night at Barlow's house at 8.  I got all of my chores done...most of it was feeding dogs and cows.  I went home for a while to help out at home.  I went back over to Shauna's to feed dogs and cows before I headed over to the Eagle's off of 507 for the dinner/auction.  The Eagle's are coined "people helping people" and are very excited to help out members of the community.  When I arrived, there were already a bunch of people in the parking lot.  I've been past this place thousands of times but never stopped or went inside.  I had no idea that smoking was allowed inside the building so I was overwhelmed.  I didn't expect it.  Ross greeted me with such enthusiasm I didn't know what to say to her.  I signed a card and bought my dinner ticket.  I found a spot at one of the many tables and waited for my food.  I saw Megan walk in.  Yes, I had someone to talk to.  She sat across from me and we just chatted until our food came.  It wasn't just lasagna, it was a huge slab of lasagna.  We definitely got our money's worth of food.  

More and more people arrived, chatted, got their food and waited for the mini live auction.  Rodney took control as the emcee and had a good time auctioning off the items.  We had everything from blankets and quilts to weight loss wraps, homemade soaps and ice chips.

One by one, each item was sold to the highest bidder.  As it got later and later, a lot of people decided to go home.  I stayed until 8, talking to Megan, Chelsy and Jonathan.  I got tired of the cigarette smell so I decided to go over to Barlow's house.  We all had a good time.

"All I can say is it is AMAZING how fabulous small towns are. Tonight's event wasn't as big as I hoped for but Tim Butler, Dave Shepherd, Rachel, Alex, Sam and Frank Miller, Jordyn Davis were totally ROCK stars at producing a greaatttt lasagna dinner. Courtney Davis was slinging some drinks. Donations by: Belinda Bugh Hayner, Gina Ridout, Tina Marshall, Bonnie Zimmerman and girls, Chelsy Mendoza, Nina Dickison, John and Lisa Glassmeyer, Gail Whalen, Sue and Val Larson, Kim Camera Schley, DorothyAnne Bergman, Clint and Sandy Farmer, Paul Rossmaier, Jelea Hallahan, Rodney Rossmaier, Jeanette, Dee Dee Byrd, Char and Chad Craft and John and Beth Wriglesworth for their contributions to the dinner and auction.

Even though most of these folks don't know The Lindemann's they gave from their hearts . ... and just as importantly other folks chose to buy the items allowing us to raise some money for the incidental expenses of lots of doctor/hospital visits. It makes my heart burst with affection for those of you that came and shared dinner and an evening of fun! I can't express my thanks to each one of you enough for helping us do this for Baby Kyle! I love you all bunches and it was sooooooo freaking good to see each of you!!!"  -Sandra Rossmaier  

With the help of everyone that was involved, we made $1,750.00.  A few days later, more generous people added to the total and the grand total is now $2,000.00.

Lake St. Clair and a FTF

Bob and I had planned on doing the newest batch of caches on Lake St. Clair, they published last weekend.  We waited for a nice day to go out and get them without getting rained on.  Today was that day.

I got a text from Bev saying to be ready and to their house by 11:30.  As I gathered my stuff and put the caches on the gps, my phone started up...new publish, 9.4 miles from your house!  Better go get it!  I really thought I would get a text from Bev to tell me to hurry up.  I never did.  She probably assumed I knew already.  I got in the car and another one went off.  I got about half way to their house and another one published.  Crap, I'm not going to have these on the gps when we're on the lake.

I got to their house and I helped Bob put the boat into the back of the truck.  He took the wheels off of it so we could be more aerodynamic when we were paddling.  Bev stood next to the computer with the gps hooked in waiting until more published.  She said well, if there is more I will call you guys.  We headed out.

We got there around noon and hoped no other cachers were there.  We had a couple of good scares but they were only fishermen.  We bypassed one that published last week to get to the FTF.  We approached the cache site and found out it was the log that looked like a stump.  We pulled the boat up to it as close as we could and it was easier for me to get out and stand on the log to retrieve the cache and sign the logbook.

We went onto the next one, Exercise while enjoying Lake St Clair.  As far as we knew it hadn't been found yet and we knew it was going to be a hard one.  We spent almost 30-40 min looking for it.  It had no hint and the coords bounced around.  We finally got out of our boat and looked around.  We found out later, we were close when we were digging through the ivy.  We gave up and decided to move on to the eastern part of the lake to A Mermaid in Lake St. Clair and I can See My House From Here.

