I've been really needing to check on my caches. Every day that I got onto my computer I had an email or a message from someone asking if such and such geocache was there or the if the codes to my series where there because the codes were missing, etc. Ben was on a 24 hour shift at the fire station so I thought it would be a good day to do it since it was also nice. I asked mom if she wanted to go for a ride and she said sure.
I've had this series going since 2012 and I've had to fix a few of them off and on over the years. A few I had to archive, find a new spot that wasn't compromised and publish the new ones. Up until recently I just didn't have a whole lot of time to go out and take most of the day to fix them. We were either dealing with jobs, money, transportation, roommates, moving, working on other projects, the weather and other unforeseen things we had to deal with. Fixing geocaches were just low on the priority list.
I got up, ate some food and headed out to Rainier to go pick mom up. I made sure I had all of my cache replacing gear with me. The day before I had used Erika's label maker to make the codes for the 507 series containers so they will look a little nicer and would probably stay longer. We will see.
I got to their house and asked her if she was ready. She said she was getting her shoes on. I made fun of her, you knew I was coming over and you had plenty of time...why aren't you ready? I was busy! Was her answer.
I thought we should start in Spanaway and work our way west to Centralia. She said whatever, this is your thing. We drove into Yelm the back way and headed to Spanaway. Along the way we talked about work, the possibility of not being able to go on our trip because of Covid running wild through the rest of the world and being disappointed and other random things that came up as we talked.
We got to the park n ride in Spanaway, where 507 merges onto Pacific Hwy or Hwy 7. Hwy 7 stretches all the way from I-5 to Morton near Hwy 12 and I've been up and down it many times. Anyway, we pulled into the park n ride and found a spot to park that was somewhat close to where I hid the cache, The 507 Series: Spanaway, Wash. (GC3V7QF). I got out and walked over to the tree I hid it in. I took me a few seconds to find it because people don't put caches back where they are suppose to go. I grabbed it and brought it back to the Escape to do my maintenance on it. I replaced the log, the baggie and added the new code to it. I had mom write down on the small legal pad what I did to all of them. I put it back in the tree but replaced it to be lower in the tree. I had mom add that to my notes to make sure to change the hint when I update the cache page.
We got back onto 507 and drove back towards Roy. When I originally placed Roy, I had a hard time finding a place to hide one because there weren't many places along the highway without getting too close to the one that was already here. We had to honor the 528 feet between caches or it wouldn't get published. I parked in the convenience store parking lot and went to go get the cache, The 507 Series: Roy, Wash. (GC3AMVP) in front of the car dealership. I had hidden it under a rock and the last cacher couldn't find it so they thought it was gone. The cache was still there and it was pretty beat up since the last time I saw it but the container was still intact. I brought it back with me to the Escape and I replaced the log, the baggie and added a new code label to it. I walked back to the rock and placed it back. It was now ready to be found again.
We got back on the road and drove into McKenna. Over the years my McKenna cache has had some issues. It's been replaced several times by various cachers. When I placed it back in 2012 it was a recycled pill bottle that I had spray painted with camo green. One time I checked on it to make sure it was there it was a plastic Oreo container that looked like an Oreo and then after that, the containers disappeared at some point. We got there and parked in the lot. The spot I originally hid it was severely overgrown. I had to find a new place to hide The 507 Series: McKenna, Wash. (GC8MCGV) so I hid a pill bottle (with a fresh log, baggie and code) near the parking lot in one of the holes with a rock strategically placed to conceal it.
I told mom what I did so she could write it on our pad. I gave her the coordinates and the hint because we have to enable it as a new cache since it was archived.
There were two new caches, one in Yelm and one in Rainier I wanted to do. The first one was a multi cache in Yelm called Yelm Mural (GC8JXV8) and it was in the middle of town at the four way intersection on the side of the old theater building. I had to get information off the mural and information off the plaque near the extension school across the street. I wrote it all down and walked back to the Escape.
