Biking the CWT and my 1000th cache!

We got up, ate food, hung out for a bit, fed the chickens and ducks, did some laundry and decided we needed to go on a bike ride.  It was a nice day.

I put the bike rack on the car and loaded the bikes.  I mapped out an area spanning from Fir Tree Road all the way to Chambers Lake Park.  We had ten caches to look for...if they were all still there.  We parked in the Fir Tree road lot and made our way north.  Our first cache, I'm not a Nano (GC2D2VK).  We parked the bikes to the side of the trail but hid them enough so no one would ride away with them.  We carefully stepped around the brush and mom found the ammo can.

We put it back as we found it and jumped back onto the bikes.  We continued towards Lacey and stopped at the next one, Out For a Sunday Walk (GC2D2W1), which we spent about ten minutes looking and finally gave up.  I never found it and it was archived a few months later.  The next one, Swag City (GC12KG3), was just on the other side of the trustle.  It was buried underneath a bunch of sticks next to a tree.

We got back on the bikes and pedaled our way to Nano Mania Part #7 (GC2C2H2).  It took us to a tree with a lot of overgrown sticker bushes and nettles.  I really didn't want to cut myself up or get stung so I went to find a stick to whack them down with.  I managed to make a small trail and luckily found the cache.  It could have taken me a while to find this but it just looked out of place.

The next one was at the bridge over the Yelm Highway.  I've been here before to look for this one but came up empty.   No Trolls Here? (GC1D3TG) was right where the hint told us it would be.  I can't believe I missed it last time.

The Ghost Railroad (GCG2XV) was a little further north up the trail...it was about 50 feet off the trail covered in brush.  It was one of the very few old ones left around this area.  This was placed back in June 2003.

The next three were a series called For the Love of CWT (GC2V4MJ), (GC2NVTQ) and (GC2NVTT).  CWT #1 was my 1000th cache.  I can't believe I got to 1000 before my first caching anniversary...which would be July 30th.  I made a sign that I took with me just for this occasion.  I had no idea I would be doing this more often as I reached another milestone.

This was a big milestone for me, especially since my first 50 caches found were without a GPS.

We finished up our mini bike ride with a cache called Chambers Lake Overlook (GCJ4MG), another older cache in the area...placed April 2004.  That one was found underneath the bench of the dock, a place people could rest and take in the view.

We rode a little further, to 14th Ave, to pick up a few a few more waypoints to a multi cache called Got Bike, Let's Ride (GCXPTD).  I had picked up a few others a few months back towards the Rainier area.  Some how I knew it would be halfway between the first and last waypoint.  We grabbed the necessary letter and corresponding number and started making our way back to Fir Tree.

It took us less than an hour to get back to Fir Tree.  We loaded up the bikes and drove back into town.  We picked up a few things for dinner at QFC.  When we got home, dad asked me to go over to the rental to mow the lawn.  When I was done, I went home for dinner, relaxed and logged my caches.

Here's to the next 1000!

Next Adventure:  TBA

Oregon Highway 30

We got up around 9 a.m. and decided to get our stuff ready to go home.  We thanked Brandon and Maria for letting us stay at their house.  Our route today was to go Oregon Highway 30 up through St. Helens and over the bridge into Longview.  There were many caches to get but not enough time to grab them all.  We thought about going to Voodoo Doughnuts but decided to do it another day.  We ended up eating our cereal and bananas instead.

Our first stop was a few miles south of Scappoose, in the small community of Burlington.  The cache was part of a 35MM series by a local cacher named Blazingthrewthewoods, this one was 35MM23 (GC2BZE3).  It was a quick park and grab.  We found a few more of the 35MM series as we drove north.

The next cache took us to a "Marker" (GCQP12).  Fort William was a trading outpost built in 1834 and was the site of the first Euro-American trial because of a murder at the fort.  The murder was a disagreement between two "friends" who fought over a Native girl.  They believe alcohol was also involved.

