I threw the stuff into the Escape and went next door. Lacey wanted me there around 10. I knocked on the door and she answered like she was busy doing something. I wondered. She had been on the phone with the phone company trying to figure out how to use another phone with her SIM card. Apparently Nana smashed her phone with the truck lid last night by accident. I have never seen a phone that destroyed ever. She learned what she wanted to know and ended up using Nana's phone for the rest of the day. She ordered a new one that will be here in the next few days. We left as soon as she was done. We got a later start than we intended but I was glad to be going somewhere with a friend I hadn't seen since last summer.
Our first stop was near the exit of Hwy 12. I told her we would stop for two for some practice and some variety of what caches look like. The two we stopped for were hidden by bearsandme, one of my good friends from Longview, she has a huge series following I-5. This one was #61 in the collection (GC5D8N9). I had Lacey look for it. She had the knack for it as she walked right up to it.
The next one in the collection, #60 (GC59QDZ), was on the other side of Spiffy's (a famous restaurant known for their pies) we parked right next to it. I told her before we got out of the car that I could see it from where I was sitting and to look for something out of place. She found it immediately.
I set the GPS for the entrance to Lewis and Clark State Park. Last time I was here I was with grandma and mom grabbing the only cache inside this park, for the state park geotour back in June 2013. We tried to find the trail head, the area wasn't marked very well and the place was out of trail maps, so we wandered around for a while. We eventually found our way to a trail, after some bushwhacking, and managed to find L&CSP-Temporary Support (GC46PGT) and found it inside the stump. We found an ACFunk pathtag inside. I know those cachers; they live in the TriCities. We moved onto the next cache, L&CSP-Mossy Rest Stop (GC46PGY) just further down the trail. We found that one quickly.
We walked further down and realized we missed the trail to the two other caches in the park. We did figure out the coords to the multi but it was quite a walk away so I decided to save it for another time. While walking the back 40, we heard some screeching and saw some very large movements in the trees. Then I saw the owl in the tree. We had a great view of him. We didn't realize there was another one in the tree next to him until they both flew away. "We got to see an owl!!"
We made the walk back towards the Escape mostly because we were hungry and wanted food. The views of the forest were so amazing!
We got back and got our lunches out and found a good spot to sit and enjoy nature. I went and used the restroom, which was being cleaned by one of the seasonal workers, I tried to stay out of her way. I returned and my sandwich hit the spot. We talked about friends, the stuff we've been doing, our travels and other things that happened to come up.
It was time to move onto Ike Kinswa, roughly 20 miles away. We got onto Hwy 12 and a few miles into our drive, a bird violently hit the windshield. It scared both of us. I was glad to see it didn't run my glass. We took the turn onto the 122 and drove the few miles until we reached the state park. I knew we didn't have a lot of time to do all of them so I chose to do the ones at the boat launch. We got out and walked around the area for a bit and then over to the boat launch.
We looked for IKSP-Boat Launch (GC46MTH) first. I had the hardest time pinpointing this one. It told me it was behind the sticker bushes. I grabbed a stick and started beating the bushes. No one wants to be scraped up looking for a geocache. Lacey found this amusing.
I found out I was whacking the wrong place. I found a little alcove and a great place to hide a cache. There it was! The last cacher couldn't find it and I was excited to prove it was indeed there.
The next one, IKSP-Old Highway (GC46MTP) was on the other side of the boat launch. We followed the bank on a semi-used scenic trail and saw some great views of the lake. I even found a buoy in the woods. We found the cache and walked back. I decided to take the buoy with me and to turn it into some sort of a cache later on. We used the facilities before leaving the park.
Since we were in the area I found some of the other caches I haven't found since the last time I was here. Ashes to Ashes, or is it a Birch? (GC1RW8E) was in one of the cemeteries. It was almost Memorial Day so I thought someone would be up honoring their loved ones. Luckily this one was right next to the Escape.
I knew Mossyrock was known for their tulips and flowers. I thought I would take Lacey to the flower fields just to see if they were still around. There were very few flowers left but they were still pretty. The Peony's were in bloom.
I had Swofford Pond last on the list. I didn't know if we would have enough time to come here or not. I plugged the coords into Nuvi and she took us through town and out to the road to the pond. We stopped a few times to grab Easy Peasy (GC59BJV), Road Less Traveled (GC59BJN), The End (GC59BK8) and Swofford Pond Overlook (GCP3M5).
We headed down to the pond.
We tried looking for two caches on the banks of the pond but came up short. I will have to come back when I know they are there. We found some cool fishing spots as well as talked to a couple of old men who knew people I knew. Small world.
We made our way back home. We stopped in Centralia to get some gas that Lacey offered to pay for which was very kind of her. I appreciated it very much. We got home around 8ish and I dropped her off next door. We briefly talked about our luau game night that was scheduled for the next day.
Next Adventure: Travels with Val: Columbia River Gorge
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