I've wanted to go to Diablo Lake for a couple years now but I could never find the right time to go. I originally set up this trip for August 20th and I even took two vacation days to go but it ended up raining and we had to reschedule. I had everything ready to go and prepared as well. I was pretty upset that I wasted some vacation days and we didn't get to go anywhere. 2020 just keeps taking stuff away.
I had planned on getting the DeLorme pages 16, 17 and 18 but page 34 will have to wait for a separate trip because it was going to require more than a day trip to get it and the entire power trail that's up there by Darrington. I also was adding four new places to my Towns and Cities Challenge. I have 34 more towns and cities left to do. One day I got bored and broke down each of the areas of the state I still need to go to. Most of the western part of Washington I have except a few here and there. The rest of it will have to be a bunch of separate trips to central and eastern Washington. I might be able to get some of these done next year.
I saw that I had a four day weekend because of the furlough day and Labor Day so I decided to do this trip on Saturday. I let Mom and Bev know. Mom had to pick up Bev around 6:30 so they could be at my house at 7. It was going to take us a while to get to Hwy 20 just north of Mount Vernon. We also had to make a few stops along the way. I made sure I had most of my stuff packed up and ready to go so I didn't have to do anything but get my lunch ready to go the next morning. I tried going to bed at a decent time.
The next morning I got up around 6:15, got my clothes on, washed my face, grabbed my back pack and loaded everything into the Escape including the cooler with ice in it. I made sure I had the GPS plugged in and set it to our first geocache. Mom and Bev rolled in around 7 a.m. We all used the restroom and then we were on our way. We got onto I-5 and headed north towards Seattle. I had taken the Escape into TK to have the noise looked at and it turned out it was worn out bearings on the right passenger side. It ran pretty well up until I turned the corner on I-5 at the edge of Burien and then it started making noises again. I got worried but kept driving.
I had forgotten to take 405 and had to drive up to Seattle and then took I-90 so I could get onto 405. Traffic wasn't that bad which was nice. I followed Nuvi's directions to Woodinville because once I get past Seattle I have no idea where I am going. A lot of these cities and towns up here I've never been to because the traffic and distance keep me away from these places. Once we got to Woodinville, I messed up and didn't get off the correct exit so I had to do a few circles to get back on track.
Woodinville was our first of four towns and cities we had to get today. I do not recall ever coming to Woodinville so this was probably my first time up here. I knew Bev hasn't been here but not sure about Mom. I tried finding easy caches on the map when I was writing these all down. I came up with Woodinville Find Me #6 (GC16MYH) and it was a lamp skirt cache near the Woodinville Sports Fields. This was in the parking lot near one of the trail heads that takes you to the Sammamish River Trail. The cache was a park and grab. I parked as close as I could and Bev and I got out to find, sign and put it back. Mom sat in the Escape and watched us.
We got back onto 405 and then got off onto Hwy 9 and drove north to Snohomish, no one has been here either and I know some people from this city. Snohomish was the second of four of the towns and cities we had to get. I wanted our cache here to be a cool one so when I was searching the map the other day I came across Tin Man (GC82HYN) and I knew we had to get this one as we drove through. It had a lot of favorite points and I knew Mom and Bev would enjoy this cache. We followed the GPS to the cache and really enjoyed finding this one. It was a basic magnetic micro cache attached to the backside of the tin man. We got our names on it and took a couple pictures.
We drove through the downtown part of Snohomish (I will have to come back another day to actually explore) and followed Nuvi to I-5 just south of Everett. We monster trucked up I-5 and got off the freeway at Burlington and followed Hwy 20 east to Sedro-Woolley. I had the GPS set for Sedro or Woolley? (GC44TTZ) because of the favorite points. I had no idea what to expect until we got there.
We drove to the middle of town, found a parking spot and Bev and I walked across the street to the old steam donkey to search for the cache. Mom sat in the Escape and waited for us. This one took us a while to find because there were so many nooks and crannies to search through and we couldn't find the numbers on the machinery that the hint told us to look for. I eventually found what the hint was talking about and found the micro cache. We sign it and walked back to the Escape. Mom thought we got lost or something. We just told her that it took a while to find it. This cache took care of page 16.