Both caches were really easy.

We paddled onto the northwest side of the lake where there were two caches and a FTF.  We went to the FTF first.  When we got there we were very disappointed.  Hoppingcrow was somewhere on the lake and we have no idea how long she's been here.  I guess we will have to be happy with our one FTF.  We signed the logbook and made our way to the other two in this section of the lake.  One was in a psudo stump and one was hanging from a tree.

On our way back towards the parking lot, we grabbed the one we paddled past.  That was also an easy find.  And now onto the other two new ones we figured someone got already.  I looked at the map and it looked like the cache was on land.  I read the description and saw the terrain, we really needed a boat to get to it.  I called Bev, she said on the computer screen it looked like it was on land as well.  We're gonna go for it!

On the way under the road and to the southwest part of the lake, we grabbed waypoint 1 on the way to the third traditional that published that morning.  It was hanging on a not so well off Madrona tree.  And now to the one on the most southern end of the lake.  We followed our arrow and started second guessing ourselves.  Is it really over here?  Does the lake end?  There was a small channel to follow so we went with it.  It turned into a lily pad, frog egg soupy kind of swamp land but we continued following the channel.  We went around the corner and saw three people in kayaks.  The only people who would be in this area would be cachers.  I recognized Ohjoy, GrandpaDave and Hoppingcrow.  Crap, we missed another FTF.  We exchanged some chatter.  We asked if we could get a hint for the one we couldn't find.  They said it was a toughy.

They all scattered while we found the cache and wrote our names on it.  We had no idea Hoppingcrow had already found the multi so we hurried as fast as we could get that boat to go, thinking we had an advantage by grabbing the waypoint on the way here.  They still had to grab the waypoint.  When we got to the main part of the lake, we paddled as fast as we could.  We only saw two kayaks.  Ohjoy and GrandpaDave, Bob and I met at the final to the multi.  Since it was Ohjoy's cache, we found it with GrandpaDave.  Hoppingcrow had already been here.  Poo.  At least we got the one.

It was about 3:15 and we needed to get back to the truck.  Bob had to bowl tonight and needed to be home by 4:30.  I took over the oars and paddled us to the truck.  In the distance we could see Ohjoy and Grandpa Dave planning spots to hide more caches.  I guess we should be ready to come back out again to grab more of them.

We got back to Bob and Bev's house around 4ish.  She was making BLT's and offered me one.  I asked for bacon and pickles because I really wasn't a fan of tomatoes.  I was hungry so it hit the spot.  We chatted, talked about the boat caches and then Bob had to leave.  I went home a little later.  Until next time.

Next Adventure:  Probably more of the boat caches on Lake St. Clair

49ers vs Seahawks and the Severe Weather Delay

This game has been hyped up since the last time we beat the 49ers last season 42-13.  I mean it was all over the TV, the internet, the news, there were tons of memes, blogs, photos and analysts dissecting every inch of what could happen in the game.  I was just excited it was finally football season.  It would have been sweet to actually be at the game but the TV was just as cool.

The day started off pretty decent as far as the weather went.  We did hear that it might change as we got closer to kickoff.  I watched a few of the games while I tracked my fantasy players on NFL.com.  We've been working on our rental so my parents were off getting supplies.

So then the TV stopped.  I got up out of the chair and wondered why it quit working.  It wasn't raining, there wasn't anything on top of the dish, nothing hit it...what was going on?  As soon as I stepped outside, it hailed.  I mean it HAILED!  I have never been in that bad of a hail storm ever.  Some of the pieces were almost as big as pennies.  The ducks and chickens ran for cover.  It came down so hard it actually hurt to be out in it.

Then we heard the thunder.  It was too bright outside to see lightening.  This thunderstorm didn't last as long as the one we had last week.  It got closer and closer to game time and they said a bad thunderstorm was heading for Seattle from the south.  Crap, I hope it doesn't ruin our game.

The game started and we almost got through the first quarter and then they had to delay the game because of lightening spotted near the stadium.  Lightening here will be the only thing that will delay a game in the pacific northwest...we're used to the rain.  Both teams played like garbage.  There was an hour delay.

