Saturday, June 24

The 8th Annual TriCities Geocoin Challenge

We got up at 7:30.  We got dressed and cleaned up.  That gave us some time to make breakfast and clean out the Escape because this year we were driving the route.  I got all the stuff out of the Escape we didn't need to use and stuffed it inside the tent.  I replaced it with the cooler, lunch stuff and some of my geocaching stuff.  I also made sure there was room for Brenda and Ray's stuff.  I found out last night that Bob and Bev were going to do the challenge with Gabe and Ken and they weren't going to caravan with us.  It made me sad.

We ate our meal of scrambled eggs mixed with cut up turkey sausage and cereal.  We brought extra water this year so we could use it to wash our dishes after we were done eating.  We got everything cleaned up and put away so we could start putting the last of our stuff in the Escape that we would need the rest of the day. 

We walked over to the event, Tri-Cities 2017 Geocoin Challenge (GC6MGZP) and signed in.  Several people came up to me and chatted.  I talked to WatchdogsMike, Lookout Lisa, Sproutter and whoever came up to me to visit with.  We took several pictures of the event including guessing how many items were in the swag jar (I didn't end up winning, which was sad) and throwing smaller cache containers into an ammo can.  I was off about a foot.


We wandered around with Brenda, Ray, Bob and Bev for a while until Jen got up on the stage and explained what the next half hour consisted of.  She went over the rules for a few minutes then told us where the picture was going to be, how do download caches onto your GPS via the loading station and our maps and how unique they were this year.


We all walked over to the designated area (which is where we've been taking the picture for years) stood in a group and had the drone take our picture.  You could tell this year there were many more people than we've had in the past two years. 



There were a few large garbage cans as we exited the picture area and I was curious on how they were giving out the maps this year.  Previous years they were just rolled up and tied like a pirate map.  This year they were inside of a Ziploc bag with ice and a match...the old Fire & Ice theme.  If you needed to you hand off your match to the person manning the GPS station.  Ray took care of that for us.  I drove the Escape to where their hamster car was so we could put their stuff in the back and head out towards West Richland.

I had Ben drive this year because past events he didn't seem like he was that involved, got bored and fell asleep.  It was a great job for him.  Ray manned the GPS and the navigating duties and Brenda and I were in the back, checking the map and communicating with everyone in the front.

We got to our first cache, TC 2017 W07 - Badger Mountain West Trailhead (GC70ZTP) in West Richland, which was at the base of a hill that people were running, walking their dog and strolling up and down.  I thought it was going to be somewhat of a walk but it ended up being in the parking lot hidden in some sage brush. 


Then we went to Candy Mountain Chaaarlie!  (If you don't get this reference please refer to the internet.)  Ben parked the Escape and Ray and I got out and followed the geotrail to the obvious spot, plus there were people finishing up with it which made it less difficult.  We grabbed TC 2017 W08 - Candy Mountain Trailhead (GC70ZTN), signed our name and headed back to the parking lot.  It was starting to get hot.


We ended up finding a really cool cache this year and we actually waited for the people in front of us to finish and put it back so we could have they full experience of finding TC 2017 W05 - Enterprise Park (GC70ZTM).  Ben worked the controls while Ray waited for it to come down from the tree.




This year there were two puzzle caches that we had to solve while driving from cache to cache this year.  We received the papers and we started working on them as we drove.  The first one we worked on was really easy.  I could fill in the blanks on command.  We got those coords done and made sure they were right.  The other one, unfortunately, was missing a piece and Brenda had to call Mike to tell him.  The volunteers would be getting several phone calls throughout the day because of the error.  We were told the missing piece and grabbed TC 2017 W06 - 5 Mountain View (GC70ZTQ) before we left the West Richland area.


As a group, we decided to finish West Richland and get a few in Richland before we stopped for lunch.  We try to bring our own picnic lunches and find a park along the route to eat our lunch at.  We found six of them before we were hungry enough to stop and set up a spot for our picnic.  We brought sandwich making stuff, fruit, drinks and chips.  It was a fairly shaded spot so we didn't get too hot.  About a half hour later, we packed up and walked over to the cache, TC 2017 R07 - Leslie Groves Glacier (GC705GT).




Following along our path, trying to keep ourselves from backtracking a lot, we made it towards the end of our Richland caches.  One, was pretty fun to find.  Ben literally off roaded it to the cache, TC 2017 R01 - Bradley Fossil Beds (GC701PZ).  Ray and I got out and got the cache as Ben and Brenda turned around.  We walked up to it and it reminded me of the cache that Ben and I couldn't find at Seabrook last fall with the gnomes.


