Snoqualmie Pass

We left The Dalles early, drove through Yakima, and on up to Snoqualmie Pass. Here we stopped to hunt for one of the few remaining Project APE caches. This is a unique hiking/biking trail that was used for an electrified railroad bringing skiers up from Seattle to Hyak (where we parked and started our hike). We hiked to the west, and were immediately confronted by the east end of the Snoqualmie Tunnel.

Near the entrance we found Iron Horse (East). Easy to find, but harder to retrieve because it was out of reach for me. I found a nearby stick, probably used before, and pulled the cache to me. Logged this find at 12:13 PM.

Then it was into the tunnel for a 2 mile hike in the dark. Our little LED flashlights did a great job was our eyes adapted. We scanned for Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers in the tunnel, but missed the appropriate alcove.

Exiting the tunnel, we took a break before proceeding on to the APE cache: Mission 9: Tunnel of Light. I noticed a mountain biker go by with a GPS in hand, and figured he’d get there first. We hiked a few tenths of a mile to the cache location, found the obvious hiding spot (it’s huge), but there was no cache. After a short panicky feeling, I realized the biking cacher had it off somewhere to sort through the contents. Sure enough, I found his bike just off the trail. Rather than try to hunt him down, we moved on up the trail out of sight, and waited a bit. Pretty soon he appeared dragging the huge ammo can behind him. We probably freaked him out by then reappearing, but quickly assured him we were hunting what he had. After quickly signing the log, we helped him rehide it and then stood around and yakked for a while with DubyaDee. While signing the log I handed Karen the camera, but I was too involved in signing and talking with DubyaDee to specifically tell her to take a picture. I logged this one at 1:37 PM.

We headed back to the west end of the tunnel and I went up the hill and found Iron Horse at 2:03 PM. This cache was hidden in October of 2000 with waypoint name of GC79. I’m sure that’s the oldest cache I’ve found.

Then we headed back through the tunnel for another 2 miles of blackness. This time the location of Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers was easily apparent and I found it at 3:02 PM.

The Dalles River Trail

Today we biked the River Trail along the Columbia River and it was very windy. The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center is at the west end of the trail. Since Karen wanted to go through this museum, we drove up there after the bike ride together. She went to the museum, and I rode from there back along the river trail to find the caches.

I found The River Trail: La Puente at 12:10 PM in some rocks near one end of a pedestrian bridge.

Next I left the trail and walked up a small hill to find The River Trail: Trinkets at 12:18 PM. It was near a small drop off and overlooked the Columbia River. Appropriately, a high-voltage transmission line tower almost covered the whole top of the hill.

X marks the spot! Well, not quite, but the The River Trail: "X" is very close and I found it at 12:36 PM.

Took the geo-trail off through the grass to find The River Trail: The Lake at 12:44 PM.

A part of the trail parallels the busy railroad tracks. In fact, the trail goes through a small underpass. Apparently, there was a train derailment here a year or two ago. That fact gave me a funny feeling as a long freight rumbled by above me. I found The River Trail: The Discovery at 1:08 PM.

Mount Hood

Today we drove from Bend to The Dalles by way of Mount Hood. We went off on the old Barlow Road and hunted the cache at Pioneer Lady on the Barlow. This is the gravesite of an unknown pioneer woman who was traveling the last part of the Oregon Trail over some of the roughest terrain. Heavy tree cover made this one hard to find. Even using the hint I wasn’t finding it. Finally, I went out into the clearing and took a couple of bearings and paced off the distance. Turns out if I just watched the GPS, it wouldn’t take me far enough into the woods. Found it at 11:25 AM.

We drove up to Mount Hood and spent some time looking around Timberline Lodge and then got a good taco salad in Government Camp.

On the way to The Dalles, we stopped and found Polallie Creek at 3:35 PM.

Spark’s Lake

One of our favorite hikes in the Bend area is the trail to Green Lakes at the base of South Sister. We hiked in about a mile until the snow began to get pretty rough to walk on and then decided we’d try something else.

