We both took a three-day weekend so we could enjoy it. I didn't want to have to hurry since Issaquah and Hyak wasn't that close to home. In the early stages of planning for the weekend, Antoine and Nikki were going to have us stay with them, then it turned into almost staying with some of their friends to finally just staying in a cheap hotel in Issaquah. We found that the Motel 6 was cheap and available, so we booked it for a night.
We spent some time the night before packing up everything so we could maximize our morning. I set the alarm for 8:30, we got ready for the day and finished packing up the rest of our stuff we would need and packed it into the Escape. Ben ate a quick scramble, and I had some yogurt, grapes and a bagel with blueberry cream cheese. He did the dishes because it was his turn and we didn't want to leave a sink full of dishes while we were gone. I did the cat box, finished packing the Escape and ran to the store really quick to grab some ice and a squirty mayo. I drove back, checked one more time for things we may have forgotten, said goodbye to the kitties and left around 10:15.
Ben wanted to stop for a coffee, so we stopped at McDonald's for a coffee and a hashbrown. We got onto I-5 at Sleater-Kinney. We had no trouble driving up I-5. We got onto 512 and then merged onto 167. There were some slow spots near Auburn when we merged onto Hwy 18. Hwy 18 had some really bad spots but thinned out as soon as we got away from Auburn. I asked Ben if he was excited to see his first Dambo Troll and he said yes.
We got off at the Issaquah-Hobart exit and followed the highway to the back side of Issaquah. I haven't been that way in years...probably before Covid. As we got closer to town, I asked Ben to direct me to the parking lot of the community center. I was hoping we were there early enough in the day, so it wasn't super crowded.
The parking lot was a little busy but not everyone was walking down the trail to see Jakob Two Trees. I changed my shoes, grabbed a pen and we walked down the Rainier Trail to see my second troll. It was a short walk from the parking lot. When we got there, it wasn't as busy as we thought it would be. We stood in the small line to wait for our turn with the troll. When it was finally our turn, a lady and her friend asked if we wanted a photo together. You'd think, with everyone having cell phones now and taking thousands of pictures every year, that they would know how to frame people with the item, landscape or whatever you're posing with, right? I should have looked at the photos they took before they left. That was my bad. I looked and they cut most of the troll's head off! What the hell?! You can see what you're taking a picture of in the screen! We ended up just taking a picture of each other with the troll because we know how to take pictures of stuff. We made sure to do the virtual, Northwest Trolls: Jakob Two Trees (GCAJFEH).
We walked across the trail to the other side; a traditional cache, Safe from Jakob (GCADVWW) was slightly up the hill hidden around some rocks. I had Ben search for it. It was a quick find. We got our names on it, took a quick picture and put it back before we were seen by anyone who was on the trail down below. We got back onto the trail and decided to find geocaches and do two Adventure Labs throughout downtown.
It was difficult doing two Adventure Labs simultaneously while flipping back and forth between apps, but we managed. We were able to see some cool things, meet two geocachers who were in town for the Ape event the next day and grabbed a final to a multicache, Issaquah Alps Trails Club: IssaQuest (GCB1C6G). We walked back to the Escape to have a quick snack. We left the parking lot so we could grab the outlier Adventure Lab waypoints and then made a quick stop at the Historic Shell Station.
I had told Ben about this really cool traditional cache, but you have to have at least three people to do it. I did it several years ago with Bev and Gabe when I was here for a Holiday Party before Covid. We didn't have three people, but Ben wanted to do it. Because the Historic Shell Station was along the trail, there were two people walking by. Ben asked the gentleman if he could help us. Ben explained what geocaching was and we told him what we had to do to find this geocache, It Takes Three (GC7WE07). The guy agreed and helped us push the buttons at the same time and the cache popped out of the box it was being held in. Ben thanked the couple for entertaining us and they went about their day. Ben put his name on the log, and we did the virtual cache that was also here, Historic Shell Station (GC9P4RK).
We drove to Confluence Park. We used the restroom and then grabbed three geocaches in the park. The first one was Confluence Park: IssaQuest (GCB1C74), And It's Just Another Bomb Cyclone #2 (GCB48X6) and Ponte Nuovo. The first one was by the sign, and it didn't take us that long to find it, which was nice. The second one was over by where the park was mangled by the bomb cyclone that crashed through Issaquah in November 2024, but it was under the bridge and the third one took us in a roundabout way out of the park and on the side of the road hidden in a tree. Of course, there was a person parked right in the way, but we looked and found it anyway. We walked back to the Escape.
It was almost time to drive to Lake Sammamish for the Puget Sound Chapter's BBQ. We wanted to go a little bit early to walk around and do the two Adventure Lab's in the state park. The last time I was at this state park was back in 2016 during the Washington State Parks GeoTour. I had taken Nick and Nickey geocaching because I had missed Nickey's bachelorette party. Anyway, we found a place to park, and we started our walk on the southside of the state park. Once we completed the one Adventure Lab we moved onto the east side of the park. It was too far to walk so we drove. That part of the park was busier, and we were not able to finish that Adventure Lab, even with two other cachers. One of the waypoints was missing or super not clear. We even took the buoy apart and couldn't find the answer. We tried everything!
We got back into the Escape and drove back over to where the picnic was going to be held. We found a place to park and walked over to the covered area. We were somewhat early, so it was just Jim, Jim and Chris. We helped them set up for the 2025 CCE & WSGA Puget Sound Summer Picnic (GCAYMPH) a little bit while we chatted and caught up. As it got busier, we were able to visit with a lot of people we haven't seen in forever. Somehow, we got talked into the ticket table and putting bracelets on people who were WSGA members. Ben and I sat at the table doing that for a while.
Then we stood in the giant burger line which took forever but we did eventually get food and ice cream. We did not win any of the raffle items. I did come close a few times. We helped clean up and Nikki and Antoine invited us to go get a beer at Formula Brewing along with Alex. We drove on over and stayed for about an hour and a half drinking huckleberry cider. It was a fun visit with Nikki, Antoine and Alex.
We found our hotel, Ben checked us in, got settled and took a shower. We watched the end of Iron Man 3 while I wrote some notes in my journal. Ben worked a little bit on his project. We relaxed and went to bed just before midnight. I was glad we were within a half hour of Snoqualmie Pass instead of a two-hour drive from Lacey.
Next Adventure: Going APE 2025: Block Party
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