Neah Bay & Sekiu

We had the alarm set for 7 a.m.  I was lazy and didn't want to get up but I wanted to go get those caches so we can finally complete this corner of Washington State on the DeLorme map.  We got dressed, had the GPS ready, grabbed our snacks, hit up Subway and got gas and drove up the road north on Hwy 101.  We basically bypassed quite a few of them because we decided to get to our destination and then grab them on our way back down to Forks.  It didn't surprise me that it rained the ENTIRE day.  It is the Olympic Peninsula in the winter time after all.

The drive was pleasant.  Lots of great views of the forest, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the coastline and many little towns I have never been to.  From Hwy 101 we got onto the 113 towards Sekiu.  It rained harder and harder.  The first cache we got to was in Neah Bay.

There was barely a town here and you could tell it was pretty run down.  We had now entered the Makah Indian Reservation and the most northwestern point of Washington State.  It was a virtual cache called Makah Heritage (GC60B4) and it has been here since 6/4/2002...three days before I graduated from high school.  We were suppose to find the answer of who carved the totems.  I found it quickly on the plaque and then we took a picture with the carvings.

We really didn't want to be out in the rain that long so we got what we needed and started heading back towards Forks, stopping along the way.  The first one was along the highway called DNC Micro Set Sail (GC23HC4) and it was an easy find.  The view of the ocean was pretty incredible.  You could see Sail, Seal and Pinnacle Rocks.

No trip would be complete without finding an Ohjoy cache, Two Traditional Options for Page 27- Wusses Read!  (GCXTPE).  One was for normal cachers and one was for the handicapped.  We could not believe she had one clear up here!!  I also made a note in my log about it. 

"We came up to Sekiu and Neah Bay for page 27 while visiting a friend in Forks for the weekend. I've never been up to the NW corner of the state before. We should have picked a better day, it rained the ENTIRE time. Oh well. Thanks for the views and the cache!

P.S. We just can't seem to drive anywhere without finding an Ohjoy cache. :)"

I think we ended up finding both of them just for fun.

We tried looking for another one along the road.  This time we were able to park the car along the road and hang out along the shore for a while.  We didn't find the cache but we got a great view of the rugged coastline and the ocean.

We made it to Sekiu again and stopped for the cache just before the turn by Clallam. Bay on the 112.  We had to stop at See You in Sekiu (GC1WV3R) because it was near a statue.  This statue was pretty unique and it even had a name, Rosie the fish.

We made the turn and started  heading south back to Forks.  We picked up two along the way.   DNC Micro Cache-Beaver Falls (GC23HCX) and DNC Micro Cache-Sappho P&R (GC23HD1).  Beaver Falls was a quick stop along the highway.  We walked down a trail and saw the falls.  It was a cool place for a cache.  Sappho P&R was at a park and ride at the junction of 112 and Hwy 101.  There was LOTS of garbage.  We took the time to pick up cans to take back with us after we located the cache.

We arrived into the Forks city limits and decided to grab one more, Forks Pride (GC1X7HP).  It was in a small industrial area outside of town and we were looking for a nano.  For some reason at this cache we got into a lame argument and I don't know how or why it started.  I guess I didn't care too much about it to remember the details.  Just over the bridge was the cache Welcome to Forks (GC2A3MJ), which my mom and I found back in August 2010 when I was just a brand new cacher.  We found it without a GPS.  We stopped there again because Derek needed to find it.  I just took a picture at the sign made famous by the Twilight series.

We went back to Willmarth's house and started packing up our stuff.  He took us around Forks for about an hour while he told us stories that he heard from the locals.  He had been here since August and has learned a great deal about the area.  His stories were pretty interesting.  One even included WWII.  We figured we should leave so we could get home at a decent time.  It was already getting dark.

We arrived back to Lacey just before bedtime.  I threw all of my stuff in my car and headed home.  I logged my finds, took a shower and went to bed.

Next Adventure:  Finding Bigfoot in Elma, Wash.

Forks, Twilight & La Push

I had to go visit Willmarth while he taught, coached and lived in Forks.  He didn't get very many visitors besides Shannon.  We planned to go up a weekend in January.

Back in 2006, the league was re-aligned and Forks became one of the schools who moved into our league.  Instead of what I was use to, Rainier now played  in the northern half of the Evergreen/Tri-Co Division.  The Evergreen Divison included:  Elma, Forks, Montesano, Rainier, Rochester, Tenino and Hoquiam.  The Tri-Co Division included:  Castle Rock, Columbia, Ilwaco, Kalama, La Center, Stevenson, Toledo and Woodland.

I told him we would be there on Friday evening.  He was looking forward to it.

