We've had a pretty nice summer and lots of sunshine. I wanted to go kayaking as much as we could this summer and I told Ben that we were going to go again at the end of the week. This time we were going to go to McIntosh Lake, between Rainier and Tenino. There were two caches that have been taunting me for the past few years and I wanted to go get them. Ben said that sounded like a fun outing after work. So we planned on going Friday evening.
I had been talking to Joy (Ohjoy!) through the messenger on Geocaching.com over the past week or so because she knew I was interested in doing more paddle caching around the area. A few of her paddle caches haven't been found in a while or were missing according to some of the logs. I held off on getting a couple of them until I knew they were replaced. I didn't want to waste my time going out to a spot only to find nothing or evidence of where the container use to be. She said if I was going to a few of these places that she could get some stuff ready for me, new logs, containers, baggies, and drop it off at my house. We arranged a day and time and she showed up one evening after I was off of work and gave me a baggy full of replacement pieces for caches. She even helped me with one of her puzzles I was having a hard time trying to solve. I thanked her and she thanked me.
I logged off at 4 and got our towels, water shoes and other random little things together while I waited for Ben to come home. He got off work later than anticipated so I got our strap downs out and laid them out so they would be easy to access. When Ben did get home, he got out of his work clothes and into a tank top and shorts. We used the restroom one more time, fed the kitties and then went out to the garage to take the kayaks off of the rafters and put them on top of the Escape. We made sure we had everything and headed out to Tenino.
I had to think of the quickest way to McIntosh Lake and decided to drive down Yelm Highway to Spurgeon Creek Road, Rainier Road to Military Road. There wasn't a lot of traffic we had to follow on Rainier Road which was nice. You always manage to get stuck behind a Prius or a horse trailer going at least ten miles under the speed limit. As we got closer to the public boat launch, I couldn't remember exactly where it was because there wasn't a sign indicating where to turn. Most public boat launches have a sign. So we drove past it and I had to turn around. We drove down the hill towards the water and noticed there were some people here enjoying some fishing with their family.
We pulled over to the side and unloaded the kayaks. Ben stayed with them while I went to park the Escape. I forgot to change out my shoes before I parked so I had to take my flip flips with me. Ben completely forgot to change his shoes and he just went with it. I was a bit chilly so I wore my sweatshirt and ended up shedding it once I got too warm. We got into the kayaks and started paddling towards the small island. I have never actually been on McIntosh Lake and I've lived in this area pretty much my entire life. I guess I really never needed to. My Dad has fished this lake before. We noticed that this lake had lots of weeds and snails everywhere. I knew this lake was shallow because it used to be a log mill. I am not sure if there are any rivers or streams running in or out of the lake or if this is a stagnant lake filled by runoff or ground water. I just know I would never swim in this lake. Ew.
We did paddle past a few people out on their kayaks, paddle boards and one guy in his tiny fishing boat scouting for fish. We passed the houses on the north side of the lake and some people waved and some people engaged in a short "nice night isn't it" conversations. Indeed, it was a beautiful, calm, warm night on the lake. I checked my caching app and I couldn't tell which side of the island it was on so we would have to just see. I didn't want to get out of the kayak on the wrong side.
We ended up circling around the entire tiny island mostly just to see. Ben commented on all of the algae-like substance that was getting on his paddle. I told him those were frog eggs. He made an ew face and we continued on with finding a place to disembark so we could grab this cache. I looked at a couple pictures just to see where people got out of their vessels. I found a great spot, got out, pulled the kayak partially on land (just so it didn't float away) and found the piece of tree the ammo can was attached to.
I changed out the logbook to Celebrating 10 Years of Geocaching Adventures (GC4RCXJ) as I was instructed to do so, signed our names on the new book, took a few pictures and put it back. I got back in the kayak and shoved off to the next cache, further past the island towards the east end of the lake.
Yellow Lily Pad (GC887N0) was hidden in a log that had breached the surface of the lake. I knew it was going to be the log as we approached the cache location. It's pretty much where it could only be since there was nothing else around. I paddled around the back and saw a hole in the end of it. I grabbed onto the log so I could steady myself and pulled out the camo taped tube. I signed out names, got a picture and put it back.
My paddle ran away and had to hand paddle to go get it back. Ben laughed at me. On the way back we spotted some eagles soaring across the lake. We were really hoping they would catch a fish in front of us but one never did. It did sit up in the tree and watch us for a while. We got back to the to the boat launch so we could load up the kayaks and head home.
Before we left, I had Ben grab the cache at the boat launch. I had to come here twice to get it because it was either missing or broken so I couldn't get it out of it's hiding spot. Lake McIntosh CITO Bonus (GC89R6X) was still right where it was suppose to be and this time no one was parked nearby to make it weird. Ben pulled the bison tube out of the hidey hole, signed his name and put it back.
We were both getting hungry however it was getting late so we decided to just get a take and bake pizza from Walmart. Ben unloaded the kayaks while I got the pizza ready and going in the oven. I went out and helped him hang them back up in the garage. We watched Bad Teacher as we ate pizza. We hung out, I worked on my blog a little bit, watched some American Dad, ate some ice cream and then got ready for bed. Ben had to go work a shift at the South Sound Races tomorrow and I was meeting up with Fitzy for a bit.
Next Adventure: More Kayaking on Lake St Clair
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