Just Between the Two of Us (GC2NNAP) was a pretty cool location.  There were cement structures and no one (even the cache owners) have no idea why they are here or what they used to be.  My guess is probably a structure from the old forts along the river.

We found one as we got closer to town.  After we found it, it was archived.  We were last to find.  Then we came to one that irritated us to no end.  It was called 11 Alone (GCGKNC) and there were grave sites.  I couldn't find any history on the location but the tree the cache was hidden in was difficult for some reason.  We were either not looking in the right area or it was hidden very well.  We were getting irritated after searching for twenty minutes for something we should have found within minutes.  Finally, we found the beast.  The flowers were pretty too.

We could even see the landmark Scappoose was known for from this location, the Peace Candle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Candle_of_the_World

We found Crown Zellerback Rd or Columbia?  (GC25ZAK) we found a nano, Tram-law (GC27DNB) was a pill bottle we found in a tree bunch at the local Walmart, 35MM12 (GC2BA8H) was a film cannister hidden in a guardrail and the Not So "Kind" Fishing Hole (GC16MAF) which was a cache inside a stump you actually had to fish for.

From there, we picked up a few more along Hwy 30.  I Hate Hwy 30 #2 Rock of Ages (GCG0RW) which was an older cache from 4/27/2003, Fiona's Cache (GC2K6B4) which was tucked inside the base of a tree and was really hard to grab plus we had a muggle watching us the entire time.  Sadly the cache is now archived.  River Queen Rock (GC22BDF) has always intrigued me.  When I was seeing someone in Oregon, I would drive this route often and noticed the old river boat along the river.  I always wanted to stop and look at it and now I got my chance.

We found ourselves at Trojan Park just up the highway.  I really want to do their disc golf course some day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Nuclear_Power_Plant


We found a parking spot and looked for My Evil Micro #3 (GC2V7VB).  There were several others but we didn't have a lot of time to walk around the park.  After some ground petting, I managed to come up with the evil little hide.

We continued north and found The Whistling Swan (GC1GNT0), On the Way to the Beach (GC2V93T), two more of the 35MM caches and we couldn't leave Rainier, Oregon without finding a cache at their sign.  I am from the other Rainier in Washington.  Welcome to Rainier (GC1XYP1) was a quick find in the tree nearby.

We drover over the Lewis & Clark Bridge and the Columbia River into Longview.  We stopped in Kelso to grab Food Break (GCK58Q) near the Taco Time.  That one was hard to get with all the people watching us.  We ended up grabbing some food at the McDonald's before we drove up I-5 towards home.  We did make one more stop at the Toutle River Rest Stop.  That was number 3 of the Road Rage series by Charlie Trail Duster (GCK58Q).

We got home just before dark.  I unpacked my stuff and logged my finds from the trip this afternoon.  It was a great cache machine weekend.

Next Adventure:  4th of July

Multnomah Falls, Original Stash, Estacada and Buffalo Wild Wings

We got up early because we didn't know how long it would take to go to Multnomah Falls, Estacada and dinner before the sun went down.  This time of year the sun was going down around 8:30 p.m.  We got dressed, grabbed our sandwich making stuff, chips and fruit, our binders, the GPS was ready and off we went.  We got onto I-205 and then merged onto I-84 towards Mt. Hood.  The drive was pleasant.  We knew it was going to be somewhat nice this afternoon.

When we got to Multnomah Falls it was hard to find a parking spot.  There were so many people here this early in the day.  I had forgotten it was tourist season.  I grabbed a cache in the parking lot as we were looking for a spot.  River 300 (GC2G7XA) was hidden underneath the brush where everyone could see you grab it.  You had to really be stealthy.  I managed to grab it sign it and put it back without being too obvious.  Finally a spot opened up and we snagged it.