Once we got the game going again it was all Seahawks until half time.  The score was 5-0.

We came back out at half time and just annihilated the 49ers.  We had several sacks, tackles for losses and a couple of interceptions and fumble recoveries.  The final score was 29-3.  It was a freaking awesome game if you are a Seahawk fan.  I was hoping for a higher scoring game but I am happy with the win over the 49ers any day.

To top it off, we now are the loudest fans in the world.  In the fourth quarter, we achieved 136.6 decibels breaking the previous record of 131.76 set by a stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.  The 12th man owns the record in the Guinness Book of World Records.  Go Seahawks!  (http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2013/09/15/you-did-it-seattle-12th-man-sets-world-record-for-crowd-roar/).

We also set a stadium record with the official attendance at the CLink of 68,338 fans.

This may be the year we've been waiting for.  :)

GC776--Green Beret Hide Site & Storm Game

There was some activity on Facebook about going and grabbing GC776 in the Capitol Forest.  It was one of the oldest caches in Washington and part of the Washington State History Challenge everyone seems to be doing right now.  I jumped on board after Jacob told me about it.  I had already gotten three of them...why not use the nice weather to grab the others around.

I got my stuff ready the night before.  Tuesday was going to be busy.  Shauna had given me some free tickets to the Storm game and we were getting this cache in the morning.  I had a very small window between the two.  I had to time it right.

I went and picked up Bob and drove to the parking coords Jacob provided us with.  It seems all of us needed to grab this quickly and head out to our other things we had planned for today.

We got to the spot, a place I have been to before a few months ago with Bob.  We had finished our 2x2 challenge and the final for the cache was up the opposite hill.  I texted Jacob letting him know we were at the parking spot.  He called me a few seconds later telling us that they were on their way up.

The Kia Soul rolled in and Jacob and another guy got out.  His name was Brian...we later found out his caching name was Qaz&Kids.  I shared my caching name and he told me that he needed to apologize to me about the state park thing.  I said it was cool because we got it done and on time.

Because we were short on time...we thought there was an easier/shorter way in, turns out you should use the given parking coords from the Mima Falls trail head and not the ones we created, lol. I don't mind the bushwhacking but others in our group weren't too keen on the idea...especially on the return trip. It was shorter but we turned a 3 terrain into a 4ish, by crossing the creek down below 3 times and scaling up a hill with lots of downed trees and brush. Haha, whoops.

When we finally got to a road we found the Mima trail and followed it to the first waypoint.

We read on several of the logs that the first waypoint was the hardest part of this multi. We found it in maybe ten minutes or less of searching. I was the lucky one who spotted it because of previous pictures that were posted on past logs. I noticed an area, went to it because I recognized it, and found the first waypoint with Qaz.

We looked at the instructions and converted it with the help of Jacob and Bob. We plugged it in and made our way to the final.

The final took us longer to spot. After about 15 min or so and staring at a printed picture of a previous finder, Qaz made the discovery.  It was literally sitting there with a rock on top of it. We took some time digging through the ammo can, signing our names and taking pictures with it.

One more down and several more to go. Qaz and I went back the way we came and we met Bob and Jacob down at the given parking lot. We got to the cars in about a half hour and Bob and Jacob showed up another half hour later in the other parking lot at the given coords. All and all it was a successful day even though we created our own way of getting to the Green Beret.

We drove back to Rainier and I dropped off Bob at his house.  Now time for a shower, lunch and getting everyone for the basketball game in Seattle.

I got home and dad was taking the roof apart.  It was damaged from the bad storm we had back in January 2012.  I got clean, made myself a sandwich, grabbed the tickets and went and got Grandma and Lindsay.  We went into Yelm, topped off the gas and picked up mom from the office.  Surprisingly traffic going north was not that bad today.

We got to the Seattle Center just before 6, parked the car in the front lot near EMP and went into the Armory, where all the food and restrooms are.  I had eaten already so Grandma, mom and Lindsay all found something for dinner.  Once we got inside Key Arena, food would be expensive.  We saw the Berlin Wall, looked at brochures in the travel kiosk, got our tickets from will call and took a few pictures near the fountain.

