Friday, July 7th
Each summer Heather books (a year in advance) out a state park camping spot and she and her family prepare and go for about a week. They've done it at Millersylvania State Park, Seaquest State Park and Dosewallips State Park. They've invited us to go in the past, but it never worked with our schedule. This year it finally did, even though July was super busy. This year we were going to stay with them for two nights at Dosewallips State Park.
I have been out that way several times over the years and have even grabbed the caches inside the park passing through on Hwy 101. Ben and I started getting our camping stuff together and decided to borrow Doug's tent because it was bigger and had more room. It's been a while since we slept in a tent. I was looking forward to it.
That Friday, I got up, logged on, ate my usual grapes, half a blueberry bagel and some yogurt. Mom had the day off, so she came over to pick up some banana bread and cookies Ben got up late and got ready while I finished up work since I took a half a day. I logged off, finished getting my stuff ready and packed up, made sure the dishes were done, the cat box was scooped, they had food and water and then packed up the Edge. I made a peanut butter bagel and had a baggie of Fritos to bring with me and told the kitties to guard the house.
We left and made a pit stop at Erika and Zac's house to drop off some cookies. They both had the day off and were headed to go do some chores and car maintenance for Zac. They thanked us for the cookies and we both headed off. Our first stop was to Total Wine for a few bottles of alcohol and then to Safeway for the rest of the ingredients Ben needed for his mixed drink he was providing for the weekend. Josh had also asked Ben to bring some plumber's tape for a leaky faucet in Heather's parent's trailer, so we stopped at the Tractor Supply in Shelton. I stayed in the Edge while Ben ran inside to get what Josh had asked for. Ben came back and he said the girl at the register hit on him. Lol.
I asked Ben if we could stop to get some geocaches along the way and he said sure. I picked out a few of them along Hwy 101 to grab. The first one we came to was at one of the Washington State fish hatcheries. WTF! Where's the Fish? (GC6B1YQ) was a quick park and grab at the guard rail. I got our names on it and put it back where I found it. We jumped back onto Hwy 101 to continue north.
A few miles before Lilliwaup, we stopped at a pullout to grab one of OhJoy's caches, Addiction Cache #15: Octopus Hole (GCX3QP). I thought I had gotten all of her Addiction caches but apparently not. It was such a nice day, and the Puget Sound was so blue! We got our names on the log, took the TB with us and put it back into the guardrail where we found it. We hopped back into the Edge and continued on.
Once we were in Lilliwaup, I asked Ben if we could get one more. He said sure. I directed him to the next one, Tomorrow Never Dies - 007 (GC2BZCY). It was hidden at the small convenience store at the defunct gas station. I pulled a regular sized lock n' lock out of a hidey hole. I made sure no one was watching me. I could see this one disappearing if someone wasn't careful retrieving and replacing it back. I got our names on it, a quick picture and I put it back for the next cacher.
We got back onto the highway and saw that we had less than 10 miles to the state park. We arrived and Heather had texted us earlier which campsite they were at. We looked at the map and then meandered our way to where they had everything set up. We found out that they booked two campsites because they had or would have people coming and going all week and weekend long. We backed into the spot Heather pointed us to and promptly started unloading our camping stuff.
They showed us where our tent was going to be, and Ben and I spent about a half hour getting that all set up before relaxing. It was nice to be away from home for a few days. We sat around in chairs for a while chatting. Michael and Lily were both there spending time with their family. Lily recently got a job as a WSDOT ferry attendant and lives with her boyfriend in Kent. Michael surprised Heather by coming home from Texas for a visit for a couple weeks.
Ben mixed his drink up in one of my beverage dispensers and he, Heather and Josh spent the evening drinking that down. We got out the pop darts and played a couple rounds of that while Josh, Heather and Teresa got dinner ready to go. Josh made the chicken, and Heather helped out her mom by getting the salad, baked potatoes and mac n cheese prepared. I brought some no bake cookies and some banana bread for snacking and put those on the snack table. We ate dinner together and Heather helped her mom clean up. We played a few more rounds of pop darts and I beat Ben, Lily and went into extra innings with Josh, but I ended up prevailing. Wooo!
