The Winlock Egg and Go Seahawks

A few years ago Mom and I headed down to Winlock to see the "worlds largest egg."  It also was a virtual geocache (this was the same era of when I cached without a GPS) so we thought it would be easy to find without one, which it was.  We had a blast taking pictures of it because it was so weird.  This was my picture from September 2010.

I overheard someone on Facebook talking about the egg and that the Seahawks logo would be painted on both sides of the egg with the number 12 on the remaining sides.  It was going to be painted on Saturday, January 25th.  It was featured on the local news that evening.  We had planned to drive down that Sunday.

We slept in until about 11 that morning.  We had been up late the night before at Nicole's house for game night, where we had lots of cheese, bacon and beer.  We got home around 2 a.m.  I got motivated to get up, get dressed and ate something fast.  It took me a while to get Ben up but once he was up he got excited for our mini day excursion.  We made sure not to leave the house without our NFC Championship shirts.  I got a quick query together so we had them on the GPS just in case his phone died during our hunt.

And we were off!

We went to the egg in Winlock first and then went from there.  I honestly didn't know how many people would actually be there to take pictures of the Seahawk egg.  We pulled in and no one was there.  We started walking towards the egg and everyone seemed to be showing up at the exact same time.  We got a few pictures in before the small crowd it.  The artist even painted the rooster Seahawk colors.  We were patient and waited for our next round of pictures.  We had a great time.

It was even sunny and warm.  I could have worn shorts!

We grabbed a few caches on our way back towards the freeway.  We found Take it to the Limit, a nano on the back of a speed limit sign and Waiting in the Weeds, a nut container hiding behind a log.  We stopped at the gazebo near the gas station and got that one.  I've been here once before to get the one that used to be here.  It was archived and a new one was put in its place, Snackzebo.  That one was exactly in the same place as the other one.  After we signed it and put it back, a couple from Oregon said hi and asked what we were doing.  We told them we were geocaching and they said they've actually heard of it.  They asked us a few general questions and then they were on their way back to the freeway.  We moved on to the Toledo side of the freeway.

The first few were ones I found with Bob and Bev about a year or so ago.  I let Ben find them.  They were a bunch of caches put out by Bearsandme.  Then we took a short bathroom break and we were out finding them again.  The next three took us towards the small community of Toledo, a place I have cached in the past.  Of course if you haven't been there in a while new ones publish all the time.  They didn't take us long to find.  One of the caches took me to a place I use to play fastpitch when I was in high school.  We always lost to them.  I don't think I ever won a game at that field.

The next one took us to a historical sight called Cowlitz Mission.  "With an elaborate program, a beautiful tablet was erected on Cowlitz Prairie on May 11, 1926, to mark the site of the Cowlitz Mission of 1838 and the first Catholic Church in what is now the State of Washington."  We arrived at a sign that explained a short history of the area.  Ben found the cache right away.  He opened it and nothing was inside of it.  I donated one of my film canisters and log books so the owner didn't have to come out and add a log book.  We continued up the Jackson Hwy.  We drove past the skydiving place and thought it would be fun to go and do one day.

We got to Lewis and Clark State park and would have stopped to get him his first state park cache but we didn't have his passport with him.  Also that morning some caches published inside the park by Rocketglider.  We will have to come back one day and do them when it's warmer.

We grabbed a few more along the side roads and one that paralleled I-5.

We got onto Hwy 12 and found MoGas and two more by Bearsandme.  Than completed our day and just before it got dark.  We were hungry and decided to drive to McMenamins, one of the many between Olympia and Oregon.  I've been to a few but not the one in Centraila.  This one was called the Olympic Club.  I remember their food being delicious.  I tried the Ruby Ale.  We both had burgers and enjoyed our time there. 

http://www.mcmenamins.com/

Then we headed home the back way through Bucoda.  We got home and shared our pictures with everyone and logged our caches.  It was a fun day.

Next Adventure:  Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl Parade

Disc Golf at Auburn Game Farm Park

We were trying to figure out what to do this week and the mention of going over to Ben's grandma's house for dinner was the topic of conversation.   We would be doing this on Wednesday so I drove over Tuesday night to stay and possibly do something on Wednesday afternoon before going up to his grandma's.

Of course we stayed up too late the night before and got up just before noon the next day.  We hustled to get ready since we only had a few more hours of daylight and the park closes at dusk.  We drove through Lake Tapps on the way there.  I have never been in this area before and the lake was very very low.  It almost didn't even look like a lake.