It was almost 7 so we made our way inside.  We used the restroom and then found our seats.  It was weird watching the game from that point of view. I had gotten used to where Shauna seats are.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves even though the Storm didn't play that well and lost to the Minnesota Lynx by about ten points.

We walked back to the car, it was a warm evening, made our way to the freeway and headed home.  I had to drop mom off at her car at the office and then I took Lindsay and Grandma home.

Next Adventure: Boat caches on Lake St. Clair

Lake St. Clair Boat Caches

I had just finished a bunch of chores when I got a phone call from Bob around 2:30.  He wanted to know if I wanted to go grab the two newish boat caches at Lake St. Claire.  I said sure.  He went on to tell me that he had gotten a small aluminum boat recently from a yard sale.  He said he wanted to try it out today.  He came and got me a little less than a half hour later.

I grabbed my gps, water and keys and jumped in the truck.

We got to the boat launch and got the boat out of the back, parked the truck and wheeled the boat into the water, yes it had wheels, lol.  I got in first and Bob shoved off, we were now floating on the lake.  He said he sure hopes this thing floats.  You never know what you get when you get something like this at a yard sale.  He said the guy that owned it really enjoyed the little boat but needed something bigger because he had friends that wanted to fish with him.  Bob rowed the entire way there.

We got to the first cache...one by "stump lady" just off the shore.  We had to battle with downed trees and branches when we tried to land.  The cache was just a few feet inside the landing tucked away in a stump.  We signed the log and put it back. 

We paddled onto the next one, which was on one of the two islands on the lake.  The cache page described the cache to be difficult to get to if you have a bigger boat than a kayak.  We'll see when we get there I guess.  Apparently there is a dilapidated dock we need to be looking for.  We got closer and closer and found a spot on the bank to park.  We both got out and explored.  I guess there are a few broken down looking homes...we weren't sure if anyone was living in them or not.  We tiptoed around and towards the dock.  I saw the white lattice and Bob decided to go back to the boat and paddle is way towards where I was.  I climbed onto a tree to retrieve the cache.  He made his way over and I told him I already signed the cache.  I hopped into the boat. 

I paddled about half way back when he took over.  It was a gorgeous day on the lake...temperatures reaching at least 85.  We got back to the truck and had some help by a guy getting the boat back in the truck.  Bob dropped me off at home.  It was a good outing.

Next Adventure:  GC776--Green Beret Hide Site & Seattle Storm Game

4H Geocaching and GC12

A few weeks ago, Brenda asked me if I wanted to come down to Vancouver and volunteer with their 4H group.  I said sure, sounds like fun.  Basically we were trying to get 4H kids in the area interested in making geocaching one of their projects.

I got most of my stuff ready the night before just so I could leave at a decent time on Friday afternoon.  I had no idea when we would be done with work since it's been so sporadic lately.  We got done around 2, did our chores, ate lunch and went home.  I grabbed the rest of my stuff, threw it in the car and headed to Vancouver.  According to Nuvi, I was going to be there around 5, the time Brenda mentioned earlier this week to get there by.

Surprisingly I did not hit that bad of traffic.  I really thought once I got into Clark county it would be crazy, especially at the I-5/I-205 interchange.  Smooth sailing to my exit at Mill Plain.  I pulled into their apartment complex and looked for their building.  I saw Ray waiting for me in the parking lot.

I brought some of my valuable stuff upstairs with me.  You never know in these larger cities.  I set my stuff down and Brenda had made dinner.  She told me I had perfect timing.  We all sat down at the dinner table and had meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  We talked about geocaching and other stuff while we ate dinner.  Afterwards, we cleaned up our dishes, put the table back together and relaxed a bit.  We showed each other our geocoins, got the borrowed gps's programmed for tomorrow's event and Brenda talked about her job.  It was hilarious.  I wish I would have gotten it on video.

It approached 11 and Ray made up my bed.  I got to sleep on a really tall air mattress in the middle of the living room.  Everyone retired for the night.  The air mattress was so comfy.  I immediately fell asleep and did not wake up until Zuri bounced on top of me the next morning.

I actually got out of bed around 8 and started getting ready for our day.  We all had cereal for breakfast and Ray put everything in the car.  We drove out to the parking lot trail head for the Burnt Bridge Creek trail.  Ray and Brenda put caches along this trail back in September of 2012.  Bob and I came down a few weeks later to do the entire trail and found all but two of them.

