I have been going through a bunch of my notebooks over the past year looking to see if I've solved certain geocaching puzzles and if I've found them or not. I had a bunch of not solved, solved but not found or coords that I wasn't sure if they were right or not. I've been asking Bev if she had found some of them or not and if so if she had the solved coords or remembered where the cache was. It took us a few months to get somewhat organized.
We had been talking over the course of the week on a game plan. I had solved some of the new puzzle caches Bev hadn't solved so we combined forces and came up with going to Woodard Bay, the Waterfront Boardwalk and Watershed Park. It was going to be a lot of walking but she was up for it.
We decided on a day, which caches we were going to get and what time Bob was going to drop her off because they had to take care of a few errands in town. She asked me if I would drop her off at home later and I said sure. I got up around 9:30ish, got ready to go, ate my blueberry muffin, Bev was dropped off a little earlier than I thought, used the restroom and got in the Escape. Ben got home from his shift and got back into bed to get a few more hours of sleep. He told me to have a good time.
We headed out to Woodard Bay. I have not been out here in many years, like, before I started dating Ben, many years ago. I was trying to remember exactly when it actually was. We got to the parking lot and none of our caches would load because the cell service in this area was terrible. We decided we were going to drive back to South Bay so we could load our caches on an offline list. We drive the few miles and check our phones, yay service! We put the four caches on the offline list and drove back to the parking lot.
We started our walk around 10:55ish. There were a good amount of people also here enjoying the day, some with kids, some solo walkers and some in small groups. Our first cache, Those Pesky Pronouns Moved Into Our Neighborhood (GC9CAZK) was one of the puzzle caches we've been working on over the course of a few days. I had to remember the rules of pronouns by brushing up on my skills I haven't used since middle school. Once I figured it out it was pretty easy. This container was hidden just off of the trail hidden next to a small Maple Tree. Easy peasy!
Bob and Bev had come up here with Gabe recently and picked up this next one already. Squirrel's New Squirrely Digs (GC9CCK5) was just up ahead from our first stop. There was a cluster of huge trees, piles of logs and branches and Bev hinted that it was among the mess. She said she didn't go in to look but Bob did and she remembered him being in the trees looking for it. I went in and started looking for it. I did find it, signed my name and got a photo of it before some people walked by. I really didn't want them to see me and then we would have to explain what we were doing.
We moved on. Every sign we walked past we took photos of because we thought we might be able to do the Adventure Lab later since our phones didn't work up here. We thought we were going to be clever. Joke's on us. You can only do them when you are at the location. Lame. Oh well, we will have to come back another day. We have to anyway. I need to do the other puzzles and multi's still left in Woodard Bay.
We wandered out to the most eastern part of the conservation area where we looked for Brought to You From East Asia II - Laos (GC9CCD). This puzzle took us a few days to finish because we just could not get the correct coordinates. I had no idea which one I was doing wrong even after I did the entire puzzle twice. I was getting frustrated. Bev had to ask one of our fellow cachers what we were doing wrong and he let us know which number was wrong. I put it into the checker and bam, we got the parking information, the hint and other things to keep in mind. We approached ground zero and came up upon a fawn and their mom eating bushes. We tried not to startle them. I looked at the hint and was right where I needed to be but couldn't find it for some reason. Then I saw the tube tied to the Oregon Grape. We got our names on it and put it back. We admired the area and could hear lots of birds across the water making a ruckus.
We walked around the area for a few more minutes taking pictures of the signs and reading up on what we thought the Adventure Lab questions were going to be. After we were done here, we left this area and started the loop hike for our last cache we had on our list. The Abused Apostrophes' New Abode (GC9C5YG) was another puzzle cache I had to look up the rules on. It has been a while since I worked on my grammar skills. I had forgotten what the proper use for apostrophes were. Once, I refreshed my skills on this one, doing the puzzle was easy. I put the coords into the checker and bam, success! We should be able to find this one.
The walk was very pleasant. They take really good care of the trails inside this conservation area. It was lightly graveled and the brush on the side of the trail was neatly manicured. I think I remember seeing a sign from a volunteer taped to one of the signs that said there was someone using a weed whacker.
We approached the cache and since the coordinates jumped around a lot and we had no cell service, we could not check our hint. Bev didn't write down all of the hint so we had to look for a long time. Like, an embarrassingly long time for cachers who have been caching for over 10 years and have thousands of finds. I stood there thinking, okay...where would a peanut butter sized cache be that would be near the bridge but not in an area that sees seasonal flooding? The only place it would be is near the stump. So I walked over and there it was. We did not want to come back for this one. We logged our names and put it back.
