Key Peninsula: Joemma and Penrose State Park

On a last minute decision I wanted to go to the state parks that mom and I didn't have time for a few weeks ago.  I wrote down a dozen or so caches and knew we wouldn't have time to get them all.  I called Ben and had him meet me at my house.  I wanted to leave ASAP but we didn't get to leave until almost 2ish.  I knew it would be quite a drive up and around.  It will probably take us an hour to get there, a few to find the caches and then an hour back.  We were probably going to be home late.  Monday was going to be a long day.

We took my Escape and headed towards I-5 via Tumwater.  Along the way just before we reached Tumwater, a momma duck and her babies tried to cross Ol' Hwy 99.  I stopped so I wouldn't make her nervous and try to run out in front of traffic.  She ended up backing up and taking them back where they originally came from.  We got onto I-5 and merged onto Hwy 101 towards Shelton.

The weather was meh and I hoped it cleared before we got to our first state park.  I have never been to the Key Peninsula before and I don't remember if we ever came this way when I was little traveling around with my family. The Key Peninsula is a finger of land that stretches 16 miles and extends south from the Kitsap Peninsula and is part of Pierce County.  The name derives from its close appearance to a key.

I chose to get the furthest one down the peninsula.  We followed Nuvi's directions to WaStatePks100:  Joemma Beach (GC4A0GN) and along the way there we drove down Lackey Road between Vaughan and Lakebay which I thought was pretty awesome.  We rolled into the state park and found a place to park.  The place was built on a hill so the view was marvelous.  It had a boat launch, a dock and several walking trails.  We decided to head down towards the dock and beach first.

We walked back up the hill to the small trail head we saw earlier.  We walked past a couple and their 13 year old dog, who was very excited to be outside running around, and they said hi to us.  We exchanged in a small conversation then went on our way.  I gave Ben the GPS and he lead the way.  We reached the cache site and it was obvious on where the ammo can was hidden.  We took the bark off of the cache, signed it, stamped our passport and took some time for a selfie.  I know, we're precious.

We put it back and walked back to the Escape.  We used the restroom really quick since it is a state park and all.  I plugged in the next set of coords to Madrone @ The Bay (GC333WC) mostly because I wanted to see Bay Lake before we went to Penrose Point.  Once we got there Ben got out and found the cache without the GPS.  He said it was pretty obvious and he kinda saw the cache from the car.  We signed it and put it back and made our way to the state park.

I've never been to WaStatePks100:  Penrose Point (GC4A0GB) and it was delightful.  It had some waterfront beaches, places to barbeque and bathrooms!!  Haha.  It has some great clamming if you are into that and its trail systems are very well kept.  This one was a multi so we knew we would be spending some time working out the numbers.  Come to find out one of the numbers we needed was not on the signage; we had to look it up on the internet.  We found the necessary numbers and checked our sums.  Yay!  We did it right!!  We found out where we needed to go and found the correct trail system. 

Along the way Ben found, what I call a slug with a camper, as known as a snail near a place where we stopped.  He picked it up and took it along while we walked to the final cache location.  He named him Mac. 

We stopped at the lagoon for a short side trip just to see it.  We took a few pictures.

We walked the last bit to the cache.  We stopped at a small brush covered area, almost like a canopy, and we found the obvious spot the ammo can was hidden.  This one was also covered in bark.  Mac is probably the only snail (as far as we know) that has the most finds.  He will retire with the most finds as a snail.  We signed the log and included Mac, stamped our passport, got our picture and put the cache back as well as retiring Mac at the cache site.  He was along for the ride and it was his adventure of a lifetime.

It was about that time.  It was 7:00 and we needed to go.  It was going to take about an hour to get home and we haven't eaten dinner yet.  We were going to get home late.  We ended up stopping in westside and ate a burger at Red Robins.  We got back to my house around 10ish.  We said our goodbyes, Ben headed back to the fire station and I got a shower in and went to bed.  4:30 in the morning really sucks!

Next Adventure:  Leaving for Banks Lake and I-90 on Memorial Day Weekend