We got to the park and I remembered that I have been here before with a friend of mine and we did do a round of disc golf back in 2009.  Then, we got about halfway done and it rained so we didn't finish the course.  So I know at least part of the course.

http://www.auburnwa.gov/things_to_do/parks_trails/game_farm.htm

The course was very busy today and several times we had to wait for people in front of us and people had to wait for us to finish.  As the day went on it seemed like more people showed up to play disc golf.  I thought it would have been the other way around since it was getting closer and closer for the park to close.

As we got to the hole that I left off of several years ago, it was the one that paralleled the White River.  If you threw it wrong it will go into the river and you probably won't get it back again.  I tried my hardest to throw it away from the river and go from there.  When I threw it, it took a horrible roll.  As I watched it roll, I was yelling, NOOOOOOO!   I did not want to lose a disc...mostly because I don't have the money to replace them at the moment.  I ran over there and thank goodness a stumpy tree stopped it from going down the bank and into the river.

A little further down the trail we saw that some geocaches were coming up.  Sadly, two of them were on the other side of the river but one was very close to hole 12.  We took a short break from disc golf to walk down to the bank to grab it.  It was called Kaneohe-Aloha in WA (GC4H82F) and it was hidden inside of a eroded stump.

Back to disc golf and the few holes we had left.  When we were done, we walked down the river path to another cache we had to grab before we exited the park.  This one was part of a series, KC Geo Clue-Mrs. White (GC30HXK) and found it on the fence.  I was lame and didn't grab the clue from the log book.  I'll have to go back one day and get it.  We hustled back to the car and got out before dusk.  It was a fun day of two of my favorite outdoor activities:  disc golf and geocaching...at the same time!

We headed up towards the Muckleshoot Casino and I found out his grandma lives a few blocks from there.  I had never been up this way before.  We parked in the back and walked in.  I met his two uncles, aunt and grandma.  They talked about genealogy, some family stories, I told some stories and we ate food.  We had chicken, potatoes, corn, bread, stuffing and for dessert, a huge chocolate cookie.  It was delicious.  About a half hour later it was time to head back to his house.  I told them thanks for dinner and it was a pleasure meeting all of them.

Next Adventure:   The Winlock Egg

WSGA Holiday Party

I saw we were having the annual holiday party again up in Renton.  I immediately signed up to say I was going to go.  Not sure if Bob and Bev or Ben could go so it was kinda up in the air for a few months.  I was hoping it did not fall on the same day as the Seahawk game like last year.  Luckily, we won our games appropriately to where we didn't have to play on Sunday but on Saturday against the Saints.

I got my white elephant gift ready and what I was going to bring to the potluck.  I chose to bring banana bread.  Bob, Bev and Ben could go so they got their stuff together as well.  Ben stayed at my house for the weekend so he could ride up with us.  I ended up driving up there with everyone in mom's car.  I thought we were going to go a little earlier to grab a few on the way.  I guess it was just the event for now.

We got there about a half hour before everyone else.  There were a few cachers who were decorating the fence and the tables and stage inside the Kennydale Memorial Hall.

We got out and went inside.  Bev chose the table we were going to sit at...the one near the heater.  Haha.  I set out all of my trackables, the ones in the binder and the stuffed animals in the bag.  I had several people stop by and write down the codes.  I had to email Max (Scooby) the list to keep his most trackables streak going.  Chris sat down with us for a bit and he talked about his trip last October on the ET Highway with four other cachers.  They had a blast.  They made shirts and coins.  He even gave me a coin to add to my collection.

We talked to many people throughout the late afternoon.  Then it was time for food.  I grabbed some chicken, chips, brownies, lasagna, crackers, cheese, meat and some orange soda.  We all visited while we ate our food.  Next on the agenda was talking about the club, awards and then our gift exchange.

Abby got up and spoke about the club, the new policies, the Washington State Parks Geocoin tour, her resignation as president of the club, nominations for this years club roles and she gave out a few volunteer awards.  Then Chris got up there to talk about almost the same thing but more along the lines of the South Puget Sound Chapter, which is the group most of us there belonged to.  He also gave out volunteer coins.

He shared my story about taking over the Millersylvania State Park cache at the last minute so they could be published on time for the kick off celebrations.  I stood up, was applauded, walked up to the stage and received my coin.  I had no idea I was going to be recognized for volunteering.  It was pretty cool.

Look for cougarcach24 on the page in the link below:

http://www.wsgaonline.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=975

We had our gift exchange.  Bob's was the very first ticket to be chosen.  Then I was, Ben and then finally Bev.  They all opened cache containers with swag and I got a thing of scissors.  I guess you can never have too many scissors.  Haha!

