Wednesday, October 7

Lewis County Discovery Trail Caching

After work I had a chiropractor appointment in Centralia and decided to go see Ben at the station afterwards.  I needed to find something to do for about an hour and a half while waiting for him to get off work.  I remembered that I needed to finish finding the caches along the Discovery Trail nestled  up against the Chehalis River.  Ben and I had been on this trail back in March while we did the Lamprey Challenge but didn't really have enough time to grab the rest of the caches.

I followed the road to the parking area which was right next to someone's home and the trail carved its way along their property line.  They had many signs along the edge of the trail saying do not trespass or will be shot on site.  They mean business.  I got out and changed into some different, more comfortable clothes.  As I finished putting my shoes on and grabbing my phone, GPS and a pen, some guy and his dog showed up.  Of course, there had to be one other person on the trail while I was here.  He seemed nice enough.  They kept to themselves the entire time.  Then there was the barn.  With the leaves turning and it really looked like autumn.


There were 8 caches and the Lamprey cache we had already gotten back in March.  I hoped I had enough time to get them before the sun went down.  It looked like I wasn't going to get them all.  The fog had started to roll in and I had to hurry.


I started with Think Outside the Box (GC52AWE).  It was about a half a mile to the south of the entrance.  I walked and if I was going to get at least 4 of them  I had to hustle.  I jogged most of the way there.  When I finally got there I found out it was off the trail about 20 feet around a very large tree.  I started looking and I had trouble because it was much darker inside the woods and I didn't have a flashlight installed on my new phone yet.  About a minute into searching I remembered the name and started looking for a cache that was tied to a branch or the tree itself.  I almost ran into it.  Haha.  I signed the log and took the travel bug out to move it along.


On the way back, I grabbed 12-13-14 End of Era (GC5HTAV), a cache by RL Painter, one of our Thurston County buddies. That one was about 5 feet off the trail hidden on the backside of a tree with a natural shelf.  I was 2 for 2!


I jogged the rest of the way to the next one, Pink Power Ranger Adds to the Discovery Trail (GC4Q973), which was near the trail entrance.  It was hidden underneath a rock next to the sign.  I picked up the rock and touched a slug! Ew.  I signed my name and but it back better than I found it.


I walked to the next cache, Cheshire Cat (GC5EKE7) and started looking for it.  When I didn't find it right away I looked at the logs and was disappointed.  The last few people didn't find it.  I looked on the ground and the next couple trees just to rule out it fell and that the coords were off.  I didn't find it.  Sad day.  I will have to come back when the cache owner replaces it or when I come out here again I will bring a replacement.  This is where I ran into the guy and his dog again.  They were on their return trip back to the car.  I started my way back towards the Escape.  I knew if I tried going for the next one it will be dark plus it started sprinkling and I didn't want to end up being soaked.

I got back to the Escape and decided to go back towards Centralia.  I had a Subway gift card that I could use because I wasn't getting paid until the next day.  I got myself a sub and Ben his sub.  I sat down and ate it because I still had to eat up some time before he got to the station.  When I was done I went and got some dessert to bring with me as an offering for the guys at the station.  He told me he was going to be at the Grand Mound station but that changed as I sat in the parking lot with his sub, cinnamon rolls and some ice cream sandwiches.  They let him stay at the Rochester station instead.  I hustled on over and he was waiting for me outside to let me in.

He ate the sub, we had dessert and we dinked around with the two other guys who were on shift for a little bit.  We shot rubber bands at various targets.


Then came the time we both dread...saying good night for the evening and having to leave and go home.  We really hate that part.  I got home around 10:30, took a shower, got ready for work the next day and fell asleep as my head hit the pillow.  It was an eventful day and it was nice to finally rest.

Next Adventure:  Oktober Fest!

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