WaStPks100: Wenatchee Confluence (GC4BE6E)
Fun with Favorites, June 19 (we actually found this on June 21): The first one that was launched challenged us to find a cache (didn't matter what kind of cache) that had ten favorite points or more.
Ben and I were in Wenatchee/Chelan for a wedding while this one came out so I was going to hit two birds with one stone. I got my 60th WaStPks100 cache and we got our first road trip souvenir. We parked in the lot and walked the round trip mile to and from the cache. I have heard other cachers talk about this one so I knew what to look for. I also knew it was one of Mr. Gadget's famous bird house caches. We were excited to figure the puzzle out. As we walked down the trail a guy on a bike had his medium sized dog in his back pack the dog even had on sunglasses. That plus the cache was worth the walk down here. We found the cache easily but took some time to figure out out to open the container carefully (I knew someone had forcefully ruined the previous one days before we arrived) signed our names, stamped our passport (the stamp is getting worn out) and took a few pictures.
Memories of Zenkitty (GC2BN5C)
Meet your Road Trip Crew, July 3 (we actually found this one on July 22): The second challenge we were to attend an event to meet other cachers. It didn't matter what type of event it was as long as you were out socializing and meeting new people.
Bev and I wanted to go to an event that was held at the Lacey Train Station to celebrate Zenkitty, a Thurston Co. geocacher, who passed away in April. I met Jim (Zenkitty), at an event in Centralia May 2012. Before I met him I thought the Zenkitty handle I saw on several logbooks was a woman! Boy was I wrong! Haha. He was a very sweet guy who knew how to entertain people. About 25 people came to Ohjoy's event, we had snacks, reminisced about Jim and how he touched our geocaching lives. It was an awesome event and I was glad I got to attend.
Lake Lawrence Lollygagging (GC4RDKC)
Let's Get Extreme, July 17 (we actually found this one on August 4): The third souvenir we had to earn was finding either a D5, T5 or a D5/T5 cache. You could take a strenuous hike, climb a mountain, find a cache that needed special equipment such as a boat or scuba gear, the possibilities were endless. Most of the caches around my area were boat caches.
Little over two years ago, Ohjoy and her posse got into their kayaks and started placing caches on lakes. Bev called me around lunch time and asked what I was doing. I told her getting dad some lunch and that I would be done with all of my stuff in about an hour. She said okay and if I wanted to go out to Lawrence Lake to go get our T5 cache. I said sure and I would meet her after I was done. She cleaned out Bob's boat while I was getting dad's food and mile walk out of the way. When I got there, we crammed the boat and the oars into the Escape and off to the lake we went! It was a nice day, roughly around 80ish degrees. We got to the public boat launch, walked the boat down to the water, made sure we had everything, phone, walkie talkie, plastic bag to put everything in, an extra cache just in case this one was missing...again, and the GPS. Bev stayed on shore while I paddled the 0.15 to the cache. It was hard paddling there because of the breeze and the two jet skis that flew past me.
I got closer to the shore and pinpointed the tree that I suspected the cache to be attached to. Because of our dry summer, the shoreline was a lot lower than when it was hidden. Thus, I had to get out of the boat to retrieve it. Unfortunately, I had a hard time paddling myself to shore because of the thick Horsetail Rush plants along the shoreline. I had to set the oars aside and pull myself to shore with my hands in the lake. Once onto shore, I noticed this giant bees nest that someone had lopped the top off of it, rendering it abandoned, thank goodness...no one has time for bees. I found the cache tied to the end of a Douglas Fir branch. I radioed Bev telling her I found it and I will be on my way back in a few minutes. It took less time getting back to the boat launch because I was going with the current the wind was making on the surface. She grabbed the boat as I made it to shore and I definitely got wet on my way back. I had to wipe off the items that got sand all over them. We dumped out the boat, which had roughly a cup of water inside, shook it off a bit and stuffed it back into the Escape. We drove back to her house, I dropped her off, put my raft into the Escape and drove home.
For the Love of Peat (GC5E5QY)
High Five for the Earth, July 31 (we actually found this one August 14): We could either get an earthcache or attend a CITO to achieve this souvenir. We chose an earthcache because we were not able to attend any of the CITO's in the area. I am so glad I saved this earthcache. The next closest one to grab was either Flaming Geyser or Mount Rainier National Park and this one was on the way to Seattle for the block party. I've been to the West Hylebos Wetlands before...many years ago before this earthcache was here, so I was familiar with the area. We pulled in and noticed a van of people getting out. I knew we would see cachers here being BP weekend and all. We tried to get here earlier to avoid Seahawk, Hempfest and concert traffic and the thunder storm that was rolling in. We had to get this earthcache before it down poured. We got the necessary information, the pic and the cache at the picnic area before we started feeling the drops coming down. We ran the rest of the way to the Escape to avoid getting drenched. Once inside the Escape the sky let loose and it poured.
Tacky 1: Map Quiz Revenge (GC1XBZW)
Put on your Thinking Cap, August 14 (we found this one on the correct day!): This challenge we had to solve a puzzle cache. I have a huge list of caches I've solved but they were in places we weren't going to go for a while so I looked near the earthcache for one and there was one I could solve.
I was trying to maximize our time by getting two in one area so we didn't have to do any extra driving. I love geography so this one wasn't hard to solve. We grabbed the earthcache and ran back to the car as the sky opened up and poured down rain. We parked the car and out to this one in the rain, thunder and lightening. I had to get my jacket out of the back mostly for the hood, I was also wearing shorts and flip flops. We found the container, signed it as quick as we could, put it back and we were absolutely soaked when we got back to the Escape but it was worth it.
The Road Trip Hero souvenir was earned after completing my puzzle cache.
Next Adventure: Southeast Mt. St. Helens and Lower Lewis River Falls
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