Lily had to work the next day, so she got ready to go. Heather thanked her for coming out and spending time with everyone. We hung out and chatted some more. When it got dark, they lit the fire and we spent the rest of the evening snacking on popcorn, visiting and relaxing. We got ready for bed around 10 and luckily there was a bathroom nearby for us tent sleepers. I got hardly any sleep (even with ear plugs) because literally everyone snored, even the dogs!
Saturday, July 8th
In the middle of the night, I just could not fall asleep. There was so much snoring all around me. I could even hear it coming out of the trailer. I read my book I brought with me, On That Day: The Definitive Timeline of 9/11 by William M. Arkin. I read about 80 pages of it before I decided to try and fall asleep again. I woke up at 2 a.m. to use the restroom and then got some really crappy sleep until about 8 a.m. Snoring sucks!
I grabbed my bathroom things, emerged from the tent, walked to the restroom, washed my face and walked back. I went back into the tent to change my clothes and to finish getting ready for the day. Ben had done the same.
Josh was behind his Blackstone cooking up fried eggs, green peppers and slabs of Spam. Heather cooked up the rice while her mom helped get her dad up and going for the day. I was excited to experience a "Guamese breakfast" made by an actual person from Guam!
We ate food and then helped them clean up. I asked Heather what the plan was for the afternoon, and she said that there were no plans made. I asked if we could go out geocaching and to the waterfalls and she said yes!
Josh, Heather, Ben and I piled into Ben's Edge and headed out to Hwy 101. We drove north. The first one on the list was Something Green is What I Seek (GC8EKQ9) was at the Whitney Gardens and Nursery. We parked, paid the $2 donation, and then went inside. This place was bigger than I thought. I immediately B line it to the cache while they followed. It was clear at the back of the property near a large tree and bench. We made the grab pretty easily and got a group shot after we signed our names.
We spent the next twenty minutes wandering around looking at the trees, plants and garden accessories. We walked past an area that said HEATHERS HOSTAS. Of course, we made Heather stand there and take a picture with it. I think she ended up purchasing one to take home for her mom. Before we left, we went into the building so Heather could pay for her Hosta. I checked my phone to see where the next closest one was, and it was the one at the waterfall. This would be my third time there.
We turned off of the highway onto Dosewallips Road and followed that to where the parking area was for the falls. It's basically two wide spots on each side of the road and you found a spot that your vehicle could fit into. It wasn't super busy yet, so we didn't have trouble finding a spot. We got out and walked the short distance to the falls. It was a nice day, so we expected to see a bunch of people in the water.
We did stop to grab the geocache that was there, Rocky Brooks Geocache (GC8Z97R). The first two times I visited there wasn't a geocache there. Glad to see there was one now. We walked up to it and noticed that it may disappear since it wasn't hidden very well, and people could see it from the trail. I wrote our names on it and tried hiding it from view. Luckily, there weren't many people walking past us when we found and replaced the container.
We continued up the trail to the falls.
Heather doesn't like climbing up unstable rocks so getting her to do it was amazing. Once she was up there, I took some pictures of her and Josh and then she got immediately down. Ben and I climbed up behind them and took several pictures. There were a bunch of people down below the falls wading in the pool of water. To me, it wasn't that warm outside to be swimming but to each their own!
Once we were done exploring, we walked back to the Edge and decided where to go next. I looked at my phone and the next closest one was, and it was a cache I already had, grabbed it back in January 2011, but the rest of them didn't. So, I let them know there was one over by the Seal Rock entrance. Ben pulled over and they all got out. I stayed in the Edge so they could have the joy of finding it. I told them before they got out that it was near the sign. It didn't take them long to find A Quick Stop at Seal Rock (GC15EV3). They walked back to the Edge.
