The night before, I got all of my hiking stuff ready, clothes for all occasions, extra clothes just in case I get super sweaty or it rained, extra socks, my flip flops, cooler and some snacks. I put the coordinates into the Nuvi so she could just take us to where we needed to be. I found the Washington State DeLorme map just in case we needed it. I knew I didn't need to put the caches or print them out because I would be with a large group. I paid for a NW Forest Pass online and printed it out and set it with my other stuff. I set the alarm for early o'clock and headed to bed.
I got up around 5:30 so I could get dressed, make a lunch for the cooler and make sure I had everything in the Escape before mom and dad arrived. I was all ready to go and had to wait for them. They were fifteen minutes late. We put their stuff in the back and we headed to I-5 to head north. We left the house by 6:15. We got all the way to Marysville without any traffic, construction or accidents. We didn't have to stop once! Yessss!!
We took the first exit in Marysville and decided that I should probably get some gas before we drove into the middle of the North Cascades where there won't be any cell phone service or amenities. Dad wanted some coffee so we found the closest place, which was a Burger King, so we stopped there and went inside. Mom and I used the restroom and dad bought coffee, a breakfast sandwich and it came with these little potato crown nuggets. We followed Nuvi's directions through Granite Falls. None of us have ever been here before but have heard about it. Dad didn't want his potato nuggets so he gave them to me to eat.
We followed the Mountain Highway, which was very curvy and swirly, and I checked to see how far away we still were and we were going to be there super early. Along the way we noticed some of the trail heads and a lot of them were very familiar. Oh, that's where Lake 22 is, that's where the Big Four Ice Cave are. We might have to come back up here and explore these areas. We got to the Barlow Pass trail head and tried to find a place to park because there were a lot of people here today.
We found a place to park a few hundred feet away from the Monte Cristo trail head. We realized we got here way too early so we got ready and walked up to use the bathroom. We made sure we had toilet paper with us because you never know about these outdoor public bathrooms. We walked back down to the trail head to see if any other early geocachers would make their way there.
As it reached 9:30 and 9:45, geocachers started to assemble at the trail head. I introduced myself to a few of the groups of people while we waited. Most of them were from the 48 North group like I figured they would be. They asked me where I was from and I said we drove all the way up here from Olympia. They were like, wow...that's quite the drive! Yep, I told them that I've had my eye on this hike and these caches for a few years just never had the right opportunity to go. Dad got bored so he started to walk the trail.
At 10:15ish, the cacher who set up the event, Monte Cristo Meet and Greet (GC8A0XE), finally arrived in tow was his teenage daughter. He was surprised on how busy the trail head parking was as well. He said he had a heck of a time finding a spot to park. He introduced himself as Rich and that he was glad everyone could make it up. He told everyone we would be grabbing around 13 caches and he had print outs, the puzzles solved and his GPS had all the caches saved just in case. Most people did but there were a few who didn't. We all introduced ourselves, told everyone our caching names and where we were from. Everyone was surprised that we drove all the way up from Olympia. By 10:30 we headed down the trail.
Along the way I got to know some of the dozen geocachers that were here for the hike and the caches. It was a nice day, warm and partly cloudy. I wore a sweatshirt just in case it got cooler when we were in the forest. Rich filmed bits of the hike as we trekked on. He is a vlogger and puts together some of his caching adventures with friends and his daughter and posts them on YouTube. The Monte Cristo caching YouTube video is about 30 minutes long. There were 12 caches, 13 including the event. Two were puzzle caches, one was a multi cache and the others were the event and traditionals. What made this hike popular to geocachers was that one of the caches, GCBC, was one of the oldest caches in Washington.
The first one, The Start of the Hike to Monte Cristo (GC1FB9R) wasn't that far from the trail head. I basically walked until someone said we were getting closer to the cache. Once everyone stopped we started looking based on the hint. This one, as we were told, was about 80 feet off of the original coords. We started looking in this rock cluster and then I saw another grouping several feet away from where everyone was looking. I walked over and there it was. FOUND IT! I yelled to the group. We logged it as Team Komikino and that's how we logged the rest we found together.