That something else was a series of caches in the Sparks Lake area. But first, we looked for Central Oregon Art Gallery. This is an interesting area of big lava boulders with some pictographs, which we never did see, and lots of graffiti, which we did see. The obvious way down into this little meadow was on a steep, slick, icy snow field, so we found another way. My GPS, or the coordinates, were a little off, and I wasn’t finding anything. Couldn’t even find the hints. Karen finally walked around the rocks a bit and found the hint. I made a quick find after that at 12:41 PM.

HD Cachefinder is just off of Cascade Lakes Highway and easy to get to, but we didn’t find it easy to find. It’s hidden in a pile of rocks, with nothing to distinguish it. To me, it’s like an ivy hide. I found it because my boot hit a rock that hit the ammo can and it thunked. Found at 1:21 PM.

I’ve always bypassed hiking around Sparks Lake because the south end near the Green Lakes trailhead looks so marshy. We were pleasantly surprised in the hike for the next couple of caches (surprised by the mosquitoes too). In an area of collapsed lava tubes and jumbles of lava rock we found Western Exposure at 2:24 PM.

We carefully bush-whacked it over to Davis Canyon Surprise, which we found at 2:43 PM. This was near the lake shore, and the mosquitoes were thick.

After dinner in Bend I found By The Bridge at 7:04 PM. The wind was really whipping, maybe from micro-bursts from the thunderheads that were around. I walked across a dirt field to find this one and got sand in my eyes.

Tam McArthur, Not

Looking for a good long hike, we drove up to 3 Creeks Lake to check out hunting for Tam McArthur. After just a few steps up the trail and post-holing in over my knees in snow we decided that wasn’t a good idea. We hiked up to Little 3 Creeks Lake, a pleasant walk (even though we took one wrong turn and had to backtrack some). While there we heard a roar and looked up to see an avalanch in progress across the lake. Got a sequence of pictures of the end of it.

On the way back to Sisters, we hunted Vista View, which we found at 1:37 PM. This cache sits near the top of a vertical lava cliff. Very pretty area, but I stay away from the edge.

Next, we made a side trip and hiked, mostly cross country, to find Peterson, Lookout! at 2:38 PM. For part of the way we did find an old road. From the cache location on Peterson Ridge there are great views out north towards Sisters.

Finally, I hunted Eagles Crack. Had to scramble up a rocky hill and search in an area with some vertical faces. Karen stayed down at the bottom. I saw plenty of cracks, and looked in them, and wedged myself up in them, but couldn’t find it. Discouraging.

McKenzie Pass, the hard way

We wanted to do a bike ride today, and since the McKenzie Highway was still closed to vehicle traffic this was the perfect time to ride from Sisters to the McKenzie Pass. The weather was just beautiful. It’s a solid uphill climb, but nothing too steep. At the top we logged the Dee Wright Observatory Earth Cache at 12:09 PM. Several other cyclists were on the road as well. We logged 40 miles round trip.

On the way back we stopped to find The Cave of the Seven Brothers at 1:16 PM. This one is tricky because you have to figure out if it’s down below or up above.

After getting a sandwich at a nice deli in Sisters, we drove out to Camp Polk and hunted for Camp Polk Farewell, near a pioneer cemetery. We looked all over and couldn’t find this ammo can cache. That was frustrating.

We gave up and drove out to find Rock Farm at 4:45 PM. This is in an area that’s neat for bouldering. Almost looks like a climbing wall. Lots of chalk marks and perhaps many of the hand and toe holds are man-made.

After dinner we foolishly decided to do Virtually Pilot Butte, which we did by hiking about 0.8 miles up a 500 foot climb. But we captured the info we needed at 8:02 PM, despite the fact that the marker with the info was inside a construction fence. We just exited the fenced area when a security patrol drove by.

On the way back to the motel we stopped in a parking lot and found Right on Target at 8:39 PM.

Sisters

We started the day taking a walk in Robert Sawyer Park in Bend. I found Z21 Cache at 8:52 AM. It was pretty hard. There are just so many rocks, so nothing stands out. It’s almost like hunting in ivy. We started a multi-cache, but it was going to take us to both sides of the river, and was taking too much time, since we wanted to go to Sisters.