The next one up the highway was Clam Bucket (GC59GV1) near the Yelviks General Store. I've always wanted to stop along this road and see what the store had inside of it. But first, we grabbed the nano hidden on an old piece of machinery used probably to harvest clams. We went inside the store, and it is what I expected it to look like, lots of fishing gear, weird odds and ends you would find at a gas station and Heather bought some soy sauce for Josh because he was really disappointed that there wasn't any for his rice that we had for breakfast. Now, it's their vacation soy sauce and will be stored in the trailer.
We all piled into the Edge and followed that road to Cove RV Park and Country Store. I wanted to stop because there was a cache there, Bivalvia Mania (GC501FM), with over 70 favorite points, so that meant, it was a good one! We pulled into the parking lot and immediately saw the large pile of huge fake clam shells. It's gotta be hidden in that pile. I looked really quick and pulled out a white ammo can. We signed our names and took a few pictures. I wanted to go inside to look around, so we spent a few minutes browsing. I found a couple stickers and a 3D printed octopus that I know I will use for my random posts (like my Figgy and Russ elves on the shelf), a Milky Way and stood in line and purchased my stuff. We got back in the Edge, and I shared half of my Milky Way with Ben.
We got onto Bee Mill Road and followed that down to our next cache, Chief Seattle Council - Camp Parsons (GC4HYCY). We parked in a small pull out and walked up the road to the cache hidden behind a tree. Of course, a car had to drive by. I got pitch on my hands handing the cache. We wrote our names on it, put it back and walked back to the Edge. I pulled up the next one and had to read what roads to take to get to it.
We followed its instructions and drove down to Shellfish Interpretation Center. We drove down the "spit" and parked as close to the cache as we could. We knew we needed to cross a "river" to get to it. I pointed to where we needed to go at the edge of the tree line and the shoreline. Ben, Josh and I found a good way to cross while Heather, said eff it, and walked right through the stream. We all got over to the other side and started looking for Crab or Shrimp Boil? (GC2QTHK). Everyone had their phone out trying to zero in on the spot. Mine was taking me all over the place.
I got tired of wandering around so I started looking at the logs to see if there were any spoiler photos. A cacher had posted a picture of a tree. I told Heather that we needed to find that tree. It hadn't been found since July 2022, which was an entire year ago, so it looked like this one was going to be tricky. We all branched off in different directions looking for that tree.
Heather spoke up and pointed to a large Douglas Fir, "I'm pretty sure it's this one." We start looking. I noticed there was a downed tree and a fence made out of barbed wire we had to look out for. I told everyone that if the cache was there, it was going to be underneath the downed tree. I climbed in, stepped over the barbed wire and started digging. I do not like to log DNF's.
After a few short minutes, I found the container that was hiding underneath the downed tree. These are the hides that give me joy: the ones that haven't been found in a while and proving they actually are there. I wipe away the debris that had accumulated on the outside of the container and opened the lid. It definitely smelled musty and had moisture inside. I took out the logbook and had everyone sign it. There was even a TB inside that sat there for over a year. I took it and planned on putting it into my TB Hotel at home. We took a couple pictures and put it back where we found it.
We made sure to notate in our log that it is there. We forded the river one more time on our way back to the Edge. Again, we all kept our feet dry and Heather just monster trucked through it.
We got back to the Edge and drove back to Hwy 101. We had time for a couple more before heading back to camp. I looked at my map and there was one up the road called Somewhere Over the Rainbow (GC1W6GB). We pulled over along the wide spot in the road and we all got out to look for a micro in the woods. It literally could be anywhere with the bouncing coords. We looked for a couple minutes, and finally spotted a black bison tube hanging from a random tree. We signed our names, got a picture and put it back.
We had time for one more, so we checked our map on the app and saw there was one called Falls View Canyon Revisited (GC1G0EV) but the logs said that the cache wasn't there anymore, and we didn't have any replacement in the Edge to make it worthwhile, so we skipped it for now. It was probably going to be archived soon anyway. We picked the next closest one which was Barbie's Fab 50th (GC1YT7D) and it was one I already had. I grabbed it with Bob and Bev several years ago coming home from Sequim.
