Shannon got ready to go to church with her friend Marie while Willmarth and I stayed at the house to watch NFL football. The only game on was Dallas and Houston. I got hungry so I had some Count Chocula. At half time I asked if we could go to Union Gap to get some Honey Crisp Apples to take home with me. We got in his Escape and drove to Fruit City.
We came here last year and bought Honey Crisp apples as well. He likes this fruit stand so we will probably always go here because the owner is a pretty cool guy. We parked and found the area of apples. We grabbed the two cases and set them on the counter. He chatted with us while he added about 20 more apples to our two boxes. Each box cost $24 bucks and I thought we got our money's worth. Bob and Bev wanted to buy the other box off of me. We paid, put them in the car and drove back home. On the way home I found out Union Gap was getting a Buffalo Wild Wings in the Ghetto Mall!
We got home and watched the Cardinals and Broncos game and ate the spaghetti that he made in the crockpot. He did some laundry and I washed out the shoes in the front yard. Marie dropped Shannon off and she did a couple of chores before relaxing in the the chair. Willmarth worked on his teaching exam online. I started putting together all of my stuff and packing it in the car. He had saved some cans for me.
About the 3rd quarter of the game is when I told them thanks for everything and I said my good byes. I had to start going if I was going to have enough time to make it over the pass before it got dark. I really hate the elk in Packwood. They like to stand in the road. The other reason why I left a little bit earlier was to grab a few caches on the way home. I allowed myself about an hour. I would arrive at home roughly around 8.
I got onto Hwy 12 and through Naches. I stopped at the Arco in Naches just to get a little bit of gas. I put in $9 just because that's all the cash I had on me. For some reason my card wouldn't work in the machine.
I got back on the road and on my way to the first cache on my list, Bridge Over Troubled Water (GC2D8VD). I pulled over on the pull out and walked to the bridge over the Tieton River. I found a piece of the cache on the bridge roughly towards the center. The view of the bridge with the columnar basalt cliffs in the distance was awesome!
About a half a mile more down the road was the second cache on the list, Ernestine (GC2D8V2). When I got to that pull out I assumed it would be in the pile of rocks, I was wrong. Upon further investigation and a bold guess I found it pretty quickly. I have found some like these in the past and they make me cringe every time.
Further up Hwy 12 I stopped at a trail head for the Tieton Nature Trail walk and an old Quonset hut. Rack of Ribs (GC2D8VW) was a magnetic cache attached to the inside of the galvanized steel shell along the bottom. For some reason this cache took me a little bit more time than I anticipated. Eventually I had an ah-ha moment.
I stopped and got a cache called Highway 12 (GC53VGG) and used the bushes nearby.
I can't seem to find caches without finding at least one guardrail. Rusy Rusty (GC53VJ9) was that one easy pull out guard rail cache. I give them props for coloring the key holder the same rust color as the guard rail. That was the only cool part about it.
I had a 12 mile break until my next cache on the list. I've always wanted to walk part of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) a trail that starts in Mexico, follows the mountain range on the west coast, and ends in Canada. Many hikers from June to October make this trek or bits of the trek every year. There is a book out called Wild by Cheryl Strayed that basically tells her story about her entire trek along the trail without any hiking experience. She did it to find out who she was. I stopped at the driveway to the PCT and parked the car.
I took a few pictures because the area was so pretty. I made my way down the trail to PCT: White Pass (GC1E571). It took me a few minutes to find it because the coords were soo bouncy. I narrowed by search area and saw a faint geotrail off to the side. I found the pile of bark hiding the container.
I stopped one more time on the other side of the pass at a small lake called Knuppeburg. I was looking for a small micro cache inside of a stump (GC325N2). Again the coords were bouncy so I had to check a few stumps. I took a picture of the lake before I found the cache.
And now on my way towards home for real. I had to follow several slow people but managed to pass them here and there when I had an opportunity. I got to Morton and called Ben to let him know I was almost home. I followed Hwy 7 through Elbe, Alder and the outside of Eatonville. I got to my turn towards McKenna and got home around 8:30. I unloaded my stuff out of the car, took a shower and got ready for work the next day.
Next Adventure: Tornado! II
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