About a week ago Ben asked me if we were doing something this weekend and I told him, not that I know of. He was talking to Josh and they had discussed that Heather wanted to do something fun for her birthday weekend and mentioned an all day geocaching adventure somewhere. This is where I came in, they wanted to know if I could plan out an area to go grab caches since I was the one who had the most found geocaches in many areas nearby. They also wanted to make sure we found caches I didn't have yet.
Ben and I thought about some of the places we could go based on my geocaching map of the places I've been to. I've basically been everywhere within a 200 mile radius from Thurston County. It came down to getting on a ferry and going to Anderson Island or driving up to Forks and get the caches along Hwy 101. Collectively, we decided on Hwy 101 towards Forks because we didn't want to have to worry about the ferry schedule and possibly being stranded on the island.
I honestly almost decided not to go because I was getting really worried about my cat, Calvin. Massive anxiety took over my body when he stopped eating both his wet and dry food a few days ago. I thought maybe it was the heat since it is pretty hot in August or maybe he stopped liking this brand of food. I tried getting him a different type of food. He didn't eat it. He started loosing a lot of weight and would only drink water, eat grass from outside and the chicken cat treats. I knew he was getting old and I didn't want him to die so I decided on Monday I would take him to the vet to find out why he stopped eating.
We discussed the logistics of our Saturday. I wanted to know who was driving and how many people were going to go. They discussed possibly bringing Lily and their dogs and I told them if I drove I wouldn't be able to fit everyone in the Escape. Heather said she could borrow her parent's suburban so everyone could fit. That's what we decided upon but without the dogs. They decided they didn't need to go since we were going to be getting in and out of the vehicle a lot while we found caches. Heather and Josh also said that they would make us breakfast on Saturday morning before we drove up.
The night before, we decided on what time we were going to go over to Josh and Heather's house, packed up the stuff we would possibly need in a back pack and made some sandwiches for lunch the next day. We would need to just put the stuff into a cooler in the morning. I set aside some chips, crackers and some chewy bars to throw into a grocery bag. We tried so hard to go to bed at a decent time, which is really hard on a Friday night, but we managed to get in bed around midnight.
The next morning we got up around 6 and got ready. We were supposed to be at Josh and Heather's house around 7ish. I got my clothes on, did my bathroom things and packed up our food and drinks into the cooler. Ben slowly got ready and we managed to get everything into his car and we were off to Tumwater for breakfast at their house. They made us waffles, bacon, eggs and hash browns. I tried not to overstuff myself because I knew we wouldn't be near any bathrooms plus Covid has turned public bathrooms basically irrelevant. It made no sense to me that it was okay to use a public porta potty but not okay to use a public restroom that is cleaned more often than a porta potty. It was definitely weird times we were living in. Lots of common sense was thrown out the window during the pandemic.
We help clean up after breakfast, grabbed our stuff out of Ben's car and we all hopped into the suburban. Heather drove, I had shot gun and Ben, Josh and Lily sat in the back. Before we could leave town, we had to drive to the Costco in Tumwater to get gas. Luckily, it was early enough to where we didn't have to wait in line. She paid and we got onto I-5 and headed for the junction of Hwy 101 towards the junction of Hwy 8. We followed the road through Elma, Montesano and into Aberdeen and Hoquiam. It didn't take us long because there wasn't that much traffic thankfully.
I had saved about 20 caches onto an offline list because I knew there would be several places where we didn't have service or it was very spotty service. As we approached our first cache, Cosmo (GC5FTJB) I looked to see if there was a pull off on the side of the road; which thankfully there was. Apparently, there was a small park out here next to the river. We all made the short walk to the structure and started looking for the cache. I knew it had to be a nano stuck in the rafters of this covered area. Sure enough, we looked in the correct spot and made the grab. This place was a bit creepy so we didn't stay long.
I looked ahead to see how far away the next one was. Another Cache 2 (GC5Q5QT) was a few miles up the road. I let Heather know when we were getting close. I could tell it was probably going to be a guard rail cache. We needed to find a safe place to pull off the road so I directed her to the driveway across the street. We all get out, run across the street and I let everyone else look for it since I knew most likely where it was going to be. They found it quickly, we got our names on it, put it back and ran back across the road to the suburban.
The next one was off the main highway near the unincorporated town called New London. We got off Hwy 101 and drove to Between the Lines (GC7K6YE). There was plenty of room on the side of the road to park plus no one should drive past us or down the road for that matter. We get out and start searching. I looked high and low and couldn't find anything. I should have looked at the name of the cache and I would have found it instantly. It was a duct tape wallet tucked between the road markers. We sign our names and head back to the suburban.
We headed to Waterworks (GC72P49) which was just down the road near the intake for the Hoquiam water system. Heather pulled over and Josh and I got out to look for it. It took us a little bit to find the pee cup container because it was covered up pretty well on the old growth stump. We get our names on it and jumped back into the suburban.
