Caching in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Last of the Mochicans and Bear's Den were on the list last October but along the way, after finding several caches already, we got towards the park along Riffe Lake and saw the gate and the sign.  Closed for fire danger.  Ughhh.  I was so disappointed.  You can read up on our plan B from last year: 

http://cougval.blogspot.com/2012/10/center-of-geocaching-triad.html

They came and got me around 7:50 and I had all of my stuff ready from the night before.  I had to wait for a bit because their kids stayed longer than anticipated at their house while they had coffee.  I stood out on the porch ready and waiting.  They rolled up around 7:50.  We all knew this would be a short day because Bob had to go bowling around 5.  I put my stuff in the car and we were on our way.

We drove down I-5 trying to avoid back tracking.  I turned my GPS on and my query failed.  We had to go by their GPS's.  This was the second time my query has failed to load.  Last time was when I was in Mossyrock with our new caching friends last spring.  I wasn't too bent out of shape because I knew we would not stop for the ones I needed.

We got to the first available one and found out we couldn't access it from Hwy 12 but through Mossyrock and Swofford Pond.  We had to bail on that.  However, I got an excellent shot of the dam.

Bob was kind of irritated because we were wasting precious geocaching time.   We've never been here, how were we suppose to know?  We moved onto the next closest according to their GPS.  We drove past several of them I didn't have yet.  It made me sad a little on the inside.

Andy's Birthday Cache (GC2GA79) has hurt our feelings once.  We drove up there and found out the gate was closed about a year ago.  We were hoping it didn't disappoint us again.  This time the gate was open so we continued on.  We got up to the top and BAM, Mount Rainier right in your face! I took a few pictures and went to find the cache.  Ugh, we couldn't find it.  We checked every root ball and every stump.  We failed and the cache beat us yet again.  It was disappointing driving all the way up this hill and it wasn't there.  However it wasn't a total bust, we got to see Mount Rainier and a side we don't normally see.

We made our way towards Bear's Den and Last of the Mochicans.  We grabbed a few caches along that road before we arrived at the Goat Creek Trailhead.  That included a strangely named one, Windows Up, Windows Down, no window's were actually involved in retrieving the cache, Riffe Lake Deep Woods, which was not correctly rated and one more cache by the Tupp's family.

And now the part we've been waiting for...for a year!  No fire warnings!  Yes!  We followed NF2750 and came across a large black truck in the middle of the road.  Luckily, there was a spot to manuver around him because he wasn't going to move for anyone. We drove around him slowly with the window down, just to find out why he was in the middle of the road and clearly saw us behind him and he didn't move, "excuse me, is there something in the road?" Bev asked. He looked down, then looked at us and said, "nah, just eating my candy."  Really!?  You wouldn't move out of the way because you're too busy eating candy in the middle of nowhere?  Okay?

From the Gifford Pinchot National Forest website:

"Goat Creek Trail is 5.5 miles long and begins in old growth Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar.  After 0.5 miles the trail passes underneath spectacular waterfalls, then follows Goat Creek.  It crosses a small creek twice as it climbs to views of the forest below. The trail wanders near open meadows and rock cliffs before it meets with Goat Mountain Trail #217 south of Vanson Peak."

 
We got to the end of the road and parked in the tiny area designated for vehicles.  We put on our orange, you never know during hunting season, our walking poles, cameras and GPS's.  It was a short hike to Bear's Den, Kenny's cache.  He had told Bev a little bit about it before we went this morning.  We got to the den and started looking around.  We sorta started looking in the wrong area but eventually figured it out by process of elimination...the GPS's weren't going to help us, too much bouncing around.  I retrieved it from the "ledge" and threw it down towards Bev, I thought it would stop rolling once it got to the trail but it kept going, and going, so glad it stopped on the log.  We dug through it and signed the log.  We got a picture at the bear's den.

We had a half a mile to go until we got to the Goat Creek waterfall.  I was pretty excited about this.  We crossed over two small creeks along the way, over several roots and had to step around several muddy areas.

We went up the last hill and around the corner...there it was, a waterfall you can walk behind.  I was stoked.  The area was so pretty.  I took a few pictures and then we went and found the cache.  Then we took more pictures.  It's not everyday you get to see something this awesome.

It was quicker on our way back to the car.  I'm pretty sure I will probably come back here and bring some others to see this.  I may even continue on towards Vanson Peak and or Deadman's Lake to grab those ones and make a day out of it.

We didn't have a lot of time to venture towards Randle so we drove west to Morton and stopped by Bev's hamburger place.  We found out that it was also called Spiffy's and the famous one along I-5 at exit 68 owns the one in Morton.  The food was pretty good and I would probably come here again.

After a late lunch, early dinner, we grabbed four more along Hwy 7 towards Elbe.  They were all pretty easy and the last one, Plunderous Porkers gave us a runaround.  I eventually got the GPS to settle down and tell me where it was.  It was part of the Angry Bird series by K2D2.

From there, we just went home.  Bob had to get ready for bowling.  They dropped me off and I ate dinner and logged my finds.  Until the next adventure!

Next Adventure:  Carving Pumpkins and Game Night

Life Improvements: Things to Think About

1.  Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

2.  What others think of you is none of your business.

3.  Time heals almost everything so give it time.

4.  Don't compare your life to others and don't judge them.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.

5.  Stop thinking too much it's alright not to know the answers.  They will come to you when you least expect it.

6.  No one is in charge of your happiness, except you.

Football Fever, Geocaching and Tieton Surplus

I got up to the sound of Shannon cleaning the house for Marie to come over and watch the Seahawks game with us.  We were playing the 10 a.m. game against the Colts.  The game was very win-able.   Willmarth made popcorn and we had apples as we watched the first quarter of the game.  From my point of view, we played not to lose.  Everything seemed like we were playing careful so we didn't lose our first game of the season.  Every quarter killed us slowly.  Half time was too close for comfort with a score of 19-17.

