We asked grandma if she wanted to go with mom and I. Dad declined the offer and would rather stay home and work on some stuff. We left around 9 and picked up grandma on our way out of town. We stopped in Rochester, off of Hwy 12, to see Ben and to borrow the GoPro while we were at the ocean. It was nice to see him before he had to go to work. We followed Hwy 12 into Aberdeen and then into Hoquiam. We noticed the hillside landslides from the floods that happened a few months back. We even noticed one of the vacant houses that was on the news that got hit by the slide debris.
We made our way to the 101 junction and followed that through Humptulips and put some miles behind us. I turned on the GPS and I had to stop at the first one that popped up, Shell Game (GC5MWGG). Indeed, it was a shell game. I got out and there were four "shells" to look under and of course it was under the last one I checked.
We followed the 101 through several other small communities and then made a pit stop at Amanda Park and Lake Quinault. I had a cache on the GPS so we stopped in front of the Amanda Park Mercantile. Grandma used the restroom, mom went inside to get snacks and I looked for It's For You (GC54TYQ). I have found a couple of phone booth caches in the past but this one was unique. The phone book was dated back to 2002.
I used the restroom and then went into the mercantile to see what mom was doing. Immediately the owner of the store responded to my Coug sweatshirt, "I love your sweatshirt! Go Cougs!" Then she said her kids graduated from there. Mom paid for her snacks and we got back onto the 101.
Between Amanda Park and the turn where 101 follows the coast there were lots of bald spots of where trees used to be. Rayonier owns a lot of this land and a lot of it was gated off. We could see patches of blue sky but as we got closer to the coast those blue sky spots disappeared. We also noticed that there really wasn't a whole lot of traffic which was nice. We looked at the GPS and we had about 15 miles to go until the turn off to Ruby Beach. We drove past Kalaloch, a very popular spot along the beach come Memorial Day Weekend, and it wasn't that packed. There were some cars but it wasn't insane. It will be in a few weeks though.
We drove the rest of the 10 miles along the shoreline and finally saw the turn off to Ruby Beach. There were a lot of cars parked in the lot. We were amazed. We found a spot and everyone used the restroom before we walked down. We grabbed what we needed and gave grandma the walking stick for more stability. I read the sign before we went down...mostly for the earthcache we would be doing later on.
We got halfway down the hill and we all participated in the virtual cache, Ruby's Rest (GC7077). All we had to do was count the fence posts and look at the view from this spot.
We got down to the bottom and I was amazed. The earth and erosion definitely make some fantastic earth porn to look at. The main attraction here were the sea stacks. We crossed over a creek and onto the main area to go explore. We spent at least an hour taking pictures and seeing the views. It got chilly after a while but never rained.
We worked on the earthcache, Resistance is Futile (GC30CV0) before we walked to the south side of the beach and then walked back up the hill to our car. We answered questions about the types of birds that inhabit the stacks and questions on the sea stacks themselves. It was a fun earthcache and a great location.
We all got hungry so we walked back up to the car and ate our snacks and sandwiches while we packed up the car and used the bathroom one more time. We left Ruby Beach and started our trek back home. We stopped at Kalaloch (GCGFAX) for the virtual I always meant to get when I came up here but just never went and got it. This time was the exception. I finished my sandwich while grandma and mom got out and enjoyed the view. We answered the questions and back onto the 101 we went.
I stopped a few times on the way home to grab the ones just off the road, the first one was called On the Way to Visit Uncle Jack (GC2AVP1) and it was a micro next to a sign and the second was another one near Amanda Park, Cuz I Cud 7 (GC420RA) and it was a guard rail quickie.
We got further south and there were two caches that were very creative by Zookeeper98. Gate 7950 (GC5T2NG) had me going for a little bit until I noticed something that didn't belong, it actually caught me off guard and I was irritated that I didn't see it right away. They had made a sign and you flip the sign down and a bison tube falls out of it.
We moved onto the last gate cache that we had time for, that one was newer and only been found once. Blue Gate: Charge It (GC5T2NT) was listed as a 3.5/1.5 and the last cacher DNF'd it. I was kinda skeptical. I have found caches in the past that were DNF'd by the previous cacher. I gave it a try. I saw something right away but shrugged it off as garbage. It was a clever hide because a lot of people leave trash outside of gates along the road. I thought to myself, this has to be it...I picked it up again and unscrewed it, indeed, it was the cache and I should have went with my first instinct. I was second to find.
Next was a small park I've driven past several times and have always wanted to stop and check it out. The gates were always closed and I found out why. Promiseland Park was closed sometime in 2012 because of budget cuts. Since there is no more maintenance the grass has gotten higher, the trees and brush have taken over, the bathrooms are closed, bums moved into the area and there is a lot of garbage in the general vicinity. It was really sad to see a park become a dump. I ran up the hill, because I didn't know a better route, and wandered around for a while looking for the cache. Promiseland Park (GC197KJ) was very frustrating to find. I looked at every stump, the GPS took me in circles and I was about ready to give up. I tried it one more time and it actually took me to the right stump and there it was, the container I was looking for.
I was sweaty and glad to have gotten that one out of the way. Good luck to the next set of cachers who look for this gem. I went back down the hill and to the other one, Is There a Doctor in the House? (GC54GC0) and luckily this was outside of the park on one of the guard rails but it wasn't a typical hide. Creative but guard rail caches are still dumb.
I had to get one more for an even 12 for the day and so I could get to 10,200 caches. It has taken me almost a year to find 200 caches...which is really sad. We stopped at one more, Up in Humptulips (GC585QW) and this one was tied to a tree and we had to pulley it down. I haven't seen one of these types of hides in a while so it was nice.
It was pretty awesome to see a variety of caches along this highway. We went back towards Hoquiam and Aberdeen. Mom wanted to stop for dinner so she took us to Billy's Bar and Grill. We all had hamburgers and watched the rest of the baseball game. The food hit the spot. We stopped at the Aberdeen Walmart to pick up a few things. We headed towards home, dropped grandma off and finally after a long day, we made it back to our house in one piece. It was a fun mother's day and here's to more travels in the future!
Next Adventure: Chelan Adventures
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