I really wasn't sure how long Mom and Bev wanted to stay in Sedro-Woolley because a lot of stuff was closed because of the pandemic and a lot of people were out of town due to the Labor Day weekend. We spent another hour or so driving around the down town area and we ended up getting four more. Horsey Cache (GC8YXPB), Check Your 20...#7 Tap Cache Series (GC8FBRP), Mac Yarder Cache (GC8Z9AA and Welcome To Sedro Woolley (GC8YF8F). All of them were pretty easy park and grabs except for the Tap Cache Series one. That one took us a while to find. Before we drove to the Welcome To cache, we parked right next to a gas station that had bathrooms that were unlocked and you bet we took full advantage of that. It was nice that there was a bathroom we were able to use because it was about the time that we needed to pee.
We jumped back into the Escape and got gas at the Arco before we left town. I wanted to have a full tank of gas before we drove up into the mountains. While Mom was sitting in the Escape while Bev and I looked for caches, she was busy looking up things to do and see near Sedro-Woolley. She found out that Northern State Hospital was here and of course she wanted to see it. I knew it was here because I saw it on an episode of Ghost Hunters (season 3, episode 13). I typed in the address and off we went. It was on the east part of town and when we got there they had made part of the property into a recreation area. There were some caches we could get while we were here.
We parked in the lot and decided to find the cache in the parking lot first, Mad Micro II (GC38RXR) while was cleverly hidden in the fence post. It didn't take us long to find it because we've found these types before.
We walked up the hill to the dairy farm and explored that area for a bit and then followed the trail to grab two more geocaches and of course we took a lot of pictures.
The two caches were called Not High (GC8H4BB) and Not Endothermic (GC8H4B8). Mom kept asking where the actual hospital was and from where we were at the time I pointed southwest of us. I wasn't sure if we could go see the actual buildings or not.
On the way back towards the parking lot, we came across some hikers and asked them where the actual hospital was and then told us down where the bridge crosses the creek, you walk across the bridge and onto the campus. You will see a small trail that goes up a small incline and once up the hill you will be on campus. Stay on the side of campus that you area allowed on and the buildings that you seek should be to the left of you. We thanked them and followed their directions.
I could tell Bev was getting done with walking but she trudged on. I think she wanted to see the buildings. We got to campus with their directions and I instantly recognized the buildings right way from the episode of Ghost Hunters. I will admit it. I did geek out a little bit. I am a huge fan of the show. We explored, took a bunch of photos and then walked back to the Escape.
We figured we needed to get going if we were going to be able to do all of the stuff we had planned on this trip. We used the porta potty becasue the public bathrooms at the parking lot were closed due to Covid. I don't understand why the public bathrooms were closed but not the porta potty, to me they were both the same...the public was using them. But most of the decisions about what was closed and what wasn't during Covid confused me.
We got back on the highway and headed east.
I had programed the Nuvi for the third of our four towns and cities, Hamilton, which was roughly about 12 miles from Sedro-Woolley. It was going to be a quick drive for our 11th cache of the day. We turned of Hwy 20 and drove into the little unincorporated town. I followed the coordinates to Hamilton Hall and Pioneer Museum (GC6FKTB) and we had a really hard time pinpointing it because the coords were taking us all over the place. We eventually found it. It was a nano near the hinge of the gate. The museum was closed...not that we really had time to go in.
I set the GPS for the next cache, which was at Rasar State Park, however, Nuvi wanted to take us a weird way and completely drove by the road we were suppose to turn on. We found a place to pull over to figure out where we needed to go and saw that there was a cache, My Favorite Ditzy Blonde Tap Cache Series #3 (GC7X7XY), where we stopped. Bev and I got out to look for it. We could not find the darn thing to save our lives even though we both touched the place it was hidden. We had to ask the owner of the Birdsview Brewing Company and she said it was inside the keg. We were embarrassed. We both didn't think the lid came off and didn't want to break it so we didn't touch it further. Lame.
We piled into the Escape and drove back towards the road we missed for the park entrance. We got on the correct road and saw the state park sign. This state park was manned by a ranger so I bought a new discover pass since mine expired in May. I had intended on getting it renewed this spring during one of my breaks at work, since we are the building next door to the state park headquarters, but we were sent home to work due to Covid. So it never got renewed. I had attempted one day when I was in Tumwater to stop by the headquarters building but they told me I had to buy it online since no one was allowed in the building. I asked the ranger if I could buy a discover pass and he said that I sure could. I handed him my debit card and he handed me my card and my new discover pass. I thanked him and he said to enjoy the park. We followed the road to the day use area, parked and set up a spot for lunch. I had brought the camp chairs and a fold table so we would be comfortable while we at our sandwiches and chips.
