Seahawks and Some Rainier100 Caching

We got up late and went up stairs to have French toast and bacon for breakfast while we watched an early version of the Seahawk game at New Orleans.  I really hate these 10:00 a.m. games.  I am glad this is the last one of the season.  Our offense has been struggling the last few weeks and I hoped they would have figured it out by now.  It was frustrating watching us not do anything on offense or even get the first downs that we desperately needed.  It was back and forth through most of the game and we got the ball three times in the fourth quarter and failed to convert a first down until the last time we got the ball.  We had the ball last to win the game.  We had no more timeouts we had to get down the field for a touchdown a field goal would not win the game.  With the remaining seconds of the game Russell Wilson threw the ball to Kearse and both feet were not in bounds when he caught the ball.  Game over.  We lost the game 20-25.  Our second loss of the season.  I sure hope our offense figures it out.

I wanted to go get some of the Rainier100 caches since it wasn't raining and we had some more daylight left plus we were depressed after we lost our game.  Our daylight would be turned back next weekend and we would lose and hour of our day.  I really hated this time of year...lots of rain, windstorms and darkness. 

I got on the internet and wrote a few of them down.  The remaining ones near the Enumclaw area were our in the Federation Forest and Greenwater.  Greenwater is a small CDP located in Pierce County at the confluence of the White River and the Greenwater River.

I made sure to bring my selfie stick.

We drove the Escape up Hwy 410.  It took us about a half hour to get to our first one, Rainier100 4:  White River (GC6MGNA).  Ben remembered that we've been here before and he was right.  We have been to this exact location to get another cache the last time we were our this way...about 2 years ago when we came out to play disc golf.  We noticed that the river had eroded a lot of the cement structure away.  We walked the wrong way and quickly turned around the find it hidden underneath one of the large boulders near the highway.  We signed the logbook, put it back and got back in the Escape to move onto the next one.

Rainier100 1:  Federation Forest (GC5VQBP) was on the outskirts of the state park.  We didn't need the Discover Pass to get this one, which was nice anyway because we left our pass inside Ben's car.  In fact, we just parked right off the road in a small pull out. 

The coords were terrible in this area.  I kept referring to what other geocachers wrote in their logs.  We might be here a while.  I told Ben this is going to be one of those times where we give up and go back to the car and find it.  He had to go use the restroom really quickly while I continued looking.  I swear I looked at the bottom of every tree.  The coords kept taking me about 50-80 feet away from where we ended up finding it.  We had to have been there at least a half hour looking for it.  I stopped looking at the GPS and just started looking.  Just as I said earlier.  I basically gave up and was walking to the Escape and I turned around to talk to Ben and I saw a pile of moss.  There it is!!  Ugh!  The misery of looking in the forest was over.  We signed the log and got the heck out of there.

We followed Hwy 410 towards Greenwater.  There was an interpretive center on the right that I have never paid attention to until now.  Rainier100 2:  Catherine Montgomery (GC63GEQ) was a two step multi cache around a short walking loop.  Montgomery, a backpacker, teacher and conservationist who, in 1926, was the first person to envision the Pacific Crest Trail.  This interpretive center was built with funds provided by the Washington Federation of Women's Clubs.  Because we didn't have our Discovery Pass, Ben opted to stay in the Escape while I looked for the first waypoint.  I had to have been out there looking for it for a while.  It kept taking me all over the place and it never pinpointed on a specific spot.  I got frustrated and went back to the Escape.  I had no idea what to look for.  Then I had an idea but needed Ben anyway.  I wouldn't have been able to reach it anyway.  He reached up and grabbed a tin containing the final coords to the cache.  I still worried about not having out Discover Pass but we both walked down the loop and found the cache behind one of the logs near a informational board.  We signed our names and put it back better than we found it.

We walked back to the Escape.  I put in the coords into Nuvi for the next one.  Rainier100 1:  Naches Trail Monument (GC5VPYH) was on the left as you entered Greenwater.  The last time we came through here was about two years ago when we had just started our relationship.  He took me out here to play disc golf.  Before that, I drove out this way in 2012 heading to Yakima because Hwy 12 was closed for the summer.  This way was definitely longer.  We pulled over near a small picnic area and it was next to a pointed monument.  It states

"Marker erected in memory of pioneers who came over the Naches branch of the Oregon Trail.  Financed by students of Yale College.  Pierce County Pioneer Society and other friends .  Sponsored by Washington State Historical Society.  1941."

The GPS took us to the small tree line and we started looking inside the rock crevasses.  I saw a great place for it but sadly after about five minutes we were looking in the wrong set of rocks.  Ben found the container.  We wrote our names on the log and we admired the small creek nearby before going back to the Escape. 

We had to find the wooden sasquatch statues in town to complete Rainier100 3:  Cryptozoology (GC6JJM9), the other multi cache.  We went inside the ski shop to look at some of the coats, snowboard gear and some of the disc golf equipment.  We even talked to the shop owner for a couple of minutes.  We went back outside and completed the multi.  The coordinates took us outside of town and I knew where it was going to be.  The parking coords took us right to the disc golf course.  We tried avoiding the mud as best as we could and it was suppose to be in one of the stumps just inside the forest.  We both checked a few of the stumps and didn't find it.  I expanded my search area and as I looked Ben called out, "found it!"  He wrote our names on the logbook and we put it back.

We headed back to Bonney Lake with daylight left to spare.  Halfway back to the house it started raining.  So glad it decided to wait until we were done.  We got back and decided to have dinner with everyone before we left.  I got our stuff packed up while Ben helped change Amy's faucet in her bathroom.  As 9:00 p.m. arrived I told Ben I had to leave and head home since we drove separate vehicles.  He totally understood since I have to get up at 5 to get ready for work.  It would take me about an hour to get home.  Ben stayed another hour to finish getting the faucet done.  He got home about an hour after I did.  We already had showers so I just had to get my stuff out of the Escape and get ready for bed.  This was a long weekend.

Next Adventure:  Halloween Costumes at Work