We started setting up the table, put the banner on and set out all of our geocaching information and the different types of containers for display.  And then we played the waiting game.  We didn't know who would show up.  Brenda had a handful of contact info from people who were interested at the fair from a few weeks ago.  We'll see if anyone showed up.  We sat there and watched the clouds burn off.  It was going to be a very warm day.

Brenda realized she had left her phone in the car and was probably receiving phone calls from people looking for this place.  Turns out there was a gal with two kids trying to find this parking lot.  She immediately called them back and told them where to go.  They were walking from the other parking lot towards where we were.  We looked behind us and there they were, eager to learn about what we had to offer.

Brenda gave them the run down of what it was, when it started, the different types, showed them the different sizes of containers.  They were impressed.  We gave them a gps to use and I went with them as a guide.  I told them many stories, answered many questions, shared my experiences and overall enjoyed their company.  I really enjoy teaching people how to geocache.  I only have three years experience but it feels like I have ten or more years under my belt.

I didn't realize how long we were gone.  I got back to the trail head after noon.  Brenda tried calling me and I had my phone on silent.  For a long time I thought I had left my phone on the table.  Good thing I checked all my pockets.  My small group decided to head west for the other two before going back to the trail head.  Ray and I drove over to a cache that has given them a hard time.  I couldn't find it either.

We went back to their place and had sandwiches for lunch.  Brenda decided to stay at home while Ray and I grabbed GC12...one of the oldest caches in Oregon.  We stopped at the Fred Meyer down the road to get some gas.  We headed south on I-205 to I-84 east and got off just before Troutdale.  We got on to Hwy 26 or the Mount Hood Hwy and made our way towards Sandy.  I noticed the gas price...it was $3.39!  The cheapest I have seen it since my trip to Yakima months ago.  We followed Nuvi's directions and made our way to Wildcat Mountain Drive and then to the NF roads.  That lead us to the parking lot and the trail head.

There were many stenciled rocks with the phrase "NO SHOOTING".  Apparently the people who come up here, to not hike, can't read.  There were bullet casings, shot gun shells and garbage everywhere.  I really hate people.  This is probably the very reason why they closed Weyerhaeuser about a month ago to everyone unless you buy a $150 recreation pass.  We can barely afford the almost $120 it costs to geocache (Premium Membership, Discovery Pass and NW Forest Pass).

We gathered our stuff, hiking sticks, trackables, pens, gps's and started walking up the very weird landscape.  We're not sure what happened exactly but our best guess is they brought a cat or something up here to destroy the road that was once here to keep people from driving up to the rock pit.  There were downed trees, large rocks, very big dips and steep hills, some brush, gravel and hay mixed in.  One of the downed trees got me across the back of the leg.  It left a gash and a bruise behind.

We got to the rock pit and really didn't know where to go from there.  We walked up on top of the pit and picked the most likely spot to go in, along the ridge...kinda looked like a trail.  We took a few pictures before we went down.  Great views.

We found a trail head sign, that was shot many times, and made our way down to GC12.  This was kind of unusual for me.  Usually we go up the trail to get the cache...this time we walked down.  It still counted for the elevation challenge.  This was hike #2.  The terrain was not bad.  It was a very quick walk down.  When you think of the Pacific Northwest, these type of trails is what I think of.  This area remained a little damp after the rain we received the past two weeks.  The tree cover was so thick the sunlight had no chance to dry it out.  Our shorts, socks and shoes touched the wet leaves, brush and plants.

We arrived at the cache and saw the stepping stones people wrote about in their logs.  We saw the 13 year old geotrail and knew exactly where the Clout bucket was.  Ray jumped behind the rotting log and pulled out our prize.

It was so cool finding a 13 year old cache and logbook.  We opened it up and there was a huge bag of trackables inside.  We took them all and left two behind.  I left a few trinkets just because it was a large cache.  We put everything back, took pictures and left it for the next cachers to find.  We made it up the trail fairly quickly.  I was surprised.  We took a few more pictures of the rock pit and made our way back to the car.  Another oldie off the list.

We got back to their place around 5.  I got my computer out and was going to log the cache but of course got distracted with other stuff on the internet.  We had dinner shortly after.  We ate grilled chicken, rice and steamed veggies.  It was delicious.  I really liked the way she made the rice.  We talked a little bit more about geocaching as we ate.