We spent the rest of the morning looking around Sisters. I looked for four micros in town while Karen was shopping. Two were in very public, busy places. I suspect where they are, but felt just too conspicuous. I couldn’t find the two that were in the parks.

In the afternoon, we drove south out of Sisters and hiked up a delightful little creek to find The Tool Box at 2:24 PM. This really is a tool box with a bunch of heavy stuff in it.

Trip to Bend

Made the drive up to Bend, OR today, and stopped for this one cache along the way. I found T’s Itchy Cash at 2:42 PM. This stopping place has a great view of the north side of Mt. Shasta. The general area, however, is pretty trashing. Appears to be used as a latrine by visitors since the viewpoint does not have a toilet.

Mission Peak

I spent a full day in and around Mission Peak. I started at the Stanford Trailhead (Leland Stanford had a winery nearby), and found Eucalyptustream at 9:29 AM, near a small stream and definitely in a Eucalyptus grove. I followed my GPSr into the grove, stopped by a stump to read the description of the cache in my Palm, and then looked where I was standing. Aha! There was the cache.

Inca Gold: Necklace of Tears was next, off the trail a bit. I found it at 9:44 AM.

Next up the trail was another in the series: Inca Gold: Stairway to the Sky which I found at 10:08 AM.

Why? I dunno, but I found it at 10:30 AM, although I started looking in the wrong spot.

Climb up the hill some more to find Inca Gold: Last Words at 10:51 AM.

To get to Spawning Ground I hiked off trail a bit to some trees and a small rivulet down below the hang glider launch site. I found it at 11:24 AM.

After hiking up towards Backside of Mission Peak, I took the wrong (lower) trail and had to bushwhack through grass a ways to back up to the cache. I found it at 12:04 PM. The summit of Mission Peak didn’t appear to be very far away, so I decided to not waste the opportunity.

Once I reached the summit, I noticed that Man on a Mission wasn’t very far down the other side. However, it was off trail and down a slope that just kept getting steeper. It gave me some concerns, but actually wasn’t bad. I found it at 12:38 PM.

I backtracked down the Peak Trail, dodged my way through a herd of cows and calves, and found Another way up — 2, Lizard’s Home at 1:18 PM.

On the way down, I side tracked off on the Meadow Trail to find Inca Gold: The Fifth Sun at 2:03 PM.

I guess I could have tried for the remaining Inca Gold cache, which isn’t too far from the parking lot, but I’ll just save it for another day.

I did a quick search for 2 caches along Stanford. Assume Nothing #2 just threw me. It’s well camoflauged. What kind of lover?? is just down the street, and I just didn’t like the location.

I traveled along Mission Blvd. and found Mission District Micro #1 at 3:31 PM.

Found another one along Mission Blvd. I found Mission District Mini at 3:47 PM.

From there I drove to a park and found Overlooking Fire station No. 4 at 4:06 PM.

I found Happy Birthday JoeSpaz #23 easily at 4:14 PM in another part of the same park.

I drove just a little ways to find TNT Beef Emergency at 4:32 PM. This is the weirdest sign. Can’t figure out its significance. This one was hard to spot, even though it was clear what bush it was in.

I found the little entrance gate for this small open space and hunted for "I See Dead People . . . " I finally found it at 4:50 PM. It was kind of a trashy area and there was some poison oak around. There was a lot of concrete debris, including part of a grave marker, and the cache was hard to spot in the midst of all that junk.

Altogether found 16 caches and must have hiked 12 to 14 miles.

An aborted Fremont trip

Yesterday I had the pickup serviced to get ready for our trip to Oregon and Washington. Today I wanted to go to Fremont for some cache hunting. My first stop was at Hydration Station, also known as the Sunol Water Temple. I wandered around and took some pictures and gathered the necessary information to compute the coordinates of the cache. Then I hunted for a long time, and didn’t find it. Maybe I got the wrong info, maybe I did the math wrong, maybe I just can’t see it, and maybe it’s gone.