We drove the extra few miles north and pulled over at an abandoned restaurant. I stayed in the Edge while Ben, Heather and Josh hopped out to go find it. I told them it was a regular sized cache so they should have no problem finding it. After a few minutes of them not finding it, I got out of the Edge to help but they found it. I took a picture of them instead. They signed the logbook and put it back.
We got back onto the highway and headed back to camp. When we arrived, I noticed that our campsite grew by four people. Apparently, these were Caroline's children and ex-husband Michael. He set up the kid's tents and he slept in a tent in the back of his truck. They brought bikes so, they spent some of the afternoon riding their bikes all over the place. Ben and I spent some time just relaxing because we never get to relax when we have get togethers or when we travel, so it was nice to sit and chill for a while.
I watched them play pop darts for a while as I wrote notes in my notebook. As it approached dinner, I asked how I could help out Josh, Heather and her mom. Josh made burgers on the Blackstone while, I got the chips ready, Heather and her mom got the condiments, produce, buns, cheese, potato salad, beans and cut up the watermelon. It was quite the spread, but we also had four more mouths to feed. As the burgers got done, Josh added cheese and Heather's mom told everyone that dinner was almost done. I am not one that wastes time when food is ready. I grabbed my plate and filled it up. I grabbed my blueberry beer I brought home from Arizona, a napkin and sat down to joyfully eat my food. Other people joined me at the picnic table.
We ate food and chatted about random things. Again, it was nice to not be the person in charge of getting things taken care of and making the food. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was delicious but then I am always a fan of grilled hamburgers in the summer.
We helped clean up our space and then we spent some more time hanging out, chatting and eventually Heather went and got more firewood for our pit. She thought they delivered them to the campsites. As it got dark, we got the fire going. I brought some graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows just in case people wanted to have a smore. Ben and I both had one and some of the kids joined in as well. I was glad I remembered our roasting sticks.
We soon got ready for bed. I grabbed my bathroom stuff and headed over to the bathroom building. I had taken a shower earlier that evening, so my bathroom routine was a bit shorter than it usually was. I walked back to the camp site and finished getting ready to bed. I was hoping since I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, that I did that night. I put in my ear plugs and attempted to get to sleep before Ben did.
Sunday, July 9th
I woke up in the middle of the night having to use to the restroom. I got up, put on my slip ons, grabbed a flashlight, unzipped the tent and hustled over. Once I was done, I washed up and hustled back. There is always the fear of some weirdo nabbing you in the middle of the night. I got back to the tent, shoved off my shoes and got comfortable again. Peeing while camping is such a chore.
I tossed and turned throughout the night and tried to ignore the snoring, even with earplugs in. I did manage to get a little bit more sleep than the previous night. It still wasn't great sleep though.
We all got up before 8 a.m. You could hear Josh, Heather and Heather's mom getting breakfast stuff ready. I wandered off to the restroom to wash my face and Ben did the same. We got back to the tent and changed clothes. Breakfast was almost done by the time we were done getting ready for our day. We did notice that the Brinnon Fire Department showed up with some of their rigs and parked them over by the open space near the bathroom. They were there to raise awareness and educate the public on fire safety.
The morning's spread was blueberry pancakes, sausage and hashbrowns -- all were cooked on the Blackstone. We reached for our plates, grabbed some food and sat down at the picnic table. Heather's mom and her grandchildren went over to see what they were offering. They brought back some free stuff, brochures and stickers.
We hung out at the campsite for a bit, chatting and playing pop darts. I asked Ben if he was ready to pack up everything and he said yes. We didn't want to stay all day because we had some stuff to take care of before we started our work week. We started deflating and rolling up sleeping bags, got the blankets folded, pillows piled up and stuffed them into the Edge. We took down the tent, bagged the tent poles, the fly and the tarp, folded up the tent and put it inside of its bag. Ben and I will have to get one of these tents when Doug moves out since it is his tent. I love how roomy it is. We packed those up in the back of the Edge with our camping tote, the bags of food we didn't eat and our duffle bags.