We got more upset and disappointed as the game wore on.  It was hard to watch it.  We ended up losing to the Colts after almost making it down the field to go ahead.  However, Wilson threw an interception to make it official.  They handed us our first loss, 34-28.

We ate chili for lunch.

The rest of the day we watched football, checked our fantasy leagues and wished we could have had that game back.  The refs were really inconsistent.

Dinner was pizza from Papa Murphy's while we watched a special late game with the Chargers and Raiders.

The next morning I got up around 10 and got ready to go outside in the sunshine.  I had a few caches downloaded and found an area to hit up for a few hours.  I started by heading down 40th towards Hwy 12 and grabbed one along the way, It Takes a Village.  That was an easy park and grab and a great way to start the late morning.

I made it down to Fruitvale Blvd and found the entrance to Myron Lake.  There were three I could get from here since the Yakima Greenway Trail was accessible from this area.  I took a few pictures of the walk around Lake Myron.

The views were beautiful.  I really enjoyed the walk.  I kinda wished there were more around this area.  I got to the first cache along the trail, it was called Copy Cat 3.  It didn't fool me.

The next one was a little further down the trail.  I found Foggy Eagles as soon as I stepped off the trail.  Everyone driving down Hwy 12 could see me.

I walked back to the van and found the one inside the parking lot before I left the area.  It was a film canister laying next to a tree.  When I put it back I made sure it was covered a little better than I found it.  I found the one in the parking lot near the Sharis before I stopped at the Fred Meyer to look for the cache near the bus stop. Apparently it's hard and even harder when there is a muggle sitting there waiting for the bus.  I'm sure I weirded him out after spending a few minutes looking before I moved on.

I stopped at one just to see if it was there.  There were several DNF logs but the area they brought me to was pretty awesome.  It was an area called Painted Rocks.  I looked for a while and came up with nothing but enjoyed the views.

I moved onto Powerhouse Rock Wall, one placed by Yakimacacher, a guy I've known for a few years.  I'm glad there was a spot to park off the road because it was a strange little intersection of roads.

I made my way halfway up Naches Heights to grab a cache called Juice Me if You Can, the name came from the fact that there were batteries inside the container.  I went after it because the previous finder said they had fun looking for it and they were right.  I had a great time looking for this one.  I got to climb around boulders.  It was a bit windy.

I found the next closest one on the GPS and made my way up Cowiche Canyon Road and near Summitview.  (The next time I am here I think I may do the ones on the Cowiche Canyon trail.)  I grabbed six more before I made my way back to the house.  One was pretty memorable.  Westside's London Bridge was pretty unique.  Without the hint I don't think I would have figured out how to get to it as quickly as I did.  I knew the cache was underneath the bridge but how to get to it?  The slats moved.  I had to move each one before the cache peaked its way out of its hidey hole.

The two final caches I grabbed were on Tieton Drive, one was at a pizza place and the other was at a building called Glenwood Square.  It was a nice building full of restaurants and shops.  I used the bathroom before I went back.

I got back and the dogs went nuts.  I ate a very late lunch and logged my finds.  He walked in about a half hour later.  We watched TV before we got ready for basketball practice at Kennewick High School.  I haven't seen the girls since April.  We stopped for dinner at the Zillah McDonald's and then chatted the rest of the way down on I-82.  We arrived and I pumped up the basketballs the girls got to keep.  Practice went very well and it was fun working with them again.

We left and made it back to Yakima around 10:30 and Shannon was already in bed.  We watched TV for a while and then went to bed.  The couch was very comfy.

I got up the next morning and he had just walked though the door.  He did some grocery shopping, got his oil changed and had to fix his glasses because Fletcher ate part of it.  We had Burger King for breakfast.  Between TV and the next thing on the list I started packing my stuff in the van.

He asked if I wanted to go with him to a place in Tieton.  His brother wanted some end tables from a surplus store he saw on Craigslist. Willmarth shared some of his knowledge about the area because I have never been to this area before.  We found the surplus building and the guy met us outside.  I was kinda excited I got to go into this old warehouse to look through stuff.

We ended up talking to the guy for about an hour while we looked through all of his surplus.  We took two end tables, a desk and a flag made out of old barn wood and milk paint home with us. I helped him unload it.  I put the rest of my stuff in the van including the cans he saved for me, the t shirts we're going to make quilts out of and a box of honey crisp apples from the Union Gap fruit stand.  I gave him a hug and thanked him for letting me stay with him for the weekend and the pirate plunder race.

I put my home coords onto the Nuvi and she said I would be home by 6ish.  The drive over the pass was pretty pleasant and I didn't have to wait at the spot that got wrecked by the weather about a two weeks ago.  We did get stuck behind a slow vehicle as we entered the ski area on top of White Pass.  Luckily, they moved over.  There was a light dusting of snow and it was pretty.  I got this shot on the way down.

I got home around 6 and unloaded the van before I took it back to grandma and drove my car home.  I took a shower and ate some dinner before relaxing and putting stuff away.  It was a fun weekend and I hope to go back over soon.

Next Adventure:  Caching in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest