31 Days of Adventure - Advanced or not so advanced Geocaching

I am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

Geocaching Block Party

We are big time geocachers besides basic caching.  There is a whole community of cachers who offer events or different approaches to caching. Click here for my first post on geocaching, " Finding Tupperware with million dollar satellites."

GeoTours-These custom tours showcase engaging geocaches designed to introduce you to new locations. We are big fans of the Washington State Centennial Geo Tour as our cache at Peace Arch is part of this series of caches.  We managed to log 50 of these caches and had an incredible summer of 2013. Some more info about our 100th Year, 100 Parks, 100 Geocaches - Washington State Park GeoTour.

Cache Machines-A cache machine is a set route of geocaches that everyone tries to complete either individually or as a group.  Usually you start as a group and as the day progresses people split off.
Mt Vernon Cache Machine
North Kitsap Cache Machine
Boundary Bay Cache Machine

Events - We have attended anything from a pot luck to a full blown Halloween event with the geocaching community. I even had the chance to shoot a zombie in the nose with a paint ball gun. 

Chance to Shoot Zombies at GeoZombie Run
Chuck pointing to the paint ball I lodged
in Zombie's nose

Geo Monster Ball
CITO Larabee State Park
GeoZombie Run

Celebrating a Year

Photo by KGR

Photo by LDSMACS

Our cache is a year old TODAY!  It has been an amazing and humbling experience.  We placed our cache in Peace Arch State Park as part of Celebration of a 100 years of Washington State Parks. It was the first cache we had ever placed.

 A hundred caches were placed in a 100 Washington State Parks.  There are actually more than 100 state parks.  We had a chance to visit 50 state parks and complete the 50 state park challenge.

Me behind Giant Rhubarb Leaf

So here are some stats

Cache Found: 368 times
Favorite Points: 40
placed 6/7/13
1st find 6/8/13

Details about the Washington State GeoTour
Our first post about placing it.

We read ever single finder note.  We laughed at some of the responses Like Holy Rhubarb Batman and we loved when cachers noted they waved to the guys in green.  We say it again, "Cachers are the best people."  We look forward to having our cache found again and again.

What I Learned in May

Avon Calendar I can see from my Desk

1. I like to look ahead.  I like to have a little plan for summer. This picture on the calendar has been staring at me. It has been mocking me. Summer List from 2012 and 2013 is a good example of what I try to plan.  Last year we had a very ambitious list/project.  We were part of the celebration for 100 years of Washington State Parks and participated in State wide project to place a geocache in a 100 different State Parks.  Our cache is in Peace Arch State Park. We managed to visit 50 different Washington state parks by the late fall of 2013. I don't have any of that planned this year. I am panicking a little.  The good news is school doesn't get out for several weeks.

 

2. This thought about Long Runways has actually started percolating last month.  The blog post "When you have a Long Runway" at Mrs Darcy got me to thinking. I thought it was an interesting post about people who take longer to process things who also may be introverts. Hey, that is ME! Does that mean I too have a long runway since I waited until May to post this?

3. I walked a total of 500 miles since Dec 25, 2013 so says my fitbit.  Wahoo to me!

4. The Essence of a Life worth Living by Teacher Tom has been ruminating in me.  I find myself more in the rocky margin of my life.  I often joke I want things noted on my permanent record.  I fail far more than I succeed.  Where success happens it is often way off the beaten path after I have fallen down a number times. I keep reminding myself that I am very much a work in progress. Even deeper than that was Life as Mom's Post,"Do They Know You Love Your Life."  Along the same wavelength - 10 Things that People Who Love Their Lives Are Doing Differently. These all really hit home with me. I love my lovely messy sloppy complicated life.  I don't know if I am showing my kids that I am loving my life. That bothers me.

I am linking up with "What I learned in May" with Chatting at the Sky.

Project Life Tuesday - Weeks 41,42, and 43

Well, I am once again posting Project Life Tuesday on Wednesday.  I am linking up with The Mom Creative.

The weeks 41 and 42 were really slow around our house.  I have older kids and it was pretty much life as usual.  So I decided to combine these two weeks.  The overall theme was DONUTS.

My son, I quoted as wondering out loud if chocolate donuts are a performance enhancing drug.

Week 43 was a busy week.  We finished up a REALLY big geocache challenge and we also got to enjoy the fall color. I made some leaf rubbings and use them as part of my date page. In the picture of all of us together, we are holding arrow sticky notes that have the name of every Washington State Park we visited - all 53.  This picture was taken on Camano Island.

Supplies Used
Photoshop Elements
Project Life: Cobalt Edition - Journal Cards
Photo Protector Design G

Making OUR 50 !

We did it !!  I keep forgetting to post this. We completed the 50 Washington State Park Geocaching Challenge.  Washington State Parks are celebrating their Centennial.  They teamed up with Washington State Geocache Association to host 100 caches or should I say 104 special centennial caches.  Each cache contained a special stamp which you stamped into your State Park Passport.  If you collected 50 state park stamps, you could turn your passport in for a silver coin.  If you collected 100 state park stamps, you could turn it in for a gold coin.

Our Silver Coin

As part of Centennial Celebration, we visited over 50 Washington State Parks.  Starting in June we began our quest at Birch Bay State Park on the west coast of Washington and ended at Olmstead Place in central Washington in October.   

We finished our push for the 50 by visiting Lake Sammamish, Oallie, Iron Horse Hyak, Lake Easton, Iron Horse Cle Elum, and Olmstead Place. 

Lake Easton

 

Iron Horse Cle Elum

School House at Olmstead Place
not original to site



Olmstead Place
1000th Cache milestone
and 50th State Park

It has been one wild ride.  We met cachers in the middle of the woods.  That was a little surreal to be pretty far into the woods and run into a cacher you know. We saw a tree down on a mini van at Schafer State Park. Went on a lot of amazing hikes including one to a train tunnel and one called the hobbit trail. This has been a family affair even including extended family and our dog . Our dog met it's first horse. We invested a lot of our free time on our quest for the 50. We didn't let lost stamps, weather, and getting turned around stand in our way.  We cached in the driving rain and in the blazing heat. We were constantly amazed by the diversity of the Washington State Park system. We can't say enough nice and wonderful things about WSGA, Washington State Geocaching Association, and Washington State Parks for putting this together.

All I can say is KEEP CALM and CACHE ON!

Us with our list of 50+ caches at the
50 Park Challenge Cache
October 22
 

Hard Core Caching

About 2 weeks ago, Nonna gifted us with a rare day out without our kids in honor of our 18th Anniversary.  We decided to do some geocaching.  Unknown to us, this Saturday was a record rain day in the Pacific Northwest.  It was rainy but not unbearable when we started out.  We visited Kanaktat -Palmer.  We ended up on a slight bluff overlooking the river.

This is the first time we have ever cached with an umbrella.  That was interesting. It seemed like everytime we came close to opening the cache the sky just opened up.

Kevin

We also visited Nolte and Federation Forest. I am always amazed by these old growth forests. I kept expecting Robin Hood to show up at the Federation Forest. 

The picture doesn't really do it justice.  These logs are huge.

Then we headed more to the coast.  We ran into an interesting surprise at Schafer State Park.  The top part of a tree had landed on a mini van.  I wish I had taken a picture. The Ranger ended up closing the park to incoming traffic. The State Park Cache at Schafer required some math.  We had some trouble with that. We set off on the trail in the driving rain.  We kept hearing trees falling in the forest and we had trees looming over us. .  We were in the middle of the trail and thought we should turn back as we couldn't really seem to locate the cache.  Then on the way back our geo senses kicked in and there lo and behold the cache.  To top it off, leaving the park we got turned around.  We did end up doing a good deed of helping some people trying to push start their car. 


We made it to Lake Sylvia park to find the entrance blocked by a tree.  So we decided to find another park as it didn't look like they were going to get the tree moved anytime soon. So we drove onto the coast stopping at Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach. 

We finally made it to the Ocean

With the sun setting, that ended our caching day as most of the parks close at dusk.  So close to our goal of 50 Washington State Parks.

Summer Wrap UP!

Cody at Fort Casey

We had an incredible summer.  I thought I would do a little wrap up of our summer. The first day of fall seemed like the perfect time to wrap up.

Charlie snorkeling in the Hot Tub

Charlie and I watched all the Harry Potter Movies after he finished reading the entire series.

We visited a total of 41 State Parks!  Wahoo!  We are SO close to getting 50 State Parks as part of the Centennial Washington State Park Geocache Tour. Hopefully this fall we will make it to 50!

We hosted some guests.  We had my Aunt and Uncle, my parents, and my nephew.  We got to celebrate a 70th Birthday and 15th Birthday.

We hid our first geocache this summer.  It is located in Peace Arch State Park. We decided to make some predictions about our first geocache. Here are the results.

