I wanted to go to Eatonville to check on my caches because I've been getting a lot of messages from people stating that they needed to be checked on because they weren't finding them. They were either missing, wet inside, the logbook was gone or whatever else was going on with them. I was getting annoyed with the messages and wanted them to stop. That meant doing maintenance on them.
The night before, I asked Bev if she wanted to go for a ride with me to do maintenance and to find a couple caches, we both didn't have yet. She said sure. I told her I would be there around 10:30.
I got up around 9:30, got dressed, ate some breakfast, got my stuff together, put the recycle in the Escape and headed into Rainier. Mom called me to ask me what I was doing. I told her I was going into Eatonville to fix some caches with Bev. She told me she was on her way to the westside to get her haircut with Celeste. She wanted to know if I wanted to meet up with her for some shopping. I told her maybe later when I got back but she probably was going to be done by the time I got back. It would have to be another time. I dumped off the recycle and then headed to Bev's house. I arrived and went through the sliding glass door to see if she was ready. We walked out and she had to tell Bob she was leaving. He was in the garden working really hard. Doesn't that man ever sleep or relax?
We drove out back through Vail and into McKenna. We got onto Hwy 507 and then turned onto SR 702 towards Hwy 7. We turned right onto Hwy 7 and followed the highway to our first location. We veered off onto Ohop Valley Road to the Pioneer Farm Museum. We got off the road and parked in the pull out near the sign. Bev stayed in the Escape while I got out to search for the cache. It was missing because I couldn't find Rainier100 3: Ohop Pioneers (GC6KEW0). I did find the geotour sticker from the top of the container. However, there was an ammo can letterbox on the other side of the sign not too far from where I hid my cache. People were finding that and claiming it as a find. I opened up the ammo can and cachers have been dropping TB's and writing their names on the postcards since there wasn't a logbook inside. Of course, there wasn't because it wasn't a geocache!
I posted an owner maintenance log on the cache page. I said that the cache was missing, and the ammo can was not a geocache but a letterbox from www.atlasquest.com. I placed a new container and let everyone know that the ammo can was not the geocache. Bev and I moved onto the next place.
We got back onto Hwy 7 and followed the road to the Pack Forest. The last time I checked on Rainier100 2: Pack Forest (GC63GN3) was with Grandma Karen back in March 2020 since there was nothing better to do. Bev and I parked near the sign, got out and started our short meandering walk to the cache. I saw the spire was still doing well and the cache was hidden away from sight. I moved the piece of wood, and the cache was in excellent shape and dry as a bone. I added a shark toy to it. We walked back to the Escape and saw some people walking their dogs.
We got back onto Hwy 7 and drove to the other side of La Grande, where the Alder Dam and recreation area is. There is a pullout on the windy road that takes you to a viewpoint of the dam. We pulled over in the gravel part of it, got out and looked for Where's the Dam View? (GC8ZW0E). Bev found it instantly. There were two fluorescent panels that were hidden on the inside of the guardrail. We wrote our names on the backside of them and then put them back exactly how we found them.
We turned around and headed back to one of the many roads that took you into Eatonville, this one was Hwy 161. You entered town from the southwest. We arrived in town and pulled off the main highway into the parking lot of Millpond Park near the historical cabin. We sat in the Escape for a few minutes while a guy walked around the two buildings. We waited until he left to get out of the Escape. We walked over to the main cabin and the cache, Rainier100 4: Eaton of the Ville (GC6R8PV) was nowhere to be seen. I am not sure how long it has been gone but someone supposedly found it a week ago on (2/13). I ended up putting a new container out in a slightly different spot, but it still fit the "SW side of cabin" hint. When I did my log, I asked if someone finds the original cache to message me. I hid the cache near the bush and put some pieces of wood in front of it. I hope it stays there for a while.
We left the park and got back onto Hwy 161 towards Graham and Puyallup because we both decided to pick up a few more caches we didn't have while we were out this way, and it wasn't raining. We stopped at Dogwood Park to grab the newest one, Whipple Tree (GC8Z99Z). Since I've been a geocacher, 11 years currently, I've been to this little park at least 7-8 times to find caches here or to check up on the Rainier100 cache that was adopted to me. I had to archived it because it kept going missing, hence why there is a new one here again. We searched for at least 40 minutes. We did not find it and were disappointed. It was either hidden very well, fell on the ground or was missing. We logged a DNF, and I put a watch on it so I would be notified when someone does find it.
I stopped at the 76 gas station on the corner so I could get some gas, so we weren't going to have to walk. We took the Eatonville Cut Off back to Hwy 7. We turned right at the light and followed the highway towards Spanaway.
Bev didn't have One Fish, Two Fish (GC888D7) and Bob wasn't going to drive all the way out this way to get just one or two caches. I had stopped by here a couple years ago with Mom after going to the petting zoo in Spanaway. We drove down the road and I let Bev out to find the cache. I turned the Escape around while she was writing her name down. She hopped back in, and we drove to the next one.
She already found Rocky Ridge 1 (GC2XNAA) but I hadn't. She tried to remember which one that was and she said something about a school and rocks. When we arrived at the cache site and there really wasn't a place to pull over. We just pulled over in the school entrance since it was the weekend. Bev stayed in the Escape while I ran across the road to the rocks. Luckily, I picked the right area because I found the lock and lock right away. I signed my name, took the TB and put it back. I watched for oncoming vehicles, sprinted across the road and back into the Escape. We looked on our app to see what the next cache was.
On our way to Two Sisters Base Camp (GC7GXX3) Patty called us to chat on her way home from work. She had gotten in a minor car accident the previous day. I followed the phone's directions to the cache, and it led us into a mobile home park. Was this right? Bev said she vaguely remembered this one. We got to a corner of a house and noticed the bird houses. Oh, it's gotta be one of these. I got out quickly, grabbed the log, signed it, noticed a TB hanging from the tree, got a photo of that and the bird house and back into the Escape so we could leave. I didn't want any of the neighbors talking to us.
We got out of the mobile home park, drove down a couple of back roads and got onto 208th St to pick up (Not) Oceanfront Property at Granny's (GC8JXGQ). Ben and I picked this one up a few weeks ago. Bev didn't have this one but her and Bob found the one that used to be here years ago. She got out and signed her name. We got back onto 208th St and into Elk Plain. We followed Hwy 7 to the junction of 507 where we followed that to McKenna. We took the back way to Rainier home so I could drop Bev off.
After dropping Bev off, I stopped by Mom and Dad's house for a few minutes. I went pee, petted the cats and helped them bring in groceries. Dad's crown came off a couple days ago, so he and Mom were going to go to the office around 4 to meet up with the doctor. Dad asked if I would follow him to Grammie and Grandpa's house to move the wood splitter, so we went over there.
It had a flat tire so Dad said he would have to do it later but thanked me anyway for coming over to help out. On the way home, I decided that I would take care of grocery shopping that night for the rest of the around the world ingredients and some stuff for Ben's birthday. I stopped by home first and asked Ben if he wanted to go with me, he declined. I grabbed the shopping list and headed for Hawk Prairie. I went to Costco first, then the Dollar Tree, Walmart and Winco. Again, some of the stuff was hard to find but I managed to find it all.
I came home, unloaded groceries, put them away, ate leftover dinner from Brazil's meal I made on Friday, watched 20/20, folded clothes, worked on my blog, logged caches and ate popcorn. I am getting closer to that 12,400th cache milestone.
Next Adventure: Ben's Princess Themed Birthday Party
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