I got my stuff together because I thought I should go home so I could help with the rental the next day.  We still had a lot of stuff to get done.  I thanked them for letting me come down and stay with them, feeding me and taking me to GC12.  We hoped that the Bend cache machine in a few weeks would work with our schedules and that we could go down and do it as a group.

On the way home I wanted to get two more towns for the towns and cities challenge.  I grabbed an easy micro in a tree in Ridgefield and a small tube near a tree in a small park in LaCenter.  Only 47 more to go!  I remembered that WSU was at USC and I turned on the radio.  Last time I heard it was scoreless at the end of the first quarter.  It was almost the end of the fourth and tied 7-7, WSU had the ball.  We didn't get a TD but made our field goal.  We were up by three with less than two minutes to go.  USC threw an interception and it was ours for the taking.  In victory formation we actually beat USC, who was ranked #25 this week, first time since I was a freshman in college ('02-'03).

I was so jazzed up after that win it was hard to go to bed when I got home.  I unpacked the car, relaxed and fell asleep.

Next Adventure:  Lake St. Clair Boat Caches

Round Mountain, Lake Wenatchee and Some Reptiles

So I got to talking to Jacob (Shrek198) on Facebook one night and he wanted to go grab some caches up along Hwy 2 around Steven's Pass.  I had never been up that way so maybe we could fill in the towns and cities challenge, DeLorme squares, counties, the Fizzy grid and the Jasmer all at once.  He told me it was going to be a long day.

I asked Doug if I could stay with him on Tuesday night since I really didn't feel like waking up at 1 to drive to Seattle.  He said sure.  I got the rest of the painting done at the rental, went home and started getting ready to go.  We had dinner and I left around 7:30 to get up to Seattle without the traffic.  It took me a little less than an hour and a half.  I found a parking spot and let myself into the house, Doug wasn't home.  I texted him.  About ten minutes later he walked through the door, he and one of his roommates just came back from dinner and a movie.

By the time I got the stuff out of the car and relaxed, it was already 10:30ish.  Crap, I gotta go to bed...I knew I would not get a good amount of sleep before 3:15 rolled around.

I attempted to go to bed at 11.  Doug was making noise, playing his game and then he got up to make popcorn.  I could hear the traffic on I-5 all night long.  It was hot, I was on a futon and I kept rolling around trying to get comfortable.  He eventually went into the living room.  I still couldn't get comfortable and I kept looking at the clock.

Ugh...it's almost time to get up and I haven't slept a wink.

I finally got comfortable and my cell phone alarm went off.  It took a lot to drag myself out of bed and get ready.  This so far is the earliest I have actually gotten up to go geocaching.  The latest was a FTF in Tumwater a few years back.  I stayed up until 2 to go grab the cache.

I took my stuff I wasn't taking to my car and put it in the trunk...this is Seattle you know.  I used the bathroom one more time and made sure I had everything for today's adventure.  I let Jacob know I was ready to go, he was on his way.
 
About 20 minutes later, he came down the hill, I threw my stuff in the Jeep and we made our way towards Hwy 2 via the 522 through Monroe.  We talked about geocaching.  Mostly the ones that were on our to do lists and the ones we've done that were very memorable.

We got to our first stop.  It was a city park nestled up against the South Fork of the Skykomish River.   It was called Skykomish Ball Park Family Cache.  It was still dark outside when we pulled in and parked the Jeep.  I didn't have this one in my gps so we would have to go by what Jacob's phone and gps said.  We wandered through the dark with flashlights looking for the stump explained in the hint.  Found out after several minutes into our search the coords were about 60 feet off.  We adjusted and Jacob finally found it.  We signed our names and moved on down Hwy 2 towards She'll Be Coming.

We got up and over Stevens Pass, beautiful drive, and finally over the other side towards Leavenworth.  We found the forest road (NF-6910) we needed to be on and followed it up to the trailhead.  There was a cache there so we grabbed that one and then used the facilities before we made our way up.  It was roughly 7:30 a.m.

We made our way up Round Mountain.  We took several breaks between the trail head and the first cache along the trail.  Jacob was not in hiking shape and was determined to get back in it starting with this hike.  We came up on the first cache, Bite the Bug...it was surrounded by what I called ghost trees, an area that suffered a major burning at one point.