Who would find our cache first?
Charlie - GeoBees
Cody - Lola and the Gnome ***
Heather - PNW Brat
Kevin - Lola and the Gnome ***

How many cachers will find the 1st day?
We had one find on the first day so Charlie was the closest to the number

Co - 6
Ch -5 *
H - 10
K- 8

Number of hours/minutes before the first find?
Our cache was found later in the day so I believe Kevin got this one
Co - 1 hr
Ch  - 30 minutes
H- 45 minutes
K- 2 hrs

The number of times found before the start of the school year (September) Our cache was found 223 times by September 3.

Co- 20
Ch- 300*
H- 100
K- 700

Big Adventure

***This is more about our quest to get 50 State Park Centennial Geocaches for more information click here and our adventures here.

"Go On A Adventure" was on our summer bucket list.  I think the road trip we took on Saturday, counts.  We started our day at 4:30 to arrive at the Coupville Ferry Dock to take the Ferry to Port Townsend on the 7:15 ferry.  Much to the chagrin of the adults we neglected getting coffee because of the time table. Oh us adults not caffeinated is "interesting".  We made the ferry and arrived at Port Townsend.  We headed to Fort Worden.  We wandered around on the roads.  We stopped and took a hike to find the Centennial GeoCache.  We ended up off the main road and on what I call a billy goat trail. Hey, sometimes you need to find your inner goat. Though it brought us to this interesting broken down building.

Giant Man Child with Tigger

There is some fabulous history here with all the artillery batteries.  What a great place for kids and adults to explore. 

You just can see Cody up in the Tower

There was a lot of talk of exploring, ruins, and Indiana Jones. The view would be fabulous but it was rather overcast. We found the geocache without much trouble.   The whole time we were here, I thought we were at Fort Townsend.  I am blaming it on lack of caffeine.

Next we headed to Fort Townsend.  We followed a little nature trail to the Centennial Geocache which was quite cleverly hidden.  The trail also ended in a great place with a view but it still was quite overcast.

Boys and Dog near the cache site

Then we were off to Fort Flager.  Prior to this we finally located COFFEE.  I am so turning into a Pacific Northwest person. Fort Flager is a favorite park with many and while we didn't stay long. We were there  just long enough to find the geocache under the old hospital steps.  I could tell this would be a great place to spend more time exploring.

Onward, we arrived at Anderson Lake.  Oh my it was simply beautiful and the most uncrowded place we visited so far.  The lake was closed to due to algae bloom but gorgeous anyways.  We followed a trail around the lake.  We ate our lunch here too.

Anderson Lake

We had a change in plans and decided to forgo visiting Miller Peninsula State Park.  After reading the description about the hike, we decided not to visit. We headed to Sequim State Park. The Centennial Geocache takes you to a lovely covered bridge within the park.

Because we decided not to do visit Miller Peninsula we headed south to Dosewallips.  We managed to end up at the wrong parking area but eventually figured it.  By coincidence we found a centennial state park coin at the first parking area in the camping area. Once we at the right area, we headed down the path to an observation tower.  We soon had the cache in hand.

Triton Cove was down the road so we headed there next.  Don't have much to say about it as the cache was a drive up one and only Cody got out of the car.

The last cache of the day was at Potlatch State Park on the dry side or should I say hilly side.  Once again we went on a billy goat hike.  My inner billy goat had given up. We found the cache though and decided against going back the same way and cut through the campground. That ended our cache hunting for the day. 

We now have 28 of the state park centennial geocaches.

WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour Stats

f you have read our blog for any length of time you know we are geocachers and we are participating in the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour both as cache owners and geocachers.  We have found 20 State Park Centennial Geocaches. We decided from the beginning we would do our best to find 50 of the 103 geocaches. It has been a wonderful adventure this summer.

Below was listed on the Washington State Geocaching Association (WSGA) page on Aug 22nd.

Here are a few statistics on the WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour as of Aug. 20 (74 days into the GeoTour, which started June 7) - thanks, rambudo and Ranger Tina.

Visitation:

• 3,408 people have logged at least one GeoTour cache.
• 3,137 have found/visited from one to 50 GeoTour caches.
• 261 people have found/visited more than 50 GeoTour geocaches.

There are 103 caches in 102 parks.

