I dug through all of my caching gear and found a stamp and a stamp pad, sadly the stamp pad was silver...so I brought a green sharpie so they could color the stamp with a sharpie if the silver was too light on the passport.
I decided why not make an entire day out of it. I had 50 caches to go until I reached my 10,000th milestone. There were some along the way (that I've ignored the past few months) that I could get on my way to Millersylvania. I started with the extra caches and worked my way towards the park.
TT's Cache (GC50VMN) was the first one along the way. I pulled the car over and quickly found it tossed aside in the bushes. I put it back where I had found it. Not sure if that's where it was suppose to be. I got onto I-5 heading north and stopped at the Scatter Creek Rest Stop to grab the newest cache that I didn't have yet. 28 = 11,827 (GC4WGTK) was published in honor of a trip across 28 states. I parked the car as close as I could and tried to avoid muggles which was hard since it was a rest stop. I found it hanging on the fence. I quickly signed it and returned to the car.
I continued north on I-5 and got off at 93rd. The truck stop was really busy and I had to wait for a bunch of semi trucks before I got away from that area. I turned onto Case Road and en route to Tough Case (GC52KWV) by our buddy Lars (RL Painter). I really wasn't sure what I was looking for at first. I hoped that it didn't take too long to find because I had an agenda for the day. The coords were spot on and I had the cache in hand within the minute. It was a duct tape wallet made famous by our Oregon cachers. The Portland area has a ton of these kind of hides.
The next one was not too far down the road. I knew it was going to be a guard rail based on its name, Safe Guard (GC528Q3). It was hidden by a little girl and it was her first hide. I parked in the turn out, found the cache, grabbed some of the aluminum cans on the side of the road and headed to the park.
I continued south and turned onto 113th just before Scott Lake and followed that until I got to Tilley Road. Millersylvania was on the right side of me. I had to stop at the kiosk to pay for a $10 Discovery day pass. My year long Discovery pass expired on June 10th. I didn't get another one until I absolutely had to, which was going to be for the Ape cache event in Snoqualmie in a few weeks. I paid my $10 and followed the road to my cache. I'm just glad the container wasn't muggled. I grabbed it from its hiding spot and wrote on the logbook and the lid of the cache "DO NOT REMOVE STAMP OR INK PAD!" I put the stamp, ink pad and the logbook inside a bag and hoped for the best. I hid it back better than I found it.
WaStatePks100: Millersylvania (GC4D5B9)
After securing my cache, I decided to start from the furthest one out and work my way back towards the main road. I took a wrong trail and walked more than I should have but I eventually made it to Millersylvania State Park Big Tree (GC4X4CP). They were huge trees!
I walked back down the trail and to the junction that lead me to Millersylvania State Park Boardwalk (GC4X4CT).
I tried going to the next one Millersylvaina State Park Backcountry (GC4X4D0) and the trail was closed up ahead so I tried to find another way around but it led me astray and at a dead end near a creek that ran through the park. I would have to figure out another way around. I walked back down the trail and out where I entered about a half hour ago. I wandered through the RV campsites and to the end of it where another trail started. Then I found out I could have driven here and parked at this trail head. Lame. My feet were tired and I still had five more caches to get.
Millersylvania State Park Orchard (GC4X4CZ) was now the closest on the GPS. I found the tree it was hidden in, logged my find and moved on to the one I was having trouble with.
I found the backcountry one down a gravel road behind a large log.
The next cache, Millersylvania State Park Fitness Trail (GC4X4D2) was along a fitness trail north of the park. I had to continue on the gravel road until I reached the junction, found the right trail head and made my way around the loop. I found the right area which included some fitness bars so people could do pull ups out in the forest? Sure. I found the medium sized container, logged my name and put it back.
Then my mom called me asking me where I was. She had worked a half day and because her car wasn't working she had to ask Grandma for a ride home. The rental was almost done and she needed me to come home, take her over there and help her clean. I told her I was almost done finding caches in Millersylvania. She said okay and to hurry up.
Millersylvania State Park Stroll (GC4G96Y) and Millersylvania State Park Welcome (GC4X4CX) were my last two caches. I was actually excited to be done because my feet were hurting. I had a blister on one of my toes that was making me compensate my stride so now my leg was getting sore. Stroll was hidden underneath a cedar tree and Welcome was hidden behind the welcome sign to the camping areas.
I was done! I semi limped back to the car. I sat inside, opened all the windows and relaxed for a minute. I was sweaty and starving...it was way past lunch time. On the bright side, I completed my goal for the day. I found 11 caches and was that much closer to my 10,000th cache for the Block Party. I have 39 more to go. I made it home, ate lunch and took mom over to the rental to help her clean. I can't wait until it's rented. It's been such a pain in the butt the last year.
Next Adventure: Seattle, Green Lake and Discovery Park
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