We trudged on.

We arrived at 7, 8, 9, 48, 50, 75.  Jacob rested and I went and got it.  He said I had more energy than he did.  I got to the cache and it was hiding in a pretty cool location.  Near a big bunch of boulders resting on a ledge.  I have not found a cache container like this one before.  Pretty neat.

We got to a junction in the trail.  We we were on the Round Mountain Trail and it turned into the Mason Ridge Trail.  The trail after this sign was probably the steepest.  We stopped many times and saw some awesome views of  Wenatchee Lake and pieces of the valley from the ledge.

We made the last switchback and found the last cache before She'll Be Coming.  It took us a few minutes to zero in on Round Mountain Tube View.  I walked past it at least three times before Jacob walked down and helped me look for it.  I should have seen it the first time.  It did provide us with a great view looking south.

...and now onto She'll Be Coming, the very reason why we hiked up Round Mountain.

We called Sean just to make sure we were heading the right way.  He said to continue down the trail until we got as close as we could and then cut up the side of the hill.  He said it was easier than the way we were thinking of going.  We climbed up the incline and zig zagged through the trees that have seen better days.  I got up the hill before Jacob did so I thought it would be a good time to seek shelter and use the bathroom.  After I was done I returned to my back pack and waited for Jacob to make it up.  I didn't want to be a jerk and look for the cache without him since he was the one who invited me to come along.

We looked for it together.  It took us less than a minute or two to locate the cache which was hidden underneath a suspiciously obvious pile of bark.  We took the cache to a nearby log to sign, rest and eat some food.

I just had to add my mark since those Husky fans pushed my buttons a little bit.  If the Huskies were represented sure as hell the Cougars were going to be.  I video taped Jacob on his weight loss journey, we put the cache back and made our way back down to the trail.  It took us about 3 hours and 45 minutes climb up and only a little less than 2 hours to walk down.  My knees and feet were so ready to rest.  Total hike was 5.6 miles with an elevation gain of 1,690'.  I found out about the 50,000 elevation gain challenge from Jacob, so I decided to start my own track on the cache page.  This was hike #1.

We got back to his vehicle and drove back down to Hwy 2 towards Lake Wenatchee State Park.

We had some trouble finding a way to get to it without having to walk a long way.  We found a pull out off the main road that was less than .20 to the cache.  We parked and made the short walk to the lake.  It was going well until we saw the large hill we had to walk down and then back up on the return trip.  Just our luck.  I went and enjoyed the views of the lake while Jacob caught up.

We found the cache together.  This was my 51st state park cache and he still had a bunch to go only at 5.  We decided to drive back towards Stevens Pass.  Before we left, we stopped at the Fifty Niner Diner for a milkshake.  I got a strawberry one.  They claimed they had the best milkshakes in the world.  They were good but not the best in the world.  (http://www.59erdiner.com/)

The next cache we attempted to go get was a past Cache of the Month, Wellington.  Somehow we missed the turn off at the top of Stevens Pass.  We tried getting to it another way but ended up giving up and deciding to go for it another day when we weren't tired from getting up at 3:15 in the morning and a 5.6 mile hike.  We also decided to bypass the three state parks that were also on the list, Forks in the Sky-Index Town Wall, Wallace Falls and Bridle Trails.

We stopped at a fruit stand for a few minutes because Jacob was craving fruit and on our way through Monroe, we spotted a reptile zoo.  Jacob was stoked and we had to stop.  We went in and saw lots of lizards, snakes and gators.  They had two full rooms of critters.  Jacob got to hold a snake and the workers noticed his caching shirt and directed us to the cache just right outside their business.  We only had certain caches on the gps for this trip.  (http://thereptilezoo.org/)

Jacob dropped me off at my brother's house at around 5 p.m.  It was a long day.  I was so ready to crash.  I took a quick shower and Doug's roommates made pulled pork sandwiches for dinner while I waited for rush hour to subside.  I left Seattle around 7:30 and got home around 9. I unloaded the car and passed out immediately.  I didn't get up until about noon the next day.

It was a fun adventure and looking forward to more in the future.

Next adventure:  4H Geocaching and GC12