I worked on the coords with mom and came up with a final set. I knew it was going to be on the other side of town near Walmart. We backtracked and found a place to park near the large evergreen trees on Walmart Avenue. I thought it would be a quick find but it wasn't. I couldn't get a pinpoint on the cache and it could have been anywhere at this point. I texted Bev and she told me approximately where it was. I checked the trees. Every branch. I hate these ones. After looking for more than fifteen minutes I finally found the stupid thing. It was a purple bison tube with black electrical tape around it hung underneath the evergreen limb. Bahhhhh!
We drove back through Yelm and followed 507 towards Rainier. At the time there wasn't a good spot to hide the Yelm one in town so I ended up hiding it along the trail. We parked in the neighborhood just off the trail, I got out with my maintenance bag and checked out The 507 Series: Yelm, Wash. (GC3AMVW) and it indeed was cracked and letting in water so I replaced the container, the log and code. I dropped in one of the trackables I had with me for the next cacher. I put it back in its hidey hole, put rocks in front of it and walked back to the Escape.
Since the final cache of the series, The 507 Series Final (GC3AMWB) was next along the trail, I decided I should probably check that one out as well. I parked just off the trail in the pullout off of Manke Road. I grabbed my bag just in case I needed to fix anything. I take the small, almost hidden, trail off of the main trail and up and over the slight berm. Of course, I haven't been here in quite some time so it looks a little different than the last time with all the brush growing and whatnot. I found the large boulder I hid it next to and it hadn't been disturbed since September. I didn't have to do anything to it so I put it back and walked back to the Escape.
We drove into Rainier and found the newest cache in Wilkowski Park called Wilkowski Cache (GC8KVDD). We parked in the gravel lot and I walked in to grab it. I almost walked by the stump it was hidden in. I signed the log and put it back. Bev got a FTF on this one a few days ago when it published.
I drove down the road and parked in the gravel lot behind Rainier Market. The 507 Series: Rainier, Wash. (GC3AMVX) was near a tree right off the trail. I saw the container was broken so I replaced it into a fake rock. I changed out the log, the baggie and added the code to it. I found some rocks for it to blend in with to kinda divert passersby. As I walked back, I decided to add a new cache to where Gopher BBQ used to be. I called it Rainier Trail Cache. I got a container, a log and a baggie ready and found a good place to hide it.
We got back onto Hwy 507 and drove west towards Tenino. I parked off one of the side roads near the mile sign. It has grown up a lot and the brush needs to be trimmed. I walked up to it not expecting to find a fake rock because I didn't leave that type of container here. I was glad there was a container here. I took it to the Escape, wiped out the moisture, added a new log, baggie and a code. I took The 507 Series: Tenino (GC3AMVY) back and placed it under the sign to where it looked like it blended in.
We took the back road past the park and took Crowder Road out to Bucoda to check on The 507 Series: Bucoda (GC3AMW0). This one hasn't been found in almost a year. I parked at the pull out and ran across the highway. I was not expecting to find a container here. I haven't been here since I placed it back in 2012. Sure enough, no sign of a container anywhere. The original place I had it was compromised so I stuck a new container, log, baggie and code in the crotch of the tree. It should stay safe there.
We headed down to the end of Hwy 507. The 507 Series: Centralia (GC8M6XJ) I've had trouble with over the years. I originally had it in the parking lot of a hotel and it went missing a lot. I got tired of fixing it so I put off replacing it for a while. I found a new spot near a church off of Alder Road. There was a corner with plenty of parking near some large rocks. I took coordinates, got the container, the log, baggie and code ready and hid it to where it wouldn't be too hard to find.
We drove back towards Rainier and I dropped mom off at home. I thanked her for going with me and helping take notes. I went home, added trackables to my TB hotel in my yard and spent the rest of the afternoon updating cache pages, creating the new ones and hoping they would publish as soon as possible because I knew people were waiting to finish the series.
Next Adventure: We Almost Made it to Peru
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