Cache Report: Life, Liberty, and Lots of Rain
Of course, we live in a varied landscape surrounded by river valleys, mountains, plains, and steppes. The devil is in the details!
I had crafted a plan of 17 caches, figuring we would get half or less. The plan included two park-and-grabs for the local Film GeoTour, simply because they were out of the way but near the regional park I picked for the expedition.
The weather report looked spot on until we pulled into the town of Liberty Lake. Oops...mountain foothill valley with lake effect = misty rain advancing and retreating repeatedly over the series of trails we were tackling. Oh well, this is why we have rain coats, right?
Trip Report
Cache #1: This was a cache for the film tour. We had to park in a fancy schmancy neighborhood and walk a short distance down a bike path next to a golf course to make the find. A thin belt of trees separated the path from the street. The best part here is that the hider was able to hide an ammo can successfully so close to a muggle-heavy area! We grabbed the tour code and a Travel Bug to continue on, then headed to the main expedition site.
Cache #2: Upon entering the park we quickly decided to skip two near the entrance because of the shear amount of people in the picnic areas. It seemed everyone had come to the lake to take pictures of their offspring with ridiculously large cameras. Plus, with the rain the cover of the trees on the hillsides seemed much more enjoyable. We headed past the campsites and onto the trail system. This cache had a patriotic theme and simple hint (if one actually read the cache description). MsMo made the find. A narrow necked pill bottle, so a bit fusty to deal with.
Cache #3: The next cache was a scout cache that had been placed a few months before, right as the snows started. There were only a couple of finds on the log, so this would be fun. Of course, the only way in was bushwacking straight up a hill covered in deadfall. The coords were also bouncing all over once we got there, but a bit of searching in this out-of-the-way, not likely to be muggled location revealed......a pill bottle cache. A bit disappointed until we opened it and saw that one of the unactivated travel bugs that was placed for the first few finders remained! Woot! Not a large cache, but we stuffed it with as much swag as we could in trade.
Cache #4: From the previous cache this one appeared to be still up the ridge from the trail, but not as far up as we were. We tried following game trails down, but would be blocked by deadfall or drop-offs. This meant going up and down in a zig zag. We finally found GZ, but lots of geobounce (which the CO warned about). MsMo once again made the find here. This cache set the tone for the rest of the trip -- 6-by-6 lock-n-locks covered in camo tape. Someone had shoved a dingy, but thankfully not used, diaper in the cache which we CITOed out. Also swapped for a sig item!
Cache #5: We ended up back on the main trail finally. Good thing, too, since the clouds opened up in earnest. Rain gear to the rescue! This cache, another L-n-L, was located just off trail under a rock. Not a hard find, but not super obvious either. Signed the log and left some swag, but took nothing.
Cache #6: The return of the geobounce. The hint said to look for a pine tree. Problem? We were in a grove of firs and there wasn't a single pine to be seen. I finally paused and looked at the site more closely? Where would I place a cache? Oh, right there where the stream bubbles past that small fir. Looked at the base of the fir and presto! Another cache in need of CITO -- trash and a candy bar (don't leave food people!). Left some swag to refill it.
Cache #7: By the time we hit this cache it was getting late. We knew there was one more geotour cache we wanted to find, so we decided to make this the last trail cache of the day. We hiked the the 3/4 mile down a side trail, then followed a game trail that lead right to GZ. A bit of poking around a rock formation finally revealed the final L-n-L of the day. This one had quite a bit of decent kiddie swag inside, so I swapped for a sig item. Time to head back!
Cache #8: The rain was driving out the families, even though the sun was now peaking through and a rainbow had appeared. We stopped to do an EarthCache we skipped at the entrance since it had been swarmed with would-be photographers. A lovely boardwalk over the marsh at the head of the lake. The mist in the mountains and the trill of the blackbirds made it lovely.
Cache #9: Our final cache was up the road a bit from the regional park, through semi-rural, semi-rich people winding mountain roads. GZ was at a turnoff to a road that looked like it would soon become private. A big gate was to our right. I got the idea that residents driving by knew the cache was there, since they didn't bat an eye at an unfamiliar car pulled off to the side. This was a very clever hide, with a specially made camouflage branch hiding the L-n-L inside. I took the cache to the car to sort through the swag, sign the log, and find the tour code word. Swapped for another sig item, my favorite kind of swap!
Wrap-Up
The rain didn't do too much to dampen our spirits. We did forgo our picnic dinner on the hike, and waited until we got back to the parking area where we could sit beneath a picnic shelter.
Almost all the hides were by the same people along the path we took. This meant that they were all almost identical, which wasn't as thrilling as it could be. In the future, I'm going to make sure the day's list is a bit more varied in CO, terrain, and difficulty listing.
On the plus side, I'm glad to have finally started the GeoTour. This one is near the end, with less than 50 coins left and a dwindling number of active caches. We have 18 more to find to complete the tour, so we need to get going!
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