I worked that day but had everything pretty much packed up for three days.  Work was pretty much routine and I had some food, went home and grabbed my stuff and headed up to Lacey and parked the car in the parking lot of Derek's complex.  I put my stuff in his car, got situated and were on our way to Forks, via Hwy 101.

We stopped a few times to grab a few caches along the way.  One of our stops was near Amanda Park and Lake Quinault at the world's largest spruce tree.

We did the virtual, Sitka Surprise, which were just a few questions about the sign near the tree.  We took a few pictures and walked back to the car.  It was pretty chilly.

We got a little further up Hwy 101 and stopped once more for a cache called,  Mount Olympus View Point, which was archived at the end of May 2013. Not sure why it was archived.  Didn't want to take care of it anymore?  It took us a little bit to find it because we had to bush whack.  Eventually I saw the lock n' lock hidden away in the brush.  We signed it, put it back and didn't stop again until we got to Forks.

We arrived a little early and in the dark, we had to wait until Willmarth was done with practice, so we went and got one more cache, near the candy store, called The Sweetest Spot in Forks.  It was closed, so we didn't really have to worry about the store owner coming out and wondering what we were doing, if they didn't know about the cache.  We found it near the front of the store.

After we signed and put the cache back we went over towards the school.  It's hidden behind some buildings to the east of Hwy 101.  It's actually really easy to miss.  I've been here a couple times, once for a softball game that I coached, but the games were not played at the school but at the nearby park, Tilicum. And the other time it was just driving through to go to La Push for the day.

Willmarth met us in the parking lot, I knew we were in the correct area because I recognized his truck.  We said our hi's and I gave him a hug.  He was very glad to see me.  He doesn't get many visitors so it was nice for him to see a familiar face.  He took us inside the school for the tour.  It was recently remodeled because it was old and really needed it.  They received a grant to do so.  He showed us his high tech classroom, the library (where he taught some of his classes), the library, the commons and the gym (his second home.)  We were there for about an hour wandering the hallways.

Everyone was getting hungry at this point so we followed him over to Home Slice Take n' Bake.  He told us it was the best pizza in town.  We went in and he ordered two pizzas.  Kids from the high school worked there so he knew most of them.  They chatted as they made our pizzas.

We followed Willmarth to his house and parked in the mini parking lot.  This was the first time I was seeing this place since the internet page he showed me last July.  It was small but cozy enough for one person or maybe two.  We brought our bags and sleeping stuff in because I knew we would be on the floor.  Luckily he had a sleeping pad for us to use.

We sat around, ate pizza and watched some Sportscenter for a while.  Willmarth said he had a Netflix account and that some new movies came in the mail.  He made all of us a huge bowl of air pop popcorn and watched Reel Steel.  It was an interesting movie.  Probably one I may or may not watch again.  We all went to bed shortly after.

The next morning we all got up, had some breakfast and Derek and I explored the town while Willmarth got ready for his game against Elma this afternoon.  We had to be done before three so we could meet him at the school to let us in.

It was a pretty nice day and we hoped it stayed that way.

We had some snacks with us so we didn't have to stop anywhere and buy lunch.  We were trying to save money when we went out and cached.  We started at the south end of town at the visitor's center.  We stopped in and talked to the guy who was manning the front desk.  We really weren't Twilight fans but the guy seemed interested in sharing it with us anyway.  He did tell us that the visitor's population since 2008 has skyrocketed since the franchise began.  The town has made some serious money since.  He even had a graphic chart on the wall.  We thanked him for the information and decided to start caching since we had a deadline for the day.

We started at Bygone Era (GCC0Y1), a magnetic cache hidden inside some old logging equipment.  We found it easily inside the lip of the metal façade.  We took a few pictures and started the ten waypoint Twilight multi cache, which began at Bella's pick-up truck in front of the visitor's center.

I kid you not, I actually said this out loud before we left the center. "Since this cache begins here, wouldn't it be funny if this multi took us all over Forks and La Push and ended here?"  We got the first waypoint and moved on to the next cache and waypoint according to our map.  Forks Geocache (GC628F), was the next one on the list.  It took us up the hill to the DNR building.  We parked the car and walked out to the viewpoint near some picnic tables.  It was hidden in the tree in a large bucket.  You had to avoid stepping in elk poopies.  It had a bunch of toys inside.

After a short drive down the road, we came across a cache called Mill Creek (GC1RBYJ).  We parked the car at a the beginning of the old logging road and walked the rest of the way.  It was a short walk and I picked up cans along the way.  We came to the cache and found it within a few minutes.  It was soaked but we managed to get our names on it before we put it back.

Before we left Forks and headed towards La Push, we gathered a few more waypoints.  One took us to City Hall, another to the Hospital, Forks High School, the Cullen's House, Swan's House, to the Police Station and eventually we made our way to La Push's beach, where we gathered our last waypoint.  And what do ya know?  The final took us to the visitor's center like I said before we started the multi.