We continued down the trail when I saw some people stop and look to our left in an open area with a bunch of logs and a picnic table. This one, Zetara (GC3TE03) I let the others look for since they were roughly in the area the hint mentions. I can't be that person that finds them all...especially without a GPS. One of the cachers told us out loud that it was her husband's birthday so we all sang happy birthday to him. We continued on. The scenic views from the trail of this mountain range were absolutely stunning.
We walked down the trail through the forest and around washouts for a while. We were told that eventually we were going to have to cross the South Fork Sauk River on a log. As a group we stopped at an outdoor bathroom for those who needed to use it. We gathered everyone and walked on down the trail.
We finally reached that spot along the river where we had to cross the log. Mom and I were the first few people over the log. Since we didn't have a GPS we kinda wandered around while everyone else crossed over. We saw the washed our bridge and decided to walk to it and take pictures while we waited. As everyone caught up to us one of the cachers mentioned that the next cache, Washout on the Monte Cristo Trail (GC3XRHE) was on this bridge somewhere. We, as a group, spent some time looking. Mom was the person to eventually find it. We took some pictures of a frog near the river bank.
We moved on to the next one further up the trail. The next cache, The Count of Monte Cristo (GC1FBB7) was one of the puzzle caches someone in the group had solved. When we got there, I was going to let some of the other people look for it just so my family wasn't finding them all. I didn't want to be that person. We were there for an unusual amount of time. I got onto my phone (I had an offline list saved just in case) to read the hint. Someone had written that the coords were about 80-90 feet off and said something about a log. I eventually went into the brush and started looking like everyone else. I expanded my search way out past everyone and just started looking at spots that it could possibly be in. It was probably after about 20 minutes of the group search when I finally found it. I could not believe I was the one that found it. I felt like the group hero. FOUND IT! Everyone came running over to me and they could not believe it. I had told one of the ladies that I was hiking next to, after she had asked how in the world I found it, that my first 50 caches were found without a GPS back in 2010. She looked at me with the wow look on her face.
The Old Railroad to Monte Cristo (GC1FBBT) was a field puzzle multi cache. We arrived at the sign/plaque that we needed where the Weden House once stood. We compiled the numbers we needed for the final coords and plugged them into one of the cacher's GPS's and found out that it was up ahead on the trail that lead to the ghost town. It eventually was a lock n lock container hidden off the trail in a nurse stump/log. It was an easy find.
The next traditional cache, A Tangled Wood Web (GC1FBC5) was also a really easy one right off the trail. This one was in a crazy stump with a lot of roots sticking out. It almost served like a small house for the cache to hide inside of. It was next to a swampy area of the trail. Double Trouble (GC1FBET) was a little further down the road. Since my small hiking group was a head of the rest of the pack we had a head start looking for it. It took us a little bit to find since the coordinates were off a bit and there was moss everywhere! We did eventually find it but let others find it as we took a short break. My mom and dad got tired of stopping for caches so they just went up ahead of us. I imagine at this point they were already having lunch and exploring the ghost town.
The last puzzle cache, Learning About the Ghost Town of Monte Cristo (GC1FBFX), which is one you could solve at home, was just a short walk past a very strange large excavated area that looked like a meteor hit it and subsequently crammed with trees that look like toothpicks scattered in the hole. It was weird. The cache was hidden underneath a large boulder. I looked at the map on my phone and saw we were getting closer to the ghost town.
So Many Choices (GC1FBG6) was the last cache before you arrived in Monte Cristo. This one took us a while to find because there were so many choices. We did find it underneath a large bunch of roots. The container was hidden in the space between the root ball and the ground. We trudged on. We were almost there.
We rounded the corner and we saw the Monte Cristo Townsite sign. All we had to do now is walk across the bridge, past the large boulder with the old metal signs and across a small creek into the townsite's valley. But first, we grabbed Welcome to Monte Cristo (GC293KV) which was hidden in the crotch of the hemlock tree opposite the large boulder and signs. It took us in a few circles around the tree before we pinpointed it. I spent some time taking pictures of the signs. We made it to Monte Cristo around 1:30.