• Total Finds: 13,712
• Total DNFs: 76 (primarily missing caches)

Cachers who have found/own all 103 caches: 4 - Mr. Gadget #2, rambudo, rocketglider, lamoracke

Most Favorite Points:
38: Rosario Beach - Deception Pass
30: Fort Worden
23: Kanaskat-Palmer
19: Potholes
19: Wenatchee Confluence

Most Found:526: Iron Horse - Hyak (thank you, APE event!)
240: Lake Sammamish
239: Fort Casey
237: Saltwater
231: Saint Edward

Least Found:44: Mount Pilchuck
47: Lime Kiln Point
50: Fields Spring
53: Curlew Lake
55: Spencer Spit

For more information on the Washington State Centennial GeoTour.

Geotour - Bridle Trail, Tolmie, and Millersylvania

We are working on finding all the 100 geocache in the Washington State Centennial Geotour. After this weekend we now have found 20 of the 100 geocaches.  "100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years."

We stopped Friday afternoon at Bridle Trails State Park.  I was shocked how few people were there.  In an article by The Seattle Times Bridle Trails was considered one of the worse state parks. Some actually said the parks existed for the benefit of its rich neighbors. We saw none of that. We set off on the trail dodging the horse pies.  We even ran into two riders on horses.  Tigger got to meet horses for the very first time.  He didn't even bark.  He was in love with their poo. (I know gross) We loss the signal for our GPS but our great geosenses took over and before long we had the cache in hand.

Cody under the tree tunnel

Saturday we convinced Nonna and Pappy to go geocaching with us.  We stopped at Tolmie State Park which is pretty close to Nonna's house.  The beach is nice but the parking is somewhat limited at the beach access.  I did like that the beach was close and a fairly level approach. Pappy was able to do it with his walker.

Cody on the Beach

We had the cache in hand pretty quickly.

Then we ventured on to Millersylvania State Park just south of Olympia.  This has Deep Lake.  Millersylvania was also voted on by Seattle Times Readers as one of the worse parks. It certainly seemed popular when we visited. We had some concerns about retrieving this cache as the park was really busy.  Practicing a photo op helped us make the grab. I was in the photo so no pictures here.

So far this summer we have hit 20 state parks.  I am amazed at the diversity in our Park System.

Unexpected Surpise

We are so lucky that we got to place a geocache for Washington State Centennial Park Geotour to celebrate the Centennial. Our cache is placed at Peace Arch State Park.

What I didn't expect when I placed our cache, was the great stories that people wrote upon finding our cache.  It reminds me why I like geocaching so much.  I thought I would share a few.


Boys pointing to cache

Our First Finder
FTF! Had in hand in just a few moments. TFTH.
Lola & The Gnome

The hint for our Geocache is -"Where Giants Get Their Rhubarb" and here are some of the interesting responses to that hint.

Me in the Rhubarb

Took some time looking for it. Found it before the giant came to harvest his garden. Fun hide. #5 SP stamp for me! This is one of the first state parks that I cached in when I first stared geocaching. I stopped and visited a friend since I was in town. Thank!
las3dogs

We have some of this growing in the Naturescape area of Discovery Gardens in Mt. Vernon. Also called dinosaur food. Giants and dinosaurs must have very good digestive systems. TFTH  (Moink)

Humungous! Tftc (GrammaJoi)

Holy giant rhubarb, Batman! This place was busy today, thanks in part to good weather (and it being a weekend) but also thanks in part to an art festival that was going on. Fortunately, nobody else was really in the area of the cache so we were able to grab it and slip out without being noticed. What a beautiful park - it has been years since I was last here so I enjoyed the opportunity to return. TFTC! (Sembei)

Why don't/didn't my gunnera look like that?
TFTC!!! (Dougsea)

 There was some Wrong Turns as Well. That is always fun on an International Border
 Thanks for the easy cache :)
Once we parked it was EASY. But we missed the turn into the park and ended up going through the border into Canada - my shortest ever visit to Canada! (ConwaySuz)

Thank god I have an Enhanced Driver's License in lieu of a passport. This is what I get for following my Nav on my phone (you would think I would have learned my lesson already after it routed me down the wrong way of a one-way street before). It had me routed to go around into Canada and back into the US for parking. I was in line to cross the border before I realized I should have turned earlier.

A quick talk to the border agent about what I was doing, and he let me turn around.

Now I am in a 10 minute line to get back into the US. I talk to the border agent, and explain that I followed my Nav instead of my common sense. He laughed, asked if I was carrying any weapons, and anything illegal. I said no, and explained I was in the area to find the cache. He said it wasn't his first time hearing about geocaching, and that he was going to have to look it up, and try it himself someday.
  