At the trail head for the start of the creek trail, I found Happy Birthday Joe Spaz #27. Not sure this one was where it was intended; I think it probably should be tucked up into a hole or something. I left it where I found it.

Next I drove a short ways to a park to find Happy Birthday Joe Spaz #26.

I headed back up Niles Canyon to find Ailurophobia, but then noticed that my Check engine warning light was on. I wasn’t sure what this meant so I headed home. Turns out it’s not serious, and reset itself the next day.

Sunol Regional Park

I went to Sunol Regional Park for the day, with the intent of finding maybe a dozen caches on a big loop hike. I only found 9. In general, I had to do quite a bit of searching (several were micros). After 4 hours I noted that I had been moving for 2 hours, and stationary (searching) for 2 hours.

The first one I looked for was Between a rock and a hardplace. I left all my gear in the car, which was a mistake. I couldn’t find it. After getting back to the car I discovered that I had lost the lens cap to my new Canon camera. Figured I go back at the end of the day and see if I could find the lens cap and the cache.

I headed out on the Canyon View trail. The first one I found was Acorn Woodpecker at 10:38 AM. The next one was Jurcachic Park, which I found at 11:13. I thought this one was just a little east of where the GPSr zeroed out.

Then the Canyon View trail dropped down into the little Yosemite area. I found Cerro Este Pit Stop at 11:45 AM. I went looking for Raging Waters, which apparently is sometimes underwater. I looked a bit, but wasn’t about to start turning over every rock in the stream.

Then I started climbing up the Cerro Este Road to find Burl Ives at 12:31 PM. This was an easy find. Farther up the hill I found Ohlone Overlook at 1:02 PM. It’s in and around a big patch of thistles. Even farther up the hill I found Bloodhounds’ Reprise at 1:36 PM. Tree cover slowed me down, but I finally got a good line from the GPSr. I made a trade here, because I thought the kayak.com coin was interesting.

I climbed on up to Crossroads and found it fairly easily at 1:55 PM. I went on up looking for I’m Lichen It... but didn’t find it. Had a herd of resting cows get more and more curious, and come closer and closer. It’s supposed to be easy. It may be that the thistles discouraged my down low searching.

So, I started back down the hill and found The 19th Hole at 2:59 PM. This one was out in the open, so I rehid it.

Back at the parking lot I continued on back to Between a rock and a hardplace. This time I found the cache, but not my lens cap.

So, hiked about 7.5 miles, found 9 caches (track shown to the right). Grass was still green, wildflowers were still in bloom. It was in the high 70’s today, so the grass is going to turn brown quickly.

Finding Geodanimal’s first hide

Dan’s first cache hide (and a puzzle at that) became available today. Fizzymagic, as expected was FTF. So this afternoon, I worked out the puzzle, which wasn’t hard and then went to find it.

On the way I stopped to find Knuckle Head (Dan was FTF yesterday).

Figuring out how to get to Dan’s, Driven Nuts, took me a lot longer than solving the puzzle. I should have plotted the coords on a map first. After finding the access point, the find was quick, coords were dead on, and it was in the first place I looked.

Since I was in the area, I made a more determined search than I had before at Highway Garage, and found it at 3:13 PM.

Out and About with Karen

After taking Audree home, Karen and I took the back way to Dublin for coffee, and on the way stopped at Lone Tree--a very simple find made at 2:38 PM.

After coffee, we finished up Secret Trailhead #19 - Brain vs Brawn at 4:01 PM. We found the first stage of this one while doing our long hike in Pleasanton Ridge--that is, we found the micro that contained the password to the web page that contained the final coordinates. So we didn’t use our brains at all.

Vines ’n Roses (Livermore)

Noticed Vines N Roses has been around for a couple of days, so I made a coffee run to the far side of town and hunted for it. The location is a business park originally intended as a factory store center, but that fell through and the buildings stood empty for the longest time. There are now a few businesses located there. Since I got there at afternoon coffee break time, there were quite a few people out of the offices. I actually had to break off my search while a couple of people came out by the planter to take a smoke break. After they left, I found it.