Failor Lake (GC5QGQ6) was our next stop and this one was near a gate that took you out to Failor Lake so there was plenty of room to pull off and park. The West Fork of the Hoquiam River flowed under the bridge so we enjoyed the area for a bit before we found the cache. The cache was pretty easy to find. We piled back into the suburban and headed off to the next cache.
Our next cache took us to another forest road next to you guessed it, another gate! This one was called Blue Gate 5400 (GC5QGQB) and there was enough room to pull over on the side of the road and grab it. Ben and I got out and could not find the "blue" rock next to the gate so we were out there a while. Then Josh got out and found it instantly. We felt dumb. This one was easy. The "blue" rock wasn't as bit or as blue as I thought it was going to be so it kinda threw you off. Derp.
We stopped at Fruit Growers (GC5QEC4) thinking we would be able to find it between the five of us. Nope, it was our only DNF of the day. We were there for probably a half hour looking and reading hints. Apparently, it takes a while to find it and we really didn't a whole lot of time to spend. Maybe some day I will stop here again and find it. I really hate DNF's. Oh well.
The Name is the Same (GC728F1) took us to a guardrail with a mile marker with the same name as the highway. Heather found a place to pullover and she and I got out while everyone else stayed in the suburban to make the find. It was an easy park and grab.
The next one would be our last gate of the day. This road had so many gate caches Old Yeller Gate (GC5QGQF) was also an easy find. We pulled off of the highway, parked and we all got out to look. It started lightly sprinkling. We found it very quickly, got a couple pictures, signed our names and put it back. At this point I was getting hungry and we weren't even in Humptulips yet.
We got back in the suburban and I decided that we would find caches every so often or we would never get to Forks. We put some asphalt behind us and slowly made up some time on our trip. I knew we had to find a cache in Humptulips so I had Heather stop at Fire Me 5 Humptulips 1 (GC40JBG). Ben and I, over the years, have gotten several of these in this series along the Olympic Peninsula and the coastline. We saw the small fire station and followed the dirt driveway right to the cache zone. We all got out and started looking in different directions. I told people out loud, "you guys, it's going to be somewhere on the tree." Everyone walked towards the tree and luckily we had a tall person because it was hidden in the crotch of the tree.
I knew there was a fun one in Amanda Park and we were about 15 miles from Lake Quinault. I told Heather we should stop at the tiny grocery store off of the highway because there was a cool cache there and she said sounds good. We also needed a pee break anyway. We approached the Lake Quinault area and I followed the geocaching app to where we needed to be. I was glad they had a porta potty nearby because I had to pee! We all took turns peeing, I had them find the cache, It's For You (GC54TYQ), which I found with Mom back in May 2015. I watched Heather, Ben, Lily and Josh look for it before I gave them a hint.
We didn't have time to be here all day. Just before we left, Josh went into the store to get cold drinks.
It was a nice day so I thought we could stop at the day use area of Kalaloch Beach, eat our lunch and take them to see the Tree of Life. We chatted about stuff as we drove the 30 miles towards Kalaloch. All of the times I've ever been here it was never busy. However, Covid has flooded these beautiful places because there was no where else to go. This.place.was.so.crowded! Luckily, we found a parking spot. We decided to eat our lunch first so we found a picnic table and spread our food out. Ben and I made a couple sandwiches and so did Josh, Heather and Lily. I had drinks, some Doritos and a couple fruit cups. It was nice to sit, relax and enjoy our lunch.
We cleaned up, Ben and Josh had to find a bush to pee in because the public restroom was closed and we walked down to the beach. We didn't spend a whole lot of time down here just because there were so many people everywhere. We did have to be patient and wait our turn to take a picture with the tree which I've never done in my life and I've been here at least five other times over the past decade. When it was finally our turn I took a few selfies, the tree by itself, Ben and I and a group picture. We walked back up to the parking lot and I told them that I would email them the answers to the virtual cache, Kalalock (GCGFAX) which I found also May of 2015.
We tried stopping at Ruby Beach on the way to Forks and there weren't any parking spots. People were parking their vehicles on the side of Hwy 101 and walking in. We turned around and decided to stop by on the way back home. Covid was making these places ridiculous.
There was one more cache that I really wanted to get before we left the Forks area and that was WaStatePks100: Bogachiel (GC4BGQ8). This was part of the State Parks GeoTour back in 2013 and I was not able to get this one when the passports and stamps were in play. I couldn't justify coming all this way just to get one state park back then. This state park cache was my 78th since June 2013. I literally can't belive it was that long ago now. Time is sure flying by. We parked and found the trail that took us to the ammo box. This area is so pretty. I love the old growth and the tall trees with beards. We got close and so I had Ben, Josh and Heather look for it before I joined in. We found it with ease right off the trail.