We cleaned up our stuff, put it back into the Escape and walked down the short manicured trail to grab WaStatePks100: Rasar (GC4B7NF). The cache was really easy to find sine it was a bird house fastened to the back of the sign at the trail junction.
After signing the cache, I ran down the trail to the banks of the Skagit River just to see what it was like down there. There was a giant group of people swimming about a football field away from me. I didn't think it was warm enough to swim today but with some people they don't care how warm it is. Honestly, it was overcast and we were hoping that the clouds would go away once we got into the mountains. It was trying to get clear for us.
We hiked back to the Escape and headed to our next destination, Concrete, the final town for our Towns and Cities Challenge and page 17 for the DeLorme Challenge.
Just before Concrete, Bev directed us to a cache called Skagit History - Baker (GC8HRD9) which was hidden at a sign by a coffee stand and a convenience store. It was a quick and easy grab. That was our 14th cache of the day and we still had many more on our list to go.
The next one, Concrete Silo (GC6FKVZ), I was excited for. Not for the actual cache but the cache's overall location. It had quite a few favorite points and I loved the concrete structure with the word Concrete on it. I wish we had cool stuff like this in Thurston county. The hint was really confusing though. It said search low so we did and we almost got stung by bees in the nests hanging out in the rocks. I decided to scrap that and look up towards the structure and I found it right away. The hint was really deceiving and I made a note of that in my log. We walked back to the Escape and continued east on Hwy 20.
A few miles up the road was our next stop, Rockport State Park. We found the closest place to park next to the trail head. WaStatePks100: Rockport (GC3QFYD) was about a half a mile down the trail.
We were going to have to walk a mile roundtrip for this cache. I was hoping it was going to be another bird house or something similar. The trail was nice and the large trees were fun to look at. A lot of them had moss beards. We approached the cache site and expected to find an actual container, since most of these caches for the state park Geotour were small to medium lock n locks.
I found the spot it was describing on the cache page but I found a plastic bag which I thought was garbage at first. It turns out it was the actual cache! We walked a half a mile to find a plastic bag with a logbook inside? Lame! We walked back to the Escape grumbling about it the entire time. At least it was a find.
We left the state park and put some miles behind us. Our next stop was going to be in Newhalem, which was about a 40 minute drive with traffic. Newhalem would take care of page 18 of the DeLorme Challenge. I had written down Trains, Boats and Automobiles (GC4DM5P) because people have been saying good things about it on the Puget Sound Facebook feed.
I didn't realize this cache was part of the other two caches in town but not a multi. They were separate but together if that makes sense. I didn't look at the map beforehand but we ended up getting them all. The first cache, mentioned above, was very underwhelming. It took us to the side of a building and it was a container hidden in an electrical box so to say.
We signed it and saw there were coords to the second installment but it was a separate cache, Onward Oncorhynchus (GC4DM73) which was at the Trail of the Cedars Bridge.
As soon as I got to the bridge to walk across it, I saw a familiar face. I said out loud, "I never knew I would run into someone I work with at L&I!" She turned around and was equally surprised. Her name is Jennifer and I met her through my friend in Retro, Alicia Maria. We chatted for a bit and took pictures.
They were on their way to LaConner for the night after starting their trip in Chelan a few days ago. They walked off and we found the cache, which was underneath the bench near the bridge. We signed it and grabbed the coords for, we were hoping, for the final at the time.
We saw that it was almost a half a mile from us so we walked back to the Escape and drove over to the building next to the river. We parked in a pullout and walked across the footbridge to where Ladder Creek was. The water here was a beautiful blue. This part of the Skagit River was nice. Once over, we had a hard time figuring out what trail it was on since there were several. Mom figured it out and Bev stayed behind because she was pretty much done walking around for the day and I didn't blame her.
