I had a three day weekend and Monday was suppose to be nice so I decided to do some geocaching on my day off. Over the past few weeks, I've been going through my old geocaching notebooks and notes and I found that I had a bunch of puzzles solved and some I needed to verify my solved coordinates with so I called Bev. She and Bob had found most of them either got the coords from Frisbee'r or Wasurf or solved them themselves. We went through some of them and got a good dent in the ones I needed to get north of the Hawks Prairie area. Most of these puzzles I had solved back in 2012 and 2013 and then life just got really busy, stressful and emotionally painful.
I slept in but Ben had to get up to go to work since he didn't have President's Day off. I ate breakfast, started pulled pork in the crock pot and then got ready to go out for a few hours. By the time I was ready to go I noticed it was almost lunch time and mom was at the new dentist office, Nisqually Reach north of I-5 in Hawks Prairie. I drove out, found her building and went inside. Mom was getting some stuff finished before lunch time and Amy and Carrie were there doing their stuff. Mom gave me a tour of the place and gave me a Nisqually Reach reusable bag. I was probably there for about an hour or so. Before I left, Amy, Mom and I talked about our upcoming trip to Ecuador and Peru and this stupid virus called Covid-19 that has been going around the globe. I sure hope it doesn't ruin our trip.
The first one on my list was Zodiac Series: Libra (GC8DCRB) which was at the LOTT Hawks Prairie reclamation ponds park.
I have been here a couple of other times in the past grabbing caches. This place has changed so much since I was here last. There were a lot less trees and more buildings. It wasn't as forested as it was last time; a lot more open space. I parked in the little parking lot and made my way to the cache. It had me looking at the wrong area at first but then I figured it out. I stood there admiring how nice of a day it was for February.
There was one more I wanted to see if I could find. I got the coords from someone year's ago but never came out here to find it. Don't Hate Me, the Devil Made Me Do It (GC1DEDD) was a really hard puzzle cache. I walked around to the wooden structure trying to remember some of the diabolical ones I've found over the years to assist me in finding this one. I was probably here for about a half hour looking everywhere...both high and low. Some older lady came trotting by and she was bird watching. She talked to me for a few minutes about birds and then she went on her merry way. I continued looking while texting Bev for a hint. She couldn't remember where it was so I wasn't able to find it. I walked back to the Escape knowing I would have to come back here eventually to look for it again. Bummer.
I looked to see what the next one was and it was The Pendleton Rescue (GC662GW). It was located in one of the newer neighborhoods near the gate of the "members only" The Links golf course. I found a street to park on and walked to the cache location. I had to make it look like I wasn't being suspicious because there was a guy walking his dog so I acted like I was on my phone until he was gone. The hint made it pretty obvious of where it was but the last person who found it didn't put it back where it was suppose to go so it was hard to find. I had to look in all the shrubbery near the large rock. I actually had to do a yoga move to retrieve the cache from a very obscure place under the rock. How in the world did the last person put this back? I got my name on it and put it back under the rock but not as hard for the next person.
The next few were part of the Ballard Fire Chief Series, I picked up numbers 2 (GC3AJFM), 3 (GC3AMFK) and 4 (GC3ARZV). They were all over The Links Neighborhood. They were all pretty straight forward, easy to find and there was parking nearby. All of them I had to park and walk to and luckily there weren't very many people walking around so it made it quick.
There was one more up Marvin Road near Tolmie State Park that I didn't have yet. It was hidden by the same geocacher, Ballard Fire Chief Forest Service Rock (GC887G4). There was enough room to pull over on the shoulder. I did notice another car near the cache. Are these people geocaching too? They were. They had just moved here a few months ago from Texas (I assumed they were military but didn't ask) and I told them that I was a local cacher and the one (I pointed down the road) is one of mine if you haven't found it already. We signed the log and his son put it back. I told them before I left that there were quite a few good ones around here and to enjoy them.
The last one I had time for, before it got dark, was Zodiac Series: Gemini (GC87QDW) which was off of the Hawks Prairie Road that connected with Johnson Point Road. I parked down a residential road and made the short walk to the trailhead of a little neighborhood trail system. I have not been here before. I followed the dirt path to where the coords and hint led me to. The cache was hidden near the base of two twin trees. This was my 11,600th cache! I probably should be at 12,000 by now but I haven't been able to plan for some trips to Eastern Washington to hit the power trails yet. Walla Walla is in some sort of a planning stage but I don't have an official weekend scheduled yet.
I headed back home and checked on the pulled pork. It was almost done just about another hour or so and then I can add in the BBQ sauce and set it on low. Ben got home from work, did a little bit of cardio since he wasn't going to Jujutsu. We ate dinner about an hour later, watched some TV and I logged my caches and worked on my blog that I was severely behind on. We snuggled with kitty and cleaned up the kitchen. Three day weekends go by as fast as normal weekends.
Next Adventure: Ben's Birthday Weekend
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