We talked to a few more people before we left.  I grabbed a new application for my 2014 membership so I could fill it out at home and send it in since I couldn't find my checkbook before I left. (I found it a few days later.) 

We drove home and told stories.  I dropped Bob and Bev off at their house and then went to my house and watched a movie before bed.  Another successful WSGA event in the books!

Next Adventure:  Disc Golf at Auburn Game Farm Park

Tehaleh Caching Part II

We stayed up way to late the night before and slept in way too late this morning.  We lazily got up, showered ate food and decided that it was a nice day and that we should make the most of it.  I suggested geocaching because we needed to chip away at the Tehaleh caches we had left to grab and it was a nice day.  We got ready and I grabbed my GPS and we were on our way.  We drove to a set of parking coords that would lead us through the trail systems around the development.  The search was on!

Tehaleh Which Way Do I Go? GC4JGMH, was the first one we encountered on our walk through the gravel path.  I gave Ben the GPS so he could get more practice using it for when get can get one himself.  We were looking for a micro without a hint.  We found a film cannister hidden in an old stump less than a foot off the trail.  We signed our names and moved on to the next one.

We were looking for a regular on the way to GC44AQK, Tehaleh Winthrop Cache.  I was kinda happy to finally see a regular in the many micros we've been finding lately.  Sadly, there wasn't a whole lot of swag inside the ammo can but we had fun finding it anyway.  This one was tucked neatly behind a log.

We walked back towards the car and hit the other side of the trail.  That took us to a bunch of naked trees.  Tehaleh Stuck in the Middle With You, GC4JGMN was at first tricky to find.  The coords jumped around a bit but we managed to find the right set of trees and then it was obvious.  We put it back after we signed it, walked back to the car and drove to The Post.

The Post, GC4TH8X, was a fun one to find.  We could see a great view of Mount Rainier from this location.  This one was magnetic and the only place it could have been was on the metal fixtures underneath the benches.  This one even had a trackable inside.

There were two others down the trail we decided to go for since we had a smidgen of daylight left.  We grabbed the first one, GC44APG, Tehaleh Monster Cache.  It was definitely a monster.  It has been one of the few large ammo can's I've come across so far.  Ben was pretty impressed by it.   There were lots of kid's toys shoved in a plastic bag inside.  We signed our names and put it back in the pile of branches.

One more before heading back to his house.  We walked the quarter mile down the gravel path to, GC44062, Tehaleh Forest Park.  It was a mini ammo can in a plastic bag on top of the wooden information board.

 We walked back to the car and drove back.  I got my stuff packed up because I had to work the next day.  Until the next caching adventure!

Next Adventure:  WSGA Holiday Party in Renton, Wash.

Tehaleh Caching

We got up late and it felt good.  I needed to sleep in after the last couple of crazy days I've had.  We ate some lunch and decided to go after some caches in the Tehaleh area.  It is a new housing development outside of Bonney Lake near Ben's parent's house.  We also decided to go for a run.  Meanwhile, we had to make sure we had everything ready because Erika and Malachi were arriving at some point to the Tacoma Dome.  We weren't sure if it was by the train or by bus.  We drove to the development and it was really foggy.  You could not see more than 50 feet in front of you.  I parked at the elementary school and we jogged to the first cache, Sprouts Hollar Park, GC2FC90.  It was at a small park hidden underneath a picnic table.  Erika started texting me that they were on their way back to Tacoma.  We had to hurry if we were going to make it around the same time they arrived. 

We ran to the second cache allotted for the day, Tehaleh-The Edge, GC4JGMD.  It was a film canister tucked away in the rock formation near the skate park.  We took a funny picture of me on top of the rocks just because we could.

The next one was called Tehaleh-Yonder, GC4JGMA.  We found the cache in the similar fashion, hidden amongst the rocks.  Ben posed for this picture.

We decided to run across a grass field.  What we didn't know is there were puddles and low spots with water.  Our shoes got soaked as we sprinted across.  Ben almost fell down but managed to catch himself.  We got to the car, drove back to his house and I started packing my stuff as quickly as I could.  Ben's mom gave us some food for the road and we had to get gas before going down the hill into Puyallup.  Erika and Malachi were already at the parking garage waiting for us.  We got there about ten minutes later and picked them up.  We tried looking for food on the way home but Chipotle was closed at the mall.  We just went home.

Ben hung out for a while and went home later than evening.  Happy 2014!

Next Adventure:  Tehaleh Caching Part II