We thanked Heather, Josh and Heather's mom for letting us go camping with them. They said that we should come next summer too. We told them it would depend on when they did it due to the wedding being almost at the same time. They realize that too since Josh and Heather were a part of the wedding. We drove off waving to them.
We got on the highway, and I asked Ben if we could pick up a few caches on the way home, he said sure. The first one along the way was Duckabush River Public Parking (GC6QG5B) and it was in a weird area. We parked as close as we could, found the trail and walked to a giant tree. It was an easy find. We got our names on it, took a picture and put it back where we found it. We walked back to the Edge.
We got back onto Hwy 101 and drove further south. We put about ten miles behind us before we pulled over for the next one, Inspired by Nature - The Eagle has Landed (GC6000WM). We got out and the coordinates jumped all over the place. I was running out of places to look. Then a guy in a truck drove by asking us if we were there to rob the place. We told him we were geocaching and told him about the hobby. He didn't seem to mind as long as we weren't robbing anything on his property. After a few minutes more, we finally found the darn thing.
We got back into the Edge and continued south on Hwy 101. Our next stop took us to Highway 101 -- Clammers Trail (GC5R626). It was along a pull out. Ben stayed in the car while I got out because we suspected it was going to be by the power pole. I got out, walked over, grabbed the pill bottle and took it back to the car. I signed the logbook, Ben got a photo, and I took the container back to its hiding spot for the next cacher. Good times!
We continued driving south until we reached Hoodsport. I had Ben pullover at the Fish and Wildlife building and parking lot so we could get Fish Crossing? (GC30CAN). That micro cache was a bugger to find. It was hidden very well on the guardrail. You did have to be stealthy since it was so close to the road and the crosswalk. During the busier months I could see this one being harder to find.
Ben said he was going to use the porta potty in the F&W parking lot. I told him I was going to go walk to the other cache while he was doing his business. I told him to find me when he was done. He said okay. I walked through the downtown area to the other side where there were people getting ready to scuba dive. There was a small park and then a building where you could rent scuba gear and take lessons and the parking lot was shared with a Mexican restaurant. I walked into the parking lot near the posted coords. I stood there waiting for the coords to narrow down, but they really never did. I stood there by the sign (out of the way) and read through the logs since there wasn't a hint and I didn't want to rummage through stuff by the scuba shop. I wanted to minimize my exposure since it was busy.
I finally scrolled past a post made by a cacher that gave me a good idea on where to look. I walked over to the building and the cache was the third place I looked. Yay! I didn't have to be here a long time looking suspicious! I got our names on the log, and I put it back without any muggles watching me. Ben called right as I was putting it back and he asked me where I was. I told him the scuba shop on the south end of town. He missed the turn, but I told him I would walk to him at the grocery store across the highway.
That was the final find of the day. From Hoodsport we drove the rest of the way home and we were happy traffic wasn't that bad. We got home around 3:30, unloaded the Edge, started a load of laundry and put stuff away that didn't need to be cleaned. Doug asked me if I needed to go to Costco and I told him that I probably better get the grocery shopping done while I had some time. I took a once over of our fridge and pantry and got together a quick list. Apparently, he needed dog food.
We headed into Hawks Prairie but stopped at Erika's house first so he could pick up something she borrowed from him. We chatted for a few minutes and gave Emmett and Toby some pets. From there, we went to Costco, then Petco to get a toothbrush and toothpaste kit for his dog. I made him go with me to Walmart and Winco before we drove home. He wasn't pleased but I didn't care.
We got home, put the groceries away, finished up the laundry, watched some TV, ate dinner, got in a shower, logged the caches we found over the weekend, wrote some blog notes and then got ready for bed. I wish we could have summer vacation from work. I hate missing such nice days because we have to be in doors working at a computer. I know it's my fault picking the career that I have, and I will just have to live with it and enjoy the hell out of the days I do get off in the summer.
Next Adventure: A Belated Birthday Geocaching Experience for Bev with a Trip to Papa Pete's
No comments:
Post a Comment