Mom and I walked up to the Ladder Creek Falls Gardens (GC4DM8W) and it was out in the open. We signed out names, took a photo and hid it back better than we found it. We found out this little area has a light show at night in the summer months. Pretty cool. We gathered Bev, took a few photos and made our way across the footbridge (we had to wait for several Asian people to cross) and made our way back to the Escape.
We got back onto Hwy 20 and made one more stop before the Diablo Lake overlook, at a dam overlooking Ross Lake. The cache had recently been replaced so we were the first ones to find the new cache, Gorge Dam Overlook (GC2CYA5). I'm glad we waited a few weeks or we wouldn't have been able to find this one back in August when we originally were suppose to come here. We parked in the lot, and it was swimming with people, due to the pandemic. It was upsetting on how many people were around. We got on the trail and made our way to the cache. It was down by a boulder around the trail corner. Bev and Mom watched me find it from above. We walked back to the Escape and off to Diablo Lake...finally!
We got back onto Hwy 20 and continued east, the road swirled up and around the mountains. The craggy mountain tops were a beautiful sight. There was a spot on the road where we went over the lake and there were a lot of people, swimming, kayaking and hanging out for the day. We had to make sure not to run them over. We continued up hill to the overlook. We knew it was going to be busy because everything outdoors during Covid was.
We got to the parking lot and found a place to park. It was windy but very pretty up here. We got here later than I anticipated and the sun was starting to go down...of course it was in the background of all of our pictures. It also obstructed the pretty blue teal lake water as well. We will have to come back and visit this place again someday and do the entire loop next time.
Bev and I spent time working on the earthcache, A Mountain Mosaic (GC1HWVZ) and got some pictures in. It wanted us to look at the different layers of rock that built up this region many eons ago. We answered the questions and enjoyed the view...with everyone else in Washington State. There were so many people here.
We used the restroom, took more pictures from the cliff, while watching this girl look ridiculous while modeling for the amateur camera man, and then we decided that it was probably time to head back towards Sedro-Woolley and I-5.
On the way back down, we stopped at the North Cascades sign to get our picture in front of it...when we came through earlier it was super busy and didn't want to deal with the people. We got our photo taken first. Some nice young man asked if we wanted our picture taken so he took a few. We thanked him for doing that for us. Then we found the cache in the guardrail, The North Cascades are Calling (GC4MMVR) and it was a cordless phone. Clever.
We didn't stop again until we got to the east side of Concrete, we wanted at least one more cache, so we stopped for Welcome to Cement or was in Concrete? (GC7J588) and I had a rough time finding it. It was a micro cache hidden in a bushy tree. I had to get to correct angle to even see it.
Once I did find it I had to stand on the rock and balance myself while unscrewing the container because it was tethered to the limb. I got it signed, put back and walked back to the Escape. We drove the half hour towards Sedro-Woolley.
I told Mom once we had service to find somewhere to eat that was open past 8 p.m. that was a sit down restaurant. Covid has really made eating while traveling very difficult. Mom found a place that stayed open until 10 that carried a variety of food. I asked her to find the address so we could put it into Nuvi. It was called the Bull Pen Sports Bar and Grill in Sedro-Woolley and it was actually pretty good food for the only place that was open in town. I had chicken strips, Bev had a taco salad and mom had a burger. We used the restroom, paid for our food and hit the road.
We got onto I-5 and headed south and didn't get off until just north of Federal Way. If it weren't for the dumpy little Honda Civic cutting off this large semi truck we wouldn't have had to stop. I had to swerve to avoid almost a serious accident. Luckily, the semi truck didn't have to over correct too much to avoid hitting the Civic. If he would have he would have tipped over right in front of us. It would have been bad. People were watching out for us at that moment. I am so thankful there wasn't an accident. Anyway, the sudden stop and jerk woke Bev up in the backseat that prompted her to want to use the restroom. We were also very lucky the Safeway's are open late during Covid so we could use their restroom. We found one just off of I-5, let Bev out while we sat in the parking lot. We got back on the freeway and got to my house in Lacey just before midnight. That was quite the adventure.
Mom and Bev went home in Rainier. I got cleaned up and went to bed. I was tired. Good times though.
I finished the Wonders of the World challenge, found 23 caches, found caches in four new towns and cities, filled in three DeLorme squares and drove around 380 miles roundtrip. Whew.
Next Adventure: Dad's Retirement Dinner
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