Veteran's Day Rainier100 Caching in Lewis County

I had the day off on Friday and I wanted to go somewhere since it wasn't raining.  I talked to mom the day before to ask if she had anything planned.  She said she didn't so far.  I told her to plan to go somewhere.  At the time I really wasn't sure but I knew I wanted to get some of the Rainier100 caches before the weather got bad and started snowing.  I started planning.

I chose the Mineral and Randle area off of Forest Road 25.  That would get me about 7 of them and maybe the virtual cache I didn't have yet in Mineral.  This would be my second attempt at it.  The first time I had the wrong coordinates.  I made a list of all of them and some hints just in case my GPS didn't download all of them.  For some reason every time I made a pocket query and put them on the GPS from the computer they all wouldn't be on there.  I trusted my phone more even though this trip my phone would not have any service.  I made sure I could view them offline.

I told mom I would meet her at 10 to head out.  I reminded her the later we left the less time we would have to explore.  It would roughly take us 45 minutes to get to Mineral.  When I got there she wasn't ready.  I was disappointed.  She was outside helping dad with a well pump "dog house" project.  He couldn't of picked a better time.  Ugh.  She made me clean and fill the duck pools while I waited for her to finish.  I even had enough time to pack some lunches.

We wasted about an hour of daylight.  She finally got ready and we left around 11.  We headed towards McKenna, got onto the 702 and onto Hwy 7 through Elbe and on to Mineral, which was tucked away off of Hwy 7 on your way towards Morton.  The last time I was in Mineral was with grandma just last May, when I was hiding my cache for series 3.  Mom said the last time she was here is when she went on the train with dad back last winter when they rode it from Elbe to Mineral and back.  She said it was fun even though the small children were loud and obnoxious. 

I decided to get Rainier100 3:  Mineral's Micro Post Office first.  There, we had to find the small structure which is the smallest Post Office in the United States, and answer questions off of the sign located at that site. 

We filled in all of the questions and found the coords to the final.  I stopped by a spot that grandma and I found the last time we were there, a really nice view of Mount Rainier and the lake.  Mom took several pictures before we moved on into finding the final. 

I looked at where the coords were for the final to Rainier100 4:  Flying Saucers?!? (GC6HN6M) so we didn't have to do a lot of back and forth in Mineral.  Plus, we really didn't have a lot of time to waste.

They both were about a mile from each other.  The final for the post office was near the Mineral Cemetery.  We parked at the cemetery because the coords were leading us there.  Turns out they were on the outside of the cemetery along the tree line.  We corrected ourselves and found our prize.  There was a guy at the cemetery, we guessed morning for his son who was killed in Iraq, because of what day it was.  We could have been wrong too.  It just was the likely scenario. 

We scooted down the road to the final for Flying Saucers.  That one was at the sign for the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and Museum.  We found the cache pretty quickly and put it back.  This is also where the virtual was for MSR Silver (GC12B2) but the place was closed while they got ready for the polar express train rides for the winter.  I will have to come back to Mineral again once the museum opens.

We left Mineral and drove south on Hwy 7 towards Morton and got onto Hwy 12.  We had 25 miles to go so we ate our lunch of sandwiches, chips and apples while we drove to the next cache.

We quickly grabbed Rainier100 4:  Blue Star Memorial (GC6NPVC) in Randle before we went into the Gifford Pinchot forest for the others.  The hint threw me off.  It said large rock so I went to the large rock.  No cache.  Mom stayed in the Escape and watched me wander around all the rocks looking for the container.  I finally found it and it wasn't next to what I would call a "large rock" but nonetheless I found it, got the code word off of the lid, signed our names and got back into the Escape to head into the forest.

We headed up FR25 to get two of  the caches on our list.  The last time I came out this way was with Bob and Bev Fall of 2012 to grab a few caches.  I put the coords into the Nuvi but ended up putting a number in wrong somewhere and ended up going 17 miles the wrong way into the Gifford Pinchot without getting a cache. 

I felt dumb because we wasted a good half hour of our daylight but we did take some cool pictures of the river and some of the dense forest plus we were able to use the restroom as well.

Went back down the hill to get Rainier100 4: Iron Creek (GC6NPTX).  Since it was a camping area and that the gate closed after Labor Day we had to park on the road and walk in. The trailhead was easy to spot and it was pretty straight forward.  We walked right to the cache site and found the container.  It was quick and simple but had to run back because I forgot the code on the lid.  Doh!

Rainier100 2:  Woods Creek Trail (GC63QNQ) was a little further down the hill on the same forest road. I took a picture of a woodpecker and then followed the trail to the small bridge and where the cache was hidden.  We were on a time/darkness crunch so we hurried back. 

We got to a cut off that would take us to FS23 to get Rainier100 1:  Layser Cave (GC5VDWV), we were so stoked to see a cave.  We parked up at the top of the trailhead and walked down.  We saw two guys and asked where the cave was.  They said right around the corner.  We found the cache and then headed to the cave, which was like 50 feet from the cache site.  Mom slipped down a hill and got her pants dirty.  We admired the view of Mount Adams before we went back to the vehicle.

We rushed back down the hill so we could get the last one in the Randle area before it got dark.  We had been to this spot once before.  They must have archived it to put Rainier100 3: Hopkins Creek Falls (GC6KA2F) out in its spot.  Mom stayed in the car while I ran and got it really quick.  There was more water coming down the falls this time.  I quickly ran back so we could start heading back towards home.

We started our drive back home.  I stopped in Morton to get some gas.  Mom wanted a hamburger and I told her that there really wasn't anything out this way especially mom and pop burger joints.  I suggested Harold's in Chehalis/Centralia.  She gave them a call to see how late they were open...til 7.  We had some time to get there.

We talked about work, Thanksgiving, Christmas, sports and other stuff as we made our way to I-5.  Ben called me as he was heading home when we got to Napavine.  I talked to him for a little bit and then had to go because we were almost to Harolds.  We both ordered the burger and shakes.  Ate in the parking lot.

Headed back to Rainier to drop mom off and then I went home afterwards.  It was nice to clean up and relax before bedtime.

Next Adventure:  Heading out to Seabrook for the Weekend