A Day Off in Dupont for Geocaching

I had the day off from work because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  It was a nice day (which means it wasn't raining) and I wanted to do some geocaching since I haven't done a lot of it since July.  The night before I got together a few caches nearby.  I haven't been to Dupont in a while so I centered my search around there.  I also had a few mystery caches I've had solved for years and just never went and got them.  We had breakfast and got some warm clothes on.  Even though it was sunny it was nippy outside.

We headed down Yelm Highway towards Reservation Road.  Just before you get to the freeway there is a few pullouts along Mounts Road.  On December 18, 2017 at 7:33 a.m. Amtrak train #501 derailed, killing three people and injuring hundreds.  Both passengers and interstate travelers acted heroically in caring for the injured immediately after the derailment.  The southbound lanes of the interstate were closed for three days during the time of assessment and later removal of the train cars and the engine.  Nearby JBLM opened alternative routes around the closure.  A cacher placed In Memory of Train #501 (GC7GVZD) just before you merge onto I-5 on Mounts Road, exit 117.  I found a pullout of course someone was parked in the way.  We parked nearby and waited until they left, Ben decided to stay while I jumped out and grabbed it behind the tree.

We dove across the bridge across the freeway and made our way to the solved puzzle This One Time in Belize (GC24PZD) which took us to a rock wall behind a fenced housing development.  I should have read the hint because that would have saved us so much time at the rock wall.  It was underneath one of the rogue road median blocks about 40 feet from the rock wall on the hill.  I was beginning to think I solved the puzzle wrong and we were in the wrong place.

Music Series #5 Hard Habit to Break (GC6CAT9) took us into the town of Dupont.  It was near the Starbucks parking lot nestled into the rock wall.  I tried to park as close as I could to it so the Escape could act like a shield to the coming and going muggles.  I really didn't want to give the location away.  Unlike some rock wall hides this one was fairly easy to find and didn't take up a whole lot of time.  We signed the log, put it back and got back in the Escape before someone wondered what we were doing.

Another one I solved a few years ago and still hadn't gotten was Baby Steps 6 - Rusty Bucket (GCXAGJ) so we headed down one of the other main streets and managed to find a close parking spot at the park n ride/transit station.  We walked across the street to the rusty metal structure and found the "rusty bucket" we were looking for.  I let Ben pull it out of its hidey hole so we could sign it and put it back quickly just in case a bus load of people drove by.  We walked back to the Escape.

We followed the road that paralleled I-5 to the Old Glory Cache (GC5FXZQ).  I knew we were going to have to park in the lot near the State Farm building and walk to the cache since there wasn't any available parking along the road.  We found a few side trails and took the one down the middle because we figured this one led us to the road we turned off of, plus you could see the flag and the flagpole.  We found the small trail that lead into the oak trees and the cache was pretty easy to find.  We signed the log and put it back as we found it.

I wanted to get at least one more cache to make it an even six for the day.  I knew I didn't want to go into the woods for them mostly for the amount of time we had left before the end of the day and it got dark.  I knew there was one at City Hall just down the road.  I haven't been here in years and I was glad that we didn't have to walk the trail, again mostly for the amount of time we had left.  Summer Fun #10: Exploring Nature (GC7B4VT) was just off the trail next to a bunch of trees inside of a smaller stump.  We acted like we weren't doing anything when the people and their dogs walked by.  We signed the log and put it back quickly.

We left the lot and headed back to the freeway.  As we drove towards Lacey and drove under the overpass where the train derailed.  It was surreal to me because just a few weeks earlier in this same spot people died and were injured.  It's just something that never happens and when it did and I heard about it on the TV it was hard to wrap your head around.  This actually happened less than five miles from our house.

We needed to stop by the store on our way home for some milk since we were out of it.  We picked up a few other things as well so we could make dinner and get prepared for our upcoming week ahead.  When we got home, we made dinner, got cleaned up and I did some blogging and logged my caches that we found today.

Next Adventure:  Ben's New Car