We enjoyed the landscape for a while.  The last time I was here it was foggy and I couldn't see the landforms off in the distance.  We decided to grab a cache in town before driving back to Forks for the final and to meet up at the high school for the basketball game.  Quiloot (GC2HFA0), is still my furthest cache west from the Prime Meridian.  It was placed with permission by the Quileute Tribal  Council to be placed on the Indian Reservation.  It was hidden underneath a structure that was part of the Oceanside RV Park.

We drove back to Forks and made it to the visitor's center again.  We put the cache coordinates on the GPS for a better accuracy and walked behind the center on the small nature trail loop.  It wasn't far from the first waypoint, just about a quarter of a mile on a well kept trail among very large rain forest trees.  I saw the area before he did and started taking the bark and tree debris off a very huge ammo can.  It had everything Twilight inside.  We signed the book, looked at the swag and took a picture.  Like I said before, I am not a Twilight fan but the cache owner did a great job on this cache.  I gave it a favorite point.

We had timed this perfectly.  After we were done with the Twilight Cache (GC1N9H4), we made it over to the high school and watched Forks lose to Elma.  It was a pretty good game but they fell short.  Willmarth said in the next few years they would be competitive again, that's if they decide to keep him as a teacher and a coach due to the first year probation clause.  We ate some popcorn while we watched the game.  Afterwards, we went back to Willmarth's house and had some dinner and watched Moneyball.  We went to bed fairly early since we had a small excursion planned the next day up to Neah Bay to get some of our DeLorme squares out of the way plus I had never been there before.

Next Adventure:  Neah Bay and Sekiu

Winter Ice and Wind Storm 2012

Ok, we did not sign up for this. We were told we were only getting snow and then it would warm up and rain and melt it all away...

Not exactly.

We got freezing rain after being dumped on by 13 inches of snow. So, between night and day everything we got froze. Everything.



The power went out at 7:30 a.m.

I woke up around 9 a.m. to things cracking, snapping, bending and falling. It was gut wrenching. You had no idea where, when or what it was going to fall on. The trees, bushes and brush were now heavier and were starting to give way. Every two minutes you would hear sounds that made your heart stop or hold your breath. Once you knew it didn't hit the house, the cars or the animal pens you relaxed a bit until the next time.



Turning the TV on helped with the noise, for a while. We had to turn the generator off for a while to conserve gas. Then the noises started again. It got worse as the day went on.



I went outside to take some pictures to document this disaster. I saw the tree bending towards the house by the garage. That one worried us the most. We knew at some point it would break and fall, but when. The anticipation was killing us. I called a few people on the land line since that was the only one working. I did get texts throughout the day, when service was available at times. I was talking to Derek at the time and I heard a loud crack and the sound of something big hitting the side of the house. I yell, "the tree just hit the house!" I told Derek to hold on a sec while we went and looked at the damage. Thank god, no damage was done. It just ruined the gutter, which was already falling down from the other branches and trees. There were tons of branches in the chicken pen and lots behind the duck pen. If any of the pens would have been anywhere else we probably would have had dead animals.



Dad's Road Runner and Tornado were hit by a tree but did not do that much damage. There were tons of downed trees on the hill beside our house and a few did in the drive way, dad cut them with the chain saw. Our driveway was covered in branches. We went out and helped clear them. It started warming up and more and more stuff fell from the trees.



That evening it got warmer and another storm came in off the coast. While watching the news they told us it was the third punch to the gut. Great, just what we need, wind. That meant more trees and branches and a prolonged power outage. I agreed to stay up with the fire in the "Christmas" room and put wood on it every couple hours. Around 2:30 that morning I woke up to the sound of awful coming through the trees. It was hard to go back to sleep that night because of the sound, and I was exhausted. I tried to say to myself, nothing is going to fall on you, your house, your animals or cars. Then I heard a huge burst of wind howl through the trees, a crack and a fall. Where did that fall? I eventually went back to sleep and didn't wake up until mom and dad started making noise in the kitchen.

We went outside and did more clearing of the tree limbs from the chicken pen and the driveway. I went into town with Derek so I could get away from the house and take a much needed shower. He didn't have to do that but he did to be nice. Dad left the yard and went into town for a few things at the store. We stopped by Grammie and Grandpa's house and their yard was pretty bad too. They had power lines in their driveway. The wreckage from Rainier to Lacey was pretty bad. Rainier Road was bad. No wonder it was closed on Thursday and Friday.

I came home about 9 that evening and on the way, Derek mentioned something about how the power will come back on when he's about to leave my house. Sure enough, he was almost out the door and the power came back on around 10 p.m. Weird.