We grabbed some paper and shoved it in my bag because I knew we would need it for the next cache.  We took a few pictures and made our way up to the Benson Bridge, where we'll start the What's Behind Multnomah Falls? (GC14VG2) earthcache.  Multnomah Falls, the nation's second largest year-round waterfall, is located east of Portland, Oregon. The two-tiered waterfall tumbles down a total of 620 feet, cascading over Grande Ronde Basalt, one of the basalt formations in the Columbia River Basalt Group.  We were going to focus our sights on the rock layers for most of the cache.  The notes and illustrations on my pad of paper were hilarious but I managed to cipher it when I logged it.

Once we got all of the information we needed we started the hike up to the top.  It was almost a two mile hike with eleven switchbacks.  Of course we had to follow a bunch of slow kids up the hill.  The two girls wearing Jellies sandals ahead of us complained the entire time.  They eventually stopped at one of the benches so we could go around them.  We took a few picture along the way.

When we made it to the top and walked over to the next cache, Beyond Multnomah Falls (GC1N7RV).  It was a quick find next to Multnomah Creek.  It was a small lock n lock container with rocks piled on top of it.  The scenery was marvelous.  We walked over to the platform where you could see the falls and the bridge and lodge below.  We were up really high.

Before we walked back down to the car, we stopped at chatted with a girl who was doing her internship with the Oregon State Parks.  We told her we were geocaching.  She actually knew what that was so it was a fun conversation. We grabbed one more before walking back to the car.  Mile Marker 32 (GC1PDT), was a quick find without all the muggles wandering around. When we got back to the car we had our sandwiches, chips and drinks.  It hit the spot.  We were now en route to Estacada and the Original Stash Plaque!

I've been to Estacada a few times while disc golfing.  The most recent trip out here was in 2009 when we played at Milo McIver State Park.  This was the same day which I found out one of my friends, Megan had her first baby, Mason.  This time we were just west of the state park in an area owned by Port Blakely Tree Farms, who by permission, allows geocaches on their property. We followed Nuvi up South Fellows Road and to the location of the very first geocache by Dave Ulmer.  Unfortunately, his cache was ruined by an Oregon road crew mower and was not salvageable.  Instead, a plaque was placed here to dedicate the historic cache for geocachers everywhere!  When I got out of the car and saw where it was, I was not expecting it to be this close to the road, in fact, I thought it would be harder to find.

I finally made it to the Original Stash Tribute Plaque (GCV0P).  There was an ammo can nearby, the Un-Original Stash (GC92), the one you actually signed your name in to get credit for both caches.

We climbed up the muddy hill and through the brush (because we make things harder than they really are) to get the two caches behind the Original Stash.  The first one Steve had told us about, One in Fifty (GC1ZKWZ) and Take A Hike (GC27ZA7).  One in Fifty had us going for a while until I remembered what Steve said to save us some time.  I won't spoil it for those of you who have not been to this area for the caches.

We went back to the car and started our way down the hill.  There we grabbed Slider (GC2W5V6), thank God we had a magnet, Sharpe Curve Ahead (GC1QG4W) and All Broken Up (GC1ZAVM), we had a little trouble with this one because the coords bounced and there were lots of places to look!

At the bottom of the hill we went and grabbed Viola School (GC1ACKH).  It was a very cute little school building.  This one room schoolhouse was built in 1894. It held its last class in 1939.

We drove into town to get a few there.  We didn't do a query for the actual town of Estacada so we had to find a place with WiFi.  We ended up at the high school at the top of the hill and it was very weak but got the caches on the GPS.  The first one, Guarded View (GC1ANWW) didn't take too long to find since it was inside of a guardrail that over looked the town.  The Old Mill Saloon (GC2A5YT) was a quick grab.  We did not expect an ammo can but a find is a find.

Before leaving town, we got two more How About an UpGrade?  (GC2C4C8) and Cazadero Cache (GC2DBQG).  And of course, got my picture with the town sign.

We drove back to Portland and went to the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, which was at the PDX Airport area off of I-205.  He had never been there before.  I got my honey BBQ wings, fries and a drink and I was pretty content.  

We went back to Brandon's house, chatted with him and Maria for a while. logged our finds and went to bed.

Next Adventure:  Hwy 30 Caching