We got back on the highway and made our way into Forks, which was a sort distance from the state park. I told them we should stop at the visitor's center so we could find out what's open and what isn't...because it mattered. I didn't want to drive all the way towards LaPush to find out that it was closed. We parked the suburban, took a few pictures with the sign and then walked over to the visitor's center to get some information. The visitor's center was obviously closed but there were two women working the windows. Heather, Lily and I stood in line for a few minutes and then walked up to the window. The lady answered all of our questions while highlighting information on the map. We found out LaPush was closed to the public, which I thought it would be but had to find out anyway.
I asked everyone if they wanted to find the final to a multi cache, called Twilight (GC1N9H4), I did almost a decade ago and everyone said yes. If we were to have done the entire multi cache, I would have taken us just about all day to finish. I knew where it was but had to really reach into my memory banks of where exactly it was. We started up the nature trail. There were some huge trees back here. We rounded the corner and the large cedar tree was very familiar. I yelled out, "I think it's right here!" I had everyone else go ahead of me to find it. I was disappointed to see the container had changed from the original hide because it got stolen. How in the world would someone know this was out here unless they were a geocacher? We will never know. I told them what it looked like when I found it back in January 2012 and found the picture to show them. They signed their names and put it back where it was hidden.
We walked back down to the visitor's center and discussed where we wanted to go next. We talked about going into one of the Twlight stores in town because Lily wanted to so we found one that was opened. We spent about a half hour in there browsing. We saw a lot of Twilight stuff, some Native American stuff and some touristy nick knacks. I found the sidewalk chalk outside and wrote Go Cougs on the store front's sidewalk. Of course Ben had to say something about it and I just ignored him.
We drove over to the park in the middle of town, got out and looked for Tilicum Park [OPG2] (GC7ZJFD) which was over next to the fence and tree line to the south side of the park. We found the cache attached to a strand of fake ivy hidden in a tree.
We then walked over to the playground and Ben and Josh did pull ups on the equipment.
I directed everyone to the next cache, Must Be Steel, Not Steehead [OPG2] next to the Calawah River. We found the park and the boat launch and then gingerly walked over to where the cache was.
There was a guy in the dog park area playing with his dog. Afterwards, we walked to the boat launch and spent some time hanging out by the river. I wish I would have brought my river shoes. We skipped rocks, dipped our feet in the water and just enjoyed summer as much as we could.
We all decided it was probably time to start heading back towards home. It was almost 5 p.m. But first, we stopped to grab one more cache, Little Rock, Big Tree (GC2A3M2) which I found with mom back in June 2010 without a GPS! We parked and I stayed in the suburban and watched them find it. It took them a few minutes to figure it out but they did find the fake rock.
We drove back into town and stopped at the more famous of the two Forks signs just to say we did it. I have probably 5 or 6 different photos here over the past decade or so.
We tried to stop at one more store but it was closed. We then headed out of town. Until next time Forks! Hopefully the pandemic would be gone the next time we were here so we can enjoy LaPush and the beaches.
We stopped, again, at Ruby Beach to see if it was less crowded. There were less vehicles here so we parked and walked down to the beach. There still were so many people here and even a wedding was going on the beach. It was funny that the entire coastline was clear and sunny but this one piece of beach was foggy for some reason. I found it odd. We wandered around for a bit and I collected a few flat rocks to take home and paint. Lily did as well. We decided to walk back up the hill and head home.
It would take us a few hours to get back to Hoquiam, meanwhile, Heather and I talked about a bunch of things while Lily, Ben and Josh napped in the back. As we got closer to the outskirts of Hoquiam, I wanted to grab one more cache along this stretch of Hwy 101. Heather pulled over and we found Why Here (GC5QHA4) which was a quick and easy guard rail cache. The container was another pee cup. We put our signatures on it, jumped back into the suburban and headed into Hoquiam.
I asked everyone if they were hungry and they all said they could eat. I told them about this sit down place (since most fast food places were closed and it was take out or drive thru only) in Aberdeen we could go to called Billy's. We typically come here after we spend time at Ocean Shores or Westport. They all said that sounded fine.
We got to the restaurant, parked and headed in. They couldn't seat us all together in a booth because there were five of us but we could sit in another area to where we all were sitting next to each other in a row with our paper menus. I had time to write down all the caches we found so everyone would have a good idea on which ones to log and in what order. They forgot our drinks for a while, we ordered our food and had to wait a while, Covid sucks, we all used the restroom and I ate a French dip and fries. I knew it wasn't their fault because the staff all had to change the way they were used to doing things when things opened back up. We paid and drove back to Tumwater.
We went back to their place on Tumwater Hill, unloaded our stuff, thanked them for the day, hopped in Ben's car and drove towards home. Ben stopped to get gas and I was anxious to see my cat. I had thought about him all day and how he was doing since he started losing weight and not eating. I worried so much that I had to force myself not to think about it or I would dwell on it. We got home and Calvin was happy to sea us and I was very happy to see him. We snuggled on the coach for a while and then I logged my caches and watched some TV. We got cleaned up and went to bed.
Next Adventure: The Second Worst Day of My Life: Losing My Kitty, Calvin
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