I made my way to the township valley hoping that mom and dad were easy to spot. I'm sure they've been here for a while waiting for us. I did see them wandering around the area. I sat down and ate my food for about a half hour while I listened to the rest of the group share stories. This is where our group dissolved. One guy went and grabbed the last two caches and headed out because he had somewhere to be and another group of people, found these caches before, so they headed back to the trail head as soon as they were done eating their lunch. When I was done I walked up with two other ladies, 2 leep and cbagaason, and found the last two caches.
The last two caches were some of the oldest ones in Washington State which made them highly sought after. Monte Cristo (GCBC) was published on 11/19/2000 and has been found over 680 times since then. I've had these caches on my list for years and I was excited that I will finally get to cross them off the list. I really wanted to go several years ago but I didn't have a reliable car, money or the means to get up here. As we walked up the trail, a lady named Jane intercepted us. I guess she is one of the rangers/care takers of the functional cabins that are still in this area. She invited us to come see the inside of one of the cabins.
It was so cool. We thanked her for the small tour and headed up past the cabin to where GCBC was. Once we found it we all took turns taking each others pictures with it. I left a pathtag in the cache and gave a pathtag to each of the ladies who were with me.
The last cache of the day, Monte Cristo Concentrator Cache (GC781F) was on another section of trail stemming from the townsite. I followed a group of people up the trail and found it next to a large pile of broken rocks. The trail was steep. This one published 7/27/2002 and has been found over 550 times since then. When I find caches as old as these I try to think about what my life was like back then and how much it has changed since then. At that point I had just graduated from high school and looking into my first year at WSU.
I walked back down and found a small waterfall and took a few pictures of it. I found mom and dad, we took a few pictures of the cabins, the scenery and some videos of dad pushing the turntable.
I thanked Rich for having an event and to let him know we were going to walk back. We didn't stop very much along the way except to take a few breaks and to take a few pictures.
We talked about random things along the way. We got back to the parking lot around 4:45, took our socks and shoes off, piled our backpacks into the back and headed back towards Marysville. We walked a total of 8 miles.
We stopped at Big Four Ice Caves area but decided to come back another day to actually make the mile hike to the caves. We figured dad was probably done hiking and didn't want to do more. We just hung out in the parking area, took some pictures and used the restroom.
We stopped at a grocery store in the very small town of Verlot because dad wanted some beer but they didn't sell single cans so we moved on.
We drove through Granite Falls and found a convenience store that did sell single beers so dad was pretty happy. I asked mom what she wanted for dinner before we head home and she said pizza. I told her to get on her phone and find a pizza place. We drove to North Marysville and went to the Pizza Hut by the shopping center. We sat down and ordered mom a salad, shared a meat lover's pizza with black olives, I got a Pepsi and dad ordered a beer. The pizza sure hit the spot. We ate all of our food. We paid for our food and got on I-5. We drove a few miles and mom decided she wanted ice cream. I had her find a Dairy Queen, which was at the exit we got off the free way earlier this morning, in South Marysville. Mom got a hot fudge sundae, I got an Oreo blizzard and dad got an M&M blizzard.
We drove through one of those diamond overpasses which to me were so weird. They are currently building one on Marvin Road in Lacey. Should be interesting when it is complete. The first ever one we drove though was near Knoxville, Tennessee and I had no idea where I was suppose to go because we've never driven on one before. This one was just as weird but we ended up getting onto I-5 south and headed home. We must have done something right. We didn't hit any traffic which is always nice because we always assume we will when we hit the Seattle area. We got back to my house around 9ish. I am sure mom and dad were ready to get cleaned up and go to bed. I asked if they had a good time and they said yeah and were willing to go on more as we plan them. I got cleaned up, relaxed and headed to bed.
Next Adventure: An Ocean Shores Day Trip
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