We finished the loop and it dumped us back onto the trail near the parking lot. It was a nice walk.
We went back to the parking lot and got back into the Escape. Our next stop was the waterfront boardwalk in Olympia. Bev had her sights set on Brought to You from Finland (GC7KHCR) which was an actual field puzzle instead of one you can solve at home. There were seven waypoints we had to walk to so we chose to walk north first and then south and of course the final was back near where we started at the posted coordinates. We had to answer questions about the sign, object, compass, animal or other random things we were suppose to single out for the correct corresponding number.
There were a bunch of people eating at the local restaurants along the boardwalk, people walking, people hanging out, kids playing at the playground we walked past, it often smelled like rotting fish but overall it was a nice day to be out exploring.
When we figured out all the coords with their corresponding numbers, plugged them into my phone and walked to the final. We both knew it was going to be the opposite of where we were. As we got closer and saw what was ahead of us as far as possible hiding places, I knew the darn hiding spot was going to be near where this older gentleman was sitting. I said out loud to Bev, what do you bet the cache his hidden near that guy? She agreed. We went over there anyway and if they guy looked uncomfortable or asked us what we were doing we would tell him.
We looked in the corner of the raised landscaping box and there was the container hidden in the corner underneath a few rocks. I just volunteered the information to the guy just so he knew we weren't weirdos. I just said, we're geocaching and he just nodded and continued on with what he was doing. He didn't seem to care all that much. We signed our names and put it back as quickly as we could because there were a lot of people wandering around. We walked back to the Escape.
There was one more place that we had on our list. This cache, Payback 4 - Woodard Bay Answered (GCKKX0) has been on both of our lists for a very long time. Back in 2011, I know we've (the person I used to cache with during this time) done part of this cache but ran out of time due to darkness. We never went back to it nor its counterpart Payback 3 - Walking Woodard Bay in Silence (GCKKX9). I am not sure where Bev got the final coords from but those have been on several pieces of notebook paper for almost a decade. I have no idea if those coordinates were correct because they were inside of another park a few miles from Woodard Bay. We thought that was strange and had a hard time believing they were right. Bev also emailed our cacher friend to find out if our coords were correct. They said we were in the correct park but the coordinates were off a few digits. They gave us the correct digits and we wrote down the new set of coords on our paper and on the cache page.
I thought I was cool enough to remember how to get to Watershed Park off of Henderson but turned onto the wrong road from downtown. Bev had to find the roads to get us to the correct road. We did eventually get onto Henderson and found a place to park near the trailhead. I can't tell you how many times I've been here over the years for caches but it has been a while since I've been here.
Up to this point, I'm sure we've walked at least 4 miles up to this point and you could tell Bev was getting tired because she is not an off road vehicle and hills are hard when you get to be her age, especially with a bad hip. My feet were getting tired but we've made it this far and we were determined to get this last cache on our list. I had one more I could get on this set of trails but I decided to come back another time to get it.
Of course this cache was going to be on the opposite side of the trailhead and up a really long steep hill. Ohjoy! just can't make things easy. We cross a small bridge, walk past some remnants of old graffitied metal pipes and a shed that's seen better days. There were even some evidence of homeless artifacts scattered in the brush. We were hoping they weren't here anymore. We approached the hill and took our time walking up it. The bench that was suppose to be at the top wasn't there anymore so we assumed it was going to be up the new gravel trail that wasn't done yet. Bev stayed behind while I walked up there to check all of the Cedar trees. I yelled to her, FOUND IT! She was glad. I think she was ready to be back at the Escape.
I signed our names, got a photo and put it back. I walked down to where Bev was and we slowly walked back to the Escape off of Henderson. Bev asked me if I was hungry and I said sure, I could eat. We thought about the food choices we had on the way back to my house. She said, let's go to Taco Time on Fones Road, It will be my treat since you drove. I said sure and we made our way over to Fones Road.
We park and go into the building because the drive thru was outrageous plus we wanted to wash our hands and sit inside where it was air conditioned. We both ordered the crispy burrito meal and I had basically two orders of the tater tots. Bev isn't a fan even though she had a couple. We chatted about random things, ate our food and then drove back to my house. I had to pick up a few things so I could take them into Rainier when I dropped off Bev back at home.
We get out to Rainier, I dropped Bev off, she thanked me for the nice day and she and Bob continued on with the rest of their weekend. I went over to Mom and Dad's house for a bit to drop some stuff off and visit for a little bit. I went home, did a few chores, logged the caches we found earlier today, cleaned the house a little bit and got ready for the upcoming work week.
Next Adventure: A Bonney Lake Visit
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