Finally, I arrive to the right parking spot. Quick find. Love the area of the hide!!! Found about 2 minutes before the sun set. TFTH (Geo-LMP)

One of my favorite stories as involves another geocacher helping out a newbie

Came here before attempting to cross the border. Wow the line was long!!! Got near GZ to find a couple with child combing the area for the cache. I could tell they were caching. So I said "What are you doing in those bushes?!"! They looked a little startled. hee hee I told them I was there for the same reason. I found the cache in a couple minutes....and asked them if they'd want me to tell them where it was or wait until they found it. They got so excited and said they wanted to see it. They're pretty new to caching.....and I really enjoyed seeing their excitement!!! We all signed the log....and I snagged a TB from the cache and one that they were carrying (one currently held by cacher Nathaly_ec....so that's probably their caching name).

We put everything back and then I told them about the nearby virtual cache. They didn't know what a virtual cache was/is so I explained it to them. I met them there a short time later to make sure they knew what to do for the virtual logging requirements!

Many thanks for the nice sized container on the border. Loved this area! tftc #12479 (Geokashers)

Project Life Tuesday - Week 26

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life Tuesday on an actual TUESDAY (sorry to shout!)

Week 26th found us finding more State Park Caches to fill in our State Park GeoTour Passport.  All of these parks were in highly urban areas.  IT was neat to find rather large state parks here. We now have 17 stamps. We ended the week by tearing down our playground.  It has been a little of 9 years.  We hope to build a smaller swing set as our boys are older. Right now it is a mess but it is going to be great. We also managed to fit in another geocache find on Saturday after our demolition of the playground at the local community college.

Materials Used
I ran out of my favorite Design G Page Protectors so I am trying out a We R page protector.  It is just so-so for me. I am going back to my favorite Design G.

The circle on the slide photo was a freebie from the Queen of Quirk from the way back.

Geotour Stops - Dash, Saltwater, and St Edwards State Parks

It is always so surprising for me to see State Parks in really urban areas.  All of them we visited on Sunday were in those kinds of areas. We started our adventure in Tacoma and really took the scenic industrial urban route.  We working on finding all the Washington Centennial Geocaches - "100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years."". 

Our first stop was Dash Point State Park.  This took us on a little trail to this humongous tree trunk.  Wow, I can only imagine how large this tree was.

Saltwater State Park was our next stop. Our search was in the large parking lot.  It appeared to have easy access to the beach. It was raining pretty steady here so we grabbed the cache and ran so to speak.

Both Dash and Saltwater Park were ranked as one of the worst State Park in a Seattle Times Reader poll.  They said these parks were too close to civilization and trashy. Dash park was pretty busy when we visited and seemed quite clean.  I will say that the camping was quite a hike to the beach. Saltwater was virtually empty when we visited probably due to the fact it was quite rainy.

Lastly we visited Saint Edward State Park.  This place is really unique. It once was a Catholic Seminary. The cache took us on one of the many trails in the area. 

There is also a really cool playground here which the boys really enjoyed playing on.

I think this says quite a lot as my boys are older. This park was rated by a Seattle Times poll on Washington State Parks as one of the Best State Parks for Kids

We have found 17 out of 104 geocaches in the Washington State Park Centennial Geotour.

GeoTour Stops 13 and 14-- Kopachuck and Penrose Point

The alternate title could be "Geocaching so easy we took a 92 year old along" or conversely "Geocaching so HARD we had to take a 92 year old with us to find it". 

Kopachuck State Park
Cody, Charlie, Pappy
Cody is holding our State Park Passport

Saturday found us once again on the hunt for more Washington State Park Centennial Geocaches - " "100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years."".  We ventured over to Kopachuck State Park. Pappy was riding shotgun.  We all made it to the cache even though Pappy had to do a little off roading with his walker. 

Pappy Off Roading

Something about how we should trick out his walker with all terrain tires.  The path was a little like a cow trail according to Pappy. We ran into some other geocachers out caching as well. We didn't make it down to the water here.  The park was quite busy here on a sunny Saturday.

Penrose Point

 

 

Next we visited Penrose Point.  The trail was a little more than Pappy wanted to tackle so Heather and him hung out by the water.  The point was quite busy.  The tide was out and their was a lot of people out and about.  Pappy and Heather saw 2 bald eagles.  They have a nest nearby.

Tacoma Narrows

After all our adventures, we headed to Pappy's favorite clam chowder place, Steamers. Steamers has a great view of the Tacoma Narrows bridge. It is also near Titlow Park which appeared to have a rather busy and awesome splash park.