We went back to the Escape and showed them what we found.  They thought it was pretty cool.  We moved on to Columbia Point, a park that hosted my first TriCities Geocoin Challenge back in 2012.  I reminisced as we pulled up to the parking lot.  I remember getting a FTF with a horde of people that night we showed up.  It was fun even though it rained the entire night.  Anyway, we all got out and found the birdfeeder cache, TC 2017 R06 - Columbia Point Sturgeon (GC705G4) and then we all took advantage of the restrooms nearby.


We finished up Richland and moved our way into Kennewick following the map to avoid some hardcore backtracking.

 
TC 2017 K07 - South of the Ice Sheet (GC73X6D) was a stop we've also made in the past.  It was the TriCities Chamber of Commerce and they've always had fun goodies inside their pirate chest.  This year I found some really cool blue fun glasses.  Zuri also found a really cool prize inside she wanted to take with her.  We signed the logbook and I grabbed a TriCities visitors guide for future scrapbooking.



I had seen this sign a few years ago and always thought, there should be a cache here.  This year there was.  TC 2017 K05 - Welcome to Kennewick (GC73X4F) was pretty easy to find but the sign and horses were cool.




We found a few more before we found ourselves at my favorite bridge in Washington, The Cable Bridge, which used to be called the Green Bridge before it was demolished.  TC 2017 K03 - Green Bridge (GC73Q4N) was really easy to find, was attached to a cable to prevent it from being stolen, and gave us a great view of the bridge. 


TC 2017 K04 - Flying Squirrel (GC73Q47) took us to my favorite park in the TriCities, Columbia Park Trail, this park is where they do the hydroplanes from and a place we had lunch a few years ago.  There are tons of caches in this park and I've almost gotten all of them in the five years I've been doing this event.  There is all kinds of activities to do at this park including a team ropes course.  We found this cache near the ropes course inside of a bird house.



Ben was also big on breaking the rules today.  Here is a compilation of him breaking the rules.


"No Parking"


"Please Stay on Path"


"No Loitering"

We had finally reached our fourth city, Pasco.  We were glad to finally be in Pasco.  All roads lead to Pasco.  Anyway, we drove to the furthest one away from the state park and worked our way east as best as we could. There were a bunch of caches that took forever to get to.  I was so ready to be done and have my coin in hand.  I think it was mostly wanting to relax and go eat some dinner. 

Power (GC74TD4) was a pretty cool one.  When we arrived at the substation, we all thought, ugh it's going to be another rock or ammo box.  When I whipped around the corner and saw this really cool, to me it looked like a compost barrel, and couldn't wait to see what was inside. The cache was definitely cool but its contents were disappointing.  I was hoping for some stickers, coins or pathtags...not this time.


We found a couple more rocks and water meter covers throughout Pasco.  The next one took us to Chiawana Park.  Someone was having a family reunion or something because there were tons of pop up tents, food and kids running around.  TC 2017 P02 - 889 Feet Under (GC74TH9) was pretty easy to spot once we got there.  On the way back to the Escape some lady asked Ray to help her with her very large innertube that was getting away from her.  Ray is such a nice guy! 


We finally go to the end of our adventure.  Our last cache, TC 2017 P08 - Confluence (GC75N8G) was right outside the park near a rock statue about Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea and the Columbia River.  This site has been used for other caches throughout the years and there is usually always pelicans nearby.  We found the cache with another group of cachers and they took our picture for us!  Go team Boobs!  Haha!


We hustled back to the Escape and drove into the park to get our fresh shiny new coins!!  I was super stoked!  It was a set of four trackable coins with a wooden base.  It was pretty sweet.


We put our stuff away and contacted Bev to let them know we were going to be on our way soon to meet them at Cousins for dinner.  We drove ourselves and Brenda and Ray drove separately so they could go to their hotel afterwards.

They were all caching nearby when we arrived.  We had to wait about 10 minutes before everyone arrived and our hostess got us a table to sit at.  I had the burger, fries and a Pepsi and Ben had the steak and beer.  Like always, it was tasty with some good company.  After dinner, we bid our farewells and everyone scattered to their hotels.  Ben and I wanted to get a couple more caches around the immediate area.

We started with Don't Mess with Captain Octopus (GC7482G) and ended with You Take the High Road and I'll Take the Lowe Road (GC14FCG).  In total we found about eight of them with a stop at the Walmart to get some more ice and drinks.



We went back to the park and took showers.  For some reason after a long hot sweaty day showers just make everything better.  We hung out in our tent for a while, chatted and listened to the annoying train whistles all night.  I really don't remember it being that loud the last few times I stayed at the park.  We went to bed around 2ish.

Next Adventure:  Heading Home:  Granger, Miner's, Caching Along Hwy 12 and CPR

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